original sin and the blessed virgin

Recently I read Newman's Letter to Pusey, where he writes on the Blessed Virgin. I was surprised when I came across his explanation of original sin. Newman says that Catholics (along with the Fathers) define original sin as "the deprivation of that supernatural unmerited grace which Adam and Eve had on their first formation - deprivation and the consequences of deprivation." He makes the point that original sin is not something positive (like actual sin) but something negative. It is not "a disease, a radical change of nature, an active poison internally corrupting the soul, infecting its primary elements and disorganizing it."

This came as a surprise because it means that, for whatever reason, I have misunderstood this Catholic teaching for most of my life. I had always thought of it as an active principle in the soul, though apparently I was mistaken. The Catechism agrees with Newman saying that original sin is "a deprivation of original holiness and justice" (405). For this reason, "original sin is called 'sin' only in an analogical sense: it is a sin 'contracted' and not 'committed' -- a state and not an act" (404).

From here Newman explains why, although immaculately conceived, Mary still needed redemption: "We consider that in Adam she died, as others; that she was included, together with the whole race, in Adam's sentence; that she incurred his debt, as we do; but that, for the sake of Him who was to redeem her and us upon the Cross, to her the debt was remitted by anticipation, on her the sentence was not carried out."

"Mary could not merit, any more than [Adam and Eve], the restoration of that grace; but it was restored to her by God's free bounty, from the very first moment of her existence, and thereby, in fact, she never came under the original curse, which consisted in the loss of it. And she had this special privilege, in order to fit her to become the Mother of her and our Redeemer, to fit her mentally, spiritually for it; so that, by the aid of the first grace, she might so grow in grace, that, when the Angel came and her Lord was at hand, she might be 'full of grace,' prepared as far as a creature could be prepared, to receive Him into her bosom."