Since Mary is our Mother, we may now consider how great her love is for us. Love towards our children is a necessary impulse of nature. St.Thomas Aquinas says that this is the reason why divine law imposes on children the obligation of loving their parents. It gives no express command that parents love their children since nature itself has so strongly implanted that in all creatures.
As St Ambrose remarks: “We know that a mother will expose herself to danger for her children. Even the most savage beasts cannot do otherwise than love their young. If this is true in nature, says Mary, how can I forget to love you, my children? And even if such a thing were possible, that a mother should forget to love her child, it is impossible that I should cease to love a soul that has become my child. “Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And even if she should forget, yet will I not forget you.” (Is 44:15)
Mary is our Mother, not according to the flesh but by love: “I am the Mother of fair love.” (Ec 24:24) Hence it is the love she bears for us that makes her our Mother.
Let us consider the reason of this love, for then we shall be better able to understand how much she really loves us.
The first reason for the love that Mary bears us is the great love that she has for God. Love towards God and love towards neighbor belong to the same commandment, as expressed by St. John: “This commandment we have from God, that he who loves God, love also his brother.” (1 Jn 4:21) As the one becomes greater, the other also increases.
Consider what the saints have done because of their love of God. Read only the account of the labors of St. Francis Xavier in the Indies. See St. Francis de Sales, who, in order to convert unbelievers in the province of Chablais, risked his life every morning for a year. St. Paulinus delivered himself up as a slave, while St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen preached openly about the Church, although he knew it would bring him death.
The saints, then, because they loved God so much, did much for their neighbor. But, who ever loved God as much as Mary? She loved Him more in the first moment of her existence than all the saints and angels ever loved Him, or will love Him.
Among all the blessed spirits, there is not one that loves God more than Mary, so neither do we have nor can we have anyone who, after God, loves us as much as this loving Mother. If we concentrate all the love that mothers bear their children, that husbands and wives have for one another, all the love of angels and saints for their clients, it does not equal the love of Mary towards a single soul.
Moreover, our Mother loves us much because we were recommended to her by her beloved Jesus, when He, before expiring, said to her: “Woman, behold your Son.” (Jn 19:26) We were all represented in the person of St. John, as we have already observed. These were among His last words. The last recommendations left before death by persons we love are always treasured and never forgotten.
Again, we are exceedingly dear to Mary on account of the sufferings we cost her. Mothers generally love those children most, the preservation of whose lives has cost them the most suffering and anxiety. We are those children for whom Mary, in order to obtain for us the life of grace, was obliged to endure the bitter agony of herself offering her beloved Jesus to die an ignominious death, and had to see Him expire before her very eyes among the most cruel of torments.
It was, then, by this great offering of Mary that we were born to her to the life of grace. We are, therefore, her very dear children, since we cost her such great suffering. And, thus, as it is written of the love of the Eternal Father towards men, in giving His own Son to death for us, that “God so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son” (Jn 3:16), “so also,” says St. Bonaventure, “we can say of Mary, that she has so loved us as to give her only-begotten Son for us.”
Finally, she gave Him for us a thousand and a thousand times during the three hours preceding His death, which she spent at the foot of the cross. During that whole time, she unceasingly offered, with extreme sorrow and the extremes of love, the life of her Son on our behalf.
Because all has been redeemed by Jesus, Mary loves and protects all.
It was she who was seen by St. John in the Book of Revelation: “And a great sign appeared in the heavens: a woman clothed with the sun.” (21:1) She is said to be clothed with the sun because as there is no one on earth who can be hidden from the heat of the sun, so there is no one living who can be deprived of the love of Mary.
“And who,” exclaims St. Antoninus, “can ever form an idea of the tender care that this most loving mother takes of all of us . . . offering and dispensing her mercy to everyone.” Our good mother desired the salvation of all and cooperated in obtaining it.
“It is evident,” writes St. Bernard, “that she was solicitous for the whole human race.” Thus many of Mary’s clients ask God to give them the graces that the Blessed Virgin knows are best for them.
On this point St. Albert the Great applies these words from the Book of Wisdom to Mary: “She hastens to make herself known in anticipation of men’s desire; he who watches for her at dawn shall not be disappointed, for he shall find her sitting by his gate.” (6:13-14) Mary anticipates those who have recourse to her by making them find her before they seek her. She comes before she is called.
And now, if Mary is so good to all, even to the ungrateful and negligent, who love her but little, and seldom have recourse to her, how much more loving will she be to those who love her and call upon her often. “O how easy,” adds the same St. Albert, “it is for those who love Mary to find her, and to find her full of compassion and love!”
In the words of the Book of Proverbs, “I love those who love me.” (8:17) As St. Bernard remarks: “She recognizes and loves those who love her more tenderly.” Blessed Raymond Jordan adds that: “Those who love Mary are not only loved by her, but served by her.” According to St. John Berchmans of the Society of Jesus: “If I love Mary I am certain of perseverance, and shall obtain whatever I wish from God.”
O, how much does the love of this good Mother exceed that of all of her children. Let them love her as much as they will, Mary is always among lovers the most loving, says St. Ignatius the Martyr.
St. Stanislaus Kostka loved this dear mother so tenderly that he always spoke of her as if he were addressing her face to face. When the Salve Regina was sung, his whole countenance lighted up as if he were inflamed with love.
Indeed, the saints offer us much encouragement in loving Mary. St. Philip Neri called her his delight. St. Bernard called her the ravisher of hearts. Each day St. Bernardine of Siena visited a shrine of Mary, as one would visit a friend or a lover.
St. Aloysius Gonzaga rejoiced to hear the name of Mary. St. Francis of Solano sang at her shrines as if serenading a lover. Charles, the son of St. Bridget, said that nothing consoled him as much as the knowledge that Mary was so greatly loved by God.
St. Alphonsus Rodriguez offered to lay down his life as a testimony of his love for Mary. St. Peter Damian claimed that Mary loved us “with an invincible love.” St. Bonaventure claimed that it was a mark of good fortune to have a special love for Mary.
Let us cry out with St. Anselm: “May my heart languish and my soul melt and be consumed with your love, O my beloved Savior Jesus, and my dear Mother Mary!
PRAYER
Mother Mary, you have enamored God with the spiritual beauty He caused in your soul. Now draw us into the circle of your love and let us be devoted sons and daughters of so special a Mother.
Let me love you with all the powers of my soul, my mind and my body. Through this love lead me ever more truly into the love of Jesus, your Son.
Show your great mercy to me, a sinner, and lead me to true repentance in the ways that please your Son, Jesus Christ.
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