St John Eudes – The Admirable Heart of Mary

Justice of God Mirrored in the Admirable Heart of Mary

Mercy and justice resemble two sisters, inseparable and holding each other by the hand. Wherever mercy is, there also is justice; where justice goes, mercy follows. Hence King David sang to God: “Mercy and judgment I will sing to thee, O Lord.”

We have studied how divine mercy reigns and triumphs in the gentle Heart of Mary; we shall now contemplate divine justice establishing therein the throne of its glory. “In this perfect Heart,” says Richard of St. Lawrence, “mercy and justice gave each other the kiss of peace.”

In God there are two kinds of justice: the first, is distributive; the second, vindictive justice. “Distributive justice,” says St. Dionysius, “gives to each one what belongs to him, according to his rank and merit. It allots and dispenses to each thing the proportion, beauty, arrangement, good order and all other things proper to it within the bounds and limits that are just and equitable.” The chief characteristic of vindictive justice is infinite hatred of sin and a desire to destroy it in the souls of men, thereby delivering them from its cruel tyranny.

Now these two types of justice have ever held sovereign sway in the most just Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the first place, she always rendered to God and to all God’s creatures, in a most faithful and perfect manner, what she owed to them. To God, she accorded adoration, fear, dependence, gratitude, honor, glory, praise, love and the sacrifice of all she possessed and of her very self. She observed all the Mosaic laws very devotedly and with exact obedience. She exercised respect, veneration and humility towards her parents, St. Joachim and St. Anne, towards the persons who had charge of her while she dwelt in the Temple of Jerusalem, and towards St. Joseph, her most worthy spouse. She punctually obeyed even the edicts of Emperor Augustus, though he was a pagan idolator. She held her own self in very low esteem and in great contempt, knowing she was a creature drawn from nothing and a daughter of Adam, who would have come under the curse common to all his children, if God had not preserved her from it. In a word, she faithfully practised the words of the Holy Ghost even before they were spoken by St. Paul: “Render therefore to all men their dues. Tribute, to whom tribute is due; custom, to whom custom: fear, to whom fear: honor, to whom honor. Owe no man anything, but to love one another.” This last is a debt which no one can ever finish paying.

In the second place, divine justice had so completely filled her Heart with such an unfathomable hatred for sin that this holy Virgin was always ready to undergo the sufferings of as many hells as God’s omnipotence could create rather than commit the least venial sin.

What is still more admirable, however, is that, having the same Heart and mind as the Eternal Father, according to the inspired words: “He who is joined to the Lord, is ‘one spirit,” Our Lady united her will to His concerning the Passion of her Son, and gave her consent to the painful death of her dearly Beloved so that He might destroy sin. This sacrifice demonstrates a hatred of sin greater than suffering the torments of all imaginable hells to cooperate in its destruction; for it cannot be doubted that if Our Lady had given her choice, she would have preferred all such sufferings for herself rather than see the treatment inflicted on her beloved Son at the time of His cruel and ignominious Passion.

If the Holy Heart of Mary is filled with such terrible hatred of sin that she consented to the cruel death of her beloved Son, because she saw Him loaded with the sins of men; if she readily sacrificed Him to divine justice in order to crush the mortal enemy of God and men, who can doubt that she still hates the infernal monster wherever she finds it? She hates sin to the point of sometimes uniting herself to divine vengeance in order to destroy it in souls, especially in those souls who are their own enemies to the extent of supporting evil and opposing its destruction.

They force their sweet Mother, as it were, to relinquish the tenderness of her maternal love and to participate in the severity of divine justice in order to punish the obduracy of a rebellious soul hardened in malice. O most holy Virgin, since thou hast but one Heart and one spirit with thy divine Son and since thou hast no other sentiments save His, thou dost love what He loves and thou dost hate what He hates. Hence, as Christ has an infinite hatred for sin, thou also dost hate it beyond all thought and words. Thy hatred for the infernal monster is equal to the love thou hast for God.

O Blessed Mother, thy love of thy Heart for God is infinitely greater than that of all the hearts of the angels and saints. Consequently, there is in thy Heart more hatred against God’s enemy, sin, than in the hearts of all heaven’s citizens. Make us sharers, O Mary, in this love and hatred so that we may love our Creator and Saviour as thou hast loved Him, and that we may hate sin as thou hast hated it.

St John Eudes – The Admirable Heart of Mary

Meekness, Patience and Clemency of God Mirrored in the Admirable Heart of Mary

God’s meekness, patience and clemency are three divine perfections which are joined with mercy to form one and the same perfection, although their effects are different.

Mercy regards the misery of creatures in general, to relieve and to deliver them from its fetters. The first and greatest of miseries, the source of all wretchedness is sin. When man is so unhappy as to offend God mortally, he at once becomes the object of God’s wrath which would crush him the very instant he consents to sin, as he infinitely deserves to be. But divine meekness prevents the destruction and arrests the torrent of God’s just anger, ready to pour upon the sinner. If man perseveres in his crime, he deserves to be cast upon divine vengeance, but divine patience interposes and persuades God to suffer the sinner and await his repentance with admirable goodness. These are the effects of divine meekness and patience. God’s clemency is manifested by remitting entirely or in part the punishment due to sin.

Now these three divine perfections live and reign in the Heart of the Mother of Mercy, communicating their own divine inclinations most excellently. After the Heart of God Himself there never was and never shall be a heart so full of meekness, patience and clemency as the noble Heart of Mary.

While she dwelt on earth, she beheld the world filled with idols and idolators. With the exception of a very small number, men generally were armed against God, trying, if possible, to dethrone Him, to put Him under their feet and annihilate Him. They would set His enemy in His place and sought to procure for the usurper the adoration and honor which belong to God alone. As the Most Blessed Virgin Mary loved God with a love so great that we cannot describe it, she experienced an indescribably great sorrow at the sight of the crimes committed against His Divine Majesty.

But who can appreciate her greater grief over the atrocious torments inflicted on her beloved Son by the perfidy of the Chosen People? She knew Him to be Innocence and Sanctity incarnate; yet she saw Him persecuted and tormented as though He were the greatest of criminals. Now what did she do, the Mother of Sorrows, as she beheld her treasure, her most innocent Lamb torn, flayed and slain? She loved Him with a peerless love. Did she cry out against His pitiless Murderers? Did she lament of the wrong and injustice wreaked upon Him? Did she implore the Eternal Father’s justice? No. She remained silent; not a word was heard from her lips; only her stifled sighs, her tears alone were seen. Her most gentle Heart fought against the entry of any sense of injury or movement of impatience, or aversion or bitterness towards her cruel tormentors. Her Heart abounded with meekness, patience and clemency, so that she imitated her son, Jesus, and sought to excuse the men who with such distorted rage were killing Him, repeating in her Heart the words He uttered with His lips: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” She offered for their salvation the very Blood they shed, the sufferings they inflicted upon Him, the cruel death they perpetrated. She was prepared, if necessary, to sacrifice herself together with her Son, to obtain mercy for those wicked men.

Nor is that all. The glorious Virgin now reigning in heaven can see much more clearly the numberless multitude and frightful enormity of the sins committed against God. She sees this earth of ours which should be a paradise since the God of Heaven honored it with His presence and made it His dwelling place; yet it is filled with sinners and enemies of God, who blaspheme and dishonor Him without ceasing, even more than the devils and the damned in hell.

Our Lady knows that her Son, the Son of God, came into the world to save all men; that salvation cost Him infinite labor, ignominies, tears and blood to deliver mankind from the bondage of the devil and hell, and reconcile them to His Father. And yet she sees men turning their back on God, denying and forsaking Him, to side with Satan and cast themselves headlong into hell. She sees innumerable atheists and blasphemers making every effort to exterminate the Holy Church founded by her Jesus Christ through the shedding of the last drop of His Blood, and to render His sacred name despicable, abominable and odious to the entire’ world: “They have set me an abomination to themselves.”

Our heavenly Mother perceives all these crimes and all the wickedness most clearly, and her inconceivably great love for God and for her Son is wounded beyond anything we can imagine, even though she is glorious and incapable of suffering. She is Queen of Heaven and earth, and God has given her sovereign power over all created things; therefore she would not lack the power, if such were her will, to avenge most justly the many atrocious insults offered by men to their God and Saviour. But far from doing this, she permits herself to be induced by her very patient and gentle Heart to use the power of her merits and intercession in order to halt the just fury of divine vengeance, and to arrest the torrent of God’s wrath ready to burst on the hapless heads of sinners. She obtains from His divine Majesty that He punish them not as enemies but as children, not like a severe judge but as a merciful father, not to exterminate them but to correct and convert them.

True the Blessed Virgin Mary does not entertain the same sentiments for all sinners, nor does she treat them all alike. She distinguishes between those in Hell, whom she knows to be irreconcilable enemies of God, and those on earth, whom she considers still capable of being reconciled to His divine Majesty. Hence her Heart is filled with very great and just indignation towards the wretched creatures in hell, for she is most perfectly united to God, and therefore shares in all His adorable inclinations. She loves what God loves and hates what He hates, approves what He approves, and condemns what He condemns. As the damned will forever be the object of God’s wrath: “They shall be called the people with whom the Lord is angry forever,” so shall they forever be the object of the anger of God’s Mother. Her love and charity for God and the friends of God are greater than the ardor of all angels and saints together, so also is her hatred of God’s irreconcilable enemies greater than that of all the denizens of heaven.

But towards sinners who are still in this world, which is a place of mercy where our all-bountiful Mother has established the throne and empire of her mercy and clemency, her Heart is so filled with sweetness and benignity that the venerable and holy Abbot Blosius declares: “The world does not hold any sinner so detestable that this pious Virgin should not be disposed to open to him the arms of her clemency and her most merciful Heart. Provided he seek her assistance, she will always have the power and the will to reconcile him to her Son.” Blosius says further: “As long as the time of grace endures, this merciful Mother cannot avert her eyes from miserable sinners who invoke her with a sincere desire of conversion. With the Heart of a Mother and a sister, she continually offers up her prayers to God on behalf of men, and takes special care of their salvation. No one who shall invoke this Mother of grace with devotion and perseverance, can possibly perish forever.”

“O sweetest and most holy Virgin, look down with the eyes of thy mercy on all the afflictions and all the afflicted that fill the earth. Behold the many poor people, the many widows and orphans, the sick troubled with so many diseases, the captives and prisoners, the thousands who are cursed and persecuted by the malice of men, the defenceless persons oppressed by the strong and the mighty, the seafarers and pilgrims struggling against perils on sea and land, the missionaries exposed to countless dangers in their task of saving endangered souls. Look down upon the number of afflicted minds, of anguished hearts, of souls tormented by manifold temptations, and of souls suffering the frightful penalties of Purgatory. But above all, have pity on the countless souls that are in the state of sin and perdition and are groaning under the tyranny and the bondage of hell.

“Finally, O gentlest of Virgins, take pity on the great number of wretches who people the universe, whose innumerable miseries are so many voices crying to thee: O Mother of Mercy, comforter of the afflicted, refuge of sinners, open the eyes of thy clemency to see our desolation, the ears of thy bounty to hear our supplications. “To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears,’ Yes, Eve’s miserable children, banished from the house of their heavenly Father, groaning and weeping in this valley of tears, have recourse to thine incomparable benignity. Hear our sighs and our cries; behold our weeping and our tears. “Turn then, O gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us, and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.’

St John Eudes – The Admirable Heart of Mary

Goodness and Providence of God Mirrored in the Admirable Heart of Mary

Sacred theology distinguishes in God three kinds of goodness, which are fundamentally one and the same: natural goodness, moral goodness and goodness of benevolence or bounty, which is sometimes called benignity. Natural goodness is none other than the perfection and beauty of divine nature, containing the infinite excellences of the Godhead. Moral goodness comprises all the moral virtues that God possesses so eminently and in so high a degree that they are infinitely beyond what a created spirit can think or express. The goodness of benevolence or bounty is God’s infinite inclination to communicate Himself and it proceeds from His natural goodness. In the order of glory God communicates Himself most fully and perfectly to all the souls in heavenly bliss, clothing them in His radiant glory, surrounding them with His felicity, enrapturing them with His holy joys, and making them partakers of all the goodness He Himself possesses.

The superlative Goodness communicates Its adorable perfections to the holy Heart of Mary with much greater abundance and plenitude than to all other creatures put together. Next to the Heart of God, there never was and never shall be a heart so good, liberal, benevolent, magnificent and so replete with kindness as the most admirable Heart of Mary.

The Heart of Mary is so full of goodness that St. Bernard thus speaks of her: “Why does human weakness fear to come unto Mary? Nothing in her is austere, nothing frightful, for she is filled with sweetness. Go over the Gospel story with the greatest attention; if you find therein the least mark of harshness or severity on Mary’s part, the least sign of indignation, you may well fear to appear before her. But if, on the contrary, you find (as you surely will) her virginal Heart full of love, piety, sweetness and goodness, then give thanks to Him who in His infinite mercy has provided such a mediatrix for us.”

“Her Heart is so alive with pity that she never rejects any suppliant coming to her with humility and confidence,” says Raymund Jourdain. It is this loving confidence that we express as often as we recite that beautiful prayer, attributed by many annotators to St. Bernard, and by others to St. Augustine: “Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help and sought thine intercession, was left unaided.”

Her Heart is so filled with bounty that she readily grants whatever we ask of her. St. Bernard says: “O blessed Mary, whoever loves thee honors God; who serves thee pleases God; who invokes thy holy name with a pure heart, will infallibly receive the object of his petition.”

“Who has ever invoked Mary without being heard?” says Pope Innocent III. The venerable Abbot Blosius adds: “She rejects no one but lends a favorable ear to the petitions of all.” “Heaven and earth would sooner perish, than Mary refuse her help to such as invoke her seriously and with affection,” reiterates St. Bernard, adding: “Let him be silent in praise of thy mercy, O most Blessed Virgin, who having invoked thee in his necessities, should remember not having received thy help.”

Her Heart is so good and merciful that she extends her kindness not only to the good but also to the wicked, not only to the faithful but to sinners as well. “In this life, thou art a help to the just and unjust,” says Raymund Jourdain. “Thou dost aid the just man and the sinner; the former by keeping him in the state of grace, wherefore the Church calls thee the Mother of Grace; the latter by bringing them back to divine Mercy, for which thou art named the Mother of Mercy.” Our Lady’s Heart is so kind and gentle that she helps not only those who implore her aid, but even the careless souls who neglect to invoke her. Listen again to St. Bernard: “Why should we marvel to see her stretch a helping hand to such as beseech her, if she assist even them who do not pray to her?”

Her Heart is so merciful that she loves even those who hate her. Mary always renders good for evil because she willingly sacrificed her own beloved Son to save the reprobates who crucified Him. Other Fathers of the Church express the same thoughts and assure us that the almost boundless charity of the Heart of Mary extends to all places, times and things in general, through a most abundant communication and eminent participation of God’s infinite goodness and likewise of His divine providence.

She leads all created things to the last end for which God made them, namely the glory of His Divine Majesty. But her special care is the guidance of rational beings, above all, of Christians, and most particularly of her own devout children, who strive faithfully to honor, serve and imitate her.

Her maternal Heart protects and cherishes her devotees in a unique manner, having her eyes ever intently fixed upon them. She preserves and guards them as the apple of her eye, and assumes the guidance and conduct of their entire life and actions. She leads them by the hand in all their ways, removing from their path the obstacles and hindrances which might make them stumble, or retard their progress. She obtains the assistance and the means whereby they will receive strength and advance more rapidly. She bears their soul in her arms and on her virginal breast through the dangerous crises where their peril is greatest. She assists them most lovingly in the dark passage from this life into the next world, protecting them valiantly from the efforts and snares of the enemies of salvation, She receives their souls in her sweet and gentle hands at the moment of death, and lovingly folds them in her most charitable Heart. She finally bears them upward to Heaven with unutterable joy and presents them with all-surpassing kindness to her beloved Son.

If such is the miraculous goodness of Mary to those who love and venerate her, how can there possibly be any Christians who hold back from devotion to the center and principle of her benignity, her Admirable Heart?

Praise, honour and glory be forever to the Most High, who has thus caused the Heart of this incomparable Mother to reflect to mankind the perfect image of His goodness and all-merciful providence!

St John Eudes – The Admirable Heart of Mary

Purity and Sanctity of God Mirrored in the Admirable Heart of Mary

Mary’s Heart bears a striking resemblance to divine purity and sanctity. The most pure and holy Heart of Our Lady is a living image of those two adorable perfections, which are one and the same, for St. Dionysius tells us that sanctity is perfect purity, purity meaning freedom from the slightest imperfection.

The most holy Heart of Mary is indeed an excellent image of divine purity and holiness. Not only was her most pure and holy Heart always far removed from every kind of sin, but it was entirely free from attachment to created things, and intimately united to God by its pure and holy love for Him together with the eminent practice of all the other virtues which Mary’s Heart possessed in so high a degree. The Queen of Virtues is called by St. John Damascene “the abode and the sanctuary of all virtues.” Even though Our Lady dwelt for years in this world full of filth and abomination, poisoned by the venom of sin, and among wicked and perfidious Jews, her most holy Heart never contracted the least stain or blemish, was never attached by an inordinate affection to any creature nor even to God’s gifts and graces. The Blessed Virgin remained intimately united to God, as though nothing else existed save God and herself.

The most holy Heart of the Queen of all Saints remained forever immaculate, preserved in eminent purity and holiness, and entirely filled with the purity and sanctity of God Himself. Her being was transformed and submerged in divine purity and holiness, to the surpassing extent that her Heart merited to obtain the world’s salvation. As St. Anselm expresses it: “The pure sanctity and holy purity of Mary’s devout Heart, surpassing by far the purity and sanctity of all other creatures, merited for her the sublime dignity of becoming the Restorer of the world wrapped in perdition.”

If you would find a place in the sanctuary of Mary’s admirable Heart, which so perfectly mirrors the purity and sanctity of the Most High, you must purify your heart and realize the meaning of the words: “This is the will of God, your sanctification.” These words are not meant just for souls specially consecrated and set apart. You must apply them to yourself, you who bear the name and imprint of Christ and membership in His mystical Body. The sanctification of your spirit, heart and body is more than a commandment; it is a privilege, a participation, granted to you through the purity and sanctity of the heart of Mary, Mother of the Redeemer and your own Mother.