Reasons it was befitting the Mother of God to be created free from all sin

February 12, 2022 • 2 min

From The Glories of Mary, page 345
By St. Alphonsus Liguori

Second Point.—In the second place, it was befitting the Son that Mary, as his mother, should be preserved from sin.

It is not permitted to other children to select a mother according to their good pleasure; but if this were ever granted to any one, who would choose a slave for his mother when he might have a queen? who a peasant, when he might have a noble? who an enemy of God, when he might have a friend of God?

If, then, the Son of God alone could select a mother according to his pleasure, it must be considered as certain that he would choose one befitting a God.

Thus St. Bernard expresses it: The Creator of men to be born of man must choose such a mother for himself as he knew to be most fit.*

And as it was, indeed, fitting that a most pure God should have a mother pure from all sin, such was she created, as St. Bemardine of Sienna says, in these words: The third kind of sanctification is that which is called maternal, and this removes every stain of original sin. This was in the blessed Virgin. God, indeed, created her, by the nobility of her nature as well as by the perfection of grace, such as it was befitting that his mother should be.*

And here the words of the apostle may be applied: “For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners,” &c. [Heb. vii. 26.]

Here a learned author remarks, that according to St. Paul, it was meet that our Redeemer should not only be separated from sin, but also from sinners, as St. Thomas explains it: It was meet that he who came to take away sins, should be separate from sinners as far as concerns the sin of which Adam was guilty.*

But how could it be said of Jesus Christ that he was separate from sinners if his mother was a sinner?