Mary’s consecration was prompt and without delay
9 min • Digitized on July 17, 2021
From The Glories of Mary, page 393
By St. Alphonsus Liguori
DISCOURSE III.
ON THE PRESENTATION OF MARY.
The offering which Mary made of herself to God was prompt, without delay; entire, without reserve.
There never has been, and there never will be, any offering of a pure creature greater and more perfect than that which Mary made to God, being yet only a child of three years, when she presented herself in the temple to offer him, not spices, nor calves, nor talents of gold, but her whole self as a perfect holocaust, consecrating herself as a perpetual victim in his honor.
Well did she understand the voice of God, which even then called her to dedicate herself wholly to his love, with these words: Arise, make haste, my love, and come. And therefore her Lord would have her from thenceforth forget her country, her parents, and every thing, to attend to nothing but to love arid please him: “Hearken, oh daughter, and see and incline thy ear; and forget thy people and thy father’s house.” And she at once obeyed promptly the divine voice.
Let us consider, then, how acceptable to God was this offering which Mary made of herself, as she presented herself promptly and entirely to him; promptly without delay; entirely with out reserve; these are the two points.
First Point.—Mary offered herself to God promptly.
From the first moment when this heavenly infant was sanctified in the womb of her mother (which was at the first moment of her immaculate conception), she received the perfect use of reason, that she might from thenceforth begin to merit, as the Doctors universally agree; and one of them, Father Suarez, says, that as the most perfect mode by which God sanctifies a soul is its sanctification by its own merits, as St. Thomas teaches, so it is to be believed that the blessed Virgin has been thus sanctified.
And if this privilege was granted to the angels and to Adam, as the angelic Doctor says, much more should we believe that it was granted to the divine mother, on whom we cannot doubt that God, having deigned to make her his mother, conferred greater gifts than on all other creatures, as the same Doctor teaches.
From her he received his human nature, hence before all others she must have obtained from Christ the fulness of grace; for, being mother, as Father Suarez says, she has a certain peculiar right to all the gifts of her Son. And as, by the hypostatic union, Jesus must of right have the fulness of all graces; thus by the divine maternity, it was meet that Jesus should confer on Mary, as a natural debt, greater graces than those bestowed on all the other saints and angels.
Thus, from the beginning of her life, Mary knew God, and knew him so well, that no tongue, as the angel declared to St. Bridget, shall suffice to tell how the intellect of the holy Virgin clearly saw God in the first moment she knew him. And even in that first moment of light by which she was illuminated, she offered herself wholly to her Lord, dedicating herself entirely to his love and glory, as the angel continued to say to St. Bridget: “At once our queen resolved to sacrifice her will to God, with all her love, for the whole time of her life; and no one can understand how completely her will submitted itself then to embrace all things pleasing to him.”
Yet, when the immaculate infant understood afterwards that her holy parents, Joachim and Anna, had promised to God, even by a vow, as various authors relate, that if he should grant them a child, it should be consecrated to his service in the temple; for it was an ancient custom of the Jews to place their children in cells which were near the temple, that there they might be properly educated, as we learn from Baronius, Nicephorus, Cedrenus, and Suarez, as also from Josephus, the Jewish historian, St. John Damascene, St. Gregory of Nicomedia, St. Anselm, and St. Ambrose. As it is also clearly seen in Macchabees, where, speaking of Heliodorus, who wished to enter the temple by force in order to take from it the treasures deposited there, it is said: “Because the place was like to come into contempt … the virgins that were shut up hastened to Onias.”
When Mary knew of this vow, as I have before said, she wished solemnly to offer and consecrate herself to God, by presenting herself in the temple, as Germanus asserts, and also St. Epiphanius, who says, that when she was hardly three years old she was presented in the temple, at an age when children have the greatest desire for the assistance of their parents, and need it the most. She was even the first to entreat her parents earnestly that they would take her to the temple, to fulfil their promise; and her holy mother, Anna, as St. Gregory of Nyssa says, did not delay to bring her there, and offer her to God.
And behold, Joachim and Anna, generously sacrificing to God what was dearest to them on earth, set out from Nazareth, carrying by turns, in their arms, their beloved little daughter, who could not walk so great a distance as was that from Nazareth to Jerusalem, a journey, as several authors assert, of eighty miles. They thus went on their way, accompanied by only a few of their relations, but by hosts of angels, as St. George of Nicomedia asserts, who attended and ministered to the immaculate Virgin, as she went to dedicate herself to the Divine Majesty.
How beautiful are thy steps, oh prince’s daughter! Oh, how beautiful, how pleasing to God, as the angels sung, are thy steps, as thou goest to offer thyself to him, oh great and chosen daughter of our common Lord! God himself on that day, says Bernardino de Bustis, celebrated a great feast with the whole celestial court, when he beheld his spouse conducted to the temple. For he never saw a creature more holy and more beloved offering herself to him. Go, then, said St. Germanus, Archbishop of Constantinople, go, oh queen of the world, oh mother of God, go joyfully to the house of the Lord, to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit that will make thee mother of the eternal Word.
When the holy company had arrived at the temple, the eager child turned to her parents, kneeling kissed their hands, and asked for their benediction; and then, without turning back, she ascended the fifteen steps of the temple, as Arias Montanus relates upon the authority of Josephus, the Jewish historian, and presented herself to the priest, who, according to St. Germanus, was Zachary; then, taking leave of the world, and renouncing all the goods which it promises to its followers, she offered and consecrated herself to her Creator.
At the time of the deluge, the raven which was sent by Noe from the ark remained to feed upon the bodies of the dead, but the dove without stopping to rest her foot, returned quickly to the ark: “She returned to him into the ark.” Many who are sent by God into this world, unhappily stop to feed on earthly things. Not so Mary, our celestial dove; she knew that God should be our only good, our only hope, our only love; she knew that the world is full of dangers, and that he who the soonest leaves it, is freest from its snares; therefore she sought promptly to flee from it in her tenderest years, and seclude herself in the sacred retirement of the temple, where she could better hear the voice of God, and better honor and love him. And thus the holy Virgin, from the beginning of her life, rendered herself dear and acceptable to her Lord, as the holy Church makes her say: “Rejoice with me, all ye who love the Lord, for when I was little I pleased the Most High.” For this reason she was compared to the moon; for as the moon completes her course more quickly than the other planets, so Mary attained perfection sooner than all the saints, by giving herself promptly to God without delay; and entirely without reserve.
And now let us pass to the second point, upon which we shall have much to say.