Matthew 12: 46-50
The Catholic Church maintains that Our Blessed Lady remained a virgin throughout her whole life and these brothers are relatives and not, other children of Mary. It would have been in the culture of Jesus’s time unthinkable for Jesus to entrust His mother Mary to St John at the crucifixion if in actual fact Mary had other natural sons to look after her. The word adelphoi, brother/brethren did have a broader meaning than blood brother and could mean varying types of relation (uncle, nephew, related cousin) kinsman, and even the relation between men bound by covenant.
When it is pointed out to Jesus that His mother and relations are eager to have a word with Him Jesus says in reply “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? Here are my mother and brothers, anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven, is my brother, sister, mother.
Obedience to God the Father is greater than family bonds. Mary is not merely Jesus’s natural mother through the power of the Holy Spirit but becomes the Mother of God the Son, by fully embracing and co-operating with the Father’s will. Through this statement of Jesus, Mary’s relationship to Jesus is proclaimed as both physical and spiritual and in no way does Jesus undermine her role as His Mother but reveals her true greatness as a faithful and obedient servant of the Lord.
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