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To: frog_jerk_2004

Yes, and Job 1 tells us that Job was sinless, and Luke 1 tells us that the parents of John the Baptist were also sinless. They all died eventually (I think we can presume this, even though it does not say so in the Bible).

Theologically, the REASON they died natural deaths was the consequences of original sin, contracted from Adam.

After Adam and Eve, only Jesus and Mary were free of this original sin.

Jesus died sinless, yes, but only because he was killed.
Mary is said by (some) ancient Tradition to have died a natural death.
Obviously that's a different case.
Had Jesus NOT been killed, presumably he would have been immortal.
But why not Mary?

Two possible answers present themselves:
(1) Mary didn't actually die, but was assumed living into Heaven like Enoch and Elijah (and perhaps Moses) before her. (Jesus ascended living into Heaven, but that's a separate case.)
(2) Mary CHOSE to die to return to Her son in His Kingdom. So her death was NOT the result of being human or the effects of the sin of Adam, but a personal choice to fall asleep in God and go to her Son enthroned.

The latter answer does not contradict any ancient Tradition (the former does), and it may have to do as an answer, but I am QUITE uncomfortable deriving my own explanation. Surely there is a traditional answer?
Surely some reader of this board knows that answer?


95 posted on 09/21/2004 11:30:19 AM PDT by Vicomte13 (Auta i Lome!)
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To: Vicomte13
The Death of Our Lady (58) August 13 This feast is more lovingly called “the Dormition” (the sleep) of Our Lady. For although She really and truly died, Mary's death lasted only forty hours, the same length of time as Our Lord's death. Then, with Her body incorrupt, Mary was restored to life and was assumed, body and soul, into Heaven.

The Apostles, with the exception of Saint James who had died, and of Saint Thomas who was brought later, were miraculously transported from the parts of the world where they were preaching to attend the death of Our Lady in Jerusalem, when She gave up Her immaculate and spotless soul to God.

Saint Timothy, Saint Denis the Areopagite and Saint Hierotheus, his friend, were also brought miraculously to Our Lady's bedside. Jesus Himself came down from Heaven to assist at Our Lady's death. Just before Mary died, Jesus gave Her the Blessed Eucharist, the Body and Blood which She had given to Him when She conceived Him at Nazareth.

Our Lady was buried reverently by the Apostles at the foot of the Mount of Olives, just below the place where Our Lord had sweat blood on the eve of His passion. It was not far from the grave where Saint Lazarus had been buried and raised from the dead by Jesus.

Mary's soul, during the interval when Her virginal body lay dead, was able to visit the souls in Purgatory so as to comfort and to release them, just as Our Lord's soul, during the three days He lay dead, went to comfort the souls in the Limbo of the Just. Our Lady was seventy-two years old when she died.

104 posted on 09/21/2004 11:40:11 AM PDT by Stubborn (It is the Mass that matters)
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To: Vicomte13
(2) Mary CHOSE to die to return to Her son in His Kingdom. So her death was NOT the result of being human or the effects of the sin of Adam, but a personal choice to fall asleep in God and go to her Son enthroned.

Sorry Vicomte13, I think I misinterpreted your question on a previous response. My personal vote goes with #2...I think it accords best with piety and the mind of the Church.

105 posted on 09/21/2004 11:40:22 AM PDT by Claud
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