How does being an only child give us any reason to think Jesus was God? History is loaded with very human folks who are only children. If the only child status is valid, then all those other folks are at least in the running to be God. A virgin birth of God is just as unlikely for an only child as it is for the first of eight kids. this doesn’t safeguard anything.
I believe I already addressed this. That Jesus is an only child is but ONE way that his specialness is indicated; it is not a “proof” of it, nor did I claim it to be. He is not special because He was the only child of Mary; His uniqueness is but manifested in this way among other ways.
The various marriages are interesting. Are we to accept marriage that is not between a man and a woman? If Mary is the wife of God (and also the mother?), and the Church and Christ are married, what happened to the restriction that marriage is between one man and one woman? If these are not real marriages, then what’s the adultery problem?
First, the Church is singular, the Bride of Christ; Christ has no other Brides but the One Church. Second, all sacramental marriages are signs of Christ’s covenantal commitment to His One Bride. Third, Mary is the spouse of the Holy Spirit. Fourth, Mary is the Mother of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity Who became Man. Fifth, if this is truly of such interest to you it might do you well to read more deeply on the subject so as to better understand the marital language used (the love language) between God and His People and to get beyond your surface
reading of things. The late John Paul II’s writing on marriage - and also the first Encyclical by our present Holy Father - might help you.
vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_15081989_redemptoris-custos_en.html
vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_19811122_familiaris-consortio_en.html
theologyofthebody.net/
vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html
Is it reasonable to ask if many people see sex as somehow unclean? Note how many use of the word “pure” to describe a virgin. After marriage, is she unpure? Soiled? Dirty?
The Perpetual Virginity and the purity of the Holy Virgin is in no way an implication that sex and marriage are anything less than what God designed them to be.[To make is clear, let me add that this is a sacred marital covenant which unity is expressed by the intimate relations between husband and wife. Contrary to the usual either-or thinking found in Protestantism, Catholicism has always said that it’s both/and, and this is seen in the Church’s teaching re the Virgin Mary.]
In her person she mirrors the two truths of the sacredness of marriage and the goodness of virginity for the sake of the Kingdom. And St. Joseph, too, was part of this equation. He, with Mary, reflects these truths. The self-sacrifice of rightful joys for the furtherance of the Kingdom of God – especially with God’s own Son in their midst! – is a theme found in both Testaments.
St. Paul himself speaks with encouragement for wives and husbands to practice periods of continence in order for their prayer to flourish (1 Cor. 6:17). He also wishes that some would be as he and live a celibate life for the sake of the Kingdom. And, of course, there is the life of the Savior Who is the Exemplar of the celibate life.
One cannot isolate The Incarnation of Christ from other factors (i.e., His being born a Jew; His being born of a particular woman; that particular woman being a virgin before His birth and remaining a virgin after; that particular woman remaining virginal in the midst of a marriage). Marital intimacy is not a desecration of any woman, nor is birth a desecration of any woman’s womb, but it would be a desecration to impregnate in the ordinary way for ordinary purposes a womb consecrated to God. Especially in Mary’s case God Himself consecrates her womb (as opposed to a human man consecrating a virgin to God). So the desecration violating what is holy would be unjust to God’s honor, to say the least.
I also note most of the elevation of celebacy over other states comes from celebates.
A Catholic, whether celibate or not (I’m a married woman, btw),
appreciates and understands the Church’s insight into both the celibate life and the married one.
I must admit that I also bought into all that right-to- choose garbage when I was younger, but I wised up, and I guess that’s why I feel so strongly about it now.