Introduction

This Sunday could rightly be called “Mary Sunday,” for it places before us the unique role of Our Lady in the mystery of redemption. As we stand on the threshold of Christmas, the Church turns our gaze to the Virgin who, by faith and obedience, made the Incarnation possible.

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1. The Birth of Christ

St. Matthew is careful to make one thing unmistakably clear: the conception of Our Lord Jesus Christ was not by natural means.
Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but they did not yet live together. Scripture states plainly:

“She was found with child through the Holy Spirit.” (Mt 1:18)

The origin of Christ’s conception is therefore divine, not human. Jesus is not the son of man by generation, but the Son of God by nature, who takes flesh through a miracle of grace.

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2. The Virginity of Mary

Our Lady was a virgin, consecrated to God from a young age. This fulfills the prophecy spoken centuries earlier by Isaiah:

“Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.” (Is 7:14)

This prophecy reveals a direct intervention of the Holy Spirit, which the Church professes in her Creeds.
In the Nicene Creed, we declare:

“And by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.”

In the Apostles’ Creed, we profess:

“He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.”

Together, Scripture and Creed testify to two essential truths:

• Mary was truly a Virgin.
• Her Child was conceived by God.

The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity assumed our human nature—our very flesh—without ceasing to be God.

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3. The Blessed Virgin Mary

The Church teaches not only that Mary was a virgin before the conception of Christ, but that she remained a virgin before, during, and after His birth. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

“The deepening of faith in the virginal motherhood led the Church to confess Mary’s real and perpetual virginity even in the act of giving birth to the Son of God made man.” (CCC 499)

This faith was not invented later; it has been believed and professed from the earliest days of the Church.
The Second Council of Constantinople (553) declared:

“If anyone does not confess that the holy, ever-virgin and immaculate Mary is truly the Mother of God… let him be anathema.”

The Lateran Council of 649 defined:

“The blessed Mary, ever virgin, conceived without seed, by the Holy Spirit, and without loss of integrity brought Him forth, and after His birth preserved her virginity inviolate.”

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4. Witness of the Saints

The saints consistently defended and proclaimed this doctrine.
St. Jerome, writing in the fourth century against Helvidius, stated:

“You say Mary did not continue a virgin: I claim still more—that Joseph himself, on Mary’s account, was a virgin.”

St. Thomas Aquinas later affirmed:

“Without any doubt, Christ’s Mother was a virgin before birth, in birth, and after birth.”

These voices echo the unbroken faith of the Church.

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Closing

As we draw very near to the celebration of Christ’s birth, the Church places before us Mary, the Virgin Mother of God. She who bore the Eternal Word in her immaculate womb offered herself entirely to the Eternal Father. Her perpetual virginity stands as a living testimony to the divinity of her Son and the holiness of God’s saving work.

May her faith prepare our hearts to receive Christ with reverence, purity, and joyful expectation.