Daily Retreat 01/23/07

2007 Jan 23 Tue
Heb 10: 1-10/ Ps 39(40): 2 and 4ab. 7-8a. 10. 11/ Mk 3: 31-35

From today’s readings:  “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins.... Here am I Lord; I come to do Your will....  For whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother.”

Brethren of the Lord

Because the perpetual virginity of Mary is affirmed as Catholic doctrine, it is sometimes called into question by Protestants who see that teaching as unbiblical, appealing to the scriptural verses that specifically refer to brothers or sisters of Jesus, such as today’s passage (Mark 3:31–35) and several others (Matt. 12:46; Matt. 13:55; Mark 6:3; Luke 8:19–20; John 2:12, 7:3, 5, 10; Acts 1:14; 1 Cor. 9:5).

Clearly, throughout scripture, and in our own time as well, the words “brothers” and “sisters” are used in a range of meanings, from a narrow sense (siblings from the same parents, such as Cain and Abel), to an approximate sense (including half-brothers, such as Jacob’s many sons), to a wider general sense (relatives or any people of similar origin or purpose - John 19:25 can be considered, for example:  “There stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas.....”  Presumably, the parents of the Virgin Mary did not have another daughter whom they also named “Mary” and married Clopas!).  It also should be noted that the use of the terms “brothers” and “sisters” in a wider sense was especially common in Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus and His contemporaries, since that language lacked a specific word to designate cousins.

The heart of the Catholic position thus stems from the fact that it is incontestable that none of biblical passages can refer to full brothers or sisters of Jesus in the narrow sense, because He alone had Mary as His mother, but God Himself as His Father.   Furthermore, none of the biblically designated “brothers” or “sisters” of Jesus are elsewhere presented as sons or daughters of Mary (or even of Joseph, for that matter).  And the mistaken notion that Mary had other children would clash with, for example, the need or purpose of the crucified Christ to entrust the care of His mother to His beloved disciple (John 19:26).

Early Church writings were united in affirming or at least presuming the perpetual virginity of Mary.  Not until the late fourth century did a certain Helvidius suggest that the biblical brethren of the Lord were natural children of Mary and Joseph, but the idea was immediately derided by St. Jerome as a groundless, impious, ignorant, and irreverent innovation.  Jerome’s biting and hardhitting refutation of Helvidius can be read here:  http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm

More detailed apologetics notes on the issue can be found here: http://www.catholic.com/library/Brethren_of_the_Lord.asp