Is It Important That Mary Was a Virgin?

Catechism paragraphs 484 – 534

“The mission of the Holy Spirit is always conjoined and ordered to that of the Son.  (Jn 16:14-15)  The Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of Life, is sent to sanctify the womb of the Virgin Mary and divinely fecundate it, causing her to conceive the eternal Son of the Father in a humanity drawn from her own. (Lk 1:34)  485   What the Catholic faith believes about Mary is based on what it believes about Christ, and what it teaches about Mary illumines in turn its faith in Christ.  487   From all eternity God chose for the mother of his Son a daughter of Israel, a young Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.”  (Lk 1:26-7) 488   

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

“To become the mother of the Savior, Mary was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role.  (LG 56)  The angel Gabriel at the moment of the annunciation salutes her as “full of grace.”  490   Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, full of grace through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception.  That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854:  The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.  491   The Fathers of the Eastern tradition call the Mother of God the All-Holy (Panagia) and celebrate her as ‘free from any stain of sin, as thought fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature.’  By the grace of God Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long.”  493 

MARY’S ASSENT

“By the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary responded with the obedience of faith, certain that ‘with God nothing is impossible:’  Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.  (Lk 1:28-38) 494   The One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father’s eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity.  Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly ‘Mother of God’ (Theotokos).  495   From the first   formulations of her faith, the Church has confessed that Jesus was conceived solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary.  The Fathers see in the virginal conception the sign that it truly was the Son of God who came in a humanity like our own.  496   The gospel accounts understand the virginal conception of Jesus as a divine work that surpasses all human understanding and possibility.  (Mt 1:18-25)  The Church sees here the fulfillment of the divine promise given through the prophet Isaiah: ‘Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.’ (Is 7:14, quoted in Mt 1:23)  497   People are sometimes troubled by the silence of St. Mark’s Gospel and the New Testament Epistles about Jesus’ virginal conception.  Some might wonder if we were merely dealing with legends or theological constructs not claiming to be history.  To this we must respond:  Faith in the virginal conception of Jesus met with the lively opposition, mockery, or incomprehension of non-believers, Jews and pagans alike; so it could hardly have been motivated by pagan mythology or by some adaptation to the ideas of the age.  The meaning of this event is accessible only to faith, which understands in it the connection of these mysteries with one another in the totality of Christ’s mysteries, from his Incarnation to his Passover.  498   The deepening of faith in the virginal motherhood led the Church to confess Mary’s real and perpetual virginity even in the act of giving birth to the Son of God made man.  In fact, Christ’s birth ‘did not diminish his mother’s virginal integrity but sanctified it.’ (LG 57)  And so the liturgy of the Church celebrates Mary as Aeiparthenos, the ‘Ever Virgin.’ 499   Against this doctrine the objection is sometimes raised that the Bible mentions brothers and sisters of Jesus.  The Church has always understood these passages as not referring to other children of the Virgin Mary.  In fact, James and Joseph, ‘brothers of Jesus,’ are the sons of another Mary, a disciple of Christ, whom St. Matthew significantly calls ‘the other Mary.’  (Mt 13:55)  500   Jesus is Mary’s only son, but her spiritual motherhood extends to all men whom indeed he came to save.  501   At once virgin and Mother, Mary is the symbol and the most perfect realization of the Church: ‘The Church indeed … by receiving the word of God in faith becomes herself a mother.  By preaching and Baptism she brings forth new sons who are conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of God to a new and immortal life.’” (LG 64) 507  

THE MYSTERIES OF CHRIST’S LIFE

“Concerning Christ’s life the Creed speaks only about the mysteries of the Incarnation (conception and birth) and Paschal mystery (passion, crucifixion, death, burial, descent into hell, resurrection, and ascension).  It says nothing explicitly about the mysteries of Jesus’ hidden or public life, but the articles of faith concerning his Incarnation and Passover do shed light on the whole of his earthly life.  All that Jesus did and taught, from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, is to be seen in the light of the mysteries of Christmas and Easter.(Acts 1:1-2) 512   Many things about Jesus of interest to human curiosity do not figure in the Gospels.  What is written in the Gospels was set down there ‘so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.’ (Jn 20:31) 514   Christ’s whole earthly life – his words and deeds, his silences and sufferings, indeed his manner of being and speaking – is Revelation of the Father.  Jesus can say: ‘Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.’ (Jn 14:9, Lk 9:35) 516   Christ’s whole life is a mystery of redemption.  Redemption comes to us above all through the blood of his cross, (Col 1:13-14) but this mystery is at work throughout Christ’s entire life.  517   Christ did not live his life for himself but for us, from his Incarnation ‘for us men and for our salvation’ to his ‘death for our sins’ and Resurrection ‘for our justification.’  He is still ‘our advocate with the Father,’ who ‘always lives to make intercession’ for us.  519   In all his life Jesus presents himself as our model.  He is ‘the perfect man,’ who invites us to become his disciples and follow him.  In humbling himself, he has given us an example to imitate, through his prayer he draws us to pray, and by his poverty he calls us to accept freely the privation and persecutions that may come our way.  520   By his Incarnation, he, the Son of God, has in a certain way united himself with each man. (GS 22) 521  To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom.  For this, we must humble ourselves and become little.  Even more:  to become ‘children of God’ we must be ‘born from above’ or ‘born of God.’” (Jn 3:7, 1:13, 1:12) 526  

I bolded the above section because I believe it to be a key teaching of the Catholic Church, one which must be thought on much, to understand what it means to be and live as a Catholic and a Child of God.  It is how we were created to be, and an clear example of how we are meant to live our lives.  This is most important, and we so easily forget it in our concerns for ourselves.

“Jesus’ circumcision, on the eighth day after his birth, is the sign of his incorporation into Abraham’s descendants, into the people of the covenant.  It is the sign of his submission to the Law.  This sign prefigures that ‘circumcision of Christ’ which is Baptism.  (Cf Col 2:11-3) 527   During the greater part of his life Jesus shared the condition of the vast majority of human beings: a daily life spent without evident greatness, a life of manual labor.  His religious life was that of a Jew obedient to the law of God, a life in the community.  From this whole period it is revealed to us that Jesus was ‘obedient’ to his parents and that he ‘increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.’ (Lk 2:51-2) 531   The hidden life at Nazareth allows everyone to enter into the fellowship with Jesus by the most ordinary events of daily life.”  533  

In the next session, we’ll begin considering those parts of the Creed which center on the mysteries of Jesus’ public life, catechism paragraphs 535 – 570.

Jesus, God's Only Son, Born of the Virgin Mary

Catechism Paragraphs 430 – 483

JESUS

“Jesus means in Hebrew: ‘God saves,’ which expresses both his identity and his mission.  430   God was not content to deliver Israel out of the house of bondage by bringing them out of Egypt.  He also saves them from their sin.  Because sin is always an offense against God, only he can forgive it. (cf Ps 51:4, 12) 431   Jesus’ Resurrection glorifies the name of the Savior God, for from that time on it is the name of Jesus that fully manifests the supreme power of the ‘name which is above every name.’ (Phil 2:9-10)  434   The name of Jesus is at the heart of Christian prayer.  All liturgical prayers conclude with the words ‘through our Lord Jesus Christ.’” 435

CHRIST

“The word ‘Christ’ comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah, which means ‘anointed.’  It became the name proper to Jesus only because he accomplished perfectly the divine mission that ‘Christ’ signifies.  436   To the shepherds the angel announced the birth of Jesus as the Messiah promised to Israel: ‘To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.’ (Lk 2:11) 437   Jesus’ messianic consecration reveals his divine mission, for the name Jesus implies ‘he who anointed,’  ‘he who was anointed,’ and ‘the very anointing with which he was anointed.’  The one who anointed is the Father, the one who was anointed is the Son, and he was anointed with the Spirit who is the anointing.’ 438   Jesus accepted Peter’s profession of faith, which acknowledged him to be the Messiah, by announcing the imminent Passion of the Son of man.  He unveiled the authentic content of his messianic kingship both in the transcendent identity of the Son of Man ‘who came down from heaven,’ and in his redemptive mission as the suffering Servant.  Hence the true meaning of his kingship is revealed only when he is raised high on the cross.’  440  

THE ONLY SON OF GOD

“In the Old Testament, ‘son of God’ is a title given to the angels, the Chosen People, the children of Israel, and their kings.  It signifies an adoptive sonship that establishes a relationship of particular intimacy between God and his creature.  When the promised Messiah-King is called ‘son of God,’ it does not necessarily imply that he was more than human, according to the literal meaning of these texts.  441   Such is not the case for Simon Peter when he confesses Jesus as ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God,’ for Jesus responds solemnly: ‘Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.’  (Mt 16:16-17)  From the beginning this acknowledgement of Christ’s divine sonship will be the center of the apostolic faith.  442   The Gospels report that at two solemn moments, the Baptism and the Transfiguration of Christ, the voice of the Father designates Jesus his ‘beloved Son.’ (Mt 3:17, 17:5)  Jesus calls himself the ‘only Son of God,’ and by this title affirms his eternal preexistence. (Jn 3:16) 444   After his Resurrection, Jesus’ divine sonship becomes manifest in the power of his glorified humanity.  He was ‘designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection from the dead.’” (Jn 1:14) 445  

“Very often in the Gospels people address Jesus as ‘Lord.’  This title testifies to the respect and trust of those who approach him for help and healing.  At the prompting of the Holy Spirit, ‘Lord’ expresses the recognition of the divine mystery of Jesus.  448   The title ‘Lord’ indicates divine sovereignty.  To confess or invoke Jesus as Lord is to believe in his divinity.  ‘No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit “(1Cor 12:3) 455

WHY DID THE WORD BECOME FLESH?

“With the Nicene Creed, we answer by confessing: ‘For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.’  456   The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God, who ‘loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.’  (1Jn 4:10)  457   The Word became flesh so that we might know God’s love: ‘In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.’ (1Jn 4:9) 458   The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness: ‘Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.’  ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.’ (Mt 11:29, Jn 14:6) ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ (Jn 15:12)  459   The Word became flesh to make us partakers of the divine nature. (2Pet 1:4)  ‘For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.’  ‘The only begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.’”  460  

“Belief in the true Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of the Christian faith: ‘By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.’ (1Jn 4:2) 463   He became truly man while remaining truly God.  Jesus Christ is true God and true man.  During the first centuries, the Church had to defend and clarify this truth of faith against the heresies that falsified it.  464   The first ecumenical council of Nicaea in 325 confessed in its Creed that the Son of God is ‘begotten, not made, of the same substance as the Father,’ and condemned Arius, who had affirmed that the Son of God ‘came to be from things that were not’ and that he was ‘from another substance’ than that of the Father.’  465   Because ‘human nature was assumed, not absorbed,’ in the mysterious union of the Incarnation, the Church was led over the course of centuries to confess the full reality of Christ’s human soul, with its operations of intellect and will, and of his human body.  In parallel fashion, she had to recall on each occasion that Christ’s human nature belongs, as his own, to the divine person of the Son of God, who assumed it.  In his soul as in his body, Christ thus expresses humanly the divine ways of the Trinity.  470   This human soul that the Son of God assumed is endowed with a true human knowledge.  As such, this knowledge could not in itself be unlimited: it was exercised in the historical conditions of his existence in space and time.  This is why the Son of God could, when he became man, ‘increase in wisdom and in stature, and in the favor with God and man,’ (Lk 2:52) and would even have to inquire for himself about what one in the human condition can learn only from experience.  This corresponded to the reality of his voluntary emptying of himself, taking ‘the form of a slave.’  472   By its union to the divine wisdom in the person of the Word incarnate, Christ enjoyed in his human knowledge the fullness of understanding of the eternal plans he had come to reveal.” 474

“At the sixth ecumenical council, Constantinople III in 681, the Church confessed that Christ possesses two wills and two natural operations, divine and human.  They are not opposed to each other, but cooperate in such a way that the Word made flesh willed humanly in obedience to his Father all that he had decided divinely with the Father and the holy Spirit for our salvation.  Christ’s human will does not resist or oppose but rather submits to his divine and almighty will. 475   Since the Word became flesh in assuming a true humanity, Christ’s body was finite.  Therefore the human face of Jesus can be portrayed; at the seventh ecumenical council (Nicaea II in 787) the Church recognized its representation in holy images to be legitimate.”  476 

Why can we grasp Jesus only as a “mystery”?  Jesus extends into God; therefore we cannot understand him if we exclude the invisible divine reality.  The visible side of Jesus points to the invisible.  We see in the life of Jesus numerous realities that are powerfully present but that we can understand only as a mystery.  Examples of such mysteries are the divine Sonship, the Incarnation, the Passion, and the Resurrection of Christ.  YOUCAT Q78

A religion without mystery is necessarily a religion without God.  – Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667, English spiritual writer)

Next time we look at Jesus’ conception by the Holy Spirit and the mysteries of His infancy, catechism paragraphs 484 - 534

What is Sin?

The Fall and The Good News:  Catechism Paragraphs 386 – 429

“To try to understand what sin is, one must first recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity’s rejection of God.  386   Without the knowledge Revelation gives of God we cannot recognize sin clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary consequence of an inadequate social structure, etc.   Only in the knowledge of God’s plan for man can we grasp that sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons so that they are capable of loving him and loving one another.” 387  

“The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man.  Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents. 390   Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy.  Scripture and the Church’s Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called ‘Satan’ or the ‘devil.’  The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: ‘The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing.’  391   This ‘fall’ consists of the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign.  The devil ‘has sinned from the beginning;’ he is ‘a liar and the father of lies.’ (1Jn3:8) 392   The power of Satan is not infinite.  He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature.  It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but ‘we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him.’ (Rom 8:28)” 395

“God created man in his image and established him in his friendship.  A spiritual creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God.  The ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ symbolically evokes the insurmountable limits that man, being a creature, must freely recognize and respect with trust.  Man is dependent on his Creator and subject to the laws of creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom.  396   Man, tempted by the devil let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God’s command.  This is what man’s first sin consisted of. 397   He chose himself over and against God.  Created in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully ‘divinized’ by God in glory.  Seduced by the devil, he wanted to ‘be like God,’ but ‘without God, before God, and not in accordance with God.’  398   Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of this first disobedience.  Adam and Eve immediately lose the grace of original holiness.  They become afraid of the God of whom they have conceived a distorted image --- that of a God jealous of his prerogatives. (Gn 3:5-10) 399   The consequence explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true:  man will ‘return to the ground.’ (Gn 3:19) for out of it he was taken.  Death makes its entrance into human history. (Rom 5:12) 400   Even after Christ’s atonement, sin raises its head in countless ways among Christians.” 401  

“All men are implicated in Adam’s sin, as St. Paul affirms:  ‘By one man’s disobedience many (that is, all men) were made sinners.’: ‘Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned. (Rom 5:12, 19) 402   Adam transmitted to us a sin with which we are all born afflicted, a sin which is the ‘death of the soul.’  Because of this certainty of faith, the Church baptizes for the remission of sins even tiny infants who have not committed personal sin.  403   By this unity of the human race, all men are implicated in Adam’s sin, as all are implicated in Christ’s justice.  Still, the transmission of original sin is a mystery that we cannot fully understand.  By yielding to his tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in a fallen state.  It is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind.  And that is why 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   Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam’s descendents.  It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, and an inclination to evil that is called ‘concupiscence.’  Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ’s grace, erases original sin and turns a man back toward God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle.  405   The doctrine of original sin, closely connected with that of redemption by Christ, provides lucid discernment of man’s situation and activity in the world.  By our first parent’s sin, the devil has acquired a certain domination over man, even though man remains free.”  407

“After his fall, man was not abandoned by God.  God calls him and in a mysterious way heralds the coming victory over evil and his restoration from his fall.  This passage in Genesis is called the Protoevangelium (‘first gospel’): the first announcement of the Messiah and Redeemer, of a battle between the serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a descendant of hers.  410   The Christian tradition sees in this passage an announcement of the ‘New Adam’ who, because he ‘became obedient unto death, even death on a cross,’ makes amends for the disobedience of Adam.  Doctors of the Church have seen the woman announced in the Protoevangelium as Mary, the mother of Christ, the ‘new Eve.’  She was preserved from all stain of sin, of original sin, and by a special grace of God, committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life.  411   St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, ‘There is nothing to prevent human nature’s being raised up to something greater, even after sin; God permits evil in order to draw forth some greater good.  Thus St. Paul says, ‘Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.’” 412  

What is sin?  At the core of sin is a rejection of God and the refusal to accept his love.  This is manifested in a disregard for his commandments.  Sin is more than incorrect behavior; it is not just a psychological weakness.  In the deepest sense every rejection or destruction of something good is the rejection of good in itself, the rejection of God.  YOUCAT Q67

THE GOOD NEWS: GOD HAS SENT HIS SON

“But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Gal 4:4-5)  422   We believe and confess that Jesus of Nazareth came from God, ‘descended from heaven,’ and ‘came in the flesh.’  For ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.’  423   The transmission of the Christian faith consists primarily in proclaiming Jesus Christ in order to lead others to faith in him.  From the beginning, the first disciples burned with the desire to proclaim Christ: ‘We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.’ (Acts 4:20) 425   To catechize is ‘to reveal in the Person of Christ the whole of God’s eternal design reaching fulfillment in that Person.  It is to seek to understand the meaning of Christ’s actions and words and of the signs worked by him.’  Catechesis aims at putting ‘people in communion with Jesus Christ: only he can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy Trinity.’  426   Whoever is called ‘to teach Christ’ must first seek ‘the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.’  428   From this loving knowledge of Christ springs the desire to proclaim him, to evangelize, and to lead others to the ‘yes’ of faith in Jesus Christ.  429  

Next time we get into the meaning of the words in the creed: “And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,’ and ‘He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and was born of the Virgin Mary.” --- catechism paragraphs 430 - 483