‘The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” ‘Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” ‘The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” ‘Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.’ (Luke 1:30-38)
The Annunciation is a story with which we are all familiar. Mary was visited by the Archangel Gabriel and told she would have the profound honour of being the Mother of God. Mary, though puzzled as to how this should occur, accepts faithfully that God would make this all possible. Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus is conceived in Mary’s womb.
Of course, a virginal conception was – and is – hard for many to understand. At the time of her pregnancy, Mary was betrothed to Joseph and he knew with certainty that she was not carrying his child because she had not ‘known’ him. They had not consummated their relationship. ‘Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ‘All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:” Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” (Matthew 1:19-23)
The prophet Isaiah had foretold a virgin conceiving and bearing a son who would be the Son of God. All of Israel lived in hope of the day that this would come, their Saviour born among them. Yet, as we know they failed to see what was hidden in plain sight; the Virgin Mary who carried Jesus in her womb and brought him into this world. But what is perhaps even more remarkable is that Mary was not just a virgin at the conception of Our Lord, but also through the birth of Our Lord, and the rest of her earthly life. Yes, you did read that correctly.
Even through the process of pregnancy and childbirth, Mary’s virginity is assured. Biologically speaking it seems impossible for us to comprehend that when Mary gave birth to Jesus, her virginity remained intact, yet God willed it to be so.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that: ‘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” [cf. Lumen Gentium 57] And so the liturgy of the Church celebrates Mary as Aeiparthenos, the “Ever-virgin” [cf. LG 52].’
St Augustine affirms this teaching in his Sermons, where he writes that Mary: ‘remained a virgin, in conceiving her Son, a virgin in giving birth to him, a virgin in carrying him, a virgin in nursing him at her breast, always a virgin.’
Mary: the ever-virgin mother of God. What a sign of faith and the awesome power of God. How blessed is Mary to have been chosen, not only to be the Mother of God, but to receive the profound gift of eternal holiness, an explicit sign of which is her undefiled state, her eternal virginity.
First published in In Sight Magazine
Originally posted 2014-12-03 22:29:03.