mARY THE sACRAMENT OF THE SPIRIT

ONE

Today is day four of our novena in preparation for Pentecost.

Now, yesterday we said some bold things. We said that Mary is the perfect human expression of the Holy Spirit and that she is the sacrament of the Holy Spirit. Well, what do we mean by this? And why is it relevant to our spiritual life?

Well, first we have to make it clear, the Holy Spirit is not a woman. The Holy Spirit is not a woman because God is neither man nor woman. However, we can attribute specific characteristics to the mission of the Son and the mission of the Spirit. We know that the Son became man in Jesus Christ. Likewise, we can attribute certain characteristics to the mission of the Holy Spirit.

In fact, St. John Paul II, in his letter, Redemptoris Mater, says that the Holy Spirit fulfills a mission of maternal mediation to conceive and form Jesus first in Mary and then in us. So there is a real feminine and maternal quality to the mission of the Holy Spirit.

TWO

What we're saying is that God created Mary and made her in such a way that there would be a profound similarity between the Holy Spirit and Mary.

In fact, the Holy Spirit fashioned Mary to be the perfect human expression of the Spirit. And according to the thought of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, the Son became manifest in Jesus and the Spirit became manifest in Mary.

Now, let's be clear, Mary is not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit did not become incarnate in Mary like the Son became incarnate in Jesus. However, as Saint Maximilian Kolbe writes, “The union between the Holy Spirit and the Immaculata is so inexpressibly perfect that the Spirit conducts his activity through her only. Therefore, she is the Mediatrix of all graces flowing from the Holy Spirit. And in honoring Mary, we honor in a special way the Holy Spirit.”

I had the chance, the great privilege of studying under the greatest Marian theologian of the 20th century, Father Rene Laurentin. And when he was getting very old and I was afraid he was going to die before I had the chance to ask him one important question, I said to him, Father Laurentin, please tell me in one sentence how the Holy Spirit relates to Mary.

He said, “What the Holy Spirit does as God, Mary does with Him. She participates with Him as His visible sign. Mary is the sensible, visible presence of the Holy Spirit.”

So one could ask, why do Catholics make such a big deal about Mary? Well, it's because it is the mission of the Holy Spirit to help us receive Jesus. Remember, Jesus gives His life, the Holy Spirit gives us the capacity to receive Jesus, and he does so through Mary. Mary is the sign, the human sign through which the Holy Spirit works.

THREE

So Mary is the perfect human expression of the Spirit. She's the sign of the Spirit, but she's more than the sign. She is the sacrament of the Holy Spirit.

Now, the Catechism in paragraph 1131 defines a sacrament as having three parts. Sacraments are efficacious signs instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church by which divine life is dispensed to us. Let's take the first one.

What are efficacious signs? I don't know about you, but efficacious is a word I had to look up in the dictionary. It's not one we normally use.

Efficacious signs do two things.

First, they make present what they signify. Mary is the sign of the Holy Spirit. She is, as I said, the perfect human expression of the Holy Spirit. But that's not all. Mary makes the Holy Spirit present to us. So efficacious signs make happen what they signify.

Let me give you a little example. A stop sign signifies that we should stop, but it doesn't have the power to make us stop. A stop sign would be efficacious if it could reach out and make you stop. This is the great power of Mary. Not only does Mary signify the Holy Spirit, she actually makes the Holy Spirit present to us. Mary makes the maternal mission of the Holy Spirit happen in us. When we turn to Mary, the Holy Spirit receives Jesus in us and forms Jesus within us.

Mary is the sign that actually makes it happen.

FOUR

So first sacraments are efficacious signs.

Second sacraments are instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church. Well, Mary, as our spiritual mother, was instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church when from the cross, Jesus looked down at the beloved disciple and proclaimed, behold your mother. God said, behold your mother to John. And at that moment, Mary receives the mission to make the maternal action of the Holy Spirit present in our lives.

FIVE

The third part of a sacrament is that they dispense the divine life to us.

Now, the Holy Spirit does this by giving us the capacity to receive Jesus on her own. Mary can't do this. She can't bring the divine life to us because she is not God. Only the Spirit can bring us the life of Jesus by receiving Him within us. And the Spirit has chosen to do so with and in and through Mary.

So a sacrament is a sign that signifies and makes present the grace proper to it. Mary signifies and makes present the maternal mission of the Spirit to receive and form Jesus within us. And the early Church understood this. The early Church understood that Mary was the visible sign of the mission of the Spirit. This is why Pope St. Paul VI, in his encyclical Marialis Cultus, said that the early Church had recourse to Mary's intercession to obtain from the Spirit the capacity for engendering Christ in their soul.

So remember, the spirit receives the son in the trinity. Then the Spirit dwells in Mary at the Immaculate Conception to give her the capacity to engender Christ in her womb. And then the Spirit and Mary dwell in us through baptism to give us the capacity to engender Christ in our soul. To receive Christ in our soul. And to form him within us.

That's why consecration to Mary is the perfect renewal of our baptismal vows. That is why Pope Paul VI quoted this ancient prayer from St. Ildephonsus of Toledo, Spain, from the 600s that captures everything we're talking about.

Let's close our meditation with this powerful prayer:

I beg you Holy Virgin, that I may have Jesus from the Holy Spirit, by whom you brought Jesus forth. May my soul receive Jesus through the Holy Spirit, by whom your flesh conceived Jesus. And may I love Jesus in the Holy Spirit, in whom you adore Jesus as Lord, and gaze upon him as your son.