The Christian Vanguard

Another Newman Bible study I wrote. What Does The Bible Say About: Mary Biblical Data: Luke 1:41-48 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” 46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; Discussion: Sometimes Protestants will point to v47 to show that Mary was a sinner in need of a savior, which is contrary to Catholic teaching that Mary, from the moment of conceptio...

I just watched one of the videos from the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology for their " The Bible and the Virgin Mary " series. It's good stuff all around, and they presented an argument for Mary's sinlessness and immaculate conception I hadn't heard before, but is really common sense. The argument is from Genesis 3, when God is rebuking Adam, Eve and the Serpent, and God says to the devil,  I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed The seed here is Jesus Christ, who crushes and defeats Satan, and the woman is Jesus' mother, Mary. There can be enmity between Jesus and Satan because Jesus is sinless and perfect. He is not under Satan's domain. And likewise, Mary has enmity towards Satan because she too was not born under his domain. But this means Mary is likewise sinless, and this, as Saint Pope John Paul II said, necessitates her immaculate conception. 

The following is a reply to a text message that I received. My reply is too long and too thorough for it to be in a text message, so here it is on my blog, which I intend to send as a simple link. The issues are Marian virginity, sinlessness, and mediation. 

I came across an argument against the immaculate conception of Mary. Though, it may not have been exactly that. More precisely, it was argued that the belief in the immaculate conception was inconsistent with the belief that Mary is the woman described in Revelation. In short, the woman described in Revelation has birthing pains. Birthing pain is a consequence of original sin. Mary had no original sin. Hence, either the woman described in Revelation is not Mary, or Mary had original sin.