Mary, Model of Virtue – Charity towards God

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 28 May 2011)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Faith, hope and charity are the three theological virtues which enable us to share in God’s nature (CCC, #1813) or activity (Holy Family School of Faith Institute). God infused them into us at our baptism, so that we can attain union with Him (Holy Family School of Faith Institute). Of these three, St. Paul says that charity is the greatest (1 Corinthians 13:13). The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbour as ourselves for the love of God.” (CCC, #1822) Charity enables us to love the way God does (Holy Family School of Faith Institute). It summarises the two great commandments that contain the whole law of God, (Mark 12:29-31) i.e.

1.  You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength; and

2.  You shall love your neighbour as yourself.

Today, we will ponder on charity towards God. I shall share points and reflexions mainly from the School of Faith website.

Why charity towards God? Does God need our charity or love? Certainly not. God Himself is Love; He does not need us to love Him to be fulfilled in any way. Why then, does He command us to love Him with our whole being? Because only by loving God will we be led to eternal happiness in Him, where we are made to be. As St. Augustine wrote, “You have made us for Thyself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” (Augustine of Hippo, p1)

How should we love God? As mentioned, with our entire being, above all things and for His own sake. Jesus commands us to love one another has He has loved us. How does God love? He loves us first, gives us life and all good things; not because He needs us, but as a totally free gift. It is selfless love. When we ungratefully turned away from Him, He sent His only Son to die for us, to save us from sin, while we were still sinners. His love is sacrificial. God continues to seek us out and bring us back to Him throughout the ages. To love God for His own sake, obviously we should love Him with the same selfless and sacrificial love.

What makes us love God and keep His commandments? Is it because we want something from Him? So that He will fulfil our desires? If that is so, it is not charity, but selfish love, for the focus is on what we gain from loving God. Charity motivates us to love for the good and happiness of God and neighbour. We should be willing to sacrifice time and energy for prayer, attending Mass, going for Confession, not to get something out of them, but as acts of love for God, to please Him and make Him happy. Likewise, when we pray, we do not merely ask for favours and help; prayer is also praise and thanksgiving. (Holy Family School of Faith Institute)

The famous Catholic theologian, Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange gave three great signs of heroic love of God: perfect conformity to His holy will in trials, love of the cross, and perfect charity towards one’s neighbour. (Garrigou-Lagrange).

Should we love God first, or neighbour first? Modern liberalism advocates may say, “Feeding the poor is more important.” In his classic, Liberalism Is A Sin, Dr. Salvany wrote: “Charity is primarily the love of God, secondarily the love of our neighbor for God's sake. …” And Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange wrote, “Perfect charity toward one's neighbor springs from close union with God…”

After Christ, Mary is the epitome of this heroic love of God, for she submitted to His will entirely, and remained faithful amidst the greatest sufferings. Her total love of God made her love mankind as He loves them.

How can we acquire this virtue to love God as we should? Besides our effort, we must be open to God’s grace through daily prayer, especially meditation of the Holy Rosary, and by frequently receiving the Sacraments, i.e. Confession and the Eucharist. (Holy Family School of Faith Institute) Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical Mirae Caritatis (#11), wrote that charity towards God to promote mutual charity among men can be enkindled if we ponder well the charity which Christ has shown in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

Mary is our role model, for according to St. Alphonsus Liguori, her humility and self emptiness enabled Divine love to fill her so that, quoting St. Bernardine, “her love towards God surpassed that of all men and Angels”.

By this first and greatest commandment, then, we can hope to attain union with God, like Mary.

References:

Alphonsus Liguori. The Glories of Mary, from Mary's Charity Towards God. Retrieved on 19 May 2011 from http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/charity-mary1.htm.

Augustine of Hippo. Confessions of St. Augustine.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Holy Family School of Faith Institute. Retrieved on 27 May 2011 from http://www.schooloffaith.com/_assets/files/Virtue/NT0602.pdf

Holy Family School of Faith Institute. Retrieved on 25 May 2011 from http://www.schooloffaith.com/_assets/files/Virtue/NT0608.pdf

Leo XIII. (28 May 1902). Mirae Caritatis. Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on the Holy Eucharist.

Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. (n.d.). The Three Ages of the Interior Life. Retrieved on 19 May 2011 from http://www.christianperfection.info/tta96.php

Mary, Model of Virtue - The Humility of Mary

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 21 May 2011)

•    "Humility," says St. Bernard, "is the foundation and guardian of virtues;" and with reason, for without it no other virtue can exist in a soul. Should she possess all virtues, all will depart when humility is gone.

St. Francis de Sales wrote to St. Jane Frances de Chantal, "God so loves humility, that whenever He sees it, He is immediately drawn thither." This beautiful and so necessary virtue was unknown in the world; but the Son of God Himself came on earth to teach it by His Own example, and willed that in that virtue in particular we should endeavour to imitate Him: Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart.

•    Mary, being the first and most perfect disciple of Jesus Christ in the practice of all virtues, was the first also in that of humility, and by it merited to be exalted above all creatures.

The first effect of humility of heart is a lowly opinion of ourselves. St Teresa: Humility is truth. A humble heart always acknowledges the special favors of the Lord, to humble herself the more. The Divine Mother, by the greater light by which she knew the infinite greatness and goodness of God, also knew her own nothingness, and therefore, more than all others, humbled herself. A soul that is truly humble refuses her own praise; and should praises be bestowed on her, she refers them all to God.

At the Annunciation, Mary is disturbed at hearing herself praised by St. Gabriel; ..and when St. Elizabeth said, Blessed are you among women ... and why has this happened to me, that the Mother of my Lord comes to me? ... and blessed is she who has believed, [Luke 1:42-45], Mary referred all to God, and answered in that humble Canticle, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for He has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.” She spoke of the lowliness of His servant to make sure nobody misunderstood what she meant by “servant”.

•    Those who are humble are retiring and choose the last places; and therefore Mary, when her Son was preaching in a house, wishing to speak to Him, would not of her own accord enter, but remained outside, and did not avail herself of her maternal authority to interrupt Him, as it is related by St. Matthew, [12:46]

•    “The Lord scatters the proud and exalts the lowly.” There are two kinds of exaltation: self-exaltation and divine exaltation. The greatest danger for us is self-exaltation, because it opposes the condition for divine exaltation, that is, lowly, Marian humility. She declared that the Lord fills the hungry (those who admit their emptiness) with good things. Hunger in the Bible means emptiness not only of the body, but a symbol of the admitted emptiness of everything. By ourselves, we are emptiness, a vacuum. We must admit that we are a vacuum, or we shall not be filled by the goodness of God. We must admit and constantly confess our emptiness, which is another word for humility.

•    Humility serves. Humility waits on others. Mary did not refuse to go and serve Elizabeth for three months. Elizabeth wondered that Mary should have come to visit her; but what is still more admirable is, Mary came not to be ministered to, but to minister. This is the mother of God, but only because she is also the lowly handmaid of the Lord.

The more gifted a person, the more prone that person is to pride. Possession of anything naturally generates pride. And not only does possession generate pride, but the greater the possession the more pride it generates. Wealth of any kind inflates the human heart. The more a person has of physical or mental or moral or even spiritual riches, the harder it is for that person to be humble, to serve. How are we to be humble? How can we possess without being proud? Only through being in the presence of Jesus Christ.

•    Mary's humility is a paradox. The most gifted creature ever produced by the Creator was also the lowliest in her own eyes. That is the key to humility: seeing everything we are, everything we have, everything we hope to become, everything we hope to achieve or possess – seeing everything as a free, undeserved and totally gratuitous gift from God.

But this is possible only by the grace with which God who became man provides us. The same grace He provided Mary by His Real Presence with her, He provides by His Real Presence with us today. There's no more basic reason for the Real Presence on earth of Jesus Christ than to provide us with the humanly impossible grace of humility.

References:

St Alphonsus Liguori. The Glories of Mary: –: http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/humility-mary.htm

Fr John Hardon, posted by Fr Fernando OMV: http://cloudoffire.blogspot.com/2009/03/mary-perfect-model-of-humility.html

John Hardon S.J. (1914-2000) http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0943.htm

Mary as a Type of the Church - Holiness

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 14 May 2011)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

We have shared with you about Mary as a type of the Church as a virgin mother, and how we, members of the Church, can live the life and mission of the Church as both mother and virgin. Today, I would like to share on Mary’s holiness and the Church, again extracting mainly from Fr. Josef Neuner’s “Mary, Mother of the Saviour”, the Lumen Gentium (LG) and other Church documents.

Fr. Neuner wrote: God alone is holy beyond all creation. Christian holiness is based on God’s free invitation to share in His life. This free gift from God must be responded to and realised in the newness of life. All holiness in the Church comes from Jesus Christ, who “loves the Church as his bride, giving himself up for her so as to sanctify her”. (LG, #39). This is realised first in Mary, whose holiness makes her the model of the whole Church.

Mary’s holiness is God’s free gift to her because she is the Virgin-Mother of Jesus Christ, the Saviour. Embodying the mystery of Mary in her life and mission, the Church too, is virgin and mother. Thus the Church also shares in Mary’s holiness. But, Mary, conceived without sin, is holy from the beginning, whereas the Church is called from sin to grace; as St. Chrysostom wrote: a harlot made virgin by Christ the bridegroom (p93). I quote Fr. Neuner: “We are members of the Church not through the natural birth but through baptism, reborn in Jesus Christ. Hence as Eve became the symbol of the unredeemed world, so Mary is the type of the world redeemed and sanctified in Jesus Christ, which is the Church.”

Fr. Neuner concluded: “Christian holiness is embodied in Mary and must be realised in the Church. It is God’s transforming presence which must become fruitful in life and work. …Holiness…is the transparency of God’s presence. …Mary is transparent, filled with the mystery of God. When people pray before her image they enter into God’s presence. Also in the Church holiness is more than moral correctness. The “Holy” Catholic Church must offer to the world the consciousness of God’s presence, elevating and powerful in its silence.”

How do we, as members of the Church, live up to that? Whom shall we turn to if not Mary, the very one who is filled with holiness, and is the figure of the Church? For Vatican II taught: “But while in the most holy Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she is without spot or wrinkle, the followers of Christ still strive to increase in holiness by conquering sin. And so they turn their eyes to Mary who shines forth to the whole community of the elect as the model of virtues.” Moreover, (LG, #65) “…true devotion … proceeds from true faith, by which we are led to know the excellence of the Mother of God, and we are moved to a filial love toward our mother and to the imitation of her virtues.” (LG, #67)

To imitate Mary, we need to know her, constantly be reminded of her virtues, and have the grace and perseverance to live by them against worldly temptations. We get to know Mary by reading about her; there is a vast ocean of literature on Mary – in printed material, on the Internet, and prayers and homilies. We also know her through others’ sharing on their experiences of her love and intercession.

Praying the Rosary will remind us of her virtues. Meditating often on the mysteries of the Rosary, we learn more and more about the life of Jesus Christ and His Blessed Mother, and will be better disposed to imitate their virtues.

As God alone can make us holy, we must pray for the grace to respond to this invitation of His. We receive grace and strength through the sacraments administered by the Church.  

We should also ask Mary to pray for us to be more like her, so that we will be more like Christ. Mary, being our Mother, is ever ready to help us and intercede for us. Again, the Rosary is the prayer where we invoke our Blessed Mother’s powerful intercession.

In subsequent weeks, we will share on Mary’s virtues. Quoting St. Alphonsus Liguori, “Humility being the foundation of all virtues, as the holy Fathers teach…” we will next share on the great humility of the Mother of God.