PERFECTION AND IMMORTALITY: Mary's Fidelity to God

by Sally Govea

Aug. 15, 2010 --When God created man he was perfect and when something is perfect it does not corrupt. Therefore, man was immortal in body and soul. When Eve came along she was perfect as well, that is, before sin came into the picture and everything changed. Perfection is a perfect blending of our will with God’s We abuse our free will when we pull away from God’s will to do our own will; thus our free will is corrupted and this deterioration seeps into our life and our body is no longer immortal.

When Christ took on a human body, though He is perfect, He allowed His Body to die so it could live in a most mysterious manner in the Holy Eucharist.

Next to Christ, Mary was the most perfect in body and soul. She lived on earth, not in an earthly paradise, but in a spiritual paradise. Even before the Annunciation her soul welcomed the life of God within it and her soul never lost that Life—God’s will was Mary’s will. Because of this, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven by his infallible pronouncement in these words: “After frequently praying to God and invoking the light of the Spirit of truth, to the glory of Almighty God Who enriched the Virgin Mary with special favor, to the honor of her Son, the immortal King of ages and victor over death and sin, to the increase of the glory of His august Mother, to the joy and exultation of the whole Church, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul and by Our own authority, We declare and define as a revealed dogma that the immaculate Mary ever Virgin, Mother of God, when she had finished the course of her earthly life, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven.”

By Mary’s fidelity to God she remained perfect and therefore, God granted her, according to His creation of the perfect man, immortality of both body and soul.