The seventh century Church Father, Saint John of Damascus seems to be the first to write of Mary as spouse of God the Father. In his treatise on the Assumption, he states that, "It was fitting that the spouse whom the Father had taken to himself, should live in the divine Mansions"5. Some medieval writers, such as Rupert of Deutz and Ubertino of Casale continued to use this image, as did Saint Lawrence of Brindisi 6. Mary's "espousal" to the First Person of the Trinity became a popular area of discussion in the Ecole Francaise, a seventeenth-century French school of theology/mariology 7. Jean-Jacques Olier, a member of this school, seems to have written on this topic more than any other writer 8. Here are some samples of his (somewhat exaggerated) views on this subject:
God the Father, as a holy and faithful husband, wants to unite the most holy Virgin to himself and give her the perfect possession of his Person, his treasures, his glory and all his goods" 9.
For God the Father...wills that, in the mystery of the Incarnation, Mary should be his true and unique spouse, since he has destined her to be, with himself, the principle in the temporal generation of the Word, to do with him, in the Incarnation, what he does alone in eternity" 10.
(The Father) conceives for her all the affection of a spouse" 11
This concept seems to derive from the fact that Mary and God the Father share the same Son - the latter eternally and the former according to the flesh. It probably seemed fitting to these writers to speak of a "marriage" relationship between Jesus' Heavenly Father and earthly Mother.
الله الأب كزوج مخلص و قدوس يريد أن يضم العذراء الأكثر قداسة لنفسه و يمنحها ملكية تامة لشخصيته و كنوزه و مجده , و كل بره و استقامته .
الله الأب أراد فى سر التجسد أن تكون مريم زوجته الحقيقية و الفريدة لأنه اختارها لتكون و إياه مصدر للتولد الدنيوي للكلمة و لتفعل معه فى التجسد ما كان يفعله وحيدا من الأزل إلى الأبد .
فإن الأب يحمل لها كل أحاسيس و محبة الزوج .
و يبدو أن هذا المفهوم نتج عن حقيقة أن مريم و الله الأب يشتركان فى نفس الابن , الله الأب من الأزل للأبد أما مريم فبحسب الجسد . فيبدو أن هؤلاء الكتاب بدا لهم أنه من المناسب أن يتحدثوا عن علاقة زوجية بين الأب السماوى ليسوع و أمه الأرضية .
المفضلات