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Image: Annunciation (c. 1472–1475), Uffizi, believed to be Leonardo da Vinci’s earliest complete work
Pope Francis’ Cycle of Catechesis. The Spirit and the Bride. 5.
Paul VI Audience Hall – Wednesday, 7 August 2024
The Holy Spirit guides the People of God towards Jesus our hope
Today’s theme is the Holy Spirit in the Incarnation of the Word.
Incarnate, through the action of the Holy Spirit, from the Virgin Mary.
How she conceived and gave birth to Jesus
“With God, nothing is impossible”
Dear brothers and sisters,
With today’s catechesis, we enter into the second phase of the history of salvation.
Having looked at the Holy Spirit in the work of creation (in previous catecheses), we will spend a few weeks looking at him in the work of redemption, that of Jesus Christ.
So, let us turn to the New Testament, and look at the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.
(Luke 1:30 to 31-34 to 35)
The angel Gabriel said to Mary: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
34 And Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no husband?”
35 And the angel said to her,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
In the Gospel of Luke, we read: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you” – to Mary – “and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (1:35).
The evangelist Matthew confirms this fundamental fact concernng Mary and the Holy Spirit, saying that Mary “was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit” (1:18).
The Church took up this revealed fact and very soon placed it at the heart of her symbol of faith.
In the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, in 381 – which defined the divinity of the Holy Spirit – this article was included in the formula of the “Creed”.
It is therefore an ecumenical fact of faith, since all Christians profess together the same symbol of faith. Catholic piety has drawn from it one of its daily prayers, the Angelus.
This article of faith is the foundation that allows us to speak of Mary as the quintessential Bride, who is a figure of the Church.
In fact, Jesus, as Saint Leo the Great writes, “just as Jesus was born of a virgin mother by the Holy Spirit, so He makes the Church, his unblemished Bride, fruitful with the life-giving breath of the same Spirit”.
This parallelism is taken up in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, which says: “By her faith and obedience, [Mary] brought forth on earth the very Son of the Father, showing an immaculate faith, not in the word of the ancient serpent, but in that of God’s messenger… The Church indeed, contemplating her hidden holiness, imitating her love and faithfully fulfilling the Father’s will becomes a mother herself, by receiving the Word in faith. By her proclamation she brings forth to a new and immortal life the sons who are born to her in baptism, conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of God” (Lumen Gentium: nos. 63-64).
Let us conclude with a practical reflection for our lives, suggested by the insistence of the Scripture on the verbs “to conceive” and “to bear”.
In the prophecy of Isaiah we hear: “Behold a young woman shall conceive and bear a son” (Isaiah 7:14),
and the Angel told Mary, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son” (Lk 1:31).
Mary first conceived, and then gave birth to Jesus: first she received him into her heart and flesh, then she gave birth to him.
The same thing happens to the Church: first she receives the Word of God, allowing it to “speak to her gently” (cf. Hos 2:14 –Behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.), and “fill [her] belly” (cf. Ez 3:3 – eat this scroll which I am giving you and fill your belly with it.), accordinge to two biblical expressions, and then she gives birth to it with her life and with her preaching.
The second act is sterile without the first.
The Church too, spontaneously asks the same question when faced with tasks that are beyond her strength: “How is this possible?”.
How is it possible to proclaim Jesus Christ and His salvation to a world that seems to seek only wellbeing?
The answer is the same as as it was then: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8 – you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”).
Without the Holy Spirit the Church cannot go forward,
Without the Holy Spirit the Church does not grow,
Without the Holy Spirit the Church cannot preach.
What is said about the Church in general also applies to us, to every baptized person.
All of us sometimes find ourselves in situations in life that are beyond our strength.
and we ask ourselves: “How can I cope with this situation?”.
In such cases it helps to repeat to ourselves what the angel said to the Virgin:
“With God nothing will be impossible” (Lk 1:37 – with God nothing will be impossible.).
Dear brothers and sisters,
Let us also continue our journey with this comforting certainty in our hearts:
“With God nothing will be impossible”.
And when we believe this, we will perform miracles.
With God nothing will be impossible. Thank you.
Summary of the Holy Father’s words
With today’s catechesis, we begin our reflections on the role of the Holy Spirit’s in our salvation.
The early ecumenical councils which gave us the Nicene Creed, affirmed both the divinity of the Holy Spirit and his work in the Incarnation.
While all Christians profess this creed, Catholic devotion expresses its faith further in a favorite prayer, the Angelus.
Mary is understood to be the Bride of the Spirit and thus as a type of the Church, a doctrine that has been maintained from the past to the present.
By receiving and sharing the Word of God, every Christian, whatever the challenges of life, can experience, as she did, what the Spirit does for the whole Church, for as the angel said to Mary, “Nothing is impossible for God.”
