The Blessed Mother of God; A smooth transition to Pure Holiness

From her acceptance at the Annunciation to the prediction of Simeon as she stood beneath the Cross becoming the model of complete humility watching her Son die for humanity.

Because Mary took on a mission of bearing God’s Son within her womb, nursing Jesus at her breasts, and picking him up every time he fell she was a mother to the very end of his life. There was no difference between her and all other mothers’ who watch their children grow, cheer their accomplishments, and cry when their days end before hers. Yet, maybe unlike your mother or mine, there was a secondary task she was expected to proceed with, becoming more than a spiritual mother for each of us; she took on the role of extending the grace of purity to all her children.

There is always a deep loss of puritanical emphasis on children when they fall into sin; beginning with the age of reasoning until their death, at any age. Of all the spiritual graces we must have are those that are pure in nature and complete in avoiding the sins that can cover our lust for physical and mental satisfaction making us like animals that compete for domination of another, or ourselves.

Each moment we adhere to Mary’s love through her interceding to her Son we receive the touch of a mother who watches and erases the dirt from our faces and the soul we were given at baptism. Yes we were given a soul at birth, but its essence belongs to God which we receive when we are born again.

Prayer is neither a competitive action as to which person of the Trinity we pray to nor is it just to Mary when we deal with purity. However, with a mother one can speak more eloquently about serious problems that deal with sexual misunderstanding and she is willing to listen and then reaches into her Son’s compassion for mercy. Again this does not place the need for God into categories, as if one person can only handle particular issues and hands other issues off to one of the other Three Persons of the Trinity.

This reaching out to Mary, the Mother of God, becomes her secondary task of being a human mother that is responsible for the childhood needs that a Mother can take care of. She raised her son not as a disciple of Christ (although that was part of her life) but first as His Mother then a Mother to us all. Throughout the Old Testament women were a crucial part of all the prophets. Most were silent as they raised their offspring, but in a deeper sense were the ones who gave their children birth, nursed them, and sent them into the world with a mother’s love. That in essence is more valuable that the education they received. Without this entity that nurtures a child’s formation, the learning from the street is useless. This Mary completed with Jesus and continues with us as well.

Ralph B. Hathaway