Was Mary free from sin? (and the implications of the answer?)
To preface things, I am not a Catholic, but I am increasingly interested in Catholic theology. I've tried to separate my points and questions to make things a bit easier for me and hopefully you.
As far as I understand things:
- Jesus needed to be conceived by God directly; like Adam, he was therefore free from original sin.
- Mary was also conceived without sin, per the immaculate conception (defined in the Ineffabilis Deus)*
- Mary is also without personal sin (see catechism 493)
If Mary was conceived via sex, why was she free from original sin?
If Mary was human (i.e. not divine), why was she free from personal sin? I understand that temptation is different from sin, but the thing I can't work out is what actually distinguishes Mary from Jesus in this sense.
Both of them, as far as I can make out, were subject to temptation, but neither sinned - and yet Mary is made free from sin by virtue of future events. Before the Annunciation, what was preventing Mary from sinning? In other words, if Mary was capable of being conceived without sin and from being tempted into sin, how is she different from Jesus? It feels as though Mary was redeemed from sin by her love for Jesus, but if this is the case, why is it relevant that she was also free from personal sin?
To some extent I can foresee the kinds of answers I think I'll get to this, and I hope it isn't wrong of me to say here that, as someone who is not Catholic, I am not going to be utterly convinced by appeals to the authority of the Pope or the Bible.
There might be a simple solution to this problem that I'm not seeing, and I can guess that maybe the response will be that Jesus was ontologically different from Mary as he was both human and divine, while Mary was only [EDIT: human divine]. But this doesn't feel satisfactory to me as Mary was capable of being born free of sin and remaining free of sin by virtue of her love for God (and because God seemingly hallowed her and kept her free from sin). I guess He did this in order to maintain Mary's suitability for the virgin birth, but if a human is able to be stainless, why does it matter that Jesus was God made flesh when it comes to sacrificing himself for mankind?
Thank you for reading my rambling confused words, and I look forward to your answers. Sorry if this is misinterpreting scripture or papal teachings - I'd appreciate explanations as to what I'm not getting.