Reflection This Week
“WHERE WERE THEY?”
             or “WERE THEY ‘THEY’?”

   Growing up as a Roman Catholic I was taught and always believed that Mary, Jesus’ mother, was always a virgin, as in “The Blessed Mary, Ever Virgin” – her full title. That meant that she never had marital relations with her husband, Joseph, and that Jesus was an only child. Thus, when the gospels talk about Jesus’ “brothers and sisters,” what the writers meant were his cousins. To be sure, this is an honest and accurate reading of the words the writers employed to talk about Jesus’ blood relatives.

   Over the years my beliefs changed. I began to understand, believe even, that there was nothing wrong or heretical to think that Mary and Joseph had other children, that Jesus had siblings. That would not in any way diminish Mary’s place in my faith or in history. In fact, it would make her, her husband, and her family even more of an icon, ones to be admired and even imitated.

   Then on Good Friday I listened to Susie Streit’s reflection on one of the so-called “Seven Last Words” from the cross: “Woman, behold your son…behold your mother.” (John 19:26-27) Reflected Susie: “This was the last loving, caring act Jesus did before he died. He entrusted his beloved mother to the one person he knew would take care of her…. Sure, he had brothers and sisters, but where were they?”

   Good question, I immediately thought to myself: where, indeed, were they? I knew then and I know now that if that had been my brother on that cross, I would have been there. I may have totally disagreed with his ministry, but my brother is my brother. My cousin? Maybe, maybe not. Even more telling to me is the fact that Jesus entrusted his mother to John, naming him her son and she his mother. If Jesus truly had flesh-and-blood brothers and sisters, Jesus need not have said or done this. They would have had a moral obligation to care for this widow, their mother.

   So, was Mary a virgin when she conceived Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit and then remained so throughout her marriage to Joseph or was she a virgin only until after Jesus was born and then she and Joseph had several other children? That is still a question for debate. A further question is whether it really matters, especially in the grand scheme of things.

   The fact is, I really don’t care – or certainly did not when that light bulb went off in my head immediately after Susie spoke those words. Yes, I asked those Virgin/Ever-Virgin, siblings or no sibling questions. I still am. That bulb, however, was only a fifty-watt one. The really bright light was the reminder, to me at least, that no matter how much I think I understand scripture, no matter how thoroughly I believe I have parsed a passage, there is still more to dig out of it, still more to learn, still more questions to be asked even if they are never fully answered.

   As I grow older, I seem to be more and more reminded that Alzheimer’s Disease is going to be the bane of more and more of us and that one of the ways to hopefully stave off its effects is to continually challenge the brain. What better way to do that than to read scripture every day? Doing so may be no guarantee that the disease won’t catch up to us some time in the future but it is a guarantee that our mental and spiritual life will never be dull. We will become a better person for it. That, too, is a guarantee.   WJP