Mary, the Source of Holiness

1. God is the primary origin of all holiness. But the Blessed Virgin gave us Jesus, Who is our Redeemer, and the author of grace. For this reason she may be called the source of grace, the divine aqueduct, as St. Bernard puts it, through which the supernatural life of grace is brought to us. (In adv. Domini, Serm. 2, n.5) She was, moreover, full of grace and outstanding in holiness; as the Mother of God she can obtain anything for us from her divine Son, because “it is the will of God that we receive everything through the hands of Mary.” (St. Bernard, In Nativ. B.M.V., Serm., n. 7) Thirdly, even by her example she can be the source of sanctity for us. If we study her amazing humility, we shall learn to be humble, for our sinfulness gives us such good reason to humble ourselves. If we meditate on her spotless purity we shall experience a great desire and love for this beautiful virtue and shall have recourse to her in every danger to save us from impurity. Then let us reflect on her ardent love for God and for men. Her charity prompted her maternal heart to offer up as a divine Victim her Son nailed to the Cross. If we reflect on the nature of her charity, we also shall feel urged to love God above all things and to pray, work, and make sacrifices for the salvation of our fellowmen. Let us have always before our minds the image of our heavenly Mother and we shall be inspired to seek perfection in all our actions.

2. Since we are Mary's sons, we should try and reproduce her holiness in ourselves. Although it is higher than that of the angels, her sanctity is easy to imitate. There is no record that she ever had ecstasies or worked miracles. Hers was a perfect internal sanctity, consisting of total conformity with the will of God and an intense love for Him. We must aspire to this kind of holiness and model our lives upon it. There is no point in arguing that it is sufficient to be good Christians and that it is not necessary to be holy. A Christian, to be truly such, must be holy. St. Paul referred to the early faithful as saints. (Eph. 1:1) “You are a chosen race,” said St. Peter, “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people,” (1 Peter 2:9) and he recalled to them the admonition of the Holy Spirit: “You shall be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16; Lev. 11:44) “You are to be perfect,” Jesus Himself had commanded, “even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt. 5:48) This was the reason, He indicated, why He had come into the world – “that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) This is the purpose of the Gospel, and this must be the purpose of our lives. Some day we shall either be holy, or we shall be damned. We shall either be saints in Heaven or condemned forever in Hell. This truth merits careful thought; everything else is passing, but this is something which will never pass away. This command to sanctify ourselves is a reality which is present at every moment of our lives. Let us do our best to obey it at any cost.

3. Mary, my Mother, you are all-holy. You gave Jesus to us and received from Him the role of Mediatrix of His graces. Ask of your divine Son that we may always be able to avoid the slightest trace of sin and to devote all our thoughts, affections and actions to becoming holy. Amen.—Antonio Cardinal Bacci