The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 2 : § 2. 3

Chapter 2: The First Star or Splendour of the Crown of Excellence of the Mother of God

Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr Poiré's Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).

Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020)

§ 2. That our Lord Jesus Christ is, by His eternal predestination, the First-born of every creature

Second title by which the Saviour is the Firstborn of every creature

 3   In the second place, He is called the Firstborn of every creature because God has subjected them all to the one known[1] to the Eldest of the house, to whom properly belongs the inheritance and power of command over His brethren. He is called the Beginning of the ways and the works of God, because they all depend on Him and culminate in Him, as the point which is at once the beginning and end of the circle. St Hilary gave me this idea at the end of his 12th book on the Trinity, where he says:

The Word incarnate is rightly called the Beginning of the ways and works of God (which is to say, the end, for this is the interpretation of the great Father. This follows because all the steps taken by God before the Incarnation were directed uniquely to Him: when He cam to meet Adam, when He expelled Adam from Paradise, when He was received by Abraham, when He came down to examine the crimes of the sinful cities, when He appeared to Moses in the burning bush, when he gave the Law on Mount Sinai and so on. All these steps or actions taken by God had a particular significance in the hidden mystery of the Word incarnate.

Take careful note, St Theodoret[2] says in a beautiful simile, that all paths lead in the end to the royal route; you may judge from this that it is neither more nor less the case with all the ancient prophecies and figures for all lead to Jesus Christ.

Tertullian[3] explains this is why He is called the Alpha and the Omega. St John Chrysostom[4] notes this is the reason St Paul[5] gives for God’s making of Him the recapitulation and sum of all things. It is the reason , according to St Cyprian[6], that Isaiah[7] calls Him the abridgement that God promised to make in the midst of all the land. In your view, was it not for this reason that He cried out on the bed of the Cross: It is consummated.[8] It is just as if He had wanted to say: All the shadows past and passing have been fulfilled. The second Adam has been formed from virgin soil; the articles of His marriage with the Church have been granted, the death of innocent Abel is concluded, Noah now floats on the waters of the flood, Abraham has already put forth his hand and taken the sword, Isaac is on the pile of wood, Jacob is going to cross the Jordan, Joseph is sold to infidels, the Serpent of Moses is lifted up, Samson is made a laughing stock to his enemies, Gedeon is going to break the jar with his soldiers, Job is delivered into the power of Satan, Jonas is cast into the sea. All that remains is by my death to place the seal on these prophecies and the last brush-stroke on these paintings. Do thou receive, my dear spouse, the spirit I communicate to give thee life.

Footnotes

[1] connue. Fem. Suggesting the Blessed Virgin?

[2] Lib. de Curandis Græcorum affectionibus.

[3] Lib. de Monomagia.

[4] Ephes. i.

[5] And he is before all, and by him all things consist. Coloss. i. 17.

[6] Lib. II contra Judæos, art. 3.

[7] Cap. x. 23 For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, and an abridgment in the midst of all the land.

[8] Jesus therefore, when he had taken the vinegar, said: It is consummated. And bowing his head, he gave up the ghost.  [John xix. 30]

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

© Peter Bloor 2024