Chapter 5
Mary is Ever-Virgin
The perpetual virginity of Our Blessed Mother is frequently disputed by those interested in discrediting the Catholic Church. In this we find an unintended argument to prove the necessity of Mary’s perpetual virginity. It is logical to expect that someone interested in discrediting a kingdom would first try to cast doubts on the virtue of the Queen.
Isaiah 7, 14 — Therefore the LORD himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel. (Douay-Rheims)
In this passage of Isaiah, the prophet announces that a maiden—almah, Hebrew for ‘a very young woman’—is going to be the Mother of the Messiah. Of course, the Messiah is the eternal King of Israel. Therefore his mother is destined to be the eternal Queen of Israel because traditionally, the mother of the king (Hebr. gebirah) was the Queen in ancient Israel.
Micah 5, 1-2 — And thou, Bethlehem, Ephrata, art a little one among the thousands of Judah: out of thee shall be come forth unto me that is to be the ruler in Israel, and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity. Therefore will he give them up till the time wherein she that travaileth shall bring forth, and the remnant of his brethren shall be converted to the children of Israel. (Douay-Rheims)
The prophecy of Micah shows two important points: in the mystery of God’s purpose for Israel, He has decided to be their eternal King. The Messiah precedes his people from times immemorial, even before the foundation of the world. When Jesus is crucified, Pontius Pilate nails to the top of the Cross, a sign written in Latin, Greek and Hebrew (John 19, 19-22). This sign read: “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews”. The most common rendition of that phrase in Hebrew would be: Yeshua Ha-nazarei W’melech Ha-yehudim. The initials in Hebrew form the Divine Name, the Tetragrammaton YHWH, the name of the true eternal King of Israel (1 Samuel 8, 1-9). When Jesus became the Messiah, His mother became the eternal gebirah, or Queen Mother of Israel. This undeniable fact has inevitable consequences: the Queen must live forever and sit at the right of the eternal throne of the Messiah, in the manner of Batsheba, mother of Solomon, the first Queen of Israel.
It would be unconceivable that the woman destined to be the eternal Queen of Israel, would be defiled, or would become the wife of a man other than her rightful husband. In this we are reminded of the execution of Adonijah (1 Kings 2, 19-27). He was executed by Solomon for merely soliciting to be married to the widow of King David. It is biblically obvious that the eternal Queen of Israel, the mother of the Messiah, must also be eternally pure, just as the Ark of the Covenant had to remain untouched under penalty of death for the transgressors (2 Samuel 6, 6-7; Esther 7, 1-10).
Ezekiel 44, 1-2 — Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east; and it was shut. And he said to me, “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it; for the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered by it; therefore it shall remain shut. Only the prince may sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.”
In this passage of Ezekiel we see a prophetic type of the Virgin Mary. She is to be visited only by the Holy Spirit, her Spouse, and by the Prince, that is Christ, the Prince of Peace. He is born from her while her virginity is miraculously preserved. That is the sign alluded to in Isaiah 7, 14. Mary remains for ever as the Queen of Israel, the Mother of Christ the King, forever virgin.
