If Mary be holy, who is it that sanctified her but her Divine Son? If she be saved, who was her Saviour but Jesus Christ?—Innixa super dilectum suum. Her whole happiness has its foundation in the mercy of her Divine Son. She may be called a lily of purity and innocence. This lily has acquired all its purity by being washed in the Blood of the Immaculate Lamb. She is a rose, on account of the ardour of her love, and her rich vermilion can be nought else than the Blood of her Son. If she is likened to fumes of odoriferous sweetness, the fire which produces them is the charity of her Divine Son and the wood of the Cross; in a word, everywhere and in everything, Mary is leaning upon her Beloved. Behold, devout souls, how we ought to be jealous of the honour of Jesus Christ. Do not imitate the enemies of holy Church, who think that they honour the Son more perfectly by refusing all honour to the Mother. On the contrary, the worship of the Mother is referred to the Son, and thus exalts His glory and mercy all the more.
In order to show more clearly the purity of the worship which holy Church pays to the most Blessed Virgin, I will mention two contrary heresies, both equally injurious to the veneration deservedly due to Our Lady. One of these heresies sinned by excess; calling Mary the Goddess of Heaven, and offering sacrifices to her as such; the other sinned by default, condemning all honour paid to Our Lady. The Church, who walks in the royal road of moderation, in which virtue consists, condemned both these heresies, defining against the former that no sacrifice whatever could be offered to Mary, as she was a pure creature; and against the latter, that this holy Virgin, being Mother of God the Son, was worthy of special worship, infinitely less than that of her Son, but incomparably greater than that of all the other Saints. To the first, she says, that the Virgin is simply a creature, yet so holy, so perfect, so closely united to her Son, and so much loved by God, as to render it impossible to love the Son sincerely without loving and honouring the Mother. To the second, she says, sacrifice is the supreme worship of latria, due to the Creator alone, and the Blessed Virgin is simply a creature, although most excellent. Indeed, in speaking of Mary, I call her more the creature of God and of her Son than the rest of creation; because God created greater perfections in her than in all other creatures, and she had a greater share in the Redemption than all others, being rescued not only from sin but from the power and inclination to sin. And who does not know that it is a greater benefit to rescue a person from slavery before he is made a slave, than to deliver him after he has become captive! How far are we then from placing the Son and the Mother on an equality, as our adversaries falsely assert?
It is true that we call her beautiful, and the most beautiful amongst creatures; but she is beautiful as the moon, which receives its light from the sun; because all her glory is communicated to her by her Son. Pliny writes that the thorn, named aspalathum, is not naturally odoriferous, but that if the rainbow rests upon it, it quickly exhales a rare and sweet odour. The holy Virgin is a thorn of that burning bush which Moses saw and which was not consumed, as the Church says: 'Rubum quem viderat Moyses incombustum, conservatam agnovimus tuam laudabilem virginitatem'. Of herself alone, she is certainly unworthy of our worship, for she is without odour. But when the great sign of reconciliation between God and men came and rested upon this holy thorn—first, by His grace in her Immaculate Conception, and afterwards at the Incarnation, when God became her Son, and reposed in her immaculate bosom—then, indeed, so great became the fragrance of this thorn that no other plant ever could produce before God so sweet and pleasing an odour. Nor will He ever reject the prayers that are perfumed in this fragrance. We repeat that all this perfume came to her from her Divine Son.
Jesus Christ is our Advocate, and so is Mary; but with what difference! In right of justice, the Saviour is alone our Advocate, because when He pleads our cause He justifies His petition by showing His Blood and His Cross. He does not hide our debts from His Father; but at the same time He urges the value of the price that He has laid down for our salvation. Mary and all the Saints exercise, also, the office of advocate in our favour; it is only by way of intercession. They entreat the Divine Justice to pardon our iniquities; but it is through the merits of the Passion of Jesus Christ. In a word, they do not add their prayers to the prayers of the Saviour, but to ours; in order to help us to obtain the graces which are necessary for our eternal salvation.
THE MONTH OF MARY.
[THE] IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
THE wonderful variety which is observable in the works of nature gives us a very high idea of the immeasurable riches of the Almighty Creator. And yet He manifests His power still more in the supernatural order, and the wonderful diversity of the works of grace preaches more loudly the munificence of His mercy. God, in the excess of His goodness, did not merely grant a general redemption to men, sufficient for the salvation of each one, but He diversified and multiplied the supernatural gifts which accompany this redemption with infinite liberality and wonderful variety. But His highest favours were lavished upon the most holy Virgin. From all eternity the Heavenly Father had ordained in His love to form her heart to the perfection of charity, that she might love His Divine Son with the most perfect maternal love—as He had loved Him from all eternity with the most perfect paternal love. The Son of God cast His eyes upon this Virgin, and chose her for His Mother, and co-operator in the great work of the world's redemption, a merciful Mother, a most powerful advocate of mankind—the most amiable, the most loving, and the most beloved of all creatures.
It is the opinion of many theologians that our Lord sanctified St. John the Baptist in the womb of St. Elizabeth, by a ray of His light and grace, and gave him the use of reason together with the gift of faith, so that he knew his God, hidden in the immaculate womb of Mary, adored Him, and consecrated himself to His service. If such a grace were granted by Our Lord to His precursor, who can doubt for a moment that He should have granted not only a similar, but a much greater privilege to her whom He Himself had chosen for His Mother, and that He should not only have sanctified her in the womb of her mother, St. Anne, but should have, moreover, raised her from the very first instant of her conception to a state of purity and sanctity?