Mary was the perfection God originally intended, Mary: Day 014

Mary was the perfection God originally intended

Blessed John Henry Newman, a celebrated convert to the Catholic faith, observes that the original righteousness of Adam and Eve, before their fall, was restored in Mary and perfected.

Mary then is a specimen, and more than a specimen, in the purity of
her soul and body, of what man was before his fall, and what he would have been, had he risen to his full perfection. It would have been hard, it would have been a victory for the Evil One, had the whole race passed away, nor any one instance in it occurred to show what the Creator had intended it to be in its original state.

Adam, you know, was created in the image and after the likeness of God; his frail and imperfect nature, stamped with a divine seal, was supported and exalted by an indwelling of divine grace. Impetuous passion did not exist in him, except as a latent element and a possible evil; ignorance was dissipated by the clear light of the Spirit; and reason, sovereign over every motion of his soul, was simply sub- jected to the will of God. No, even his body was preserved from every wayward appetite and affection, and was promised immortality instead of dissolution.
Thus he was in a supernatural state; and, had he not sinned, year after year would he have advanced in merit and grace, and in God’s favor, till he passed from paradise to heaven. But he fell; and his descendants were born in his like- ness; and the world grew worse instead of better, and judgment after judgment cut off generations of sinners in vain, and improvement was hopeless; “because man was flesh” and “the thoughts of his heart were bent upon evil at all times” (Gn 6:5).

However, a remedy had been determined in heaven. A Redeemer was at hand; God was about to do a great work, and he purposed to do it suitably in Mary. “Where sin abounded, grace was to abound more” (see Rom 5:20).
—Blessed John Henry Newman, “The Glories of Mary for the Sake of Her Son”

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
Some claim that “to sin is only human,” and if Mary never sinned, she wasn’t really human like the rest of us. But isn’t it true, instead, to say that God’s original intention for humanity was to be sinless—so by being sinless, Mary is in fact the one who shows us what it means to be fully human?

CLOSING PRAYER
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
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