The Blessed Virgin is perfectly suited to
be our model
Christ has left us the most marvelous records of
himself; but since he is God as well as man, it is possible that awareness of
our inborn weakness may frighten us away from them and sap our courage. Hence
the mysteries of his holy mother's life, as well as his own, are presented for
our reflection.
Though she was born into David's family, nothing
remained to her of her ancestors' wealth or position. She lived a life of
obscurity in a humble town and a humbler house, her very remoteness and poverty
pleasing her the more because they gave her greater freedom to raise her
thoughts to God and cling more intently to him, her supreme and much desired
Good. The Lord in fact was with her; his grace filled her and made her blessed;
and a message from heaven named her as the one who would bear the long awaited Savior
of the nations. By the power of the Holy Spirit this would be his way of
acquiring our human nature. Having no consciousness of virtue in herself, the
more she marveled at her sublime dignity and ascribed it to the gift of a
powerful and merciful God, the lower did she rate her own value; and at the
very moment when she became God's mother, she was glad to call herself his
handmaid and consecrate herself to him. Her solemn promise she solemnly and
readily fulfilled, established as she now was in perpetual communion with Jesus
her Son and sharing both his joys and his sorrows. She was to reach heights of
glory that no other creature would attain to, either man or angel, for none can
equal her in virtue or merit. The crown of this world and the world above
awaited her, because she was to be the martyrs' invincible queen. As a crowned
queen she would sit throughout eternity beside her Son in God's heavenly city,
because throughout her life she would resolutely drain with him the overflowing
cup of sadness, and nowhere would her resolution be greater than on Calvary.
In Mary a truly kind and provident God has
provided exactly the sort of pattern we need. When we turn our eyes or thoughts
to her, we are not dazzled by the brightness of the Godhead, we do not lose
heart. We are attracted by her likeness to us, because we share the same
nature; and that gives us more confidence in our efforts to imitate her. If we
pursue that aim with a single mind we shall certainly succeed, with her lavish
assistance, in copying her great virtue and holiness, at any rate in their main
features; and if we reproduce the unfailing cooperation with God's designs that
marked her life, we shall be able to follow her to heaven too.
We must be brave and courageous and go on with the
journey we have begun, however rough the road may be, however many the
difficulties. Amid the hardship and the toil, we must never cease to stretch
out our hands in prayer to Mary. Let us tell her, in the Church's words, that
our sighs, mourning and weeping go out to her; let us beg her to turn and look
mercifully on us. May she enable us to live pure lives and obtain a safe
journey for us, until we come to look upon Jesus and rejoice with her forever.
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