SPSA Church Giving (opens in a new tab)

Questions & Answers

Hypostatic Union

Faith Q&A › Metropolitan Youssef › Our Lord and the Faith › Hypostatic Union

The question

In His Holiness' book The Creed, in the section Of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary, H.H. Pope Shenouda III states:

The answer

"Of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary: The Holy Spirit descended hypostatically into her womb.

It is an exception because the Holy Spirit does not descend hypostatically on humans, but He descended on the Virgin Mary for two reasons: first that the Lord Christ might be in her womb through no man, and second, to sanctify her womb so that the baby born of her might not inherit the original sin.
 
Thus, her conception of the Lord Christ was an immaculate conception."
What does H.H. mean by hypostatically here? Does he mean Hypostatic Union (of the human nature and the divine nature of Christ)? What is the difference between hypostatically in this quote and hypostatic in Hypostatic Union?

The meaning here differs in the sense that the Hypostatic Union of the Logos with the Holy Trinity is eternal; but hypostatically (is used here as an adverb to describe an action), the union with humanity occurred in the incarnation and the immaculate conception of Christ.

Answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab)

Related questions

Questions answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab) of the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. Question 1719 on the Diocese’s Q&A site. Questions and answers © Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States. All rights reserved.