The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 7 : § 4. 4-5

Chapter 7 : The Sixth Star or Splendour in the Crown of Excellence of the Mother of God

Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré's Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020)

That Mary is peerless in her graces and merits

§ 4. On the greatness of Mary’s merits

Two kinds of merit

 4   In the fourth place, it seems to me that condign merit[1] should not be restricted to actions which have in themselves a natural relationship with the reward granted. It ought to include, for example, merits which do not have this relationship by nature but which arise purely from the will that gives them such a value – provided that they have an equivalence, as we discussed earlier. The reason for this derives from the freedom that God and every other person has to place a value on a given action. It would be quite unreasonable to tie their hands so that a merit had to be given to one sort of action without any flexibility to grant the same reward to a different sort. This may be illustrated in the example I have already used : the King purely by his own will promises the diamond to someone who deserves it in the Ring Race, even though the only relationship between the diamond and the action of winning the race comes from the King’s good pleasure. He would be free to reward some other action with the same prize, provided only that it were worthy.

 5   Finally, we must remember that notwithstanding God’s promises and the equivalence of the good works we are able to offer in order to establish the strict application of justice, we have no way of doing without God’s generosity. In the succession of graces and good works there always has to be a first grace to set things in motion and be a lead for the other graces. The first grace is so far beyond our own powers that it must of necessity be considered as a pure gift and a grace freely given. This, however, in no way takes anything away from the grace that follows or from the requirement in justice of a reward. The holy Council of Orange clarifies this in concise and clear terms :

It is true that God owes a reward for the good works that we do : but it is also true that there is one grace which He does not owe, namely the grace that precedes these actions and so enables them to be performed.

Footnotes

[1] condign : 3.a. 1413–1683 Worthily deserved, merited, fitting, appropriate; adequate. Complete OED. con-dignus, a, um, adj., wholly deserving, very worthy, LewisShort. For explanation, see Cap. 7 § 4. On the greatness of Mary’s merits. 

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

© Peter Bloor 2024