Our Lady Of Last Agony
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Mary, to whom we owe, next to God, our restoration in the spiritual life, who gave us new birth so to say on Calvary, while her Divine Son agonized on the Cross, deserves the above title in full measure. Her title is a translation of that of Co-redemptress of the Human Race, since the work of Salvation has for all of us its full consummation only in the decisive moment of death. Besides, the Church invites us to ask God for the grace of a Happy Death through the merits and the intercession of the Queen of Martyrs.
How gratefully, therefore, ought we to thank God for having secured for us, by the assistance of His Mother, at the moment of our death, the palm of victory!
Whence did Mary obtain the extraordinary privilege of procuring for those who are faithful in invoking her, the grace of a happy death and the assurance of eternal salvation? Without doubt, devotion to the Mother of God faithfully practiced during life, is a sign of predestination and, as such, assures for us at the hour of death the assistance of this divine Mother. How could Mary abandon at this supreme moment anyone who has faithfully called upon her during life?
Because Mary has merited by her own death the power of succoring her faithful servants at the moment of the great passage from life to eternity; having assisted her Divine Son during His agony and death on the Cross, she received from Him the mission of assisting us equally during our agony and at the hour of our death.
It is through Mary that Jesus was given to us, when He came a tiny Babe in the infirmity of human flesh, wrapped up in swaddling clothes, in order to save us; it is equally through Mary that on the last day we hope to see face to face this same Jesus surrounded by the glory of the Father—the source of eternal happiness for us: “And after this our exile, show unto us the Blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”
A true servant of Mary cannot perish because devotion to this divine Mother, in keeping us virtuous, gives us a certain pledge that Heaven will be ours. Death is the crown of life: a good life cannot end in eternal loss. If we prove ourselves worthy of Mary’s assistance, she is bound to procure for us the special grace of a holy death.
