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14. With the whole Church I acknowledge that Mary, being a mere
creature fashioned by the hands of God is, compared to his
infinite majesty, less than an atom, or rather is simply nothing,
since he alone can say, "I am he who is". Consequently, this great
Lord, who is ever independent and self-sufficient, never had and
does not now have any absolute need of the Blessed Virgin for the
accomplishment of his will
and the manifestation of his glory. To do all things he has only
to will them.
15. However, I declare that, considering things as they are,
because God has decided to begin and accomplish his greatest works
through the Blessed Virgin ever since he created her, we can
safely believe that he will not change his plan in the time to
come, for he is God and therefore does not change in his thoughts
or his way of acting.
16. God the Father gave his only Son to the world only through
Mary. Whatever desires the patriarchs may have cherished, whatever
entreaties the prophets and saints of the Old Law may have had for
4,000 years to obtain that treasure, it was Mary alone who merited
it and found grace before God by the power of her prayers and the
perfection of her virtues. "The world being unworthy," said Saint
Augustine, "to receive the Son of God directly from the hands of
the Father, he gave his Son to Mary for the world to receive him
from her." The Son of God became man for our salvation but only in
Mary and through Mary. God the Holy Spirit formed Jesus Christ in
Mary but only after having asked her consent through one of the
chief
ministers of his court.
17. God the Father imparted to Mary his fruitfulness as far as a
mere creature was capable of receiving it, to enable her to bring
forth his Son and all the members of his mystical body.
18. God the Son came into her virginal womb as a new Adam into his
earthly paradise, to take his delight there and produce hidden
wonders of grace. God-made-man found freedom in imprisoning
himself in her womb. He displayed power in allowing himself to be
borne by this young maiden. He found his glory and that of his
Father
in hiding his splendours from all creatures here below and
revealing them only to Mary. He glorified his independence and his
majesty in depending upon this lovable virgin in his conception,
his birth, his presentation in the temple, and in the thirty years
of his hidden life. Even at his death she had to be present so
that he might be united with her in one sacrifice and be immolated
with her consent to the eternal Father, just as formerly Isaac was
offered in sacrifice by
Abraham when he accepted the will of God. It was Mary who nursed
him, fed him, cared for him, reared him, and sacrificed him for
us.
The Holy Spirit could not leave such wonderful and inconceivable
dependence of God unmentioned in the Gospel, though he concealed
almost all the wonderful things that Wisdom Incarnate did during
his hidden life in order to bring home to us its infinite value
and glory. Jesus gave more glory to God his Father by submitting
to his Mother for thirty years than he would have given him had he
converted the whole world by working the greatest miracles. How
highly then do we
glorify God when to please him we submit ourselves to Mary, taking
Jesus as our sole model.
19. If we examine closely the remainder of the life of Jesus
Christ, we see that he chose to begin his miracles through Mary.
It was by her word that he sanctified Saint John the Baptist in
the womb of his mother, Saint Elizabeth; no sooner had Mary spoken
than John was sanctified. This was his first and greatest miracle
of grace. At the wedding in Cana he changed water into wine at her
humble prayer, and this was his first miracle in the order of
nature. He began and continued his miracles through Mary and he
will continue them through
her until the end of time.20. God the Holy Spirit, who does not produce any divine person,
became fruitful through Mary whom he espoused. It was with her, in
her and of her that he produced his masterpiece, God-made-man, and
that he produces every day until the end of the world the members
of the body of this adorable Head. For this reason the more he
finds Mary his dear and inseparable spouse in a soul the more
powerful and effective he becomes in producing Jesus Christ in
that soul and that soul in Jesus Christ.
21. This does not mean that the Blessed Virgin confers on the Holy
Spirit a fruitfulness which he does not already possess. Being
God, he has the ability to produce just like the Father and the
Son, although he does not use this power and so does not produce
another divine person. But it does mean that the Holy Spirit chose
to make use of our Blessed Lady, although he had no absolute need
of her, in order to become actively fruitful in producing Jesus
Christ and his members in her and by her. This is a mystery of
grace unknown even to many of the most learned and spiritual of
Christians.
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