Page n.1 about the Most Holy Trinity
 
 
 

Dear friends,
 
 
 

In 1995, a book I had written in French on the Eucharist and the Church was published, entitled "The Eucharist: The Church in the Heart of Christ." This book is available on my website at the following address: http://homily-service.net/franc/premlivr.htm

Thanks to the translation by Antoine Valentim of Montréal (Canada), this book is also available in English at the following address: http://homily-service.net/engl/frstbook.htm

I mention this because, in order to develop certain ideas on the Most Holy Trinity, I will comment on a passage from the Holy Scriptures, namely verse 57 from chapter 6 of the gospel according to Saint John, a passage which I had already studied in the book in question; therefore, what I shall present shortly is closely linked to this initial study.

The present study will be, without doubt, somewhat difficult to understand: the Most Holy Trinity is and shall always remain a Mystery, a Truth which surpasses our mind. Therefore, I shall try to be as clear as possible. I shall sometimes refer to the book which I have just mentioned; for the sake of brevity, I will denote it by the initials ECHC. Elsewhere, I shall cite one author or another, whether ancient or modern. Please take the time to weigh what I say or analyze the citations provided here and there throughout our study.

In my book "The Eucharist: The Church in the Heart of Christ", I have analyzed the scriptural argument of John 6:57 : "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me." I have presented this passage from Scripture as the sure and absolute foundation for the mediation of Mary. In this light, we shall see everything that the notion of the mediation of Mary allows us to understand, with the help of the scriptural argument of John 6:57, about the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. In other words, we shall see in this study to what extent Mary Mediatrix, reflection of the Divinity, helps us to penetrate deeper into the great Mystery of the Trinity of the Persons in God.

The first part of the sentence: "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father" expresses the union of life of the Father and Son, a union which finds its full and entire realization in a person other than that of the Father or the Son: that is, in the person of the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son. The liturgy, in fact, says that the Son "lives and reigns with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit" (Conclusion of the Collect of the Mass). Now, in the text of John 6:57, there exists a comparison, or analogy, between the two parts of the sentence: "As ... so ..." Therefore, we can say that the second part of the sentence - "so he who eats me will live because of me" - expresses the union of life of Christ and the Church, a union which finds its full and entire realization in a person other than that of Christ or the Church: that is, in the person who proceeds from Christ and the Church. As Christ is mystically called "the Head ... of the Church" (Col. 1:18), and as the Church is also mystically called "the body of Christ" (1 Co. 12:27), the person who proceeds from Christ and the Church can be called the mystical Person of Christ, or the mystical union of Christ the Head and Christ the Body. Finally, in virtue of the analogy of the two unions, each expressed by part of the scriptural text of John 6:57, we can say that the mystical Person of Christ resembles, at least in terms of the proper relation of life, the very Person of the Holy Spirit. Now, since a person is, intrinsically, individual, there cannot be an analogy or similitude between two persons except in virtue of the spousal or matrimonial bond which unites them: "They are no longer two, but one flesh." (Mt. 19:6) We may thus conclude that the mystical Person of Christ, or the union of Christ and the Church in Eucharistic communion, is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit: that is to say Mary, Mother of Christ and of the Church, Mediatrix of Life between Christ the Head and Christ the Body.

If we wish to analyze in greater detail the scriptural passage of John 6:57, what is most important to note is that the corporeal aspect of Eucharistic communion, which is essential to this same act when it is considered in itself (see ECHC no. 103), is also fully essential to this act when it is considered in the particular and proper context of the scriptural text of John 6:57.

Thus, a contemporary writer, who translates John 6:57 with these words: "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who absorbs me, he too will live because of me", comments on this passage by saying: "We cannot express all the force of what follows, for the Greek verb "trôgeïn" which we have translated as "to absorb" is even clearer; it necessarily denotes eating, and its use here is certainly meant to allow no doubt to remain concerning the materiality of the act of which Jesus speaks.... Jesus thus teaches as indispensable the assimilation of his human person by ours, an assimilation which is mysterious but real, so that it is possible and can be carried out through a concrete physical action (Note: This, in other words, corresponds to the central idea of Paulinism: our incorporation into Christ, the contemporary exegesis of which demonstrates its Eucharistic origins.) By means of what Saint Cyril of Alexandria calls, very precisely, a "physical union", we can remain in him and he in us. Thus there shall be established between us and him a union analogous to that which exists between him and the Father, the effect of which shall be that we will be able to possess, in the Son, the Life he has from the Father. This is the outline of the new theme which Jesus would take up again in his final conversations with his disciples, after the Last Supper: our union with him, the true image of his union with the Father." (Louis Bouyer, Le quatrième évangile ("The Fourth Gospel"), pp. 129-130).

In the same order of ideas, another writer, who translates John 6:57 in the following manner: "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will also live because of me", declares, speaking in the name of the Lord: "I live through my Father, from whom comes my subsistence and my personality; and just as a plant lives because of the root which transmits to it nourishing sap, in the same way you will live through me, receiving your life from me, as I receive it from the Father; for if the Father is the root which begets me, I too am the vine-stock from which you come, like living vine-shoots: "Ego sum vitis vera et vos palmites". And thanks to the divine life which comes to me from my Father and which I transmit to you, you shall live in me, and I shall live in you; and we shall be united, as the vine is united to its shoots, and the shoots to the vine." (Augustin Chometon, S.J., Le Christ, Vie et Lumière, Commentaire spirituel de l'Evangile selon Saint Jean ("Christ, Life and Light, Spiritual Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint John"), p. 176-177).

The corporeal aspect of Eucharistic communion supposes, intrinsically, the fact that Christ and the Church are united with each other for their common mediator (see ECHC no. 52), who is Mary Mediatrix, but who is also, by that very fact, Christ, and thus God in person. So let us rediscover this notion expressed in the scriptural passage of John 6:57, as witnessed by the two following analysts.

The first, Father M.-J. Lagrange, asking himself what would be the result of the union of man to the Son of God, replies as follows (after several lines of textual analysis based on a text by Saint Augustine): "The starting point is the mission, thus to do the work of the Father (cf. Jn. 3:34; 17:8). There is moreover less disproportion between the intention of the incarnate Son toward the Father and the intention of he who enters into communion with the Son, than between the divine life received by the Son and that which he gives to man... We shall thus obtain a new idea of great value: in uniting himself to the Son of God, man learns to consecrate his life to him. This is moreover the sense of the ancient translations." (Evangile selon Saint Jean ("The Gospel According to Saint John"), pp. 185-186) Let us note that Father Lagrange translates John 6:57 as follows: "As the living Father sent me, and as I live for the Father, so he who eats me will live for me." (ibid., pp. 185-187)

The second offers us a similar interpretation of the sacred text: "The words we read here: 'As I, sent by the living Father, live because of him; so he who eats me will live because of me' (Jn. 6:57), explicitly invite us to look into the relations which unite the Father and the Son: the model, and more than the model, the very principle of union realized between Jesus and us. The Eucharist produces the union, and the union brings about our transformation in Christ. This transformation in turn makes his love become the principle of our life; we live through him, but living through him is also living 'for' him. From the union comes our consecration to his service, just as the Son who lives because of the Father, also lives for he who sent him. Through the Eucharist is thus realized a "consecration of our life to the very life of God." (Paul-Marie de la Croix, O.C.D., L'Evangile de Jean et son témoignage spirituel ("The Gospel of John and his Spiritual Testimony"), p. 191)

We shall continue this study next time, if God wills it...

Page n.2 about the Most Holy Trinity
 
 
 

Dear friends,
 
 
 

In our first page on the Divine Trinity, we have seen that, in a general and global way, the scriptural passage of John 6:57 speaks of the comparison, established by the Lord himself, between the Most Holy Trinity and the three persons mystically and sacramentally united in the act of Eucharistic communion: Christ, Mary Mediatrix, and the Church. Now, in relation to the Most Holy Trinity, Mary Mediatrix, because she is the mystical Spouse of the Holy Spirit, is the Spouse of all of the Holy Trinity. Indeed, although they are different from each other, the three divine persons do however resemble each other due to their own action at the heart of the divinity: the Son resembles the Father, for he is his "image" (Col. 1:15), and the Holy Spirit resembles the Son, the first Paraclete, since the Holy Spirit is "another Paraclete" (Jn. 14:16). So, given that a husband and wife resemble each other in a simple manner, and that the act of life of Mary Mediatrix, as the personal union between Christ the Head and Christ the Body, is nothing other than the sacramental act of Eucharistic communion, we must absolutely think and believe that the act of life of the Divine Trinity and that of the mystical Person of Christ in Eucharistic communion are not only analogous, but also that they simply resemble each other.

The Most Holy Trinity being the ultimate end of all things, and Eucharistic communion, in relation to the mediation of Mary, being a means to an end, it is absolutely clear, in virtue of what has just been said, that the sacramental and mystical act of Eucharistic communion is, in the order of the mediation of Mary, the unique means through which one can perfectly know the Divine Trinity in its own essential act of life, in a way that particularly makes evident the very person of the Holy Spirit, Spouse of Mary in Christ. And this is fully in conformity with what is taught by the Tradition of the Church, upon whom, similarly, lies the entire reality of the mediation of Mary herself. It is sufficient to remind ourselves that "Saint Hilary (of Poitiers) proved, based on the union and the unity, so to speak, which is established between Christ and he who receives his body, the unity which exists between the Son and the Father... (Thus) from the testimony of this doctor, added to the testimony of Jesus Christ himself, the Eucharist reveals the divinity of Jesus Christ and the consubstantiality of the Father with the Son." (Th. M. Thiriet, O.P., L'Evangile médité avec les Pères ("The Gospel Studied with the Fathers"), Tome III, pp. 197-198) An eloquent text of Saint Hilary of Poitiers is found in the Patrologia Latina: 10:248-249.

Taking into account what has just been discussed, namely the similitude, simple and one, between the Trinitarian life and the Eucharistic life, let us first recall that, intrinsically, life is a principle. Also, since we are here considering the life of God, and as God does not depend upon any being other than himself, the principle which gives life to God cannot be anything other than God himself. But, in virtue of the similitude, which we have just referred to, between the Trinitarian life and the Eucharistic life, the life of God cannot be conceived without the notion of change, without a passage from power to act. Thus, in order for God to live, it must be possible for him to be considered both as power and as act. Let us note, in order to be clear and precise, that the notion of power, and thus that of change, in God has been introduced here only as a similitude established by the human mind in order to attempt, insofar as it is allowed and able, to penetrate the unfathomable universe of the divinity. The remainder of this essay will demonstrate to the reader the utility and merits of proceeding along these lines.

The divinity can be considered in two ways: as essence, and as persons. Considered in terms of his essence, God is pure act: life does not concern him in this respect. Considered as persons, God possesses an intimate life which he has revealed to us through the intermediary of his Son made flesh, according to the text we are discussing: "... the living Father ... I live because of the Father..." (Jn. 6:57). This means that the life of God, in terms of the persons, must be understood as follows: the Father is properly the person who gives life to his Son; and the Son is properly the person who receives life from his Father. Now, according to the very revelation of Christ, the Father and the Son are not in power but rather in act of life, each according to the relation proper to him. Thus, life as power concerns neither the Father nor the Son. One can thus conclude that the Life of God necessarily depends on the person of the Holy Spirit: only he who is called "the power of the Most High" (Lk. 1:35) allows us to consider God both as power and as act. Let us note that, within the bounds of this study, the notion of passive power must necessarily be joined, in a manner that is simple and one, with the notion of active power (see ECHC no. 44), a fact which permits us to perfectly apply to our subject the Biblical expression: "the Power of the Most High" (Lk. 1:35).

The notion of God includes in itself the notion of the infinite: God is the being who is without limits. His power, in particular, is thus infinite. Also, the Holy Spirit is the Power of the Most High in plenitude: all of his Person is Power. This therefore brings into the life of God a passage, in fullness, from power to act, an infinite change. It is in this endless change, in this eternal movement, that we fully participate in the sacramental act of Eucharistic communion: "Communion associates us with the intimate life of the Trinity... Led to the Father by Jesus and to Jesus by the Father, brought into their mutual love, I am in the Holy Spirit, the eternal Movement of the love of the Father and of the Son." (M.-V. Bernadot, De l'Eucharistie à la Trinité ("From the Eucharist to the Trinity"), p. 27-28)

As God is pure act, and, consequently, immutable, this infinite change in God cannot be conceived except to the extent that this change is sent back into the infinite, beyond all beginning and all ending. This means that, in the Life of God, this change has never begun, and that, by this very fact, it has never ended. Now, this infinite change cannot be such unless God eternally accomplishes one, and only one, act of life, an act that is absolutely first without there ever being a second. Thus, the notion of the infinite power of God is indissociable from the unique and primary act of the Life of God. As the first act of life is that of generation, we see that the Holy Spirit is the Power of the Most High who permits the Father to eternally beget his beloved Son: "You are my son, today I have begotten you." (Ps. 2:7)

We shall continue this Trinitarian study next time, if it please God...

Page n.3 about the Most Holy Trinity
 
 
 

Dear friends,
 
 
 

The Life of God consists in a unique and eternal act of generation. But as we have noted in our second page on the Most Holy Trinity, this unique and eternal act excludes any change in the Life of God. Consequently, in God, power cannot exist in itself, but only in an exclusive and absolute dependence on this unique and eternal act of Life. In other words, in God, power exists totally outside of itself: it exists only insofar as it gives itself fully to this unique act of divine generation. This is why it belongs to the Holy Spirit, or the Power of God, to exist as Person-Gift, or Gift in fullness: "Through the Holy Spirit God exists in the mode of gift. It is the Holy Spirit who is the personal expression of this self-giving." (H.H. Pope John Paul II, Encyclical on the Holy Spirit "Dominum et Vivificantem", first part, no. 10). So, from the fact that God is infinite - that is, in virtue of his very essence - the power of God is absolutely inseparable from the act of divine generation: the Life of God is eternally both act and power.

If the Holy Spirit, as Person-Gift, is entirely given to Mary Mediatrix, his Spouse in Christ (and this is what we must think and believe in order for them to be each other's spouses), then, given that Eucharistic communion is the act through which and in which Mary Mediatrix mystically gains existence (as we have said in our first page), the Holy Spirit must be considered to be the Power of the Most High who permits, not only the eternal act of the generation of the Son by the Father, but also at the same time the existence in act of his mystical Spouse, Mary, mediator of the corporeal order between Christ-Head and Christ-Body. This allows us to clearly say that the substance of the relation of active spiration consists in the eternal conception of the spiritualized body of Mary Mediatrix, Mother of the whole Christ, both the Head and the Body together, a conception which is the unique act of the "Power of the Most High" (Lk. 1:35), in the perfect and full Gift of self to the Father who begets his Son, the Word, Archetype of all Creation.

We could elaborate on this topic, but that would mean entering into an ecclesiological discussion, which is something beyond the scope of this essay. So, let us return to the Divine Trinity. "God is spirit." (Jn. 4:24) His eternal act of life or act of generation thus consists in producing in him a thought. As God is perfectly simple, the thought which God begets is necessarily a total and full return to himself; his thought is God just as he is: it is his Logos or Word. But since producing a thought is properly an act of the intellect, the Father begets the Word, his Son, by mode of intellect or knowledge. The Life of God, considered as the generation of the Son-Word by the Father, is thus founded on the notion of knowledge.

In virtue of the similitude which exists between the divine Trinitarian Life and Eucharistic communion, what has just been said on the subject of the Life of God remains true with respect to the sacramental and vital act of communion: "What do chapters 1 to 9 of the book of Proverbs signify, if not this: that to everyone is offered the possibility to commune of the very Wisdom of God, provided only that one faithfully observes the maxims of wisdom? Chapter 6 of the Fourth Gospel elaborates on, and goes into the most astounding detail concerning this magnificent intuition: "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me." (Jn. 6:57) The incarnate Son of God is the holder of all the riches of the divine life he continually receives from his Father ; by the Eucharistic mystery, this life is transmitted to his disciples who thus truly participate, in Jesus, in the very life of God." (A. Feuillet, Le discours sur le pain de vie ("Discourse on the Bread of Life"), p. 122 )

All knowledge is a good belonging to and possessed by the mind which knows ; in this case, as God fully knows himself, the knowledge of God is nothing but Good in plenitude, or perfect Good. As every good can be given, and as the knowledge of God in plenitude, or the perfect Good he possesses, is the foundation of the generation of the perfect Word of the Father, this generation depends fully on the Person-Gift or the Power of God, and so the Knowledge of God in plenitude necessarily belongs absolutely and exclusively to the Holy Spirit: "No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God." (1 Co. 2:11) However, to say, as we have just done, that the Knowledge of God belongs absolutely and exclusively to the Holy Spirit presupposes two facts, which we shall establish with the help of the similitude which exists between the act of Trinitarian Life and that of Eucharistic communion: the first fact is that every divine attribute, no matter what it is, can be considered to be intrinsically distinct from the divine essence itself ; and the second is that the Knowledge of God belongs - in a direct manner - to the Holy Spirit, to the exclusion of the Father and the Son.

With regard to the first fact, namely that every divine attribute can be considered to be essentially distinct from the divine essence, we must remember that the vital act of Eucharistic communion is properly that in which coexists the power in virtue of which this same act gains existence, a power which must always be understood both in a passive and active manner. On this subject, it is not unprofitable to cite the following eloquent testimony: "Pious soul, you profoundly contemplate yourself, you formulate in your heart an ardent desire. Touched, pressed by this desire, Jesus goes to his beloved spouse: there he is in your heart! ... It is no longer God who is the sovereign Master ; it is no longer the creature who is the servant. But the creature becomes the sovereign mistress of God ; and God makes himself the most docile and willing servant of the creature. 'I did not come among you,' said Jesus, 'to be served, but to serve.' Spiritual communion is truly an omnipotence given to the creature over the Creator, to the pious soul over Jesus! And Father Faber is right: 'Spiritual communion is one of the greatest powers on earth!' " (Msgr. de Gibergues , La Sainte Communion ("Holy Communion"), pp. 208-209).

So, the notion of knowledge being the very foundation of the divine Trinitarian Life, one must clearly say, in virtue of the simple similitude which exists between the act of divine Life and the sacramental act of communion, that the divine attribute of knowledge, and therefore every divine attribute, on one hand fully relates to the divine Life in act, and on the other hand fully relates to the divine Life in power. By this very fact, all of this allows us to say that, with relation to the divine Life in act, no divine attribute can be distinguished from the divine essence, but that, with relation to the divine Life in power, every divine attribute must be distinguished from the divine essence, in virtue of the mode - that of power - according to which the divine Trinitarian Life is considered.

With regard to the second fact, namely that the Knowledge of God directly belongs, exclusively, to the Holy Spirit, let us begin by noting that it is properly through a vital mode (that of food) that the Knowledge of God is communicated to man in the act of Eucharistic communion. Now, this same act of communion is and must be, intrinsically, the vital act of Mary Mediatrix in person. Consequently, it is absolutely clear that the Knowledge of God communicated in the act of Eucharistic communion essentially possesses a dimension which is properly personal. In virtue of the similitude which exists between the act of Trinitarian Life and that of sacramental communion, the Knowledge of God, in the Trinity, intrinsically possesses a dimension which is truly and fundamentally personal. In other words, in God-Trinity, the fact of knowing completely relates to the subject who knows ; Knowledge is a properly personal act: "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son." (Mt. 11:27)

And all of this allows us to say without hesitation that the Knowledge of God necessarily belongs absolutely and exclusively to the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the Knowledge of God, which is accomplished by mode of Revelation, and thus in a way that is completely free, belongs to the order of the gift: in the act of Eucharistic communion, the Knowledge of God is a free gift given to man by the Divine Trinity. Additionally, humanly speaking, (and this is necessary in the context of the mediation of Mary, which is governed by the rule of association, simple and one, between divine Revelation and human philosophy, the latter being the basic reference of the rule in question ; see ECHC, nos. 39 and 40), it is solely and uniquely in marriage that a man (the husband) or a woman (the wife) is united to the personal gift of the spouse: the husband freely gives himself in a personal way to his wife, and vice versa. Therefore, since Mary Mediatrix is not the Spouse of all of the Divine Trinity only because She is directly the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, we cannot fail to declare with certainty that the Knowledge of God belongs absolutely and exclusively to the Holy Spirit.

We shall continue this Trinitarian study next time, if it please God...

Page n.4 about the Most Holy Trinity
 
 
 

Dear friends,
 
 
 

In the preceding pages, we have seen how the Holy Spirit is entirely given to the Father and the Son-Word in the unique act of divine Life or act of generation, and this by mode of knowledge. Also, the Father and the Son each possess, in an absolute and full manner, the Spirit as Knowledge of God. In other words, by the very fact that they are in the act of living, the Father and the Son are in the act of knowing. This is what Christ himself taught, with these words: "And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." (Jn. 17:3) And: "O righteous Father, the world has not known thee, but I have known thee; and these know that thou hast sent me." (Jn. 17:25)

In order to shed light on our subject, let us read a few notes, very deep and strongly spiritual, on the subject of Wisdom and the Knowledge of God: "The eighth fruit of the Eucharist is the treasure of all riches: God enriches the soul with the gift or treasure of Wisdom, and this Wisdom acts in such a way that the soul, no matter what it does, never has anything for which it must repent. Now, the Wisdom in God is the light by which he knows himself, a light that is inaccessible to all creatures. However, insofar as the soul participates in the knowledge and the love of God, it is to this same extent, neither more nor less, that it is united to God and that God unites himself to it. In this union of love, the soul is not only with God, through grace, but it becomes, in a way, God in God, through this same grace. However, let us make sure we understand this properly. Certainly, he in whom Wisdom itself resides is like the temple of God Almighty where He Himself dwells. God loves he in whom Wisdom resides; He satisfies all his desires, since He himself is Wisdom. For God knows himself and loves himself in every way. It is this same Wisdom that he recommends to all, for it is not merely the source of beatitude, it is beatitude itself. No, God cannot give man a more precious gift than Wisdom. Is it not the sovereign joy, the supreme beatitude enjoyed by the Most Holy Trinity?" (Master Eckard, in the Complete Works of John Tauler, Volume VIII, p. 389-390 - Literal translation of the Latin version of the Carthusian Surius).

Let us summarize what had already been developed up to this point. "No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God." (1 Co. 2:11): the Knowledge of God in fullness belongs absolutely and exclusively to the Holy Spirit. Now, it is necessarily as Spouse of Mary in Christ that the Holy Spirit can be considered thus to possess absolutely and exclusively the Knowledge of God. Consequently, given that Husband and Wife "become one flesh" (Gn. 2:24), the Knowledge of God, in order to belong absolutely and exclusively to the Holy Spirit, cannot fail to possess, intrinsically, a dimension of the properly corporeal order, and this in a completely supernatural and mystical manner: that is, fully in relation to the mediation of Mary.

All this can be fully seen in the sacramental act of Eucharistic communion: the Knowledge of God, and thus the Life of God - since, for God, living and knowing is but one thing - possesses, in the sacramental act of communion, a truly corporeal aspect. Concerning this, it is not unprofitable to cite the following passage, in which the aspect in question is particularly well described, especially with respect to the spousal dimension of the act of Eucharistic communion: "It is written, 'the wife does not rule over her own body, but the husband does' (1 Co. 7:4); and I have already meditated upon the idea that each soul which has grace in itself is for Jesus Christ a wife. Thus my body, if I have the good fortune of possessing his grace in my heart, belongs to Jesus Christ: it belongs to him through the baptism in which the covenant was sealed in mutual vows; and even more perfectly through the mutual gift which is given in the Eucharist. The wife, once the oaths have been exchanged before the altar, belongs to the husband; but who does not know the strength given to their union through the consummation of their marriage? So communion strengthens and perfects the union of our body to the body of the Lord. This is my body, take it, says Jesus. And the believer who receives it in order to enjoy it responds, in turn, by giving his acceptance to it, as well as by giving the gift of self that accompanies this acceptance: To you also my body with all its members and all that I am. "My beloved is mine and I am his." (Cant. 2:16) The principal union is achieved by the spirit; but as the union of bodies is the principle of this spiritual union, it must also be its consequence." (J.-B. Terrien, S.J., "La grâce et la gloire" ("Grace and Glory"), Volume II, pp. 115-116)

With respect to the Holy Spirit and Mary Mediatrix considered as each other's spouse, the Knowledge of God essentially possesses a dimension of the properly corporeal order. As this concerns the context of the mediation of Mary, we must consider this dimension of the corporeal order both in a natural manner (in the first case) and in a supernatural manner (in the second case). Now, speaking naturally, the Holy Spirit - as his name indicates - is solely spiritual, whereas Mary Mediatrix - who is a human being - is both spiritual and corporeal. In addition, with respect to Mary Mediatrix, it is properly the corporeal faith (that is to say, faith in its relation to the Mystical Body of Christ) of this same human person which allows us to consider the Knowledge of God in its dimension of the properly corporeal order. Finally, given that faith is, intrinsically, a means or an intermediary, one must conclude, from everything said up to this point, that, if one must admit that the Knowledge of God has a properly corporeal dimension, then this same Knowledge of God - that is, the very Life of God - possesses a certain midpoint, and this, by means and through the intermediary of the corporeal faith of Mary Mediatrix.

Supernaturally speaking, given that human philosophy is the basic reference of the association, simple and one, between human philosophy and divine Revelation (an association which intrinsically governs the mediation of Mary), we must necessarily come to the same conclusion that there exists a true mean at the very heart of the Life of God, an intermediary in the act of the generation of the Son by the Father, an act carried out by mode of Knowledge.

Indeed, supernaturally speaking, the corporeal dimension of the Knowledge of God is fully in relation to the Holy Spirit and Mary Mediatrix considered together as "one flesh" (Gn. 2:24), or one body. Now, all of this presupposes that the Knowledge of God is, in God-Trinity, a properly personal act: "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son." (Mt. 11:27) Thus, supernaturally speaking, in order to be able to speak of a corporeal dimension of the Knowledge of God, one must admit that, with respect to the act of Trinitarian Life of the generation of the Word, when the Father and the Son are in act of knowledge, the Father knows in relation to his person as Father, and the Son knows in relation to his person as Son. Since the notion of knowledge is the foundation of the generation of the Son by the Father, therefore the Father knows insofar as he is personally he who begets, and the Son knows insofar as he is personally he who is begotten.

God is spirit; by this very fact, his knowledge is absolutely simple and non-composite. Thus, as the Father and the Son are but one God, the knowledge of the Father and the knowledge of the Son are identical. Now, in themselves, the knowledge of the Father, which is the knowledge of he who begets, and the knowledge of the Son, which is the knowledge of he who is begotten, are not identical, but rather different and totally opposite. It is thus necessary that, in the Life of God, a mediating element is interposed between the Father and the Son, one capable of conciliating them and uniting them with respect to the act of generation. Now, since the Holy Spirit, as the Knowledge of God, is fully possessed both by the Father and the Son, the knowledge of the Father and the knowledge of the Son - that is, the knowledge of he who begets and the knowledge of he who is begotten - reside, in a full and complete manner, in the person of the Holy Spirit who, alone, "comprehends the thoughts of God." (1 Co. 2:11) So, we can say that the necessary mediator in the Life of God is none other than the Spirit of God himself: the Holy Spirit is the person who unites the Father and the Son in the intimate Trinitarian life.

We shall continue this Trinitarian study next time, if it please God...

Page n.5 about the Most Holy Trinity
 
 
 

Dear friends,
 
 
 

Let us summarize what we have already established. The entire Person of the Holy Spirit or Power of God exists in dependance upon the unique act of divine Life, and the notion of knowledge is the only one which requires a mediator in the generation of the Son by his Father. From this, it follows that the entire person of the Holy Spirit cannot be understood outside this same notion of knowledge: the person of the Holy Spirit is the Knowledge of God in fullness. And so, in the Life of God, there is a mediator or link between the Father and the Son, in the person of the Holy Spirit, who is therefore Person-Knowledge or Person-Life: "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life." (Credo).

The above allows us to say, first, that, insofar as they are the extremes of the mediation of the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son are perfectly similar and identical with each other with respect to the act of divine Life by mode of Knowledge. In other words, in relation to the mediation of Mary with respect to divine Trinitarian Revelation, the Father begets the Son (because the Father knows the Son), and, similarly, the Son begets the Father (because the Son knows the Father): "No one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." (Mt. 11:27) Secondly, everything that has been said to this point allows us to declare without hesitation that the Holy Spirit is the mediator between the Father and the Son only insofar as he is personally "the Power of the Most High" (Lk. 1:35) who allows the act of the generation of the Word by way of knowledge, since the fact that the Holy Spirit - being alone, as mediator, in the middle of the Divine Trinity - is more perfect than the Father and the Son taken jointly and together, cannot under any circumstance be dissociated from this other fact - the foundation of the preceding one, by mode of equilibrium and harmony - the fact that the Holy Spirit, as the power directed to the act of the generation of the Word, is less perfect than the Father and the Son, who are living in act by way of Knowledge. In other words, the Holy Spirit, the Spouse of Mary and therefore, by this very fact, Mary Mediatrix herself, is, intrinsically, the Almighty Mediator, or the Mediator-Type.

In order to shed light on our subject, we present here a beautiful text, in which the Holy Spirit is portrayed as the way (or the mediator) via whom we can go from the Father to Jesus, and from Jesus to the Father: "It is in the Holy Spirit, o Father, that you lead me to Jesus. It is in the Holy Spirit, o Jesus, that you lead me to the Father: he is your Gift... 'He will teach you all things.' (Jn. 14:26) He delivers all things to me... It is through him that your supreme prayer is realized, o Jesus, beloved Master: 'Father... the glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou ... hast loved them even as thou hast loved me.' ". (Jn. 17:20-23)» (M.-V. Bernadot, De l'Eucharistie à la Trinité ("From the Eucharist to the Trinity"), p. 28)

At the heart of the Most Holy Trinity is Person-Life: the Holy Spirit, the link and mediator between the Father and the Son in the unique and eternal act of divine Life. In other words, the notion of Mediator is fundamental in order for us to intimately understand, according to the Revelation God made of his own life, the very person of the Holy Spirit as Knowledge of God.

And this provides us with three insights concerning the appellations belonging to the third Person of the Divine Trinity. First, we see that the necessity of having a mediator between the Father and the Son is founded upon the spiritual aspect - which is, by this very fact, simple and one - of the divinity: a mediator between the Father and the Son becomes necessary only in virtue of the fact that the divine attribute of Knowledge - like any other divine attribute - can be indistinguishable from the divine essence itself. From this it follows that the Mediator of the Life of God possesses the personal name of Spirit.

Second, we see that the role of mediator belongs to the Holy Spirit because he alone knows all the Life of God, both the aspect of he who begets and that of he who is begotten ; but he does not know these two aspects of generation under the mode of act, since otherwise he would be the Father or the Son, and he could no longer be the mediator between the Father and the Son ; thus, the Holy Spirit knows these two aspects of generation under the mode of power. However, for the Holy Spirit, to know under the mode of power is not at all a complete and total ignorance, but rather a perfect and full knowledge, since the power in question is an infinite power, entirely given over to the eternal act to which it is directed and in which it coexists in fullness. So, for this reason, the Holy Spirit is properly called "the Power of the Most High" (Lk. 1:35) who allows the Father to eternally beget his Son.

Thirdly, as mediator, the Holy Spirit appears to us as Person-Knowledge or the Knowledge of God in fullness, which is in itself the unique and simple knowledge of the divinity. Now, knowledge, being a good possessed by the subject who knows, obtains for this same subject rest and happiness. Thus, the Holy Spirit, as a Good possessed in fullness, obtains perfect rest for all the divinity, that is, for the Father, for the Son, and for himself. Now, on one hand, the Father and the Son are in the act of knowledge ; on the other hand, the Holy Spirit is in the power of knowledge. Thus, the Father and the Son alone possess perfect rest in themselves ; and the Holy Spirit possesses this same perfect rest only insofar as this same Spirit exists totally in the Father and the Son, and not in himself - that is to say, insofar as he is entirely given to the Father and the Son in this unique and eternal act of divine generation by mode of knowledge: "In the Holy Spirit the intimate life of the Triune God becomes totally gift." (H. H. John Paul II, the Encyclical "Dominum et Vivificantem", first part, n. 10)

On the subject of these appellations of the Holy Spirit, here is a bold and eloquent text: "Perhaps we might judge, in the dim light of our intellect, that it would be an increase in glory, and a perfect achievement of the infinite goodness of the Holy Spirit, if this same goodness were also the principle of a divine Person ; but this is impossible within the Most Holy Trinity. Why do we say this? We are taught this by the faith, and this fact is sufficient to hold us firm in this belief ; but given that we must believe this, if we were to lift up the eyes of our feeble reason and look, we would see that this infinitely fertile goodness, which has its end in the Holy Spirit, is completely exhausted by the Father and by the Son in producing him, used up completely in the production of so noble an end. It is true that he has this same fertile goodness, which belongs to the Father and the Son, but he has exhausted it completely, by being, if we may say it in this way, its complete exhaustion." (Louis-François d'Argentan, Conférences théologiques et spirituelles sur les Grandeurs de la Très Sainte Vierge Marie Mère de Dieu ("Theological and Spiritual Conferences on the Greatness of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God"), page 20 of the Avignon edition, published in 1755)

We shall continue this Trinitarian study next time, if it please God...

Page n.6 about the Most Holy Trinity
 
 
 

Dear friends,
 
 
 

The Holy Spirit, as Mediator of Life between the Father and the Son, is the Gift or the Person-Gift of the Father and the Son: he is at once the Good of the Father and the Good of the Son, being he who belongs both to the Father and the Son. But, as Mediator between the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit must be considered both in a corporeal manner on one hand, and in a spiritual manner on the other: the Holy Spirit can only be considered as Mediator-Type insofar as he is the Spouse of Mary, that is to say insofar as he is simply similar to Her: she who, with her Spouse - in Christ - is but one spiritualized mediating body, or rather, a unique corporeal and spiritual mediator. So, understood in this sense, the Holy Spirit proceeds both from the Father and the Son (if we consider the Holy Spirit as a mediator of the corporeal order) while permitting, as power, the act of union of the Father and the Son by way of generation (if we consider the Holy Spirit as a mediator of the spiritual order).

However, as the Father is he who is "living" (Jn. 6:57), that is, he who is the source of the divine Life, we can consider the Person-Gift (the Holy Spirit) as the personal Good belonging to the Father inasmuch as the latter is he who gives Life. Similarly, as the Son is he who "lives because of the Father" (Jn. 6:57), that is to say, he who receives Life from the Father, we can say that the Son possesses the Person-Gift only insofar as he is united to the Father by the link of Life. In other words, the Son communes of the proper and personal Gift of the Father as a Good in fullness received from him: "All things have been delivered to me by my Father." (Mt. 11:27) Thus, the Holy Spirit, as the Mediator of Life between the Father and the Son, must be considered under a double aspect:

So it is clear that, in the Life of God, there is a link or a Mediator between the Father and the Son: it is the Person of the Holy Spirit, who appears under two joint aspects, which are indissociable and complementary.

By definition, every gift is free: every gift supposes love, which is the motive for which one person gives a gift or gives of himself. So, the relation within which the Holy Spirit, as Person-Gift, is given by the Father and received by the Son-Word - that is to say, the relation of generation, or the eternal and unique act of divine life - supposes a preliminary relation of love between the Father and the Son. As divine power can exist only in dependence to the relation of generation, and not in dependence to another relation, it follows that the aforementioned preliminary relation of love must be understood apart from any notion of power. However, any being deprived of power is reduced to possessing only a single perfection, that of existence. Thus, the preliminary relation of love between the Father and the Son can find its foundation only in the notion of existence.

A relation based solely on the notion of existence cannot take place among creatures. But in God, this is possible; it is even essential to the divinity: the three divine Persons are but one God, the unique divine nature is common to the three Persons. Thus, in the relation of love preliminary to the relation of generation, we must consider the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be identical with respect to their single nature, though different with respect to their persons. In other words, the Father is properly the Being or He who is; the Son is properly identical and similar to the Father, the "Image" of the Father (Col. 1:15); the Holy Spirit is properly the Love-Being. As the Gift of God is perfect and full, the preliminary relation of love between the Father and the Son is nothing other than the perfect Love between the perfect Being and his perfect Image.

In the analysis of the Life of God, we have thus established that there exists a relation of generation which is the unique Act of God: it is God acting; and a preliminary relation of love which is the Existence of God: it is God being. For God, being and acting are one and the same thing, so therefore these two relations are identical, except that the relation of generation is achieved with power, and the preliminary relation of love is achieved without power. Lastly, as God is eternal, these two relations are necessarily co-eternal, and the word "preliminary" is a distinction, made by our mind, but based on the reality. The Life of God must thus be considered solely from the point of view of the relation of generation, which must always be considered under its two aspects, that is, with and without power. Also, the Life of God is presented to us under its two aspects by the divine Revelation transmitted to the Apostles. Indeed, Saint John tells us that "God is Light" (1 Jn. 1:5): this is the Life of God with power, the fundamental aspect of the divine life as the source of life of the Church; and that "God is Love" (1 Jn. 4:16): this is the Life of God without power, the first and preliminary aspect of the life of God and the Church.

In the light of the Eucharistic text of John 6:57, the Holy Spirit, who is our particular subject in this Trinitarian study, has been presented as the Knowledge or the personified Life of God: he is thus the Good in fullness which the Father unceasingly gives to his Son, his sole and absolute heir, he who "always lives." (Hb. 7:25) And this enlightens us further concerning the act of Eucharistic communion: the Life of God manifested and communicated in the Eucharist is, finally, the personal Gift of Christ to his Church. The great Apostle of the divine Life testifies to this, saying: "God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life. I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life." (1 Jn. 5:11-13)

We have completed our commentary on John 6:57: the first part of this verse introduced us into the very heart of the divine Life, in the way God truly wanted to reveal it to us, through faith in his Word. If it please God, next time we will begin a parallel study, a longer one, which will deal with the divine life as God wants to share it with us. That will be the time to meditate more deeply upon Christ, for, in order to be transmitted to man, the Trinitarian life must go through an intermediary who is at once both God and Man: it must go through Christ, the Word of God incarnate.

Page n.7 about the Most Holy Trinity
 
 
 

Dear friends,
 
 
 

"When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman." (Gal. 4:4) The Most Holy Trinity is a Trinity of Love, and, in this infinite Love, He wanted to reveal himself to us in order for us to enter into participation in his own life. For this purpose, the Father sent into the world his own Son, who, through his Passion and his Resurrection, became our unique mediator before God, in the Spirit.

Sent by the Father, Christ-Mediator is the very first revelation of God-Trinity. By this very fact, we must begin to study of the mediation of Christ in order to be able to penetrate a little into the Mystery of the participation of man in the divine Trinitarian Life. Now Christ, as we know, is none other than the Word made flesh (cf Jn. 1:14): he is the God-man. But Christ is not a Mediator as God; he can only be such as man: "(Christus) verissime dicitur mediator, secundum quod homo." (In English: "Christ is truly called mediator inasmuch as he is man.") (Saint Thomas, Summa Theologica, IIIa, q. 26, a. 2, corp.) To understand the mediation of Christ, we must thus first study what man is.

We read in the book of Genesis: "God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.' " (Gn. 1:26) "It is as if he had said: 'Among visible creatures, there is not one with which we can communicate ; let us therefore make man, and we will be able to speak with him.' " (Venerable Father Louis du Pont - Meditations - Volume IV - p. 353) Thus, man appears to us, in the divine plan, as a creature able to converse with his Creator, able to exchange words with Him: the end of man is to speak with God. Now, the works of God "are always perfect, and he makes no creature to whom he does not give all qualities it needs in order to achieve its end." (ibidem - p 358) Thus, by basing ourselves on the end of man, which is to converse with God, we will easily be able to determine what man is, and what qualities he has received from his Creator in order to achieve his end.

God created man to speak with him. God created man in such a way that there might be established between himself and man an exchange of words, a colloquy. Now, "a colloquy is, properly speaking, the conversation of one friend with another." (St. Ignatius Loyola, Spiritual Exercises, n. 54). Thus, God created man to be his friend. But, he who is the friend or the beloved of God must be said to be in the good graces of God, he must have the grace of God. It is indeed the characteristic of grace that it renders us beloved by God: "Secundum communem modum loquendi tripliciter gratia accipi consuevit: uno modo pro dilectione alicujus: sicut consuevimus dicere, quod 'iste miles habet gratiam regis', idest rex habet eum gratum." (In English: "According to the common way of speaking, 'grace' is usually understood in three ways: first, according to the love of some person, as we are accustomed to say that 'this soldier is in the king's good graces', that is to say that the king holds him in favor, as a persona grata.") (Saint Thomas, Summa Theologica, Ia IIae, q. 110, a. 1, corp.) Thus, to speak with God, man must have the grace of God: this is fundamental.

Man was created in the image of God: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." (Gn. 1:26) Let us see how this passage from Scripture can be interpreted: "The Lord wished to say, by the word "make", that man was an intelligent creature, one capable of his friendship ; it is as if he had said: 'Among visible creatures, there is not one with which we can communicate ; let us therefore make man, and we will be able to speak with him.' O eternal Wisdom, who from the beginning of the world 'delighted in the sons of men' (Prov. 8:31), and who in a terrestrial body gave me a spirit capable of knowing you and speaking with you, grant me the grace of being able to enter into a state of familiarity with you, and to enjoy your conversation, since this is the end for which you have communicated to me the light of reason." (Venerable Father Louis du Pont - Meditations - Volume IV - p 353)

If we consider man in terms of his vital principle, i.e. his soul, we see that the latter resembles the uncreated Wisdom: "God created the soul of the first man out of nothing. This is what the sacred text expresses in the following way: He 'breathed into his nostrils the breath of life' (Gn. 2:7); this points out that the soul Adam received did not come from the earth, like his body, but rather from elsewhere, i.e. from the bosom of God. For, as the breath is nothing but air which comes from the lungs and exits from the mouth, one can also say that the soul, which is the masterpiece of the Creator, comes from his bosom, since his love produced it, and comes out of his mouth, since his almighty word gives it being. And it is in this way that it resembles the uncreated Wisdom which, as Scripture says, 'proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.' (Deut. 8:3 - Mt. 4:4)." (Venerable Father Louis du Pont - Meditations - Volume IV - p. 367) Now, the Wisdom of God is none other than the Person of the Word: "Filius ejus (Patris) sapientia ejus est" (In English: "The Son of the Father is his Wisdom.") (Saint Augustine - Rouët de Journel 1460) ; this Word is also the Image of the Father (cf. Saint Thomas, Summa Theologica, Ia, Q. 35) Therefore, man, in his supreme principle which is the soul, created in the image of God, resembles the Image of the Father who is the Word of God. So we can conclude that not only can man receive from God the communication of his words, but also that he is created to receive within himself the Word of God, his Word of Life.

Let us add that words, i.e. what the intellect has conceived, can be exchanged or communicated only insofar as the will intervenes in order to express and transmit them. Now, in God, there are "duae processiones, una per modum intellectus, quae est processio Verbi, alia per modum voluntatis, quae est processio amoris" (In English: In God, there are "two processions, one by mode of the intellect, which is the procession of the Word, and the other by mode of the will, which is the procession of love.".) (Saint Thomas, Summa Theologica, Ia, Q. 37, a. 1, corp.) ; the latter is the procession of the Spirit who is "Love". Thus, this conversation between God and man can only take place within a union of love, a union of the two wills, the divine and the human: "Just as the eternal Father, in contemplating his essence, produces the Word who is his Son, and then the Father and the Son, in mutual delight, produce love, who is the Holy Spirit ; thus our soul, when it applies its understanding to the contemplation of God, forms in itself a kind of Word, which is an image, though imperfect, of this great object ; and when, through its will, it tries to unite itself to him, it produced the chaste and spiritual love in which lies, according to Saint Thomas, its principal perfection, because it is what renders it similar to God." (Venerable Father Louis du Pont - Meditations - Volume IV - p 355)

Thus we see that man is able to receive within himself the Spirit of God, i.e. his Love, insofar as the Father communicates to him his Word.

We can thus conclude that man is created in the image of God in order to enter into communion with the Will of God who is his Spirit-Love, in the communication of his Word. In other words, man is the creature capable of contracting with God a Covenant of Love founded on the gift of the Word of the Father. Let us add that this same Covenant is entirely similar to that which unites the Three Divine Persons with each other: God created man in his image in order to be able to speak to him his Word of Love which He eternally speaks to Himself in the contemplation of his essence. Through the creation of man, the Mystery of the Trinity can be carried out "ad extra" (outside itself) and "in tempore" (in time) just as it does "ad intra" (in itself) and "ab aeterno" (from all eternity). Man was thus created in the image of God in order to be able to participate in the Trinitarian Communion, and thus to be an image of the entire Trinity: "Dicendum est, in homine esse imaginem Dei, et quantum ad naturam divinam, et quantum ad Trinitatem personarum." (In English: "We must say that, in man, there exists the image of God, both according to divine nature and according to the Trinity of persons.") (Saint Thomas, Summa Theologica, Ia, q. 93, a. 5, corp.)

Page n.8 about the Most Holy Trinity
 
 
 

Dear friends,
 
 
 

We saw last time that the Covenant between God and man is possible due to the fact that God created man in his image precisely in order to establish a Covenant with his creature. Not only is the Covenant between God and man possible, but its realization began "when the time had fully come" and "God sent forth his Son, born of woman" (Gal. 4:4); that is, when the Word of the Father was incarnated and the foundation of this Covenant, "that living stone, rejected by men but in God's sight chosen and precious" (1 Pet. 2:4), was established; in short: when he who had been awaited came, the Messiah or the Anointed One of the Holy Spirit, he upon whom rests the Person-Gift with the intention of communicating him to those who want to receive him as the Messiah.

"The Messiah (more than any other anointed personage in the Old Covenant) is that single great personage anointed by God himself. He is the Anointed One in the sense that he possesses the fullness of the Spirit of God. He himself will also be the mediator in granting this Spirit to the whole People. Here in fact are other words of the Prophet: 'The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted(...)' (Is. 61:1) The Anointed One is also sent 'with the Spirit of the Lord': 'Now the Lord God has sent me and his Spirit.' (Is. 48:16)... The Prophet presents the Messiah as the one who comes in the Holy Spirit, the one who possesses the fullness of this Spirit in himself and at the same time for others, for Israel, for all the nations, for all humanity." (H.H. John Paul II, Encyclical on the Holy Spirit "Dominum et Vivificantem" - first part - no. 16).

Christ is the divine and human Person who realizes in himself the foundation of the Covenant between God and man: through the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, the Holy Spirit is given to the whole world. First, the Holy Spirit was given to the one in whom the Word took flesh: the Virgin Mary. God inaugurated his Covenant with the creature par excellence, Mary of Nazareth, She who is Immaculate, without sin, the perfect Image of God. The Father sent his Son, his Word of Love, to the Virgin Mary so that, through the mediation of this same Son made flesh, his beloved creature might be forever sanctified in the Power of his Holy Spirit. But, since, within the Divine Trinity, the Holy Spirit is not only he who proceeds from the Father and the Son, but also, and first, he who allows the Father to beget his Son-Word, the Holy Spirit is not only the Gift received by man in his Covenant with God, but he is also, and first, he who makes it possible for the Father to bring to the entire world the Word of Love who is his Son. We will see all this in detail, distinguishing in this action three elements: one that speaks the Word of God, one that receives this same Word, and an intermediary between the one that speaks and the one that receives the Word.

"The angel Gabriel was sent from God ... to a virgin; and the virgin's name was Mary... And the angel said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.' " (Lk. 1:26-27, 35). Now, by the very fact that the Angel Gabriel addressed Mary in this way, God speaks his Word of Love to man: this is the first element, that which speaks the Word. Indeed, one can say that any Angel at the service of God is an agent of the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son by mode of will: "The one from whom the (annunciation) comes is God himself, who, deciding what to do with his creatures, and wishing only to satisfy his natural inclination to do what is good for men, is pleased to maintain with them a perpetual exchange through the intermediary of the angels who are his servants. So (the archangel Gabriel) is honored to do what God wishes." (Venerable Father Louis du Pont - Meditations - Volume I - p. 432-433). Moreover, by the fact that the angel who is sent by God to Mary is none other than the archangel Gabriel - that is, he who is named "power of God" - one can also say that, by the very content of the words addressed to Mary, the archangel Gabriel is an agent of the Holy Spirit, considered as power (active and passive), making it possible for man to receive the Word spoken by the Father: "He who is employed in this negotiation is an archangel so considerable that he is named Gabriel, that is, the power of God, in order to underscore the almighty virtue of the Lord who sends him, and the virtue of he who was to become Man; a virtue that one day would appear more visibly in the miraculous works of the incarnated Word, and in the servants he would choose to proclaim these wonders." (Venerable Father Louis du Pont - Meditations - Volume I - p. 433)

The second element, the one to whom the Word is announced, or the one who receives the Word of Love, is the Virgin Mary, she whom the Archangel Gabriel calls by a new name: "full of grace" (Lk. 1:28). Indeed, by the fact that Mary was Immaculate in her Conception, or "full of grace", she is similar to the heavenly Father and is thus an image of the entire Trinity: "God chose her to be pure and without stain in every way in which purity is possible for a mere creature. No sin was ever seen in her, nor even the shadow of a sin, because, as Saint Anselm says (De Concept. Virg., c. XVIII), in order to be the Mother of he who is purity itself, she needed to have a purity which yielded in perfection only to that of God. Since her Son, as God, has a Father who is essentially pure and completely impeccable, in the same way, as man, it was necessary for him to have a mother who, through a special grace, was free from even the smallest defect, so that the mother he had on earth perfectly resembled the Father he had in heaven." (Venerable Father Louis du Pont - Meditations - Volume I - p. 403). This second element is properly that which receives the very Word of God. This is what we note in the fact that Mary receives the Word from the Father by giving her assent to the words of the Angel and making them her own: "Her thought going to the very bosom of divinity, (Mary) addressed her reply not to the angel, but to God the Father, to whom she spoke in the following manner: 'Let it be to me according to your word', that is to say, not only according to the order the angel gave me on your behalf, but also according to the will of your Word, who is your eternal word, and who, while being your Son, wishes to be my son as well. May his will in this be perfectly accomplished." (Venerable Father Louis du Pont - Meditations - Volume I - p. 460)

The third element is the mediating element between the first and the second element. It must be, at least in a certain manner, at once both the Word spoken by the Father to man, and the Word received from the Father by man. Indeed, the communication of the Word from the Father to man is realized in virtue of the Power of the Holy Spirit. Now, this Power is as much active as it is passive. However, this Power, insofar as it is active, is proper only to God, who alone is Almighty. In the same way, this Power, insofar as it is passive, is proper only to man, who alone can go from power to act. Thus, in the communication of the Word from God to man, it is therefore necessary to have the intervention of a mediating element who is at once God and man according to the proper and exclusive relation of the Word of God given and received in the Power of the Holy Spirit. This mediating element is none other than the incomparable work conceived in God for all eternity: it is Christ, the incarnate Word upon whom the Spirit-Love rests in fullness. Christ is the Word given and received in whom each and every one of us can become a child of God in an eternal Covenant: "To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God." (Jn. 1:12)

Having thus analyzed what man is, we have managed to get a very exact notion of Christ: he is the Mediator, the "one mediator between God and men" (1 Tim. 2:5), the Mediator between the Holy Spirit - the spokesman for the entire Divine Trinity - and Mary. He is that absolutely unique Person, at once divine and human, who allows God to speak to men by revealing himself to them: "In His goodness and wisdom God chose to reveal Himself and to make known to us the hidden purpose of His will (see Eph. 1:9) by which through Christ, the Word made flesh, man might in the Holy Spirit have access to the Father and come to share in the divine nature ... Through this revelation, therefore, the invisible God ... out of the abundance of His love speaks to men as friends (see Ex. 33:11; John 15:14-15) and lives among them (see Bar. 3:38), so that He may invite and take them into fellowship with Himself." (Council of Vatican II, Constitution "Dei Verbum", no. 2)

Page n.9 about the Most Holy Trinity
 
 
 

Dear friends,
 
 
 

Last time, we saw that Christ, from the time of his conception, exercises his mediation between the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. Today, we will discover that Christ, because he is the son of Mary, confers upon his Mother a function similar to - but not identical with - his own: Mary, because she is the Mother of Christ, becomes the mediatrix between her Son - the Son of man - and all men created in God's image.

Let us begin by recalling that the proper function of the mediator is to be a union or Covenant between the extremes between which he finds himself: "Ad mediatoris officium proprie pertinet conjungere, et unire eos, inter quos est mediator, nam extrema uniuntur in medio." (In English: It properly belongs to the office of the mediator to join and to unite those between whom he interposes his mediation; for the extremes are united in the middle point.) (Saint Thomas, Summa Theologica, IIIa, q. 26, a. 1, corp.) Christ is thus, strictly speaking, the Covenant between God and Man, between the Holy Spirit and Mary.

What is especially important to notice is that this Covenant is contracted for the procreation of a Son common to God and man: he who will called the "Son of man " (Lk. 19:10). Thus, the Angel said to Mary: "You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High... The child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God." (Lk. 1:31-32,35) This Covenant, which is Christ, thus constitutes a spousal (or matrimonial) Covenant between the Holy Spirit and Mary. And so, the latter can be called the wife of the Holy Spirit: "The Holy Spirit had already come down upon her, and she became his faithful spouse at the Annunciation." (H.H. John Paul II, Encyclical "Redemptoris Mater", on the Mystery of Mary and the Church, no. 26) At the very moment when Christ began to exist, the Holy Spirit and Mary were thus joined by the insoluble bond of marriage.

As Husband and Wife, the Holy Spirit and Mary have "become one flesh." (Gn. 2:24 - Eph. 5:31): each of the spouses communicates to the other what is properly personal to him, though the members of the couple remain two distinct people according to their own nature. But, since the Spirit, who is God, does not have flesh, one can say that this same Spirit enters into Mary, to communicate to her what is personal to him. However, the Holy Spirit is the Person-Gift, which Gift is none other than the character of the Mediation of the Holy Spirit who reconciles the Father and the Son with respect to generation. Thus, by the very fact that, in the temporal generation of the Son of God, Mary becomes the wife of the Holy Spirit, this same Spirit communicates to Mary the character of the Gift which enables her to reconcile Christ and men with respect to generation. In other words: just as the Word, in his eternal generation by the Father, obtains for the Holy Spirit the Gift of self for the exercise of his mediation within the Divine Trinity, in the same way, the Word, in his temporal generation by Mary, obtains for the same Virgin Mary the Gift of self for the exercise of her mediation among the children of God in the world. Let us note that Mary receives this character in a "personal" way, while Christ, the Anointed One of the Holy Spirit, receives this same character in an "essential" way in virtue of the union of the essential Word with his humanity.

So we see that Mary exercises her mediation insofar as she acts as the wife of the Holy Spirit. But any marriage is validly contracted only if each member of the couple has the formal intention of procreating. The exercise of the mediation of Mary thus rests upon this intention to procreate. However, at the time when the Angel Gabriel came into Mary's presence, she did not have this intention; on the contrary, she had made a vow of virginity; which is proven by her question: "How shall this be, since I have no husband?" (Lk. 1:34) So the words the Angel uses to answer Mary are necessary in order for her to reconcile in her spirit the intention to remain a virgin and that of procreating. Moreover, it is in these same words (Lk. 1:35) that the Holy Spirit is named by the Angel as being the principle of this virginal conception. Thus, before becoming the wife of the Holy Spirit through the conception of Christ, Mary did indeed have the intention of procreating. In other words, Mary conceived Christ in her spirit before she conceived him in her flesh: "Congruum fuit Beatae Virgini annuntiari, quod esset Christum conceptura (...) ut servaretur congruus ordo conjunctionis Filii Dei ad Virginem ; ut scilicet prius mens ejus de ipso instrueretur, quam carne eum conciperet : unde Augustinus dicit in libro de Virginitate (cap. 3) : 'Beatior est Maria percipiendo fidem Christi, quam concipiendo carnem Christi' ; et postea subdit : 'Materna propinquitas nihil Mariae profuisset, nisi felicius Christum corde, quam carne gestasset.' " (In English: "It was suitable for it to be announced to the Blessed Virgin that Christ would be conceived (...) in order that a suitable order might be observed with respect to the union of the Son of God with the Virgin; that is to say, the mind of the Virgin should have been informed concerning the conception of Christ before that conception was realized in her body; this is why Saint Augustine says, in his book on Virginity: 'Mary is more blessed for receiving the faith of Christ than for conceiving the body of Christ'; and then he adds: 'The maternal relation would have been of no value to Mary if she had not been happier conceiving Christ in her heart than in her flesh.' ") (Saint Thomas, Summa Theologica, IIIa, q. 30, a. 1, corp.) But what it is important to note here is that at the moment when Mary conceives Christ in her spirit, Christ himself does not yet exist: it is in hope that Mary conceived Christ in her spirit. The hope of Mary was thus necessary in order for Christ to be truly conceived and in order that, in this way, Mary become a Mediatrix.

From everything that has been said to this point, we can conclude that the exercise of the mediation of Mary rests upon the exercise of the virtue of hope by which Mary receives and uses the personal Gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, received in the present life - the time of trial for hope (cf. Rm. 5:3-4) - the Holy Spirit is the pledge or the down payment of the blessed and eternal life, according to the following words of Saint Paul: "You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the guarantee of our inheritance." (Eph. 1:13) So hope is necessary in order to receive here on earth the Holy Spirit, a foretaste or pledge of eternal bliss. Saint Paul confirms this when he says, "Hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us." (Rm. 5:5)

This allows us to say that there is no other way to express our hope besides that of prayer, because prayer "is used to ask for and obtain the things we hope and wish for" (Venerable Father Louis du Pont, Meditations, Volume I, p. 353) and because it "gives man happiness on earth by providing him with a foretaste of heavenly bliss." (ibid, Tome IV, p. 594) This is why, after having received the necessary explanations from the Angel (cf Lk. 1:35-37), Mary expresses by means of prayer her hope to conceive Christ: "Let it be done to me..." (Lk. 1:38): "It is as if she had said, "Let it be done", because all my happiness lies in his will being done." (Venerable Father Louis du Pont, Meditations, Volume I, p. 459) ; in other words, by means of her "fiat", Mary expresses all the happiness which she already feels here on earth in the communion of the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son by mode of will. Hope, and its mode of expression, which is that of prayer, thus seem to us to be the foundation of the mediation of Mary.

Page n.10 about the Most Holy Trinity
 
 
 

Dear friends,
 
 
 

We have seen that hope, and its mode of expression, prayer, are the foundation of the mediation of Mary. Nevertheless, by the very fact that hope is expressed through prayer and through signs (the words that make up prayer), hope is only the exterior foundation of the mediation of Mary. For hope itself rests on faith. Indeed, Saint Paul tells us that we "hope for what we do not see." (Rm. 8:25) But, faith is "the conviction of things not seen." (Hebr. 11:1) Thus, we can say that hope is founded on faith, or even that "faith is the assurance of things hoped for." (Hebr. 11:1) Since hope obtains a foretaste of heavenly bliss, faith expressed by means of prayer, that is, faith joined to hope, obtains this same end.

An analysis of Hebrews 11:1 allows Saint Thomas Aquinas to say that "Fides est habitus mentis, quo inchoatur vita aeterna in nobis, faciens intellectum assentire non apparentibus." (In English: "Faith is a habit of the mind, a habit by which eternal life begins in us, so that the intellect adheres to what one does not see.") (Summa Theologica, IIa IIae, q. 4, a. 1, corp.) Similarly, Scripture tells us that, a few days after the Annunciation, Mary was acclaimed by her cousin Elizabeth with the following words: "Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord!" (Lk. 1:45) Additionally, the Council of Vatican II says: "By her belief and obedience, not knowing man but overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, as the new Eve she brought forth on earth the very Son of the Father, showing an undefiled faith, not in the word of the ancient serpent, but in that of God's messenger." (Constitution "Lumen Gentium", no. 63)

From this last text, it is clear that it is through her faith that Mary, the perfect image of the Father, received the Word of Love from the Father. However, this communication of the Word is an Alliance of the two wills, divine and human, having for its foundation the Word of the Father. So here the faith of Mary is the expression of her will. But faith, as such, resides "in intellectu sicut in subjecto" (In English: "Faith resides in the intellect.") (Saint Thomas, Summa Theologica, IIa IIae, q. 4, a. 2, corp.). Also, in order for faith to be a certain expression of the will, faith must be "informed" by charity: "Actus fidei ordinatur ad objectum voluntatis, quod est bonum, sicut ad finem: hoc autem bonum, quod est finis fidei, scilicet bonum divinum, est proprium objectum charitatis ; et ideo charitas dicitur forma fidei, inquantum per charitatem actus fidei perficitur, et formatur." (In English: "The act of faith is ordered to the object of the will as to its end, an object which is a good: now this good, which is the end of faith - that is, the divine good - is the proper object of love; and this is why charity is called 'the form of faith', inasmuch as, through charity, the act of faith is perfect and formed.") (Saint Thomas, Summa Theologica, IIa IIae, q. 4, a. 3, corp.) The exercise of the mediation of Mary is thus achieved through her faith and her charity expressed in the form of prayer: through her faith and her charity, Mary uses the Gift of the Holy Spirit, her husband. The living faith of Mary is thus properly the interior foundation of her mediation.

" 'The obedience of faith' (Rom. 16:26) is to be given to God who reveals, an obedience by which man commits his whole self freely to God, offering the full submission of intellect and will to God who reveals,' (Council of Vatican I, Constitution "De Fide Catholica" - Denzinger no. 3008) and freely assenting to the truth revealed by Him.' " (Council of Vatican II, Constitution "Dei Verbum", no. 5) This means that faith, insofar as it is manifested by a prayer, that is, by a response made to God, is the expression of the whole of the person who believes: "If it is true that faith consists in believing what God revealed, the Council very opportunely pointed out that it is also a response of the whole man, underlining the 'existentialist' and 'personalist' dimension of faith (...) In the knowledge gained by means of faith, man accepts as truth all of the supernatural and salvific content of Revelation; however, at the same time, this introduces him into a deeply personal relation with God, who reveals himself. If the proper content of Revelation is the "self-communication" of God, then the response of faith is correct insofar as, at the same time as he accepts as truth this salvific content, "man commits his whole self to God." Only complete "abandonment of man to God" constitutes an adequate response." (H.H. Pope John Paul II - general audience of March 27, 1985).

In virtue of the personal dimension of faith, if Mary exercises her mediation in virtue of her faith, it is her own person, that is, that which distinguishes her from every other human being, which makes it possible for Mary to be the mediatrix, in Christ, between the Divine Trinity and the Church. In other words, the whole of the very person of Mary, as God wanted her to be in his immense Love, provides a proper characteristic, a Marian dimension, to the divine Trinitarian Life revealed by the Father in his Son Jesus. Now, it is properly the name of a person which informs us about the characteristics of that human being, since a name is a "word or group of words serving to designate an individual and to distinguish it from among the beings of the same species." (Robert Dictionary) But, although the name "Mary" can inform us about the person of the Mother of God, we will not base ourselves on that name because it was given to Mary by her parents, Joachim and Anna, and, for this reason, it has a properly human origin.

As God is the Creator of man, he alone can perfectly know the being he has created, and thus he alone can give him his true name, that which designates him perfectly. This name given by God, insofar as it is a word, is founded upon the Word of God, as Isaiah says: "You shall be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord will give" (Is. 62:2), the mouth being the proper symbol of the "Son" (Isaac of Stella, Sermon 45 "For the day of Pentecost" - PL 1843 C). However, this new name is spoken particularly by the Holy Spirit: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it." (Rev. 2:17) Thus, when the fullness of time came, when the Father sent his Son, he who received "the name which is above every name " (Phil. 2:9), Mary heard the Holy Spirit to say to her through the ministry of the Angel Gabriel: "Rejoice, full of grace." (Lk. 1:28) The new name of Mary is thus: "full of grace".

Let us note the translation: "rejoice", which better highlights the presence of the Holy Spirit, he who, in a certain sense, is the "joy" of Christ (cf Lk. 10:21), he who is placed in our hearts in order to produce fruits of "joy" (Gal. 5:22): " 'Rejoice'. So it is with an invitation to joy that begins the greatest news God could announce to the world. And this joy of the Annunciation runs throughout the Gospel, from the shepherds of Bethlehem (Lk. 2:10) to the disciples of Christ: 'These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.' (Jn. 15:11) (...) The joyous salutation given to Mary is the materialization of all the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. In Mary, who is the point of culmination for the expectation of the Savior, joy reaches its fullness. The joy of Mary is all the stronger, given that the work of God in her is greater, miraculous: virginal maternity fills with joy she who is full of grace." (Roger Etchegaray, Cardinal-Archbishop of Marseille - March 25, 1979 - Diocesan bulletin - page 245).

We will continue this study of the name of Mary, and the circumstances in which it was given to the Mother of the Savior, next time.

Page n.11 about the Most Holy Trinity
 
 
 

Dear friends,
 
 
 

As I was saying at the end of my last page, in order to consider the proper content of the name "full of grace", let us examine all the circumstances in which this name was given to Mary. "To him who conquers I will give ... " (Rev. 2:17): to receive this new name, one must have fought, one must have achieved victory. This name is given " 'to those who conquer', that is, to those who overcome the devil, the flesh and the world; who triumph over tyrants; who overcome themselves; who persist until death in overcoming their own will, and mortifying their passions." (Venerable Father Louis du Pont, Meditations, Volume IV, p. 609) In other words, this new name is given to he who, by faith, "commits his whole self freely to God, offering the full submission of intellect and will to God" (Council of Vatican II, Constitution "Dei Verbum", no. 5); that is, to he who, by faith, unites his will to the will of God manifested to man through the Holy Spirit. This is why Saint John says that our victory is "our faith" (1 Jn. 5:4). Also, Saint Paul exhorts us to take "the shield of faith " (Eph. 6:16) in order to fight "the good fight of the faith" (1 Tim. 6:12). So we see that Mary receives a new name due to combat she underwent by means of the shield of her faith.

We saw that Mary required an explanation in order to agree to accept divine motherhood (see page no. 9). So this consisted of verbal combat, an oratorical contest, a battle with the messenger of God who is rightly called Gabriel or "Strength of God". With the discussion bearing on the temporal generation of the Word of God, and the Angel being the spokesman of the Holy Spirit, we see that the dialogue between the Angel and Mary is combat between the Will of God and the will of man, a fight concerning the Word of God. We know who the adversaries in this combat are: the Holy Spirit, acting through the archangel Gabriel; and Mary, "a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David." (Lk. 1:27) Thus there are still three more elements we must consider: first, what properly human obstacle can be opposed to the divine omnipotence; second, what is at stake, what is the goal of this combat waged by God against man - that is, what is "the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things" (Eph. 3:9); and third, what is the means used by divine Wisdom to overcome man's resistance and carry out his "eternal purpose" (Eph. 3:11). Consideration of these three elements will enable us to shed light upon all of the action, which is completely personal, of Mary Mediatrix in the mysterious act that is the participation of man in the divine Trinitarian Life. This is what we shall see today and in the next few weeks, as we continue our study of the Most Holy Trinity.

First, let us discover what, in Mary, prevents her from receiving the Word of Love of the Father. As an element receiving the Word, Mary is the Image of the Father: Mary, "full of grace", is the realization of everything that God wanted the human creature to be in his eternal plan. Now man, as the Image of God, was not created directly to unite himself in a carnal manner with a "helper fit for him" (Gn. 2:20), but rather to maintain with God an exchange, a spiritual communication. So, remembering that marriage is "laudable and necessary for the propagation of mankind" and that "its use is in itself carnal and coarse", Venerable Father Louis du Pont explains why Adam and Eve were not created at the same time: "Thus Eve was created after Adam in order for man to know his principal occupation is to communicate with God, to contemplate his greatness, to love him, and to do on earth what the angels do in heaven." (Meditations, Volume IV, p. 371) Now, we know that Mary had taken a vow of virginity. More precisely, Mary took this vow while she lived in true religious life in the Temple of Jerusalem: "As soon as Mary entered the Temple, she prostrated herself on the ground, adored the divine Majesty, and forever devoted herself to his service. She did not do as other girls did, who devoted themselves to him only for one year, or ten; she offered to remain there until death (...) This glorious Virgin then did something which was both new and agreeable to God: she devoted her body to him through a vow of perpetual virginity. The author of such an unprecedented project was undoubtedly the Holy Spirit; but she carried it out with incredible devotion and enthusiasm." (Venerable Father Louis du Pont, Meditations, Volume I, pp. 416 and 420)

Mary is thus the perfect image created by God. So, when the Angel announces to her: "You will conceive in your womb and bear a son" (Lk. 1:31), Mary opposes to him her vow of virginity (cf Lk. 1:34). Now, opposing one's vow of virginity means, in a certain sense, opposing one's faith. Indeed, here on earth, we obtain a foretaste of heavenly bliss on the one hand through faith (as we have already mentioned above), and on the other hand through a vow of virginity or any religious profession in general, for "the great saint Basil says that religious profession is a change of life, but a change from a natural and human life into one that is similar to that of the blessed (Reg. VIII, ex fusis et de Constitut. Monast. C. XIX); so that anyone who knows how one lives in heaven also knows how religious live. Indeed, religious take possession, in this life, of 'the kingdom of God', which the Apostle says consists of 'righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit', from whom comes all these goods with which religion fills her children." (Venerable Father Louis du Pont, Meditations, Volume IV, p. 560) Thus one can say that any religious vow taken by a person is the highest expression of his faith: "One may, with reason, apply to religious what the Apostle says of the Saints of the old covenant. Religious, 'moved by a strong faith, give up', like Abraham, 'their country and their family'; they are strangers in the world, and they 'look forward to the city which has [unshakeable] foundations, whose builder and maker is God' (Heb. 11:8)." (Venerable Father Louis du Pont, Meditations, Volume IV, p. 562)

So we see that, when Mary speaks with the Angel, she expresses the opposition of her faith, which prevents her from receiving the Word of Love spoken by the heavenly Messenger. But it should be noted here that this opposition of the faith of Mary involves two different, though absolutely inseparable, aspects. As a perfect image created by God, Mary, through her vow of virginity, has consecrated herself totally to God, both body and soul. This is what the Holy Spirit said in the Scriptures concerning his future wife: "A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a garden locked, a fountain sealed." (Cant. 4:12) "He tells her twice that she is a locked garden because she is equally pure in her body and in her soul." (Venerable Father Louis du Pont, Meditations, Volume I, p. 420) So, the faith of Mary, which is expressed by her vow of virginity, possesses a double aspect: one, founded on the virginity of the soul, is spiritual; the other, founded on the virginity of the body, is corporeal; and as the soul and the body are absolutely inseparable, though different from each other, these two aspects of the faith of Mary are also inseparable and cannot exist without each other. When Mary opposes her faith to the words of the Angel, this opposition must therefore always be considered according to its double aspect, spiritual and corporeal.

We will continue next time, if God wills...

Page n.12 about the Most Holy Trinity
 
 
 

Dear friends,
 
 
 

Last time, concerning the Incarnation of the Son of God in Mary, we wanted to discover what properly human obstacle Mary, a simple creature, could oppose to the divine omnipotence. Today, we will see what is the prize and the goal of this combat waged by God against man, that is, what is "the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things" (Eph. 3:9).

In the mystery of the Annunciation made to Mary, God spoke to man his Word of Love. Once the Son of God was made flesh of the Virgin Mary, the latter became, by participation, a Word of God and an adoptive child of God. From the very instant of the Incarnation of the Word, Mary participates in the divine Trinitarian Life which is the Word itself, the "Word of Life" (1 Jn. 1:1). However, as we have seen in the preceding pages, the divine Trinitarian life belongs to the three divine persons according to two distinct relations (according to a distinction, made by our mind, founded on the reality): a preliminary relation of love, and a relation of generation (see page no. 6). These two relations are thus found in the participation of the human creature - in this case, Mary - in the divine Trinitarian life. Since Mary first conceives Christ in her spirit, and then in her body (see page no. 9), it is clear that Mary, in the Mystery of the Incarnation, participates in the divine Trinitarian life both in her spirit and in her body: Mary realizes in fullness what the Church effects each day in the Eucharist in communing spiritually and corporeally of the Bread of Life.

However, one absolutely cannot deny that, to be able to take part in the divine Trinitarian life, the very existence of Christ-Mediator is necessary, because he is the sole Mediator between God and man. Thus, when Mary spiritually participates in the divine Trinitarian life even before the Incarnation of the Word and the existence of Christ-Mediator, it can only be according to a certain relation. As the spiritual participation of Mary in the divine Trinitarian life, on the one hand, and her corporeal participation, on the other hand, are distinguished according to the notion of time, one may say that, if Mary receives the Word of Love of the Father before the Incarnation of the Word, she can only do so in "hope". Thus Mary becomes, in Christ, a Word of God, first in hope, and then in reality, at the time of Incarnation of the Word.

In the Divine Trinity, the Son of the Father is (according to a single distinction, made by our mind, founded on the reality) "at first" the Image of the Father, and "then" the Word of the Father: the Son of the Father is the Image of the Father according to the relation of love, and the Word of the Father according to the relation of generation (see page no. 6). Consequently, Mary, the perfect - created - image of the Father, receives the Word of the Father into her spirit in a properly personal way, in a way that fully corresponds to her condition as a creature and image of God. Even if the body of Mary receives the Word of God, this same body can participate in the divine Trinitarian life only if the soul and the spirit of Mary truly participate in it. It is the same during Eucharistic communion: he who communicates by eating the Bread of life solely with his body does not participate in the divine life of the Son of God, for only spiritual communion can obtain for the body, and - first - for the soul, the benefit of participation in the life of God. Consequently, in the conception of the Son of God according to the flesh, Mary can become a Word of God only in "hope", a mode which characterizes, intrinsically, her spiritual union with the Son sent by the Father.

In the Mystery of the Incarnation, Mary, the image of God, receives within her spirit the Word of the Father in "hope", she becomes a child of God, not by essence according to eternal generation, but by participation according to the temporal generation of the "Son of God" (Lk. 1:35): Mary becomes the "Body of Christ", "one of its members" (1 Cor 12:27). But, as we have just pointed out, since Mary is a perfect image of the Father, she becomes a perfect member of the Mystical Body of Christ: Mary "is hailed as a pre-eminent and singular member of the Church, and as its type and excellent exemplar in faith and charity." (Council of Vatican II, Constitution "Lumen Gentium", no. 53) "In the most holy Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she is without spot or wrinkle." (ibid, no. 65) As a human person who receives the Word of the Father, Mary thus realizes in herself a perfect member of the Church.

But there is more. Indeed, while receiving the Word of the Father, Mary becomes a Mediatrix: through her faith, the foundation of her mediation, Mary receives and uses the character of the Gift of the Holy Spirit (see pages no. 9 and 10). As the faith of Mary is "an undefiled faith" (Council of Vatican II, Constitution " Lumen Gentium ", no. 63), that is, a perfect faith, Mary receives the character of the Gift in perfection. However, this notion of Gift fully contains within itself the notion of the mission of the Son sent by the Father, according to the following words: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son." (Jn. 3:16) Thus, Mary, by receiving the Word of the Father, received in perfection, through her faith, the Mission of the Son sent by the Father. But, by the fact that a person receives in himself, through faith, the Mission of the Son, this same person becomes the Church: "The pilgrim Church" - in the vision of faith - "is missionary by her very nature, since it is from the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit that she draws her origin, in accordance with the decree of God the Father." (Council of Vatican II, Decree "Ad Gentes", no. 2) "This mission goes on and in the course of history unfolds the mission of Christ Himself." (ibid, no. 5) This is confirmed by the words which Christ addressed to his Father when speaking of the Apostles, the foundations of the Church: "They know in truth that I came from thee; and they have believed that thou didst send me." (Jn. 17:8) Thus, one can say that Mary, by receiving in perfection the character of the Gift, or in other words by receiving, in herself, the Mission of the Son in perfection, Mary becomes the Church in perfection.

But it is important to note that Mary does not become the Church in perfection for herself, but rather for the other members of the Church. Indeed, through the reception of the character of the Gift, or the Mission of the Son, Mary becomes Mediatrix. Mary, in the Mystery of the Incarnation, can be called ambassadress of all mankind: indeed, she represents each and every man and woman who will ever have lived on earth, from the creation to the end of time. On this subject, Saint Thomas Aquinas declares: "Congruum fuit Beatae Virgini annuntiari, quod esset Christum conceptura, (...) ut ostenderetur esse quoddam spirituale matrimonium inter Filium Dei, et humanam naturam : et ideo per annuntiationem expectabatur consensus Virginis loco totius humanae naturae." (In English: "It was suitable for it to be announced to the Blessed Virgin that Christ would be conceived (...) in order to show the existence of a certain spiritual marriage between the Son of God and human nature; this is why, through the annunciation, we expected the consent of the Virgin in the name of all human nature.") (Saint Thomas, Summa Theologica, IIIa, q. 30, a. 1, corp.) Moreover, by its very nature, a mediator does not act for itself, but rather for the extremes which it unites. Finally, as Mary receives the Word of God spiritually and in "hope", Mary must act as mediatrix for each and every one of the human persons who await redemption, until the end of time: her hope bears her intention all the way to that final moment when there will be no more time. Thus, Mary, by receiving in perfection the character of the Gift, becomes the Church in perfection for the other members of the Church whom she unites with Christ and with each other: Mary, in becoming Mediatrix, realizes in herself all the Church in perfection, the Church understood as the fullness and the totality of the members of the Mystical Body of Christ.

So we see that the revelation God makes of himself in Luke 1:35, a revelation which consists in an explanation given to Mary to reduce the opposition of her faith, has for its goal not only the conception of the body of Christ, a conception that is properly corporeal, but also and especially the conception of the Mystical Body of Christ, a conception that is properly spiritual. It is therefore the conception of the Total Christ, both Head and Body, that the Holy Spirit wants to accomplish with Mary his Spouse. That is the prize and the goal of this combat waged by God against man, that is "the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things" (Eph. 3:9).

In conclusion, we can now understand in a more profound manner the following sentence of Saint Augustine, which we had quoted earlier: "Beatior est Maria percipiendo fidem Christi, quam concipiendo carnem Christi." (In English: "Mary is more blessed for receiving the faith of Christ than for conceiving the body of Christ" (Lib. De Virginitate, cap. 3 - cited by Saint Thomas - see page 9). Mary was more blessed in conceiving in her spirit "many brethren" (Rm. 8:29), "heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ" (ibid. 8:17), than in conceiving the unique "Son of God" (Lk. 1:35).

Page n.13 about the Most Holy Trinity
 
 
 

Dear friends,
 
 
 

In my penultimate page on the Most Holy Trinity, that is, page no. 11, I wrote: "Thus there are still three more elements we must consider: first, what properly human obstacle can be opposed to the divine omnipotence; second, what is at stake, what is the goal of this combat waged by God against man - that is, what is 'the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things' (Eph. 3:9); and third, what is the means used by divine Wisdom to overcome man's resistance and carry out his 'eternal purpose' (Eph. 3:11)."

Of the three elements which have just been mentioned, two were considered in pages no. 11 and no. 12 respectively. We will now consider the third element, in this and in the following pages, giving the reader, at the same time, the opportunity to remember everything that has already been said concerning the mediation of Mary in relation to the participation of the human creature in the divine Trinitarian life.

Let us immediately say that the means employed by divine Wisdom to overcome the human resistance of Mary - who objected with her vow of virginity when God, through the intercession of the Angel Gabriel, proposed to her that she become the Mother of the Savior - is none other than the following words of the Angel Gabriel who, in the name of the Lord, said to Mary: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the Holy one to be born to you will be called the Son of God." (Lk. 1:35)

This English translation of Luke 1:35 is quite good, for it renders very well the text of Saint Jerome in the Vulgate: "Spiritus sanctus superveniet in te, et virtus Altissimi obumbrabit tibi. Ideoque et quod nascetur ex te Sanctum, vocabitur Filius Dei." Let us note that Saint Jerome opted for the complementary Greek version "EK SOU" (which it translated into Latin by "ex te"), who is not found in all manuscripts. However, it has a certain importance, as we shall see below.

Luke 1:35 is comprised of two distinct sentences connected to each other with a conjunction: "Therefore" (In Latin: "Ideo"), which means in this case: "This is the reason why". The choice of this word is very appropriate: it expresses that the second sentence is the explanation of the first. Indeed, the first sentence speaks to us above all of the Holy Spirit and Mary, that is, the principles or causes entering into action to bring about the conception of Christ. The second sentence describes to us what the result, or the effect, of the principles or causes mentioned in the first sentence will be: this second sentence speaks to us almost exclusively about Christ. Now, any cause is known by its effects. It follows that knowledge of the contents of the second sentence is intended to explain and to clarify the contents of the first sentence. Thus, we will begin this commentary on Luke 1:35 with an analysis of the words of the second sentence.

Saint Jerome highlighted, through the use of a capital letter, the principal word of the second sentence of Luke 1:35: "Sanctum", "the Holy one". There is no doubt concerning the identity of this "Holy one": it is Christ, the incarnate Word. But this principal word is qualified with a complement: "to be born to you", an expression which, at first sight, is quite surprising under the circumstances. Indeed, Mary has just pointed out to the Angel that she "knows not a man" (Lk. 1:34). Now, a woman requires a man in order to conceive a child within her, but not in order for her to give birth to her offspring. So, the reply of the Angel does not seem to correspond to Mary's question, since the content of this reply advances us in time and leads us directly to the mystery of the Nativity of Christ.

So let us see what took place nine months after the event of the Incarnation. "In those days ... Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem ... to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son." (Lk. 2:1-7) In the mystery of the Nativity, Mary "gave birth to her son", that is, Mary gives Christ to the world, to this world made up of "all the people" of God, of whom the Angel speaks in his discourse with the shepherds near Bethlehem: "I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." (Lk. 2:10-11) In other words, Christ comes into the world through Mary: he is given to his People through the mediation of his Mother. Thus, in the mystery of the Nativity, Mary acts as a Mediator between Christ and the People of God: the very person of Mary, within whom Christ was enclosed, serves as an intermediary between the Son of God made flesh and all the People of God. So we can see why Saint Jerome thought it good to add the expression "EK SOU" (from you) in the second sentence of Luke 1:35: the Nativity of the Lord highlights the very person of Mary.

By the fact that the Father sends his Son into the world, the Covenant between the Divinity and human nature is concluded and exists in the Person of Christ. And, in the Mystery of the Nativity, by bringing Christ into the world, one can say that Mary transmits, from the Head to the members of the Mystical Body of Christ, the Covenant between God and his People. In other words, through Mary, the Covenant between the Divinity and human nature extends from the Person of Christ to each one of the persons who make up the People of God. By this very fact, this determines what is the foundation of the mediation of Mary: it is the Covenant in Christ. Considered as the "one mediator between God and men" (1 Tim. 2:5), Christ is the foundation or the initial term of the mediation of Mary.

This foundation has existed since the Incarnation of the Word, since "the time had fully come" (Gal. 4:4). But this same foundation was revealed and manifested in the world only at the time of the birth of Christ. Thus, the Annunciation made to Mary alone at the Incarnation receives its extension at the Nativity. This is what the Christmas Liturgy testifies to in the following antiphon: "Angelus ad pastores ait: Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: quia natus est vobis hodie Salvator mundi, alleluia." (In English: "The Angel said to the shepherds: I announce to you a great joy: today is born to you the Savior of the world, alleluia.")

But what is important to note here is that, at the precise time when Christ was born, there was but one person present: Joseph, "of the house and lineage of David" (Lk. 2:4). He is the first person to benefit from the mediation of Mary: Joseph is the first to welcome, through Mary, the Covenant between God and man realized in Christ. And if he is the first, it is because Mary became his wife (Lk. 2:5) and he became the husband of Mary: so Joseph has the right and the duty to assist Mary and to be with her at that supreme moment when "she gave birth to her first-born son" (Lk. 2:7).

Joseph, the husband of Mary, is the first person to receive within himself the Annunciation made to Mary. In other words, Joseph is the first or the "prince of his brothers" (Gn. 49:26). As it belongs to the Apostles to have been established as "princes of the whole world" (Ps. 44:17), Joseph is to some extent similar to the Apostles, although he never received the powers which were proper to the Apostles themselves. But, regarded as the first who was called to participate, through Mary, in the Covenant in Christ, we can consider Joseph to be an integral part of the apostolic college.

However, since Joseph was absolutely the only person present at the Nativity of Christ, Joseph comes before all other Apostles, and, in this sense, he can be called the model of the Apostles. Everything that applies to the Apostles can thus be applied first to Joseph, and in particular the following text: "That which was from the begi