LEARNING TO LIVE UNDER THE HOLY SPIRIT

By Most Rev. John J. Lehman, S.S.B.

THE HOLY SPIRIT AND MARY THE MOTHER OF GOD

A priest asked the Professor of Art at a college in New Orleans,
"How does an artist portray the Holy Spirit?" He said, "that's an
easy one to answer! The painter merely paints a figure for the
Father first and then for the Son.  Between the two the artist uses
the color blue to portray the Holy Spirit.  That special area then
between the Father and the Son is colored blue as the sign of the
presence of the Holy Spirit."

Isn't that interesting.  In the West the Virgin Mother of God is
usually illustrated with a blue cape that veils her head and
tumbles down over her shoulders to reach her bare feet, a sign of
her humble submission.  The overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, at
the announcement of the conception of Jesus in the Virgin Mary by
Gabriel, is thusly usually portrayed by Western Christian artists.
In answer to Holy Mary's question to the Messenger of God, Gabriel,
"How can this be since I do not know man?" The angel answered, "The
Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you; hence the Holy offspring to be born will be called
Son of God." (Luke Chapter 1, Verse 35) Statues and paintings of
the Virgin Mary are mostly liveried in the West then with the color
blue for the Holy Spirit.

In constrast, the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit is not usually
shown in this manner in the East.  The Virgin Mother is invested in
a red garment to demonstrate her queenship, "the water and the
spirit and the blood are one." Blood, of course, is a royal red.
There are silver or gold stars placed on the clothing of Mother
Mary one on the forehead and one on each shoulder to demonstrate,
both before, during and after the Birth of the Christ Child, she
remained forever a virgin.  She seldom, if ever is shown without
the Child Jesus in her arm, to make certain everyone will recognize
Jesus is Man as well as God.

At Lourdes in France and at Fatima in Portugal her garments were
dazzling white to show her untainted purity.  At Medgugorje in then
Yugoslavia she wore primarily grey vesture to show her spirituality
as Mother of us all.  The Archangel Gabriel left Mary with these
words after telling her of the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.
"Know that Elizabeth your kinswoman has conceived a son in her old
age" (verse 36).

The Holy Spirit has Many Surprises


Demonstrating her complete submission to the Word of God given by
the Archangel and illustrating to us all her complete love under
the power of the Holy Spirit, Mother to be, Mary, hastens to her
cousin Elizabeth. Immediately Holy Mary again meets the presence of
the Holy Spirit, "When Elizabeth . . . filled with the Holy Spirit
cried out . . . blest are you among women and blest is the fruit of
your womb," (Verses 41 and 42) Mary responds that "all ages to come
will call me blessed." (Verse 48) And so all ages call her always
the "Blessed Virgin Mary." Mary is confirmed now completely in the
Message of Gabriel.

Surprise heaped upon surprise, everyone wondering how everyone else
got the word of God under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Even
Zachariah's first words when his tongue was loosed, (he having been
struck mute by the angel nine months prior to the birth of John the
Baptist, his son) were spoken under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit.  At the naming of the Baptist Zachariah his father, "filled
with the Holy Spirit, uttered this . . . . And you, O child, shall
be called the prophet of the Most High for you shall go before the
Lord to prepare straight paths for him." (Verses 67 and 76) After
the Birth of her Divine Son and the visit of the shepherds, "Mary
treasured all the things and reflected on them in her heart." (Luke
Chapter 2, Verse 19)

Others Learn under the Holy Spirit

As enjoined by the writings in the Old Testament, "every first born
male shall be consecrated to the Lord" (Luke Chapter 2, Verse 23),
Joseph and Mary took the child Jesus to the temple at Jerusalem.
Entering the temple, the Holy Spirit was upon Simeon - the Spirit
had revealed to him he would not experience death until he had seen
"the Anointed of the Lord." He took the child Jesus in his arms and
blessed God.  "The child's father and rather were marveling at what
was being said about him.  Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his
mother, 'this child is to be the downfall and the rise of many in
Israel, a sign that will be opposed - and you yourself shall be
pierced with a sword - so that the thoughts of many hearts may be
laid bare'."

We are those many hearts to be laid bare.  The West concentrating
on the suffering Mary point out her heart's seven sorrows or dolors
with which we are all familiar.  But it should be pointed out there
is more than suffering in the mystery of Mary's pierced side.  Just
as there is much more than suffering portrayed in the Mystery of
Christ's lance-pierced heart as he hung upon the cross.

Holy Mary's Pierced Heart

St. John of the Cross and St. Theresa of Avila are the two primary
mystics the Western church turns to when plumbing the deep and
significant mystery of Mother Mary's pierced heart.  In prayer says
St. Theresa an angel at the command of God comes to the side of
those whom God has chosen to have their hearts pierced.  The angel
pierces the side with a dart - an extremely painful experience. The
white hot sharp blade of the dart is the Holy Spirit.  The blade is
the Son of God himself.  God the Father is the shaft bearing the
thrust.  This is the symbolism used by St. Theresa. The Veil of the
heart is pierced also in others.  It is much like the veil of the
Jerusalem temple -- torn in two at the death of Jesus that opened
the Holy of Holies, the place where God dwelt in the temple, so all
mankind could have access to or enter into the presence of God.

With white hot heat the Holy Spirit as cutting edge cauterizes all
the impurities and wounds of sin in the heart and heals them so
that God can dwell totally in each unblemished chamber, nook and
cranny of the heart.  In every instance thereafter when the pain
begins again, the soul is impelled to pray.  During prayer the
spirit of a person again is reminded of his sinful, prideful and
hurtful lack of love.  One's thoughts, as the saintly Simeon put
it, of the heart "are laid bare" to God.

St. John of the Cross says this internal wounding is equivalent to
the external stigmata (the wounds of Christ) some saints have (such
as Padre Pio).  To put in more modern terms an angel with a lazer
of Love pierces and penetrates to the very depths of the heart
burning out all unwholesome impurities of the heart - like a doctor
excises a cancer out of a person.  However, the love lazer of the
angel (as does the doctor's instrument) at the same time
cauterizes, seals and heals the cancerous wounds of sin so that God
can live in a totally immaculate dwelling.  All 'is accomplished in
a person prayerfully in Love with God.  In this is woman or man
fulfilled. The words of Jesus are manifestly realized in St. John's
Gospel, "If any man loves me my Father will love him and we will
come to him and make our abode with him." Or quoting the great St.
Paul, "Do you not know you are temples of the Holy Ghost and the
Spirit of God dwells in You." Or again from St. Paul, "I live, now
not I but Christ lives in me."  Further, "God is love and who
remains in Love remains in God and God in Him."

All these gifts God lavished on the heart to reveal to oneself and
perhaps others the "thoughts of many hearts." There was also at the
Presentation of the child Jesus in the temple a prophetess, Anna by
name, about eighty-four years old.  "She was constantly in the
temple, worshipping day and night in fasting and prayer.  Coming on
the scene, she gave thanks to God and talked to all who looked
forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem." (Luke Chapter 2, Verses
37 and 38)

When Mother Mary revealed much of her heart to St. Luke (the least
all can say about the Holy Mother, probably only thirteen or
fourteen years old at the time), "We wonder how all these people
Elizabeth, Zacharia, even Joseph, the shepherds, Simeon and Anna
found out about the child." At the time she spoke about it to the
sacred authors, she had a lifetime of pondering these mysterious
operations of God in her heart.

Further Revelations of the Holy Spirit in Mary

After Jesus was lost in the temple when he was about twelve years
old, it comes crystal clear to all how Mary, operating always under
God's Holy Spirit, revealed to the Evangelists of Scriptures the
significance of all these happenings.  And herein lies the lesson
for us in our dealings with the Holy Spirit.  It comes with Mother
Mary's response when she found her lost twelve year old in the
temple.

Jesus used to go with his parents every year to Jerusalem for the
feast of Passover.  On their way back to their home, as you
remember, after three days they missed their son and returned to
Jerusalem to find him.  "Why did you search for me?", was the reply
of Jesus to his mother's agonizing query: "Did you not know I had
to be in my Father's house." (Luke Chapter 2, Verse 49)

Mother Mary's reaction upon the return to Nazareth to this
traumatic incident is extremely vital for our own growth in
holiness.  "She kept all these things in her heart." (Verse 51)
Through her memories we learn to react to things in our own life.

Let me introduce a lighter note into this most serious of spiritual
happenings.  A priest was sent to Catholic University by the Air
Force for an advanced degree.  Ten years previously, as a
Seminarian, he had prayed to go to such a place where he could take
Theology in English instead of Latin.  Ten years after getting a
graduate degree, the priest finally realized it was his prayers of
twenty years previously that were finally answered.  For years he
had pondered in his heart why when he got up from his morning
prayers, God, those two decades before, had flooded him with
consolation as He told the student he was going to a Latin speaking
theologate (where they not only taught in Latin but required four
hours of Latin exams each semester for each course for four long
years).  The priest had kept all this in memory in his heart of
hearts for a score of years before he could praise God for
answering his prayers.

"Dumb priest," we could certainly say!  However, it sometimes takes
that long before our experiences of the memories of our hearts are
finally interpreted by God or his angel for us.  Certainly Mother
Mary had many exciting surprising, frightening, puzzling and even
disheartening experiences.  Sometimes, "it is an awesome thing to
fall into the hands of the Living God."

A priest in the Philippines was talking about spiritual things to a
young mother of three children.  This prayerful person and the
priest were talking about the piercing of the heart of our Lady,
among other spiritual things.  Suddenly, in complete surprise she
blurted out that it happened to her.  She was in prayer when she
got a terrible pain in her heart.  She thought she was having a
heart attack!  Thereafter, whenever the pain returned she just had
to pray or the pain would get more intense.  She said to herself
finally "I don't know what is happening but each time I get this
pain I seemingly have to pray.  The experience taught me to pray
better and more often."

The priest with whom she was planning a Religious Education
teachers' retreat then recounted what a prayerful priest told him.
At age forty-three he was making an eight-day retreat according to
the Ignation method taught by the Jesuit Fathers.  On the second
day of retreat in an afternoon meditation he suddenly had this
terrible, sharp, acute pain in his heart.  He arose thinking, "if
I'm going to die I want to be in front of the Blessed Eucharistic
Presence of Jesus in the Church." Arising he reached for the door
and the cutting, keen pain hit him again much harder this time.

As quickly as possible, next day he went to a hospital.  After
numerous tests the doctors told him there were no signs of a heart
attack.  They didn't know what it was.  Many a moon afterwards when
the pain of much lesser intensity but more often came, he too found
it led him to pray more frequently and attentively.  The fruit of
the retreat was, "that he must make a Holy Hour of Prayer daily
even in his busiest times." The only change in his hour of prayer
schedule thereafter was to shift frorn early morning to late at
night, "when I reached my sixties."

Several years later, the same priest reading St. John of the Cross
and St. Theresa of Avila and in discussion with different spiritual
people - someone in the group rather pugnaciously stated "Well
then, Father, that's what occured in you!  Your heart was pierced
like it happened to the Blessed Mother and you better begin to
praise God for it." Sometimes priests aren't too bright, was the
next thought that came to the man of God.

It really would be a false humility not to admit the truth to God's
goodness and great blessings.  The Mother of Jesus said it best
"for God who is mighty has done great things for me, holy is.his
Name." (Luke Chapter 1, Verse 49) Jesus said "The truth shall make
you free." Free to worship, adore and glority the Lord God, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit for the great things the Holy Trinity has done
for us.  Not to admit the "great things" God has done detracts from
this honor, praise and thanksgiving due our God: "For thine is the
Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever and ever throughout
endless ages of ages, Amen." God's gifts and holiness are given
first and foremost for His honor and glory.  People with these
gifts manifest to others the majesty of the gift giver.

Blessings for Us Lesser Mortals

What of us who have not seen the Blessed Lady in those many places
in which she is appearing today, such as in Spain, in Syria,
Medgugorje in Croatia, in Venezula, Switzerland and many other
places?  What of us who have never had a mystical experience, whose
hearts have not been pierced by the command of God to His angels.
Even before Our Lady's side was Pierced with a sword the angel
said, "Rejoice . . . the Lord is with You." The Lord is with us
too!  Since our baptism and thereafter through the Sacrament of
Penance the Lord is with us - until the end of time!  Though we
might never have seen, heard, touched, felt or experienced His
presence, God entered into our hearts and dwells there Father,
Son.and Holy Spirit by Faith, in hope and in love.  "Do you not
know you are temples of the Holy Ghost and the Spirit of God lives
in you?  If any man loves him, my Father will love Him and we will
come to him and make our dwelling place in Him." We have only to
look to our Lady after her Son's Resurrection. we must learn to
pray as she, who is the model for all Christians, prayed before her
dormition, her sleep, when she was assumed into Heaven.  Jesus
taught his disciples to pray.  When we look at our Lady praying we
know she prayed to the Father in the Name of her Divine Son in the
power and the strength, the love, the joy and the peace of the Holy
Spirit.  Through prayer she established that perfect personal
relationship to the Father and the Holy Spirit she had with her
Son, Jesus, true man and true Son of God, prior to his ascension
into Heaven.  Mother Mary worshiped the Father, Son and Holy Ghost
in a direct individual, personal affinity to each of the three
Persons of the Trinity, distinguishing and recognizing each Person
separately as she prayed and as well their self identity in the
Unity of the One God.  Thus she worshiped in Spirit and in Truth.
Thereafter, she ernestly importuned for us her children, impelled
by a mother's love.  We can do no better than imitate her example
in prayer to the triune God as we pray in the Name of the Father
through the Divine Son and in the Holy Spirit.  So May It Be!


Bishop John