(6) May 22
Mary is the "Virgo Prudentissima," the Most Prudent Virgin
IT may not appear at first sight how the virtue of prudence
is connected with the trials and sorrows of our Lady's life; yet there is a
point of view from which we are reminded of her prudence by those trials. It
must be recollected that she is not only the great instance of the
contemplative life, but also of the practical; and the practical life is at
once a life of penance and of prudence, if it is to be well discharged. Now
Mary was as full of external work and hard service as any Sister of Charity at
this day. Of course her duties varied according to the seasons of her life, as
a young maiden, as a wife, as a mother, and as a widow; but still her life was
full of duties day by day and hour by hour. As a stranger in Egypt, she had
duties towards the poor heathen among whom she was thrown. As a dweller in
Nazareth, she had her duties towards her kinsfolk and neighbours. She had her
duties, though unrecorded, during those years in which our Lord was preaching
and proclaiming His Kingdom. After He had left this earth, she had her duties
towards the Apostles, and especially towards the Evangelists. She had duties
towards the Martyrs, and to the Confessors in prison; to the sick, to the
ignorant, and to the poor. Afterwards, she had to seek with St. John another
and a heathen country, where her happy death took place. But before that death,
how much must she have suffered in her life amid an idolatrous population!
Doubtless the Angels screened her eyes from the worst crimes there committed.
Still, she was full of duties there—and in consequence she was full of merit.
All her acts were perfect, all were the best that could be done. Now, always to
be awake, guarded, fervent, so as to be able to act not only without sin, but
in the best possible way, in the varying circumstances of each day, denotes a
life of untiring mindfulness. But of such a life, Prudence is the presiding
virtue. It is, then, through the pains and sorrows of her earthly pilgrimage
that we are able to invoke her as the Virgo prudentissima.
(7) May 23
Mary is the "Turris Eburnea," the Ivory Tower
A TOWER is a fabric which rises higher and more conspicuous
than other objects in its neighbourhood. Thus, when we say a man
"towers" over his fellows, we mean to signify that they look small in
comparison of him.
This quality of greatness is instanced in the Blessed
Virgin. Though she suffered more keen and intimate anguish at our Lord's
Passion and Crucifixion than any of the Apostles by reason of her being His
Mother, yet consider how much more noble she was amid her deep distress than
they were. When our Lord underwent His agony, they slept for sorrow. They could
not wrestle with their deep disappointment and despondency; they could not
master it; it confused, numbed, and overcame their senses. And soon after, when
St. Peter was asked by bystanders whether he was not one of our Lord's
disciples, he denied it.
Nor was he alone in this cowardice. The Apostles, one and
all, forsook our Lord and fled, though St. John returned. Nay, still further,
they even lost faith in Him, and thought all the great expectations which He
had raised in them had ended in a failure. How different this even from the
brave conduct of St. Mary Magdalen! and still more from that of the Virgin
Mother! It is expressly noted of her that she stood by the Cross. She did not
grovel in the dust, but stood upright to receive the blows, the stabs, which
the long Passion of her Son inflicted upon her every moment.
In this magnanimity and generosity in suffering she is, as
compared with the Apostles, fitly imaged as a Tower. But towers, it may be
said, are huge, rough, heavy, obtrusive, graceless structures, for the purposes
of war, not of peace; with nothing of the beautifulness, refinement, and finish
which are conspicuous in Mary. It is true: therefore she is called the Tower of
Ivory, to suggest to us, by the brightness, purity, and exquisiteness of that
material, how transcendent is the loveliness and the gentleness of the Mother
of God.
IV. On the Assumption
(1) May 24
Mary is the "Sancta Dei Genetrix," the Holy Mother of God
AS soon as we apprehend by faith the great fundamental truth
that Mary is the Mother of God, other wonderful truths follow in its train; and
one of these is that she was exempt from the ordinary lot of mortals, which is
not only to die, but to become earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Die she must, and die she did, as her Divine Son died, for He was man; but
various reasons have approved themselves to holy writers, why, although her
body was for a while separated from her soul and consigned to the tomb, yet it
did not remain there, but was speedily united to her soul again, and raised by
our Lord to a new and eternal life of heavenly glory.
And the most obvious reason for so concluding is this—that
other servants of God have been raised from the grave by the power of God, and
it is not to be supposed that our Lord would have granted any such privilege to
anyone else without also granting it to His own Mother.
We are told by St. Matthew, that after our Lord's death upon
the Cross "the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints that had
slept"—that is, slept the sleep of death, "arose, and coming out of the
tombs after His Resurrection, came into the Holy City, and appeared to
many." St. Matthew says, "many bodies of the Saints"—that is,
the holy Prophets, Priests, and Kings of former times—rose again in
anticipation of the last day.
Can we suppose that Abraham, or David, or Isaias, or
Ezechias, should have been thus favoured, and not God's own Mother? Had she not
a claim on the love of her Son to have what any others had? Was she not nearer
to Him than the greatest of the Saints before her? And is it conceivable that
the law of the grave should admit of relaxation in their case, and not in hers?
Therefore we confidently say that our Lord, having preserved her from sin and
the consequences of sin by His Passion, lost no time in pouring out the full
merits of that Passion upon her body as well as her soul.
(2) May 25
Mary is the "Mater Intemerata," the Sinless Mother
ANOTHER consideration which has led devout minds to believe
the Assumption of our Lady into heaven after her death, without waiting for the
general resurrection at the last day, is furnished by the doctrine of her
Immaculate Conception.
By her Immaculate Conception is meant, that not only did she
never commit any sin whatever, even venial, in thought, word, or deed, but
further than this, that the guilt of Adam, or what is called original sin,
never was her guilt, as it is the guilt attaching to all other descendants of
Adam.
By her Assumption is meant that not only her soul, but her
body also, was taken up to heaven upon her death, so that there was no long
period of her sleeping in the grave, as is the case with others, even great
Saints, who wait for the last day for the resurrection of their bodies.
One reason for believing in our Lady's Assumption is that
her Divine Son loved her too much to let her body remain in the grave. A second
reason—that now before us—is this, that she was not only dear to the Lord as a
mother is dear to a son, but also that she was so transcendently holy, so full,
so overflowing with grace. Adam and Eve were created upright and sinless, and
had a large measure of God's grace bestowed upon them; and, in consequence,
their bodies would never have crumbled into dust, had they not sinned; upon
which it was said to them, "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return."
If Eve, the beautiful daughter of God, never would have become dust and ashes
unless she had sinned, shall we not say that Mary, having never sinned,
retained the gift which Eve by sinning lost? What had Mary done to forfeit the
privilege given to our first parents in the beginning? Was her comeliness to be
turned into corruption, and her fine gold to become dim, without reason
assigned? Impossible. Therefore we believe that, though she died for a short
hour, as did our Lord Himself, yet, like Him, and by His Almighty power, she
was raised again from the grave.
