MOTHER OF FAIR LOVE AND QUEEN OF THE HEART OF JESUS

“Ad Jesum per Mariam” :   To Jesus through Mary.

THE lesson of this retreat would be incomplete and the King of Love Himself would reproach me if I did not speak to you, apostles of His Divine Heart, of Mary the Mother of fair Love; she was intimately and inseparably united to the Word in the divine plan of the Redemption. He was the Redeemer, she the Immaculate Co-Redemptrix.

Let us then respect and adore the design of the Most High by keeping the Hearts of Jesus and Mary per­fectly united. To them be honor and glory for ever and ever! My road to get to the Holy of Holies, to the very heart of Jesus, to the most intimate recesses of that Sanctuary of Justice and of Love, is perfectly mapped out for me. The necessary and direct road is Mary. No one goes to the Father save through the Son, “neither doth anyone know the Father, but the Son and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal Him.” So, too, we may say that no one goes to the King unless led to Him by Mary, nor does any one know the King but he to whom His beauty is revealed by the Queen.

Through her the Word came to us from the bosom of the Father. The Word could have chosen a thousand other ways, or no way at all, for neither bridges nor intermediaries are necessary to the purposes of God. It was His explicit will that, just as God was to come to men through Mary, so redeemed humanity should also go to God through her. No Christian worthy of the name will choose any other road than Mary, the one planned out by Him Who called Himself “the Way.”

To be unwilling to pass through the arms of the Immaculate Queen in our search for God and for His Son would be to presume to rectify what He Him­self accomplished in the stupendous miracle of the Incarnation. By eliminating Mary we should neither straighten the road, nor shorten the distance between us and God, for, to suppress the Mother of Jesus, the divine intermediary, is not at all the same as abolish­ing the royal antechamber in the palace of the King. Mary is the sanctuary itself, wherein He dwells.

Since the Annunciation, she has occupied such a position between God and His creatures that anyone seeking to avoid her intervention, or to eliminate this “gate of Heaven,” will lengthen the road and be exposed to the grave risk of never reaching the final goal. In Bethlehem, the shepherds, kings and even Joseph received the adorable Babe from Mary’s hands. She took up her Treasure and, after tenderly em­bracing Him, lent Him to those who had been so happy as ro receive a special summons to the Crib. And when they had caressed and adored the Child, they returned Him to His mother’s loving arms.

For many years, Jesus did nothing of importance without asking Mary’s leave, if only to give her another proof of His filial tenderness and love. The words of scripture, “He was subject to them,” show us a fathomless abyss in which stand out in bold relief Mary, who like a queen commands, de­cides, directs, and Jesus Who is obedient to her. Jesus is our perfect model of filial love for Mary, for, except His heavenly Father, no one was so dear to Him.

The first words lisped by the Divine Babe were surely, “Mother … Mary,” and they came from the depth of the God Man’s Heart. He loved her as only God could love the most holy and matchless of creatures. “Thou art all fair, 0 My love, and there is not a spot in thee.” He loved her as only God could love the Virgin Mother from whom He was to take human flesh and blood, that through His Passion and death He might redeem the world.

From the moment of the Incarna­tion, He consecrated Mary as Co-Redemptrix to col­laborate with Him .. Jesus loved her with the gratitude of God, because by her “Fiat” she gave Him what He lacked as God, the power to suffer and to die. Jesus loved her with the gratitude of a Son who drew His life from her and slept peacefully in her loving arms. His Heart enjoyed the tender caresses and watchful care which Mary lavished on Him, the Son of God and her own Son!

Jesus loved her during those thirty years of closest intimacy, when the Hearts of Son and Mother were united by the continual converse of their souls, by that passion and secret agony which throughout their lives crucified them both. Jesus loved her on Good Friday and gave His Heart to her on the Via Dolo­rosa to strengthen and comfort her! How He loved her when He fixed His dying eyes upon her and en­trusted His Church and all mankind to her in the person of St. John.

Thus you see, dear apostles, that we have learnt the love of Mary in a good school, that of the Heart of Jesus. We cannot be mistaken in loving what He loved and as He loved. By thus imitating Him in the love He bore His mother, we are drawn into a closer intimacy with His most Sacred Heart and we procure Him great joy and glory. Let us therefore love to re­peat the “Salve Regina” with a slight and very beau­tiful variation: Not only after but during this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus, 0 clement, 0 loving, 0 sweet Virgin Mary.

Fr. Mateo SS.CC.

The Enthronement of the Sacred Heart Apostolate was founded in 1907 by Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC.