626. December 8, Immaculate Conception of Blessed Virgin Mary (III)
Meditations no. 553 (unofficial computer-aided translation)
The Blessed Virgin, conceived without original sin and filled with grace, corresponded totally to Godās grace.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. These words of St Paul from todayās Mass are fulfilled in the Blessed Virgin in a very special way. She is Godās masterpiece. He has poured forth the riches of his grace abundantly on her by choosing her from all eternity to be the Mother of the Word incarnate. Redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son and united to him by a close and indissoluble tie, she is endowed with the high office and dignity of the Mother of the Son of God, and therefore she is also the beloved daughter of the Father and the temple of the Holy Spirit. Because of this gift of sublime grace she far surpasses all creatures, both in heaven and on earth.
As we celebrate our Ladyās Immaculate Conception today, we stand in awe once again before Mary most holy, a masterpiece of grace. God, all-powerful and all-wise, wanted to choose his own Mother. What would you have done if you had had to choose her? I think you and I would have chosen the mother we have and bestowed every grace on her. Thatās what God did. Therefore, right below the Blessed Trinity, comes Mary. Theologians give the following argument for her marvellous array of graces, for her not being subject to Satan: it was fitting, God could do so, and therefore he did. This is the greatest and clearest proof that God bestowed every grace on his Mother from the first moment. And thus she is beautiful and pure and clean, both in body and soul.
But we shouldnāt think that Mary had no part to play in her own sanctification. While it is certain that the supernatural beauty of her soul is Godās gratuitous gift, it is also certain that the Blessed Virgin corresponded from the first moment by her complete and generous dedication to Godās will and maintained this decision throughout her life. She was not spared trials or difficulties, but she overcame all of them since she loved God with her whole heart and with all her strength. The Virgin did not merely pronounce her fiat; in every moment she fulfilled that firm and irrevocable decision. So should we. When Godās love gets through to us and we come to know what he desires, we ought to commit ourselves to be faithful, loyal-and then be so in fact. Because not everyone who says to me, āLord, Lord,ā will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven (Mt 7: 21).
We too must correspond to Godās grace, struggling against sin right up to the last moment of our life.
Our Lady is the only human being exempt from original sin. All the rest of us were born with the sin of our origin, inherited from our first parents. Paul VI wrote: We believe that in Adam all have sinned, which means that the original offence committed by him caused human nature, common to all men, to fall to a state in which it bears the consequences of that offenceā¦ It is human nature so fallen, stripped of the grace that clothed it, injured in its own natural powers and subjected to the dominion of death that is transmitted to all men, and it is in this sense that every man is born in sin. We therefore hold, with the Council of Trent, that original sin, is transmitted with human nature, ānot by imitation, but by propagationā and that it is thus āproper to everyone.ā
So much wretchedness! So many offences! Mine, yours, those of all mankind. ā¦ Et in peccatis concepit me mater mea! In sins did my mother conceive me! (Ps 50: 7). I, like all men, came into the world stained with the guilt of our first parents. And thenā¦ my own sins: rebellions, thought about, desired, committed. ā¦ The teaching of divine Revelation is confirmed by each oneās own experience. For when man looks into his own heart he finds that he is drawn toward what is wrong and sunk in many evils which cannot come from his good Creator. This is the sad inheritance of original sin, which although forgiven by baptism, leaves in us an inclination toward evil that is exacerbated by our personal sins.
We have no other recourse than to struggle without respite, since we are inclined toward sin. For we were born thus: proni ad peccatum, inclined toward sin. And if we donāt struggle we will fall, and we will end up very unhappy in this life. We will always be defeated, and see ourselves as vanquished, lacking clear goals in life. Besides, we will always be unhappy.
In the war that each of you has to wage, as do I, our Father said, we have no other recourse than to struggle right to the last moment. What would become of us if we didnāt have to struggle, if we didnāt know in the depths of our heart that we are capable of every error and horror? I have a great deal of compassion for people who behave badly, since I can behave worse, if I donāt struggle.
So let us struggle and, with Godās grace, let us conquer; and by our victory, we will gain peace and joy. We need to be happy. So if we are defeated we will go to God and tell him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you (Luke 15: 21). Each one of us, in the depths of his heart, knows how to say these things. And our Lord forgives us-thatās why we have confession-and then we return to the struggle! You know that war is decided in the final battle, because the side that is defeated in the last battle loses the war. How sad it would be if, after winning many battles, we were to lose the final one. And since we donāt know which battle will be the last one, we have to strive to win all of them.
I canāt win if I fight alone. Therefore I have recourse to the Blessed Virgin, to my Guardian Angel and to St Joseph, whom I love so much, since he enjoys incomparable intimacy with God and the Mother of God. I ask him to help me deal with our Lord and his Mother, since he is a good teacher and has a lot of experience. You should do the same.
We ask our heavenly Mother to help us to conquer in our daily struggles.
Perhaps some of you might be thinking that the ordinary comings and goings of your working day are not going to help you much to stay close to someone as pure as our Lady. But I would just ask you to reflect a little. What are we looking for all the time in things we do, even without thinking about it especially? If we are motivated by the love of God and we work with a right intention, then we are seeking whatever is good and clean, whatever brings peace to our conscience and happiness to our soul. Yes, you might say, but donāt we still have our faults? Indeed, but it is precisely by acknowledging our faults that we are able to see, more clearly than ever, just what our goal has to be. What we are looking for is happiness; not a momentary happiness, but one that is deep and lasting and both human and supernatural.
There is one creature who achieved such happiness here on earth because she is Godās masterpiece: our most holy Mother Mary. She lives now and is protecting us. She is there, body and soul, with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. She is the same person who was born in Palestine, who gave herself to God while still a child, who received the message from St Gabriel the Archangel, who gave birth to our Saviour and who stood beside him at the foot of the Cross.
In her, all ideals become a reality; but this should not make us think that her sublime greatness makes her inaccessible to us. She is the one who is full of grace and the sum of all perfections; and she is also our Mother. Her power before God is such that she can obtain anything we ask for, and, like any mother, she wants to answer our prayers. Like any mother also, she knows and understands our weaknesses. She encourages us and makes excuses for us. She makes the way easy for us and, even when we think there is no possible solution for our worry, she always has one ready to offer us.
If we truly got to know Mary our Mother, how quickly the supernatural virtues would grow in us! Let us not be shy about repeating short prayers and aspirations to her throughout the day. There is no need to say them out loud, we can say them in our heart. Christian devotion has gathered together many of these loving words of praise in the Litany which accompanies the Holy Rosary. But each one of us is free to think up new ones, and address new praises to her, telling her with our heart-with a holy bashfulness that she understands and approves-what we would not dare to say out loud.
Finally, I would recommend that, if your havenāt already done so, you find out for yourself by personal experience the meaning of Maryās maternal love. It is not enough just to know she is our Mother and to think and to talk about her as such. She is your Mother and you are her son. She loves you as if you were her only child in this world. Treat her accordingly: tell her about everything that happens to you, honour her and love her. No one will do it for you or as well as you, if you do not do it yourself.
I give you my word that, if you set out along this way, you will quickly discover all the love of Christ: and you will find yourself drawn into the ineffable life of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. You will draw strength from it to put the will of God fully into practice, and you will be filled with desires of serving all men. You will be the Christian you have sometimes dreamed of being: full of works of charity and justice, happy and strong, understanding towards others and demanding on yourself.
This, and no other, is the kind of faith we want. Let us have recourse to our Mother Mary; she will accompany us and help us make firm and constant progress.