So, the reference to Jesus “brothers and sisters” was probably about Jesus’ cousins. For example, James is often called “the brother of Jesus.” In the Hebrew and Aramaic languages, there is no word for “cousin.” Cousins are called brothers and sisters. Mention is made only of Jesus’ relatives. Although there is reference to Jesus “mother and brothers and sisters,” nowhere in the Bible is there any reference to any other children of Mary. Only by God’s grace did Mary live an unsullied, sinless life. Nothing that held the divine can subsequently hold something conceived with original sin. ( Ark of the Covenant.) Mary was a Perpetual Virgin The Catholic Church assumes Mary’s perpetual virginity.
John danced in his mother’s womb when the newly pregnant Mary came to visit. Mary’s body held God in the person of Jesus. David danced before the Ark of the Covenant. Since we assume Mary set out immediately to visit Elizabeth after the Annunciation, the fetus, Jesus, could not have been more than five weeks old at the time. Mary as the Ark of the Covenant When Mary visited her pregnant cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-43), John, her unborn son, leaped for joy in her womb on recognizing Christ in Mary’s womb. Mary, the mother of Jesus (the new Adam), could not be more sinful than Eve. (If Adam and Eve committed the first sin, we must assume that they were sinless prior to that moment.) God promised the serpent ( Gen 3:15) “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.” If “offspring” refers to Jesus, then “the woman” is clearly Mary. Mary’s sinlessness has its parallel in Genesis. Mary is the New Eve Matthew often says that the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old (The Jewish Scripture). God chose a sinless virgin so that He, Himself, could “open” Mary’s womb. She had to be a virgin as God’s birth was the greatest thing the world has seen. The woman who carries and gives birth to the divine must herself be pure, in every sense of the word. To accomplish this, he had to be born of a woman. God chose to take on human form, to live as a human, to experience what all humans experience. How can a sinless person be raised by a sinful person? It makes no sense. All Christian faiths agree that Jesus was sinless. To imagine that the woman who was to raise and educate the Son of God could commit sin after she gave birth is equally unthinkable. To image that God would single out a sinful woman to bear his son is unthinkable.
This is the basis for her title “ Immaculate Conception.” Only a sinless person could conceive, carry and bear the Divine. To be singled out by God, from all possible generations, to bear His son, is a significant honor.
THE TESTAMENT OF MARY PAMELA RABE FULL
The angel Gabriel greeted Mary with the words: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” Gabriel’s description of Mary as “full of grace,” meant that she was without sin of any kind. The sacrament of Baptism, washes away that original sin and brings people back into God’s grace. The sins of disobedience and pride that caused Adam and Even to disobey God’s command, has been passed down to all their offspring – us. Mary was Conceived without Original Sin Catholics believe that every human since Adam and Eve have been conceived with Original Sin. We are told in John 2:1-12 of the wedding at Cana and in John 19, that Mary was present at the foot of the cross. Both open their Gospels with the infancy narratives. Biblical Roots We learn about Mary primarily from Matthew (1-2) and Luke (1-2). The Catholic Church takes the biblical passages about her very seriously and over the centuries has bestowed upon her various titles that reflect those roots. The Catholic teaching about Mary is logical. When Jesus began his active ministry and traveled all over the Galilee, Judea and beyond, Mary often traveled with him. Devotion to Jesus’ mother is as old as the Catholic Church.