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276 CARDINAL POINTS OF THE LEGION APOSTOLATE CHAPTER 39
accomplish, knit the bond that brought Heaven down upon
earth and lifted humanity up to God!” (Hettinger). What a
solemn thing indeed! It means that she was the only hope of
mankind. But the fate of men was safe in her hands. She
pronounced that consent which, though we cannot fully
understand, commonsense nevertheless tells us must have
been inconceivably the most heroic act ever performed in the
world — such that in all ages no other creature but she could
have performed it. Then to her came the Redeemer; not to
herself alone, but through her to poor helpless humanity, on
behalf of whom she spoke. With him, she brought everything
that the faith means, and the faith is the real life of men.
Nothing else matters. Everything must be abandoned for it.
Any sacrifices must be made to get it. It is the only thing in
the world of any worth. Consider, therefore, that the faith of
all generations: those that have passed away up to the present,
and the uncountable millions yet to come: the faith of all has
depended on the words of that maiden.

No true Christianity without Mary. — In return for this
infinite gift, all generations must henceforth call that maiden
blessed. She who brought Christianity on earth cannot be
denied a place in Christian worship. But what of the many
people in this world who hold her cheaply, the many who
slight her, the many who do worse? Does it ever occur to
those people to think that every grace they have they owe to
her? Do they ever reason that if they were excluded from her
words of acceptance that night, then Redemption has never
come on earth for them? In that supposition they would
stand outside its scope. In other words, they would not be
Christians at all, even though they may cry: “Lord! Lord!” all
the day and every day. (Mt 7:21) And on the other hand, if
they are indeed Christians, and if the gift of life has come to
them, then it has only come because she gained it for them,
because they were included in her acceptance. In a word, the
baptism that makes a person a child of God makes one
simultaneously a child of Mary.
Gratitude, therefore — a practical gratitude — to Mary must
be the mark of every Christian. Redemption is the joint gift of
the Father and of Mary. Therefore, with the words of thanks
to the Father must go up the word of thanks to Mary.