15. Could Jesus and Mary sin?
Our belief in the meaning of original sin is different from the
understanding of most Protestants. Luther's opinion was that people are
like "snow-covered dung heaps," that is, basically corrupted by sin, but
the corruption is "covered over" by Christ's saving action. Catholics
believe, on the other hand, that in spite of original sin we are basically
good, and Christ's saving action makes it possible to overcome sin. Once
we are united to Christ by Baptism, by grace, and by love, we are "good" to
the very heart of our being.
That's one reason why Catholics have so many "sacramentals," like incense,
candles, stained glass windows, and statues: We believe that God's
goodness is expressed through such works of art. That's one reason why we
honor the saints: We believe that God's goodness can be seen in their
lives.
Mary is, of course, the one who shows forth the goodness of God more than
any other human being, except Jesus. Jesus is truly God, and is uniquely
holy. Mary is the Mother of Jesus, who is truly God, and she is holy by
the grace and merits of her Son. We believe that Jesus is free of original
sin because he is God, and we believe that Mary was free of original sin,
the gift of her "Immaculate Conception," by the merits of Jesus, the Son of
God.
The exact meaning of original sin in Catholic theology is not easy to pin
down, but I take it to mean, among other things, that we are of ourselves
unable to attain salvation. We are weak human beings who are unable to
overcome sin and unable to repair the damage that sin does. There are many
other aspects of original sin: we live in a world where there is so much
suffering and evil, where we can be hurt because people misuse their
freedom, where we learn bad habits because those around us "pass them on to
us," and so on.
Now, by the very fact that Jesus is God, he must be free from the basic
weakness of original sin. That is, Jesus is the One who can and did
overcome sin; he was able to repair the damage done by sin in that he
united us to the love of God by his life, death and resurrection. However,
he had to suffer many of the consequences of sin: he was truly tempted, and
he suffered from the sins of other. But Jesus did not give in to
temptation. He did not sin. In fact, theologians say it's impossible that
he could have sinned (because sin is saying no to God, and God couldn't say
no to God!) But I think it's possible that he could have refused to go
through with the crucifixion and could have left us to our own resources.
It was, in fact, a terrible struggle for him to accept his passion and
death, as we see from the agony in the garden.
With regard to Mary: Mary was certainly tempted as we are, and I believe
that she could have sinned. Our Catholic belief in the Immaculate
Conception means that she was preserved from some of the effects of
original sin (theologians would argue about how this was done), but she had
to cooperate with God's grace. As she grew up, she could have sinned when
she was tempted, but she did not.
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