Within Catholicism the Virgin Mary is too significant to
be excluded in virtually any topic. Minimally, Mary is a great saint, and is active in the distribution of graces. Maximally, Mary is the human incarnation of the Holy Spirit, and therefore the mediatrix of all graces, including salvation, forgiveness, spiritual advancement and more.
In the early church there was very little dogma concerning Virgin Mary, and every extraordinary attribute of Mary was debated before being settled. To date there are four approved Marian dogmas, with others being studied. In the following list, the first four are Church approved dogmas, the final three dogmas have been proposed.
1. Mother of God, or Theotokos, this dogma dates from the year 431. The dogma here is that Mary gave birth to
Jesus Christ, who is true man and true God. This dogma
does not mean that the origin of God is in Mary, it does
132 To those wishing to read further in moral theology the author recommends the book “Right and Reason”, by Fr. Austin Fagothey. It is still in print and is a classic college and seminary textbook on moral theology and the only book needed for a through examination of the subject. It is 632 pages, covering topics such as: the moral act, custom, material cooperation with evil, moral conscience, duress, natural law, civil law, religion, medical ethics, family, government, economics and more.
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not mean that God did not exist until Mary gave birth to Jesus. It means that her son, Jesus Christ was God in human form.
This dogma also occurs under the title, ‘Divine
Motherhood’, with the additional meaning that both
mother and child were divine. Jesus from his conception,
and Mary at the moment of her marriage to the Holy Spirit
at the annunciation.
2. Perpetual Virginity, Mary remained a virgin for her entire life. The question of a natural or miraculous birth for Jesus is not defined to the level of dogma. The Holy Spirit did impregnate Mary by miraculous means, and at
this instant Mary took the Holy Spirit as her spouse. Mary remains faithful to the Holy Spirit and has never had marital relations with any other, not even her guardian-husband Joseph. Therefore when scripture speaks of
‘brothers and sisters’ of Jesus, it refers to cousins and extended family.
3. Immaculate Conception, Mary herself was conceived sinless, and remained free of sin and its effects for her entire life. Selfishness, sin, illness, death are all effects of sin, and never affected Mary. Mary grew to perfection at
some age (33 years ?) and never suffered bodily corruption from aging. When Mary appears in an apparition, she looks the same as she did 2000 years ago; she is 2000 years old, but looks 30! The Mary we see now is not a Mary perfected by the resurrection, she never died. We observe the difference between Jesus and Mary, both of who were
born sinless. Jesus however, took on the sins of the apostles and the world when he made Eucharistic
communion with them at the last supper. Mary never 169
consumed the Eucharist because she would have shared in the sin of the apostles, as Jesus did.133
133 It is presumed that in order to maintain her sinless status as desired by God, Mary never took the Eucharist. Such a communion with the virtuous and sinful body of Christ would have brought her into contact with sin. This happened to sinless Jesus at the last supper, when he made Eucharistic communion with the apostles, taking on their sin. This is the reason that Mary did not attend the last supper. In reality since Mary was divinized (earlier at the annunciation), she likely could not have been affected by sin within the body of Christ at the last supper, but it would have caused some sort of disunion with her divinized nature. The human nature of Jesus at the time of the last supper was sinless and perfect (like Adam), but not yet divinized. The human nature of Jesus was divinized at his resurrection.
When Jesus took on the apostles sin, al elements of his person except his divine will suffered the effects. All elements of Jesus, except his divine wil were some how corrupted. He felt abandoned by God, he suffered bodily, his emotions were damaged. His virtues and will alone remained incorrupt, he used his will to remediated the apostles sin into virtue. Jesus made the apostles sin, into his own virtue…union with God.
God could have miraculously kept Mary free from sin, while she consumed the Eucharist, but since Mary avoided the Eucharist at the last supper it is reasonably believed that God made no such miraculous exception for Mary, and she simply never participated in the Eucharist.
Positive prayer and wil is the mode of assistance for Mary and all those divinized in Heaven, who have no contact with sin.
The idea that Jesus took on sin via the Eucharist is not a fault of the Eucharist, but a fault of human sin. Where ever we find evil, it first existed as goodness in God’s original plan. The Eucharist for instance was intended to share the divinity of Christ to his people, and his people would share their virtues cultivated within the realm of (sinless) creation. Both God and the people would gain in some way. With the onset of sin and evil, this too is shared. It is by the Eucharist that Christ takes on the sin of the world, and humanity shares in the person of Christ, in this world.
Concerning the third point, that Mary did not suffer any effects of aging; this is just an application of the existing Marian dogma of her assumption, which states that she was free of original sin and its effects which include corruption and death. Aging is bodily corruption ending in death and would not have been suffered by Mary. She would have grown to perfection (age 33 perhaps) and retained this bodily perfection.
Growth is not prohibited, only corruption.
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4. Assumption (1950), "Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory…”, (CCC 966). Sometimes a ‘dormition’ is proposed, which is a sort of sleep rather than death. Others believe that Mary was assumed into Heaven fully conscious.
5. Co-Redemtrix, this is a proposed dogma. The idea is that Virgin Mary is in some way a co-redeemer with Christ.
Salvation, redemption or to use the Catholic term
sanctification, has two parts: (1) forgiveness of sin, (2) incorporation into Christ. Christ (who is now the entire body of Christ) alone may make this incorporation, but anyone may make sin into virtue, by an act of will. Such a person might be thought of as a co-redeemer.
A person who makes the difference between salvation and
condemnation by his actions and prayers must out of justice be termed a co-redeemer.
6. Mediatrix of all Graces, this is a proposed dogma. The Holy Spirit is the will of the Father united to the will of the Son, completely, permanently, eternally, divinely and Godly. When the Father or the Son wills something, the Holy Spirit is the one who delivers the grace, whether it be creating a universe, or responding to a prayer. Wherever God’s will is found, the Holy Spirit is necessarily present. When Jesus, an angel or a saint delivers a grace, God’s will is present and also the Holy Spirit.
The proposed dogma of “Mary the Mediatrix of all
Graces”, has Virgin Mary delivering all graces to humanity and to all creation. This dogma would not preclude any other being from also delivering a grace, but Virgin Mary would in some way be decisively involved in every grace given. If Virgin Mary is the mediatrix of all graces, then our own spiritual advancement can only become more effective with her help.
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This profound dogma was not constructed from thin air, Virgin Mary calls herself the “Mediatrix of all Graces” in many of her apparitions. The maximum understanding of this proposed dogma gives a sort of equality to the Holy Spirit and his spouse Virgin Mary, which leads us to the next proposed Marian dogma.
7. Incarnation of the Holy Spirit, this too is a proposed dogma, and would be by far the most significant. The marital union between the human Mary and her spouse the Holy Spirit has been a subject for prayer and meditation for 2000 years, and many saints and doctors arrive at the conclusion that Mary is the (adopted) divine incarnation of the Holy Spirit.
The ideal for marriage, and the ideal that God can only pursue, is union of persons to the greatest possible extent.
Human marriage has its limitations, and two persons can never fully become one in this life. When marriage is contracted by God however, it is an unlimited, total, perfect and permanent union of persons. Mary is the human incarnation of the Holy Spirit because of her unlimited, total, perfect and permanent union with the Holy Spirit.
In many gospel verses, Jesus speaks of a Heavenly wedding
with he as the groom and the faithful as the bride. This wedding is far beyond the human understanding of a wedding.
In this spiritual marriage, the two persons become one; we will literally become Christ, who is now all who constitute the body of Christ. So it is when the Holy Spirit makes marriage, Mary has become the human incarnation of the Holy Spirit.
Catholic doctrine regarding Mary as the human
incarnation of the Holy Spirit occurs in pieces:
• Mary, like all others has an intended destiny of
divinization, hers occurred in this life.
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• Mary is acknowledged as having overflowing fullness
of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
• Divine marriage is the total, permanent, and divine
union of beings. Mary offered no obstacles to this total
divine union. Virgin Mary is married only and forever to
the Holy Spirit. Not the good Joseph, not even to Jesus in
the Heavenly wedding that he speaks of. Jesus is our
union to The Son of God; Mary is our union to the Holy
Spirit. God the Father is the origin of all divinity.
When these pieces are assembled, what is arrived at is Mary as the human incarnation of the Holy Spirit.
The theory that Mary, mother of Jesus is the human incarnation of the Holy Spirit is accepted as a possibility, but not yet defined as dogma. St. Maximilian Kolbe wrote of this theory. The idea is that at the conception of Jesus, Mary was completely joined (matrimony) to the Holy Spirit as one flesh, (Mk 10:8, Gen 2:24), in a full and permanent union.
The further meaning of this is that not only is Jesus fully
divine and fully human, but now so is the Holy Spirit. The difference is that the Holy Spirit is united only to sinless humanity in Mary, whereas Jesus is united to sinners.
Currently the one God is fully divine and fully human via Christ, this simply says that the Holy Spirit likewise took on a human nature. Until it happened, it was thought that God could not take on a human nature, but the Trinitarian Son of God, took on the human nature in Jesus Christ. So to is this possible for the Holy Spirit.
The idea that Mary is the human incarnation of the Holy
Spirit has precedent in principle in Christ’s teachings. In Mt 11:14, Jesus teaches that the prophet John is Elijah come again; the same spirit of prophecy (of the Holy Spirit) who animates 173
Elijah, now animates John. Elijah and John are both the prophetic incarnations of the Holy Spirit. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in Mary is thought to be total, and she is the total human incarnation of the Holy Spirit.
The Old Testament prophets were animated by the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit truly spoke through them. Virgin Mary is now the preeminent prophet of the Holy Spirit. It is no coincidence that New Testament prophecy is so often accomplished through Virgin Mary in her many apparitions which span 2000 years.
Progress to date in a declaration of Mary as the
incarnation of the Holy Spirit is substantial, but not yet complete. The Catholic Church declares that Mary is the Human Incarnation of Divine Wisdom; this declaration was made by Pope Pius IX in his declaration Ineffabilis Deus of 1854.134 “Divine Wisdom”, is a name given to the Holy Spirit.
The sixth Marian dogma would acknowledge Virgin Mary as the complete incarnation of the Holy Spirit.
The biblical Book of Wisdom personifies Divine Wisdom as
the Holy Spirit and speaks of the gender of Divine Wisdom as being female. Concerning Divine Wisdom: She is with God
from eternity, the partner of God’s throne, and the sharer of God’s thoughts, (Ws 8:3; 9:4-9). To Wisdom, a divine nature and divine operations are ascribed, (Ws 1:5-7; 7:22-23; 9:17).
The book of Wisdom observes the goodness and divinity of Wisdom, and Pope Pius IX declared Virgin Mary to be the human incarnation of divine Wisdom. The benefits to our 134 From newadvent.org/library/docs_pi09id.htm. The fourth paragraph of the encyclical reads: “And hence the very words with which the sacred scriptures speak of Uncreated Wisdom and set forth his eternal origin, the Church, both in its ecclesiastical offices and in its liturgy, has been wont to apply likewise to the origin of the Blessed Virgin, inasmuch as God, by one and the same decree, had established the origin of Mary and the Incarnation of Divine Wisdom.”
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spiritual advancement are great when we include Virgin Mary in our efforts.
The development of Marian dogma is ongoing. The
dogma of the immaculate conception was pronounced by Pope
Pius IX in 1854, and declared infallible in the twentieth century.
Likewise the dogma of the assumption of Mary was declared in 1950. Before these declarations, both of these ideas were debated proposals. The idea that Mary is the human incarnation of the Holy Spirit is now being debated, and may at some point be declared dogma.
Catholic theology does allow the Holy Spirit to incarnate if he desires, and we recall that a human incarnation of the Son of God was considered impossible until it happened.
To date, Mary is acknowledged as the partial or quasi incarnation (divine wisdom) of the Holy Spirit, and complete incarnation is recognized as a possibility. It will likely require a Marian apparition to complete this declaration of dogma.
This new Marian dogma might be called “The
Immaculate Incarnation”; having the key points:
1. Mary is the human incarnation of the Holy Spirit. All
graces given to humanity are sponsored by Virgin Mary.
Mary is therefore properly termed the Co-Redemptrix.
2. The Holy Spirit is therefore (now) fully divine and fully