Why do catholics call Mary blessed when Jesus said otherwise in Luke 11:27?

Question

Luke 11:27 As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you."
28He replied, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."
Just like they call her a virgin still even thougth the Bible says she had sex? My point being only Christ is worthy of our complete attention.

Sparki777 read mat 1:24&25 , sshe had sex

Answer 1

The catholics feel the need to look up to Mary and call her blessed, in an attempt to honor her for being the mother to Jesus. The thought is there I guess, but it is not Biblical at all. Only JEsus was perfect, and it is only JEsus we pray to and follow as our perfect example. SUrely we are glad that Mary did what she was called to do in giving birth to Jesus, so yes we should never disrepsect her. She is His mother, but we arent to put her on a pedatal with Him to pray to , adore and call her perfect. Only Jesus was perfect
Mary did go on to have other children, so noone can say she remained a virgin. PPL will say whatever they want to drive home their point to try and proove their false beliefs, and give them credibility> WE must forgive them and pray that God reveals the truth to them about all things.
But, we are to know its not Mary we worship, nor any other person. Its only Jesus we are to give our loyalty to,
Lets just pray for others in other religions that they will come to know all truth before Jesus comes again.
speak truth, live it, without fear or compromise, But lets not hate them for what they believe. They just dont know yet, but they will if we all keep praying.
Happy B/day soon to Jesus, and lets remember to celebrate HIm every day.
Its not one day we set aside for Him. All days are HIS.
AMen.
Thans for the great question mike.

Answer 2

The issue is more about praying to her, though many protestants think that calling her blessed is wrong too. Most don't want anything to do with Mary. That's simply another part of the Bible they'd like to go away, along with James' "Faith without works is dead", "This is my body", "Upon this rock", and others. I'm not a Catholic, but I've had a challenge out for quite some time looking for one single person who could Biblically show me that intercessory prayer is forbidden in the Bible, or even that asking a person who prayed for you while alive to continue to do so after they die. Not one cogent answer has appeared. I'm still waiting.

Answer 3

Jesus was NOT saying that Mary wasn't blessed.

THINK about it, please. Did Mary hear the word of God and obey it? YES. Read Luke 1 if you aren't sure about that.

So Jesus is saying, "Don't bless her just because she gave birth to Me -- bless her because she heard the word of God and obeyed it, which is something that you and everybody else can do, too."

We Catholics agree that only Christ is fully deserving of our attention. But Mary points the way to Christ. Mary is and always has been the first Christian, the first to believe in Jesus, the first to receive the Holy Spirit, the first to lay down her life for Christ (do you know how many women died in childbirth back then?). Mary shows us how to become more like Christ, and that makes her worthy of at least a little attention -- not replacing Christ but as a means of learning more about Him.

Also, the BIBLE never, ever, ever, EVER says that Mary had sex. Find me a verse to support your outlandish claim! There is absolutely NO verse that says Joseph had sex with Mary, even though there are other verses that say other couples had sex (David & Bathsheba come to mind). The Bible only says categorically that Joseph did NOT have sex with Mary before Jesus was born and is completely SILENT afterwards on the topic. Mary is not cited as giving birth to ANY CHILD other than Jesus. The "brothers and sisters" are not listed with their ages, so we don't know how old they are. Tradition says they were all older than Jesus, Joseph being an older, widowed man. Or they could have been adopted -- with a young life expectancy rate, there were a lot of orphans out there. The fact of the matter is you have NO proof, Biblical or otherwise, that Mary had sex with Joseph or that she gave birth to any child other than Jesus.

EDITED TO ADD:

You suggest I read Matthew 1:24,25, as if I had never done so before. Here's what it says (NIV):

"When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife."

Did the angel tell Joseph to have sex with Mary? No. Does it say Joseph took Mary home to BE his wife? No. It says "as" his wife. Care to interpret that?

Continuing with verse 25:

"But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus."

All that says is that Joseph did NOT have sex with Mary up to the time she gave birth. It does NOT say what happens afterwards.

"Until" means "up to the point of." It does not mean "up to the point of but not afterwards. Here, I'll prove it to you with Scripture.

2 Sam 6:23, "Michale the daughter of Saul had no children until the day of her death."

By your reasoning, Michale had children AFTER the day of her death. But we all know this is not even possible.

You are thinking like a 21st Century American. Mary and Joseph were 1st Century JEWS. The presence of God among the people was an amazing and holy thing. Read the Old Testament to learn how JEWISH people responded to the presence of God. Moses veiled his face and met God in seclusion. In David's time, simply TOUCHING the Ark of the Covenant without proper purification meant instantaneous death. No priest would dare enter the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle without elaborate purification.

You seem to think that Joseph wouldn't know this. You seem to think that Joseph wouldn't realize that Mary's womb was the new Ark of the Covenant, the new Most Holy Place. Since we know he was an honorable God-fearing man, it's completely unfathomable that he would forget all this and treat Mary's womb like it was no big deal.

You need to study more. You have a serious lack of understanding of Biblical times and culture.

Answer 4

The Hail Mary, traditionally known as the Ave Maria, is a Biblical prayer. In the first half, the words are directly from the Gospel of St. Luke, while the second half reflects what this could mean to us, praying Christians in the Body of Christ, pondering these things in our hearts.

The account of the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she is to be the mother of our Savior is familiar to all Christians. We find here the first elements of the Ave Maria. The angel’s words are "Hail, O favored one," (Luke 1:28 RSV), or as Jerome translated it in his 4th century Latin edition, "full of grace."

As for your other nonsense, even Martin Luther and John Calvin confessed Mary as "ever-Virgin". You might want to actually take a class in Church History.

Mary is Ever Virgin!!

Exodus 13:2,12 - Jesus is sometimes referred to as the "first-born" son of Mary. But "first-born" is a common Jewish expression meaning the first child to open the womb. It has nothing to do the mother having future children.

Exodus 34:20 - under the Mosaic law, the "first-born" son had to be sanctified. "First-born" status does not require a "second" born.

Ezek. 44:2 - Ezekiel prophesies that no man shall pass through the gate by which the Lord entered the world. This is a prophecy of Mary's perpetual virginity. Mary remained a virgin before, during and after the birth of Jesus.

Mark 6:3 - Jesus was always referred to as "the" son of Mary, not "a" son of Mary. Also "brothers" could have theoretically been Joseph's children from a former marriage that was dissolved by death. However, it is most likely, perhaps most certainly, that Joseph was a virgin, just as were Jesus and Mary. As such, they embodied the true Holy Family, fully consecrated to God.

Luke 1:31,34 - the angel tells Mary that you "will" conceive (using the future tense). Mary responds by saying, "How shall this be?" Mary's response demonstrates that she had taken a vow of lifelong virginity by having no intention to have relations with a man. If Mary did not take such a vow of lifelong virginity, her question would make no sense at all (for we can assume she knew how a child is conceived). She was a consecrated Temple virgin as was an acceptable custom of the times.

Luke 2:41-51 - in searching for Jesus and finding Him in the temple, there is never any mention of other siblings.

John 7:3-4; Mark 3:21 - we see that younger "brothers" were advising Jesus. But this would have been extremely disrespectful for devout Jews if these were Jesus' biological brothers.

John 19:26-27 - it would have been unthinkable for Jesus to commit the care of his mother to a friend if he had brothers.

John 19:25 - the following verses prove that James and Joseph are Jesus' cousins and not his brothers: Mary the wife of Clopas is the sister of the Virgin Mary.

Matt. 27:61, 28:1 - Matthew even refers to Mary the wife of Clopas as "the other Mary."

Matt. 27:56; Mark 15:47 - Mary the wife of Clopas is the mother of James and Joseph.

Mark 6:3 - James and Joseph are called the "brothers" of Jesus. So James and Joseph are Jesus' cousins.

Matt. 10:3 - James is also called the son of "Alpheus." This does not disprove that James is the son of Clopas. The name Alpheus may be Aramaic for Clopas, or James took a Greek name like Saul (Paul), or Mary remarried a man named Alpheus.

Answer 5

Jesus is not saying that Mary is not blessed. Since Mary heard the word of God and obeyed it, Jesus is AFFIRMING that His mother is blessed.

The Bible tells us that Jesus had sisters and brothers, but the Gospel of James tells us that these brothers and sisters were fathered by Joseph from a previous marriage.

If only Christ is worthy of your complete attention, then marriage would be forbidden because attention to a spouse would be taking attention away from Christ.

Answer 6

This is called proof-texting -- eisegesis, or lifting a verse out of Scripture and shoehorning it into what you want it to say.

I could turn this into a battle of the verses with Luke 1:48, "all generations will call me blessed". But I won't.

Mary is "worthy of our attention" not because of who she is, but because of what Christ did in her. Or have you never praised God for His work in other people's lives?

Answer 7

The passage you refer to her does not say she is not blessed. It rather indicates that her blessedness is more because of her doing the will of God than her maternity of Jesus. We refer to her as Blessed because Scripture instructs us to: "From this day all generations will call me blessed." (Luke 1:48)

As for her virginity, nowhere in Scripture does it refer to her having intercourse. If you are speaking of the part about sisters and brothers, the word used for sisters and brothers in the original Greek is a word used for all relatives, not just sisters and brothers. One of the brothers mentioned elsewhere is mentioned as having a different mother than Mary, so it is clear that Mary wasn't the mother of those referenced. They were likely cousins of Jesus. Also, in 1st century Palestine, when a woman is widowed it was customary for her to live with her son. When Jesus died, if she had other sons or daughters she would have lived with one of them. But Jesus had her live with John, because he was taking care of her since she had no other children to live with. So actually the Scriptural support is stronger for her virginity than otherwise.

Answer 8

Why don't you start at the beginning of Luke?
Yes Mary was a virgin and she is called blessed.
She had other children and of course they were conceived through sex.

Answer 9

Mary was certainly blessed with her proximity and relationship to our Lord Jesus. The point Jesus is making is that we are not to worship her because of the favor that God placed on her. We are to reserve our worship for God and Him alone.

Hope that helps.

Answer 10

This is the problem with mentally challenged people interpreting a complex collection of writings.No where in the bible does jesus say his mother isn't blessed.