Today the Virgin Mary ascended to Heaven! Rejoice, for she reigns with Christ forever.” The Church will close her chants on this glorious day with this sweet antiphon which resumes the object of the feast and the spirit in which it should be celebrated.
No other solemnity breathes like this one at once triumph and peace. None better answers to the enthusiasm of the many and the serenity of souls consummated in love. Assuredly that was as great a triumph when our Lord, rising by His own power from the tomb, cast Hell into dismay. But to our souls, so abruptly drawn from the abyss of sorrows on Golgotha, the suddenness of the victory caused a sort of stupor to mingle with the joy of that greatest of days. In presence of the prostrate Angels, the hesitating Apostles, the women seized with fear and trembling, one felt that the divine isolation of the Conqueror of death was perceptible even to his most intimate friends and kept them, like Magdalene, at a distance.
Mary’s death, however, leaves no impression but peace. That death had no other cause than love. Being a mere creature, she could not deliver herself from that claim of the old enemy, but leaving her tomb filled with flowers, she mounts up to Heaven, flowing with delights, leaning upon her Beloved (Canticles viii. 5). Amid the acclamations of the daughters of Sion who will henceforth never cease to call her blessed, she ascends surrounded by choirs of heavenly spirits joyfully praising the Son of God. Nevermore will shadows veil, as they did on Earth, the glory of the most beautiful daughter of Eve. Beyond the immovable Thrones, beyond the dazzling Cherubim, beyond the flaming Seraphim, onward she passes, delighting the heavenly city with her sweet perfumes. She stays not till she reaches the very confines of the Divinity. Close to the throne of honour where her Son, the King of ages, reigns in justice and in power. There she is proclaimed Queen, there she will reign for evermore in mercy and in goodness. Here on earth Libanus and Amana, Sanir and Hermon dispute the honour of having seen her rise to Heaven from their summits. And truly the whole world is but the pedestal of her glory, as the moon is her footstool, the sun her vesture, the stars of heaven her glittering crown. “Daughter of Sion, you are all fair and sweet,” cries the Church as in her rapture she mingles her own tender accents with the songs of triumph: “I saw the beautiful one as a dove rising up from the brooks of waters. In her garments was the most exquisite odour, and as in the days of spring, flowers of roses surrounded her and lilies of the valley” (Canticles v. 12; Ecclesiastes l. 8).
The same freshness breathes from the facts of Bible history in which the interpreters of the sacred Books see the figure of Mary’s triumph. As long as this world lasts, a severe law protects the entrance to the eternal palace. No-one, without having first laid aside the garb of flesh, is admitted to contemplate the King of Heaven. There is one, however, of our lowly race, whom the terrible decree does not touch: the true Esther, in her incredible beauty, advances without hindrance through all the doors. Full of grace, she is worthy of the love of the true Assuerus. But on the way which leads to the awful throne of the King of kings, she walks not alone: two handmaids, one supporting her steps, the other holding up the long folds of her royal robe, accompany her. They are the angelic nature and the human, both equally proud to hail her as their mistress and lady, and both sharing in her glory.
If we go back from the time of captivity when Esther saved her people, to the days of Israel’s greatness, we find our Lady’s entrance into the city of endless peace represented by the Queen of Saba coming to the earthly Jerusalem. While she contemplates with rapture the magnificence of the mighty prince of Sion, the pomp of her own retinue, the incalculable riches of the treasure she brings, her precious stones and her spices, plunge the whole city into admiration. “There was brought no more,” says the Scripture, “such abundance of spices as these which the Queen of Saba gave to King Solomon” (3 Kings x. 10).
The reception given by David’s son to Bethsabee, his mother, in the third Book of Kings, no less happily expresses the mystery of today, so replete with the filial love of the true Solomon. “Then Bethsabee came to King Solomon... and the king arose to meet her, and bowed to her, and sat down on his throne: and a throne was set for the king’s mother: and she sat on his right hand” (3 Kings ii. 19) O Lady, how exceedingly do you surpass all the servants and ministers and friends of God! “On the day when Gabriel came to my lowliness,” are the words Saint Ephrem puts into your mouth, “from handmaid I became Queen. And I, the slave of your divinity, found myself suddenly the mother of your humanity, my Lord and my Son! O Son of the King who has made me his daughter, O you heavenly One, who thus brings into Heaven this daughter of Earth, by what name shall I call you?” The Lord Christ Himself answered. The God made Man revealed to us the only name which fully expresses Him in His two-fold nature: He is called The Son. Son of Man as He is Son of God, on Earth He has only a Mother, as in Heaven He has only a Father. In the august Trinity He proceeds from the Father, remaining consubstantial with Him, only distinguished from Him in that He is Son, producing together with Him, as one Principle, the Holy Ghost. In the external mission He fulfils by the Incarnation to the glory of the Blessed Trinity, communicating to His humanity the manners, so to say, of His Divinity, as far as the diversity of the two natures permits, He is in no way separated from His Mother, and would have her participate even in the giving of the Holy Ghost to every soul. This ineffable union is the foundation of all Mary’s greatnesses, which are crowned by today’s triumph.
The days within the Octave will give us an opportunity of showing some of the consequences of this principle. Today let it suffice to have laid it down. “As Christ is the Lord,” says Arnold of Bonneval, the friend of Saint Bernard, “Mary is Lady and sovereign. He who bends the knee before the Son, kneels before the Mother. At the sound of her name the devils tremble, men rejoice, the Angels glorify God. Mary and Christ are one flesh, one mind, and one love. From the day when it was said, ‘The Lord is with thee,’ the grace was irrevocable, the unity inseparable. And in speaking of the glory of Son and Mother, we must call it not so much a common glory as the self-same glory.” “O you, the beauty and the honour of your Mother,” adds the great deacon of Edessa, “thus have you adorned her in every way. Together with others she is your sister and your bride, but she alone conceived you.” Rupert in his turn cries out: “Come then, O "most beautiful one, you will be crowned in Heaven Queen of saints, on Earth Queen of every kingdom. Wherever it will be said of the Beloved that He is crowned with glory and honour and set over the works of His Father’s hands, everywhere also will they proclaim of you, O well beloved, that you are His Mother, and as such Queen over every domain where His power extends. And therefore emperors and kings will crown you with their crowns and consecrate their palaces to you.”
Among the feasts of the Saints this is the solemnity of solemnities. “Let the mind of man,” says Saint Peter Damian, “be occupied in declaring her magnificence. Let his speech reflect her majesty. May the sovereign of the world deign to accept the good will of our lips, to aid our insufficiency, to illumine with her own light the sublimity of this day.”
It is no new thing, then, that Mary’s triumph fills the hearts of Christians with enthusiasm. Before our times the Church showed by the prescriptions kept in the Corpus juris the pre-eminence she assigned to this glorious anniversary. Thus, under Boniface VIII she granted to it, as to no other feast, except Christmas, Easter and Pentecost, the privilege of being celebrated with ringing of bells and the customary splendour in countries laid under interdict. In his instructions to the newly-converted Bulgarians, Saint Nicholas I who occupied the Apostolic See from 858 to 867, had already united these four solemnities when recommending the fasts of Lent, of the Ember days, and of the Vigils of these feasts: “Fasts,” he says, “which the holy Roman Church has long since received and observed.”
We must refer to the preceding century the composition of the celebrated discourse which, until the time of Saint Pius V, furnished the Lessons for the Matins of the feast, while its thoughts, and even its text are still found in several parts of the Office. The author, worthy of the greatest ages for style and science, but screening himself under a false name, began thus: “You wish me, O Paula and Eustochium, to lay aside my usual form of treatises, and strive (a new thing to me), to celebrate in oratorical style the Assumption of the Blessed Mary ever Virgin.” And the supposed Saint Jerome eloquently declared the grandeur of this feast: “Incomparable as is she who thereon ascended glorious and happy to the sanctuary of Heaven: a solemnity, the admiration of the heavenly hosts, the happiness of the citizens of our true country, who, not content with giving it one day as we do, celebrate it unceasingly in the eternal continuity of their veneration, of their love, and of their triumphant joy.”
Unfortunately a just aversion for the excesses of certain apocryphal writers led the author of this beautiful exposition of the greatness of Mary to hesitate in his belief as to the glorious privilege of her corporal Assumption. This over-discreet prudence was soon exaggerated in the martyrologies of Usuard and of Odo of Vienne. That such a misconception of the ever-growing tradition should be found in Gaul, is truly astonishing, since it was the ancient Gallican liturgy which gave to the West the explicit formula of that complete Assumption, the consequence of a divine and virginal maternity: “No pain in childbirth, no suffering in death, no dissolution in the grave, for no tomb could retain her whom Earth had never sullied.” When the first Carlovingians abandoned the Gallican liturgy, they bowed to the authority of the false Saint Jerome. But the faith of the people could not be suppressed. In the 13th century the two princes of theology, Saint Thomas and Saint Bonaventure, subscribed to the general belief in our Lady’s anticipated resurrection. Soon this belief, by reason of its universality, claimed to be the doctrine of the Church herself. In 1497 the Sorbonne severely censured all contrary propositions.In 1870 an earnest desire was expressed to have the doctrine defined, but the Vatican Council was unfortunately suspended too soon to complete our Lady’s glorious crown. Yet the proclamation of the Immaculate Conception, of which our times can boast, gives us hope for the future. The corporal Assumption of our Lady follows naturally from that dogma as its necessary result. Mary, having known nothing of original sin, contracted no debt with death, the punishment of that sin. She freely chose to die in order to be conformable to her Divine Son and, as the Holy One of God, so the holy one of his Christ, could not suffer the corruption of the tomb.
If certain ancient calendars give to this feast the title of Sleep or Repose, dormitio or pausatio of the Blessed Virgin, we cannot thence conclude that at the time they were composed the feast had no other object than Mary's holy death. The Greeks, from whom we have the expression, have always included in the solemnity the glorious triumph that followed her death. The same is to be said of the Syrians, Chaldeans, Copts and Armenians. Among the last-named, according to the custom of arranging their feasts by the day of the week rather than the date of the month, the Assumption is fixed for the Sunday which occurs between the 12th and 18th August. It is preceded by a week of fasting, and gives its name to the series of Sundays following it, up to the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in September.
At Rome the Assumption or Dormitio of the holy Mother of God appears in the seventh century to have already been celebrated for an indefinite length of time. Nor does it seem to have had any other day than the 15th August. According to Nicephorus Callistus, the same date was assigned to it for Constantinople by the Emperor Mauritius at the end of the sixth century. The historian notes, at the same time, the origin of several other solemnities, while of the dormitio alone, he does not say that it was established by Mauritius on such a day. Hence learned authors have concluded that the feast itself already existed before the imperial decree was issued, which was thus only intended to put an end to its being celebrated on various days. At that very time, far away from Byzantium, the Merovingian Franks celebrated the glorification of our Lady on the 18th January, with all the plenitude of doctrine we have mentioned above. However the choice of this day may be accounted for, it is remarkable that to this very time the Copts on the borders of the Nile announce in their synaxaria on the 21st of the month of Tobi, our 28th January, the repose of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and the Assumption of her body into Heaven. They, however, repeat the announcement on the 16th of Mesori, or 21st August, and on the 1st of this same month of Mesori they begin their Lent of the Mother of God, lasting a fortnight like that of the Greeks.
Some authors think that the Assumption has been kept from Apostolic times. But the silence of the primitive liturgical documents is not in favour of the opinion. The hesitation as to the date of its celebration, and the liberty so long allowed with regard to it, point rather to the spontaneous initiative of divers churches, owing to some fact attracting attention to the mystery, or throwing some light upon it. Of this nature we may reckon the account everywhere spread abroad about the year 451, in which Juvenal of Jerusalem related to the empress Saint Pulcheria and her husband Marcian the history of the tomb which was empty of its precious deposit, and which the Apostles had prepared for our Lady at the foot of Mount Olivet. The following words of Saint Andrew of Crete in the seventh century show how the new solemnity gained ground in consequence of such circumstances. The Saint was born at Damascus, became a monk at Jerusalem, was afterwards deacon at Constantinople, and lastly Bishop of the celebrated Island from which he takes his name. No-one then could speak for the East with better authority: “The present solemnity,” he says, “is full of mystery, having for its object to celebrate the day on which the Mother of God fell asleep. This solemnity is too elevated for any discourse to reach. By some this mystery has not always been celebrated, but now, all love and honour it. Silence long preceded speech, but now love divulges the secret. The gift of God must be manifested, not buried. We must show it forth, not as recently discovered, but as having recovered its splendour. Some of those who lived before us knew it but imperfectly: that is no reason for always keeping silence about it. It has not become altogether obscured. Let us proclaim it and keep a feast. Today let the inhabitants of Heaven and of Earth be united, let the joy of Angels and men be one, let every tongue exult and sing Hail to the Mother of God.”
Let us, too, do honour to the gift of God. Let us be grateful to the Church for having given us this feast on which to sing with the Angels the glory of Mary.
“When the time came for the Blessed Mary to leave this earth, the Apostles were gathered together from all lands, and having learnt that the hour was at hand they watched with her. Now the Lord Jesus came with His Angels and received her soul. In the morning the Apostles took up her body and placed it in the tomb. And again the Lord came, and the holy body was taken up in a cloud.” To this testimony of Gregory of Tours the whole West and East respond, extolling “the solemnity of the blessed night on which the venerated Virgin made her entry into Heaven.” “What a brilliant light pierces the darkness” of this night, says Saint John Damascene. And he goes on to describe the assembly of the faithful eagerly pressing during the sacred night to hear the praises of the Mother of God.
How could Rome, so devout to Mary, allow herself to be outdone? On the testimony of Saint Peter Damian, the whole people spent the glorious night in prayer, singing and visiting the different churches. And, according to several privileged persons enlightened from above, still greater, at that blessed hour, was the number of souls delivered from Purgatory by the Queen of the universe, and all visiting likewise the sanctuaries consecrated to her name. But the most imposing of all demonstrations in the city was the memorable litany or procession, which dates back to the Pontificate of Saint Sergius (687‒701). Up to the second half of the sixteenth century it continued to express, as Rome alone knows how to, the august visit our Lady received from her Son at the solemn moment of her departure from this world.
Two principal sanctuaries in the Eternal City represent, as it were, the residences or palaces of Mother and Son: the basilica of our Saviour on the Lateran and that of Saint Mary on the Esquiline. As the latter rejoices in possessing the picture of the Blessed Virgin painted by Saint Luke, the Lateran preserves in a special oratory, holy of holies, the picture not made by hand of man representing the form of our Saviour upon cedar-wood. On the morning of the Vigil the Sovereign Pontiff, accompanied by the Cardinals, went barefoot and, after seven genuflections, uncovered the picture of the Virgin’s Son. In the evening, while the bell of Ara Coeli gave from the Capitol the signal for the preparations prescribed by the city magistrates, the Lord Pope went to Saint Mary Major, where, surrounded by his court, he celebrated First Vespers. At the beginning of the night the Matins with nine Lessons were chanted in the same church. Meanwhile an ever-growing crowd gathers on the piazza of the Lateran, awaiting the Pontiff’s return. From all sides appear the various guilds of the arts and crafts, each led by its own head and taking up its appointed position. Around the picture of the Saviour, within the sanctuary, stand the twelve bearers who form its perpetual guard, all members of the most illustrious families, and near them are the representatives of the senate and of the Roman people. But the signal is given that the papal retinue is re-descending the Esquiline. Instantly lighted torches glitter on all sides, either held in the hand, or carried on the brancards of the corporations. Assisted by the deacons, the Cardinals raise on their shoulders the holy image, which advances under a canopy, escorted in perfect order by the immense multitude. Along the illuminated and decorated streets, amid the singing of Psalms and the sound of instruments, the procession reaches the ancient Triumphal Way, winds round the Colliseum and, passing through the arches of Constantine and Titus, halts for a first Station on the Via Sacra before the church called Saint Mary Minor or Nuova. In this church, while the second Matins with three Lessons are being chanted in honour of the Mother, some priests wash, with scented water in a silver basin, the feet of her Son, our Lord, and then sprinkle the people with the water thus sanctified. Then the venerable picture sets out once more, crosses the Forum amid acclamations, and reaches the church of Saint Adrian, thence returning to mount the slopes of the Esquiline by the streets where lie the churches of that part: Saint Peter-ad-Vincula, Saint Lucy, Saint Martin-on-the-hill, Saint Praxedes, it at last enters the piazza of Saint Mary Major. Then the delight and the applause of the crowd are redoubled. All, men and women, great and little, as we read in a document of 1462, forgetting the fatigue of a whole night spent without sleep, cease not till morning to visit and venerate our Lord and Mary. In this glorious basilica, adorned as a bride, the glorious Office of Lauds celebrates the meeting of the Son and the Mother and their union for all eternity. Striking miracles often showed the divine pleasure in this manifestation of the people’s faith and love. Peter the Venerable and other reliable witnesses mention the prodigy annually renewed of the torches burning throughout the whole night, and being found on the morrow to be of the same weight as on the eve.
In 847, as the procession headed by Saint Leo IV passed by the church of Saint Lucy, a monstrous serpent, which had lived in a cavern hard by to the continual terror of the inhabitants, took to flight and was never seen again. In gratitude for this deliverance an Octave was added to the feast. Four centuries later, in the Pontificate of the heroic Gregory IX, when the sacred cortege stopped according to custom before the church of Saint Mary Nuova, the partisans of the excommunicated Frederick II, occupying the tower of the Frangipani not far off, began to cry out: “Here is the Saviour, let the Emperor come!” when suddenly the tower fell to the ground crushing them under its ruins. But let us return to the great basilica where other recollections invite us. On another night we joy fully celebrated within its walls the birth of our Emmanuel. How ineffable are the divine harmonies! At the same hour, when for the first time Mary had pressed to her heart the infant God in the stable, she herself now awakes in the arms of her well-beloved at the very height of Heaven. The Church, who reads during this month the Books of Divine Wisdom, did well to select for tonight the Canticle of Canticles. The Bishop of Meaux thus describes this death: “The Most Holy Virgin gave up her soul without pain and without violence into the hands of her Son. It was not necessary for her love to exert itself by any extraordinary emotions. As the slightest shock causes the fully ripe fruit to drop down from the tree, so was this blessed soul culled, to be suddenly transported to heaven. Thus the holy Virgin died by a movement of divine love: her soul was carried to heaven on a cloud of sacred desires. Therefore the holy Angels said: ‘Who is she that goes up... as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh, and frankincense?’ (Canticles iii. 6). — a beautiful and excellent comparison admirably explaining the manner of her happy, tranquil death. The fragrant smoke that we see rising up from a composition of perfumes, is not extracted by force, nor propelled by violence: a gentle, tempered heat delicately detaches it and turns it into a subtle vapour which rises of its own accord. Thus was the soul of the holy Virgin separated from her body: the foundations were not shaken by a violent concussion. A divine heat detached it gently from the body and raised it up to its Beloved.”
“For a few hours that sacred body remained in our world, ‘the treasure of the Earth, soon to become the wonder of the heavens.’ Who could tell the sentiments of the august persons gathered by our Lord around His Mother, to render her in His name the last duties? An illustrious witness, Denis of Athens, reminded Timothy, who had been there present with him, of the discourses which, coming from hearts filled with the Holy Ghost, rose up as so many hymns to the Almighty goodness, by which our littleness had been divinised. There was James, the brother of the Lord, and Peter, the leader of the choir, and the Pontiffs of the Sacred College, and all the brethren who had come to contemplate the body which had given us life, and had borne God. Above them all, after the Apostles, did Hierotheus distinguish himself, for being ravished far from earth and from himself, he seemed to all like a divine cantor.
But this assembly of men, in whom reigned the light of God, understood that they must carry out to the end the desires of her, who even in death was still the humblest of creatures. Carried by the Apostles, escorted by the Angels of heaven and the Saints of earth, the virginal body was borne from Sion to the valley of Gethsemani, where so often since that bleeding Agony our Lady had returned either in body or in heart. For a last time Peter 'joining his venerable hands gazed attentively at the almost divine features of the Mother of our Saviour; his glance, full of faith, sought to discover through the shades of death some rays of the glory with which the Queen of Heaven was already shining.” John, her adopted son, cast one long, last, sorrowful look upon the Virgin’s countenance, so calm and so sweet. The tomb was closed. Earth was deprived for ever of the sight of which it was unworthy.
More fortunate than men, the Angels, whose gaze could penetrate the marble monument, watched beside the tomb. They continued their songs until, after three days, the most holy soul of the Mother of God came down to take up her sacred body. Then leaving the grave, they accompanied her to Heaven. Let us too, then, have our hearts on high! Let us today forget our exile to rejoice in Mary’s triumph. And let us learn to follow her by the odour of her sweet perfumes.Epistle – Ecclesiasticus xxiv. 11‒13, 15‒20
In all things I sought rest, and I will abide in the inheritance of the Lord. Then the creator of all things commanded, and said to me: and he that made me, rested in my tabernacle. And he said to me: Let your dwelling be in Jacob, and your inheritance in Israel, and take root in my elect. And so was I established in Sion, and in the holy city likewise I rested, and my power was in Jerusalem. And I took root in an honourable people, and in the portion of my God his inheritance, and my abode is in the full assembly of saints. I was exalted like a cedar in Libanus, and as a cypress tree on mount Sion. I was exalted like a palm tree in Cades, and as a rose plant in Jericho. As a fair olive tree in the plains, and as a plane tree by the water in the streets, was I exalted. I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon and aromatical balm: I yielded a sweet odour like the best myrrh.Thanks be to God.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
The Epistle we have just read is closely connected with the Gospel that is to follow. The rest that Mary sought is the better part, the repose of the soul in the presence of the Peaceful King. And when a soul is thus full of peace, she forms the choicest part of her Lord’s inheritance. No creature has attained so nearly as our Lady to the eternal, unchangeable peace of the ever-tranquil Trinity. Hence no other has merited to become, in the same degree, the resting-place of God.
A soul occupied by active works cannot attain the perfection or the fruitfulness of one in whom our Lord takes His rest, because she is at rest in Him, for this is the nuptial rest. As the Psalm says: “When the Lord will give sleep to his beloved, then shall their fruit be seen.”
Let us then, who became Mary’s children on the day the Lord first rested in her tabernacle, understand these magnificent expressions of Eternal Wisdom, for they reveal to us the glory of her triumph. The branch that sprang from the stock of Jesse bears the divine Flower on which rests the fullness of the Holy Ghost. But it has taken root also in the elect, into whose branches it passes the heavenly sap, which transforms them and divinises their fruit. These fruits of Jacob and of Israel, i.e., the works of the ordinary Christian life or of the life of perfection, belong therefore to our Blessed Mother. Rightly then does Mary enter today upon her unending rest in the eternal Sion — the true holy city and glorified people — the Lord’s inheritance.
Her power will be established in Jerusalem and the Saints will forever acknowledge that they owe to her the fullness of their perfection. But the plenitude of Mary’s personal merits far surpasses that of all the Saints together. As the cedar of Libanus towers above the flowers of the field, far more does our Lady’s sanctity, next to that of her divine Son, surpass the sanctity of every other creature. The Angelic Doctor says: “The trees to which the Blessed Virgin is compared in this Epistle may be taken to represent the different orders of the blessed. This passage therefore means that Mary has been exalted above the Angels, Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins, and all the Saints, because she possesses all their merits united in her single person.”Gospel – Luke x. 38‒42
At that time Jesus entered into a certain town: and a certain woman named Martha, received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sitting also at the Lord’s feet, heard His word. But Martha was busy about much serving. Who stood and said: “Lord, have you no care that my sister has left me alone to serve? Speak to her therefore, that she help me.” And the Lord answering, said to her: “Martha, Martha, you are careful, and are troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the best part, which will not be taken away from her.”Praise be to you, O Christ.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
To this Gospel the Roman Liturgy formerly added, as the Greek and the Mozarabic still add, the following verses from another chapter of Saint Luke: “As he spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd lifting up her voice said to Him: ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the paps that gave you suck.’ But He said: ‘Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it.’” (Luke xi. 27, 28). The words thus added turned the people’s thoughts towards our Lady: still the episode of Martha and Mary in the Gospel of the day remained unexplained. We will use the words of Saint Bruno of Asti to express the reason tradition gives for the choice of this Gospel. “These two women,” he says, “are the leaders of the army of the Church, and all the faithful follow them. Some walk in Martha’s footsteps, others in Mary’s. But no one can reach our heavenly fatherland unless he follows one or the other. Rightly then have our fathers ordained that this Gospel should be read on the principal feast of our Lady, for she is signified by these two sisters. For no other creature combined the privileges of both lives, active and contemplative, as did the Blessed Virgin. Like Martha she received Christ — yes, she did more than Martha, for she received Him not only into her house, but into her womb. She conceived Him, gave Him birth, carried Him in her arms, and ministered to Him more frequently than did Martha. On the other hand, she listened, like Mary, to His words, and kept them for our sake, pondering them in her heart. She contemplated His Humanity and penetrated more deeply than all others into His Divinity. She chose the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
“He,” continues St. Bernard, “whom she received at His entrance into this poor world, receives her today at the gate of the holy City. No spot on Earth so worthy of the Son of God as the Virgin’s womb: no throne in Heaven so lofty as that on which the Son of Mary places her in return. What a reception each gave to the other! It is beyond the power of expression, because beyond the reach of our thought. Who will declare the generation of the Son, and the Assumption of the Mother?”
In honour of both Mother and Son, let us put this Lesson of the Gospel into practice in our lives. When our soul is troubled, like Martha, or distracted with many anxieties, let us always remember, as Mary did, that there is but one thing necessary. Our Lord alone, either in Himself or in His members, should be the one object of our thoughts. Every human thing is of more or less importance in proportion to its relation to God’s glory. We should value everything in this proportion, and then the grace of God which surpasses all understanding will keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Today the Church on Earth, represented by Martha, complains that she has been left alone to struggle and labour. But our Lord defends Mary, and confirms her in her choice of the better part. We must not allow anything like regret or envy to cast a shadow over our hearts. Mary has finished her pilgrimage and left our Earth. But now that she has entered into her glory, she still prays for us.
YOU tasted death, O Mary, but that death, like the sleep of Adam at the world’s beginning, was but an ecstasy leading the Bride into the Bridegroom’s presence. As the sleep of the new Adam on the great day of salvation, it called for the awakening of resurrection. In Jesus Christ our entire nature, soul and body, was already reigning in Heaven. But as in the first paradise, so in the presence of the Holy Trinity, it was not good for man to be alone (Genesis ii. 18). Today at the right hand of Jesus appears the new Eve, in all things like her Divine Head in His vesture of glorified Flesh: henceforth nothing is wanting in the eternal Paradise. O Mary, who, according to the expression of your devout servant John Damascene, has made death blessed and happy, detach us from this world where nothing ought now to have a hold on us. We have accompanied you in desire. We have followed you with the eyes of our soul, as far as the limits of our mortality allowed. And now, can we ever again turn our eyes on this world of darkness? O Blessed Virgin, in order to sanctify our exile and help us to rejoin you, bring to our aid the virtues by which, as on wings, you soared to so sublime a height. In us, too, they must reign. In us they must crush the head of the wicked serpent, that one day they may triumph in us. O day of days, when we will behold not only our Redeemer, but also the Queen who stands so close to the Sun of Justice as even to be clothed with it, eclipsing with her brightness all the splendours of the Saints! The Church, it is true, remains to us, O Mary, the Church who is also our Mother, and who continues your struggle against the dragon with its seven hateful heads. But she too sighs for the time when the wings of an eagle will be given her, and she will be permitted to rise like you from the desert and to reach her Spouse. Look upon her passing, like the moon, at your feet, through her laborious phases. Hear the supplications she addresses to you as Mediatrix with the divine Sun: through you may she receive light; through you may she find favour with Him who loved you, and clothed you with glory and crowned you with beauty.Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Rome, on the Via Appia, St. Tharsicius, acolyte. The pagans accosted him as he was carrying the sacrament of Christ’s body, and began to inquire what it was. But he judged it an unworthy thing to cast pearls before swine. They therefore beat him with sticks and stones until he expired. The sacrilegious searchers examined his body but found no vestige of the sacrament of Christ, either in his hands or in his clothes. Christians took up the body of the martyr and buried it reverently in the cemetery of Callistus.
At Tagaste in Africa, St. Alipius, bishop, who was the disciple of blessed Augustine, and the companion of his conversion, his colleague in the pastoral charge, his valiant fellow-soldier in combating heretics, and finally his partner in the glory of heaven.
At Soissons in France, St. Arnulf, bishop and confessor.
At Alba in Hungary, St. Stephen, king of the Hungarians, whose feast is celebrated on the second of September.
At Rome, St. Stanislaus Kostka, a native of Poland, confessor, of the Society of Jesus, who being made perfect in a short space, fulfilled a long time by the angelical innocence of his life. He was inscribed on the list of the saints by Pope Benedict XIII.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
