Born of Water and the Holy Spirit

One

When Jesus met with Nicodemus at night, He told Him that he had to be born again. Nicodemus was understandably confused. He said, “How can a man once grown old be born again? Surely he cannot reenter his mother’s womb and be born again, can he?”

Nicodemus could only imagine one kind of birth, a natural one. And he could imagine only one kind of person you could be born of, a human mother.

But Jesus told him that this birth would be a different kind of birth. It would be a birth of water. And the Person one would be born of would be a different kind of Person. It would be the Holy Spirit

Two

The Holy Spirit as parent, but not Father

Jesus was telling Nicodemus about the sacrament of Baptism, the portal to new life.

Just as a normal, natural birth is the portal to new life for the unborn child. So is the water of baptism a portal to new life for the Christian. But in birth according to nature, we are born of our natural parent. So too in baptism we are born of God.

Now obviously the Person you’re born of is your parent and Jesus says that Christians are born of the Holy Spirit. So does that mean the Holy Spirit becomes our Divine Father through baptism? No, we already have a Divine Father through Baptism, the First Person of the Holy Trinity. He becomes our adoptive Father in Christ.

But then, what Divine Parent does the Holy Spirit become for us?

Three

Holy Spirit and Eve

When the Fathers of the Church reflected on the nature of the Trinity and the way the Trinity is reflected in the first human family, they would often link each of the Persons of the Trinity to the first human beings.

So, for instance, Genesis tells us that Adam bore a son in his own image and in his own likeness, and called him Seth. Which means that the relationship between Adam and Seth is one of Father and Son and the Son is made in the Image of the Father.

Well, that’s exactly what the New Testament says about the First and Second Persons of the Holy Spirit, that God is Father and He generates a Son who is in His own image. God the Father generates a Son who is like Him. But then which member of that first family represents the Holy Spirit?

It’s Eve. For Eve is the bond between Adam and Seth. And even though she comes from Adam, she doesn’t come from him by way of generation or likeness. She comes mysteriously, and she is beautifully different from either the male father or the male son. 

This is the Holy Spirit, the most mysterious member of the Trinity, who proceeds from the Father and Son, and so joins the Father and Son, but is not generated by them, and is not like them in some beautiful, inexpressible way. 

The Holy Spirit was first represented by Eve, the mother of all the living.  

Four

Holy Spirit and Mary

The Holy Spirit is also intimately associated with the New Eve, the new Mother of all the Living.

The Holy Spirit consistently works through Mary. The Holy Spirit descends on Mary at the Annunciation so that she can become the Mother of Christ. The Holy Spirit descends on Mary at Pentecost so that she can become the Mother of the Church. 

The Holy Spirit gives Mary her motherhood at every stage. But, of course, you can only give what you yourself possess.

It is the Holy Spirit who possesses all the richness of motherhood, which is then bestowed upon the supreme human mother, Mary, the Mother of God.

Five

The Former from Within

Notice that we are not saying the Holy Spirit is a woman. Nor is God the Father a man. They are both the infinite God, surpassing all limitations of created humanity, including all the limitations of sex or gender. But the masculine perfections of Fatherhood are, above all, associated with God the Father. And the feminine perfections of Motherhood are, above all, associated with God the Holy Spirit. And we are born of the Holy Spirit in baptism. 

So we may say that the Holy Spirit is infinitely more maternal to us than any human mother could ever be. And we experience the Motherhood of the Holy Spirit through Mary. In fact, when we look at Mary, we are in a sense seeing the face of the Holy Spirit. 

St. John Paul II said, “From the Cross the Savior wished to pour out upon humanity rivers of living water, that is, the abundance of the Holy Spirit. But he wanted this outpouring of grace to be linked to a mother’s face, his Mother’s.” Then, a little bit later John Paul says, “Calvary reveals the close and enduring link between the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gift of Mary as mother…The link between the gift of the Holy Spirit and the motherhood of Mary emerges again at Pentecost, when she awaited with the disciples for the coming of the Holy Spirit…therefore, as the bond with Mary grows deeper, so the action of the Spirit in the life of the Church grows more fruitful.”

Since the face of Mary expresses the face of the Holy Spirit, then the more we develop a personal relationship with Mary the more fruitful will be the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives.