J.M.J. During Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation we chant or recite the Nicene
Creed, in which we profess: "and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man."
Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, who retained her virginity even while giving birth to Him!
The Church embraces Our Blessed Lady's "Perpetual Virginity."
In 649,
the Lateran Council under Pope Saint Martin I declared: "If anyone does
not, in accord with the Holy Fathers, acknowledge the Holy, Ever-Virgin
and Immaculate Mary as really and truly the Mother of God, inasmuch as
she, in the fullness of time, and without seed conceived, by the Holy
Spirit of God, Jesus the Word Himself, Who before all time was born of
God the Father, and with integrity brought Him forth (incorruptibly bore
Him), and after His Birth preserved her virginity inviolate, let him be
condemned."
Mary, the Church insists, is the "Ever-Virgin": before, during and after the Birth of Jesus.
Before time began God decreed that the Mother of the Son would continue
in her virginity. Therefore, Mary's virginal state was never altered
even while giving birth to the Savior. The term "Virgin Birth" signifies
Mary's virginity during the Birth. (Often, "Virgin Birth" is
inaccurately used when discussing Jesus' conception in the womb of Mary
by the Holy Spirit.)
What the Baby Jesus left His chaste Mother's womb, He did so
miraculously without opening it or any part of her body. There were no
lesions or ruptures. As light goes through a windowpane without
shattering it, so the Messiah departed from Our Lady's body without
changing her virginal state.
The Prophet Isaiah (7:14) prophesied thus: "The virgin shall conceive
and bear a son and He shall be called Emmanuel." The woman who conceived
virginally would bear virginally.
Several scholars understand Saint Luke 1:35 as relating to the Virgin
Birth: "Hence He Who will be born holy ("in a holy way") will be called
Son of God."
No Father of the Church argued against the Virgin Birth and certain ones
from the first five centuries--Saints Ignatius of Antioch, Irenaeus,
Clement of Alexandria, Zeno of Verona, Ephrem, Ambrose, Jerome,
Augustine and Peter Chrysologus--wrote favorably of it.
The Church's Teaching Authority ("Magisterium") has defended the Virgin
Birth: the letter dated 392 Bishop Anysisus that scorned the notion "which holds that He (Jesus) could not be born of a virgin"; the 449
Tome to Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople by Pope Saint Leo the
Great, asserting that Mary "brought Him forth without the loss of
virginity, even as the conceived Him without its loss"; the 553 Second
Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, referring to the Madonna with the
Greek aeiparthenos ("Ever-Virgin"); the 649 Lateran Council cited above;
the 1555 Bull of Pope Paul IV, which rejected a Unitarian concept that
Mary relinquished her virginity during Christ's Birth.
The November 21, 1964 Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) of the
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (1962-1965) emphasized that "Jesus, at
His Birth, did not diminish His Mother's virginal integrity but
sanctified it" (#57).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) stated: "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" (#499).
What may we conclude?
God the Father willed that His Son's Mother always remain a virgin. This
unique facet of "virginity-maternity" calls attention to Christ's
Divinity. Jesus is a Divine Person with two natures, one divine and the
other human. He is the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity and
shares the same essence as His Eternal Father and the Holy Spirit.
God chose Mary of Nazareth to become the Mother of Jesus, preserving her
from Original Sin and then arranging that she would conceive virginally
and retain her virginity while giving birth. It is no exaggeration to
claim that Mary the Mother is Mary the Virgin. Clearly, Our Lady has no
human equals because God established her as both Virgin and Mother.
(Adapted from a pamphlet published by the Queenship Publishing Company)
(Adapted from a pamphlet published by the Queenship Publishing Company)
Merry Christmas and thank you Msgr. Mangan for the insightful teachings in this blog! I was wondering how Luke 2:23 fit in with the article above? "As it is written in the law of the Lord: Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord." Was it just to show obedience to God then as a good example to others, who would have had no clue that this had happened, that Mary and Joseph went to the temple to present Jesus to His Father?....Laurie H.
ReplyDeleteJ.M.J. Merry Christmas, Laurie, and thank you. The firstborn male was the one who opened his mother's womb. Jesus was the Firstborn of Mary even though she retained her Virginity. Yes, the Holy Family followed the prescripts of the Law and, therefore, was a good example for all.
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