- Our Lord is our Advocate and our Mediator of redemption with God the Father. It is through Him that we must pray with the whole Church, triumphant and militant. It is through Him that we have access to God the Father. We should never appear before God, our Father, unless we are supported by the merits of His Son, and, so to speak, clothed in them, as young Jacob was clothed in the skin of the young goats when he appeared before his father Isaac to receive his blessing.
85. But have we no need at all of a mediator with the Mediator Himself? Are we pure enough to be united directly to Christ without any help? Is Jesus not God, equal in every way to the Father? Therefore is He not the Holy of Holies, having a right to the same respect as His Father? If in His infinite love He became our security and our Mediator with His Father, whom He wished to appease in order to redeem us from our debts, should we on that account show Him less respect and have less regard for the majesty and holiness of His person?
Let us not be afraid to say with St. Bernard that we need a mediator with the Mediator Himself and the divinely-honored Mary is the one most able to fulfill this office of love. Through her, Jesus came to us; through her we should go to Him. If we are afraid of going directly to Jesus, who is God, because of His infinite greatness, or our lowliness, or our sins, let us implore without fear the help and intercession of Mary, our Mother. She is kind, she is tender, and there is nothing harsh or forbidding about her, nothing too sublime or too brilliant.
When we see her, we see our own human nature at its purest. She is not the sun, dazzling our weak sight by the brightness of its rays. Rather, she is fair and gentle as the moon, which receives its light from the sun and softens it and adapts it to our limited perception.
She is so full of love that no one who asks for her intercession is rejected, no matter how sinful he may be.
The saints say that it has never been known since the world began that anyone had recourse to our Blessed Lady, with trust and perseverance, and was rejected. Her power is so great that her prayers are never refused.
She has but to appear in prayer before her Son and He at once welcomes her and grants her requests. He is always lovingly conquered by the prayers of the dear Mother who bore Him and nourished Him.
