I’ve been drawn toward the Catholic Church and don’t see Mary as a make-or-break issue, but I do have one niggling immaculate conception question: what does it say about the divinity of Jesus if he is not the only person to have lived a sinless life?

Actually, one more question. I’ve seen a beautiful icon of Jesus’ baptism that shows him submerged in dark water, surrounded by demon-like fish, symbolizing his incarnation as a descent among human sinfulness. It made me wonder, if he could descend so completely into the depths of our sin and hell, could he not have suffered to be born of an ordinary sin-prone person?

I want to emphasize that these questions are not meant to be antagonistic, but they continue to haunt my mind amid my Catholic sympathies.

The traditional translation, “full of grace,” is better than the one found in many recent versions of the New Testament, which give something along the lines of “highly favored daughter.” Mary was indeed a highly favored daughter of God, but the Greek implies more than that (and it never mentions the word for “daughter”). The grace given to Mary is at once permanent and of a unique kind. Kecharitomene is a perfect passive participle of charitoo, meaning “to fill or endow with grace.” Since this term is in the perfect tense, it indicates that Mary was graced in the past but with continuing effects in the present. So, the grace Mary enjoyed was not a result of the angel‚Äôs visit. In fact, Catholics hold, it extended over the whole of her life, from conception onward. She was in a state of sanctifying grace from the first moment of her existence.

I just find this doctrine very confusing & seems counter to our view of God giving us all free will. I would love for someone to shed some light on this.