"Mary, Did You Know?"

So there was recently a debate on Phatmass.com that caught my interest.  The question is whether the lyrics of the song "Mary, Did You Know?" are orthodox.  This same question occurred to me a few years ago while evaluating a peer who was using the song for a catechetical presentation at Franciscan University of Steubenville.

The lyrics in question are: "this Child that you delivered will soon deliver you."  As Catholics, we believe in the Immaculate Conception, that Mary was conceived without the stain or original sin, that she was preserved from it from her first moment.  This dogma has a very interesting history of development behind it, but aside from that, it seems that to say Jesus will soon deliver the woman who has delivered him is theologically faulty.

As I sat down to ponder the matter, I determined that as much as I detest the song (it's sappy and sentimental, although the tune is nice), I had to support the orthodoxy of the lyrics.  We cannot judge the meaning or intent of the artist, but we can judge the lyrics, so let's try it out. 

Q: Is it heresy to say that at the moment of the Nativity, Mary needed to be delivered?

A: Yes, that would be heresy.  Mary was preserved free from all stain of original sin and never personally sinned.  However, that is not what the lyrics are saying.  Rather, the lyrics say that Mary's deliverance will take place in the future.

Q: Isn't it heresy (not to mention illogical) to say that Mary, who was already preserved or pre-emptively delivered from sin, would be delivered from it in the future?

A: This is where there is no heresy, at least not in the precise language that has been presented.  Salvation has two aspects: the objective redemption, which is the sacrificial offering of Christ atoning for the sins of all mankind, and subjective salvation, which is the infusion of the merit and grace from that sacrifice into the souls of the faithful.  Objective redemption takes place at a precise moment in history, the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  For all but one of the faithful, subjective salvation takes place after that moment, in the midst of their lives, as a process which is completed only at death or in purgatory.  For Mary, however, this process took place at her conception, not to wash her of sin, but to keep her from sin.  Although she had already been saved by the time she gave birth to Christ, the objective aspect of all salvation had not yet taken place.  As a part of the deliverance from the slavery to sin, it would be accurate to say that Christ's act of deliverance had not yet taken place, in which case, it would also be accurate to say that the deliverance that would lead (not chronologically, but in the order of cause and effect) to Mary's salvation, would soon happen (if you can consider a 33 year wait to be "soon").

Let the debate begin.

His Servant and Yours,

Micah