Salesian Literature

Chapter 8:  The matchless charity of God’s Mother, our Lady

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Whenever I draw such parallels, I have no intention of including the Virgin Mother, our blessed Lady.  No, indeed! She is the child of a love beyond compare; than she, none so gentle, none so pure (Cant. 6:8).  It is my cherished opinion – born of truth no less than love – that the charity of this Queen of heaven surpassed even that of the Seraphim, at least towards the close of her days on earth!

 

Furthermore, I believe that this Mother of love not only surpassed the saints of heaven by her state of perfect charity, but also – in this life, I mean – practised it more perfectly.  She never committed a venial sin, the church teaches[1]; so there was no unevenness, no obstacle in her way to perfect charity, as she rose ever higher from love to love.  Nor, at any time, did she feel the slightest rebellion in her sense appetite; so that her love, like a wise Solomon, reigned peacefully in her soul, acting in perfect freedom.

 

Virginity of soul and body gave her greater dignity, further title to honour, than ever angels knew.  That is why her mind, not at issue with itself, was concerned with the Lord’s claim, intent on holiness … asking how she was to please God (1 Cor. 7:32-34).  After all, what wonders must maternal love – the most urgent, active and ardent of all loves, a love that is untiring, insatiable – what wonders must it have wrought in such a Mother’s heart … in favour of the heart of such a Son!

 

Nor are you to see an obstacle in the blessed Virgin’s need of sleep; no, never plead that to me, Theotimus.  Surely you can see that her sleep is a loving slumber, so that even the bridegroom himself means no one to disturb her; never wake from her sleep my heart’s love, till wake she will (Cant. 8:4).  No, this heavenly Queen never fell asleep but love was the motive; she lay down to sleep only to refresh her peerless body, to serve God the better when she woke again.  Truly, a splendid act of charity; for charity, as St. Augustine says, “obliges us to love our bodies as befits them” – as essential to our good deeds, as part of ourselves, as due to share in eternal bliss.

 

Most assuredly, a Christian should love his body as the living likeness of the Word made flesh, sprung from the same stock, bound to our Lord – in consequence – by ties of kindred and of blood; above all, when he renews that relationship by receiving his Redeemer’s body in the blessed sacrament of the holy eucharist; especially since baptism, confirmation, and the other sacraments, dedicate and consecrate him to God’s supreme goodness.

 

As for our blessed Lady – God alone knows the piety with which she loved her virgin body; not only because it was gentle, humble, pure, dutiful to God’s love, endowed with great beauty, but also because, as the living origin of the Saviour’s body, it was so intimately, so uniquely his.

 

Our Lady’s love (which could neither perish, diminish, nor merely maintain a constant level) never failed to grow until she reached its source in heaven – so truly is she the Mother who gives birth to all noble loving (Eccl. 24:24).  No mother ever loves as she does, for no son loves his mother like Jesus – the lovable, loving and beloved Son of a Mother beyond compare.

 

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[1]  Council of Trent: Session 6, Canon 23.

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