Mary's generosity in offering Jesus to death for us

I. St. Bonaventure says that the Blessed Virgin would have accepted the pains and death of her Son far more willingly for herself; but to obey God she made the great offering of the Divine life of her Beloved Jesus, conquering, but with an excess of grief, the tender love which she bore Him. Hence it is that in this offering Mary had to do herself more violence and showed herself more generous than if she had offered herself to suffer all that her Son was to endure. Therefore she surpassed all the Martyrs in generosity; for the Martyrs offered their own lives, but the Blessed Virgin offered the life of her Son Whom she loved and esteemed infinitely more than her own life. Nor did the sufferings of this painful offering end here; nay, rather they only began; for from that time forward, during the whole life of her Son, Mary had constantly before her eyes the death and all the torments that He was to endure. Hence, the more this Son showed Himself beautiful, gracious, and amiable, the more did the anguish of her heart increase.

Ah, most sorrowful Mother, hadst thou loved thy Son less, or had He been less amiable, or had He loved thee less, thy sufferings in offering him to death would certainly have been diminished. But there never was, and never will be, a mother who loved her son more than thou didst love thine; for there never was, and never will be a son more amiable, or one who loved his mother more than thy Jesus loved thee. O God, had we beheld the beauty, the majesty of the countenance of that Divine Child, could we have ever had the courage to sacrifice His life for our own salvation? And thou, O Mary, who wast His Mother, and a Mother loving Him with so tender a love, thou couldst offer thy innocent Son for the salvation of men, to a death more painful and cruel than ever was endured by the greatest malefactor on earth!

II. Ah, how sad a scene from that day forward must love have continually placed before the eyes of Mary, — a scene representing all the outrages and mockeries which her poor Son was to endure! See, love already represents Him agonized with sorrow in the Garden, mangled with scourges, crowned with thorns in the Pretorium, and finally hanging on the ignominious Cross on Calvary! "Behold, O Mother," says love, "what an amiable and innocent Son thou offerest to so many torments and to so horrible a death!" And to what purpose save Him from the hands of Herod, since it is only to reserve Him for a far more sorrowful end?

Thus Mary not only offered her Son to death in the Temple, but she renewed that offering every moment of her life; for she revealed to St. Bridget "that the sorrow announced to her by the holy Simeon never left her heart until her Assumption into Heaven." Hence St. Anselm thus addresses her: "O compassionate Lady, I cannot believe that thou couldst have endured for a moment so excruciating a torment without expiring under it, had not God Himself, the Spirit of Life, sustained thee.

If the sacrifice of Abraham by which he offered his son Isaac to God was so pleasing to the Divine Majesty, that as a reward He promised to multiply his descendants as the stars of Heaven — 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 (Gen. xxii. 16,17) — we must certainly believe that the more noble sacrifice which Mary made to God of her Jesus, was far more agreeable to Him, and therefore that He has granted that through her prayers the number of the elect should be multiplied, that is to say, increased by the number of her fortunate children; for she considers and protects as such all her devout clients.

St. Simeon received a promise from God that he should not die until he had seen the Messias born: And he had received an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord (Luke ii. 26). But this grace he only received through Mary, for it was in her arms that he found the Saviour. Hence, he who desires to find Jesus, will not find Him otherwise than by Mary. Let us, then, go to this Divine Mother if we wish to find Jesus, and let us go with great confidence.