(Galatians 4:14)
For centuries the Church has been repeating those very words, filled with grandeur and majesty, “et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine,” the mystery of the Incarnation. He was made flesh “in” and “of” Mary, the Virgin, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
That means that this flesh that the Word assumed was “made” by the direct creative power of the Holy Spirit, and not by any normal biological process. And so the dogma (and the Scripture) moves forward affirming that this creative operation of the Holy Spirit is realized concretely “in” Mary and “of” Mary. The Latin preposition “ex” means substantially more than our preposition “of.”
The exceptional intervention of the Holy Spirit not only has not dispensed from the normal maternal generational activity but has expressly requested it. There is a mutual collaboration between the Holy Spirit and the maternal activity of Mary: one in the other, and the other next to the one. As Scheeben (Madre y Esposa del Verbo, Descleé, Bilbao, 1955) says with much precision, Mary was truly the principle of the humanity of Christ, although subordinated to the Holy Spirit, and acting under His power, both of them acting as one. This activity of Mary implies a biological and spiritual collaboration.
Following Scripture, the dogma excludes the natural fertilization in one way and affirms in another way the generational activity of the Mother.
Contrary to the human way of conception where the father’s paternal seed contributes to the formation of the corporeal substance, Jesus’ conception and generation was divinely different. This collaborative action was effected through the exceptional activity of the creating power of God on the human gestation, and was received uniquely by the Mother Mary.
According to Scriptures, that operation consisted of an “invasion” of the Holy Spirit acting through His Divine power. (Luke 1:35) To describe that action Holy Scripture uses most beautiful words when it says that Mary was overshadowed by the power of the Holy Spirit. These are noble expressions which call to mind certain natural elements whose action leaves intact the principal acted upon, such as does light, fog or mist…
In summary, in this process of generation, the Holy Spirit is mysteriously the agent Who calls forth His creative potency emanating directly from divine power of the Most High God.
The virginity of Mary is a symbol, personification, and model of the virginity of the Church, above all, of that definitive and celestial Church, which is nothing else but a countless multitude of virgins whose love reaches its fullness. Sexuality is no more; having been transcended and surpassed where there will be no more marrying or being given in marriage. There is now a new homeland, a new order and a new love. Christ has transformed everything. The Transformer was to enter the world in a different and virginal manner. He was to live and die in that same way. “I make everything new,” says the Apocalypse.
Extracted from the book “The silence of Mary” by Fr. Ignacio Larrañaga
