The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 8 : § 1. 15-16

Chapter 8 : The Seventh 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)

Mary’s soul was unique in being totally free of any sin

§ 1. The MOTHER OF GOD was exempt from original sin

The third proof, drawn from the nature of original sin

 15   Now that we have considered this imagery (of original sin) and the meaning of its symbolism, I pray dear Reader that you will come to a just conclusion in favour of the most sacred Virgin. Could you really imagine God would have allowed the Holy Mother’s soul to be possessed by a demon so furious as the one you have seen in the picture but whom you have not seen in reality? It is beyond my power to portray him as he really is.  

It is a truth confessed unanimously by the Holy Fathers and one for which all true children of the Church would be prepared to die : that Mary never committed a single, venial sin; this could not in any event have made her lose the good graces of God and her pre-eminent holiness, much less would it have made her subject to Satan’s tyranny. Could you really be persuaded that Mary contracted original sin which would have placed her in Hell’s servitude, made her worthy of the Creator’s wrath, would have rendered her a rogue and a vagabond and would in the end have condemned her to death, and to a death which is eternal?

For those who honour the MOTHER OF GOD, the very thought of how completely improper this would have been is enough to make their hearts tremble. Even if she were to have been restored to grace very quickly, she would always have been what I have just said : the beloved daughter of the Father, the Mother of the Son, the Spouse of the Holy Ghost, God’s Holy of Holies, the master-piece, the honour, the star of the world, the glory of Heaven and Earth.

Finally, to show you where this takes us, I should explain that learned and serious-minded Doctors[1] have found this so strange that they have had no hesitation in saying that if God were to have given Our Lady the choice of either being the MOTHER OF GOD or of being free from original sin, she would have set aside the latter gift despite its inestimable value and would have chosen to have God for her Son, so that she would never have had any part with Satan and would never have lived even for a single moment in God’s disfavour.

Footnotes

[1] Medina, Lib. de Oratione, q. 7, et Lib. de Poenitentia, q. 6 ; Antoninus Corduba, Lib. I q. Theo-log., q. 49.

 16   I honour the angelic Doctor from the bottom of my heart and with all my soul.  When I read the reasons he puts forward for supporting the Church’s conclusion that the MOTHER OF GOD was exempt from actual sin, I realized they apply even more powerfully to prove she had no part in original sin. His discussion of the subject includes four proofs. Here is the first[1]:

When God in His mercy chooses someone, He never fails to equip him with all that is necessary to achieve the result for which he was chosen. This is shown by the words of the Apostle[2], when he says: (Who) also hath made us fit ministers of the New Testament. Now the Blessed Virgin was chosen by the eternal God to be Mother of His Son. Accordingly, there can be no doubt that God made her in every way a worthy Mother of her Creator. But she would not have been worthy to be the Mother of God if she had ever sinned. First, because the honour of the parents reflects on the child, according to Solomon[3]: fathers and mothers are the glory of their children: and consequently, on the other hand, the Mother’s shame would have reflected on her Son.

Those are the words of St Thomas and either I am falling into error or it must be accepted that much more shame would have reflected on the Son of God if the Virgin had been stained by original sin. Now, in human laws there are crimes where a conviction does not affect the criminal’s children but there are also crimes where the reputation of the offspring is blackened, such as lèse-Majesté, heresy and such like. This is also the case in God’s law, so that in the case of actual sin (even if it is mortal), the son shall not bear the iniquity of his father[4]. It is, however, different in the case of original sin for there the malice is such that it passes down from father to son in such a way that no sooner does the father communicate nature to his son than the latter receives the shame and opprobrium of this sin. 

This led St Ildephonsus[5] to say that if the MOTHER OF GOD had bot been sanctified from the beginning, then her flesh would have been a sinner’s flesh and, as such, her Son Himself would not have been free from sin for He would have been united to sinful flesh. We should however show wisdom and great circumspection when considering this Saint’s opinion. He does not mean to say in absolute terms that if the MOTHER OF GOD had been stained by original sin then her Son would have partaken of it. The Son's own extraordinary birth exempted Him more than enough to avoid such a consequence, for His Divinity would have sanctified Him to the exclusion of all sin, even if His Mother had not done so. What  the Saint is actually saying is that it was reasonable not only for the Saviour to have been exempt by virtue of these two reasons but also for the transmission of sin that passes from father to son to have been halted in the person of His Mother. A long time before His own conception, His Mother’s sinlessness had in this way served as a barrier so that this original sin was not passed onwards. Accordingly, there could never be any doubt of Her Son’s innocence.

Footnotes

[1] III p., q. 27, art. 4.

[2] II Cor. iii.

[3] Prov. xvii. 6. 

[4] Ezech. xviii. 20.

[5] Lib. de Virginitate B. Mariæ.

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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