Mary was raised incomparably higher than all angels and saints
2 min • Digitized on September 10, 2021
From The Glories of Mary, page 505
By St. Alphonsus Liguori
Second Point.—If the human mind, says St. Bernard, cannot attain to comprehend the immense glory which God has prepared in heaven for those who have loved him on earth, as the apostle declares, who will ever attain to comprehend what he has prepared for her who bore him?
What glory did he prepare for his beloved mother, [she] who on earth loved [him] more than all men; who, even from the first moment of her creation, loved [him] more than all men and angels united!
Justly, then, does the holy Church sing that Mary having loved God more than all the angels, she has been exalted above all the angels, in heaven.
Yes, she was exalted, says William the Abbot, above the angels, so that she sees no one above her but her Son, who is the only begotten Son of God.
Hence the learned Gerson asserts, that all the orders of angels and of saints being divided into three hierarchies, as the angelic Doctor declares, and St. Dionysius also, Mary constitutes in heaven a hierarchy of herself, the most sublime of all, and next to God.
And as the mistress, St. Antoninus adds, is incomparably above her servants, so is the glory of Mary incomparably greater than that of the angels.
And in order to understand this, it is enough to know what David said, that this queen was seated at the right hand of the Son: The queen stood on thy right hand. Which St. Athanasius exactly explained by saying: Mary is placed at the right hand of God.