Mary Sinless/Understanding the Trinity

Q The Catholic Church believes that not only was Mary conceived without original sin but that she remained sinless for her entire life.  How can this be?  She was human just like each of us.

A Just because Mary was human does not mean that she had to commit sin.  Jesus was fully human and he never sinned.  In the Book of Genesis, after God created man, he “looked at everything he had made, and found it very good” (Gn 1:31).  He built into our human nature free will, the right to either accept him or reject him.  That is part of what God found to be “good.” He did not build sin into our human nature; otherwise he would have been the author of evil, which is the opposite of “good.” God could not create anything that was evil.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

“Mary benefited first of all and uniquely from Christ’s victory over sin: she was preserved from all stain of original sin and by a special grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life” (CCC 411).  Mary had free will but, by that special grace, never rejected God.

“The fathers of the Eastern tradition call the mother of God ‘the All-Holy’ (Panagia) and celebrate her as ‘free from any stain of sin, as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature.’  By the grace of God Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long” (CCC 493).

“Mary goes before us all in the holiness that is the church’s mystery as the ‘bride without spot or wrinkle’ ” (CCC773).  “Spot or wrinkle” refers to sin.

Pope Francis reflected on Mary’s sinlessness in St. Peter’s Square on Dec. 8, 2017.  He states that when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to ask her to be the mother of God, Gabriel “calls her full of grace and thus reveals the new name that God has given her and which is more becoming to her than the name given to her by her parents. We too call her in this way, with each Hail Mary.  What does “full of grace” mean? That Mary is filled with the presence of God. And if she is entirely inhabited by God, there is no room within her for sin. It is an extraordinary thing because everything in the world, regrettably, is contaminated by evil. Each of us, looking within ourselves, sees dark sides. 

Even the greatest saints were sinners and everything in reality, even the most beautiful things, are corroded by evil. Everything, except Mary. She is the one “evergreen oasis” of humanity, the only one uncontaminated, created immaculate so as to fully welcome, with her “yes,” God who came into the world and thus to begin a new history.”

Q How can I understand the Trinity, one God and three persons?  That just does not make sense.

A There is a legend regarding St. Augustine, the great Doctor of the Church, who spent 30 years working on his thesis about the Holy Trinity, trying to conceive a clear explanation for the mystery of the Trinity.  The scene is a seashore, where there is a little boy with a seashell and a small pool of water.  St. Augustine, clad in his religious robes, is walking, pondering with difficulty the mystery of the most Holy Trinity. “Father, son, Holy Spirit; three in one!” he muttered, shaking his head. The little boy was running back and forth between the sea and the pool with the seashell full of water.  St. Augustine asked him “Son, what are you doing?” 

“Can’t you see?” said the boy. “I’m emptying the sea into this pool!” St. Augustine countered, “Son, you can’t do that!  The hole cannot contain all that water.” The boy replied, “I will empty the sea into this pool quicker than you will manage to get the mystery of the most Holy Trinity into your head!” 

Upon saying that, the boy, who was an angel according to the legend, quickly disappeared, leaving St. Augustine alone with the mystery of the most Holy Trinity.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that the Trinity is a mystery of faith, one of the “mysteries that are hidden in God.” We would not even know this mystery except that God revealed it to us.  It is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone.  

Deacon Hooper is a deacon assistant at Immaculate Conception Church in Denham Springs. He can be reached at ghooper@diobr.org.