Dear Karl-Heinz,

Before answering your question, I think you are referring to the Virgin Birth rather than the Immaculate Conception.

1. The Immaculate Conception refers to Mary as being conceived in her mother Ann's womb without inheriting any stain from original sin.
2. The Virgin Birth refers to Jesus being miraculously born of the Virgin Mary.

Secondly, the Virgin Birth itself, which even the Muslims believe, does not necessarily prove Jesus' divinity (that He was God). This doctrine is proven in many other areas throughout Scripture and Tradition.

• So why did Jesus speak this line in Mark 10:18?

There are various ways to understand our Lord's words, but perhaps He was communicating the point that He was God (as well as Man), by mentioning the irony that while this person called Him a word that is the essence of God, but does not yet realize that Jesus is divine, perhaps in an indirect way, Jesus was teaching this person that He was divine, if we interpret what He said as something like this:

"If at this point you see me as only a man (and not God) why call me good, which truly describes only God who is purely good and the source of all goodness?"

Paul

Dear Karl-Heinz —

There are indeed different levels to speak of.

For example, in the Roman liturgy, we pray to Jesus, You alone are the Holy One, yet we obviously believe that other people are holy ones; we call them saints, whether canonized Saints or the believer in God's grace. It's not a contradiction but a contradistinction; it means, compared to everyone else, you alone are absolutely holy.

Likewise, compared to Mary, Jesus alone among humans is good, because, as Paul noted, He is the source of goodness.

Eric

Karl-Heinz,

Thank you for clarifying your question.

• Why would Jesus say no one is good except for God if Mary is conceived immaculately?

It seems we are left with two possibilities here:

1. The first is that Jesus is speaking of good in the primary sense, i.e. sunshine is to the sun as goodness is to God. Although creatures may be bit perfectly lit by the sun without any shadow, they are not enlightened on their own nor are they light itself. Hence, although Mary is perfectly graced by God's Goodness; she is not the source of her own goodness (as God is) nor is she Goodness itself (as God is).
   
   
2. Another possibility is that Mary may have taken on some qualities of fallen human nature without being tainted by it. If the three preternatural gifts lost through original sin are:
   1.) freedom from concupiscence, 2.) from suffering, and 3.) from death, it might be that she didn't inherit the stain of sin (concupiscence) but shared in some of our fallen condition (suffering and death); of which she, of course, became free by virtue of her glorious Assumption.

Paul