WHEN VIRGINITY IS QUESTIONED!

A VIRGIN AND MOTHER!  IS THIS A CONTRADICTION?

 By  Lawrence Sunday Ogwang

 Is it potential enough for somebody to be called a virgin and mother?

This is a question that has puzzled many brains from all walks of life and according to human logic; it’s quite an enormous contradiction to call someone a virgin and mother because if the motherhood of someone is true, then the assertion of her virginity is negated.  To ground it more, at birth, the biological hymen which ensures the virginity of a woman is ruptured or broken. Once the hymen is broken, then virginity is also broken. This is the scope of human judgment in relation to virginity and motherhood.

This puzzling question however, finds answer in Mary the Mother of God who is commonly referred to as ‘The Blessed Virgin Mary’ by the Holy Roman Catholic Church. She is the only woman who is both Virgin and Mother. At this point, human judgement is overwhelmed.

Despite this fact, Mary’s virginity has been refuted by many people who still hold fast to their erroneous human reasoning and they comfortably quote Scriptures to give weight to their argument against Mary’s virginity. Well, reading and quoting the Bible does not necessarily mean one understands. Even the Ethiopian Eunuch enlisted the help of Phillip (one of the Apostles) to help him understand some parts that were not easy to comprehend. The Scripture is never wrong, that is true enough but people can quote and interpret it wrongly to meet their interest.

Among the numerous texts quoted by those who deny the virginity of Mary the Mother of God is (Mk 3: 31-33); where we are told that the family of Jesus (His mother and brothers) came looking for him where he was teaching. The names of these so called brothers of Jesus are ‘James, Joses, Judas and Simon’ (Mk 6:3). The name of the sister as recorded in the Bible is Salome (Mk 16:1). All these quotations and the names given presuppose that Mary had other children after the birth of Jesus.

What is comprehensible here is that all these names of the so called brothers and sister of Jesus are not the biological children of Mary the Mother of God, but as it is also common these days, people had comparable names in the Bible as well as the name Mary.

In the Gospel of Mk 15:40-41, we are presented with two women called Mary and among which is the other Mary who is the Mother of the so called brothers and sister of Jesus and this is the ‘Mary’ who has been confused with Mary the Mother of God. According to the Scriptures however, the so called brothers and sister of Jesus (James, Joses, Judas) are his cousins who followed him when he was in Galilee and saw to his needs (Cfr Mk 15: 40-14).

Above all, Mary never had any sexual relation before or after the birth of Jesus

(Mt 1:25). When the Bible talks of the brothers and sister of Jesus it does not mean they were the biological children of Mary. Here in Africa, we know clearly that even cousins are referred to as brothers or sisters. In addition to that, nowhere in the Bible do we find them referred to as the

children of Joseph, or children of Mary the mother of Jesus. In Acts 1:13, we are told that James’ father was Alphaeus. The other James had a brother called Andrew and since Andrew was not listed among the brothers of Jesus, it means that these were not sons of Joseph either.

At the cross, Jesus gave his mother into the care of John (Jn 19:25-28). From that time, John took her into his house. This could not have happened if Mary had her own biological children meaning that Mary remained a virgin after the birth of Jesus.

If this is not enough for you to believe that Mary remained virgin even after the birth of Jesus, let’s go this way please; The Bible though not the only one, is the source of truth and all it contains is true. In the Gospel of John, we read how Jesus after his resurrection appeared to his disciples who were in a closed room in fear of the Jews. He came in without breaking the door or the wall and stood amidst them and greeted them… (Jn 20:19-23). Can you believe this? Certainly yes! Now if this is true, can you explain how Jesus came in without breaking the wall and the door? And I’ll explain to you how this same Jesus was able to come out of the womb of Mary the mother of God without rupturing her virginity.