This question was posted on another forum. It seems that we are not able to answer his question. Maybe y'all can help

HIS QUESTION:
Years back I bumped into an EO that (going off memory here) said something like:

“Christ needed to assume our humanity just as the human race had in order to cleanse it. This creates an inherent need for Mary to have had the same corruption in her as all the rest of us.”

Now I realize EO’s don’t have any of the Marian dogmas we do but is this your understanding as well?

I'll chew on this some more but the answer seems fairly simple and direct. Adam was not born in sin yet he was human. If it is necessary to be born in sin to be human then one would have to ask who was the sinful progenitor of Adam? Marcion believed that the creator was evil but that the God of Jesus Christ was not. That was his way to get around the supposed cunundrum but that is not the way the Church understands the truth about human nature. I don't know if it is necessary to lean upon the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in order to understand that the Theotokos was sinless at Christ's conception or not. But it certainly is not necessary to believe in Mary's sinfulness, in her corruption, to believe that Jesus could not take upon Himself human nature.

I'll chew on this some more but this is how I understand this.

CDL

I would like to make this point, #1 Where did Jesus Christ take His human nature from?
If it was indeed Mary, and she was sinful like anyone else, then Christ was tainted by Sin, and this scripturally is an impossiblity.
From the Latin liturgy "He was like us in all things except sin"
If Jesus was truly human as the Church confesses, He received that humanity through Mary.
Personally I believe she was specially chosen by God to be the Theotokos and since she gave birth to God the Word, she by a special act of God's grace was preserved from sin, she is indeed all holy, immaculate and the ever vrigin Mother of God.
Stephanos I

The archangel Gabriel announce to Mary, Hail, FULL of Grace! This interpretation by St Jerome (who studied two years under Gregory the Theologian) infers that there was no sin in Mary (full of grace, not 99%).

More recent translations read "highly favored one" rather than full of grace. But how can one with sin be so esteemed by the "messenger of God" if she was not all-pure but tainted with sin? And who can say with authority that her original sin was cleansed before this moment?

There is no account that I am aware of that the Virgin was baptized, but yet received the Holy Spirit (at the Annunciation?)" At what point did baptism make one a Child of God, in inheritant of the Kingdom?

The widely taught Eastern concept that the Bororodicen could not have been immaculately conceived has much merit, in that she was a human and as a child of Adam and Eve needed to be redeeemed, but it so too do the Immaculate Conception have merit.

Perhaps one day in eternity we will know the answer but I don't think it will really matter.

Fr Deacon Paul

I wasnt aware I was saying anything else. She is most definitely all holy and immaculate.
Stephanos I
But I disagree on that last point. Truth certainly does matter no matter how small and insignificant it might seem.

Pani,

I would think that fellow's memory must be a bit off. Why would anyone think that Mary had to be sinful in order to be human? The fact is to be sinless is the only way we can be fully human.

CDL

I most certainly agree with you his thinking was off.
To be fully human is to be fully in a state of grace.
God intended for us to be holy. He said "Be holy for I am holy". (Sorry my memory of chapter and verse is off from my earlier days) In my hay day I could quote chapter and verse along with the best Protestant.
Fr Deacon Paul, by the way love that icon of yours.
It is the one ( a large one) we have in the Church for the Year of St Paul. Along with a relic one of the links of his chains when he was taken to Rome.

Stephanos I
May we experience this year in the Year of St Paul the new evagelization that was called for by Pope Paul VI of blessed memory, May God pour out a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit and may we see many come to Christ.

Thanks everyone!

Pani,

Did the observations here help you in explaining to the third party what humanity is and that Mary was human though sinless?

CDL