MARY, OUR MOTHER

Meditation 35

THE MAGNIFICAT

1. Because He whose Name is Holy has wrought for me His Wonders.

How badly we misunderstand humility! We think it consists in loudly speaking ill of ourselves, in not acknowledging anything good in anything we do, in not seeing the graces God bestows on us. Humility is far from that.

Just listen to Mary. All generations will call Me blessed. The Almighty has wrought His wonders for Me. And yet these are expressions of humility. Do not forget that humility is truth, simplicity, sincerity. Acknowledge whatever good is in you not to praise yourself for it, since this would be pride, but to acknowledge the immense and magnificent work of God operated in your heart, in order to praise Him the more, in order to correspond to His grace the better, in order to love Him with greater fervor and enthusiasm every day, as a natural outcome of your gratitude. What was Mary hinting at when She said that God had wrought wonders in Her? Of what was She thinking when She uttered these words? Try to find out by going over the favors and gifts She had received from God.

Think of Her predestination from eternity. Think how pleasant and sweet was the thought of Mary in the Divine Mind. Think of the ineffable privilege of Her Immaculate Conception. Think of all the infinite graces inherent in it. The list of these graces would pass through Her memory when intoning the Magnificat. She would recall all the wonders which God wished to place in her heart. She would recall the salutation of the Angel, the mystery of the Incarnation. She would be struck by that miracle of miracles, that She, a creature, a handmaid of the Lord should be at the same time really and truly the Mother of Her God. Then She would realize how God in order to put His plan into execution, had done something great and unknown to both Heaven and earth, namely, that She should be a Mother without ceasing to be a Virgin. At the sight of all this, and burdened by the realisation of all these wonders, She exclaims with all fervor: "He has wrought for me His wonders."

Do you now see the point? Everything is attributed to the power of God, to the immensity, to the sanctity of God, to His Holy Name. God with His sanctity and bounty and infinite mercy decreed all, it was His infinite power that achieved all.

Now apply these same words to your own soul. Cannot you see that great things have also been done in you by the bounteous power of God? Is it not because of His bounty that God should have so tenderly and lovingly and without and merits on your part heaped so many graces on you? Recall too how, from your birth up to this very day, the Lord has gone on forgiving your sins, taking you from the abyss of misery into which you had fallen, carrying you into an abyss of grace. Acknowledge it. This is not pride. Praise Him as Mary did. Bless His power. Extol His bounty. Lovingly adore His Holy Name.

[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]