- Jesus, our dearest friend, gave himself to us without reserve, body and soul, grace and merits. As St. Bernard says, “He won me over entirely by giving himself entirely to me.” Does not simple justice as well as gratitude require that we give him all we possibly can? He was generous with us first, so let us be generous to him in return and he will prove still more generous during life, at the hour of death, and throughout eternity. “He will be generous towards the generous.”
2. It helps us to imitate Christ
- Our good Master stooped to enclose Himself in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, a captive but loving slave, and to make Himself subject to her for thirty years. As I said earlier, the human mind is bewildered when it reflects seriously upon this conduct of Incarnate Wisdom. He did not choose to give Himself in a direct manner to the human race though He could easily have done so. He chose to come through the Virgin Mary. Thus He did not come into the world independently of others in the flower of His manhood, but He came as a frail little child dependent on the care and attention of His Mother. Consumed with the desire to give glory to God, his Father, and save the human race, He saw no better or shorter way to do so than by submitting completely to Mary.
He did this not just for the first eight, ten or fifteen years of his life like other children, but for thirty years.
He gave more glory to God, his Father, during all those years of submission and dependence than he would have given by spending them working miracles, preaching far and wide, and converting all mankind. Otherwise he would have done all these things.
What immeasurable glory then do we give to God when, following the example of Jesus, we submit to Mary! With such a convincing and well- known example before us, can we be so foolish as to believe that there is a better and shorter way of giving God glory than by submitting ourselves to Mary, as Jesus did?
