Vita, dulcedo - 03

XIX.-MARY IS OUR LIFE, BECAUSE SHE OBTAINS FOR US THE PARDON OF OUR SINS

We read in the Gospel of St. Luke that Mary said, Behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed-(Luke i. 48). “Yes, my Lady,” exclaims St. Bernard, “all generations shall call thee blessed, for thou hast begotten life and glory for all generations of men.” For this cause all men shall call thee blessed, for all thy servants obtain through thee the life of grace and eternal glory. “In thee do sinners find pardon, and the just perseverance and eternal life.” “Distrust not, O sinner,” says the devout Bernardine de Bustis, “even if thou hast committed all possible sins: go with confidence to this most glorious Lady, and thou wilt find her hands filled with mercy and bounty. “Because, he adds, “she desires more to do thee good than thou canst desire to receive favours from her.”

St. Andrew of Crete calls Mary the pledge of Divine mercy; meaning that when sinners have recourse to Mary that they may be reconciled with God, He assures them of pardon and gives them a pledge of it; and this pledge is Mary, whom He has bestowed upon us for our advocate, and through whose prayers, by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, God forgives all who have recourse to her. St. Bridget heard an Angel say that the holy Prophets rejoiced in knowing that God, by the humility and purity of Mary, was to be reconciled with sinners and to receive those who had offended Him to favour. “They exulted, foreknowing that our Lord Himself would be appeased by thy humility and the purity of thy life, O Mary, thou super-effulgent star, and that He would be reconciled with those who had provoked His wrath.”

No sinner, having recourse to the compassion of Mary, should fear being rejected; for she is the Mother of Mercy and as such desires to save the most miserable. Mary is that happy ark, says St. Bernard, “in which those who take refuge will never suffer the shipwreck of eternal perdition.” At the time of the deluge even brutes were saved in Noe’s Ark. Under the mantle of Mary even sinners obtain salvation. St. Gertrude once saw Mary with her mantle extended and under it many wild beasts-lions, bears, and tigers-had taken refuge. And she remarked that Mary not only did not reject but even welcomed and caressed them with the greatest tenderness. The Saint understood hereby that the most abandoned sinners who have recourse to Mary are not only not rejected, but that they are welcomed and saved by her from eternal death. Let us, then, enter this ark, let us take refuge under the mantle of Mary, and she most certainly will not reject us, but will secure our salvation.