Mary & Pain

[icelandic_iceskater]

did Mary feel pain?

I always thought that she hadn't, but earlier today I was talking with my mom who said that she had...?

[StColette]

I deleted my first post after thinking about the sensory part a little more. I'll answer tomorrow on the sensory part

It depends on what your definition of pain means.

According to the Church, the Early Church Fathers, and the Eastern Church Fathers, Mary did not suffer from the pains of childbirth because of her Immaculate Conception. We learn through Genesis that women would suffer childbearing pains because of the fall. Mary was spared from this because of her Immaculate Conception.

If by pain, you mean sorrow, then yes Mary did suffer sorrow. We know this through Church teaching. We especially know this through the prophecy of Simeon in which he tells Mary that a sword shall pierce her soul (heart). Mary united herself to her Son on the Cross, which is far more painful than anything physical that I can imagine.

[StColette]

Okay I think I ready to post again about the physical pain part. Keep in mind these are just my thoughts and opinions. I'm not infallible

We know from Sacred Scripture that Christ was both fully human and fully divine. In addition, we are aware that he suffered greatly for us during his Passion. According to the Church Fathers and past popes, pain, as we know it, entered the world with the Fall of Man. Christ and Mary were both exempt from this pain. Christ exempt because of his divinity and Mary because of her Immaculate Conception. Now how did Christ suffer then? It is understood that Christ suffered because he emptied himself over completely for us to the Father. He endured horrendous pain for our salvation. Pope Gregory the Great holds that “pain serves as a redemptive function, as it leads to humility and introspection, which in turn can lead to virtue.” Christ used the pain that he suffered on the Cross as a means for our salvation/redemption. How does this tie into Mary? We understand that Mary had a special role in the Salvation of Man. Because of her special role she united herself as much as she could to her Son for the Redemption of Man, which can be understood more by studying the doctrine of Co-Redemptrix. She emptied herself in as much as she could into her Son on the Cross. Mary could have, like Christ, elected to feel pain, as we do, in order to have it serve as a “redemptive function.”

Micah and I did discuss what Adam or Eve may have felt had they touched something hot or stepped on something that would normally hurt. Before the Fall, did man have some a type of nervous system like we do? I would say yes, because God didn’t just “fix us” after the Fall to have a nervous system so that we could feel pain. The nervous system was there from the beginning but the perception received from the nervous system may have been different. Had Adam and Eve touched something hot, before the Fall, they probably had some type of reaction to it, but not pain, as we understand it.