The Son of God chose his own mother, Mary: Day 043

Last updated on: September 2, 2015 at 3:30 am by Pete Socks

The Son of God chose his own mother, Mary: Day 043 2015-08-22T07:20:38-05:00 Pete Socks

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The Son of God chose his own mother

If you could choose your own mother, what kind of woman would you choose? The Son of God actually had such a choice, St. Alphonsus reminds us, and Mary had the qualities he was seeking.

It was fitting that the Son of God should preserve Mary from sin, since she was his mother. No other man could choose his mother. But if such a thing could ever be granted to anyone, who would wish for a slave, if he could choose a queen? Who would wish for a servant, if he could choose a noble lady? And if he could choose a friend of God, would he wish for God’s enemy?

If, then, the Son of God alone could choose a mother according to his own heart, his own liking, we must consider that he would of course choose one fit- ting a God. St. Bernard says, “When the Creator of men became Man, he must have selected for himself a mother whom he knew was fitting for him.” And since it was fitting that a most pure God should have a mother pure from all sin, he created her spotless.

St. Paul wrote: “The first Adam was of the earth, earthly; the second Adam, Christ, was from heaven, heavenly” (see 1 Cor 15:47). St. Ambrose alludes to these words when he says of Mary: “Christ chose this vessel into which he was about to descend: not of the earth, but from heaven; and he consecrated it a temple of purity.” The saint calls the Mother of God “a heavenly vessel,” not because Mary wasn’t earthly by nature, but because she was heavenly by grace. She was as superior to the angels of heaven in holiness and purity, as she was fit to be the one in whose womb a King of glory was to dwell.

God said to St. Bridget: “Mary was conceived without sin, so that the divine Son might be born of her without sin.” Not that Jesus Christ could have contracted sin, but so that he might not be reproached with even having a mother infected with it, who would consequently have been the slave of the Devil. —St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
The Son of God also chose his foster father, Joseph. What qualities do you think he was looking for in such a man? God’s Son also chose just the right time to enter the world. Why do you think he chose that particular time in history?

CLOSING PRAYER
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Eph 1:3–4).

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