The Marriage Of Mary And Joseph

[jazzytakara]

I was reading an article that for a marriage to be validated, it must be consumated. If this is the case, was Mary and Joseph's marriage a valid and true marriage, since she remained a virgin? And can someone use this as an argument against Mary's perpetual virginity by saying that if they did have a valid marriage, than they must have consumated it?

[cappie]

The Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph were married, prior to the establishment of the Sacraments by Jesus Christ. At the time of their marriage, Mary and Joseph were each unbaptized; neither had the formal Sacrament of Baptism. Therefore, they could not have had the Sacrament of Marriage. The Church teaches that a person must first be baptized, in order to receive any of the other Sacraments, including marriage. Christ could not have established the Sacrament of Marriage before He established the Sacrament of Baptism, since only baptized persons can be validly and sacramentally married.

But Scripture says that Joseph was the husband of Mary, so they must have had a marriage. Could they have had a natural marriage?

In general, a natural marriage also requires consent and consummation. But the natural marriages of the Jews occur under the law of God, expressed in the Old Testament. And that Law allows for certain cases in which the couple are married under the Jewish Law, but without consummation. In Deuteronomy 22:22-29, a man who lies with a betrothed virgin is guilty of adultery, and is put to death. But a man who lies with a virgin who is not betrothed is punished, but not with death; for he is not guilty of adultery. The betrothed virgin is married under Jewish religious law.

Typically, this situation (married but not consummated) would occur because of the longstanding custom among the Jews that, after the betrothal ceremony, there was some length of time before the woman moved into her husband’s house and the marriage was consummated. And since the betrothal ceremony was the beginning of the marriage, Sacred Scripture allows for the possibility of a betrothed virgin. She is the wife of her betrothed, and her betrothed is her husband, under religious law, despite the lack of consummation.

“According to Jewish custom, marriage took place in two stages: first, the legal, or true marriage was celebrated, and then, only after a certain period of time, the husband brought the wife into his own house. Thus, before he lived with Mary, Joseph was already her ‘husband.’ ” (Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Custos)

But in the case of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she and Joseph were married under Jewish religious law, but perpetually without consummation. Mary remained a betrothed virgin. So Mary and Joseph had a natural but unconsummated marriage, under Jewish law.