Mary merited by grace to be Jesus’ mother, Mary: Day 228

Mary merited by grace to be Jesus’ mother

What does it mean to say that Mary merited to be the Mother of God? Weren’t her privileges a gift of grace? St. Alphonsus explains.

Mary was not only the mother, but the worthy mother, of our Savior. She is called such by all the holy fathers. St. Bernard says to her, “You alone were found worthy to be chosen as the one in whose virginal womb the King of kings should have his first dwelling.”

St. Thomas of Villanova says, “Before she conceived, she was already fit to be the Mother of God.” In fact, the holy Church herself attests that Mary merited to be the mother of Jesus Christ, speaking in her liturgy of “the Blessed Virgin, who merited to bear in her womb Christ our Lord.”

St. Thomas Aquinas explains these words this way: “The Blessed Virgin is said to have merited to bear the Lord of all: not that she merited his Incarnation, but that she merited, by the graces she had received, such a degree of purity and sanctity, that she was fit to be the Mother of God.”

Mary could not merit the Incarnation of the Eternal Word, but by divine grace she merited such a degree of perfection that it rendered her worthy to be the Mother of a God. According to St. Peter Damian, “Her unique sanctity, the effect of grace, merited that she alone should be judged worthy to receive a God” into her womb. —St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
Merits aren’t rewards from God that are earned apart from his grace, but rather rewards that are fitting for the work of grace he has accomplished in us. In what fitting ways has God blessed me through the work of grace he has accomplished in my life?

CLOSING PRAYER
Lord God, “I praise you, for I am wondrously made. Wonderful are your works” of grace in my life, far beyond all I deserve! (See Ps 139:14.)

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