Mary, Above All Others
Fr. A. Raymond, SMM
“How beautiful thou art, my beloved! How beautiful thou art!”
In our last talk we recalled the great privilege God granted to Mary at the moment of her conception, by preserving her from Original Sin (see that article here).
Let us not think, however, that this comprises the whole mystery of the Immaculate Conception. When we say that the Blessed Virgin was exempt from Original Sin, we are merely looking at the negative side of the question; we are merely stating what Mary was not – namely, not soiled by Original Sin.
But there is also a positive side to this question. We must consider what she was – what the beauty of her soul was at the moment of her conception.
Bossuet tells us that to give us some faint idea of Mary’s Immaculate Conception the Holy Spirit seems to have coined some extraordinary expressions. He calls her the Woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, her head crowned with twelve stars. She is the splendor of the eternal light. She is its candor and the spot-less mirror that reflects the uncreated light!
The Fathers and Doctors of the Church tell us that to fashion His Mother’s soul, God selected from His treasures. He selected all that was most beautiful, most rare and most precious; God gathered all that was most excellent and admirable in the souls of all the elect; He epitomized all this, so to speak, and gave it to Mary, His Mother.
Paragon of Virtue
Thus, He communicated to her the ardent love of the Seraphim, the lights of the Cherubim, the zeal of the Arch-angels, the humility of the Angels, the innocence of Abel, the devotion of Enoch, the justice of Noah, the faithfulness of Abraham, the obedience of Isaac, the holiness of Jacob, the chastity of Joseph, the forbearance of Moses, the patience of Job, the meekness of David, the wisdom of Solomon, the beauty and grace of Esther and the strength of Judith. Add to this, the faith of the patriarchs. Add the hope of the prophets and the charity of the Apostles; the fortitude and constancy of the martyrs; the piety of confessors, the purity of virgins. In a word, all the virtues, graces and perfections of the saints and angels have been reduced to their quintessence, refined and perfected, then placed in Mary’s heart.
Above all the Saints
One readily understands now why Mary surpassed all the other saints in holiness. In fact, the work of her sanctification began where that of the other saints left off. Holy Mother the Church herself teaches this to us. The Church applies to Mary these words of Holy Scripture; ”His foundations are on the holy mountains.” The foundations of her holiness are erected on the mountains of the saints. That is to say, she was graced from the moment of her entry into this world above the highest peaks of holiness; her initial sanctification surpassed the perfection and the consummate holiness of all the other saints.
Compute, if you can, the merits, the graces and spiritual riches John the Baptist acquired by living thirty years in the desert; add to them the merits which St. Peter accumulated during his forty years of apostolic work and those which St. Paul deserved for his incessant work and his hardships; add further the incalculable merits of the other apostles, those which St. Clement of Ancyra gained by his twenty-eight years of martyrdom, St. Lydwine by her thirty-eight years of excruciating sufferings and so many thousands of martyrs, of confessors and virgins by all their humiliations, prayers, penances and works of charity. Put them all together and they will surely form an impressive storehouse and treasure; yet, God so loved Mary that He freely gave her more than this from the very first moment of her conception!
The Coronation of the Virgin: Early Renaissance Master and Italian Painter: Fra Angelico: 1432
This artist did at least two Coronation paintings. One resides in the Louvre (Paris, France). This painting resides in Florence, Italy.
With this article, Father A. Raymond, a Montfort Father and seasoned Missionary of Our Lady, continues a series of sermonettes. He is leading up to Fr. de Montfort’s Total Consecration. The prior article may be found here. The next article may be found here: Mary, All Beautiful.
Their sanctity and all their virtues were frail and perishable; they could lose them by their own fault. In fact, many angels lost them forever and our First Parents also lost them in the Garden of Eden. History points to many souls, alas, who after rising to great heights in the spiritual life fell miserably, …
The graces and virtues that Mary received at her Immaculate Conception, however, could not be lost. She was confirmed in grace and, thereby, in peaceful, possessions of the gifts of God. She was never to sin.
Above the Angels
Moreover, Mary is more beautiful than all the angels. Yes, Mary has been raised above the angels and has received more graces than all of them put together. Theologians, along with St. Thomas Aquinas, teach that when, in the beginning of creation, the Creator distributed among His angels His supernatural gifts and the riches of His graces, He proportioned them to the excellence and the nobleness of their respective Angels, more to the Principalities than to the Archangels, more to the Cherubim than to the Principalities and more to the Seraphim than to the Cherubim.
It is uncertain whether or not such would have been our own lot if our First Parents had not sinned; but it is certain and experience proves it that such is not our actual lot: those who are most gifted with natural talents are not always so in the super-natural order. In other words, the most intelligent are not always the holiest. To some God gives more, to others less grace, according to the degree of intimacy with Christ to which they are called.
God Proportioned Graces
So it is that, generally speaking, God gives more grace to Religious than to the ordinary faithful; He gives more to bishops than to ordinary priests, just as He has given more to His foster-father, St. Joseph, to John the Baptist and to the Apostles than to the other saints, because of their closer relationship with Christ.
But Mary is invested with a dignity that is unique and unequalled in the Church and second only to Christ’s, her dear Son. This dignity – her divine Motherhood – places her in a sphere, in a category by herself. Mary was related to Christ by the closest ties that ever existed. No one was closer to Jesus than His Mother. No one has ever so completely belonged to Him. She was more closely united to Him than the angels themselves.
If, therefore, God’s graces are proportioned to our degree of intimacy with Jesus, we must then conclude that the first grace Mary received the day of her creation was of a superior order to all the graces of angels and men, since it was a grace destining her to and disposing her for the divine Maternity.
This is what caused the wonderment of the angels when Mary was first brought into being. They were astonished to see that, at the first moment of her Conception, this little girl was already superior to them in the super-natural order of grace. ”Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising?” they asked. Who is this Queen that cometh forth beautiful as a radiant morning rising, already dazzling heaven and earth with her light, advancing rapidly, as though with giant steps, in the way of perfection?
Confirmed in Grace
But this is not all. The virtues which the Holy Spirit infused into her soul were free from a certain very deplorable imperfection found in the most excellent virtues of the angels in heaven and the greatest saints on earth. Their sanctity and all their virtues were frail and perishable; they could lose them by their own fault. In fact, many angels lost them forever and our First Parents also lost them in the Garden of Eden. History points to many souls, alas, who after rising to great heights in the spiritual life fell miserably, such as, Solomon, Tertullian, Arius, Nestorius and others.
The graces and virtues that Mary received at her Immaculate Conception, however, could not be lost. She was confirmed in grace and, thereby, in peaceful, possessions of the gifts of God. She was never to sin.
When the angels were put to the test, and as long as the saints were still living on earth, the Holy Spirit did not, in a certain sense, take His repose in them. He had to be forever armed, so to speak, to defend them against temptations and prevent them from being vanquished. The same may be said for His indwelling in the saints, at least most of them, until the end of time.
He Rested Peacefully
But in Mary He did not have to fight. He had no reason to be armed when He dwelled in her soul. He rested peacefully in her, according to these words of Holy Scripture: ”He Who created me took His repose in my tabernacle.”
After reflecting on all this, dear clients of Mary, how can we refrain from loving a mother so honored by God? Pour out your heart at the feet of this good Mother and say: ”Oh Virgin, my Queen, my Mother, after God there is nothing more beautiful, nothing greater than you among all pure creatures ! You are richer in grace and in beauty than all the angels and saints put together. With our Holy Father, [the pope] we say to you: ”You are the glory, you are the joy, you are the honor of our people !” Amen.
