SPOUSE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
And
I passed by thee, and saw thee:
and behold thy time was the time of lovers:
and I spread my garment over thee,
and covered thy ignominy. And I swore to thee,
and I entered into a covenant with thee,
saith the Lord God: and thou becamest mine.
Ezekiel 16, 8
And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was
sent from God to a city in Galilee, called
Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Mary. And the angel
being come
in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou
amongst
women… And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace
with God.
Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou
shalt call his
name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and
the Lord
God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in
the house of
Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end. And Mary said to the
angel:
How shall this be done, because I know not man? And the angel answering, said
to her:
The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall
overshadow
thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called
the Son of
God.
Luke 1, 26
The intimate relationship between the Holy Spirit and
the Blessed Virgin Mary can be likened to a spiritual and mystical marriage,
just like the relationship between YHWH and Israel. Although God refers to
Israel as his servant (Isa 41:8), the bond between God and His chosen people is
much deeper than that of a master and his servant. It is more like the
relationship between God and His handmaid. In the Old Testament, the
relationship between YHWH and Israel was essentially covenantal, illustrating
the moral union between a husband and a wife. This prefigures the espousal
between Mary and the Holy Spirit and, ultimately, Christ the Divine Bridegroom
and His virgin bride, the Church.
In the history of the Hebrews, a wedding vow was made
between YHWH and the people of Israel when Moses received the Divine laws on
Mount Sinai. This made Israel God’s virgin bride, and as her husband’s chaste
spouse, she was committed to remaining faithful to Him. The first and most
important commandment was that she should not have any other gods before YHWH.
Israel’s occasional unfaithfulness towards her husband was a violation of their
wedding vow, and worshiping false gods was considered adultery in the eyes of
God.
Throughout their history, God had to send many judges
and prophets to declare His word to Israel. He reminded her of the covenant
relationship He had established with His bride. Jeremiah was one such prophet
who was called to admonish the Israelites. He did so for having ignored and
persecuted the prophets that God had sent to them because of their infidelity
towards Him (Jer 24:4-6). Despite God’s patience towards His spouse, Israel’s
behavior indicated that they had completely disregarded the covenant they had
with God. Therefore, God reluctantly presented Israel with a writ of divorce.
This was after God had pleaded with His chosen people for seven centuries to
heed His voice, return to Him, and be faithful and loving spouses. However,
they refused to listen as they should have, in keeping with their marriage
covenant with God. “And I saw when for all the causes for which backsliding
Israel committed adultery, I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce;
yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also”
(Jer 3:8).
For your Maker is your husband;
the LORD of hosts is his name;
and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel;
The God of the whole earth shall he be called.
Isaiah 54, 5
The divorce decree between YHWH and Israel did not
release the nation from its covenant relationship with God nor nullify the
marriage covenant. Instead, the decree aimed to bring Israel back to God by
removing His protection over them from the hostile nations that surrounded
them, thus allowing Israel to be taken into captivity because of her
infidelity. As a result, the people of the Northern Kingdom or House of Israel
were captured by the Assyrians, followed by the Southern Kingdom of Judah,
which fell to the Babylonians, and the First Temple was destroyed. If God’s
writ of divorce were still in effect, His bride could not return to Palestine
or her husband’s house.
The writ served as a disciplinary measure that a
husband would use to make his wife realize the importance of their relationship
and how much she needed him instead of putting other things before him, which
went against their unbreakable covenant. Despite Israel’s unworthiness, God
promised to renew his covenant with her and restore her because of his promise
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God wanted to bring Israel back into his home,
even though she had been unfaithful in the past, on the condition that she
ended her relationship with the false gods of Assyria and Babylon and willingly
returned to Him (Ezek 20:33-37; Jer 31:31-33).
And
you shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy,
and have separated you from other people,
that you should be mine.
Leviticus 20, 26
The Old Testament portrays Israel as God’s bride who
is expected to be loyal, loving, and pure in her relationship with Him. As the
virgin bride of YHWH, all she has to do is place her complete hope (hasah)
and trust (galal) in her husband in a spirit of “steadfast love.” This
kind of love includes all six aspects of faith in Judaism. It is God who
chooses Israel and saves her from her lowly origins, sinful ways, and
impurities, preparing her to be His deserving spouse.
The reason why God renewed His covenant with Israel
can be explained by the fact that Israel was chosen to be the people from whom
the Divine Word would be born in human form. Since the people of Israel were to
receive God Incarnate in their midst, they had to be made worthy through a
special holiness imparted by the Old Covenant. Israel and Mary were privileged
to bring the Messiah into the world. Because of their unique roles, both had to
be specially prepared by God and consecrated to Him as His chaste and faithful
bride.
Behold,
the days come, said the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of
Israel, and
with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made
with their fathers on the day that I
took them by the hand to bring them out of
the land of Egypt; my covenant which they broke, although I
was a husband unto
them, says the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that Iwill make with the
house
of Israel; After those days, says the LORD, I will put my law in their
inward parts and write it in their
hearts; and will be their God, and they
shall be my people.
Jeremiah 31, 31-33
And
in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a city in Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a
man whose name was Mary. And the angel being come in, said
unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art
thou amongst women.
Luke 1, 27-28
Luke 1:27 is translated differently in various
versions. Some translations suggest that Mary was “betrothed” to Joseph at the
time of the Annunciation, while others suggest she was “espoused.” Either way,
it indicates that the couple was legally married, but their marriage was not
yet consummated. According to Mosaic law, the marriage ceremony had two parts.
The first was the betrothal or espousal (Kiddushin). During this
ceremony, Joseph would have given Mary a marriage document and a token of
monetary value, usually a ring. The Hebrew word for “betrothed” is kiddush,
which signifies being “holy, consecrated, and set apart,” just as Israel is
described to be in her marital relationship with God. In Jewish tradition, this
is the central moment of the initial wedding ceremony, when a contract is
signed, officially making the couple legally married.
The first phase involved a wedding ceremony where the
couple would exchange vows in the presence of witnesses. The second phase would
occur a year later, during which the groom would be expected to provide for his
wife. If both partners were happy with each other and remained faithful, they
would have a second and final wedding ceremony called Nisuin. The ketubah
(contract) would be the focal point during this ceremony. The ketubah outlined
the groom’s responsibilities, including providing his wife with food, shelter,
clothing, and emotional support. The marriage was solemnized once the ketubah
was signed by the groom and two witnesses and presented to the bride. The bride
could then move into her husband’s home to consummate their marriage, feeling
assured of her marital rights.
According to early Christian tradition, Mary and
Joseph decided to have a chaste marriage before their first ceremony due to a
vow of continence Mary had made to God when she was a young girl while living
and serving in the temple. Although it might seem unlikely, Joseph agreed to
this arrangement, which is not implausible considering Numbers 30.
Vows
taken by a married woman
“And
if she is married to a husband, while under her vows or any thoughtless
utterance of her lips by which
she has bound herself, and her husband hears of
it, and says nothing to her on the day that he hears; then
her vows shall
stand, and her pledges by which she has bound herself shall stand. But if, on
the day that her
husband hears of it, he expresses disapproval, he shall make
void her vow which was on her, and the
thoughtless utterance of her lips, by
which she bound herself; and the LORD will forgive her.”
Vows
to afflict herself
“Any
vow and any binding oath to afflict herself, her husband may establish, or her
husband may
make void. But if her husband says nothing to her from day to day, then he
establishes all her
vows, or all her pledges, that are upon her; he has established them, because
he said nothing to her
on the day that he heard of them. But if he makes them null and void after he
has heard of them,
then he shall bear her iniquity.”
Torah scholar Jacob Milgrom informs us that the woman’s vow “to afflict herself” meant fasting and abstaining from sexual relations with ancient Jews. Judith may have made such a vow after her encounter with God. She never remarried at a young age after her husband died and left her childless, probably because of her close nuptial type of communion with God. And the fact she never remarried presupposes that such a vow must have been permanent. Moses remained continent in his marriage for the rest of his life once God summoned him to lead the Israelites to the promised land, and so did the seventy elders abstain from their wives after receiving the call to produce the Septuagint. Eldad and Medad did likewise after the spirit of prophecy came upon them, according to ancient Jewish tradition (Midrash Exodus Rabbah 19; 46.3; Sifre to Numbers 99 sect. 11; Sifre Zutta 81-82, 203-204; Aboth Rabbi Nathan 9, 39; Tanchuman 111, 46; Tanchumah Zaw 13; 3 Petirot Moshe 72; Shabbath 87a; Pesachim 87b, Babylonian Talmud). Provisions such as these were made under Mosaic law. Vows like these taken by women were permissible since the command to propagate strictly applied to men under ordinary circumstances.
According to Mosaic law, if Joseph had agreed to a
chaste marriage with his wife, Mary, he would have honored her vow before they
wed. Mary had made this vow when she was a young girl, serving and residing in
the Temple from an early age. No law condemned a man for honoring his intended
wife’s vow. After hearing of Mary’s vow, Joseph could cancel or go through with
the Kiddushin. However, he would have sinned if he had first accepted the vow
and tried to nullify it after they were legally married. Similarly, Mary would
have sinned if she had sprung the news on Joseph after they became betrothed.
This provision in the Mosaic law helps us understand how Mary and Joseph could
have wed despite her vow of chastity.
An important document supporting the teaching of
Mary’s perpetual virginity is the Protoevangelium of James. It was
written around A.D. 120, probably less than sixty years after Mary’s death,
while memories of her life were still fresh in people’s minds. The
Protoevangelium records that when Mary’s birth was prophesied, her mother, St.
Anne, vowed that she would devote the child to the service of the Lord, as
Samuel had been by his mother (1 Sam. 1:11). Mary would thus serve the Lord at
the Temple, as women had for centuries (1 Sam. 2:22), as Anna the prophetess
did at the time of Jesus’ birth (Lk 2:36–37). A continual, devoted service to
the Lord at the Temple meant that Mary could not live the ordinary life of a
child-rearing mother. Instead, she vowed to live a life of perpetual virginity.
Referring to Mary’s question to the angel Gabriel
after he announced that she would conceive and bear the Messiah in Luke 1:34,
Augustine reasons that Mary must have already consecrated herself to God and
vowed to remain a virgin all her life while serving in the temple as a young
girl. There is testimony of temple virgins in the traditions of the Jews. In
the Mishnah, it is recorded that 82 consecrated virgins wove the veil of the
Temple: “The veil of the Temple was a palm-length in width. It was woven with
seventy-two smooth stitches, each made of twenty-four threads. The length was
forty cubits, and the width was twenty cubits. Eighty-two virgins wove it. Two
veils were made yearly, and three hundred priests were needed to carry it to
the pool” (Mishna Shekalim 8, 5-6). Rabbinic Jewish sources also record how
when the Romans sacked Jerusalem in AD 70, the Temple virgins leaped into the
flames so as not to be abducted by the heathen soldiers: “The virgins who were
weaving threw themselves in flames” (Pesikta Rabbati 26, 6). This supports the
claims of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, who assert that the Blessed
Virgin Mary was presented to the Temple at the age of three and served there
until twelve.
But
after he had considered this, an angel of the LORD
appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what
is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”
Matthew 1, 20
We read in Matthew 1:18-25 that Joseph received
reassurance from the angel Gabriel in a dream that his wife had not been
unfaithful after discovering that Mary was pregnant. The angel explained that
the Holy Spirit had conceived the child she was carrying. Before this, Joseph
had the legal right to divorce Mary on the grounds of her apparent infidelity.
He also had the right to publicly condemn her and have her stoned to death for
committing adultery, according to Deuteronomy 22:22-29. But after the visit from
the angel, Joseph had to reconsider whether he had any legal or moral right to
go through with the second wedding ceremony, given that Mary had conceived a
child by someone else.
Joseph was known to be a righteous man who always followed the Mosaic law (Mt 1:14). According to Louis M. Epstein, under the Mosaic law, if a man’s wife or fiancée was found to be pregnant by another man, the husband was not allowed to have sexual relations with her anymore. Even if a woman was forced to have sex with another man, she was considered unfit to be with her husband (Gen 49:4; 2 Sam 20:3, 16:21-22).
Indeed, God did not physically make contact with Mary in
the conventional sense. However, Mary was still affected by the power of the
Holy Spirit. She became pregnant and had a child with God through the Holy
Spirit. God sanctified marriage when he created Adam and Eve, and he decreed
that a man and woman should have children together because “the two become one
flesh” (Gen 2:23-24). God’s moral law cannot be dismissed, and it is evident
that Mary’s husband, Joseph, was going to take her into his home when the angel
appeared to her with the good news. The Jews who knew him regarded Jesus as the
“carpenter’s son” (Mt 13:55). Mary belonged to God as his virgin bride, and
Joseph, a religiously devout Jew, would have understood this in principle.
The angel reassured Joseph when he instructed him to
take Mary into his home as his lawful wife, but not to normally co-habit with
her: “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife” (Mt
1:20). In the Greek translation of the original Hebrew, the prepositional
phrase “to take home as your wife” reads paralambano gunaika. This shows
that there was no need for the angel to tell Joseph that he shouldn’t be afraid
to “come together” with his wife (bo-e-lei-ha imma) or “lay with” her (vai-yish-kav
imma) (Gen 30:3, 16-17) since the couple had already agreed on having a
chaste marriage. And since Mary didn’t commit adultery, Joseph was permitted by
law to “take her home” as his lawful wife.
The original Greek phrase doesn’t refer to having
sexual relations, unlike the Hebrew phrases. If Mary and Joseph had intended to
have their own children by the time of the Annunciation, the angel would have
told him not to fear “coming together” or “laying with” his wife in the
conventional marital sense. But Joseph should be assured that their marriage
was still morally valid before God because not only did Mary conceive Jesus by
the Holy Spirit, but also the couple shall not have conjugal relations and any
children of their own. Thus, Joseph mustn’t be afraid to formally solemnize the
marriage and “take his wife into his home” for fear of violating the moral law,
so long as the couple remains continent.
And
Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know not man?
And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the
Holy
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
Luke 1, 34-35
God treated Mary with honor and righteousness as He
did with Israel in their mystical marriage covenant. Mary’s spiritual and moral
relationship with God was fully consummated when she was overshadowed by the
Holy Spirit, just like a husband consummates his relationship with his wife. As
the embodiment of Daughter Zion, Mary was declared holy, consecrated, and set
apart for God (Kiddush) when she vowed to enter into a personal marriage
covenant with Him while still a young temple virgin. However, she did not
realize then that the Holy Spirit prompted her to make such a vow because she
was predestined to be the mother of the divine Messiah.
Mary’s nuptial covenant with God was permanently sealed when she willingly agreed to become the mother of our divine Lord. The Holy Spirit covered her nakedness by laying His cloak over her and casting His shadow upon her. Mary’s response to God’s will was, “Let it be done to me, according to your word” (Lk 1:38). The angel told Mary that she would be “overshadowed by the power of the Most High.” Rabbinic scholar and Hebrew convert to the Catholic faith, Brother Anthony Opisso, M.D., informs us that in ancient Jewish culture, a man’s “laying his power over” (resuth) a woman was a euphemism for having marital relations (Targum to Dt 21:4). Similarly, for a man to “overshadow” a woman or “spread his cloak or wing over her” was a euphemism for having marital relations in the holy bond of matrimony (Midrash Genesis Rabbah 39.7; ).
Ruth expressed her desire to have intimate relations
with Boaz, her lord, when she said, “I am your handmaid Ruth. Spread the corner
of your cloak over me, for you are my next of kin” (Ruth 3:9). According to
Brother Opisso, the word “cloak” (tallith), literally means “wing” (kannaph)
and is derived from the word tellal, which means “shadow” (Midrash Ruth
Rabbah 3.9). When Jesus referred to Israel as his bride, he used the same
imagery: “How many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen
gathers her children under her wing” (Lk 13:34).
Ruth was a chaste and devout Jewish woman who refused
to have intimate relations with her lord Boaz unless they were lawfully
married. After they got married, God blessed them with a son named Obed. Obed
later became the grandfather of King David, who is seen as a prefiguration of
Christ and the royal head of God’s kingdom. Similarly, Mary was not just a
servant of God when the Holy Spirit came upon her. She was morally united with
God as His spouse and conceived and gave birth to Jesus Christ, our divine Lord
and King.
The
Lord loveth the gates of Zion above all the tabernacles of Jacob.
Psalm 87, 2
The early Greek and Latin Fathers of the Catholic
Church believed that Mary was the spouse of the Holy Spirit in two fundamental
ways, reflecting the unitive and procreative aspects of conjugal love. First,
they saw Mary as spiritually united with the Holy Spirit and having something
supernaturally in common with Him. This was due to her interior disposition,
which was affected by His sanctifying grace. As a result, she was deemed worthy
to be His spouse and the mother of our divine Lord. Second, the belief was that
Mary had to have a perfect share in His divine nature, as she was chosen to
conceive and bear the Holy Begotten of God.
St. Hippolytus refers to the Virgin Mary as “the tabernacle” of our Lord and Saviour, and being this, “she was exempt from all putridity and corruption” (Orations Inillud, Dominus pascit me). Origen pronounces this “Virgin Mother of the Only-begotten Son of God” to be “worthy of God, the immaculate of the immaculate, one of the one” (Homily 1). Indeed, as the most chaste spouse of the Holy Spirit and most worthy Mother of God, in Mary, “all things are fair” and, as St. Ephraem adds,” there is “no stain” in the Mother just as there is “no flaw” in her divine Son in his humanity (Nisibene Hymns, 27:8).
Further, St. Athanasius calls Mary the “noble Virgin”
who is “greater than any other greatness” and who no human soul “could equal in
greatness” since she had been chosen and prepared to be “the dwelling place of
God.” He addresses the Virgin Mary as God’s “Covenant,” being “clothed with
purity instead of gold”; she is “the Ark in which is found the golden vessel
containing the true manna … the flesh in which Divinity resides” (Homily on
the Papyrus of Turin, 71:216). St. Ambrose concurs Mary was “a Virgin, not
only undefiled but a Virgin whom grace had made inviolate, free of any stain of
sin” (Sermon 22:30). So, for St. Augustine, “Mary was the only one who merited
to be called the Mother as the Spouse of God” (Sermon 208).
Shall
not Zion say: This man and that man is born in her?
and the Highest himself hath founded her.
Psalm 87, 5
Mary is considered the Holy Spirit’s spouse because
they cooperate in bringing Jesus into the world through supernatural means.
They worked together to provide spiritual life to humanity, similar to how
husbands and wives collaborate to give life to their children. By giving her
consent to conceive and bear Jesus through the activity of the Holy Spirit,
Mary brought the living source of all grace into the world. The early Church
Fathers believed Mary was the new Eve and the spiritual “mother of all the
living.” St. Irenaeus wrote about the incarnation and virgin birth, stating
that “the Word will become flesh, and the Son of God the son of man: The Pure
One opening purely that pure womb, which generates men unto God” (Against
Heresies, lV.33.12). The Holy Spirit made Mary’s womb pure because it was
chosen to physically carry and nourish the holy Son of God and spiritually His
brethren (Rom 8:29). When we are reborn through the baptismal water in the
font, we become a new creation and children of the new Adam by being the seed
of the free promised woman (Gen 3:15).
Mary, as the new Eve and spouse of the Holy Spirit,
could not have had children with her legal husband, Joseph, as those children
would have been born in sin and guilt. She was predestined to conceive and give
birth to only one child, Jesus, the blessed fruit. Mary’s maternal role was to
nourish humanity with the divine Word and the regenerating graces that only
Jesus could have merited for us in his humanity. All baptized in Christ are of
the Woman’s seed, in hostility with the seed of the serpent or dragon, sinful
and wicked humanity. (1 Cor 11:12; Rev 12:17).
Finally, the early Church Father St. Cyril of
Jerusalem believed that Mary’s chastity and purity of heart reached the
culminating point of her virginity when the Holy Spirit had overshadowed her,
and she carried Jesus in her womb for nine months. And so, these nine months
redounded to her glory and made her the perfect model of virginity. All her
children who are reborn in Christ through the cleansing and regenerating water
of baptism must emulate that immaculate heart of their mother in their lives.
By doing so, they emulate the purity and righteousness of her firstborn Son and
their brethren, Jesus. St. Cyril writes: “It became Him who is most pure … to
have come forth from a pure bridal chamber” (Catechetical Lecture 12).
The Church Father implicitly taught that all those born of the Spirit are
Mary’s offspring, having come forth from a pure bridal chamber together with
Jesus. “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (Jn
3:6). Mary would have defiled the bridal chamber if she had marital relations
with her husband Joseph. His seed, tainted by original sin, would have defiled
the holy sanctuary of her womb – the sacred dwelling place of God incarnate.
All the brethren of Jesus, who come from the same pure
womb not touched by the seed of Adam and are born of the Spirit, will not
perish as new creations in Christ. The Spirit gives birth to the Spirit, and
new life is given to all recreated in the Spirit through Mary’s womb. All of
Mary’s offspring must work with the Holy Spirit and His divine grace to weave
for themselves the holy flesh of their Virgin Mother. This is all part of the
creative aspect of the marital union between the Holy Spirit and our Blessed
Mother. St. Epiphanius reminds us that “the whole human race proceeds from Eve,
but it is from Mary that Life was truly born to the world, so that by giving
birth to the Living One, Mary might also become the Mother of all the living” (Against
Eighty Heresies 78, 9).
“And I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in
justice, and in love, and in mercy. I will betroth you to
me in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord.”
Hosea 2,19-20
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