We Do Live in Arkansas

Understanding literal and symbolic meaning in the Bible

09/23/2025

Luke 8:19-21 The mother of Jesus and his brothers came to him but were unable to join him because of the crowd. He was told, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you." He said to them in reply, "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it."

Now, I don’t plan to mention Apollo in every homily going forward, but you might hear about him for a little while. Sorry about that – not really. But one way people describe the closeness between a person and a pet is by using familial language. Have you noticed that? For example, people sometimes referred to Apollo as “my son.” And in turn they would call me “Apollo’s dad.”

Those descriptors are terms of endearment to express the ties of emotional love between a person and a pet. Hopefully people know enough biology that they do not take those terms literally and think I gave birth to Apollo. In other words, we can use language with a literal meaning , but also a symbolic meaning. But if you do not carefully distinguish, you might be carelessly duped.

In the gospel today we see a similar symbolic use of familial terms that, at least for us Catholic Christians, helps us to understand the meaning more accurately. We read: “The mother of Jesus and his brothers came to him but were unable to join him because of the crowd.” Now, if you take that passage literally, you might think that Jesus had biological siblings, and therefore Mary and Joseph had other offspring.

And I believe many Protestants interpret that passage literally. Roman Catholics, on the other hand, understand those familial terms symbolically, that is, kind of like how people refer to me and Apollo as “father” and “son.” Why those different interpretation? Well, there are two basic reasons. First, in other cultures, like in first century Judaism, familial terms like brother and sister were applied to people who were not biologically your siblings.

That is, they could be used to mean your cousins. Family members were not defined and distinguished as tightly and cleanly as we tend do to in modern American culture with our nuclear families. In my home country of India, and other cultures, multiple families often live and grow up in the same house. So, grandparents, children and their spouses, and their children were technically cousins but practically practically siblings.

So, we Indians use terms like “cousin-brother” or in Spanish they say “primo-hermano” to talk about relatives who were biologically “cousins” but symbolically called “brothers.” Maybe the American equivalent to symbolic language would be “kissing cousins,” meaning cousins you know so well you greet them with a kiss. Or, here in Arkansas you might marry them!

You know, when I prepare couples for marriage, one of the questions I ask is: “Are you related to each other?” And then we laugh, but I add, “Well, we do live here in Arkansas.” Language in different cultures often carries this dual meaning, and if you don’t carefully distinguish you might be carelessly duped into marrying your cousin.

The second reason Catholics interpret this passage symbolically rather than literally is because of the Church’s faith in the perpetual virginity of Mary. Now, the perpetual virginity of Mary sometimes even surprises Catholics who do not know our faith as well as we should. Put simply, Mary was always (perpetually) a virgin.

To be more blunt: she never had sexual relations with St. Joseph, and therefore she never bore any other children besides Jesus. Jesus is not only God’s only-begotten Son; he is Mary’s only-begotten Son. Mary’s perpetual virginity also highlights a key difference between most Protestants and Catholics. How so?

Catholics want to maximize Mary’s importance salvation history and we feel her perpetual virginity reinforces that theological point. Being a virgin makes Mary special. Protestants, by contrast, seek to minimize Mary’s place and see her as a mother with children besides Jesus (and having sexual relations with St. Joseph), which serves the Protestant narrative. Having sex makes Mary ordinary.

People interpret Scripture not only by what it says, but also according to what they want it to say. Protestants interpret “Jesus’ brothers” literally because of their belief about Mary being like other women. And we Catholics understand “Jesus’ brothers” symbolically because of what we believe about Mary, being like no woman (or man) who's ever lived.

And by the way, those divergent interpretations also subtly say something about sex and virginity – that is, which is more important. Did you catch that? When you sit down to read the Bible, if you don’t make careful distinctions, you might be carelessly duped, like kissing cousins who end up marrying each other. I mean, we do live in Arkansas.

Praised be Jesus Christ!