Love and Surrender: A Reflection on Marian Consecration

One of the essential elements of all religions is the idea of surrender. It is found in nearly all major religions, from the “zen” of Buddhism, the “Submission” if Islam, and the obedience of Judaism. Yet in Christianity the idea of surrender takes on a new importance, it reaches a deeper understanding. For in all other religions God commands simple, strict, complete surrender. However, in the Christian tradition God does not stop at demanding obedience, He goes so far as to become man and to give the supreme example of surrender. Christianity does not just ask us to surrender to God, it asks us to surrender as God surrendered. For St. Paul says, “He humbled HImself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death on the cross (Phil 2:8).” Our Lord Jesus Christ gives us the supreme example of humble obedience through His Incarnation, an example that we are not just called to reflect on, but to follow completely.

In what way are we called to walk in the humble obedient footsteps of Christ? In every way! Beginning with His very first act of surrender: surrender to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Jesus, the almighty God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, humbled Himself to take on human flesh and to dwell in the womb of Our Lady. But His surrender extended even beyond His infancy. Throughout His life Our Lord put His will at the service of His mother; “Jesus went back to Nazareth and was obedient to them” (Lk 2:51). His public ministry and journey to the Calvary began at the explicit request of His mother. Even though “[His] hour had not yet come” (Jn 2:4), Jesus heard the appeal of His mother and provided new wine from water and set out on the road that would lead to the Cross where He would provide an infinite fountain of blood and water from His pierced side. 

This is the secret behind Total Consecration to Our Lady as preached by Sts. Louis de Montfort and Maximilian Kolbe: to follow in Christ’s footsteps; leading from Mary, to the Cross. Total Consecration “consists in giving oneself entirely and as a slave to Mary.” In this way we “do all that we do, with Mary, in Mary, through Mary, and for Mary…the soul leaves everything to be freely disposed of by Our Lady so that She may apply it all according to her own will for the greater glory of God, which She alone knows perfectly.” In this lies the key to Total Consecration: that we are submitting to Jesus, through Mary. By placing our wills entirely at the service of the Holy Virgin we are placing our wills wholly and entirely at the service of the Blessed Trinity. 

Obedience to Mary is obedience to the Father. For in the first sense God has asked His own Son to submit to the motherhood of Mary and now “behold what manner of charity the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called Sons of God” (1 Jn 3:1). As sons of the Father in Christ we are called to submit to Mary as did God’s only begotten Son. Yet all that is offered to Mary in love is immediately returned in worship to the Father as the Virgin Most Humble declares, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). 

Obedience to Mary is obedience to the Son. On this earth Our Lord bowed in obedience to the will of His Mother, in heaven Our Lord still cannot refuse Her the smallest request. But Mary takes all that She has been given and reflects it back on the source: Our Lord Jesus Christ; “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord” (Lk 1:46). To those lowly sinners who have recourse to this Mother of Mercy only one command is given from Her lips: “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:5). Mary has emptied Herself entirely and been filled full of grace and full of God. Therefore the path to Mary is the path to God, the path to Christ.

Obedience to Mary is obedience to the Holy Spirit. Mary is the pure bride of the Holy Spirit, the spouse of the Holy Spirit joined in union with the Holy Spirit. St. Maximilian Kolbe describes this: “What kind of union is this? It is above all interior; it is the union of her very being with the being of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in her, lives in her, from the first instant of her existence, and he will do so always, throughout eternity.” Just as a husband and wife truly become, “no longer two but one flesh” (Mt. 19:6), in the same way Mary is joined as one with the Holy Spirit. Surrender to Mary is surrender to the Holy Spirit.

Christianity has one simple command: love. But “surrender is an essential element in love;” without surrender we cannot love. We are called then, not just to submit to God, but to surrender as God did: to surrender to His Mother, Our Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary trusting that obedience to this Loving Queen is obedience to the King who created Her. This then is what sets Christian surrender apart from the submission or acceptance of other religions. For them surrender is the ultimate goal, the purpose of religion and of devotion. However, to the Christian surrender is only essential as a tool to love. And we can be confident in this! For we do not walk alone but follow in the foot prints of Him who “Humbled Himself to the point of death” so that He might love us.

All non-scriptural citations are from the writings of St. Maximilian Kolbe and taken from "Scritti di Massimiliano Kolbe," Rome, 1997 .