Why does the Church teach that Jesus was born of a virgin?
The virginal conception of Jesus is a divine work that surpasses all human understanding and possibility. Sacred Scripture teaches that Jesus was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, without the cooperation of a human father.
This truth points directly to who Jesus is: he is not merely an extraordinary human prophet adopted by God, but the eternal Son of God made flesh. His father is God alone. At the same time, Mary is his genuine biological mother, through whom the Son of God entered into the Davidic royal lineage and human history.
Mary's virginal motherhood also represents a new creation and a fresh start for humanity. Just as the first man Adam had no human father, Christ comes as the new Adam to inaugurate a spiritual family born not of the flesh, but of God.
Sources
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 496
- Luke 1:34-35
- Isaiah 7:14
Awaiting review by the chaplaincy. Written in our own words; the Church's own texts are the authority.