CHAPTER
4
TO THEE DO WE
CRY,
POOR BANISHED
CHILDREN
OF EVE
1.
How Promptly Mary
Helps All
Who Invoke Her
WE
are the poor children of Eve.
Inheriting
her guilt and condemned to the same penalty, we have to wander about in
this valley of tears, exiles from our country, weeping over our many
afflictions
of body and soul.
But
happy are they who, in spite of their
sorrows, turn often to the comfortress of the world, to the refuge of
the
miserable, to the great Mother of God, and devoutly invoke her.
The
Church is careful to teach her
children
with what attention and trust they should pray to this loving
protectress.
For this purpose she commands them to have special devotion to her.
She
has instituted many feasts of
Our
Lady, and she sets aside one day in the week for her special honor. She
recommends that all priests and religious in their daily Office invoke
her in the name of the whole Christian body, and she recommends that
all
the faithful pray to her three times a day at the sound of the Angelus.
See
the confidence which the Church places
in Mary: in all public calamities she invariably calls upon the
faithful
to enlist her protection through novenas, through prayers and
processions,
through visits to her churches and shrines.
Our
Lady herself desires this. She wants
us
to seek her always and invoke her aid. It is not as if she were begging
us for these marks of veneration, for they cannot come up to her
deserving.
She desires them so that our confidence and devotion may be increased
by
them and move her to answer us with greater help and comfort.
St.
Bonaventure observes that Ruth, whose
name means "seeing and hastening," was a figure of Mary; "for Mary,
seeing
our miseries, mercifully hastens to help us."
Novarinus
adds that "Mary, in her intense
desire to help us, can brook no delay, for she is not at all an
avaricious
hoarder of the graces at her disposal, but a Mother of Mercy, and
instantly
showers down the treasures of her liberality on her servants."
Richard
of St. Lawrence assures us that
Mary
pours out her compassion on everyone who prays for it, even if the
prayer
be only a simple Hail Mary.
How
quickly this good Mother helps all who
pray to her! She not only runs, but flies, to our assistance. 23
God
has wings when He comes to His own;
Mary
too has wings. Hers are the wings of an eagle; she flies with the love
of God. 24
With
speed more than that of the seraphim
she goes everywhere to aid her children. 25
When
she went into the hill country to
Elizabeth,
bringing grace with her, she went, we are told, in haste (Lk.
1:39).
Remember
what Bernardine de Bustis says:
She
is more eager to grant us graces than we can be to receive them.
Nor
should the multitude of our sins
diminish
our confidence. Mary is the Mother of Mercy. But there would be no
reason
for mercy if there were no one who needed it. No good mother shrinks
from
applying a remedy to her children when they are infected with some
disgusting
skin disease, however nauseating the sight may be. Neither does our
good
Mother shrink from us when we come to her to heal the wounds of sin, no
matter how loathsome they are. 26
So
great is this good Mother's compassion,
and her love so urgent, that she does not even wait for our prayers
--- she anticipates them. She hastens to make herself
known
in
anticipation of people's desire (Wis. 6:14).
Her
heart is full of pity for poor
sinners,
and scarcely has she noticed our miseries when she lavishes her tender
mercies on us. 27
For
any who doubt whether Mary will help
them
when they come to her, Innocent III has this encouraging reminder: "Who
ever called upon her and was not heard by her?"
If
there are any, O most Blessed Virgin
Mary,
who can recall having been refused by you when they came to you in
their
hour of need, let them no more speak in praise of your mercy! 28
Sooner
would Heaven and earth be destroyed
than Mary would fail to assist anyone who turned to her with the right
dispositions to ask her help. 29
St.
Anselm, to increase our confidence,
says
this: "When we pray to the Mother of God we are heard more quickly than
when we call directly on the name of Jesus --- for
her Son is not only our Lord but our Judge. But when we call on the
name
of His Mother, though our own merits will not insure an answer, yet her
merits intercede for us and we are answered."
This
does not mean that Mary is more
powerful
than her Son to save us. We know that Jesus is our only Savior, and
that
he alone by His merits has obtained and will obtain salvation for us.
However,
when we have recourse to Jesus,
we
regard Him at the same time as our Judge, whose business it is to
chastise
ungrateful souls. Therefore the confidence necessary before we can be
heard
may fail us.
When
we go to Mary, however, she has no
other
office but to show compassion as Mother of Mercy, and to defend us as
our
advocate. Hence our confidence is more easily aroused and is often
greater
than when we go directly to Jesus.
Many
things are asked of God and are not
granted;
they are asked of Mary and are obtained not because she is more
powerful
than God, but simply because God decrees to honor her in this way. 30
Once
St. Bridget heard our Lord make a
most
sweet and consoling promise: "You shall bring Me no petition," He said
to His Mother, "that will be denied. Ask what you will; I will never
refuse
you anything.
"
And remember --- I
promise to give grace to those who ask it in your name, even though
they
be sinners, if they re solve to change their lives."
"Remember,
O most holy Virgin Mary, that
never
was it heard of in any age that anyone having recourse to your
protection
was abandoned!" Forgive me therefore, O Mary, if I say that I do not
care
to be that first unfortunate creature to have recourse to you and be
abandoned.
2.
Mary's Power Is
Great in Time
of Temptation
THE
most Blessed Virgin Mary is Queen of
more
than heaven and all
the Saints. She is Queen also over hell
and
all evil spirits, for she has gloriously routed them with her virtues.
From
the very beginning God foretold the
victory
and empire that our Queen would one day win over the serpent: I
will
put enmity between you and the woman . . . ; she will crush
your
head (Gn. 3:15).
Who
could this woman be
--- this
enemy of the serpent, but Mary, who beat down his strength by her
beautiful
humility and holy life? The Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ was
promised
in that woman, as St. Cyprian says.
God
did not say, I put, but I will put,
to signify that the serpent's opponent was not Eve, who was then
living,
but some other woman descended from her --- One
who
would bring our first parents (says St. Vincent Ferrer) far greater
advantages
than they had lost by their sin.
She
will crush your head: some
question
whether this refers to Mary, and not rather to Jesus, since the
Septuagint
translates it, He shall crush your head. But in the Vulgate, which
alone
was approved by the Council of Trent, we find She.
Thus
too St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St.
Augustine,
and a great many others understood it. Be that as it may, it is certain
that either the Son through the Mother, or the Mother through the Son,
has conquered Lucifer.
I
am raised aloft like a palm tree in
Engedi (Sir.
24: 14) . . . to defend, adds St. Albert the Great. Recourse to Mary is
a most certain way to overcome all the assaults of Hell, for she is
Queen
even over hell and all the devils, taming and crushing them. 31
So
Mary is described in the Song of
Songs as awe-inspiring
as bannered troops (6:4). She knows how to draw up her powers, her
mercies, and her prayers, and thus humiliate her enemies and defend her
servants.
In
Judea victories were won by
means
of the Ark. Thus it was that Moses conquered his enemies; thus too,
Jericho
was conquered, and the Philistines were overthrown. It is well known
that
the Ark was a figure of Mary.
Cornelius
a Lapide says, "In time of
danger,
Christians should turn to the Most Blessed Virgin, who contained Christ
in her womb as the Ark contained manna, and who brought Him forth to be
the saving food of the world."
When
Mary, the Ark of the New Testament,
was
raised to the dignity of Queen of Heaven, Hell's influence over human
beings
was weakened and scattered. 32
It
was revealed to St. Bridget that God
made
Mary so powerful against the devils that, whenever they assail anyone
who
begs her help, with one glance she terrifies them and they take to
instant
flight. They would rather have their pains in hell redoubled than fall
under her dominion.
St.
John Damascene used to say: "As long
as
I keep alive my hope in thee, O Mother of God, I shall be safe. I will
fight and overcome enemies with this one shield ---
thy protection and thy all-powerful help."
A
young man, who was a slave to habits of
vice, went to confession to a certain priest in Rome. The confessor
received
him with kindness and, filled with compassion for him, assured him that
devotion to our Lady could free him from his shameful habits.
Accordingly,
he imposed on him as his
penance
that he say a Hail Mary to the Blessed Virgin every morning
and
evening, when he got up and when he went to bed, until his next
confession;
also, that he offer her at the same time his eyes, his hands, and his
whole
body, asking her to
preserve them as if they were her own,
and
that he kiss the ground three times.
He
performed the penance, but at first
there
was only slight improvement. However, his confessor insisted that he
continue
with the practice, advising him never to abandon it and encouraging him
to trust in the power of Mary .The young man then left Rome with a few
companions and spent several years traveling here and there.
When
the young man came back to Rome he
returned
to his confessor, who found, to his great relief and wonder, that he
was
a changed man, completely free of his sinful habits. "How did you
secure
so wonderful a change from God?" he asked.
The
young man answered, "It was our
Blessed
Lady who obtained this grace for me, because of those simple acts of
devotion
you taught me. "
This
was not the end of the graces. The
priest
related the story in one of his sermons. A certain captain in the army,
who had been committing sin with a woman for years, heard the sermon
and
made up his mind to try the same practice.
He
determined to break the chains that
kept
him a slave of the devil (for every sinner must have the purpose of
amendment,
otherwise the Blessed Virgin is powerless to help him), and he too gave
up his habit of sin and changed his life.
But
there was still more. After six
months,
relying too much on his own strength, the captain made the mistake of
going
back to the woman, to see if she too had changed her ways.
But
as he came up to the door of the
house,
where he was in certain danger of falling again, some unseen power
forced
him back and he found himself at the other end of the street, standing
before his own door. He had no doubt that it was our Lady who had done
this for him and saved him from perdition.
This
should be enough to show how anxious
our good Mother is, not only to lift us out of the state of sin if we
pray
to --- her for deliverance, but also
to save us
from
the danger of falling back.
God
guided His chosen people from Egypt to
the Promised Land by day in a column of cloud, by
night in
a column of fire (Ex 13:21).
This
stupendous column was a type of Mary
fulfilling a double office: as a cloud, she shades us from the heat of
the sun of Justice; as fire, she protects us from the devil. 33
As
wax melts before fire, the devils melt
away before all who keep our Lady's name in mind, devoutly invoke her,
and work at imitating her. 34
Full
of glory and wonder is your name, O
Mary
(exclaims St. Bonaventure), and whoever pronounces it at death need
fear
nothing from all the forces of Hell!
Our
Blessed Lady revealed to St. Bridget
that
the devil flies from even the most abandoned sinners
--- from
those farthest from God and fully possessed by the devil, if only they
invoke her most powerful name with a true purpose of amendment. But our
Blessed Lady added at the same time that, if such persons do not amend
and wash away their sins in sorrow, the devils return and begin again
to
possess them.
FOOTNOTES:
23.
Novarinus
24.
Ribera
25.
Blessed
Amadeus
26.
Richard
of St. Lawrence
27.
Richard
of St. Victor
28.
St.
Bernard
29.
Blosius
30.
Nicephorus
31.
St.
Bernardine
of Siena
32.
St.
Bernardine
of Siena
33.
Richard
of St. Lawrence
34.
St.
Bonaventure
Continued
forward.
