Cathal Barry
The Church teaches that Mary is the most perfect realisation of the Church, writes Cathal Barry
Called in the Gospels "the mother of Jesus", Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as "the mother of my Lord". In fact, 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".
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, affirming also the corporeal aspect of this event: Jesus was conceived "by the Holy Spirit without human seed".
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. Thus St Ignatius of Antioch at the beginning of the second century says:
"You are firmly convinced about our Lord, who is truly of the race of David according to the flesh, Son of God according to the will and power of God, truly born of a virgin… he was truly nailed to a tree for us in his flesh under Pontius Pilate… he truly suffered, as he is also truly risen."
The Gospel accounts understand the virginal conception of Jesus as a divine work that surpasses all human understanding and possibility: ìThat which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spiritî, said the angel to Joseph about Mary his fiancée. (Mt 1:20).The Church sees here the fulfilment of the divine promise given through the prophet Isaiah: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son". (Is 7:14)
Motherhood
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, the Church's dogmatic constitution, Lumen Gentium, states: Christ's birth "did not diminish his mother's virginal integrity but sanctified it".
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". They are close relations of Jesus, according to an Old Testament expression.
The Church teaches that Jesus is Maryís only son, but her spiritual motherhood extends to all men whom he came to save. Mary is the symbol and the most perfect realisation of the Church, the Catechism states.
