We shall explain in the first place the doctrine which appears to us most probable concerning the Predestination of the august Virgin; secondly, some conclusions depending on that doctrine; thirdly, the much debated question as to the merits of Mary by reason of her predestination and divine maternity.
I.
Let us go back in thought before time was. Nothing exists but God; outside His eternal Being all is silent; it is the silence of nothingness. God has not yet moved from His unalterable repose. He has not yet launched the stars into space. He has not established the earth on its foundations. He has not yet pronounced that all-powerful fiat which will bring order out of chaos, dispel the darkness, divide the waters, cover the land with herbs and plants, and fix in the firmament those shining lights which are to preside over day and night. He has not produced any living soul, neither the fishes that swim in the sea, nor the birds that fly in the air, nor the reptiles and animals that dwell on the land; nor that being who is to command the fishes in the sea, the birds of heaven, the reptiles and animals on the land, man—the king of creation; man who is to bear on his brow and yet more in his soul the image and likeness of his Creator.
Nothing exists but God, for God has not yet created the world. But the decree of creation is eternal, like its Creator, and creation in its fulness already exists in the mind of God. And foremost in this eternal thought Christ, inseparable from His Mother, presents Himself: Christ, the first-born of every creature; Mary Mother of Christ, the first-born of women. For the Church puts into her mouth those beautiful words of the Proverbs: The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways… The depths were not as yet and I was already conceived… Before the hills I was brought forth.
Around Christ and Mary gravitate all worlds: the material world with its mountains of granite, its rivers, its seas, its various plants and animals; the immaterial world, of the angels, in their nature superior to the humanity of Christ and of Mary, Minuisti eum paulo minus ab angelis—Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, but infinitely inferior in the order of predestination; that world at once material and immaterial,—man, who partakes of the angelic in his soul, of the material in his body, and who is, according to the Fathers of the Church, a summary, a compendium of the universe.
Differing from beings purely material, man will receive from the hand of his Author a precious gift, liberty. God teaches him to use it, not only by His general providence, but also by a special providence which can only be applied to a reasonable being. A short explanation of this seems necessary.
The providence which we call general has fixed and maintains the laws of the universe and of each material being; it is this which governs all the natural order, directs everything, provides for all, decides the fall of a flower or the fall of a throne, makes the grass to grow and upholds empires. The providence which we call special directs the supernatural order of grace, the eternal relations between God and His reasonable and free creatures. To this is given a particular name—Predestination. An unfathomable mystery which caused St. Paul, when he had come down from the third heaven, to cry out: Quis consiliarius ejus fuit? Who hath been the counsellor of God in dispensing the treasures of His justice and His love?
Far be from us the foolish presumption which seeks to penetrate the unfathomable profundity of these mysterious depths. Let us not forget that the Divine Glory dazzles and overwhelms the eye that rashly presumes to scrutinize it. We wish only to observe that for Mary predestination is more particular and more glorious; that from all eternity, Mary has occupied in the mind of God a place greater than that of any other creature. God has created Mary as a world entirely apart, and in which He has found His delights. As regards this privileged world, do not speak to us of that general providence which governs the natural world, nor of that special providence, that admirable predestination which directs the supernatural world of souls: there must be a particular providence, a unique predestination which directs Mary and her, and none but which separating her from every created order, associates her with her Divine Son in an order apart, the object of the eternal delight of God; as to-day, according to theology and Holy Church that glorious Mother, raised above saints and angels in the celestial heights, forms by herself a separate hierarchy, below God, but above all that is not God.
Mary privileged in her conception, as we shall show in its proper place, privileged during the continuance of her mortal life, and privileged in the glory and happiness of heaven, has been privileged throughout all eternity in the decree of predestination. We have had the pious boldness, Mother, to search for some of the prerogatives of your predestination, and we have discovered four which you do not share with any other creature.
I. The first privilege to be considered is that the predestination of Mary unlike that of other creatures carries with it a double blessing. Angel or man, the reasonable creature whom God has predestined in His love, is predestined to one thing only, grace during his trial and glory after it. The predestination to grace and the predestination to glory are one and the same, which theologians call adequate and which includes grace during life, perseverance till death, and the reward due to grace, viz., eternal glory. Grace being the friendship of God and a participation in the Divine Nature, gives a true and entire right to the possession of glory. In Mary I see a double predestination; the predestination to grace and glory, and the predestination to the Divine Maternity.
The predestination of Mary is like that of all the elect. For sanctifying grace is ever the same in its Essence; for the last of the elect as well as for the highest of the Seraphim, it is a participation in the Divine Nature. The happiness of heaven is the same for all; it is the possession of the same God; it is the same joy in different degrees; it is the same palace with dwellings not equally beautiful though all delightful, mansiones multae. In this respect then the predestination of Mary does not differ essentially from our own, it differs only in degree and measure, as a tiny brook does not differ essentially from a majestic river, as the brightness of a star does not differ essentially from the brightness of the sun.
But besides the predestination common to all the elect, there exists for Mary the predestination to the Divine Maternity; and this predestination is singularly different from every predestination of creatures, as is likewise the predestination of Jesus Christ. In this Mary can only be compared to her Divine Son. One by predestination becomes the Son of God, Qui praedestinatus est Filius Dei; the other by predestination becomes Mother of God; and as the predestination which made Jesus Christ the Son of God is only suitable to a God-Man, so that which made Mary the Mother of God is only suited to that august creature.
From this predestination of Mary to the Divine Maternity flow two consequences. The first, deduced by St. Bernard, is, that if the Word had not become incarnate, Mary would not have existed. Without the Incarnation all men and women could have existed, but Mary could not have been included in this earth. She could have been predestined to grace and glory, it may be said.—We answer that that would not suffice, this predestination being accessory for Mary. We affirm that she would not have existed, predestined only to grace and glory because the degree of grace and glory to which she has been predestined, supposes the Divine Maternity or rather proceeds from the predestination to the Divine Maternity. Mary as actually created exists for one thing only—the Incarnation; do away with this and you do away with the great object of her existence. Without her Divine Son earth would not be worthy of her.
The second consequence is that these two predestinations (of the Son and the Mother) are so inseparable, and one is so perfect a complement of the other, that they are the only two things necessary for the perfect glorification of humanity. For if Jesus Christ is the glory of human nature, Mary is the glory of human personality. Here is a thought which deserves all the attention of the reader. It is impossible for God to raise human nature higher than by uniting it to the Divine Nature. In Jesus Christ the two natures are united without confusion, and the human nature is as much the nature of the Son of God as is the divine. But the human personality has not been exalted in Jesus Christ, for it does not exist in Him; there is in Jesus Christ one Person only, the Person of God the Son. In Mary the human personality is glorified and to the greatest possible extent: a human being cannot become God, the height of glory then is to become Mother of God. So the height of glory for human nature is that Jesus Christ is God and Man; and for the human personality that Mary is Mother of God: man finds himself fully glorified, his nature in Jesus Christ, his person in Mary.
Another character which distinguishes the predestination of Mary is that she is the first creature predestined: Ego ex ore Altissimi prodii primogenita ante omnem creaturam. She is come forth from the counsels of the Most High the first-born of all creatures, before the saints and even before the angels. She is their elder, primogenita ante omnem creaturam.
We have distinguished in Mary two predestinations. As to the first which is predestination to grace and glory, Mary is the first creature and we can even say the first person predestined. For the Sacred Humanity of Jesus Christ, predestined to grace and glory, has not a created personality; and Jesus Christ, Who is truly the first-born and first predestined, is not a pure creature, and cannot be said to be predestined to grace in His Person which is divine but only in His human nature.
As to the predestination of Mary to the Divine Maternity, it is contained in the same decree as the Incarnation. For if Mary is not conceivable without Jesus, Jesus is not conceivable without Mary; for how could we understand a son without a mother? These two predestinations of the Son and the Mother are intimately united and joined together in one and the same decree according to the words of the Sovereign Pontiff Pius IX., in the Bull Ineffabilis Deus.
We will give one passage which Holy Church applies to the predestination of Mary—the words of the Book of Proverbs, ch. viii, vers. 22-31. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made anything from the beginning. I was set up from eternity, and of old before the earth was made. The depths were not as yet and I was already conceived, neither had the fountains of water as yet sprung out: The mountains with their huge bulk had not as yet been established: before the hills I was brought forth. He had not yet made the earth nor the rivers nor the poles of the world. When He prepared the heavens I was present: when with a certain law and compass He enclosed the depths: when He established the sky above and poised the fountains of waters: when He compassed the sea with its bounds, and set a law to the waters that they should not pass their limits: when He balanced the foundations of the earth. I was with Him forming all things: and was delighted every day, playing before Him at all times; playing in the world; and my delights were to be with the children of men.
Not only was Mary associated with her Divine Son in the eternal decree of the Incarnation; but afterwards she was associated with Him as the final cause of creation, that is to say, that God had not only willed the existence of Mary before He willed the existence of the world, but that He willed the existence of the world through Jesus for Mary, and it is for Them that He has created the universe.
The world is made for Mary, Mary for Jesus, Jesus for the glory of God. When one plants a vine, to make use of a beautiful comparison of St. Francis of Sales, it is the grape that is looked for, though the leaves and blossoms first make their appearance. So the Saviour came first in the Divine Intention; and for the sake of this desirable fruit was planted the vine of the universe and established the succession of many generations, which, as the leaves and flowers, were to precede and prepare the delicious fruit, the juice of which was to rejoice both God and man.
St. Francis of Sales in accord with other theologians distinguishes two things in the Divine plan: execution and intention. In the execution, the order followed by God is that Jesus and Mary exist for the salvation of the world. With regard to the intention, which is the first, the world, the elect, all men and all beings exist for Jesus, and for Mary because of Jesus. Omnia vestra sunt, vos autem Christi, Christus autem Dei. The whole order of predestination is contained in these three sentences of the great Apostle; the name of Mary is not found there, since that of Christ is enough, the Mother being confounded with the Son in one and the same decree, uno eodemque decreto.
Mary, according to the admirable language of M. Olier, is the universal womb in which has been borne the world and the Church; it is she who in Jesus has borne in Herself the whole creation of God. Made a partaker of His power, of His wisdom, of His love, she has been prepared by God from all eternity, to be with Him the beginning of all things in Jesus Christ, the beginning even of Jesus Christ in the flesh.
Through a last privilege of her predestination to the Divine Maternity, Mary has a considerable share in the predestination of all the elect. This prerogative so glorious for our Mother, so interesting, so consoling for us, is not difficult to understand. The source and cause of all predestination, is Jesus Christ God and Man. As God alone or Man alone He would not be a cause of predestination, not being a cause of redemption. Now as He is God by His eternal birth in the bosom of His Father, He is man by His earthly birth in the womb of Mary. He draws then from two sources the predestination of the elect: from His Father Who communicates to Him His divinity; from Mary in a very subordinate but yet true sense, who gives Him His humanity; whence it clearly follows that Mary in her measure partakes with God the Father in the privilege of being the source of the predestination of all the elect in Christ. For all owe their salvation to Jesus Christ, Who received the means of their salvation from His Father on the one hand, and from His Mother, in so far as she was a necessary element or condition, on the other. When then we say in this work that devotion to Mary is a mark of predestination we shall know on what a firm basis rests that sweet belief.
“Yes,” we may yet say with M. Olier, “from all eternity God had before Him the consent of Mary to the Incarnation, her desires and her prayers for every Christian; He had regard to it, and it was with this foreknowledge that He decreed the predestination, the justification, and the glory of His elect. This good Mother then has accepted the choice which God has made of me: it is to her that I am indebted for my title of Christian, for the still greater happiness of being a Catholic, for my vocation to the Priesthood, for all the graces with which God has enriched me, and lastly for my eternal salvation, which I hope to obtain from His love, notwithstanding my numberless sins.”
II.
From all eternity Mary was destined to become the Mother of God; and if she had not been Mother of God the end of her existence would have completely failed. But she responded worthily to the free choice of the Lord and merited by her correspondence with the grace of her predestination that eminent dignity that God had prepared for her. Each one of us is destined by God, had we but eyes for a vocation, to a ministry which in the order of Providence ought to glorify our Creator and save our soul. May Mary obtain for us to be faithful like herself to the voice of God, and to fulfill worthily the end of our existence.
Mary was united in the mind of God with the Person of her Divine Son, and from all eternity God thinking of the Son thought also of the Mother. God decreed equally the existence and glorification of the Son. He decreed equally the existence and glorification of the Mother. Now that which is so closely united in the Divine decrees ought never to be separated; I mean to say that in our homage and our love we ought to unite Jesus and Mary; when we worship Jesus Christ to cast a glance of tenderness to Mary; and never to pretend to honour Mary if our worship does not carry us on to Jesus.
The world has been created for Jesus and for Mary through Jesus; consequently the whole world belongs to Jesus and Mary. We are the brethren of Jesus, and through Him the children of Mary. We cannot divest ourselves of this relationship, it is our birthright; let us give Them another right; let us be Theirs by choice and love, choosing freely Jesus Christ for our Sovereign Master and Mary for our loving Mother.
Lastly, Mary having so great a share in the predestination of the elect, and no one being predestined without her, we can say that our predestination is through Jesus in her hands. And without tormenting ourselves with the fear: shall we be of the number of the elect? let us confide our salvation after Jesus to Mary. If she wills to save us, by her intercession with her Son, we shall be saved, and it depends on ourselves whether she wills it or not. If we sincerely desire it ourselves, if we ask it each day of our tender Mother, we may hold ourselves assured of that great gift of final perseverance. And when Mary shall have placed us by her side, we shall see and admire the wonders of predestination; we shall say to that great Queen: It is thou, sweet and powerful Sovereign, who by thy influence with thy Son hast saved us. Mayest thou be blest, loved, and glorified for ever!
III.
This short sketch of the dignities and grandeurs to which MARY was destined before all time in the mind of God, shows us that she was the most blessed of all mere creatures. But were these signal favours absolutely gratuitous or did MARY in any way merit them? To the servant of MARY who wishes to know what has been the merit of that amiable Queen with regard to her predestination and her Maternity, we can shortly answer: Among the graces with which the Lord before all time had resolved to enrich her, there were some which she has merited and others which were an entirely free gift, because she was not capable of meriting them.
Two points seem to be admitted by all.
The Mother of God has not merited in any way her own existence, since it is plain one must exist to merit. So also she could not merit the first preventing grace, for what would have been the principle of that merit? If the principle was natural, it could not merit a supernatural grace; if it was supernatural it was itself a grace accorded before merit. So MARY like all creatures before having merited was prevented by grace.
Apart from the first actual grace, MARY has merited by her acts all the other gifts, all other actual graces, habitual grace with all its increases, the glory of heaven, and even the Divine Maternity in a sense which we shall explain.
We affirm then with theologians that God resolved to grant to MARY, when the time should come, the Divine Maternity and the joys of heaven, only as a reward for her meritorious works. And now we will inquire with theologians whether God by a priority, not of time but of reason, had foreseen the merits of the Virgin before predestinating her to that Maternity and happiness.
There are two questions to be considered: Has MARY merited the choice God made of her in predestination? The choice admitted, what was the merit of MARY with regard to her Maternity?
Upon the first difficulty, whether MARY has merited her predestination, writers are not agreed. Vasquez and some others maintain that God had foreseen the merits of MARY before choosing her as His Mother, and electing her to the glory which would belong to the Mother of God, for, they say, it would be false to assert that she has merited the Divine Maternity, if predestination decreed to her that dignity independently of all merits. Others, with Father De Rhodes, say that God by an act, one and indivisible, accomplished the complete predestination of MARY to the Maternity, to grace and to glory.
We admit more willingly the opinion which Suarez gives as certain, and which is followed by Lessius, Vega, Bellarmine, Contenson, &c. According to these writers MARY was predestined to be Mother of God before the foresight of her merits. The reason we incline to this opinion is that the first grace given to MARY had no proportion to the graces accorded to other creatures; in the first instant of her existence she was exempt from original sin and adorned with singular gifts. Now why was such an amount of grace given gratuitously to MARY more than to any other creature? Why had God resolved to load her with favours without example, unless He had already resolved by an efficacious decree to choose her for His Mother?
As to the argument of Vasquez, it may be answered by distinguishing the order of intention from the order of execution. God had chosen MARY gratuitously, but in the execution, He willed that she should merit her glory and her dignity. If a king offers a reward to a conqueror, it is an act of pure liberality, but he does not give the reward till after the fight and the victory. Thus there is nothing to prevent MARY having been chosen gratuitously and at the same time having merited her dignity. Let us now see how she has merited.
They distinguish in theology merit de condigno which has a strictly and rigorously proportionate reward, and merit de congruo in which the reward is not due to the meritorious work, because it so far exceeds it in value.
Moreover, the question of the merit of the Most Holy Virgin may be considered either with reference to the dispositions needed for the dignity of Mother of God, or with reference to that dignity itself.
As to the dispositions with which the Mother of God should be endowed, two assertions are incontestable.
The Blessed Virgin was most suitably disposed to become the Mother of God. For when God raises a creature to an extraordinary dignity, His goodness and His love confer on that creature the capacity and dispositions necessary for worthily fulfilling the charge confided to it.
All the abilities, all the dispositions which have sanctified MARY, and have rendered her more worthy than all other women to be the Mother of God, have been merited in part de condigno in part de congruo, excepting the first actual grace for which merit is impossible. She has merited de condigno the increase of grace in herself, her vow of virginity and its faithful observance, and the consent given to the Incarnation. She has only merited within the limits of a certain congruity the first habitual grace, exemption from original and all venial sin, and all the prerogatives which cannot be merited under ordinary laws.
This is the remote merit which concerns the dispositions of the Mother of God. But the dignity itself of the Divine Maternity, that supereminent dignity which made MARY the greatest of creatures, has she merited that and with what kind of merit?
We must admit with St. Thomas, Suarez, and the whole school of theologians, that she did not merit the Divine Maternity de condigno. The contrary opinion is not against faith, but it would be difficult to uphold it with any show of reason.
For, in the first place, to merit de condigno it is necessary that the meritorious act and the reward be of the same order, since no inferior order even with all the developments of which it is capable, can ever attain to a superior order; the whole power of nature could never merit the smallest grace. Now the Divine Maternity, belonging to the order of the hypostatic union of God with human nature, is an order above the order, supernatural itself, of grace: and as a creature whatever may be his merits, even if supernatural, can never merit to be united hypostatically with a Divine Person, so all the merits of this same order of grace will not raise one to the height of the Divine Maternity, which enters into the order of the hypostatic union.
In the second place the Divine Maternity is a dignity more sublime than either grace or glory. But grace and glory are sufficient reward for the merits—immense as they are—of the Virgin MARY; otherwise we must say that God does not sufficiently reward the works done by the principle of grace, which is false and contrary to faith. Therefore MARY has not merited de condigno the Divine Maternity, because it was impossible for her to so merit it.
There remains the merit de congruo which we admit with all the Fathers and with the Church. How often do the Fathers congratulate the glorious Virgin in having drawn down upon herself the regard of God, and in having confirmed the divine choice, by the merit of her humility, by the merit of her virginity, by the merit of her obedience! And the Church in her Liturgy tells us that MARY sanctified by the Holy Ghost has merited to become the worthy sanctuary of the Son of God, and sings in the antiphon Regina Cœli: He hath risen Whom thou hast merited to bear in thy womb: Quia quem meruisti portare. This opinion being to the greater glory of Mary, one only renders it improbable, viz., the impossibility of meriting a favour so sublime as the Divine Maternity, and this impossibility could only arise from the want of proportion between the works of MARY and the dignity which we maintain to have been their reward. Now we have confessed that the works are not equal to the reward they have obtained; it is the reason we rejected the merit de condigno which supposes a certain equality between the work and the recompense; but the merit de congruo does not depend on this equality and does not require so strict a proportion.
According to Suarez the Blessed Virgin was perfectly prepared to receive the Son of God in her chaste womb; she was so disposed by the merits of her virtues. According to St. Bernardine of Siena the merit of the consent given to the Angel Gabriel alone exceeded all the merits of angels and men. Now are not these dispositions a merit de congruo for the Maternity? Ought they not according to the fitness of things, to determine the choice of the Lord Who could nowhere find another creature so holy?
It is said that the Patriarchs have merited certain circumstances of the Incarnation; but what are their merits compared to the merits of MARY? The obedience of Abraham received a magnificent reward, the promise that the Messias should spring from him. By My own Self have I sworn saith the Lord; because thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy only-begotten son for My sake: I will bless thee and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea-shore: thy seed shall possess the gates of their enemies. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because thou hast obeyed My voice. Abraham merited to be the ancestor of JESUS CHRIST; MARY a thousand times yet more faithful than Abraham has merited to conceive and bring forth the same JESUS CHRIST, the Son of Abraham and the Son of MARY.
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