When Christ underwent his passion on the cross to
cleanse and purge us and work our redemption, the blessed Virgin was there,
accepting it all and consenting to God's will; and she was content that the
treasure of her womb should be offered on the cross for us.
What enabled her to pay that price was her strength and her piety. Piety because it finds expression in the worship of God. As we read in the book of Proverbs: Vain are the winning ways, beauty is a snare; it is the woman who fears the Lord that will achieve renown. Anna was praised for offering Samuel; but whereas she offered her son to God for his service, the blessed Virgin offered hers to God as a sacrifice. Abraham, though ready to offer his son, in fact offered a ram instead; but the glorious Virgin really did offer her Son. The widow woman was praised for offering all she had; but this other woman—the glorious Virgin—so merciful was she, so pious, so devoted to God, offered what was dearer to her than her own self.
Yes, it was strength and piety that enabled the glorious Virgin to pay the price. Piety also finds expression in sympathy—in this case, it was sympathy with Christ. As we are told in John's gospel, a woman in childbirth feels distress, because now her time has come. The blessed Virgin had nothing to suffer before her delivery, because she did not conceive in sin, as Eve did, on whom the curse of painful childbirth was laid. Mary had her pains afterwards: it was when she stood by the cross that she felt the birth pangs. Other women have the pains in their bodies: she had them in her heart. In ordinary women it is a physical change that causes suffering: in her it was sympathy and love.
If the blessed Virgin was able to pay the price because she was strong and pious, it was also because piety involves pity for the world and especially for the people of Christ. Can a woman forget her child that is still unweaned, pity no longer the son she bore in her womb? The text can be understood to mean that the entire Christian people is the fruit of the glorious Virgin's womb.
Such is our mother's piety. We should do well to imitate it and try to become like her ourselves. So busy was she pitying men's souls that she regarded temporal hardship and physical suffering as trifles. Can we not bring ourselves, then, to crucify our bodies for our souls' sake? A great price was paid to ransom us. Let us not enslave ourselves to human masters; no, nor to evil spirits either, nor to sin.
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