It was more noble and fitting that Mary be preserved from sin than redeemed from it

February 20, 2022 • 2 min

From The Glories of Mary, page 355
By St. Alphonsus Liguori

Moreover, the divine Son, as we know, came into the world to redeem Mary before all others, as we read in St. Bernardine of Sienna.* And as there are two modes of redeeming, as St. Augustine teaches, one by raising the fallen; the other, by preventing from failing;* doubtless, the latter is the most noble.

More nobly, says St. Antoninus, is he redeemed who is prevented from falling, than he who is raised after failing;* because in this way is avoided the injury or stain that the soul always contracts by a fall.

Therefore we ought to believe that Mary was redeemed in the nobler manner, as became the mother of a God, as St. Bonaventure expresses it; for Frassen proves the sermon on the assumption to have been written by that holy doctor.*

We must believe that by a new mode of sanctification the Holy Spirit redeemed her at the first moment of her conception, and preserved her by a special grace from original sin, which was not in her, but would have been in her.*

On this subject Cardinal Cusano has elegantly written: Others have had a deliverer, but the holy Virgin had a predeliverer;* others have had a Redeemer to deliver them from sin already contracted, but the holy Virgin had a Redeemer who, because he was her Son, prevented her from contracting sin.

In a word, to conclude this point, Hugo of St. Victor says, the tree is known by its fruit. If the Lamb was always immaculate, always immaculate must the mother also have been.*

Hence this same doctor saluted Mary by calling her: “The worthy mother of a worthy Son.” By which he meant to say, that none but Mary was the worthy mother of such a Son, and that none but Jesus was the worthy Son of such a mother.*

Therefore let us say with St. Ildephonsus: Give suck, then, oh Mary, give suck to thy Creator; give suck to him who created thee, and hath made thee so pure and perfect that thou hast merited that he should receive from thee the human nature.