March Allocutio 206

Mother of Divine Grace

Before Christmas I reflected on the Declaratory Note from the Dicastery for the Doctrine and Faith of the Church on Devotion to Mary, Mother of God. With the help of both Frank Duff and St. Louis Marie de Montford, we can say that Mary is a creature, with an infinity of distance between her and God. With the help of e.g. Frank Duff, we can see her as belonging to the humanity redeemed by Christ, her redemption starting with her Immaculate Conception and brought to completion in her Assumption into heaven. We also acknowledge that all grace comes from God because any grace at all is due to his good will towards us, a bounty that is limitless. We have ample evidence from the Gospels that God does listen to our pleas for help, including the interventions of his Mother.

A question remains however about Mary’s role in winning us grace. As we saw, the title Mary Mediatrix of all grace, has to be used prudently. But questions have also been raised about the idea that God allows his graces to be dispensed through her, and—as the Legion Promise puts it—that it is by her, “and to whom she pleases, when she pleases and in the manner and quantity she pleases”, that all the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit are administered. Some puzzle at this assertion. So let’s take a closer look.

One initial reason to not dismiss this idea is that it comes not from St. Louis Marie de Montford. Albert the Great, the teacher of Aquinas, because he too saw in her the custodian of what belonged to the Holy Spirit, says, “She pours out and gives the wine of the Holy Spirit to whomsoever she wills and to the extent that she will!”. St. Bernard saw her as an aqueduct of grace from the font that is God. Where is all this coming from? Let us start with the Gospels and then move to a reflection on the Assumption.

Two moments in the Gospels have caused an “ouch” in us all. The first is when, after having been found in the Temple, Jesus says to his mother, ”Why were you looking for me. Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” And yet, despite this seeming moment of rebellion, we are told that he went back to Nazareth with them and “was obedient to them”. We note that the second Person of the Blessed Trinity submitted to the authority of Mary.
The second “ouch” comes with the wedding Feast of Cana. When Mary tells Jesus that the wine has run out Jesus replies, “Oh woman, what have you to do with me. My hour has not yet come!” And yet, despite the seeming rebuke, he performs the first of his miracles, a miracle that many have seen connected to Pentecost, the day the wine of the Holy Spirit came on the Apostles.

Both of these moments clearly speak of some authority that God allowed to Mary over Jesus while she was in this world. God had already chosen and prepared her so that he could entrust his own Son to her minding. If he could entrust the Second Person of the Trinity to her, why not entrust to her, “full of grace”, the graces of the redemption?

But because of her Assumption, Body and Soul into heaven, we must now view her differently. If here in this world she saw things “in a glass darkly” (1 Cor 13:12), then how much more can she see and understand God now? St. John says “we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn 3:2). Jesus is clear: “Those who are accounted worthy to attain … to the resurrection from the dead … cannot die any more because they are equal to angels …” (Lk 20:35-36) who immediately see God’s will and do it. Listen again to St. John: “The one who loves the truth comes to the light that it may be clearly seen that what he does is done in God” (Jn:3:21).

When we reflect on the implications in these words for Mary who knew no sin, and who now shares the resurrected glory of heaven, surely we must admit that any grace she gains for us must comply totally to the will of God and will never be otherwise? And God who could entrust his only begotten Son to her while on earth, why now doubt that he can also entrust his graces to her in heaven knowing that she will only disburse them according to his Holy Will? Her role is never separate from the Holy Spirit! She will only want and to the degree that the Holy Spirit wants.

I add this—keeping in mind Bernadette’s report that the Lady said to her, “I do not promise to make you happy in this world but in the next”—we must reflect on what she now sees as most important, namely the world beyond. And surely with a mother’s heart she wants us all there with her, wants our best, and so will seek any grace we need. And since she is working even closer with the Holy Spirit than before, if we can put it that way, why doubt that expression of her heavenly work as articulated in the Promise which, as I point out, is based on the prayerful reflections of great Marian saints going back centuries?

Mary has a unique role to play as a cooperator in the work of redemption and in interceding on our behalf with Our Lord. Given the special role she exercised while on earth of working so closely with the Holy Spirit and taking Jesus in her charge, surely it is no less so in heaven where she sees God face to face and has been made Queen, privy now in an elevated form to God’s plans which down here “no eye has seen or ear heard” (1 Cor 2:9)? All legionaries should reflect on this in prayer. Indeed the whole Church must do this.

We are moving towards the celebration of the Acies and the Feast of the Annunciation. That is the event on which hinges the creation and history. For God made the world so that this could take place. And we are most grateful to Our Lady for her Fiat, her consent to allow the Redeemer to come among us and allowing her body to be used for this. By God’s design she had already been redeemed and kept free from Original Sin and so was full of grace by the power of the Holy Spirit. Of course, her redemption would not reach its final moment until she was assumed into Heaven. Pope Pius XII, in his Constitution on the Assumption, taking account of all this then adds, “For the crown of all her graces, she was exempted from the sentence to decay … and was carried up to Heaven … there to reign as Queen”. So let us not be slow or shy in turning to this fully redeemed creature who enjoys an unrestricted access now to God Almighty and let us ask for her constant intercession!