Vigils Reading – Memorial of the BVM

OF MARY’S CHARITY TOWARDS HER NEIGHBOUR

By St Alphonsus de Liguori7

◊◊◊

Love towards God and love towards our neighbour are commanded by the

same precept: “And this commandment we have from God, that he who loveth

God love also his brother.” Saint Thomas says that the reason for this is, that he

who loves God loves all that God loves. Saint Catherine of Genoa one day said,

‘Lord, Thou willest that I should love my neighbour, and I can love none but

Thee.’ God answered her in these words: All who love Me love what I love.” But

as there never was, and never will be, any one who loved God as much as Mary

loved Him, so there never was, and never will be, any one who loved her

neighbour as much as she did…

For Christ, who is love itself, inspired the Blessed Virgin with charity in

its highest degree, that she might succour all who had recourse to her. So great

was Mary’s charity when on earth… as was the case at the marriage-feast of

Cana, when she told her Son that family’s distress: “They have no wine,” and

asked Him to work a miracle. O, with what speed did she fly when there was

question of relieving her neighbour! When she went to the house of Elizabeth

to fulfil an office of charity, “she went into the hill-country with haste.” She

could not, however, more fully display the greatness of her charity than she did

in the offering which she made of her Son to death for our salvation. On this

subject Saint Bonaventure says,

‘Mary so loved the world as to give her only-

begotten Son.’ Hence Saint Anselm exclaims, ‘O blessed amongst women, thy

purity surpasses that of the angels, and thy compassion that of the Saints!’

Great was the mercy of Mary towards the wretched when she was still in

exile on earth; but far greater is it now that she reigns in heaven. Saint Agnes

assured Saint Bridget that there was no one who prayed without receiving

graces through the charity of the Blessed Virgin. Unfortunate, indeed, should

we be, did not Mary intercede for us! Jesus Himself, addressing the same Saint,

said,

‘Were it not for the prayers of My Mother, there would be no hope of

mercy.’ Blessed is he, says the Divine Mother, who listens to my instructions,

pays attention to my charity, and, in imitation of me, exercises it himself

towards others: “Blessed is the man that heareth me, and that watcheth daily at

my gates, and waiteth at the posts of my doors.

”

Saint Gregory Nazianzen assures us that ‘there is nothing by which we can

with greater certainty gain the affection of Mary than by charity towards our

neighbour. Therefore, as God exhorts us, saying, “Be ye merciful, as your Father

also is merciful,” so also does Mary seem to say to all her children, ‘Be ye

merciful, as your Mother also is merciful.’ It is certain that our charity towards

our neighbour will be the measure of that which God and Mary will show us:

“Give, and it shall be given to you. For with the same measure that you shall

mete withal, it shall be measured to you again.

” Saint Methodius used to

say,

‘Give to the poor, and receive paradise.’ For the apostle writes, that

charity…

“is profitable to all things, having promise of the life that now is, and

of that which is to come.

”

O Mother of Mercy, thou art full of charity for all; forget not my miseries;

thou seest them full well. Recommend me to God, who denies thee nothing.

Obtain me the grace to imitate thee in holy charity, as well towards God as

towards my neighbour.

 

7 St Alphonsus de Liguori. The Glories of Mary. Rockford, IL: TAN Books, 1982. 477-480.15