‘Note well that there is a great difference between a servant and a slave.’
‘A servant asks wages for his services.’ He wishes to be paid for his work. The servant of Mary also expects a wage. He serves Mary, he prays to her, in order to obtain from her graces, ‘propter retributionem,’ here and in Heaven.
‘The slave has none.’ He is never paid; he does not expect or receive any wages or salary from his master, nor can he demand them. The slave of Mary can ask no reward, no salary of Mary. He serves her for nothing, that is to say, apparently for nothing, for Mary, who is always so generous, will never let herself be outdone in generosity and will know well how to make up to him for his service. He serves her to honor her privileges, her virtues, her excellence, her greatness, her glory and her happiness. Nothing is for him, everything is for Mary. It is a great glory to be Mary’s slave of love, greater than to be the king of a worldly empire.
‘The servant is free to leave his master when he wishes; he only serves him for a time.’
The servant only serves for a time stated in his contract. At the end of this time, he is free, he can ask for what is due to him and go. The servant of Mary can engage himself for a time, withdraw his promises and not renew them again. However ill-done this may be, he can do so.
‘The slave cannot rightly leave him, he is bound to him forever.’
The slave serves for always in right of the ownership that his master has of him.
Mary’s slave of love serves her for always as a result of the act of voluntary surrender which he himself has made into her hands. He cannot rightly leave her. He is the ‘res Dominae,’ the chattel of his Mistress. If he does so, he perjures himself, and deprives himself of Mary’s protection.
‘The servant does not give his master rights of life and death over his person.’
By his contract the servant gives only part of himself, his time, his strength, his work. But he keeps his rights, the free disposal of his will, of his acts, of his future, of his whole personality, intellectual, moral and physical. The master cannot touch his honor, his reputation or his life, he would be guilty and liable before the tribunals of God, of his conscience and of men. Before the law, before conscience and before men, all men are equal. Their virtues, their merit and their glory alone differentiate them before God. Man has not the right to lay violent hands on his neighbor’s life. God alone is its master. And man himself has not the right to lay violent hands upon his own life; God alone can dispose of it.
The servant of Mary also belongs to himself. He has what he is and he has what he possesses. Anything he may be able to acquire will be his property. He does not give everything, but nevertheless he gives his prayers, his thoughts, his time, his good works, but intermittently and not as a rule and absolutely. He gives some flowers, some fruits, but he does not give the whole plant, the whole tree.
‘The slave gives himself absolutely, so that his master could put him to death without any interference on the part of justice.’
The master has the right of life and death over his slave. He can kill him if he thinks well, according to his wishes, his fancy, his caprice, his cruelty, without any fear of the pursuit of human justice, but not without being seriously guilty in the sight of God.
The slave has nothing of his own. His person, his time, his work, his life, all his capabilities, talents, possibilities, everything, is the property of his master. He can make use of it, exchange it, sell it. By our act of Consecration Mary acquires over us an absolute right; we become her chattel. She has a right over all our exterior and interior wealth, over the use of all our time, over the work of all our limbs and all our faculties, over our constant service, our attention, our respect, our prayers, our actions, our love. The slave of Mary is not his own; he neither possesses what he is, nor what he has. Everything that he may acquire later on will belong by right to Mary. When he gives, he gives all, the flowers with the plant, the tree with all its fruit.
(To be continued.)