Daily Reflections ...

On the eve of the Second Vatican Council, theologian Yves Congar explained that Catholics have tended to “functionally replace the Holy Spirit with Mary.” It’s as though Mary became conflated with the third person of the Trinity. Though to replace the Holy Spirit with Mary is a serious theological error, Mary herself guides us out of such confusion. What we find in the Annunciation, among many things, is Mary’s masterclass on how to respond to the Holy Spirit.

In today’s Gospel, the angel of the Lord explains that Mary has received the Lord’s favour and will conceive and bear a son: “the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God.”

That is an immensely confronting piece of information. In other words, the Holy Spirit will completely disrupt the life she was expecting to live. She would give birth to the Son of God, but she’d also bear the sorrow of his persecution and crucifixion.

Though Mary had just heard that God wanted to disrupt and change her life completely, her response is incredible and instructive: “let what you have said be done to me.” Far from Mary replacing the Holy Spirit, Mary teaches us how to say ‘yes’ to the Holy Spirit. She teaches us that when we say yes to the Holy Spirit, our lives will change, a whole new adventure will begin, there may be great joy, and there may at times be great sadness, but when we say yes to the Holy Spirit, Jesus is brought forth.

Just as Mary’s yes to the Holy Spirit led to her conceiving Christ, so when we say yes to the Holy Spirit, Christ is brought forth in us – that is to say – we are transformed into the likeness of Christ. That’s what the Holy Spirit does.

In these Lenten days, the Spirit leads us to follow Mary’s example and open ourselves completely to the Holy Spirit.

by Dcn Peter Pellicaan