Perfect Imitation of Christ
Fr. Francois LeTexier, SMM
Perfect Imitation of Christ
S OME people fail to follow the example of Christ’s dependence on Mary, His Mother. Why?
Simply because they do not understand the reasons which Our Lord had for acting that way. They know that we must obey Him when He says, ”For I have given you an example” (John XIII, 15) . They also know that St. Luke resumes eighteen years of Our Lord’s life in the brief sentence, ”And He went down to Nazareth and was subject to them” (Luke II, 51) . A few explanations will help them to understand why Our Lord was dependent upon Mary, and why He wants us to follow His example. They will not then take as their motto the classical remark, ”Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John I, 46) .
Why Did Jesus Christ Want Us to be Dependent Upon Mary
Specifically, why did Jesus Christ want us to be dependent upon Mary? Why did He want us to seek His graces through her? It was because He wanted to teach us humility, obedience and subjection. Only in learning these hard lessons can We overcome our slowness to learn, our tardiness to love, our disregard for the seriousness of sin, our lack of virtues especially humility and obedience.
The greatest wound inflicted upon our human nature by sin is pride. As children of Christ, we need an extraordinary lesson in humility. We need that lesson in order to control our awful desire to show off and to attract attention. We need it in order to remove our passion for honors, for glory, for appearing important in the eyes of others. Our Lord saw that although three years were enough to teach men His doctrine, thirty years was not too much to teach them humility by example. He joins to the humility of His Passion and Death, the perpetual mystery of a hidden life in which He teaches us to practice humility by depending on Mary.
We can give God all our wealth, all our work, the sweat of every moment, but it is all nothing if we do not add the sacrifice of our will. We sacrifice our own will by obedience.
Part I of this two part article may be found here.
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Sacrifice of Our Will
We can give God all our wealth, all our work, the sweat of every moment, but it is all nothing if we do not add the sacrifice of our will. We sacrifice our own will by obedience. Obedience was the first and last word of Christ. ”I have not come from heaven to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me.” (John V, 38).
“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me.” (John IV, 24) . This was the reason for His dependence upon Mary and His subjection to her. ”Jesus Christ lived in complete subjection to His holy Mother and closely united to her in order that He might thus obey His Father” (T.D. 156) . Members of Christ and children of the same Mother ”how highly we glorify God when, after the example of Jesus we submit ourselves to Mary” (T.D. 139).
in Obeying Mary, He Was Being Perfectly Obedient to His Heavenly Father
Many reading these lines have a conscious or unconscious feeling that depending on Mary they might, in some way or other, not be depending upon God. Our Lord had no scruples in the matter. He was absolutely confident that in obeying Mary, He was being perfectly obedient to His heavenly Father. God had prepared this Mother. By her Immaculate Conception she was free from original sin. There was no darkness in her mind, no malice in her will, no uncontrolled passions in her heart and senses.” She was never led by her own spirit but always by the Spirit of God” (T.D. 258).
On the day of the Incarnation when she was proclaimed the Mother of God, she proclaimed that she was the Slave of the Lord, ”Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to Thy word.” She surrendered her own will. She was completely obedient to God.
Mary, Completely Obedient to God.
Cardinal Wiseman explains all this in these words. ”Jesus knew that there was no discrepancy between her will and the will of His Father, with Whom every act, every thought, every breath of His must be necessarily united. Mary was given the high prerogative of being perfectly conformed in all her actions to the will of God.
So complete was this identity of sentiment that the Son of God Himself was able to obey her with the full certainty that her every command, her every request would be in perfect and entire agreement with the will of His heavenly Father. Mary’s every look was but a reflection of the eye of God. Every word that passed from her lips was the echo of the voice of God from His heavenly throne. Every command or wish she expressed, every impulse and every suggestion harmonized with His. ” (On the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin. )
Mary is Also Our Mother
We must recall that because Mary is the Mother of Christ she is our Mother also. This is the explicit teaching of St. Pius X in his famous encyclical letter written over one hundred years ago. In becoming the mother of the Head she became at the same time the Mother of the members. Mary was the loving slave of the Lord. That is why she could perfectly command His Son. The same is true of us who are His members.
As St. Louis de Montfort explains. “Mary being altogether transformed into God by grace, asks nothing, wishes nothing, does nothing contrary to the immutable will of God”. (T D. 27) . In any and all the circumstances of our life we can have the same certainty, the same security that Christ had. Like Him we can be sure that in being obedient to Mary we are being obedient to God.
Be Obedient to Mary so that We Can Serve Him More Perfectly
Our Lord wants us to be obedient to Mary so that we can serve Him more perfectly. ”He chose her for the inseparable companion of His life, of His death, of His glory and of His power in heaven and or earth. He gave her by grace relatively to His Majesty all the same privileges He possesses by nature so that having but the same will and the same power, they also have the same subjects, servants and slaves. We are the slaves of Jesus and Mary, or rather of Jesus through Mary” (T.D. 244-45) .
Let us then really love Mary with a filial obedience, obeying her after the example of Christ. Let us live the words of our Consecration, ’’O Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, I praise and glorify Thee for that Thou hast been pleased to submit Thyself to Mary, Thy holy Mother, in all things, in order to make me Thy faithful slave through her.”
Jesus came to us, ”taking the nature of a slave and being made like unto men” (Phil II, VII, 9). That did not take away from the dignity of His Divine Sonship. In fact God, whose Son He was, never had a more perfect servant. Mary was ”the Slave of the Lord, ” but that did not take away from the almost infinite dignity of her Divine Motherhood. Her total subjection to God was the perfect disposition for the accomplishment of both her Divine Maternity and her Spiritual Maternity. For the same reason she was the most perfect child of God among all pure creatures.
Perfect Children of God
When we live as slaves of Jesus and Mary, subject to Jesus through Mary, we become perfect children of God. St. Paul tells us that we have received the spirit of adoption as sons, and Our Lord explains that we must become like little children. The mark of a loving child is his obedience. That is why St. Paul tells us, ”To walk as children of light . . . and not as children of disobedience . . . testing what is well pleasing to God” (Eph. V) . The maturity of the children of God consists in obeying God and that is true and real love as Our Lord explains it. ”Abide in My love. If you keep the commandments you will abide in My love as I also have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (John XV).
Recall now the words of our Consecration. ”Receive then O Mary this little offering of my slavery, in honor of and in union with that subjection which the Eternal Wisdom deigned to have to thy Maternity . . . I declare that I wish henceforth, as thy true slave, to seek thy honor and to obey thee in all things. . .” Doing so, I shall be really the loving son of a loving Mother in Perfect Imitation of Christ.
