Spouse of the Holy Spirit
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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, 26-35
The intimate union
between the Holy Spirit and the Blessed Virgin Mary is redolent of a marriage
in a spiritual and mystical sense, no less than the relationship between YHWH
and Israel is. Though God calls Israel his servant (Isa 41:8), the relationship
between YHWH and His chosen people is far more intimate than one between a lord
and his servant, no less than the relationship between God and his handmaid is.
In the Old Testament, we find that the relationship between YHWH and Israel was
essentially a covenantal one indicative of the moral union between a husband
and a wife, which foreshadows the espousal between Mary and the Holy Spirit
and, of course, Christ the Divine Bridegroom and his virgin bride, the Church.
A wedding vow
was made between YHWH and the Hebrews when Moses received the Divine
laws on Mount Sinai for the people of Israel (Ex 19:5-8). At this moment in the
history of the Hebrews, Israel became God’s virgin bride. Being her husband’s
chaste spouse, she was committed to remaining faithful to him. First and
foremost, she was not to have other gods before YHWH (Ex 20:1-3). Israel’s occasional infidelity toward her husband was, in principle, a violation of their wedding vow, and her worshiping of false gods was tantamount to acts of adultery in the eyes of God.
God had to send many
judges and prophets to declare His word to Israel and remind her of the
covenant relationship He established with His bride. Jeremiah was called to
admonish the Israelites for having ignored and persecuted the prophets that God
had sent to them because of their infidelity towards Him (Jer 24:4-6). By this
time, the husband’s patience towards His spouse had run out to the extent that
God, however 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. But they would not
listen as they should 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 did not in any way annul the marriage covenant between YHWH and Israel. It did
not liberate the nation from observing the terms of its covenant relationship
with God. His intention was to compel the Israelites to come back to Him by
removing His protection over them from the surrounding hostile nations and
allowing Israel to be taken into bondage because of her infidelity. The people
of the Northern Kingdom or House of Israel ended up in Assyrian captivity,
followed by the Southern Kingdom of Judah, which fell to the Babylonians and
resulted in the destruction of the First Temple. If God’s writ of divorce was
still in effect, His bride couldn’t return to Palestine or, in other words, her
husband’s house.
The writ served as a
means of discipline exacted from an offended husband to his wife to enable her
to realize how much she needed him rather than the false idols she had placed
before Him in violation of their indissoluble covenant. It was because of His
promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that God had no intention to disown but
to restore Israel and renew His covenant with her despite her unworthiness. God
willed to take Israel back into His house, notwithstanding her adulterous past,
provided she dissolved her marriage with the false gods of Assyria and Babylon
and willingly came back 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
frequently depicts Israel as God’s bride, who is expected to be faithful, loving, and chaste in her nuptial relationship with Him. As the virgin bride
of YHWH, nothing more is required of her than to place all her hope (hasah) and
trust (galal) in her husband in a spirit of “steadfast love,” which all the six
aspects of faith embrace in Judaism. It is God who espouses Israel and removes
her from her lowly origin, her fornication, and prostitution, purifying her to
be His worthy spouse.
That God should renew
His covenant with Israel is best explained by the fact that Israel was elected
to be the people from whom the Divine Word would take his flesh. And since the
people of Israel were to receive God Incarnate in their midst as one of them,
they would have to be made exclusively worthy through a special holiness
imparted by the Old Covenant. Israel and Mary had the divine privilege of
bringing the Messiah into the world. Because of their common roles, both had to
be specially prepared by God: set apart from the rest of humanity 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 in the day that Itook
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 I will 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
Various translations of Luke 1:27 have Mary “betrothed” or “espoused” to Joseph at the time of the Annunciation. Either term means the couple was legally married, although their marriage hadn’t been consummated yet. Mosaic law provided a two-part marriage ceremony. It began with the betrothal or espousal (Kiddushin), in which 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,” as Israel is described to be in her marital relationship with God. In Jewish practice, this is the central moment of the initial wedding ceremony, when a contract is signed, making the couple legally married.
The second part of
their marriage would have followed a year after the first wedding ceremony. By
this time, Joseph was expected to be able to provide for Mary. If both were
happy with each other and remained faithful to each other, the second and final
wedding ceremony (Nisuin) would solemnly take place. The ketubah (contract) was
the focal point of the second wedding ceremony. Here, Joseph would have formally accepted the responsibility of providing food and shelter, clothing for his
wife, and attending to her emotional needs. After the ketubah was signed by
Joseph and the two witnesses and presented to Mary, the marriage was
solemnized. Assured of her marital rights, Mary could now move into her
husband’s home and consummate their marriage.
However, according to
early Christian tradition, Mary and Joseph agreed to have a chaste marriage
before the first marriage ceremony took place because of a vow of continence
she had made to God as a young girl while living and serving in the temple. That
Joseph should agree to such an arrangement isn’t at all 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 comes to hear of
it, he
expresses disapproval, then 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.
If Joseph agreed to have
a chaste marriage with his wife Mary, it would be because he had honored her vow before they met, when she was a girl serving
and residing in the Temple from an early age. Meanwhile, no statute condemned a man for sinning by honoring his intended wife’s vow. Nor
was there any directive for him to abort the initial wedding ceremony upon
hearing the vow. Joseph had the option to cancel or go through
with the Kiddushin after hearing of Mary’s vow. He would have sinned if he had
first accepted the vow and then tried to nullify it after they were legally
married. Mary would have sinned if she had sprung the news on Joseph after they
became espoused or betrothed. This provision in the Mosaic law does
help explain how Mary and Joseph could have wed, despite her vow of chastity in
her personal covenant with God.
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
The angel Gabriel spoke
to Joseph in a dream after discovering Mary was with child to reassure him
that his wife hadn’t done anything unfaithful but that the Holy Spirit conceived the child she was carrying (Mt 1:18-25). Until then,
Joseph had the legal right to file for divorce on the grounds of his wife’s
apparent promiscuity. In fact, he had the right to publicly condemn her and
have her stoned to death for having committed adultery (Deut 22:22-29). But
upon the angel’s visit, the table had turned. Now Joseph had to reconsider
whether he had any legal and moral right to go through with the second wedding
ceremony since his wife Mary had conceived a child by another person.
We know that Joseph was
a just man who faithfully observed the precepts of the Mosaic law (Mt 1:14).
Under Mosaic law, according to Louis M. Epstein (Marriage Laws in the Bible
and the Talmud: Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1942), if a
man’s wife or betrothed was found to be pregnant by another man (person), the
husband was forbidden to have conjugal relations with her from that point on. A
woman who had known relations with another man, even if by force, was
considered no longer fit to be visited by her husband (Gen 49:4; 2 Sam 20:3,
16:21-22).
True, God did not naturally make physical contact with Mary, but in her passivity, she was
physically affected by the power of the Holy Spirit. And, of course, the two
did have a child together. When Adam and Eve were created, God sanctified marriage
and decreed that a man and a woman should have children together only because “the two become one flesh” (Gen 2:23-24). In His absolute
righteousness, God could never dismiss His own moral law. This is obvious by
the fact that the angel appeared to Mary with the good news just before it was
time for her husband to take her into his home, which explains why the Jews who
knew him regarded our Lord to be the “carpenter’s son” (Mt 13:55). Moreover,
God chose to beget a child together with a woman who was a virgin and had no
children of her own, not even daughters. Morally, Mary belonged to God as his virgin bride, which Joseph, being a religiously devout Jew, would have keenly understood 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 does not refer to having conjugal or sexual relations, unlike the
Hebrew phrases above. 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 live
together but remain 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 conducted Himself
with Mary as a husband with his wife no less honorably and righteously as He
had with Israel in their mystical marriage covenant. Mary's spiritual and moral marital relationship with God was fully consummated at the precise moment
she was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit. As the personification of Daughter
Zion, Mary was divinely declared to be kiddush or “holy, consecrated, and set
apart” for God when she vowed to enter a personal marriage covenant with Him
while still a young temple virgin. Yet she couldn’t have fathomed at the time
that she felt compelled to make such a vow by the prompting of the Holy Spirit
because she was predestined to be the mother of the divine Messiah.
And so, the nuptial covenant between God and Mary was forever ratified when she faithfully and lovingly consented to be the mother of our divine Lord and permitted the Holy Spirit to cover her nakedness by laying His cloak over her and covering her with His shadow: “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 In ancient Jewish culture, a man’s “laying his power over” (resuth) a woman was a euphemism for having marital relations. Similarly, for a man to “overshadow” a woman or “spread his cloak or wing over her” was a euphemism for having conjugal relations in the holy bond of matrimony.
Ruth intended to have conjugal relations with her lord Boaz when she replied: “I am your handmaid Ruth. Spread the corner of your cloak over me (“cover me with your shadow”), for you are my next of kin” (Ruth 3:9). Brother Opisso adds that the word “cloak” (tallith), literally “wing” (kannaph) is derived from the word tellal, meaning “shadow.” Jesus referred to Israel as his bride when he said: “How many times I yearned to gather your children together as a hen gathers her children under her wing” (Lk 13:34).
As a chaste and
religiously devout Jewish woman, Ruth refused to lay with her lord Boaz unless
they were morally joined as husband and wife. It was after Boaz had lain with
Ruth as his lawfully wedded wife that God permitted her to conceive and bear a
son, whose name was Obed, the grandfather of King David, who prefigures Christ
as the royal head of God’s kingdom (Ruth 3:9; 4:13). Likewise, Mary was not
merely God’s servant when the Holy Spirit came upon her, but His morally united
spouse, who conceived and gave birth to our divine Lord and King, whose
“kingdom is not of this world,” and who “shall rule all nations with a scepter
of justice” or “rod of iron” (Jn 18:36; Rev 2:27).
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 implicitly perceived Mary to be the spouse
of the Holy Spirit in two fundamental ways, which reflect the unitive and
procreative aspects of conjugal love. First, they portrayed Mary as spiritually united with the Holy Spirit and having something supernaturally in
common with Him by her interior disposition. The quality of her soul was
affected by His sanctifying grace so that she could worthily be His spouse and
the mother of our divine Lord. Our most Blessed Lady had to have a perfect
share in His divine nature, seeing 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 was perceived to be
the spouse of the Holy Spirit by not only having begotten Jesus together with
Him through supernatural means but also by having cooperated with Him in
providing spiritual life to the human race. They cooperated as all husbands and
wives do in giving life to their children. By consenting 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 perceived Mary as the
new Eve, the spiritual “mother of all the living.” Concerning the incarnation
and virgin birth, St. Irenaeus writes: “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, for it was selected to physically carry and nourish the
holy Son of God and spiritually His brethren (Rom 8:29). We who are
regenerated through the baptismal water in the womb of the font are a new creation
and children of the new Adam by being the seed of the free promised woman (Gen
3:15).
Thus, as the new Eve and
spouse of the Holy Spirit, Mary couldn’t have conceived other children in sin
and borne them in guilt by having conjugal relations with her legal husband, Joseph. The only child she was predestined to conceive and give birth to would
be of her seed alone (Gen 3:15). Mary’s womb was meant to provide humankind
with the “blessed fruit,” which was Jesus (Lk 1:42). In moral union with the
Holy Spirit, Mary was chosen to exercise her maternal role of nourishing
humanity with the divine Word and the regenerating graces only He 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 desecrated the holy sanctuary of her womb – the sacred
dwelling place of God incarnate (Isa 7:14).
All Jesus’ brethren, who
proceed from the same pure womb untouched by the seed of Adam and are born of
the Spirit, shall not perish as new creations in Christ. The Spirit gives birth to spirit and new life to all who are re-created in the Spirit through Mary’s womb. All Mary’s offspring must weave for themselves the
holy flesh of their Virgin Mother by cooperating with the Holy Spirit and His
divine grace. This is all part of the creative aspect of the conjugal 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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