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How was Mary able to become the mother of Jesus, able to conceive and give birth to God himself? She herself asked how it would be possible, so we know from the answer the angel gave. Gabriel told her that it was a unique relationship to the Holy Spirit made possible by a unique gift of grace.
And the angel said to her in reply, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God (see Luke 1:35).
Eve had been intended to become "the mother of all the living" but the choice of sin and the victory of the serpent tainted everything such that those who were born of Eve were born to a life that was at best partial, not the true life God intended from the beginning. God recognized that this situation could not be allowed to stand. Even from the very beginning he gave that promise that the serpent wouldn't win, and that just as his initial apparent success came through a woman so too would his ultimate defeat come by way of a woman.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
He will strike at your head,
while you strike at his heel.
Mary was the woman established by God to strike at the head of the serpent and she was equipped by God with grace for this task. Her mind was not tainted by suspicion of God as Adam's was. She was not deceived by serpent as was Eve. She would not pridefully decide for herself to seize fruit that looked too good to ignore. She was not intimidated by devil, and therefore was not moved to prefer herself to God as both of our first parents chose to do. Adam and Eve were asked to prefer God to themselves and they chose themselves. We as their children inherited the tendency to do the same. But Mary was invited to choose God's will rather than her own, and to prefer his understanding to hers, and she responded, "Be it done unto me according to thy word". What those words expressed was her will to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, allowing him to fill her.
Then he said to the disciple,
“Behold, your mother.”
It was at the cross when it became possible for the Spirit to be poured out not only on a few but finally on all flesh. The sin that had been stopping the flow of that living water was finally and permanently addressed. At the same moment it become truly possible for the Spirit filled mother of the Son to become our mother as well. She herself was perfectly present to her Son during his Passion, so much so that a sword pierced her own heart as she watched him suffer. Just as the lance made water flow from the side of Christ so too did this mystical sword make Mary a source of the Spirit for others. Just as Mary had, so too could we enter into the motherhood of total abandonment to the will of God. What only the Spirit made possible for Mary could now be possible for us as well.
but one soldier thrust his lance into his side,
and immediately Blood and water flowed out.
It was therefore no accident that Mary was with the disciples in the upper room at Pentecost. It was really the case that the upper room became, in virtue of her prayer, a Spirit-filled womb in which the Church was born. The Spirit that overshadowed Mary at her fiat was now unleashed by the Cross to flow into the entire Church. This is why Scripture calls Mary the mother of all Christians, "her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (see Revelation 12:17).
If perhaps our Pentecost didn't live up to our expectations, if we have not yet experienced all that others have said should be possible by the Spirit in our own lives, perhaps we need to spend more time in prayer with Mary. She herself desires to nurture this true and Spirit-filled life within us.
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