The Humility of Mary

It’s a part of humility to serve others. Consider how Mary didn’t hesitate to go and serve Elizabeth for three months. For this reason, St. Bernard says: “Elizabeth wondered that Mary should have come to visit her. But still more admirable is that she came not to be ministered to, but to minister.” 

Those who are humble are retiring, and choose the last places. St. Bernard remarks that this is why Mary, when wishing to speak to her Son when he was preaching in a house, would not of her own accord enter. Instead, she “remained outside, and did not avail herself of her maternal authority to interrupt him” (see Mt 12:46). 

For the same reason, when she was with the Apostles awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit, she took the lowest place, as St. Luke notes: “All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus” (Acts 1:14). It’s not that St. Luke was ignorant of the Mother of God’s merits, on account of which he should have named her in the first place. Rather, she had taken the last place among the Apostles and the women. For this reason, he described them all in the order in which they were. That’s why St. Bernard says, “Rightly has the last become the first, who being the first of all became the last.” 

Finally, those who are humble love to be disdained rather than praised. So we don’t read that Mary showed herself in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, when her Son was received by the people with so much honor. Instead, at the death of her Son, she didn’t shrink from appearing on Calvary. She didn’t fear the dishonor that would come to her when it was known that she was the mother of the One who was condemned to die an infamous death as a criminal. —St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary 

From a prayer of St. John Neumann: O Mary, Mother of Mercy, pray to your divine Son for me, a poor sinner; beg him to make me humble. My pride, my self-esteem, my vanity are always against me. I struggle against them, and yet I allow them to surprise and deceive me so often.

Thigpen, Paul. A Year with Mary: Daily Meditations on the Mother of God (pp. 473-474). Saint Benedict Press. Kindle Edition.