mariologydogmati00pohl - Carmel Apologetics

DIGNITY OF DIVINE MOTHERHOOD 19
Holy Ghost, because He is the product of the
joint spiration of the Father and the Son. 10
this capacity she has been aptly compared to a
spouse,—an analogy adumbrated by the Apostles'
Creed when it says that Christ "was conceived
by the Holy Ghost." This appropriation ex-
cludes the cooperation of a human male and rep-
resents the fruit of Mary's womb as a supernatu-
ral product. 11
Catholic theologians and the Church in her liturgy illus-
trate this sublime relation between the Blessed Virgin and
the Holy Ghost by quotations from the Canticle of Canticles.
The " Spouse " is sometimes explained to be Mary,
sometimes the Church, and sometimes the human soul. 12
Thus we have seen that Mary is the mother of
the Divine Logos, the daughter of God the
Father, and the spouse of the Holy Ghost. What
mortal mind can form an adequate conception of
this threefold dignity? Need we wonder that
some ecclesiastical writers exalt it as ineffable
and compare it with the inscrutability of the Al-
mighty Himself? Thus Bishop Basil of Seleucia
(d. about 459) says in one of his sermons: "As
it is impossible to conceive and utter God, so the
stupendous mystery of the mother of God tran-
scends every intellect and tongue." 13
lOCfr. Pohle-Preuss, The Divine § 18, Münster 1876; H. Zschokke,
Trinity, pp. 168 sqq., St. Louis Die biblischen Frauen im Alten
1912. Testamente, § 41, Wien 1882.
11 Semen divinum. 13 The passage occurs in the
12 Cfr. B. Schäfer, Das Hohelied, thirty-third of the Sermons (\070t)
In