The Gospel accounts clearly teach that Jesus’ conception was the work
of the Holy Spirit and not just a theological expression of his divine
sonship
The virginity of Mary and Jesus' virginal conception were the subject
of the Holy Father's catechesis at the General Audience of Wednesday, 10
July. This truth of faith is set forth in the Gospels and confirmed by
subsequent tradition. "The uniform Gospel witness testifies how
faith in the virginal conception of Jesus was firmly rooted in various
milieux of the early Church", the Pope said. Here is a translation
of his catechesis, which was the 26th in the series on the Blessed
Virgin Mary and was given in Italian.
1. The Church has constantly held that Mary's virginity is a truth of
faith, as she has received and reflected on the witness of the Gospels
of Luke, of Matthew and probably also of John.
In the episode of the Annunciation, the Evangelist Luke calls Mary a
"virgin", referring both to her intention to persevere in
virginity, as well as to the divine plan which reconciles this intention
with her miraculous motherhood. The affirmation of the virginal
conception, due to the action of the Holy Spirit, excludes every
hypothesis of natural parthenogenesis and rejects the attempts to
explain Luke's account as the development of a Jewish theme or as the
derivation of a pagan mythological legend.
The structure of the Lucan text (cf. Lk 1:26-38; 2:19, 51) resists
any reductive interpretation. Its coherence does not validly support any
mutilation of the terms or expressions which affirm the virginal
conception brought about by the Holy Spirit.
2. The Evangelist Matthew, reporting the angel's announcement to
Joseph, affirms like Luke that the conception was "the work of the
Holy Spirit" (Mt 1:20) and excluded marital relations.
Furthermore, Jesus' virginal conception is communicated to Joseph at
a later time: for him it is not a question of being invited to give his
assent prior to the conception of Mary's Son, the fruit of the
supernatural intervention of the Holy Spirit and the co-operation of the
mother alone. He is merely asked to accept freely his role as the
Virgin's husband and his paternal mission with regard to the child.
Matthew presents the virginal origins of Jesus as the fulfilment of
Isaiah's prophecy. "'Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a
son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel' (which means, God with
us)" (Mt 1:23; cf. Is 7: 14). In this way Matthew leads us to
conclude that the virginal conception was the object of reflection in
the first Christian community, which understood its conformity to the
divine plan of salvation and its connection with the identity of Jesus,
"God with us".
Early Church firmly believed in virginal conception
3. Unlike Luke and Matthew, Mark's Gospel does not mention Jesus'
conception and birth; nonetheless it is worth noting that Mark never
mentions Joseph, Mary's husband. Jesus is called "the son of
Mary" by the people of Nazareth or in another context, "the
Son of God" several times (3:11; 5:7; cf. 1:11; 9:7; 14:61-62;
15:39). These facts are in harmony with belief in the mystery of his
virginal conception. This truth, according to a recent exegetical
discovery, would be explicitly contained in verse 13 of the Prologue of
John's Gospel, which some ancient authoritative authors (for example,
Irenaeus and Tertullian) present, not in the usual plural form, but in
the singular: "He, who was born, not of blood nor of the will of
the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God". This version in the
singular would make the Johannine Prologue one of the major attestations
of Jesus' virginal conception, placed in the context of the mystery of
the Incarnation.
Paul's paradoxical affirmation: "But when the time had fully
come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman ... so that we might receive
adoption as sons" (Gal 4:4-5), paves the way to the question about
this Son's personhood, and thus about his virginal birth.
The uniform Gospel witness testifies how faith in the virginal
conception of Jesus was firmly rooted in various milieux of the early
Church. This deprives of any foundation several recent interpretations
which understand the virginal conception not in a physical or biological
sense, but only as symbolic or metaphorical: it would designate Jesus as
God's gift to humanity. The same can be said for the opinion advanced by
others, that the account of the virginal conception would instead be a theologoumenon,
that is, a way of expressing a theological doctrine, that of Jesus'
divine sonship, or would be a mythological portrayal of him.
As we have seen, the Gospels contain the explicit affirmation of a
virginal conception of the biological order, brought about by the Holy
Spirit. The Church made this truth her own, beginning with the very
first formulations of the faith (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church,
n. 496).
4. The faith expressed in the Gospels is confirmed without
interruption in later tradition. The formulas of faith of the first
Christian writers presuppose the assertion of the virginal birth:
Aristides, Justin, Irenaeus and Tertullian are in agreement with
Ignatius of Antioch, who proclaims Jesus "truly born of a
virgin" (Smyrn. 1, 2). These authors mean a real,
historical virginal conception of Jesus and are far from affirming a
virginity that is only moral or a vague gift of grace manifested in the
child's birth.
The solemn definitions of faith by the Ecumenical Councils and the
papal Magisterium, which follow the first brief formulas of faith, are
in perfect harmony with this truth. The Council of Chalcedon (451), in
its profession of faith, carefully phrased and with its infallibly
defined content, affirms that Christ was "begotten ... as to his
humanity in these last days, for us and for our salvation, by the Virgin
Mary, the Mother of God" (DS 301). In the same way the Third
Council of Constantinople (681) proclaimed that Jesus Christ was
"begotten ... as to his humanity, by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin
Mary, she who is properly and in all truth the Mother of God" (DS
555). Other Ecumenical Councils (Constantinople II, Lateran IV and Lyons
II) declared Mary "ever-virgin", stressing her perpetual
virginity (DS 423, 801, 852). These affirmations were taken up by the
Second Vatican Council, which highlighted the fact that Mary
"through her faith and obedience ... gave birth on earth to the
very Son of the Father, not through the knowledge of man but by the
overshadowing of the Holy Spirit" (Lumen gentium, n. 63).
In addition to the conciliar definitions, there are the definitions
of the papal Magisterium concerning the Immaculate Conception of the
"Blessed Virgin Mary" (DS 2803) and the Assumption of the
"Immaculate and Ever-Virgin Mother of God" (DS 3903).
Mary's holiness and virginity are closely linked
5. Although the definitions of the Magisterium, except for those of
the Lateran Council of 649, desired by Pope Martin I, do not explain the
meaning of the term "virgin", it is clear that this term is
used in its customary sense: the voluntary abstention from sexual acts
and the preservation of bodily integrity. However, physical integrity is
considered essential to the truth of faith of Jesus' virginal conception
(cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 496).
The description of Mary as "Holy Ever-Virgin, Immaculate"
draws attention to the connection between holiness and virginity. Mary
wanted a virginal life, because she was motivated by the desire to give
her whole heart to God.
The expression used in the definition of the Assumption, "the
Immaculate, Ever-Virgin Mother of God", also implies the connection
between Mary's virginity and her motherhood: two prerogatives
miraculously combined in the conception of Jesus, true God and true man.
Thus Mary's virginity is intimately linked to her divine motherhood and
perfect holiness.
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