Illuminating The Immaculate Conception; Mary’s Marriage-Part II

A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives (1 Cor. 7:39)

If Jesus was born by an act of sacred matrimonial consummation, would the Holy Spirit engage an act of fornication or adultery? Mary must have been consummated in a marriage that would last eternally because her Spouse is The Eternal One.

Mary’s Marriage to the Holy Spirit  

Therefore, Mary’s marriage to the Holy Spirit did not end after Jesus’ birth or when Mary’s earthly life ended. Mary remains united to God in matrimony for all eternity because the marriage does not end until the death of her “husband”.  When the Spouse is the Eternal One, no “death” is possible – the marriage is thereby sustained by the vow of the Eternal. Their union embraces the absolute and unchanging perfection and eternal indissolubility of a vow of matrimony taken by God Himself!  Mary’s relationship with the Holy Spirit thereby contrasts the marriages the rest of us experience on earth.  Earthly marriages end when “death do us part”:

For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect, they will be like the angels in heaven. [Mt. 22:30]

What About Saint Joseph?

Catholics believe Mary remained “ever-virgin” and never had more children. Conjugal relations with Joseph would have been an act of adultery.  Assuredly, Joseph was the “betrothed” of Mary on earth.  He fulfilled that role as protector and patron of Mary and of Jesus.  Joseph was Mary’s loyal and “most chaste spouse”; the earthly companion chosen by God for Mary to be the steward of her earthly and household needs.  He was confirmed in that role by the angel that appeared to Joseph (not Mary) in a dream and told to take the child and his mother to Egypt. Together, Joseph and Mary lived together chastely and undoubtedly with due affection as “angels in heaven”.  No couple was better suited to raise the Son of God:  Jesus’ parents were more angelic than earthly.

Joseph also served another important role in fulfilling the prophecy. Joseph’s bloodline in St Matthew’s gospel follows the royal lineage of the House of David traced through Solomon. Joseph’s betrothal to Mary permitted Jesus to claim the inheritance of the earthly Kingdom of David (the royal lineage) through Joseph by adoption as Joseph’s legal heir. That was significant and expedient because the Davidic royal lineage had been cursed by God because of the wickedness of one of David’s heirs, King Jeconiah as recorded in Jer 22:30:

“Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah.”

Jesus’ claim to David’s throne could not be directly accessed via bloodline without invoking this blood curse on the royal line of David. Instead, Jesus’ rightful claim to the Davidic royal lineage was obtained via adoption, not blood.  God’s plan for His Messiah was precise in every detail from the beginning.

But let’s not stop here.  We’ve saved the best for last. A third “jaw-dropping” implication is now illuminated.  What we are about to suggest takes us to the very limits of what can be confirmed by logic, but perhaps less by denominational predisposition or reflexive emotion.  What follows remains within the boundaries of orthodox Christian belief. But our intellectual fabric will have to stretch mightily to encompass the conceptual logic of the miraculous reality we have explored so far.

The Sacrament of Matrimony

Jesus gave us a very specific teaching on marriage:

“…and the two [husband and wife] shall be united into one. Therefore, now they are not two, but one…” (Mk 10:8).  

This teaching was so important that it was repeated verbatim in Mt 19:5, a duplicative emphasis not easily dismissed. It wasn’t a new teaching.  It had been previously confirmed before Christ’s coming in Gen 2:24 and after Christ ascended by Saint Paul in his famous analogy of Christ and the Church becoming “one flesh” in Eph 5:31-32.

In God’s perspective, the Sacrament of Matrimony forms an intimate union of beings such that the two become as “one”.  Will the same Holy Spirit, who inspired the Holy Scriptures, carve an exception to those texts for Himself?  God’s precepts are eternal and all-encompassing.  As such, they confirm God’s Truth in His own actions and the benchmark for ours.  The Second and Third Persons of the Trinity have witnessed to this Truth that “the two shall become one”.  We will not oppose those witnesses or their evidence.  So stipulated.

Lourdes, France

With this in mind, we turn to Lourdes, France – a Marian apparition that bears plentiful objective confirmations of miraculous origin: the inexplicable cures obtained at Lourdes for over 100 years are both prolific and extensively documented by the most rigorous scientific scrutiny. No secular challenge has yet proven successful in denying them or their authenticity.

It was in Lourdes on Thursday, March 25th, 1858 that Mary first announced and confirmed by her own utterance a very unique and specific identity: “I am the Immaculate Conception”.  She was.  But she was also a created creature.  Therefore, she was the created Immaculate Conception.

And here we turn to yet another “coincidence” – her Spouse is also an Immaculate Conception!  Recall that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son!  The Spirit is a third, uncreated and eternal Person “conceived” by the emanation of love between the other two Divine Persons of the Trinity.  The Holy Spirit admits equally and fully of the Divine nature of both of those Persons.

Sounds like a “procreation” concept, doesn’t it?  But this Divine emanation occurred outside of time and space – there was never a time where the Father and Son existed where the Holy Spirit did not also exist. They are all co-eternal in the Godhead.  As such, Arian heresy finds no application here – there is no chronological precedence defined between any of the Divine Persons of the Trinity. But the point is well-taken.

The Holy Spirit 

In this “procreative” simile – to the degree we dare encompass the mystery of emanative generation within the Godhead within any fragile human concept – we begin to understand that the Holy Spirit is actually the uncreated Immaculate Conception. That was a theological leap, wasn’t it?  Hopefully, nobody got hurt…

Mary, as the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, brought forth Jesus in a legitimate act of marital procreation with Divinity.  That procreative union was a consummation that bound them together as spouses: “the two are become one” forever and for all eternity.

Two Are Now One

This “two are now one” ideal in application to the Holy Spirit and Mary also embraces another duality evidenced in their shared identities – they are both Immaculate Conceptions!  One created.  On uncreated.  There is both singularity and synergy defined not only by their matrimonial union– but also in the “parallel” essences of this complementarity:  the two are joined as one Immaculata in the eyes of God!  They share unity in matrimony as they also share unity in this unique identity – created and uncreated.

Mary, in turn, is perfectly obedient to her Husband’s will – to the point where she enjoys a seamless union with the will of the Holy Spirit. Mary has no sin, therefore no disobedience.  We bring to mind the admonition of St. Paul that seems to bother so many women less graced than she who is the Immaculate Conception:

Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. [Eph 5:22-24]

Mary has a relational intimacy with the Holy Spirit known to no other created being – whether human or angel – on earth or in Heaven. It is exclusive – the Holy Spirit acknowledges no other spouse but the Virgin who is the Mother of the Son.  Mary consummated no other marriage except with the Holy Spirit.

As such, Mary speaks only as the Holy Spirit speaks. She is subject to her Husband. Mary cares for His “household” and looks faithfully and diligently after His affairs and His Children (the Church).  She is loyal.  She is obedient.  She is ever-faithful and always doing that which pleases her Spouse. Always.

In fact, Mary is the perfected reality and confirmation of every “virtuous wife” archetype commended to us in the Holy Scripture.  As the spouse of the Holy Spirit, Mary enjoys an honor that no other mere mortal human being may dare presume or assume:  in her marital union she is joined to and becomes “one together” with Him by God’s own decree.  

In that fullness of their consequent and completed union of both created and uncreated persons, they become a single “Immaculate Conception”. 

Mary is not divine; she remains human.  But in the profound elevation and attribution enabled by reason of her matrimonial unity with her Spouse, Mary stands confirmed as closer to divinity in her attribute, honor, and function than any other created being can-  or ever will – become.  

She is the Queen of Heaven because she is the Spouse of God the Holy Spirit who reigns over Heaven and Earth.  No other human being will ever bear the profound title of the “Immaculate Conception” and the honor and devotion rightfully attributed to her unique dignity throughout all of time and eternity.

With this, we rest our case.

Guest Contributor: Mike White is a Catholic convert, a real estate investment banker, lawyer, Cursillista and father of four boys. Having navigated an Exodus from California, he now lives in Castle Rock, Colorado with Mary Jo, his wife of 36 years. Mike teaches RCIA  at his parish and writes on contemporary faith and economics issues.