Part ten, Chapter VIII: "his Mercy is from Generation Unto Genera: Tion, to Them That Fear Him"

"his Mercy is from Generation Unto Genera

Tion, to Them That Fear Him"

WE COME now to the second part of our divine canticle, the true canticle of the most holy Heart of the Mother of tender love, and a very precious relic of her immaculate Heart.

Having magnified God for the infinite favors bestowed upon her and having made this admirable prophecy, "All generations shall call me blessed," which includes a world of wonders which the Almighty has wrought and will continue to accomplish for all time and eternity to render this Virgin Mother glorious and venerable throughout the universe, she makes yet another prophecy that vibrates with rich comfort for all mankind, particularly for those who fear God. In it our peerless Mary affirms to us that the mercy of God extends from generation to generation to all those who fear Him: "And his mercy is from generation unto generation, to them that fear him." What is this mercy? "It is our most bountiful Saviour," explains St. Augustine.(1) The eternal Father is called the Father of Mercy, because He is the Father of the Word Incarnate who i s uncreated mercy itself. It is this mercy which the royal prophet David begged God, in the name of the whole human race, to send into the world through the mystery of the Incarnation, when he prayed: Show us, 0 Lord, Thy mercy, and grant us Thy salvation. (2) The Word Incarnate is all love and charity; therefore He must be all mercy. God is naturally and essentially allmerciful, says St. Jerome, and always ready to save by His clemency those whom He cannot save according to His justice. But we are so wretched and so inimical to ourselves that when mercy is offered to us for our salvation, we turn our backs on it in scorn.

It is through the Incarnation that the Son of God exercised His mercy on our behalf, and His great mercy, according to these words of the (1). Exposit. Sup. Magnif. (2). Ps. 84. 8.

Prince of the Apostles: "According to his great mercy (He) hath regenerated us."(3) All the effects of the mercy which our Saviour has wrought in men from the beginning of the world up to this moment, and will continue to produce for all eternity, have proceeded and will proceed from the adorable mystery of His Incarnation, as from their source and primary origin. That is why David, in asking pardon for his sins, prays in this fashion: "Have mercy on me, 0 God, according to thy great mercy." (4)

Three elements are necessary for mercy: the first is that it takes pity on the miseries of others, for he is merciful who bears in his heart, through compassion, the miseries of the wretched; the second, that it possess the greatest will to help the outcast in their miseries; the third, that i t pass from thought and will into effect. Now our most benign Redeemer became man that He might manifest His great mercy. First of all, having become man and assumed a body and a heart capable of suffering and sorrow, like ours, Our Lord was so filled with pity at the sight of our troubles and rendered so sad by carrying them in His Heart that no words can express his suffering because on one hand, He bore an infinite love for us, like the very best father for his children, and on the other hand He kept constantly before His eyes all the misfortunes of body and spirit, all the anguish, tribulations, martyrdoms and torments which all His children would have to endure until the end of the world. His most tender and loving Heart would have caused Him countless deaths had not His love, stronger than death itself, preserved His human life so that He might sacrifice it on the cross for our sake.

Secondly, all our tribulations were present to our most merciful Saviour at the very first moment of His life, and He resolved so firmly, ardently and steadfastly at that time to help us free ourselves from them and He so faithfully preserved this intention in His heart from the first to the last instant of His life, that all the most atrocious cruelties and tortures that wretched men, to whom Christ was so wonderfully good, caused Him to suffer while He was on earth, as well as all His prescience of the ingratitude, outrages and crimes with which we would repay His adorable mercy, were not capable of cooling even slightly the ardor and strength of His will to show mercy to mankind.

Thirdly, what did He not do and suffer in order to deliver us effectively. from all the temporal and eternal miseries into which our sins had plunged us? All the actions of His life-of a life of thirty-four years, of (3). I Pet. 1, 3. (4). Ps. 50, 3

a life divinely human and humanly divine-all the virtues that He practised, all His steps and travels here on earth, all the labors that He endured, all the humiliations, privations and mortifications that He underwent, all His fasts, vigils, prayers and sermons, all His sufferings, wounds and sorrows, His most cruel and shameful death, His precious blood shed to the last drop-were not all these things, I repeat, employed not only to rid us of every kind of evil, but also to grant us possession Of an eternal empire, filled with an immensity of glory, grandeur, joy, felicity, and inconceivable and inexpressible blessings? 0 bounty! 0 love! 0 superabundance! 0 incomprehensible and inexplicable mercy to my Saviour, how well indeed art Thou called the God of Mercy! 0 human heart, how frightful is thy hardness and stupidity if thou dost not love this God of love! Oh, what shalt thou love if thou dost not love Him Who has so much love and kindness for thee?

But what is the meaning of the following phrase: "From generation unto generations, to them that fear Him?" According to the explanation of holy Doctors, these words mean that, since our Saviour was made flesh and died for all men, He also pours the treasures of His mercy upon all those who do not oppose but rather fear Him. Being the inexhaustible fountain of grace and mercies, God also derives a sovereign pleasure from bestowing them continually upon His children, everywhere and at all times. Although, according to St. Bernard, divine Mercy is equally shared by the Three Divine Persons, together with all the other divine attributes, it is nevertheless attributed particularly to the person of the Son, as power is to the Father and bounty to the Holy Spirit. It i s particularly the Incarnate Word who, through His great mercy, delivered us from the tyranny of sin, from the power of the devil, from eternal death, from the torments of hell and infinity of evils and miseries, Rod acquired for us, at the cost of His Precious blood and His Divine life, the same eternal empire which His Eternal Father had given to Him.

But Our Lord did not will to accomplish this great work by Himself. In addition to doing all things in union with the Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost, Christ also willed to associate His most holy Mother with Him in the great work of His mercy. "It is not good for man to be alone,"(5) mid God when He willed to give the first woman to the first man; "let us make him a helpmate like unto himself." So also does the new Man, who is Jesus Christ, choose to have a helpmate in Mary, and the eternal Father gives the Blessed Mother to the Beloved Son to assist Him and cooperate with Him i n the great work of the salvation of the world, which is the work of His great mercy. (5). Gen. 2, 18.

When St. Catherine of Siena was in Rome, she pronounced several magnificent eulogies i n honor of the Mother of God on the feast of the Annunciation in 1379-eulogies motivated and inspired by the Holy Spirit-of which these four invocations are most worthy: "0 Mary, Bearer of Fire! 0 Mary, Peaceful Ocean! 0 Mary, Fiery Chariot! 0 Mary, Administrator of Mercy!" Mary is called "Bearer of Fire" because she carried in her virginal body Him who is all - enkindled with love and charity toward mankind, who mid that He came to bring fire to the earth, and proclaimed that His greatest desire was to inflame all hearts with love. (6)

Mary is called a "Peaceful Ocean" because she is an immense sea of grace, virtue and perfection, an ocean that is always calm and peaceful, that sustains and transports everyone to the port of eternal salvation without trouble or difficulty.

Mary is a "Fiery Chariot" completely inflamed with love, charity, goodness and meekness on behalf of true Israelites . . . "the Chariot of Israel," (7) that is, of the true children (of God); but she is equally as terrifying to all the demons as she is meek and kind to men. Whoever honors, loves, serves and invokes Mary with humility and confidence will ascend to paradise in a fiery chariot.

She is the "Administrator of Mercy" because God has endowed her with extraordinary goodness, meekness, generosity and kindness, with unparalleled power, that she may desire and be capable of helping, protesting, sustaining and comforting all the afflicted, the miserable, and those who have recourse to her in their needs and necessities.

Mary does this continually with regard to individuals, kingdoms, provinces. , cities, houses and even the whole world, according to these words of one of the holiest and most learned Fathers of the Church, St. Fulgentius, who lived almost twelve centuries ago. "Heaven and earth," he says, "would long since have been reduced to the nothingness out of which they were created, had not the prayers of Mary sustained them." These words must be understood to include not only the firmament but also the other skies which contain the sun, the stars and the moon." (8)

Let us, then, acknowledge and honor the Mother of the Saviour as the Mother of Mercy, with whom her beloved Son willed to share His great mercy to associate her in the works of His clemency and benignity. Infinite and eternal thanks he rendered to Thee for this partnership! 0 my (6). Luke 12, 49. (7). 4 Kings 2, 12. (8). Caelum et terra jamdudum ruissent, si Maria precibus non sustentasset. Mythologia, lib. 4.

Saviour! 0 Mother of Mercy, may all the angels, saints and creatures for ever sing the mercy of Thy Son Jesus and His Divine Mother! "The mercies of the Lord I will sing forever." (9) "Iet the mercies of the Lord give glory to him: and his wonderful works to the children of men." (10) (9). Ps. 88, 2. (10). Ps. 106, 8. 306-