The glories of MaryLiguori, Alfonso Maria de', Saint
Religion
The glories of Mary
Liguori, Alfonso Maria de', Saint
Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint -- Early works to 1800
Besides, it was fitting that God should preserve her from original sin,
since he destined her to bruise the head of the infernal serpent, who,
by seducing our first parents, brought death upon all men, as our Lord
predicted: “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed
and her seed; she shall crush thy head.”[878] Now, if Mary was to be
the strong woman brought into the world to crush Lucifer, surely it was
not fitting that she should first be conquered by Lucifer, and made his
slave, but rather that she should be free from every stain, and from all
subjection to the enemy. As he had in his pride already corrupted the
whole human race, he would also corrupt the pure soul of this Virgin.
But may the divine goodness be ever praised, who prevented her with so
much grace, to the end that remaining free from every stain of sin, she
could overthrow and confound his pride, as St. Augustine says, or whoever
may have been the author of that commentary upon Genesis: As the devil
was the head from whence original sin proceeded, that head Mary crushed,
because no sin ever entered the soul of the Virgin, and therefore she was
free from all stain.[879] St. Bonaventure still more clearly expresses
the same: It was meet that the blessed Virgin Mary, by whom our shame was
to be removed, should conquer the devil, and that she should not yield to
him in the least degree.[880]
But it was especially fitting that the eternal Father should preserve his
daughter from the sin of Adam, because he destined her for the mother
of his only begotten Son. Thou wast preordained in the mind of God,
before every creature, to bring forth God himself made man.[881] If for
no other reason, then, at least for the honor of his Son, who was God,
the Father would create her pure from every stain. The angelic Doctor
St. Thomas says, that all things ordained by God must be holy, and pure
from every defilement.[882] If David, when he was planning the temple of
Jerusalem with a magnificence worthy the Lord, said: “Not for man a house
is prepared, but for God;”[883] now, how much greater cause have we to
believe that the great Creator, having destined Mary to be the mother
of his own Son, would adorn her soul with every grace, that it might be
a worthy habitation for a God. God, the creator of all things, affirms
blessed Denis the Carthusian, about to construct a worthy habitation for
his Son, adorned her with all pleasing gifts.[884] And the holy Church
herself assures us of this, when she affirms that God prepared the body
and soul of the Virgin to be, on earth, a habitation worthy of his only
begotten Son. “Omnipotent, eternal God!” thus the holy Church prays,
“who, by the co-operation of the Holy Ghost, didst prepare the body
and soul of the glorious Virgin mother, that she might become a worthy
habitation for thy Son,” &c.[885]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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