The Mother of God, more for Sinners than for the Just
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
Throughout all history, the Blessed Mother has been the link between two contraries: the eternal punishment of hell for sinners and the universal, unlimited, Redemption of Her Divine Son. These extremes cannot be reconciled except by mercy.
Not that Mary pardons – for she cannot – but she intercedes as a mother does in the face of the justice of the father. Without justice, mercy would be indifference to wrong: without mercy, justice would be vindicative. Mothers obtain pardon and forgiveness for their sons without ever giving them the feeling of “being let off”. Justice makes the wrongdoer see the injustice in the violation of a law; mercy makes him see it in the sufferings and misery he caused those who love him deeply.
An evil man who is let off will probably commit the same sin again, but there is no son saved from punishment by his mother’s tears who did not resolve never to sin again. Thus, mercy in a mother is never separated from a sense of justice. The blow may not fall but the effect is the same as if it had.
What mysterious power is it that a mother has over a son that, when he confesses his guilt, she strives to minimize it, even when it shocks her heart at the perversity of the revelation? The impure are rarely tolerant of the pure, but only the pure can understand the impure. The more saintly the soul of a confessor, the less he dwells on the gravity of the offence, and the more on the love of the offender.
Goodness always lifts the burden of conscience, and it never throws a stone to add to its weight. There are many sheaves in the field which the priests and sisters and the faithful are unable to gather in. It is Mary’s role to follow these reapers to gather the sinners in. As Nathaniel Hawthorne said: “I have always envied the Catholics that sweet, sacred, Virgin Mother who stands between them and the Deity, intercepting somewhat His awful splendor, but permitting His love to stream on the worshipper more intelligibly to human comprehension through the medium of a woman’s tenderness.”
Mary will assist us if we but call upon her. There is not a single unhappy soul or sinner in the world who calls upon Mary who is left without mercy. Anyone who invokes her will have the wounds of his soul healed. Sin is a crime of lese-majeste; but the Blessed Mother is the refuge. St Anselm said that she “was made the Mother of God more for sinners than for the just” -which could hardly be doubted, since Our Lord Himself said that He came not to save the just, but to call sinners to repent.
St Ephrem calls the Blessed Mother the “charter of freedom from sin”, and even dubs her the protectress of those who are on their way to damnation: Patroncinatrix damnatorum. Saint Augustine said of her: “What all the other saints, can do with your help, you alone can do without them.”
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