Woman of Revelation 12
It is apparent that the once common reference to Mary among Catholics as "the feminine face of God" has been suppressed since Vatican II. Some modern, feminist theologians are perfectly happy with the status quo of a marginalized Mary. Yet they are not satisfied with the lack of feminine names and imagery used for God and the excessively patriarchal language that has dominated Christianity. Instead of focusing on Mary as Queen of Heaven, they seek to feminize the Holy Spirit. This seems to me to signify a failure to connect the theological dots.
The problem is solved if one follows the Marian teachings of St. Maximilian Kolbe, who understood Mary as the "quasi incarnation" of the Holy Spirit. The union of the Blessed Mother with the third person of the Trinity is not equivalent to the hypostatic union of the human Jesus with the divine Son of God. He often clarified that Jesus' mother is completely human (though she partakes in the divine nature of her Son, as do all heavenly saints). Yet the union between Mary and the Spirit is so profound as to make them function as one being, while each retains her own, personal nature. Together they provide motherly intercession in the work of the salvation of humankind. Both have traditionally been given the title, Advocate by the Church. Kolbe saw Mary as bride of the Holy Spirit, but more specifically as divine Sanctuary.
In my spiritual contemplation I have come to the same conclusion as Catholic writer Thomas Merton, that the spirit Sophia of the Wisdom Books of the Bible is the ousia of God, contained in each member of the Trinity. In my own words, Sophia is the feminine nature of God at the heart of the Trinity, who is revealed most perfectly in the Holy Spirit and manifested personally in the Virgin Mary and cosmologically in Ecclesia, Holy Mother Church. For this reason it is fitting to refer at times to the Holy Spirit as "she", the immanent Mother-Love of God who indwells all members of the body of Christ. Now we can understand Mary as revealing the feminine face of God, in her role as Mother of God and Mother of the Church. A choice does not need to be made between Mary in her full cosmological presence and the naming of the Holy Spirit, when appropriate, as the "feminine" member of the Godhead (always keeping in mind that God is pure spirit, neither male nor female). The two concepts, in essence, are complementary, together revealing the mystery of the sacred feminine.
