Can you love Her too much? | PadreCast Twenty-fourth Sunday Ordinary Time

We, baptized believers, make up the members of the Body of Jesus. And that's not just some pious understanding, (Saint) Paul is speaking literally. It's in a mystical way, but it is literally true.

That means, if you and I are united in the Body of Christ, and Christ is the One mediator between God and man, then we share in His mediation. To the degree that we share in His life, we share in his whole life. Even His ministry to bring about the forgiveness of sins, and union between man and God. So anyone who is a member of Christ's Body, has the power - with, in, and through Christ - to mediate, to intercede on behalf of those in need, specifically sinners. Anyone can do this as long as you are united to Christ through baptism. The more sacraments you have, the stronger your mediation power. The more holy you are, the stronger your ability to mediate.

This is why the Church also teaches that no one mediates better than Mary. No one can intercede better than anyone else better than Mary. Except Her Son.

The only reason Mary can intercede for us so well is because She's so perfectly united to Christ Her Son.

This was always our Lord's intention in creating us this way. He wanted to bond us to one another as a family. . . .

Christ as the head of the body obviously has the most influence. But the head alone without the body can't do much good. Mary in a sense is - analogously - like the neck. Everything the head has and receives has to pass through the neck to get to the rest of the body. This is why the Church teaches that Mary is the "mediatrix of all graces". Which means that any graces that any human on earth has ever received has to come through Jesus, He's the one mediator. But it always comes through Mary as well. . . .

This is why we should have such love and devotion to Her because She can do so much for us.

Now sometimes, people do worry: can you love the Blessed Mother too much? . . . Can you be too devoted to Her? . . .

St Maximillian Kolbe says: "Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love Her more than Jesus did." No matter your devotion, you can always have a greater love and devotion to Her because you still don't love Her as much as Her Son. . . .

If you want to love the Blessed Mother rightly, you must do what Christ did. You must offer Her all of yourself. And even that will never be enough. But you don't have to worry. The reason you don't have to worry about being devoted to the Blessed Mother or loving Her "too much" is because She won't let you. She's such a good disciple of the Lord that if you start getting a little overly attached, She's going to send you to Her Son. She's not going to let you worship Her - She'd put a stop to that right away.

I would challenge you to continue to increase your love and your devotion to Her. The classic methods always work:

• Daily recitation of the Rosary
• Wearing Her scapular
• Consecrating yourself to Her and Her Immaculate Heart
• If you have an image of the King of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ, in your home, you should have an image of the Queen.

There are many, many others. But the more devoted to Her you are, the more easily She can intercede for you, because you can more easily hear Her voice and take Her direction.

 

Ex 32:7-11, 13-14; Ps 51:3-4, 12-13, 17, 19; 1 Tm 1:12-17; Lk 15:1-32

 

You may watch the Mass in its entirety on our YouTube channel. Homily begins at 21:35