Question In Honor Of The Immaculate Conception

[Fiat_Voluntas_Tua]

OK... I do not ask this because I do not believe in the Immaculate Conception, but more for the sake of pursuing the truth. So here we go.

Given the truth of the Immaculate conception Mary was without original sin. Therefore, Mary was without the effects of original sin (at least this is how I understand it, considering the early debate about the Dormition). So, Mary, being without the effects of original sin, did not suffer physical pain (or so many people argue...I am unaware of any [i]official[/i] teaching which states physical pain is an effect of original sin...). So no my question abstracts from this.

It is often claimed (via neuro-science) that pain is the result of certain neuron firings in the brain. This is rather empirically true, and almost incontestable (granted the specifics may be less certain). So, when I step on a hot coal with my bare foot the nerves in my foot fire and trigger a chain response which send a signal to my brain which fires the neurons in my brain responsible for pain, and given that I feel pain it causes me to very very quickly jump off the hot coal. So, it seems pain serves not only a spiritual purpose (see [i]Salvifici Doloris[/i], <sp?>) but also a practical/functional purpose. So, if Mary didn't feel pain and stepped on a hot coal barefoot, would she not virtually spontaneously jump off of a hot coal? It seems what causes us to virtually jump off of the hot coal is not a deliberate choice we make but rather an involuntary response to pain. So, pain actually is a GOOD in causing us to stay away from harm and it provides an indispensable way of learning things... So, it seems strange to claim that Mary didn't feel physical pain.

I guess my real question is:
Is it really an official teaching that Adam and Eve (prior to the fall) and Mary didn't feel physical pain [i]at all[/i](it might be argued that Mary didn't feel pain at the birth of Jesus, I am not talking about that but rather ANY pain whatsoever)...(Also, I am not talking about dying, for that is completely different, it is possible to feel pain and yet never die). If it is an official [doctrinal] teaching please let me know where.

[Once again, this is more just out of my curiosity.]

[CatherineM]

Christ was without sin, and he still felt pain. Mary was preserved from experiencing the consequences of sin. At her death, she had an immediate union of her whole self with Christ. We believe that she was assumed both body and soul into heaven. The church has never actually defined whether she experienced death itself, but she certainly didn't suffer the ravages of burial and decomposition. Some believe that Christ assumed her just before her death to save her from it, but most theologians believe that she did die in her time.

[cappie]

Pope Pius IX through “Ineffabilis Deus”defined: “From the first moment of her conception, Mary was preserved immune from original sin by the singular grace of God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, savior of the human race.” (CCC).

This declaration means that original sanctity, innocence and justice were conferred upon her, and that she was exempted from the evil effects of original sin, except for sorrow, pain, disease and death, the temporal penalties given to Adam.

From the Catholic Encyclopedia The doctrine

In the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus of 8 December, 1854, Pius IX pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin."

[b]"The Blessed Virgin Mary..."[/b]

The subject of this immunity from original sin is the person of Mary at the moment of the creation of her soul and its infusion into her body.

[b]"...in the first instance of her conception..."
[/b]
The term conception does not mean the active or generative conception by her parents. Her body was formed in the womb of the mother, and the father had the usual share in its formation. The question does not concern the immaculateness of the generative activity of her parents. Neither does it concern the passive conception absolutely and simply (conceptio seminis carnis, inchoata), which, according to the order of nature, precedes the infusion of the rational soul. The person is truly conceived when the soul is created and infused into the body. Mary was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin at the first moment of her animation, and sanctifying grace was given to her before sin could have taken effect in her soul.

[b]"...was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin..."[/b]

[i]The formal active essence of original sin was not removed from her soul, as it is removed from others by baptism; it was excluded, it never was in her soul. Simultaneously with the exclusion of sin. The state of original sanctity, innocence, and justice, as opposed to original sin, was conferred upon her, by which gift every stain and fault, all depraved emotions, passions, and debilities, essentially pertaining to original sin, were excluded. But she was not made exempt from the temporal penalties of Adam — from sorrow, bodily infirmities, and death.[/i]

[b]"...by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race."
[/b]
The immunity from original sin was given to Mary by a singular exemption from a universal law through the same merits of Christ, by which other men are cleansed from sin by baptism. Mary needed the redeeming Saviour to obtain this exemption, and to be delivered from the universal necessity and debt (debitum) of being subject to original sin. The person of Mary, in consequence of her origin from Adam, should have been subject to sin, but, being the new Eve who was to be the mother of the new Adam, she was, by the eternal counsel of God and by the merits of Christ, withdrawn from the general law of original sin. Her redemption was the very masterpiece of Christ's redeeming wisdom. He is a greater redeemer who pays the debt that it may not be incurred than he who pays after it has fallen on the debtor.

Such is the meaning of the term "Immaculate Conception."

[url="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07674d.htm"]http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07674d.htm[/url]

[Thy Geekdom Come]

Only one point for clarification: Mary did not experience pain in her childbirth, not because she was exempt from it (pain in childbirth is one of the temporal punishments associated with original sin), but because she did not deliver Christ vaginally. According to the Sacred Tradition, Christ was born "like light passing through glass." The Blessed Virgin remained a virgin before, during, and after the Birth of Christ. We use the classical definition of [i]virgin[/i]: her womb was never opened.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

I read this quote and thought of this thread:

"The Ever-Virgin remained a virgin...However, this blessed one...did at the time of the passion suffer the pangs which she had escaped at childbirth. For, when she saw him put to the death as a criminal, whom she knew to be God when she gave birth to him, her heart was torn from maternal cooperation." -St. John of Damascus

[Thy Geekdom Come]

Another quote I happened upon:

"Christ came forth from the closed womb of His Mother, and, consequently, without opening the passage from the womb. Consequently, there was no pain in that birth, as neither was there any corruption; on the contrary, there was much joy therein for that God-Man was born into the world." -St. Thomas Aquinas