which elevates it to the supernatural order so as to share in the divine life,
or “participation in the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4-5). However, the
disordered desires and cravings remain, only to be finally vanquished by
death and the glorious resurrection of the body. At the end of the world,
therefore, all the Just will be rendered not only immaculate and free from
original sin but also possessed of the gifts of the glorified body.
By being immaculately conceived, the Virgin Mary simply received in
advance the full fruits of redemption and a participation in the wonderful
gifts all the Just will enjoy one day. Why was such a grace bestowed upon
the Virgin Mary in advance? It comes down to appropriateness. It was not
fitting that she, who was to co-operate in the defeat of Satan, should ever be
infected by his breath or be a slave to his kingdom of sin. St. Bernardine of
Siena (+1444) says, “we cannot think that the Son of God would have
willed to be born of the Virgin Mary, or to have clothed Himself with her
flesh, if she had been stained with original sin.”
That God should have created the Virgin Mary in a state of holiness as He
had formed Eve and the angels is also befitting the honor of God: of the
Father, whose daughter she is; of the Son, whose mother she is; and of the
Holy Spirit, who, in the incarnation, took Mary to be His spouse.
Furthermore, as the “new Eve” and mother of the new Adam, the Virgin
Mary cannot appropriately be anything less than the original Eve; on the
contrary, as Christ excelled Adam, so the Virgin Mary (though to a lesser
degree) should excel Eve.
As for the quote from St. Paul in Romans 3:10-11, the full text of it reads as
follows:
“There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there
is none who seeks after God. They have all gone out of the way; they have
together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.”
To say that this verse is a proof-text for the universal sinfulness of mankind
is a gross misuse of Scripture. St. Paul is quoting from Psalm 14 which
draws a distinction between the wicked and the “generation of the
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