“OUR Lord’s word effected what it said. It made her the Mother of men therefore, not merely by an outward official proclamation, but in the reality of her heart. He opened up there new fountains of inexhaustible love. He caused Her to love men as He loved them, as nearly as her heart could come to His. He as it were multiplied Himself in the souls of sinners millions of millions of times, and gave her love enough for all. And such love! so constant, so burning, so eloquent, so far above all earthly maternal love both in hopefulness, tenderness, and perseverance! And what was this new love but a new power of sorrow? We cannot rightly understand Mary’s sorrow at the Crucifixion under any circumstances, simply because it is above us. But we shall altogether miss of those just conceptions, which we may attain to, unless we bear in mind that she became our Mother at the foot of the Cross, not merely by a declaration of her appointment, but by a veritable creation through the effectual word of God, which at the moment enlarged her broken heart, and fitted it with new and ample affections, causing thereby an immeasurable increase of her pains. It was truly in labour that she travailed with us, when we came to the birth. The bitterness of Eve’s curse environed her spotless soul unutterably in that hour of our spiritual nativity.”
— — The Foot of the Cross, Frederick William Faber, D.D.
— Comments —
Kathy G. writes:
One of the most wonderful things about Catholicism is the understanding of the honored place of Mary. It is literally painful hearing Protestants dismiss the Mother of God as basically some kind of birth surrogate and average housewife, sinning and bearing children, so unholy that Jesus “rebuked” her and called her “woman”! They become so angry at the title Mother of God, and go through all manner of mental gymnastics to deny the Truth of it, and of her role as the Ark of the New Covenant. Things which should fill them with joy, they toss in the figurative mud. Sola Scriptura and personal Bible interpretation has been such a disaster, I can almost agree with the old practice of not allowing the people to read the Bible for themselves. There are millions of self-styled popes out there, who exult in their not needing a “middle man” and a having a direct pipeline to the mind of God.
Laura writes:
They are poorly instructed.
