Page:O'Donnell - Hail Holy Queen 04 - Why the Madonna?.djvu/4

 In the meanwhile, she was alone, praying to God for her Son's success, as all true mothers do. Word reached her of other miracles, and she was happy. She also heard of the wicked charges made against Him, and she was sad. But she knew her Son, and knew the charges to be false. Again she renewed her prayers that the truth might prevail. But when the inevitable occurred, she followed Him to Calvary and stood at the foot of His cross—the true mother, faithful to the end. Then, after the crucifixion and resurrection, she lived quietly with John patiently awaiting the day when her God and her Son would provide for her assumption into heaven where she would reign gloriously for all eternity.

As we reflect upon a life so selfless, so completely motivated by love of God, our worldly ambitions and strivings seem petty and shallow indeed. "From Mary we learn not to crucify love, but to cultivate it, and to let it crucify us with her Divine Son. In Mary, the mother of God and the mother of us all, the love of men is one with the love of God."

Now, let us return to Nazareth where Mary first received the Archangel Gabriel, and note the Archangel's salutation. He said, "Hail, full of grace." He did not compliment her on her rare personal beauty, although he might well have done so, for we are told that she was indeed beautiful, and that she had a smile of infinite sweetness. He referred instead to the spotless purity of her soul, to the inner beauty that comes from the possession of every virtue. This is the Virgin whom Solomon saw in a vision when he cried out: "Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array?" (Canticles 6:9). Mary was a living example of womanly charm. Her body was a temple of the living God, mantled in Christ's love.

In our day countless numbers of women still take Mary as their model, and pattern their lives after hers. They have true womanly charm and sweetness—from the wife and mother, queen in her home, rearing God-fearing children, to the devoted nuns hidden away from the world that they may be hid in Christ. But in our day, too, there is a kind of lunatic fringe that has reverted to a completely pagan concept of woman and her physical charms, a concept that does not take into account her holy _____