mariologydogmati00pohl - Carmel Apologetics

MARY'S FULNESS OF GRACE 27
conceived as a meritum de condigno but merely de congruo.
In the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, " The
Blessed Virgin is said to have merited the privilege of
bearing the Lord of all, not because it was through her
merits that He became incarnate, but because, by the
grace bestowed upon her she merited that measure of
purity and holiness which fitted her to be the mother of
God." »
c) The theological argument for our dogma is
based partly on the self-evident truth that the
grace bestowed upon any person is commensurate
with his or her dignity or office, and partly on the
consideration that the measure of interior graces
with which our Lady was dowered must have
corresponded to her triple relationship to the three
Persons of the Divine Trinity. 12
It was a duty of honor, so to speak, for the Most Holy
Trinity to endow the Deipara with a full, nay with
a superabundant measure of interior grace. " The
more closely one approaches a principle of any kind,"
says St. Thomas, " the more one participates in the
effect flowing from that principle. . . . Now Christ is the
principle of grace; as God He is its author, as man its
instrument. . . . But the Blessed Virgin Mary was
nearest to Christ in His humanity, because He assumed
His human nature from her. Consequently, she must
have received from Him a greater fulness of grace than
any one else." 13 This truth is emphasized in the dog-
11 Summa Theol., 3a, qu. 2, art. ilium puritatis et sanctitatis gradum,
11, ad 3: " Beata virgo dicitur ut congrue posset esse mater Dei."
meruisse portare Dominum omnium, 12 V. supra, Section 1.
non quia meruit ipsum incarnari, 13 Summa Theol., 3a, qu. 27, art.
sed quia meruit ex gratia sibi data 5: " Quant aliquid magis appro-
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