Incarnate De Spiritu Sancto: Aquinas on the Holy Spirit and Christ’s Conception

Abstract

Incarnate De Spiritu Sancto: Aquinas on the Holy Spirit and Christ’s Conception Dominic Legge O.P “She was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit.” (Matt 1:18) “And the angel said to her, ‘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.’” (Luke 1:35) THE GOSPELS OF Matthew and Luke connect the conception of Christ to the Holy Spirit. Likewise, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed professes that “by the Holy Spirit,” the only-begotten Son of God was “incarnate of the Virgin Mary.” But what, precisely, does this mean? Some scholars have recently found important clues in other allusive passages of sacred Scripture to the conception of Christ.1 In Exodus, the cloud “abode upon” the tent of meeting, “and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle (Exod 40:35).”2 Might the words of the angel Gabriel allude to that mysterious cloud associated with the Holy Spirit, the descent of which accompanies the presence of the Lord (the child who is God and man) [End Page 173] in his tabernacle, the womb of the blessed Virgin?3 One might think of the opening lines of Genesis, with their references to “the Spirit of God” who “was moving over the face of the waters” (Gen 1:2), and to the breath of God that brought the clay of Adam’s nature to life. Might Gabriel’s words refer to this life-giving Spirit, active in the first creation of Adam, now also active in the first moment of the new creation in Christ?4 Indeed, one might rightly wonder whether Gabriel’s message—“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,” and “the power of the Most High will overshadow you”—makes reference to all three persons of the Trinity, for St. Paul tell us that the Christ the Son is the Power of God (1 Cor. 1:24), and the Father is the Most High.5 Saint Thomas Aquinas was highly interested in these sorts of references to the persons of the Holy Trinity. He regards the conception of Christ not only as a Christological mystery, but as a Trinitarian one as well, where the Holy Spirit’s action is at center stage. Unfortunately, his account of the Holy Spirit’s place in Christology is seriously underappreciated, leading to a common critique that Aquinas does not say enough about the Holy Spirit.6 Some contemporary exegetes and theologians approach [End Page 174] this mystery as if Aquinas’s traditional claims about Christ’s supernaturally elevated human knowledge and power leave little place for the Holy Spirit’s role in Christology.7 Rightly understood, however, Aquinas offers a scripturally and dogmatically satisfying and coherent solution: a rich Spirit-Christology.8 The Holy Spirit’s role is absolutely indispensable in the mystery of Christ in general, and, as this article will show, of his conception in particular. Yet Aquinas accounts for this without compromising the central place of Christ’s identity as the Word, or endangering the consubstantial unity of the triune God. In examining Christ’s conception, we will see this Spirit-Christology at work and will discern some of its features. This article has four sections: a preface, followed by a three-part analysis of Christ’s conception de Spiritu Sancto. The preface identifies the theological frame within which Aquinas sets this subject. From there, the first main part discusses the preparation of the Blessed Virgin Mary for this wondrous conception. The second part then examines Aquinas’s account of the Spirit’s presence and activity in Mary at Christ’s conception. Finally, the third part outlines the Holy Spirit’s role (and those of the other divine persons) in bringing about the conception of Christ, [End Page 175] understood as the first moment of the visible mission of the Word. Taken together, these sections will enable us to answer the question: What does this mystery of Christ reveal about the Holy Spirit and, indeed, about all of the persons of the Holy Trinity? I. A Preface: The Theological...