Q&A: In #32 of Saint Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion, the author states that since Mary is Mother o/Jesus, therefore by a necessary consequence, she is our Mother too. It sounds to me that Montfort is basing his statement more on sentiment than on reason. How can it be that Mary, a physical instrument through which the Son of God came into this world, is by that very fact, Mother of the Church?
Father J. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
Our Lady’s role at the Incarnation is not that of a physical instrument by which the Eternal Word came into our world. (God never uses people like tools! Our Creator respects us and the freedom with which He endows us). He wills to enter our rebellious family provided that Mary consent. Mary’s Yes (fiat), though so unnecessary of itself, is willed by God to be an integral element of the Incarnation. It is through her Yes to God’s Plan, that Jesus, Our Redemption, comes to be. He is Incarnate Grace. He is Redemption, He is Eternal Life. And Mary is freely, lovingly, knowingly, His Mother. Through her faith, Jesus enters our rebellious human family, so that we may share in new life, the life of the Spirit, the life of God.
It is that representative Yes of Mary which – according to God’s will – brings supernatural Life into the sinful human family, into each one of us who accepts God’s call. She is then, in the order of grace, truly our Mother. Her spiritual maternity influences the Church even now.
“This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the consent which she loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath The Cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven, she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. By her maternal charity, she cares for the brethren of her Son who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led into their blessed home” (Second Vatican Council, LG 62).
The title is not, therefore, just a sentimental expression, it is not a figure of speech. It expresses reality. “Life, i.e., Jesus, through Mary.” It is through her faithful, persevering Yes to the Lord that she conceives the entire Body of Christ, both Head and members. As the Second Vatican Council notes: “She [Mary] cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the work of the Savior in restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace” (LG 61).
As Father de Montfort would remind us, Mary is infinitely below Jesus. There is an infinite chasm between the Creator and His creatures. Jesus, true God and true Man, spans that chasm. Therefore through Him, in the power of the Spirit we can walk into the Blazing Light of Tenderness, the Father. And the Trinity wills that the Bridge uniting us to the infinite, be in place because a woman of our race says Yes. She is, therefore, truly our Mother and we are truly her children.
