A Voice Crying Out in the Wilderness

Ah! Thsnk you for telling us about the depiction of the wings — why they are there. I never had figured that one out!

Very cool. I love learning about artistic symbolism – most depictions of saints include some kind of symbol so you can tell who’s in the picture.

I have never heard that Catholic dogma includes John the Baptist as being free from original sin – can you provide any authority for that?

Tina, check the article on John the Baptist in the Catholic Encyclopedia. Here’s the relevant section:

Now during the sixth month, the Annunciation had taken place, and, as Mary had heard from the angel the fact of her cousin’s conceiving, she went “with haste” to congratulate her. “And it came to pass, that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant” — filled, like the mother, with the Holy Ghost — “leaped for joy in her womb”, as if to acknowledge the presence of his Lord. Then was accomplished the prophetic utterance of the angel that the child should “be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother’s womb”. Now as the presence of any sin whatever is incompatible with the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the soul, it follows that at this moment John was cleansed from the stain of original sin.

It’s important to note that he wasn’t “free of original sin” in the sense that Mary and Jesus were. He wasn’t conceived without Original Sin; rather, he was cleansed of Original Sin before his birth.

I don’t understand original sin. Didn’t Jesus die for all of our sins?