Although not currently popular in Catholic, or even most Evangelical circles, there is a way to understand the Messianic prophecies that allows for the coming of both a male and a female Messiah, or one, or the other depending on the circumstances at the time chosen.
This approach actually plays to the Immaculate Conception, and recognizes that as part of the process of delivering up a Messiah to this world.
Alas, the concept of a female Messiah runs counter to all those arguments about why God decided that only men should be Catholic priests.
We'll need to schedule that debate for another age ~
John the Baptist . . . Born Without Original Sin?
A reader writes:
Hello Jimmy
I heard this for the first time last night and do not know the answer.
I was told that the Catholic Church teaches that John the Baptist was Born without original sin, is this the teaching of the church if so can you please explain why.
This is not something that the Catholic Church teaches, but it is what may be called a pious and probable belief among Catholics.
The reason is that in Luke 1:13-15, when an angel prophecies the birth of John the Baptist, he says:
Do not be afraid, Zechari’ah, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth;
for he will be great before the Lord,and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.
It is commonly understood that the Holy Spirit does not fill those who are still in a state of original sin. As Catholics use the term, “original sin” refers to the privation of the sanctifying grace which unites us with God. A soul filled with the Holy Spirit seems unquestionably to be united with God and thus not deprived of sanctifying grace. Hence, it has not original sin as the term is commonly used among Catholics, just as every person who has been baptized or otherwise justified has not original sin as Catholics use the term.
(N.B., Protestants have a different and more expansive definition of the term “original sin,” which includes the corrupt nature we inherit from Adam and which remains with us after we are justified. Consequently, it would sound very improbable to them that any person in this life does not have original sin, but this is because of the way the term is used in their circles, not because of a substantive theological difference.)
(N.B.B., If it is granted that John the Baptist was freed from original sin before birth, it does not follow that he was immaculate, as was the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is firstly because he may have been freed of original sin after his conception and before birth, whereas Mary was preserved from her conception from contracting original sin. And it secondly is because Mary was not only free of original sin, as is posited in the case of John the Baptist, but also utterly free of the stain of original sin, which includes more than just the deprivation of sanctifying grace. It also includes, for example, the later tendency to sin—concupiscience—to which we are subject in this life.)
Posted by Jimmy Akin
http://www.jimmyakin.org/2004/12/john_the_baptis.html