O, Gracious Advocate

The following is an excerpt from the great Marian classic "The Glories of Mary" by the Marian doctor of the Church, St. Alphonsus de Liguori. Mary, "O, Gracious Advocate" is the first in a three part series dedicated to this important doctrinal role of Our Lady as advocate for all humanity.

- Ed.

Section I. Mary is an Advocate who is able to save all.

So great is the authority that mothers possess over their sons, that even if they are monarchs, and have absolute dominion over every person in their kingdom, yet never can mothers become the subjects of their sons. And here we say, that although Mary, now in heaven, can no longer command her Son, nevertheless her prayers are always the prayers of a Mother, and consequently most powerful to obtain whatever she asks. ' Mary,' says Saint Bonaventure, ' has this great privilege, that with her Son she above all the Saints is most powerful to obtain whatever she wills.' ¹ And why? Precisely for the reason on which we have already touched, and which we shall later on again exa­mine at greater length, because they are the prayers of a mother. And therefore, says Saint Peter Damian, the Blessed Virgin can do whatever she pleases both in heaven and on earth. She is able to raise even those who are in despair to confidence; and he addresses her in these words: ' All power is given to thee in heaven and on earth, and nothing is impossible to thee, who canst raise those who are in despair to the hope of salvation.' ² And then he adds that ' when the Mother goes to seek a favour for us from Jesus Christ' (whom the Saint calls the golden altar of mercy, at which sinners obtain pardon), ' her Son esteems her prayers so greatly, and is so desirous to satisfy her, that when she prays, it seems as if she rather commanded than prayed, and was rather a queen than a handmaid.' ³ Jesus is pleased thus to honour His beloved Mother, who hon­oured Him so much during her life, by immediately granting all that she asks or desires. This is beauti­fully confirmed by Saint Germanus, who addressing our Blessed Lady says : ' Thou art the Mother of God, and all-powerful to save sinners, and with God thou needest no other recommendation; for thou art the Mother of true life.' ⁴

'At the command of Mary, all obey, even God.' Saint Bernardino fears not to utter this sentence; mean­ing, indeed, to say that God grants the prayers of Mary as if they were commands. ⁵ And hence Saint Anselm addressing Mary says : ' Our Lord, O most holy Virgin, has exalted thee to such a degree, that by His favour all things that are possible to Him should be possible to thee.' ⁶ ' For thy protection is omnipotent, O Mary,' says Cosmas of Jerusalem. ⁷ ' Yes, Mary is omnipo­tent,' repeats Richard of Saint Lawrence; ' for the queen by every law enjoys the same privileges as the king. And as,' he adds, ' the power of the son and that of the mother is the same, a mother is made omnipotent by an omnipotent son.' ⁸ ' And thus,' says Saint Antoninus, ' God has placed the whole Church, not only under the patronage, but even under the dominion of Mary.' ⁹

Since the Mother, then, should have the same power as the Son, rightly has Jesus, who is omnipotent, made Mary also omnipotent; though, of course, it is always true that where the Son is omnipotent by nature, the Mother is only so by grace. But that she is so is evi­dent from the fact, that whatever the Mother asks for, the Son never denies her; and this was revealed to Saint Bridget, ¹⁰ who one day heard Jesus talking with Mary, and thus address her: ' Ask of Me what thou wilt, for no petition of thine can be void.' As if He had said, ' My Mother, thou knowest how much I love thee; therefore ask all that thou wilt of Me; for it is not possible that I should refuse thee anything.' And the reason that He gave for this was beautiful: 'Be­cause thou never didst deny Me anything on earth, I will deny thee nothing in heaven.' ¹¹ My Mother, when thou wast in the world, thou never didst refuse to do anything for the love of Me; and now that I am in heaven, it is right that I should deny thee nothing that thou askest. Mary, then, is called omnipotent in the sense in which it can be understood of a creature who is incapable of a divine attribute. She is omnipotent, because by her prayers she obtains whatever she wills.

"With good reason, then, O great Advocate, does Saint Bernard say, ' thou wiliest, and all things are done.' ¹² And Saint Anselm : ' Whatever thou, O Virgin, wiliest can never be otherwise than accomplished.' ¹³ Thou willest, and all is done. If thou art pleased to raise a sinner from the lowest abyss of misery to the highest degree of sanctity, thou canst do it. Blessed Albert the Great, on this subject, makes Mary say: ' I have to be asked that I may will; for if I will a thing, it is necessarily done.' ¹⁴ And thus Saint Peter Damian, re­flecting on the great power of Mary, and begging her to take compassion on us, addresses her, saying: ' O, let thy nature move thee, let thy power move thee; for the more thou art powerful, the greater should thy mercy be.' ¹⁵ O Mary, our own beloved advocate, since thou hast so compassionate a heart, that thou canst not even see the wretched without being moved to pity; and since, at the same time, thou hast so great power with God, that thou canst save all whom thou dost protect,- disdain not to undertake the cause of us poor miserable creatures who place all our hope in thee. If our prayers cannot move thee, at least let thine own benign heart do so; or, at least, let thy power do so, since God has enriched thee with such great power, in order that the richer thou art in power to help us, the more merciful thou mayest be in the will to assist us. But St. Ber­nard reassures us on this point; for he says that Mary is as immensely rich in mercy as she is in power; and that, as her charity is most powerful, so also it is most clement and compassionate, and its effects continually prove it to be so. He thus expresses himself: ' The most powerful and merciful charity of the Mother of God abounds in tender compassion and in effectual suc­cour: it is equally rich in both.' ¹⁶

From the time that Mary came into the world, her only thought, after seeking the glory of God, was to succour the miserable. And even then she enjoyed the privilege of obtaining whatever she asked. This we know from what occurred at the marriage feast of Cana in Galilee. When the wine failed, the most Blessed Virgin, being moved to compassion at the sight of the affliction and shame of the bride and bridegroom, asked her Son to relieve it by a miracle, telling Him that " they had no wine." Jesus answered: "Woman, what is that to thee and Me? My hour is not yet come." ¹⁷ And here remark, that although our Lord seemed to refuse His Mother the favour she asked, and said, What is it to thee, O woman, and to Me, if the wine has failed ? This is not the time for Me to work a miracle; the time will be when I begin to preach, and when miracles will be required to confirm My doctrines. And yet Mary, as if the favour had already been granted, desired those in attendance to fill the jars with water, for they would be immediately satisfied. And so it was; for Jesus, to content His Mother, changed the water into the best wine. But how was this? As the time for working miracles was that of the public life of our Lord, how could it be that, contrary to the Divine decrees, this miracle was worked? No; in this there was nothing contrary to the decrees of God; for though, generally speaking, the time for miracles was not come, yet from all eternity God had determined by another decree that nothing that she asked should ever be refused to the Divine Mother. And therefore Mary, who well knew her privilege, although her Son seemed to have refused her the favour, yet told them to fill the jars with water, as if her request had already been granted. That is the sense in which Saint John Chrysostom understood it; for, explaining these words of our Lord, "Woman, what is it to thee and Me?' he says, that 'though Jesus answered thus, yet in honour of His Mother He obeyed her wish.' ¹⁸ This is confirmed by Saint Thomas, who says that by the words, " My hour is not yet come," Jesus Christ intended to show, that had the request come from any other, He would not then have complied with it; but because it was addressed to Him by His Mother, He could not refuse it. ¹⁹ Saint Cyril and Saint Jerome, quoted by Barradus, ²⁰ say the same thing. Also Gandavensis, on the above passage of Saint John, says, that ' to honour His Mother, our Lord anticipated the time for working miracles.' ²¹