Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God
Previous Years: 2022 || 2019 || 2018 || 2017
Preached at Church of the Assumption in Bellingham, WA
Recording
https://moorejesus.podbean.com/e/the-ever-virgin-mary/
Transcript
A few years ago, my aunt texted me a question that had come up in her Bible study. The question was, why does the church emphasize so strongly the perpetual virginity of the Virgin Mary? Emphasizing her virginity at the time of the birth of Jesus makes sense because that’s a huge miracle. It’s a miracle that that should ever happen. And it’s something that all Christians rightly emphasize. But we emphasize also her perpetual virginity, the fact that she maintained her virginity after the birth of her son for the rest of her life. Well, I gave my aunt two answers. Answer number one is that it’s true. We’re simply emphasizing the truth of the life of Mary since apostolic times. All of the references we have to Mary are as the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is clear that Christians have held her in this regard since the beginning, and so we don’t have any historical evidence to suggest that that was ever contrary. But the other thing is that virginity, or the idea of virginity, holds a very special place in Christianity. It emphasizes in certain instances the single-minded devotion of a person to the Lord. So, to emphasize that, I’m going to read the words of Saint Paul from his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter seven. He says, “I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit. A married woman, on the other hand, is anxious about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint upon you, but for the sake of propriety and adherence to the Lord without distraction.”
This selection is from a much longer chapter about marriage. All of Corinthians seven, or most of Corinthians seven, talks about marriage. And so, earlier in that passage, Saint Paul talks about this as a charism. It’s sort of a call of God. God will call some people to marriage. He will call other people to virginity or the unmarried life. The phrase that he uses is not to impose a restraint upon you, it means this is not a universal requirement. What he says about the married and the unmarried is not a responsibility, that all people should be unmarried, so that they can focus exclusively on the Lord. There are Christian communities who have tried that, the Shaker community comes to mind. And if you’ve never met a Shaker, that’s because they died out very quickly.
Nevertheless, there is an honor and a dignity to the unmarried life that Saint Paul brings forward for us. And that honor and that dignity is emphasized, particularly in the Blessed Virgin Mary. Notice that’s how we always refer to her. It’s never Saint Mary, it’s never the Blessed Mary. It’s always the Blessed Virgin Mary. That emphasis we use as a shorthand in Christianity for her single-minded devotedness to the Lord. Her life was absolutely devoted to the Lord, without any distraction, without any anxiety. Her entire self was given to the Lord, and we see in her perpetual virginity an outward expression of that inward reality along with her. We have a class of saints that we refer to as the virgin martyrs. This class of saints is very, very close to my heart. Saint Cecilia is one of them. We have a giant Saint Cecilia window up in the back. These are martyrs, people who died for the sake of Christ. That alone should be enough. These people died in order to love Jesus. But for this class of martyrs, we particularly emphasize that they’re virgin martyrs. In fact, I think all of them are martyrs because they said, “I don’t want to get married. I’m going to rebuff my suitors and instead give my entire life to Jesus.” And it is exactly because of that that they are martyrs.
Most of the time it’s their suitors who then, having been rebuffed, turn them in to the Roman authorities. And the Romans killed them for being Christian. We emphasize their virginity because we’re emphasizing that they died because of a desire to give their entire life to the Lord. There are plenty of martyrs who died for the Lord. But in this class of martyrs, there’s a purity of heart. There’s a single-minded devotion that we want to emphasize, which is the same purity of heart and single minded devotion that we emphasize about the Mother of God. It is through her perpetual focus on God that she is able to be so devoted to him.
Now, again, I want to emphasize we are right to focus on and emphasize and celebrate the beauty of married life and of families. It’s something that the Catholic Church holds very dear and something that we really do want to emphasize regularly. What we’re doing here with Saint Paul and the Blessed Virgin Mary is emphasizing that there is another path to holiness and a path to holiness that we hold in a high esteem with great veneration, something that should be celebrated and recognized when it’s present. It is a call that is specific to individuals. To emphasize that, let me give you another scripture passage. This is Matthew chapter 19: “He (Jesus) said to them: ‘Because of the hardness of your hearts, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, unless the marriage is unlawful and marries another, commits adultery.’ His disciples said to him, ‘If that is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.’ He answered, ‘Not all can accept this word, but only those to whom that is granted. Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so. Some because they were made so by others. Some because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.’”
So again, the Lord is talking about the unmarried life, and he gives us three categories of persons. Those who were born so incapable of marriage because they were born so, some because they were made so by others and some because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. And when I talk about a life of perpetual virginity or unmarried life in the Catholic Church, most of us are going to be thinking about parish priests, because that’s who we observe making this commitment to celibacy, to lifelong celibacy. We also, of course, have religious men and women living in communities. Some of you might have gone up to Westminster to visit the Benedictines. This life of perpetual celibacy is that third category that the Lord talks about: those who have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom. We should remember there are two other categories he talks about, and we shouldn’t ignore those categories either. So, those who are incapable of marriage because they were born so. Think about who else does the Catholic Church call to perpetual chastity, to a life of celibacy, even if it’s not through a religious consecration. Well, one of those categories is those who are same-sex attracted because we’d say they should not get married. As the Lord would say, incapable of marriage because they are born so. A second category is those who are made so by others. There are some people who are not psychologically prepared for marriage, who cannot make that total gift of self. And a lot of times it has to do with issues in their family of origin. Made so by others. There are those who are abandoned by their spouses or have to divorce for some reason; Not through their own fault, but the Church would still say because they are married, they should not marry again. They should not enter into a second marriage.
Those who are born so, those who are made so by others, those who renounce marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. In every case, it is an invitation to sanctity. It is an invitation to holiness. There is something very special that the Lord is emphasizing that Saint Paul emphasizes about a life even apart from marriage. And it’s something that the Catholic Church has done a particularly good job of recognizing. We raise up our priests. We ask our priests to be celibate, to emphasize their call to holiness. It is a requirement of the Church for almost every priest in the West. We’ll bend that rule from time to time for Lutherans or Anglican ministers who convert. But generally, our priests have to live life-long celibacy. This is because we are emphasizing the need for them to be single mindedly devoted to God in order for them to enter into their ministry. But just as the priests fulfill that third category, everybody who is called to lifelong chastity or lifelong celibacy, everybody is invited into that same holiness. Because what the Lord has done is He has given them an opportunity to be single mindedly devoted to Him, an invitation to a deeper way of life.
In the opening prayer for our Mass, the Church refers to the virginity of Mary as fruitful. She says it is the fruitful virginity of Mary that brought forth the Lord. When a Christian hears the word fruitful, they should be thinking about Genesis. The first command of God is to be fruitful and multiply. So, fruitfulness in the Bible originally means childbearing, to be fruitful is to bear children. Mary’s virginity is so astounding because it is fruitful in exactly that way. Somehow, despite being a virgin, she brings forth a son. Her single-minded devotedness to the Lord is so fruitful that it actually results in a child. For the rest of us patterned off of Mary, I would say that our celibacy, our chastity, is also fruitful, not through the bearing of children, but in other ways.
There are plenty of people who will express to me all the things they think need to change in the Church. Fair enough. I have plenty of things I think need to change in the Church. But always on that list – with a wink and a nudge and a knowing grin – they look at me and they say, “Wouldn’t it be nice if priests could get married?” as though I’m absolutely ready to agree with them, like I’m chomping at the bit to get married. But I’m not! I was before I was a priest, but as a priest I have lived personally and experienced personally the fruitfulness of celibacy. I see how important it is to my holiness and to my ministry. I have experienced the way the Lord works through it, and I cannot imagine priesthood apart from it.
I’ve had people ask me before if the Church changed its discipline, would I get married? And the first time I was asked, I immediately said “No!” I was surprised at myself. But afterward I understood why I said no, I would not get married because I have experienced the fruitfulness of celibacy. I know what it’s like. In fact, I would say that the evangelical power of the Catholic Church comes from the fruitfulness of its celibate clergy and religious. At least in the Western Church. We love our Eastern brethren, their spirituality is very profound and worth studying. But it is the Western Church that evangelized both the New World and the Far East. And I think that it is because of our fruitfulness, our dedication to fruitful virginity that we were able to do so, so powerfully and effectively. It is a gift of the Church that I would not give up for any reason.
I bring this to all of you for two reasons. First, I want to emphasize, as Catholics, chastity and celibacy, the single life, the unmarried life is something that we are not allergic to. There are segments of our society, sometimes other Christian churches, who will say that in order to be normal, you must be married. But the Church has never held that, because we see in Saint Paul and the teachings of the Lord, and in the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that there are multiple calls to holiness. One of those calls to holiness, a very powerful and effective call to holiness, is the unmarried life. We should venerate the unmarried life and respect it for what it is: an invitation to single-minded devotion and focus on the Lord.
Second, I bring it to you because if you are in a situation where you are incapable of marriage because you are born so, or made so by others, or because you have renounced it for the sake of the kingdom of heaven; If you are in any of those situations, know that your life is still deeply fruitful. All human beings are made to be relational and generative. That’s what it means to have a sexuality. You can be generative apart from marriage. And in fact, if it is a call from the Lord. And we would that since Jesus emphasizes it, then he will be the one to show you the fruits. If you live into that status as an unmarried person, again, for whatever reason, the Lord will make it fruitful in the exact same way he made it fruitful in the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her single-minded devotion to the Lord, her ability to give her entire self to him, brought about the birth of the Son of God. We rightly emphasize her every year and many times throughout the year. She is our model of that form of holiness. If we lean into that model, we will see incredible fruits and incredible gifts.
Fr. Moore 