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JMJ
Mary Our Life: She obtains for us the pardon of our sins
by St. Alphonsus Liguori
To understand why the Holy Church makes us call Mary our
life, we must know, that as the soul gives life to the body, so does divine
grace gives life to the soul; for a soul without grace has the name of being
alive but is in truth dead, as it was said of one in the Apocalypse, thou hast the name of being alive, and thou
are dead (Apoc 3.1). Mary, then, in obtaining this grace for sinners by Her
intercession, thus restores them to life.
See how the Church makes Her speak, applying to Her the
following words of Proverbs: They that in
the morning early watch for me shall find me (Pr 8.17). They who are
diligent in having recourse to me in the morning, that is, as soon as they can,
will most certainly find me. In the Septuagint [the Greek translation of the
Old Testament] the words shall find me are
rendered shall find grace. So that to
have recourse to Mary is the same thing as to find the grace of God. A little
further on She says, He that shall find
me shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord. “Listen,”
exclaims St. Bonaventure on these words, “listen, all you who desire the
kingdom of God: honor the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, and you will find life and
eternal salvation.”
Hence, St. Bernard was right in exhorting us “to seek for
grace, and to seek it by Mary;” meaning, that if we have had the misfortune to
lose the grace of God, we should seek to recover it, but we should do so
through Mary; for thought we may have lost it, She has found it; and hence the
Saint calls Her “the finder of grace.” The Angel Gabriel expressly declared
this for our consolation, when he saluted the Blessed Virgin Mary saying, Fear
not Mary, thou hast found grace (Lk 1.30). But if Mary had never been
deprived of grace, how could the Archangel say that She had then found it? A
thing may be found by a person who did not previously possess it; but we are
told by the same Archangel that the Blessed Virgin Mary was always with God,
always in grace, nay, full of grace. Hail,
full of grace, the Lord is with Thee (Lk 1.28). Since, Mary, then, did not
find grace for Herself, She being always full of it, for whom did She find it?
She found it for sinners who had lost it.
Again, Mary says, in the eighth chapter of the sacred
Canticle of Canticles [Song of Songs in the Novus
Ordo versions], that God has placed Her in the world to be our defence: I am a wall… a tower (v. 10). And She is
truly made a Mediatrix of peace between sinners and God: Since I am become in His presence as one finding peace. On these
words St. Bernard encourages sinners, saying, “Go to this Mother of Mercy, and
show Her the wounds which thy sins have left on thy soul; then will She
certainly entreat Her Son to pardon thee all. And this Divine Son, Who loves
Her so tenderly, will most certainly grant Her petition.” In this sense it is
that the Holy Church, in her almost daily prayer, calls upon us to beg Our Lord
to grant us the powerful help of the intercession of Mary to rise from our
sins: “Grant Thy help to our weakness, O most merciful God; and that we, who
are mindful of the Holy Mother of God, may by the help of Her intercession rise
from our iniquities.”
With reason, then, does St. Lawrence Justinian call Her “the
hope of malefactors;” since She alone is the one who obtains them pardon from
God. With reason does St. Bernard call Her “the sinner’s ladder;” since She,
the most compassionate Queen, extending Her hand to them, draws them from an
abyss of sin, and enables them to ascend to God. With reason does an ancient
writer call Her “the only hope of sinners;” for by Her help alone can we hope
for the remission of our sins. St. John Chrysostom also says “that sinners
receive pardon by the intercession of Mary alone.”
With reason, finally, is Mary called, in the words of the
sacred Canticles, the dawn; Who is She
that cometh forth as the morning rising? (6.9). “Yes,” says Pope Innocent
III, “for as the dawn is the end of night, and the beginning of day, well may
the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was the end of vices, be called the dawn of day.” When devotion towards Mary begins in a
soul, it produces the same effect that the birth of this most Holy Virgin
produced in the world. It puts an end to the night of sin, and leads the soul
into the path of virtue. Therefore, St. Germanus says, “O Mother of God,
Thy protection never ceases, Thy intercession is life, and Thy patronage never
fails.” And in a sermon the same Saint says, that to pronounce the name of Mary
with affection is a sign of life in the soul, or at least, that life will soon
return there.
We read in the Gospel of St. Luke, that Mary said, Behold, from henceforth, all generations
shall call me blessed (Lk 1.48). All men shall call Thee blessed, for all
Thy servants obtain through Thee the life of grace and eternal glory. “In
Thee,” says St. Bernard, “do sinners find pardon, and the just perseverance and
eternal life.”
St. Andrew of Crete calls Mary the pledge of divine mercy,
meaning that, when sinners have recourse to Mary, that they may be reconciled
with God, He assures them of pardon and gives them a pledge of it; and this
pledge of Mary, whom He has bestowed upon us for our advocate, and by whose
intercession (by virtue of the merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ) God forgives all
who have recourse to Her.
No sinner, having recourse to the compassion of Mary, and as
such desires to save the most miserable. Mary is that happy Ark of Old, says
St. Bernard, “in which those who take refuge will never suffer the shipwreck of
eternal perdition.” At the time of the Deluge even brutes were saved in Noah’s
Ark. Under the mantle of Mary even
sinners obtain salvation. St. Gertrude once saw Mary with Her mantle extended,
and under it many wild beasts – lions, bears, and tigers – had taken refuge.
And she remarked that Mary not only did not reject, but even welcomed and
caressed them with the greatest tenderness. The Saint understood that the most
abandoned sinners, determined to rise from their wretched state, who have
recourse to Mary are not only not rejected, but that they are welcomed and
saved by her from eternal death. Let us, then, enter this Ark, let us take
refuge under the mantle of Mary, and She most certainly will not reject us, but
will secure our salvation.
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