part which it has in the effect of that
principle, whence Dionysius says (Coel. Hier. iv) that angels, being
nearer to God, have a greater share than men, in the effects of the
Divine goodness. Now Christ is the principle of grace,
authoritatively as to His Godhead, instrumentally as to His humanity:
whence (John 1:17) it is written: "Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ." But the Blessed Virgin Mary was nearest to Christ in His
humanity: because He received His human nature from her. Therefore it
was due to her to receive a greater fulness of grace than others.

Reply Obj. 1: God gives to each one according to the purpose for
which He has chosen him. And since Christ as man was predestinated
and chosen to be "predestinated the Son of God in power . . . of
sanctification" (Rom. 1:4), it was proper to Him to have such a
fulness of grace that it overflowed from Him into all, according to
John 1:16: "Of His fulness we have all received." Whereas the Blessed
Virgin Mary received such a fulness of grace that she was nearest of
all to the Author of grace; so that she received within her Him Who
is full of all grace; and by bringing Him forth, she, in a manner,
dispensed grace to all.

Reply Obj. 2: In natural things at first there is perfection of
disposition, for instance when matter is perfectly disposed for the
form. Secondly, there is the perfection of the form; and this is the
more excellent, for the heat that proceeds from the form of fire is
more perfect than that which disposed to the form of fire. Thirdly,
there is the perfection of the end: for instance when fire has its
qualities in the most perfect degree, having mounted to its own place.

In like manner there was a threefold perfection of grace in the
Blessed Virgin. The first was a kind of disposition, by which she was
made worthy to be the mother of Christ: and this was the perfection
of her sanctification. The second perfection of grace in the Blessed
Virgin was through the presence of the Son of God Incarnate in her
womb. The third perfection of the end is that which she has in glory.

That the second perfection excels the first, and the third the
second, appears (1) from the point of view of deliverance from evil.
For at first in her sanctification she was delivered from original
sin: afterwards, in the conception of the Son of God, she was
entirely cleansed from the fomes: lastly, in her glorification she
was also delivered from all affliction whatever