“And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women” (King James Bible, Luke 1:28)

Highly favoured indeed, for Our Lady had been created by God to fulfil the most sublime task that has ever been entrusted – or indeed could ever be entrusted to a human being – to be the Mother of his Divine Son, to be the Mother of God.

As her office was unique so also was her preparation for it.  At the first moment of her creation she was exempted and preserved from every trace of that sinful taint which is our unhappy human heritage.  By that miraculous intervention of God, Our Blessed Lord was enabled to be born of one who was all pure and all fair.  Thus the spotless Creator was born of the spotless Virgin.

And for that reason, the two of them – Mary, brought into the world for Jesus; and Jesus, brought into the world by Mary – the two of them must always have been inseparable.

It was so at Nazareth.  The Immaculate Mary alone was qualified to teach and train the Divine Child in his most impressionable and tender years.  And she alone, in the whole of this sinful world, by virtue of her unsullied sanctity, could provide him as he grew up with a human companionship that was never clouded by human sin.

That is why there existed a perfect understanding between them such as he enjoyed with no one else.  Indeed it was this bond of holiness which made Mother and Son truly One.

And as they were inseparable at Nazareth, so also were they on Calvary.

“At the cross her station keeping,
stood the mournful mother weeping,
close to Jesus at the last…” (1)

That scene has been the subject of many a famous and inspired painting – Our Lady sharing Our Lord’s last hour as she had shared his first.

And when he was dead and she laid his lifeless body in the tomb it was as though part of her very self had gone.  And that sense of loss must have persisted in a measure after his Resurrection and Ascension.  For she and he were so closely linked, not only in God’s sublime plan for the salvation of mankind but also in human companionship, that life without his visible Presence could not fail to be incomplete.

But the parting was not for long.  Within a few years she died and was taken up body and soul to Heaven to be reunited with her Son.  And there they are at this very moment together, the Mother and her Son, inseparable for evermore.  In the words of the hymn:

“Heaven with transcendent joys her entrance graced,
next to his throne her Son his Mother placed;
and here below, now she's of heaven possessed,
all generations are to call her blessed”. (2)

And there with Our Lord she actively shares in his love and care both for his Church and for the welfare of all its members.  How could she do otherwise?  For, as the Saviour’s Mother, she by Divine Providence and by her own deliberate choice, played a unique and essential part in the work of our salvation.

So her thoughts are turned upon the Church and her prayers are offered for it.  It could not be otherwise.  And that relationship which exists now in Heaven between Jesus and Mary sets the pattern for us to imitate in our attitude to them on earth.

Since Jesus and Mary are inseparables, we must treat them so.  It is a great error to separate in one’s mind and devotional life what can never be separated in reality.  Rather we should acknowledge and celebrate all that Our Lady is and does, with special celebrations in those parish churches which bear her name and are so entrusted to her patronage and therefore to her prayers.

It is as wrong to ignore the Lady of ladies now that she is in Heaven, as it would have been to ignore her when she was living with her Son in Nazareth.  Such an attitude is a slight, however unintentional, upon her Son who by the love and honour he bestows upon her, sets us all the perfect example of how she should be treated.  We are, of course, not talking about giving to Mary the worship which is due to God alone.  We talking about honouring her as the Mother of Jesus, our Most merciful Redeemer, our Friend and Brother.

But we may be thankful that, in England, her rightful place is being restored and the neglect of past generations atoned for.  A token of this is the flourishing Anglican Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham – a truly holy place of pilgrimage.

One thing we know: when we have recourse to her for her assistance, we always have the assurance that our voice is heard and that her prayers go out at once to God on our behalf, the true Mother praying for her children.

And that is an additional incentive for us to pay her our love and devotion.  For in so doing, not only do we give to her holiness the recognition that is rightly due, and not only do we fulfil Our Lord’s will by following his own example, but we also express our personal gratitude to her for all she has done and still does for us.

References

1. Thirteenth century Latin, trans. various.  At the Cross her station keeping. Available from http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/a/a383.html  (Accessed 15 August 2015) (Internet).

2. Ken, T. (1637-1711) Her Virgin eyes saw God incarnate born.  Available from: http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/h/h203.html  (Accessed 17 August 2015) (Internet)