Mary gathers after the reapers, Mary: Day 102

Mary gathers after the reapers

Missionaries, preachers, and confessors are constantly reaping souls for God, says St. Alphonsus. But the “hard cases” who aren’t part of that harvest are a special concern of Mary.

The Scriptures say that in ancient Israel, Boaz allowed Ruth to gather the ears of grain that the reapers had left behind (see Ru 2:3). St. Bonaventure comments, “Just as Ruth found favor with Boaz, so has Mary found favor with our Lord. She too is allowed to gather the ears of grain left by the reapers.

“The reapers followed by Mary are all evangelical laborers, missionaries, preachers, and confessors, constantly reaping souls for God. But some hardened and rebellious souls are left behind even by these. To Mary alone is it granted to gather them by her powerful intercession.” Truly unfortunate are they if they don’t allow themselves to be gathered even by this sweet Lady. They will indeed be most certainly lost and accursed. But on the other hand, blessed is he who turns to this good mother. “There is not in the world,” says the devout abbot, Blessed Louis de Blois, “any sinner, however revolting and wicked he may be, who is despised or rejected by Mary. She can, she will, and she knows how to reconcile him to her most beloved Son, if only he will seek her assistance.”

St. Antoninus relates that there was once a sinner at enmity with God, who had a vision in which he found himself before the dread tribunal. The Devil accused him, and Mary defended him. The Enemy produced the catalogue of his sins; it was thrown into the scales of divine justice, and weighed far more than all his good works. But then his great advocate, extending her sweet hand, placed it on the balance, causing it to turn in favor of her devotee. In this way she helped him understand that she would obtain his pardon if he changed his life. And so he did after the vision, and was entirely converted. —St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
Are there people I know whom I would consider “hard cases,” resisting God’s grace? Am I myself in some ways a “hard case”? Have I entrusted those people, and myself as well, to Mary’s help?

CLOSING PRAYER
From a prayer of St. Alphonsus: My only hope, Mary, behold a miserable sinner, who asks you for mercy. You are proclaimed and called by the whole Church, and by all the faithful, “the Refuge of Sinners.” So you must be my refuge, most sweet Mother of God.

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