The Holy Spirit Gives us the Motherhood of Mary

Catholic scholars and mystics have, for many years, tried to put words to the unique, singular, relationship between Mary and Jesus.   For instance, Jean Lévêque, Carmelite of the Paris Province writes; Instinctively, like the apostles in the Upper Room, we place Mary at the heart of the Church. She is part of the community of grace, because she is the first of the redeemed. Like us, she owes everything to God's mercy, and what St. Paul says about the Church is true, even more so, of Mary: "Christ loved her, and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her by purifying her... for he wished to present her to himself in all her splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5:23-27).

All of Mary's beauty, all of her youthfulness of spirit, all of her nobility of heart, all of her greatness as a servant come from the Resurrection which is in Christ Jesus (Rom 3:24). And her holiness is the first fruit of the redeeming death of her Son.

Like us, but so much more than us, God chose her in Christ before the creation of the world, so that she would be blameless in his sight. Like us, Mary is a redeemed person, but something unheard of distinguishes her: she was redeemed in advance, and sin never had the slightest influence on her, nor did she have the slightest affinity with it; she never adhered to the three lusts that work in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. If Mary is indeed a member of the Mystical Body, she is an exceptional member, and in a sense, utterly apart.

It is this mystery of the wonders of God that we sing this morning with the Church; it is the dawn of a renewed world, "the dawn before the day of Christ", a clarity of hope that cuts through the opacity of the world; it is the certainty that God is always working to make all things new. And how does the newness that comes from God's heart enter our world? - In Nazareth! And so complete is God's work, so fascinating is the model he sets before our eyes, that we instinctively begin to imitate her.  We want to experience things like Mary does, and to look at people like Mary does. To see things more beautiful, all we have to do, without closing our eyes, is to look at them with our hearts.

Michel Psellos, a Byzantine monk and ascetic, in his “Homily on the Annunciation §4” writes; "The Virgin was truly a virgin, she kept the thoughts of her spirit wholly pure, and remained in her body like a sun with intelligible graces, illuminating and ennobling it . . . Unique among all human souls, her soul, very similar to God, shone in her immaculate body like a celestial splendor; and she was not so much contained by her body, as she contained it, preserved it, and communicated to it her own radiance.  Her spirit was truly filled with God, although she was not divine, and her body was so united to her spirit that she was completely enclosed in God.

And God lived with her body; he dwelt on this earth and made his imprint on it, but, if it is permitted to speak in this way, she was not far from the inaccessible Trinity, and rose above the seraphim; even before she conceived [the Word made flesh], she saw God and conceived him, bore him, gave birth to him in an ineffable way through contemplation, as she later did substantially."

By God’s singular favor, or grace, Mary was to know Him and Jesus in a way no other human can approximate.  She was endowed with the Holy Spirit at the birth of the Messiah and endowed, again, with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the birthdy of the Church.  By the Holy Spirit she could be the Mother of Jesus, Our Lord and Savior, and be granted motherhood to all Christians who follow her son throughout the generations.  Her love, reflecting the love of the Father and the Son, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is ever expanding and can embrace all of us.