It was fitting that Mary should be free from sin so she could become a worthy habitation of the Son of God

February 9, 2022 • 2 min

From The Glories of Mary, page 341
By St. Alphonsus Liguori

But it was especially fitting that the eternal Father should preserve his daughter from the sins of Adam, because he destined her for the mother of his only begotten Son. “Thou wast preordained in the mind of God, before every creature, to bring forth God himself made man.” [St. Bonaventure, Serm. 16, cap. 4.] If for no other reason, then, at least for the honor of his Son, who was God, the Father would create her pure from every stain.

The angelic Doctor St. Thomas says, that all things ordained by God must be holy, and pure from every defilement.* If David, when he was planning the temple of Jerusalem with a magnificence worthy the Lord, said; “Not for man a house is prepared, but for God;” now, how much greater cause have we to believe that the great Creator, having destined Mary to be the mother of his own Son, would adorn her soul with every grace, that it might be a worthy habitation for a God.

God, the creator of all things, affirms blessed Denis the Carthusian, about to construct a worthy habitation for his Son, adorned her with all pleasing gifts.* And the holy Church herself assures us of this, when she affirms that God prepared the body and soul of the Virgin to be, on earth, a habitation worthy of his only begotten Son. “Omnipotent, eternal God!” thus the holy Church prays, “who, by the co-operation of the Holy Ghost, didst prepare the body and soul of the glorious Virgin mother, that she might become a worthy habitation for thy Son,” &c.*