More Than a Metaphor

Years ago my family lived in a small town in Massachusetts.

Our neighbors across the lane were an elderly couple.

My teenage brother used to hang out with them, and help them with chores.

The husband, Will, was an artist and poet of some local renown.

And he gave my brother a few paintings.

And an old trunk with some papers and other items he’d laid aside over the years.

Decades later, just a few weeks ago, my brother came across that trunk in his basement.

He found a poem in the papers—written by Will almost a hundred years ago.

It was a poem about St Joseph.

So, since I’m here at St Joseph’s, he sent me a copy.

It was a good poem; well written; thoughtful; showing St Joseph as the hero he was.

It was also heretical.

It spoke of St Joseph finally fathering his own children after Jesus was born.

I told my brother that Will must have been a more modern protestant.

From the earliest times, Church doctrine has held that Mary was ever-virgin.

She bore no children other than in the miraculous virgin-birth of Jesus.

Even the leaders of the Protestant Reformation, held with that doctrine.

Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley, Huldrych Zwingli.

But more modern evangelicals and fundamentalists go with their own interpretation.

As do some modern members of those old main-line protestant churches.

When they read the Scripture and see reference to Jesus’ brothers and sisters.

And many see it as a plain statement that Mary bore other children.

They’re unaware of, or dismiss, the interpretation from the days of the early Church.

From Church fathers, scholars, theologians and saints.

Including the saint we honor today, Thomas Aquinas,

Who addressed the question in his Summa Theologica.

Most early Church leaders agreed in their conclusions, but not in their explanations.

Some believed that the brothers and sisters were actually cousins.

The Jewish language and culture often used the same words for those relationships.

And even for broader relationships.

Others believed that Joseph was a widower with children before he married Mary.

So Jesus referred to those family members as brothers and sisters.

The early non-Scriptural work, the Gospel of James, says that this was in fact the case.

It also states one of the reasons why the issue is important.

It says that Mary’s parents offered her, as a child, to serve God in the Temple.

And that she had taken a vow to remain a perpetual virgin.

We can draw two key points from today’s passage from the Gospel according to Mark.

One point is that we need a deep background to fully understand Scripture.

Seemingly plain words, like brother and sister, can have complicated, broader meanings.

The other point, the truly major point, is the Good News message of this Gospel passage.

Jesus himself further extends the broad definition of his brothers and sisters—
He extends it to include us.

 Tuesday, 3rd Week of Ordinary Time

Mk 3:31-35           Read this Scripture @usccb.org