In the third part of the Summa Theologiae,
St. Thomas offers a detailed study of the life of Christ.
Along the way, he treats of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
After all, Mary is the mother of Jesus.
She is there with him one way or another throughout his whole life.
Anyone who wants to know Jesus Christ in detail, therefore, spends time with Mary.
In addition to the Summa, St. Thomas also discussed Mary in his short commentary on
the Angelic Salutation, or the words of the Angel Gabriel to Mary narrated in the gospel
of Luke: "Hail, full of grace.
The Lord is with thee."
Who is this woman who bore the Savior of our
race and stood by the foot of His cross?
In answer to that question, St. Thomas follows Scripture and the tradition of the Fathers
of the Church.
Who is Mary?
The Angel Gabriel calls her full of grace.
St. Thomas points out that the angel did not say, "Hail Mary, full of grace."
Rather, the angel says, "Hail, full of grace," and uses that expression, full of grace, as
her name.
Now in Scripture, names mean a lot.
Names sum up a person's whole identity.
Who is Mary?
Full of grace is her very name, and St. Thomas teaches that these words mean that already,
before the Angel's announcement, she lived in a special abundance of grace.
"She enjoyed grace to a most perfect degree," St. Thomas says.
She excelled in all the virtues and gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Following the Fathers of the Church, St. Thomas taught that such an abundance of grace preserved
her from all personal sin.
What is more, through her, effects of grace overflow upon all human beings.
Now, why did God give Mary such an abundance
of grace?
St. Thomas answers with a principle.
God never gives someone a mission without also giving that person the grace to fulfill
it.
Now, God gave Mary a special and unique mission: to be the mother of God.
That is why God gave her such an abundance of grace, to fulfill her mission to conceive
and bear and raise the eternal Son of God in the flesh.
In his study of Mary, St. Thomas discusses
further qualities, or titles, of Mary.
Mary was a virgin before, during, and after the birth of Christ, a perpetual virgin.
In one article, St. Thomas raises and answers all the objections people have raised to that
teaching on the basis of Scripture.
Then he explains how her marriage to St. Joseph was a true marriage, even though she remained
a virgin.
Another teaching is that Mary was assumed bodily into heaven.
St. Thomas only mentions the Assumption, but he affirms it, and his texts are a testimony
to the constancy of that tradition.
St. Thomas explains at length the value of
turning to the Blessed Virgin Mary in order to ask her to pray for us to receive grace.
Her prayers are particularly powerful in doing so.
"In every work of virtue," he says, "one can have her as one's helper."
But more important than his explanation and defense of traditional teachings are certain
principles he expresses in regards to Mary.
His principles set the foundation for future and deeper theologies of Mary.
Here's one example of such a principle.
The nearer a thing is to its source, the greater the share it has in the effect of that source.
What does that mean?
Let's think of a campfire with rocks around it.
The fire is the source of heat.
The rocks receive the heat from the fire.
Obviously, the closer a rock is to the fire, the hotter the rock will be.
Likewise, Jesus Christ is the source of all grace, but who is closer to Jesus Christ than Mary?
After all, she conceived him in her womb and gave birth to him.
She held him, swaddled him, fed him, sheltered him, taught him, cooked for him, tucked him
in at night, searched him out when he was lost in the Temple, raised him up to manhood,
watched him through his public ministry, stood by the foot of his cross, rejoiced at his
Resurrection, and prayed with the other Apostles for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
Who was closer to Jesus than that?
Who loved him more?
For these reasons, Maryologists affirm a further
principle called the principle of preeminence.
Mary was preeminent among the saints.
She received more grace from Jesus Christ than any other saint for she was closer to
him, the source of grace, than all others.
The principle of preeminence helps to explain why her intercessory prayer is so powerful
for us.
The power of prayer is proportionate to the grace and love of the person who prays.
Now, since Mary is preeminent among the saints in grace and love, so too, her prayers are
preeminently powerful.
One always does well to go to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Even Jesus Christ entrusted himself to her care.
Why not imitate him?
Let us heed his words from
the cross: "Behold, your mother."
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