Catechism of Pope Francis on the link between the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit

Below, Pope Francis’ catechism in the General Audience this Wednesday about the “unique and eternally indestructible” bond between the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

Among the various means by which the Holy Spirit carries out his work of sanctification in the Church – Word of God, Sacraments, prayer – there is one very special one and that is Marian piety. In the Catholic Tradition, there is always a motto, a saying: “to Jesus through Mary.” The Virgin makes us see Jesus, and she opens the doors for us. The Virgin is always the mother who leads us by the hand towards Jesus. The Virgin never points to herself, she always points to Jesus. And this is Marian piety. To Jesus, through the hands of Mary.

Saint Paul defines the Christian community as “a letter of Christ composed by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, a letter not engraved on tables of stone, but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Cor 3,3). Mary, as the first disciple and figure of the Church, is also a letter written with the Spirit of the living God. Precisely for this reason, it can be “known and read by all human beings” (2Cor 3,2), even by those who do not know how to read theological books, by those “little ones” to whom Jesus says that the mysteries of the Kingdom, hidden from the wise, are revealed (cf. Mt 11,25).

By saying his “Yeah”, when Mary accepts and says to the angel “yes, the will of the Lord be done” and accepts to be the Mother of Jesus, it is as if Mary said to God: “Here I am, I am a writing board: let the Writer write Whatever he wants, let the Lord of all things do what he wants with me.” In those days, people used to write on wax tablets; Today we would say that Mary offers herself to God as a blank page on which He can write whatever he wants. Mary’s “yes” – as a well-known exegete has written – represents “the apex of all religious behavior before God, since she expresses, in the highest way, passive availability combined with active availability, the deepest emptiness that accompanies the greatest plenitude.”

Here, then, is how the Mother of God is an instrument of the Holy Spirit in his work of sanctification. In the midst of the endless profusion of words spoken and written about God, the Church and holiness (which very few, if any, are able to read and understand in their entirety) she suggests just two words that everyone, even the simplest, can pronounce on any occasion: “Here I am” y “fiat”. Mary is the one who said “yes” to God and with her example and intercession she encourages us to also say our “yes” every time we find ourselves faced with an obedience to fulfill or a test to overcome.

At all times in its history, but especially at this moment, the Church finds itself in the situation in which the Christian community was after the Ascension of Jesus to heaven. He has to preach the Gospel to all nations, but he is waiting for the “power from on high” to be able to do it. And let us not forget that, at that time, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples were gathered around “Mary, the mother of Jesus” (Facts 1,14).

It is true that there were also other women with her in the cenacle, but their presence is different and unique among all of them. Between her and the Holy Spirit there is a unique and eternally indestructible bond that is the very person of Christ, “conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary” (as we recite in the Credo). The evangelist Luke intentionally highlights the correspondence between the coming of the Holy Spirit on Mary at the Annunciation and his coming on the disciples at Pentecost, using some identical expressions in both cases.

Francis of Assisi, in one of his prayers, greets the Virgin as “daughter and handmaid of the most high King and heavenly Father, mother of our most holy Lord Jesus Christ, wife of the Holy Spirit.” Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, Wife of the Holy Spirit! Mary’s unique relationship with the Trinity could not be illustrated in simpler words.

Like all images, this one of “bride of the Holy Spirit” should not be absolutized, but rather taken for the part of truth it contains, and it is a very beautiful truth. She is the wife, but she is, before that, the disciple of the Holy Spirit. Wife and disciple. Let us learn from her to be docile to the inspirations of the Spirit, especially when she suggests that we “get up quickly” and go help someone in need, as she did immediately after the angel left her (cf. Lc 1,39). Gracias.