The love between the Father and the Son is mirrored in the Blessed Virgin and I believe that is the reason why she is so similar to the Holy Spirit – God – Himself…
I recently heard a beautiful homily by one of the assistant priests at my local parish, and I have been reflecting on it ever since…
In his homily, the priest considered the FOUR dogma of the Catholic Church which must be believed about the Blessed Virgin and considered how these are similar to our beliefs about the Holy Spirit…
The first dogma of the Blessed Virgin is that she is the Mother of Christ (who is God). If a person does not choose to believe this then that person cannot call themselves a Catholic and a member of the Catholic Church. And this is similar to the role of the Holy Spirit in the Church. You see, in each of the Sacraments, the Priest invokes the Holy Spirit to give birth to Christ in the form of the Sacrament. And this is why Christ Ascended into Heaven – so that the Holy Spirit could give birth to the Church. And in this way, every time a person is baptised, Christ is born in them, and every time Christ is born in a person’s soul and in this way, the action of the Holy Spirit has been mirrored by the action of the Blessed Virgin as Mother of Christ…
The second dogma is that the Blessed Virgin is a Perpetual Virgin. This means that she is pure and for the use of God alone. The Blessed Virgin gave her whole body and soul to God and in this way, she was able to give herself completely to God for His Holy Will. And the Holy Spirit is the same. Because the Holy Spirit is completely pure – virginal and untainted – as the love between the Father and the Son – He too is able to be virginal or untouched by other things. In this way there is a perfection in the person of the Blessed Virgin that mirrors the perfection of the Person of the Holy Spirit.
The third dogma relates to the Immaculate Conception. And this Conception is replicated in the Feast of Pentecost, where the Holy Spirit was conceived in the Holy Church and where the Holy Church was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And in this way the action of both the Blessed Virgin and the Holy Spirit are similar.
And finally, though it may be possible that the Blessed Virgin died (although I personally do not believe that this happened) what is taught as dogma of the Catholic Church, is that the Blessed Virgin’s body did not decay and instead that it ascended into Heaven. And when the Blessed Virgin has been seen by the few chosen visionaries who have been gifted with a vision of the Blessed Virgin, she is always visible in Glorified form – in other words in her PERFECT body – the one that we will receive at the end of the world at the Resurrection of the Body is evident… The Blessed Virgin is the ONLY soul other than Christ, who exists in Heaven in their Glorified Body. All the other souls are spirits waiting for the resurrection of the Body at the end of time… And because the Holy Spirit also is eternal – just as the body of the Blessed Virgin is eternal – there is similarity in this dogma too.
And I have been thinking about that today as I have been thinking about love. For the love between the Father and the Son is mirrored in the Blessed Virgin and I believe that is the reason why she is so similar to the Holy Spirit – God – Himself…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
Comentarios