Blessed Mary, Ever Virgin—and Refuge of Sinners

As we focus on Lent and conversion, we are called to admit we are sinners. In the old Confiteor, right after acknowledging our sins to God, we do so “to blessed Mary, ever Virgin.”

It might seem odd that we invoke Our Lady, who was, after all, sinless. That’s what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, defined in 1854 by Pope Piux IX in Ineffabilis Deus, affirms:

We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful (Ineffabilis Deus).

Mary is sinless not because she is divine but because of Jesus; she already benefits from the salvation, the graces he won for us. Mary is the preeminent beneficiary of that salvation.

And, as such, she wants to share that salvation with us. Those who truly understand and love the good want to share it with others. Like Jesus, she wants to support us on our way by bringing us to her Son.

Our Lady was and is not divine. She was and is a normal human being. Please pay attention to that statement: a normal human being. And, as such, she shows us– hanks to God’s special grace–what normal human beings were supposed to be like—should have been like—but for sin.

We are sinners, but sin is not the normal human condition. It’s not the way human beings were supposed to be nor made by God to be. The only thing “normal” about sin is that it is statistical: but for Jesus and Mary, all other human beings are sinners. But that doesn’t make them “normal” and make Jesus and Mary “abnormal”.

Let’s draw another example: human beings experience death as a painful rending of body and soul because of sin. Jesus accepted such a death not because He deserved it, but He willed it “for us and for our salvation.” Mary’s passing from this life—the Assumption—is so qualitatively different from what “normal” human beings experience that the Pope who defined that dogma wouldn’t even speak of her “dying” but of her “falling asleep,” of her transition to a new kind of life. But even the statistical frequency of how human beings experience death as painful and frightening, at least in some measure, does not make it “normal” for, as the Bible reminds us, “God did not make death” (Wis1:13).

Our Lady, therefore, is a model to us of what we were supposed to be. And we are all called “to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Col 1:22). Mary reminds us of what, with God’s grace, humanity could become had the First Eve not chosen sin.

But Our Lady is more than an example for our imitation. She is actively involved with us. As He hung dying, Jesus entrusted His Mother, through St. John, to us, “Behold your Mother! Woman, behold your Son!” (Jn 19:26-27). Since then, Our Lady has been thoroughly engaged in the application of the work of her Son to us. We Catholics know this truth about our Heavenly Mother from our own earthly mother’s knee: one of the first prayers we probably were taught as a child was the Hail Mary, which concludes with the plea we have been making for most of our lives: “pray for us, sinners ….” And it is not a plea Our Lady refuses.

Indeed, it’s one she repeats. The call to penance and conversion is a staple element of Marian apparitions, including modern ones. The call to turn from sin and to her Son figures in La Salette, Lourdes, Giertzwald, and Fatima.

Finally, let us remember that among the titles given to Our Lady is “refuge of sinners.” It speaks to our Lady’s role in promoting our salvation. Exorcists say that the most powerful saint in any exorcism is the Blessed Mother, she whom the devils hate and flee, not just because her fiat! stands in such stark contrast to their non serviam! (and its consequences). It is because, as part of God’s plan from the very beginning of creation, that little Jewish girl and her offspring were they who were engaged in mutual enmity with and crushing of the serpent (Gen 3:15). That ancient promise was not something abstract; its realization is met in your life and mine. And, in that regard, we have a “refuge of sinners” to whom to flee with assurance.

Finally, let us draw one last parallel with Jesus. Jesus was sinless yet, as the Letter to the Hebrews assures us, that fact does not alienate Him from us: “…we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin” (Heb 4:15). Jesus understands our temptations, so as to “empathize with our weaknesses.”

And Mary, whose unity with her Son and His mission to save humanity, also therefore wants to draw close to us. She does so not do so because we are sinners but because, like her Son, she wants us to be saved from our sins. Like a mother who stays with her sick child, she wants us to spit out the spiritual poison and to recover the health of God’s grace. A mother does not abandon her who is ill but does everything she can to bring him back to health. So, too, does our Mother, the “Refuge of Sinners.”