We continue our series of articles about the four Marian dogmas with Karlo Broussard. In part 1, we discussed the dogma of Mary being the Mother of God, and in part 2, we explored the dogma of Mary being ever-virgin. In this article, we will discuss the dogma of Mary being sinless. This is also known as the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
Bryan: This is perhaps the biggest objection for not only Protestants but Jehovah’s Witnesses and non-Catholics in general. They ask, how could the Catholic Church believe that Mary is sinless of all things? They argue that only God is sinless, so Catholics are basically making Mary God. And they say it completely contradicts Scriptures which teach in Romans 3 that “all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God.” If all have sinned, that would absolutely include Mary who’s in the line of the sinner Adam. So why does the Catholic Church hold and teach that Mary was in fact sinless?
Karlo: Yeah. With regard to the first challenge, to claim that saying Mary is sinless makes her out to be God because only God is sinless, well then that wouldn’t work for the souls in heaven, the blessed in heaven, because they are sinless, but they’re not God.
It is true that God is sinless by nature, but that doesn’t mean that finite, rational creatures can’t be sinless by grace. And that is the case for the blessed in Heaven. They are sinless by grace in as much as they have sight of the divine essence in the beatific vision. Even if the Blessed Virgin did not have the beatific vision, nevertheless she could be sinless in virtue of a special grace that God gives. A grace that always, at every moment of her existence, is upholding her in the good and actualizing her free will to always be in conformity with the divine will. How does God do that without violating freedom? That’s a whole other topic for a whole other show and a whole other question. But the point is that to affirm that Mary was sinless does not entail that she is divine. It doesn’t entail that she is God. You can be sinless and not divine as the blessed are in Heaven by a special grace.
Now with regard to the scriptural case for Mary’s sinlessness, you posed an objection from Romans 3:23, “all have been deprived of the glory of God.” Now, we know that there are going to be exceptions to that general rule precisely because there are some human beings who are not subject to personal sin. In Romans 3:23, Paul is talking about personal sin. He talks about original sin in Romans 5, but in Romans 3:23, he is talking about personal sin.
We know there are at least some exceptions to the general rule. Infants in the womb cannot personally sin, and so they have not personally fallen short of the glory of God. They are an exception. The severely mentally handicapped cannot personally sin because they don’t have full use of reason and will due to their ailment. So, they have not fallen short of the glory of God by way of personal sin. And by the way, with regard to the infants being exceptions, Paul is very clear on this in Romans 9 when he is talking about Esau and Jacob not having committed any evil in the womb. And so, Paul believes infants are exceptions to the general rule.
So, the argument is if there are at least some exceptions to the general rule, then it’s at least possible that Mary could be an exception to the general rule and not have personally fallen short of the glory of God. And given that there’s at least a possibility, one cannot appeal to Romans 3:23 in such an absolute way that it necessarily includes Mary. So, it’s not a proof text against our belief that Mary was immaculately conceived. Or in this case, it’s not proof that she wasn’t even free from personal sin.
So, that’s a way that we can diffuse the challenge. But I would argue with regard to Mary’s sinlessness that the key text would be Genesis 3:15 and the Protoevangelium, or the first Good News, where all Christians recognize a prophecy of the coming Messiah, Jesus, and the prophecy of how Jesus will redeem the human race by defeating the serpent, the devil.
Genesis 3:15 talks about how God says to the serpent, “I will set enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall crush your head and you shall bruise his heel.” Well, in this text, although there’s a literal historical level where it’s referencing Eve and her offspring, all Christians recognize even on a prophetical level that that’s a reference to Jesus and Satan. If it’s a reference to Jesus and Satan, then it must also be a reference to Mary, the mother of the Messiah. Now, notice how God draws a parallel between the enmity that will exist between the devil and the seed of the woman (the Messiah Jesus) and the enmity between the serpent and the woman (Mary).
So, if the enmity, the separation between the devil (the serpent) and Jesus (the seed of the woman) is complete and entire from the moment of Jesus being in the womb of the Blessed Virgin and throughout the rest of his human existence, then so too, the enmity between the devil, the serpent, and the woman (Mary) is going to be complete and entire. This means that the woman (Mary) is going to be separated from the devil from the moment of her conception and throughout the rest of her earthly life.
Bryan: And do we see that fulfilled in the New Testament anywhere?
Karlo: Yeah. So, we have indications where the New Testament authors seem to be drawing our attention to Mary being that.
For example, at the wedding feast in Cana, when Jesus calls Mary “Woman,” that is set against the backdrop of a new creation theme. We don’t have time to go into those details, but I articulate that in my book Meeting the Protestant Response. Jesus is calling Mary “Woman” against the backdrop of the creation story. And given that Jesus is calling Mary “Woman” in that sort of narrative, we can conclude that Mary is the woman of Genesis 3:15.
Also, at the foot of the cross, when Jesus is crushing the very head of the serpent, what does he call Mary? “Woman.”
And of course, John, in Revelation 12:1-5, has the vision of the male child who is almost devoured by the red dragon, which John identifies as the ancient serpent. So, you have the serpent, you have the child, and guess what? John talks about the “woman.” And so, who is that woman? The mother of the Messianic King. It’s Mary.
So, we have Mary identified as that woman of Genesis 3:15 in the Christian tradition within the New Testament.
And with regard to Mary being set in that enmity, it’s hinted at, although not proven, in Luke 1:28 when the angel Gabriel says Mary is “full of grace,” kecharitomene, which suggests a past action of being put in grace that results in a permanent state of being in grace. It doesn’t get us all the way back to Mary’s Immaculate Conception, but it’s at least hinting at it.
Bryan: Thank you very much. If you would like to read more information on this, please check out Karlo’s book Meeting the Protestant Challenge, which is his first book, and Meeting the Protestant Response, which is his second book.
