Sandy, Was that You?

Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus
Beautiful!

Yesterday, Thursday evening, I was listening to an afternoon call in show on EWTN.  A woman named "Sandy" called in and asked the host, I believe it was a priest, and asked:  "Why does your church teach that Mary was sinless?  Doesn't that make her equal to God?"  The absurdity of the question reminded me of a woman on a Catholic debate forum I participate on.  She'd ask questions just as thoughtless.  Like the Sandy I knew on the forum, the Sandy on EWTN had already made up her mind that that was what the Church taught.  It was clear she had no interest in being confused by facts.

The EWTN host tried to explain to Sandy what the Church teaches about the Blessed Virgin Mary and her sinlessness.  He tried to tell her that Mary's sinlessness was a gift from God so that she, as a spotless vessel, could carry God in her womb.  As an example, the host tried to use Adam and Eve as an example.  "Adam and Eve were created sinless before the Fall.  That did not make them equal to God.  They were creatures."  Sandy insisted that because Mary was born after Adam and Eve, our teaching that Mary was sinless was making Mary equal to God. 

St. Anne carrying the Immaculate Mary

As the host tried to show how the comparison between Adam and Eve's sinlessness before the Fall, and Mary's before the conception of our Savior, Sandy talked over him.  She said, "Well, your church is wrong.  She is not equal to God."  It was quite obvious that her mind was made up and she had no intention of having it changed--by fact or any explanation.

After Sandy hung up, the host asked her to call back, saying, "I'd love to discuss it with you, and I promise I won't hang up on you."  Of course, she didn't call back.

St. Mary's sinlessness is a teaching that has everything to do with our Lord Jesus Christ, very little to do with Mary herself.  St. Mary is, as Sandy and her ilk like to put it, "just" a woman.  However, to deny that she was a special woman is to deny the specialness of the Incarnation.  Can God enter what is unclean?  [Of course not]  Can God know ahead of "time" what a person's reaction/answer/reply to His calling is?  [Of course He can--He is God after all.  He created "time"; time does not rule His actions]  God gave St. Mary the gift of an Immaculate Conception [a clean soul, free of Original Sin at her conception] precisely because she would say "YES" to God's calling her to be the mother of the Incarnate Son [God became Flesh--John chapter one].  She was not sinless by her own power.  The Church has never taught that.  All virtues, all gifts, all favors, in fact, anything done in and through St. Mary were by, for, and point to her Son--Who IS God.  Period.

I still pray that Sandy's mind, which seems to be shut tighter than a sprung bear trap, will be open to the true Gospel and the true Savior, Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Someday, just maybe, she will be open to becoming part of the Body of Christ.