God’s Masterpiece: Mary
Fr. A. Raymond, SMM
God’s Masterpiece: Mary
WE love our Blessed Lady because she is our Mother and we are her children. The affection she bears us calls for a corresponding love on our part. But to love Mary as we ought, we must learn more about her. Philosophers tell us that one cannot desire an unknown object. In other words, one does not love what he does not know. That is why we should like to hear of Mary’s grandeurs and read books about her. From this knowledge that we will have of our spiritual Mother will grow an even greater love that will bind us to her ever more closely. Who, then, is the Blessed Virgin? Or, if you prefer, how do you picture her in your mind when you pray to her ? What is your idea of Our Lady?
We answer that every time the beautiful name of Mary comes to your lips you are to picture to yourself an important lady who is related to God Himself in the first degree of kinship. You must look upon her as a Mother who has a right to say to God Almighty what an ordinary mother may say to her child; ‘My Son ! You are my Son !” You must understand a masterpiece so perfect, so sublime that the arm of the Most High can produce nothing more beautiful as far as pure creatures go.
Mary has Everything that a Pure Creature can Possibly Receive
He can create an infinity of suns, the one more brilliant than the other; an infinity of worlds surpassing one another in size and beauty; an infinity of angels, one more holy than the other; but a nobler creature, more ravishing, more gracious than His own Mother, God cannot make. And the reason is that in forming Mary, His Mother, He gave her everything that a pure creature can possibly receive; He drew from the treasures of His Omnipotence to endow her with all that there was of beauty, of goodness, of sacredness and of holiness.
Mary received as much as a finite being can possibly receive, and if God has not given her more it is because Mary being finite, and consequently limited in her capacity to receive, God had to set limits to His own liberality after the measure was filled and over-flowing. To receive more Mary would have had to be infinite – which is impossible. The lack of power is, therefore, not on God’s part, since He is infinite; it is on the part of the Mother who could not receive more.
Adoration: Italian Painter: Cappella Sassetti: 1485
“Do not pity me,” Bernadette replied with a smile upon her lips. ‘What I saw was much more beautiful !”
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He Set Aside, So to Speak, That Which was Most Perfect
To be more specific, let us say with St. Leonard of Port Mauritius, that God has seen fit to give His Mother all the qualities He was to distribute among the other creatures, both in the natural and supernatural orders. From the very beginning of time, and as God created the many admirable things that we see about us, He set aside, so to speak, that which was most perfect in each of them to enrich His Mother. Thus, for instance, in creating the sun, He borrowed from it a spotless splendor which He reserved for Mary; in creating the moon with its phases, He withheld something of its soft radiance to ornament His own Mother.
God, in creating light with its alternation of night and day, of shade and light, He produced for Mary, His Masterpiece, a light without darkness or shade, always beautiful, always brilliant; in producing the heavens, the stars, the plants and the most wonderful creatures; He wished them to be but a shadow, an outline, a rough sketch of His Masterpiece, His Mother Mary.
The Eternal Father Chose Mary
In fact, what are the sun, the moon, the stars, the heavens and even the whole universe but the ”works of His fingers,” to speak the language of the prophet David (Ps. 8). But Mary is the work of God’s arm, as she herself declared in her Magnificat.- ”He hath showed might in His arm.” In a word, the entire Trinity set to work in creating Mary: the Father employed His whole power, the Son, His whole science, and the Holy Spirit, His entire love. And not without reason. The Eternal Father was forming for Himself a daughter of predilection, who was to be His chosen one among all others: the Son was fashioning for Himself a Mother, and the Holy Spirit, a Spouse.
How beautiful Mary must have been as she issued forth from the hands of her Creator! St. Denis the Areopagite confessed that the first time he saw her he would have taken her for a goddess, if his faith had not taught him otherwise, so beautiful was she!
But if Mary was so beautiful while she was on earth, how much more so must she not be now that she is in heaven ! She is a paradise in herself. The Church sings: ”Thou art all beautiful, O Mary !” Yes, all beautiful in her body, all beautiful in her soul; all beautiful in her thoughts, all beautiful in her actions; all beautiful in her interior, all beautiful in her exterior.
Seen by the Saints
One understands why those Saints who were privileged to see Our Lady once or twice in their lifetime lived forever after on the strength of these apparitions. St. Bernadette of Lourdes who had the good fortune of seeing Mary eighteen times, never for a moment lost sight of her.
One day when questioned by one of her companions about Mary’s beauty, she answered first by a nostalgic, ecstatic look, then said: ”To have an idea of what she looks like, one would have to go to heaven !”
On another occasion, a Sister from Nevers who had just returned from Lourdes was telling Bernadette (then Sister Marie Bernard) all she had seen there: the splendid basilica that had been built, the wonderful processions that were being held and the miracles that were being wrought there. ”What great things one sees at the Grotto, ” she went on, ”it’s a pity that you cannot see them yourself !”
”Do not pity me,” Bernadette replied with a smile upon her lips. ‘What I saw was much more beautiful !”
It is related that a few days before she died, a little seven-year-old girl was brought into the infirmary where Sister Marie Bernard lay. The latter smiled at the child and caressed her. The child was overjoyed and, losing all her shyness, she sprang upon the patient’s bed and asked her point blank: ”Sister, is it true that you have seen the Blessed Virgin ?” ”Yes.” Bernadette answered softly. ”Was she very beautiful ?” the child pursued. ”So beautiful,” Bernadette went on, ”that when we have seen her once, we are anxious to die to see her again !”
Story
St. Antonius relates that in his day there lived a cleric who was very much devoted to Our Lady and who prayed to her incessantly to grow in knowledge and love of her. This pious effort enkindled in him so strong a desire to see her, that it consumed him and left him languishing day and night. O admirable Mother ! O admirable Mother ! he was heard to say, grant me the privilege of seeing, if only for one moment, your incomparable and enchanting beauty!
An angel was sent to him. ”Yes, you will receive the favor you ask for; you will see the Blessed Virgie in all her beauty. But the eyes that shall behold her once shall never see anything else again. You shall be blind for the rest of your life.”
Ah ! I accept with all my heart, exclaimed the happy cleric, provided I see her for a few moments. In my opinion, it is asking very little and I would have even given my life to obtain such a favor.
All this, of course, was said in a moment of fervor. Afterwards, thinking of the future, he said to himself: ”What shall I be good for once I am blind ? How shall I be able to walk or even to live ? Here is what I’ll do: I shall look at Mary with one eye only. Thus, if I lose one eye, I shall still have the other and I shall not be completely blind.
Our Lady’s Gift
This is precisely what he did. When Our Lady appeared to him, he opened one eye and closed the other. But Mary’s beauty was so captivating that, in order to see her better, he opened the other eye. At that very momeñt, Our Lady disappeared and he lost the eye with which he had seen Mary.
He was immediately saddened over the fact that he had not seen her with both his eyes. ”Alas !” said he, ”how much I have lost to keep this eye ! What is the use of my seeing other creatures now that I have seen the mast beautiful creature in paradise! It would have been better for me to remain totally blind, after satiating myself with the sight of this marvelous beauty! How miserable I am! Must I now keep one of my eyes only to behold the ugly things that displease me! O, Mother of Mercy, forgive me for being so cruel to my own self, in depriving myself of half of your favors ! Grant that I may see you once again and may I lose my sight in both my eyes ! How happy I will be to see no one in this mortal life, after seeing you!”
Blessed Mother: Cast a Glance of Thy Love
Such a pious and ardent wish was so pleasing to Our Lady that she appeared to him a second time in all her beauty. This time, however, far from, permitting him to lose sight in his other eye, which he was willing sacrifice, she restored sight to the one he had lost, and, after blessing him with her smile, she disappeared.
Young men and young women – all you who seek after the perishable beauties of this earth – open your eyes today and admit your mistake. You say, that what sways the human heart most is beauty. Why do you not love the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose beauty is so pure, so holy and so chaste that while yet on earth she both captivated and moved to repentance many of those who looked upon her countenance.
O admirable Virgin, cast a glance of mercy and of love on us thy children and thy slaves of love! May our one great desire be to behold ”thy countenance by thinking often of thee; and may thy love with that of thy divine Son reign supreme in our hearts! We ask of thee but one favor, namely, that thou grant us to see thy countenance, if not during this life, at least at the moment of our death!
