between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head” (Gen. 3:15). It
was by the seed of the Virgin Mary, that is, Jesus Christ, that the kingdom
of Satan was demolished. The source of the enmity between the Virgin
Mary and the serpent placed by God was her triumph over sin, her
Immaculate Conception. Satan would for all time hate the one creature who
would never be within his grasp. Conversely, the Virgin Mary’s purity
would have imbued her with the most intense hatred of sin and its author.
Third objection: “Mary could not have been immaculately conceived
for then she would not have needed redemption. Yet, she herself
proclaims in the Magnificat that ‘my spirit rejoices in God my Savior’
(St. Luke 1:47).”
The Catholic Church does not deny that the Virgin Mary required salvation,
for she was a child of Adam like the rest of humanity. However, her
redemption was effected in another, more perfect manner, namely,
redemption by pre-emption. One can be cured of a disease after having
contracted it, or one can be spared of that same disease by being inoculated
against it in advance. The Virgin Mary’s redemption was effected in this
latter manner, sparing her from ever being under the dominion of Satan.
Fourth objection: “But Mary herself admitted that she was a sinner
when she presented herself in the Temple for purification in
accordance with the Law of Moses: ‘she shall take two turtledoves or
two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering;
and the priest shall make atonement on her behalf, and she shall be
clean’ (Lev. 12:8).”
The Virgin Mary observed this Law, not because she believed herself to be
a sinner or defiled by giving birth to Christ, but to give an example of
humility and obedience in the fulfillment of all outward observances. Jesus
Himself was presented in the Temple to fulfil the Law of Moses as stated in
Exodus 13:2: “Consecrate to me all the first-born; whatever is first to open
the womb among the people of Israel”—although He, the divine Son of
God, had no need to be consecrated. In any case, the Virgin Mary was
strictly exempt from the rule of purification by virtue of what God Himself
had laid down in prefacing it: “If a woman having received seed shall bear
a man child, she shall be unclean seven days” (v. 2). The conception and
birth of Christ was not due to the reception of male seed but rather to the
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