The most perfect creature that the Most High ever fashioned is Jesus’s mother, Mary. Not only was she conceived without the blemish of original sin, but she is the embodiment and epitome of love brought to fruition in a living person’s heart. No person can love more perfectly than our Blessed Mary, the Mother of God. No human being can stand closer to our Creator’s eternal plan for mankind than Mary, the Queen of Peace, the Mirror of Justice, and the Seat of Wisdom.
When it became known to the Archangel Gabriel that Mary had acquiesced to give birth to the Son of Man, she did so willingly, conjoining her spirit with God’s providence and proclaiming that the redemption of the world be accomplished according to His design. She understood what Jesus, her Son of blood and flesh, would have to endure. She knew that His mission included pain, betrayal, and crucifixion before the power of the Resurrection would break the chains of sin and death. It was revealed to her that God loved the world so profoundly that He was willing to sacrifice His only begotten Son to pay the debt of every human soul, so that eternity might be attained and enjoyed by all people of good faith and righteousness.
The Mother of God, in accepting her role as Co-Redemptrix, knew perfectly well what awaited her on the road to Calvary and at the place called Golgotha. Yet she did not shrink from this most sorrowful mission, for she knew that, together with her Son, she was to help bring eternal life to people who had forsaken it.
How could she have done this? Is such a commitment not beyond anyone’s capacity to comprehend? After all, Mary was born into this world just as every other human being—except, of course, without the burden of original sin. Was this the critical difference: being able and willing, in a state of perfection, to discern and follow the will of God? Perhaps.
What is striking is the immense force of goodness radiating from Mary’s heart, enabling her to embrace every sacrifice, provided the offering was pleasing to the Almighty. Nothing is beyond acceptance if it helps bring forth life; every form of suffering is welcome if the fruits of love, embracing all humanity, help pave the way to eternity.
Only because Mary loved with such intensity was she able to bring the Redeemer into a suffering world; to raise and teach Him with motherly care; and to prepare her Son to sacrifice everything for the salvation of mankind. Had her love been temporary, partial, or wavering, she could not have accompanied Jesus to His torment on the Cross. She would, indeed, have attempted to save Him and sought to overcome the snares of human falsehood.
But the Mother of God—who became our spiritual mother as a parting gift from her Son—looked beyond her pain and inner affliction as she stood beside Jesus in the fulfillment of God’s master plan. During her own stations of the Cross, she shed countless tears to save all her children from eternal condemnation and could do so only because she possessed the strength of unconditional, all-embracing love, a love that permeates every fiber of her glorious being.
Our Heavenly Mother is in a state of grace because she is, as Virgin Most Faithful, Most Merciful, and Most Venerable, filled with divine love. Our Holy Mother of God is the Ark of the Covenant, the Tower of David, and the Gate of Heaven because she is most pure, chaste, and undefiled. As Cause of Our Joy, she contemplates the goodness of our Savior in her heart, ever prepared to offer good counsel and to fulfill God’s mission with sincere humility and gratitude.
Mary is therefore rightly called Immaculate, for nothing within her being is touched by imperfection. Rather, everything is clothed in radiant splendor: her thoughts, her prayers, and her humble devotion to a cause of limitless importance.
The Queen of Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs is the Help of Christians and the handmaid of Christ’s Mystical Body, the Holy Mother Church. The Queen of Saints teaches us how to follow Jesus in our pursuit of personal holiness. The Queen of the Most Holy Rosary invites us ever closer to God through prayer and contemplative adoration.
There is nothing that Mary does not or cannot do. She intercedes for her children before the throne of the Holy Trinity; she blesses the world with her motherly love and pleads for souls in desperate need of God’s mercy. Unceasingly, she strives to save all her children from destruction and death.
Her blueprint is the will of Jesus.
Therefore, the sight of Mary is breathtakingly beautiful, for it is the image of perfect love, of wisdom most profound, and of righteousness supreme.
FAITHBOUND 