Q&A: How can Saint Louis de Montfort declare that all the mysteries of our faith are found in the Incarnation?
Father Roger Charest, SMM
Question submitted by a member from Denver, CO.
Father de Montfort’s reasoning is a simple and valid one: “It is in this mystery (the Incarnation) that God has wrought all the other mysteries of his life by the acceptance which He made of them. ‘When He comes into the world, He says . . . Behold, I come to do Thy will, O God’ (Heb 10: 5-9). Hence this mystery is an abridgment of all mysteries and contains the will and grace of all” (TD 248; cf H 10:6).
Therefore, the miracles, the proclamation of the Kingdom of God, the Death/Resurrection, the Church, the sacraments, all grace, are rooted and “contained” in the Incarnation. The underlying philosophical reason is clear: the beginning is never merely the first point of a series of further moments in time. Rather, the beginning contains what follows and it is the never-repealed law which governs everything which flows from it.
To illustrate; when a couple is married, they say YES to each other. They say YES to whatsoever flows from their YES on the day of their wedding. If, for example, the husband becomes seriously and chronically ill, the wife cannot say that this was not part of the marriage vows. She already said YES to the situation in the YES of their wedding.
Now if Our Lady intrinsically and in a unique manner cooperates in the Incarnation, the beginning of redemption, (which Montfort firmly teaches in fidelity to the Scriptures) then she cooperates intrinsically and in a unique manner in every aspect of salvation history. For, all flows from the Incarnation. Or as theologians express it, Mary is the Mediatrix of all the graces of redemption.
Therefore, the miracles, the proclamation of the Kingdom of God; the Death/Resurrection, the Church, the sacraments; all grace, are rooted and “contained” in the Incarnation.
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