Mary prepared herself to be a worthy dwelling place
for the Redeemer by her personal
cooperation with the divine graces given her.

Did Mary merit the Incarnation?

By Robert Auman

    “It [Vatican Council II] strongly urges theologians and preachers of the word of God to be careful to refrain as much from all false exaggeration as from too summary an attitude in considering the special dignity of the Mother of God. Following the study of Sacred Scripture, the Fathers, the doctors and liturgy of the Church, and under the guidance of the Church’s magisterium, let them rightly illustrate the duties and privileges of the Blessed Virgin which always refer to Christ, the source of all truth, sanctity, and devotion. Let them carefully refrain from whatever might by word or deed lead the separated brethren or any others whatsoever into error about the true doctrine of the Church. Let the faithful remember moreover that true devotion consists neither in sterile or transitory affection, nor in a certain vain credulity, but proceeds from true faith, by which we are led to recognize the excellence of the Mother of God, and we are moved to a filial love towards our mother and to the imitation of her virtues.”1

    Whether or not our Blessed Mother merited the Incarnation of the Son of God depends upon our understanding of the word, “merit.” As we shall see, the term is used in different meanings.

    From all eternity God decreed that his only-begotten Son would become a man; and he made the first announcement of this decree in the proto-evangelium, the first good-news after Adam and Eve had sinned in the Garden of Eden.2 Now, since God “orders everything fittingly,”3 Mary was included in that original divine decree,4 because she was to give the Son of God his human nature and thus become the Mother of God. Therefore some believe, and with reason, that the Incarnation would have taken place earlier, had God foreseen a fit and proper woman for that role. Had Mary lived later, they think, the Incarnation would have taken place later. At any rate, not the fact that the Incarnation would take place, but the fact that it did take place and at the time when it did, is due to Mary. Also, by that same original divine decree the Incarnation was made dependent upon her, because God, “who orders all things fittingly,” would not force the free will of Mary, his creature, as St. Luke makes abundantly clear in his account of the Annunciation at the beginning of his Gospel.

Testimony of Church Fathers

    St. Augustine (a.d. 354-430), Bishop of Hippo in Africa: “This Virgin who by her love and her faith merited that the holiest of buds be formed in her . . .” 5

What are you, Mary, you who will presently bring forth? Whence have you merited, whence have you obtained this favor? Whence is it that he who made you will be made in you? You are a virgin, you are holy, you have vowed a vow. True, you have merited much; or, better, you have received much. But how have you merited it? . . . Tell me, angel [Gabriel], whence has Mary this? I already said when I saluted her: Hail, full of grace.6

. . . how do we know what greater degree of grace for a complete victory over sin was conferred on her who merited to conceive and bring forth him who all admit was without sin . . .7

    St. Peter Chrysologus (406-450), Bishop of Ravenna, Italy: “Truly blessed, because she has merited the grace of a divine conception.”8

    St. John Damascene (676-750), the last of the Greek Fathers and Doctors: “What a most beautiful and magnificent world! What a marvelous creation in which is united the beauty of all trees laden with the fruits of all the virtues, with the perfume of chastity, the splendor of light, and everything which is pleasing and good. World so beautiful and so worthy by all the titles for which God, when coming to man, chose it for his dwelling place.”9

Testimony of the theologians

    St. Methodius (826-885), Apostle to the Slavs: “Only you, O Lady, have merited to share with God what [God the Son] is of God [the Father] . . . .”10

    St. Anselm (1033-1109), Archbishop of Canterbury, England: “You alone, full of the Holy Spirit, have merited as a virgin to conceive a God, as a virgin to bear a God, and to bring forth a God while remaining a virgin.”11

    Eadmer (1060/64-1130), secretary of St. Anselm:

The centuries followed one another, and the grave weight of the primitive sentence always pressed upon men and was ever more oppressive. The reason was that the Wisdom of God did not find among the mass of lost humanity the path through which he had decreed from eternity to come to the world to repair so lamentable a ruin; he did not find it, I say, until the day there appeared the holy Virgin about whom we are speaking. Now that the generations had given such a Virgin to the earth, she shone with such splendor of virtues, that the divine wisdom judged her perfectly worthy to bring a God into the world, both to erase the guilt of her ancestors and the rest of the sinners who followed them, and also to repress in him the work of the devil, his perpetual enemy. Now who can meditate on these marvels without esteeming as worthy of all praise her who in preference to so many other women has merited to be the mediator of so ineffable goods?12

    Abbot Rupert (died 1135) of Deutz, Germany: “Fascinated by the odor (of my virtues) the King descended into my womb . . . delighted, attracted by the good odor of my humility, he returns to mankind.”13

    St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274): “The blessed Virgin is said to have merited to bear the Lord of all, not because she merited that he become incarnated, but because by the grace given her she merited such a degree of purity and sanctity that she could fittingly be the mother of God.”14 “She did not merit the Incarnation; but positing the Incarnation, she merited that it took place in her—and this not by condign but by congruous merit.”15

Proof from the liturgy 16

    Greek Liturgy: “The only one worthy of the divine prodigies; the only one worthy to have been made the Mother of God.”17 “The Son, uncreated like the Father, has discovered in you the reason to take a nature like ours, because he found you alone resplendent with a purity without equal among creatures.”18 “O Holy Mother! Christ, fascinated by your incomparable beauty, more than immaculate, has chosen his beloved dwelling in your virginal womb.”19

    Coptic Liturgy: “Great is the glory of Mary above the honor of all the Saints, since she has merited to receive in herself the Word of God.”20

    Maronite Liturgy: “Blessed art thou who has merited to be the Mother of the Son of the Most High.”21

    Mozarabic Missal: “After heaven only Mary has merited to bear God; only she has merited to be a virgin after childbirth; only she has merited the God-Man.”22

    Roman Liturgy: “Rejoice, O Queen of heaven, because he whom you have merited to bear has risen.”23 “Almighty and eternal God, who prepared the body and soul of the glorious Virgin Mother Mary, so that she merited to become the worthy dwelling place of your Son.”24

The meaning of the testimony

    It is obvious from the foregoing statements of such credible witnesses that Mary really, and not metaphorically, merited to be the Mother of God. She did not merit her close cooperation in the Redemption in the same sense that her predecessors in the Old Testament “merited” the coming of the Redeemer. For example, Abraham, because of his great faith and his willingness to sacrifice his own son, is said to have merited that the Redeemer be born from his lineage. This is merit in an improper sense. But let us now determine exactly what we mean by “merit” and by Mary’s meriting the Incarnation and consequently the Redemption.

    In general, by “merit” we mean a right to a reward. This right arises from the fact that one has performed a good work, of one’s own free will, and in compliance with another’s desire. We are interested here, of course, only in supernatural merit. That it is possible to perform works that are supernaturally meritorious, i.e., meritorious for gaining an increase in grace, an increase in glory in heaven, and even heaven itself for one dying in the state of sanctifying grace, is of defined faith.25

    Such a good work is one that is done freely and for God (i.e., for some supernatural motive), and from which there arises a right to a supernatural reward, because God has ordained a reward for such a work.26 Supernatural merit is divided into two kinds or classes: condign and congruous merit. The term “merit,” when used without a qualifying adjective, usually refers to condign merit. This is a right to a reward which arises out of some title of justice: either strict justice, when there is absolute equality between the deed and the reward; or justice in a broader sense, when this absolute equality is not observed. Condign merit from a title of strict justice would be, for instance, any work performed by Christ, because his soul (the principle or motor of his actions) is by its nature divine. Condign merit from a title of justice in a broader sense would be that which is merited by the good deeds of a person in the state of sanctifying grace. Because his soul has been divinized, as it were, through sanctifying grace,27 it is obvious that the actions produced by that soul will be divinized. Therefore they will merit a divinized, supernatural reward. Yet such a reward is not given out of the rigor of strict justice, because the principle or fountain from which springs the supernatural reward, i.e., sanctifying grace, is not co-natural to the just man but has been received as a free gift from God. On the other hand, we must insist that the actions of the just man are condignly meritorious of supernatural rewards; for God could not in justice reward the supernatural acts with purely natural rewards. Therefore God, faithful to his promises and executing justice in a broader sense gives supernatural rewards to those who merit them condignly.

    Supernatural congruous merit is a right to a reward arising not out of justice in any sense of the term. There is in this case no equality between the deed and the reward. The right to a reward arises only out of a certain decency, fitness, or propriety because of the divine liberality.

    The following examples to illustrate the difference between condign and congruous merit have been suggested by theologians. The soldier who executes his duty properly on the battlefield merits his salary condignly, i.e., out of justice. He merits a medal for bravery only congruously, i.e., not out of a sense of justice, since he is supposed to be brave, but out of a sense of fitness and propriety. Again, there is a certain village, in which no inhabitant has ever done anything so outstanding as to merit a visit from the king. But the king, because of his liberality, has decided to visit this village. When he comes, the tanner, who has excelled all others in good deeds, is worthy and merits congruously, that the king should stay in his house rather than in any other. It was in this manner, congruously, that Mary was worthy and merited the coming of the King. She did not merit his coming condignly; but once he had decreed to come, she merited congruously that he be born of her. Since the divine maternity is a grace so far above what any creature could merit in justice, Mary obviously merited the Incarnation congruously. In the words of St. Pius X, Mary merited congruously what Christ merited condignly.28

    The important role that Mary exercised in the Redemption of mankind by Christ appears clear from the foregoing considerations. She was not chosen by God casually, nor did he use her as a blind instrument for accomplishing the Incarnation and subsequent Redemption. She and she alone was chosen to be the Mother of God and a proper instrument of salvation, because she and she alone was worthy of that role. She was worthy to be chosen for such an exalted task partly through her own personal efforts. Her worthiness consisted not only in her eminent degree of sanctity29 resulting from the ineffable graces and supernatural privileges bestowed on her by Almighty God, but also from her personal, free cooperation with those gifts, as we see in the life of all the Saints.

    For this personal cooperation of hers we owe a debt to Mary for her work in our Redemption. Her part in the Incarnation and Redemption was not a passive one like that of a ciborium receiving the consecrated particles, or like the ground receiving the living seed. Prior to the Incarnation she actively prepared herself to be a worthy dwelling place for the Redeemer by her personal cooperation with the divine graces given her. She prepared herself to become, as it were, the bride of the Redeemer, so that she was able to cooperate actively and mutually with the Redeemer in the very act of Redemption. It was there on Calvary, amid the excruciating pain of her Son and her own ineffable sorrow, that Mary gave spiritual birth to all Christians, and so became their Mother.30 What the sole Redeemer of mankind was meriting condignly, his Mother was meriting congruously.31 At the Annunciation Mary, as the representative of all mankind,32 had given her free consent to the Incarnation of the Redeemer; likewise on Calvary, acting in the name of the entire human race, she was the only human person that God found worthy to cooperate so closely with him in achieving the Redemption in the manner in which he freely decreed to accomplish it.

    Following the divine plan of acting “mightily and fittingly,” God chose to make the Incarnation dependent upon a worthy mother. He did not have to require that dependency, but he did. Yet the Incarnation was not dependent upon Mary in such a way that, had she not made herself worthy and had not consented to the Incarnation, the Redemption would have been in jeopardy. God foresaw from all eternity that she, and she alone, would make herself worthy to become the human instrument that he willed to use for accomplishing the Redemption; just as he foresaw that she would freely consent to be the Mother of the Redeemer. With this in mind St. Bernardine of Siena says that the Redemption began with Mary’s holiness and was accomplished by Christ. The Fathers express the same idea, when they say that Mary conceived Christ first in her soul and then in her body. In his inscrutable designs God chose to make the latter, physical conception dependent upon the former, spiritual conception.

    It is reasonable, therefore, to believe that, had Mary lived earlier, the Redemption would have been accomplished earlier. Likewise, had she lived later, it would have taken place later. And were she still to be born—the thought is terrifying—we would be in the Old Testament still awaiting Redemption. In that last assumption we would be without those divine, effectual means of sanctification that we now enjoy in the noon-day of salvation. While we render endless praise and gratitude to the Most Holy Trinity for the Redemption, the crown of all God’s mighty works, and recognize in Jesus Christ our only Savior and Mediator between God and mankind, we also give thanks to Mary, the divinely chosen instrument, for her free and willing cooperation with divine grace, and thus for having merited congruously the Incarnation and subsequent Redemption.


    1 Lumen Gentium, 67. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. Vatican Council II. The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents; Austin Flannery, O.P., General Editor; The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minn.
    2 Genesis 3:15.
    3 Vulgate, Wisdom 8:1: disponit omnia suaviter.
    4 “God, by one and the same decree, had established the origin of Mary and the Incarnation of Divine Wisdom.” Ineffabilis Deus; Pius IX; Definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception; Papal Documents on Mary; compiled by Msgr. W. J. Doheny and Rev. J.P. Kelly; p. 11; The Bruce Publishing Co., Milwaukee.
    5 De Peccat. Merit. Extrem., c.24. PL [Patrologia Latina; Migne] 44, 175.
    6 Serm. 291, PL 38, 1319.
    7 On Nature and Grace 36; Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum, 60, 263. Palmer.
    8 Serm. 143, PL 52, 584.
    9 Serm. 2 in Nativit. BMV, n4, PG 94, 684.
    10 De Sim. et Anna. Apud Galland. t.3, p.816.
    11 Or. 56, PL 158, 962.
    12 De Excell. BMV c.9; PL 159, 574.
    13 Comment. in Canticis. 1.1, PL 168, 354.
    14 Sum. Theol. III, q.2, a.11.
    15 Sent. III, dist. 4, q.3, art. 1.
    16 Proof according to the adage: “The rule of praying is the rule of believing” (Lex orandi, lex credendi).
    17 Men. June 20, od. 7.
    18 Men. Mar. 17, od. 1.
    19 Men. Mar. 24, od. 8.
    20 Theotoch. Tetras. 1-6, p. 103.
    21 Offic. Maron. p.406.
    22 T.1, p. 34.
    23 Easter Antiphon: Regina caeli, laetare.
    24 Final antiphon after Pentecost; Officium Tridentinum.
    25 D.S. 1582. Council of Trent; Session VI; Canons on justification; “vere mereri augmentum gratiae, vitam aeternam et ipsius vitae aeternae (si tamen in gratia decesserit) consecutionem, atque etiam gloriae augmentum.”
    26 Mt. 10:42; 2 Cor. 4:17.
    27 2 Peter 1:4.
    28 D.S. 3370; St. Pius X; encycl. “Ad diem illum”; [Maria] “de congruo, ut aiunt, promeret nobis, quae Christus de condigno promeruit . . . .”
    29 D.S. 3917; Pius XII; encycl. “Ad caeli Reginam”; [Maria] “dignitate sua super omnes res creatas excellere itemque super omnes post Filium suum obtinere primatum.” The Pope goes on to say that at the moment Mary was conceived, she was filled with such an abundance of graces that it exceeded the grace of all the Saints. Pius IX is quoted in the book mentioned in citation No. 4 above on page 10 as follows: [Mary possessed] “that fullness of holy innocence and sanctity than which, under God, one cannot even imagine anything greater, and which, outside of God, no mind can succeed in fully comprehending.”
    30 D.S. 3262; Leo XIII; encycl. “Quamquam pluries”; “Virgo sanctissima quemadmodum Jesu Christi genetrix, ita omnium est christianorm mater, quippe quos ad Calvariae montem inter supremos Redemptoris cruciatus generavit.”
    31 D.S. 3370; see citation 28 above.
    32 D.S. 3274; Leo XIII; encycl. “Octobri mense”; [Maria] “quae ipsius generis humani personam quodammodo agebat, ad eam illustrem verissimamque Aquinatis sententiam: ‘Per annuntiationem expectabatur consensus Virginis loco totius humanae naturae.’” Thus the Pope gives credit to Aquinas for the idea in Summa Th. III, q. 30, a. 1.

Reverend Robert Auman was ordained at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio in 1947. He spent his entire priestly life in pastoral work in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, N.M., with the exception of three years in Juarez, Mexico, when Pope John requested priest volunteers for Latin America. In his retirement he has opened a forum with America Online inviting questions about the Catholic faith. In two years he has received over 1000 inquiries.

Back to May HPR Table of Contents