81. Mary - "ever-virgin"

Mary - "ever-virgin"

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 81

Ave Maria series

81  Did Mary have other children besides Jesus?

No.  Jesus is the only son of Mary in the physical sense.  [500, 510]

Crowned statue of Our Lady Mother of God in the cathedral in Porto Alegre, Brazil. .... 81

Even in the early Church, Mary’s perpetual; virginity was assumed, which rules out the possibility of Jesus having brothers and sisters from the same mother.  In Aramaic, Jesus’ mother tongue, there is only one word for siblings and cousins.  When the Gospels speak about the ‘brothers and sisters’ of Jesus (for instance, in Mark 3:31-35), they are referring to Jesus’ close relatives.

[500, 510]

Mary - "ever-virgin"

500 Against this doctrine the objection is sometimes raised that the Bible mentions brothers and sisters of Jesus. (Compare Mark 3:31-35; Mk 6:3; 1 Corinthians 9:5; Galatians 1:19.)¹⁵⁷ 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". (Matthew 13:55; Mt 28:1; compare Mt 27:56.)¹⁵⁸ They are close relations of Jesus, according to an Old Testament expression. (Compare Genesis 13:8; Gen 14:16; Gen 29:15; etc.)¹⁵⁹

IN BRIEF

510 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" (St. Augustine, Serm. 186, 1: Patrologia Latina 38, 999): with her whole being she is "the handmaid of the Lord" (Luke 1:38).