Tuesday in the Twenty-Fifth Week of Ordinary Time

St. Augustine writes that “Mary is more blessed because of her act of faith than because she conceived the flesh of Christ.”1  

But why is her faith a greater blessing than conceiving the flesh of Jesus?  Perhaps it is because the very first sin, the original sin of Adam and Eve, was an act of disbelief in God’s word.  They believed the word of Satan, “You will not die,” rather than the word of God, “You shall not eat the fruit nor touch it, or you shall die.”   By their disbelief they treated God as a liar.  Then they disobeyed and died spiritually and later physically.     

Just as the Fall began by disbelief, so also, the life of grace, conceiving Jesus in our souls begins with belief.  And the life of grace, sharing the divine nature, is a greater blessing than conceiving the flesh of Jesus.  No one ever goes to heaven alone.  By faith we are all mothers, brothers, and sisters of Jesus in his mystical body, the family of God. 

  1. De virg. 3: PL 40, 398; and Catholic Catechism, ## 506, 507.