Mary reversed the course of the ages, Mary: Day 180

Mary reversed the course of the ages

In Mary, Blessed John Henry Newman tells us, the tradition of evil handed down from our first parents was broken, so that Light could enter the darkness.

Kings of the earth, when they have sons born to them, immediately scatter some large bounty, or raise some high memorial. They honor the day, or the place, or the heralds of the auspicious event, with some corresponding mark of favor. Nor did the coming of Emmanuel change the world’s established custom. It was a season of grace and wonder, and these were to be exhibited in a special manner in the person of his mother.

The course of ages was to be reversed; the tradition of evil was to be broken; a gate of light was to be opened amid the darkness, for the coming of the Just: A Virgin conceived and bore him. It was fitting, for his honor and glory, that she who was the instrument of his bodily presence should first be a miracle of his grace. It was fitting that she should triumph, where Eve had failed, and should “bruise the serpent’s head” (see Gn 3:15) by the spotlessness of her sanctity.

In some respects, indeed, the curse was not reversed. Mary came into a fallen world and resigned herself to its laws. She, as also the Son she bore, was exposed to pain of soul and body, she was subjected to death. But she was not put under the power of sin. As grace was infused into Adam from the first moment of his creation, so that he never had experience of his natural poverty, till sin reduced him to it, so was grace given from the first in still ampler measure to Mary, and she never incurred, in fact, Adam’s deprivation. She began where others end, whether in knowledge or in love. She was from the first clothed in sanctity, des- tined for perseverance, luminous and glorious in God’s sight, and incessantly employed in meritorious acts, which continued till her last breath. —Blessed John Henry Newman, “The Glories of Mary for the Sake of Her Son”

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
What does it mean to say that in Mary, “the course of ages was to be reversed”? Why was it fitting for God’s honor and glory that “she who was the instrument of his bodily presence should be the first miracle of his grace”?

CLOSING PRAYER
From a prayer of Blessed John: The Most High came in weakness, not in power; and he sent you, Mary, a creature, in his stead, with a creature’s beauty and luster suited to our state.

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