J.M.J. Our Blessed
Mother Mary is the Immaculate Mediatrix who is the Chosen Spouse of the Holy
Spirit. Our Lady is so intimately linked to the Holy Spirit—the Third Person of
the Most Blessed Trinity—through her profound love and obedience that we can
attest without a trace of exaggeration that she is the Spouse of the Paraclete.
Surrendering
with alacrity to the abundant and alluring grace of the Holy Spirit, Mary has
pledged herself to Him in the spirit of fidelity, thereby becoming His Chaste
Spouse. She has rejected everything that is contrary to the Holy Spirit. She
has only one Eternal Spouse: the Beloved Counselor.
And this
spousal relationship between the Holy Spirit and Holy Mary is so firm and
abiding that it is irrevocable; it cannot be broken or even lessened. The
sincere consent given by both parties may not be retracted, so forceful,
informed and conscious it was.
Mary is
united to the Holy Spirit in an unspeakable closeness. Our Blessed Mother
freely yielded her will to His. As a result, although she retained her
God-given freedom, in a real sense her will has been “caught up” into the Will
of the Holy Spirit. Mary’s conformity to the Consoler is so complete that His
desires, sentiments and plan of action have become hers.
As always,
we look to Mary for much needed inspiration. She, in imitation of her Divine
Son Jesus Christ, so entirely submitted herself to the Holy Spirit that we have
in her the veritable model and pattern for our lives.
Christian
perfection is, simply put, to conform one’s will to God’s will. No one can
enter Heaven who exalts his will over that of the Creator. Those who wish to go
to Paradise must bow to the Lord, accepting
and fulfilling what He wants for them.
Our wills
are to be united to the Holy Spirit’s will as is Mary’s. True, we have not been
conceived without Original Sin. The haughty transgression of our first parents
Adam and Eve meant that when we were conceived in our mothers’ wombs, we were
estranged from God. That was never the case with Mary.
Yet, we
have been redeemed in Christ Jesus. Thanks to His agonizing Death on Calvary and His glorious Resurrection, He has set us
apart, making us His new creatures. He has clothed us in the white garment of
Baptism so that we can be His authentic disciples who cling to Him and His
saving words.
And the
Descent of the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost Sunday ushered Mary and the
Apostles into a new creation, which we, too, enjoy as loyal members of the
Mystical Body of Christ. Now we have been marked by the seal of the Holy Spirit
and can act accordingly.
Although
Original Sin once held sway over us, Actual Sin need not. By daily using our
free wills as Mary used hers in becoming the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, we
reject Satan, all his empty works and all his empty promises. And we become
connected to the Paraclete in fresh and lasting ways.
We glorify
the Eternal Father by our oneness with the Holy Spirit. Our Blessed Mother has
already shown us the way to union with Christ: submission to the Lord in
everything! Such a gesture, rooted in grace, on our part signals our commitment
to live as sons and daughters of God the Father, brothers and sisters of Jesus
the Son of God, temples and—in analogous fashion—spouses of the Holy Spirit,
and sons and daughters of the Ever-Virgin Mary, who has paved the road for our
rightful surrender to the Lord.
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