By the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man

We bow our heads when we recite this article of faith during the Mass.

Literally translated from the Greek, the phrase is: “He took flesh from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made human.”

Did the Son of God assume merely human flesh or the entirety of human nature?

The Alexandrian theological school followed the Logos – Sarx (Word – Flesh) pattern, as seen in the Prologue to the Gospel of St. John: “The Word became flesh.” 

However, this approach can be misleading. The Son of God not only took flesh from the Virgin Mary, but also fully assumed human nature, including the human soul, intellect, will, and psyche.

To more fully articulate the reality of the Incarnation, the Antiochian school preferred the Logos–Anthropos (Word – Human) pattern: “The Word became man.”

Some early heresies can help highlight the truth of the Church’s teaching on the Incarnation of the Son.

Docetism claimed that the Son of God did not truly take on flesh but only appeared to do so. 

Adoptionism taught that Jesus was born fully human and later adopted by God as His Son, typically at his baptism or resurrection. 

Monophysitism held that the divine nature absorbed the human nature, so in Jesus Christ, there was only one nature, the divine nature. 

Nestorianism posited that there were two separate persons in Christ, one human and one divine.

Monothelitism asserted that Christ had only one will, the divine will, effectively denying the human will.

In contrast, the Nicene Creed affirms that the Word united to himself, in his divine person, a true human nature:

As a person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God possesses both divine and human natures – having a divine intellect and will, as well as a human intellect and will, animated by a rational soul.

According to his divinity, the Son is begotten of the Father before all ages; and according to his humanity, he was born of the Virgin Mary.

Mary’s virginity is of paramount importance. Jesus was conceived solely “by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary”, without the intervention of a man.

God is the only Father of Jesus. On behalf of God himself, it is the angel Gabriel who names Mary’s son: Jesus.

Mary is the second Eve. Through the word of the Annunciation, the second creation takes place. The early Fathers preached, “The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience; what the virgin Eve bound through her unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened by her faith.”

The early Church gave Mary the title " Theotokos," meaning "God-bearer." She is called the ‘Mother of God,’ not that the nature of his divinity received the beginning of its existence from the holy Virgin,

but because the holy body, united to the Word of God in the hypostatic union, was born from her. Therefore, the Word is said to be born according to the flesh.

The Incarnation is not an idea to ponder or a spiritual principle to admire. It is a reality. It happened. Faith is not something we feel on Sundays.

It is something we live. So, when you stand this Sunday, and say the words: “Was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary…”

Pause. Let yourself feel the weight of it, and take that blessing into your day-to-day life.