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The Complete Picture
Fr. Clifford M. Laube, SMM
T HE Blessed Virgin Mary is not the center of Christian life. She is not the focal point towards which all spiritual effort must be oriented. Nor is she the final end towards which the course of our lives must be directed. Any attempt to make Christianity center around Mary to the exclusion of Jesus Christ is wrong. It is not only contrary to the very notion of Christianity, but is also clearly heretical and inexcusably blasphemous.
Christ Centric
Jesus Christ, true God, must be the center and last end of our lives. God the Father has laid no other foundation of our salvation, our perfection or our glory than Jesus Christ. Any devotion which in the least way denies or ignores this truth is false. It is delusive and must be branded as a tool of the devil.
From these considerations, however, and from their application to present-day Christian living, there seems to arise an effective stumbling block to many a would-be devotee of Our Lady. Far too many people hesitate to consecrate themselves whole-heartedly to Mary. They hesitate in a truly generous manner, because they entertain certain vague qualms. People often think they are disrupting the Christocentric character of their spiritual lives. They believe that the more complete dedications to Our Lady such as the methods of Fathers Chaminade and de Montfort place an inordinate emphasis on the Blessed Mother with a consequent overshadowing of our only mediator, Jesus Christ. They are not practically convinced that total consecration to Mary is not prejudicial to the love and service of Jesus Christ and ultimate union with Him.
In order to remove such misgivings and to clarify the role of Our Lady in our lives – the role that Jesus Himself wishes her to have – it is important, if not indispensable, to make this one essential distinction, that Mary is not an end in herself, but only a means to our one and only last end, Jesus Christ.
Mary is the Means to Our End – Jesus
This more complete view of the economy of salvation, this proper sub-ordination of Mary to Christ can be found in no more striking a manner, and in no clearer a fashion than in the writings of St. Louis de Montfort. This outspoken champion of Our Lady is too often eschewed as abounding in devotional and poetic exaggerations, whereas in reality he has been acclaimed by Notes and theologians as being possessed of a most theologically solid doctrine and message. A brief summary of Montfort’s fundamental teaching will clarify this relation of Mary to Christ.
As the basis of his doctrine, Montfort proposes the knowledge, love, and acquisition of Divine Wisdom. This Divine Wisdom, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, is drawn by a boundless love to redeem mankind. By uniting Himself to men through the hypostatic union. Thus He becomes the Incarnate Wisdom, Jesus Christ, and He finds no better plan of redemption than the mystery of the Cross – the paradox of a God crucified. It is through this mystery of the Cross that the Incarnate Wisdom willed to unite Himself to His creatures, and it is like-wise through this mystery that His creatures are to be united with Him.
Madonna and Child : Duccio di Buoninsegna: 1300
The Altar Piece painting is a tempera on wood. It is dated to 1300 and is currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.
Devotion to Mary loses nothing of its importance. Rather its necessity is more clearly discerned. For it is now recognized as indispensable to the swift, sure, facile acquisition of union with Jesus. For the Christian who is instructed in the essentials of his religion; Devotion to Mary is no less important to his spiritual life. It is no less important than is any necessary means to an end in his everyday natural life.
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Devotion to Mary: A Means to Acquire Incarnate Wisdom
To acquire the Incarnate Wisdom, Montfort gives four means : desire, prayer, mortification, and devotion to Mary. That he subordinates the first three means to the last is clear from his statement; ”The greatest means of all, and the most wonderful of all secrets for obtaining and keeping the Divine Wisdom is a tender and true devotion to the Blessed Virgin. ”
It can be seen, then, that devotion to Mary is only a means, a means to union with Christ. In his popular Treatise on Devotion to Our Lady, Montfort amplifies his doctrine of ”a tender and true devotion”. He draws it to its logical consequence – a total consecration to Mary, the Mother of the Incarnate Wisdom. Never, however, does Montfort stray from his basic notion that Jesus is the end. Mary is only the means – albeit the greatest means, and even as he cogently proves, the necessary means.
Devotion to Mary: A Necessity
Seen in this light, devotion to Mary loses nothing of its importance. Rather its necessity is more clearly discerned, for it is now recognized as indispensable to the swift, sure, facile acquisition of union with Jesus. For the Christian who is instructed in the essentials of his religion, devotion to Mary is no less important to his spiritual life than is any necessary means to an end in his everyday natural life. Hence we have as much right to ignore or refuse devotion to Mary as a golf player has of ignoring or refusing to use his clubs.
If then some sort of devotion to Mary is a necessary means to our union with Christ, it follows only naturally that the more complete and generous our devotion is, the more easily and surely will we be united with Christ. It is the cogency of such reasoning that has impelled so many generous Catholics to consecrate themselves without reserve to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom through the Blessed Virgin Mary. These ardent devotees of Our Lady have since become acquainted with the spiritual effects of their consecration. They have become aware of the treasure they are laying up for eternity. They have begun to realize that this is Christianity at its best – to do all for Christ through the means which He Himself used, and which He wants us to use, namely, His Holy Mother.
