Is Jesus Christ the "Genetic Twin" of the Blessed Virgin Mary? Let's ask St Thomas Aquinas...

Posted by Taylor Marshall 

A reader recently wrote in with a comment relating to the physical likeness of Mary and Jesus.

Dear Dr. Marshall, 

I just bought your book on St. Paul at Amazonbecause I wanted to read about Paul's Mariology. I was NOT disappointed. Your many brilliant insights brought tears to my eyes. 

Have you ever considered the fact that Mary and Jesus were IDENTICAL TWINS??? Jesus was made from the DNA of Mary just as Eve was made from the DNA of Adam. 

Sincerely, 

Joseph Allen Kozuh, Ph.D. Austin, Texas

Dr. Kozuh, thank you for the kind words about the The Catholic Perspective on Paul. Soon I'll be explaining how I'm going to personally guarantee all my books. That is, if you buy one of my books and don't like it, just write me and I'll send you a personal check to refund your money.

Now on to your comment about Jesus and Mary as twins. I'm not a geneticist. I'm a philosopher. That being said, it seems that Our Lord Jesus Christ would not necessarily be a male clone or "genetic twin" of Mary. We can only go on what Doctors of the Church have written on the matter while recognizing that the Catholic Church has not ruled dogmatically on this question. 

Now then, the Catholic Church has condemned the heresy of Valentinus who wrongly taught that Our Lord Jesus Christ did not take genetic material from Mary, but rather passed through her "like water through a straw." The heresy of Valentinus wrongly taught that Mary was merely an incubator of Christ, but not His true mother. This heresy is clearly incorrect and does not account for many teachings in the Gospels of St Matthew and St Luke.

So we know from Catholic magisterial teaching that Christ acquired his genetic material from Mary. He was derived from her human substance and was truly His mother and thus the Mother of God - Christ Himself being divine.

With the advent of modern genetics, the question arises: Did Christ derive all of his genetic material from Mary? Well, women have XX chromosomes and men have XY. It seem then that the Holy Spirit provided extra genetic material which would be combined with the genetic code of Mary. To speak clearly, Christ could not have been male if the Holy Spirit did not add something. Since this is the case, Christ would not be the genetic twin of Mary. Their genetic code was similar but not identical.

It's true that the Church Fathers did not know what we know about DNA and chromosomes. Saint Augustine referred the active principle of human conception as the "seminal virtue." Saint Thomas Aquinas explains how this applies to Christ, Mary but also to the supernatural operation of the Holy Spirit at the Incarnation:

Since, therefore, the Blessed Virgin was not Christ's Father, but His Mother, it follows that it was not given to her to exercise an active power in His conception: whether to cooperate actively so as to be His Father, or not to cooperate at all, as some say. whence it would follow that this active power was bestowed on her to no purpose. We must therefore say that in Christ's conception itself she did not cooperate actively, but merely supplied the matter thereof. Nevertheless, before the conception she cooperated actively in the preparation of the matter so that it should be apt for the conception. (Summa theologiae III, q. 32, a. 4)

In modern terminology, the Holy Spirit added something to the genetic material of Mary at the conception of Christ. As St Thomas says, Mary cannot be both the Mother and Father of Christ. The biological code that would have come from a biological father was somehow supernaturally supplied by the Holy Spirit, for example, the Y chromosome. By the way, this doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit is the Father of Christ, as St Thomas Aquinas explains at Summa theologiae III, q. 32, a. 3.

Still, I really do think that Our Lord and Our Lady looked very much alike even though they were not genetic twins. It seems fitting that as New Adam and New Eve they would have a certain biological resemblance even though they were not genetic twins. There is also an old tradition that St Jude (a cousin on Mary's side) looked very much like Jesus Christ our Lord. If Jude looked like Christ, then Christ certainly resembles Mary.

Perhaps some of our readers would like to weigh in. Do you think that Mary and Christ looked alike? Also, aren't you glad that we Catholics have great saints like Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas to steer us in the right direction?! Sola scriptura just doesn't answer these kinds of questions. Please leave a comment.

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There’s something about Mary (and mothers)

By Simeon Dumdum Jr.
Cebu Daily News

Mother leaves the hospital today after a month of confinement. She suffered a stroke early in the morning just before the start of the New Year. My sister was alarmed when she called and Mother sounded drunk on the phone and complained of difficulty standing. Immediately, she arranged for her to be brought to the hospital.

One after the other we arrived, siblings, all nine of us (the tenth and eldest died in a sea accident years ago). We took turns to be beside her.

She smiled when I told her about the white roses that she unexpectedly brought me when, unwell for six months, I prayed a novena to St. Therese of Lisieux, and asked the saint as a sign of her favor for the appearance of roses. At another time I wanted to remind her of the morning when, for purposes of an essay I was writing, she demonstrated how to prepare native chicken soup the way Father liked it, but she had fallen asleep.

I felt particularly compelled to visit Mother in the hospital as often as I could, because, despite her age, she never failed to visit me during my own illness, and each time she would have something for me—fruit, holy pictures, ornamental plants, particularly a variety of camellia that grew wildly in the fields around our old house, whose fragrant white flowers Naning the hunchback picked every morning and peddled, and for which I had let on to her a longing. And, of course, the roses that I asked for from the Little Flower, as St. Therese is fondly called.

Likely as not, if anyone is asked to enumerate the traits of his ideal person, he will give a list of his mother’s good qualities. At least I would.

And I think Jesus did too. When told that his mother and brothers (actually, his cousins or relatives) were around, wanting to speak to him, he said, “Whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother." An indirect way of saying that Mary’s status as his mother stemmed first of all from her being obedient to his Father’s will, which she best demonstrated by saying yes to Gabriel’s invitation for her to become the mother of God ("Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”)

When Jesus announced the beatitudes, his guidelines for true happiness, in the process standing all worldly wisdom on its head, he could very well have been describing Mary. Mary was poor, she could offer only a pair of turtle doves instead of a year-old lamb at her purification after the birth of Jesus, and was homeless in later life, prompting Jesus before his death to entrust her to John’s care. Mary’s grief over Jesus’ sufferings and death was epic. Mary was gentle and submissive—at the wedding at Cana, when the wine ran out, and she told Jesus about it, she did not insist when he told her, “How does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.” Her hunger and thirst for righteousness is evident in her Magnificat, when she praised God for showing might with His arm, dispersing the arrogant of mind and heart, throwing down the rulers from their thrones, lifting up the lowly, filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away with nothing.

Mary knew persecution; she and Joseph had to take the infant Jesus to Egypt when Herod set his soldiers upon the babies two years of age and under in Bethlehem. As to being merciful and clean of heart and a peacemaker, surely, Mary possessed these qualities, too, she being God’s favored one.

My own mother has her defects and foibles. But for me they pale in comparison with the many things she did for us, her children, for which now I consider her the embodiment of goodness. For instance, when I was an infant and dying of pneumonia, on our way home from the doctor’s clinic, I expectorated so much that she ran out of rags to wipe off the phlegm with. Unabashedly, she removed her clothes and used them to keep me clean, and just walked home in her chemise with me in her arms.

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Source: Cebu Daily News