My dear parishioners,
Peace! On the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, 7 October, 2019, Pope Francis established the feast of Our Lady of Loreto, to be observed each year on the 10th of December. At the same time Pope Francis proclaimed a Lauretan Jubilee Holy Year to run from 8 December, 2019 through 10 December, 2020. There are fifty-one invocations in the Litany of Loreto. The following is a reflection on the ninth invocation: Mother undefiled, pray for us.
What does it mean to say that Saint Mary, the Blessed Virgin, is our undefiled Mother? There are some twenty verses in Sacred Scripture (Douay Rheims) which teach us about being “undefiled.” While more than one hundred and twenty verses teach us how to not be “defiled.” There are nine different terms in Hebrew which are related to “defile, defilement.” The Hebrew word chalal is sometimes translated as “defile” or “polluted” (cf. Exodus 20:25). The Hebrew word tame is also translated both as defile, foul, to become or render unclean (cf. Leviticus 5:3). Gaal and halal are both translated from Hebrew as “defile” in the sense of “profane.” There are various sorts of defilement to consider (e.g. physical, sexual, ethical, ceremonial, religious).
The Blessed Mother is undefiled in all these ways. In her body the Blessed Mother never committed sin. The Blessed Mother never committed sexual sins and remains undefiled this way no less. In her desires and in her deeds the Blessed Mother never sinned. When addressing defilement and purity both Saint Augustine (+430) and Saint Athanasius (+373) without mentioning Our Lady cite Titus 1:15: “To the pure all things are pure, but to the impure and defiled is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled” (Contra Faustum book XXXI; Letter 48). Our Lady is all pure in her mind, in her conscience, in her body, and in her soul. Our Mother Mary is in no way defiled. Saint Thomas Aquinas, OP (+1274) addresses defilement in his Summa Theologiae (I-II Q. 86, A. 1), such that, “the soul is not defiled by inferior things” and similarly “the intellect is not defiled” by exterior things. The inordinate cleaving to inferior things against the light of reason and the Divine Law defiles. Saint Mary, the Blessed Virgin is undefiled because she never cleaved to inferior things against the light of reason or Divine Law.
We who have been and are defiled by our sins and vices (e.g. Original Sin, pride, envy, greed, wrath, sloth, gluttony, lust…) fly to Our Lady’s protection and intercession. From her place in Heaven, with her Son, our Savior and hers, Mary can and does send us the help, the grace, we need to remain undefiled. The 1937 hymn of the Anglican Roland Ford Palmer (+1985) reminds us how we should “Sing of Mary, pure and lowly, Virgin mother undefiled.” Our Lady is both “fairest mother” of the “fairest Child” and our Mother undefiled in the order of grace.
Father John Arthur Orr