On Pentecost Sunday, much could be said about this day itself and about the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church. I would like, however, to say a few words about what the Holy Spirit did for one particular woman, for it was the Holy Spirit who made Mary the Mother of Jesus, as well as Mother of the Church.
This approach does many things: It honors the Holy Spirit and honors Mary during this, her month of May. Likewise, it honors all Christians who have taken seriously the work of the Holy Spirit after the example of Mary. Indeed, Our Lady and the Church are mirror-images of each other. What the Holy Spirit did for her, He also does for His Church.
St. Luke makes a point of noting Our Lady’s presence among the disciples as the infant Church awaited the outpouring of Pentecostal power. Pope Benedict XVI “connects the dots” for us:
It is the time of awaiting the Holy Spirit who came down on the nascent Church powerfully at Pentecost. The Church’s tradition of dedicating the month of May to the Virgin Mary harmonizes very well with both these contexts, the natural and the liturgical. . . .At the same time, she is the humble and discreet protagonist of the first steps taken by the Christian community: Mary is its spiritual heart since her very presence among the disciples is a living memory of the Lord Jesus and a pledge of the gift of His Spirit.
In speaking of May as Mary’s month, the great convert-cardinal of the nineteenth century, Saint John Henry Newman observed that the month of May:
belongs to the Easter season, which lasts fifty days, and in that season the whole of May commonly falls, and the first half always. The great Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord into Heaven is always in May, except once or twice in forty years. Pentecost, called also Whit-Sunday, the Feast of the Holy Ghost, is commonly in May, and the Feasts of the Holy Trinity and Corpus Christi are in May not unfrequently. May, therefore, is the time in which there are such frequent Alleluias, because Christ has risen from the grave, Christ has ascended on high, and God the Holy Ghost has come down to take His place. . . .Here then we have a reason why May is dedicated to the Blessed Mary. She is the first of creatures, the most acceptable child of God, the dearest and nearest to Him. It is fitting then that this month should be hers, in which we especially glory and rejoice in His great Providence to us, in our redemption and sanctification in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.
All of Mary’s greatness as a Christian can be traced to the fact that the Holy Spirit came upon her, and that Mary lived in the presence of God, continuously aware of His presence in her life. Our Lady cooperated with the Spirit’s promptings and lived in loving obedience to God’s Word, always saying “yes” to God. Mary the Virgin heeded the Lord’s plan for her, and she became fruitful. Mary’s life was an on-going hymn of praise to the Father; she was a woman of peace and joy because she gave the Spirit of God free rein in her life. Quite justifiably, then, does the Church often refer to her as the Spouse of the Holy Spirit.
When the Virgin of Nazareth first received the Spirit into her heart, she did not keep Him to herself; she immediately went forth to share that experience and its meaning with others. She also realized that a life in the Spirit involves service to others; therefore, not considering her own precarious situation, she went through the rough hill country to tend to the needs of her elderly and pregnant cousin, Elizabeth.
What does all this have to do with us? A great deal, for what happened in the life of the Mother of the Lord can and must happen in our own lives. Each of us has received the Holy Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation, but have we done anything with the Spirit? Are we more peaceful, loving or joyous for having received those sacraments? If not, paraphrasing Shakespeare, we can say that the fault is not in the sacraments but in ourselves, that we have not activated the power of the Spirit in our lives.
On Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, we look at the first and greatest Christian who ever lived, knowing that what the Spirit did for Mary, He will do only too gladly for each one of us. Jesus said, “Thus you will know them by their fruits.” (Mt 7:20) We know the fruit Our Lady brought forth: “Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”
Am I possessed by God’s Spirit? Have I brought forth Christ to the world in which I live?
The greatest event in human history was the Incarnation as the Son of God from all eternity took on flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary when she uttered her fiat (“Let it be done unto me according to thy word”), with the result that the Holy Spirit overshadowed her.
She repeated that fiat at the foot of the Cross and was made the Mother of the Church as her dying Son declared to the beloved disciple: “Behold your mother!” At every celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, it is good to ask her to be present once more, as we ask the Holy Spirit to overshadow the gifts of bread and wine as He overshadowed her, making our own the beautiful and touching prayer of Cardinal Newman:
O Holy Mother, stand by me now at Mass time, when Christ comes to me, as thou didst minister to Thy infant Lord – as Thou didst hang upon His words when He grew up, as Thou wast found under His cross. Stand by me, Holy Mother, that I may gain somewhat of thy purity, thy innocence, thy faith, and He may be the one object of my love and my adoration, as He was of thine.
__________
