The Heroic Mortification of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Aug 18 (edited) • Faith

Brothers, we are within the Octave of the Assumption of our Blessed Mother. I think it fitting, therefore, to speak of her glories and heroic virtues. I shall dwell, in particular, on the heroic mortification that the Blessed Virgin practiced. This, I hope, will move us to greater virtue—even in the area of fitness which is our particular interest as Catholic men on this group.

There are two kinds of mortification: exterior mortification and interior mortification. While it is indeed true that interior mortification is more meritorious than exterior mortification, the former can hardly be attained without the latter. So, let us see how the Mother of God practiced both kinds of mortification. Holy Scripture tells us that Mary Most Holy was a Virgin. Furthermore, we can deduce from her response to Saint Gabriel—“How shall this be for I know not man?”—that Mary had previously made a vow of perpetual virginity to God. She renounced the pleasure of the conjugal act, which in and of itself is not sinful within matrimony, as an oblation of love to God. The Sacred Tradition of the Church furnishes us with more information on the heroic life led by Our Blessed Lady prior to and after the Annunciation of Saint Gabriel. According to Sacred Tradition, Mary was presented to the Lord in the Temple at the age of three, and lived there in the service of God till her twelfth or thirteenth birthday.

Saint Anselm tells us: “Mary was docile, spoke little, was always composed, did not laugh … She also persevered in prayer, in the study of the Sacred Scriptures, in fastings and all virtuous works.” Saint Jerome tells us that the Immaculate Virgin spent the first three hours of her day from dawn in prayer, the next six hours in manual work, followed by more hours of prayer again. The mystics, such as Venerable Mary of Agreda and Blessed Anne-Catherine Emmerich, tell us that the Blessed Virgin, on being presented to the Lord in the Temple requested of the priests: abstinence from meat, dairy and fruits; sleeping on the bare floor and sacrificing her sleep by three vigils of prayer in the night. We are also told by the mystics that Our Holy Mother resolved to live a more rigorous life of sacrifice after Our Lord’s Passion and Resurrection as an oblation to God for the conversion of sinners and the triumph of the Holy Church, which was then in its infancy and was on the brink of great persecution. Add on top of all that, her material poverty, her flight to Egypt and her unfathomably sorrowful mystical suffering during the Passion, and you have One who was a living and constant Martyr.

However, even more beautiful than her external mortification was that interior mortification of the will she practiced so consistently during her life. She was ever ready to renounce her own will to fulfill God’s Will. “The enlightened Child well knew that God does not accept a divided heart,” says Saint Alphonsus, “…hence from the first moment of her life she began to love God with all her strength, and gave herself entirely to Him.” Despite her austere life in the Temple, Saint Jerome tells us that she was most humble in her own estimation, no one ever saw her angry and that her every word carried divine sweetness. The mystics tell us that Mary was often persecuted by her fellow maidens in the Temple out of envy, but that she bore it all with great kindness and serenity. In fact, Venerable Mary of Agreda tells us, she would show the greatest affection to her harshest persecutors. Consider well that at the Annunciation, when Saint Gabriel announced to the happy Virgin her Divine Motherhood, she was happily willing to give up her virginity if indeed it was God’s Will! Mind you, to the Holy Virgin, her virginity was her greatest treasure for it was a sign of her total consecration to God. Yea, even God Himself was pleased with her practice of holy virginity. “It is by her virginity that Mary pleased God,” says the great Saint Bernard. But even this treasure of treasures Mary was willing to offer to God, thus sacrificing her will, without reserve. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word.” Therefore, does Saint Bernard say in awe, “It is by her virginity that she pleased God, but it is by her humility that she conceived Him.” Consider the silent repudiation she endured from Saint Joseph! Yet she surrendered her will all the more perfectly to the will of God. Mary was enlightened by the Holy Spirit from prayer and her study of Holy Scripture that her Divine Son would indeed suffer and offer Himself as a redeeming Holocaust to the Eternal Father. But she was His Mother, she too had to choose whether or not to offer Him for the salvation of mankind.

Thus does Saint Alphonsus, speaking of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, beautifully explain it:

“Mary, I say, already knew all these torments which her Son was to endure … She consented to all with a constancy which filled even the Angels with astonishment; she pronounced the sentence that her Son should die, and die by so ignominious and painful a death.

[…] Mary had an only Son, and He was the most beautiful of all the sons of Adam—most amiable, for He had everything to make Him so: He was obedient, virtuous, innocent and holy; suffice it to say, He was God. […] This Son it was who was the Victim which she, of her own free will, had to sacrifice to death.” What a violent self-denial for her tender and Immaculate Heart! But for Love, she willingly and confidently made this sacrifice as her righteous forefather Abraham had once done.

At Calvary, Mary renewed this sacrifice of her will to the Eternal Father. Saint Bonaventure tells us that Mary would have accepted the pains and death of her Son far more willingly for herself, but her interior sacrifice of love was so complete that she renounced what had more value to her than her own life: her beloved Jesus. For this reason has she been called the Queen of Martyrs by the Church, for she suffered more than all the Martyrs combined, and Co-Redemptrix, for she was most intimately united to and collaborated with Jesus Christ in His Redemptive Sacrifice on Calvary.

Therefore, did God see it fit to crown this conquering Queen and Virgin Mother by a glorious Assumption, body and soul, into Heaven. We call ourselves children of Mary. Are we like our Mother? Do we love her divine Son; Our Lord Jesus Christ; Whom she so generously offered for us, above all things? Do we actually imitate her virtues? Do we often ask for her mighty intercession with Christ? Are we ashamed to publish her glories to others? Do we pray the Rosary faithfully every day and promote it? Do we aspire to and make concrete steps toward great and heroic sanctity? Examine yourselves, brothers, and see if you are worthy of the title “child of Mary”, and make every effort to be worthy of such a glorious title. Let us take courage, brothers, for we have a merciful Mother and gracious Advocate ever interceding for us before God!

Let us love her, honor her and serve her! Amen! So be it!

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