The Crown of Excellence : Chapter 3 : § 2. 3-4

Chapter 3 : The Second 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)

That from the beginning of the world she was announced by the Prophets and represented by ancient figures

In the previous chapter, I presented the Holy Virgin as a trial design by God when considered in relation to the Saviour, who was Himself the first actual masterpiece in the world. In comparison with the rest of creation, however, it cannot be denied that Mary was the second masterpiece by God who produced a thousand preparatory sketches, as will be seen in the following discussion.

§ 2. On three inanimate figures used to represent the MOTHER OF GOD, namely the burning bush of Moses, Aaron’s rod and Gedeon’s Fleece

[The burning Bush continued]

 3   Going beyond this, you will see that Moses calls it a great sight[1] because in effect this was an unheard of prodigy – that a woman should have conceived, but not without benefit, by which I mean a growth in her virginity. Moses saw this wonder on the mountain in the desert, prefiguring that the MOTHER OF GOD is on the highest place in the desert of this world. As Scripture says, God was in the midst of the Bush when He spoke to Moses; and the divine Word was in the midst of virginal body. There in the Bush, God made His plans for the deliverance of His people, as is seen when He straightway called to Moses and sent him to Pharao.[2] In the same way, the Saviour set in motion our redemption from His little refuge [in the womb] and, as David says, He hath wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.[3]  According to St Bernard,[4] this means in the immaculate womb of the most holy Virgin. It was God Himself who sanctified this spot, calling it holy ground and forbidding Moses to come not nigh except with all reverence.[5] We shall see later the honour He rendered unto the Holy Virgin and how high He lifted her up to shower her with glory and majesty.

Finally, as St Theodorus remarks, this fire caught hold in a bramble which he calls a lowly shrub. It normally grows close to the ground and, according to the great Naturalist,[6] when in flower it is a great deterrent to serpents, especially to those we call the Horseshoe snake[7] and the Dipsa.[8] The first of these, after biting someone, causes him to lose all his blood because the wound cannot be staunched. The other one sucks out all the body’s fluid causing an indescribable change to its parts. The excellent and rare humility of the MOTHER OF GOD is here seen symbolically in the lowliness of the shrub and in the unrivalled antipathy she has towards the infernal serpent and towards every sort of vice, especially original sin. All this is well symbolised by the two venomous snakes inasmuch as by sin’s poison we are no less paralysed than a person who loses all his blood; and we are changed so as to burn with bestial concupiscence. Among all the pure creatures, the Virgin alone has been spared these pernicious effects.

Footnotes

[1] Exod. iii. 3.

[2] Exod. iii. 10.

[3] Psal. LXXIV. 12.

[4] Serm. 1 Pentec.

[5] Exod. iii. 5.

[6] Plin. I, XXIV, c. 33.

[7] Possibly Hemorrhois hippocrepis (LINNAEUS, 1758)..

[8] See the Medieval Bestiary. https://bestiary.ca/beasts/beast275.htm  

The Second Figure : Aaron’s Rod

 4   From Moses, we now move on to his brother Aaron, and from the burning Bush of Moses to Aaron’s Rod, which similarly is a figure of the MOTHER OF GOD. This has been recognised by the above-mentioned Doctors:[1] St Ephrem[2], St Ambrose[3], St Jerome[4], blessed Peter Damian[5], St Bernard[6], and others[7]. The story is recounted in Chapter xvii of the Book of Numbers which tells how God wished to halt the murmurings of the headstrong people. He also wanted to give an authentic testimony that He and no other had chosen Aaron and the tribe of Levi to offer Him sacrifices. Through His servant Moses, He ordered that the following day the Princes of the twelve tribes should each bring their rods, that Moses’ brother Aaron should do the same, that the name of each Prince should be engraved on the rods and that they should be placed in the Tabernacle. This being done, Moses goes to the Tabernacle on the following day, accompanied by the Princes of the people and his brother Aaron. He takes the rods that he had consigned into the hands of God and everyone sees the new buds on Aaron’s rod, which suddenly open in their presence and turn into leaves and flowers, along with fruit. 

That is the story and here is the interpretation given to it by the Holy Fathers. Aaron’s Rod is the MOTHER OF GOD, given this name by the Prophet Isaiah[8] when he said: a Virgin shall come forth, a rod out of the root of Jesse. She bears flowers and fruits which, according to St Ephrem[9] and St Jerome,[10] are none other than our Lord Jesus Christ, the true flower of the field and the fruit of life.

This rod, says the devout St Bernard[11], puts forth buds without being watered and planted in the earth to obtain moisture and goodness; in the same way, the flower of Nazareth was conceived without any sort of corruption or alteration.[12] The rod is filled with sap and is covered in buds, all the others remaining dry, because this rod alone receives grace in the midst of the common desolation and general dysphoria of the world.

 

The Rod is pure white, without bark or knot, says St Ambrose, representing the innocence and chaste integrity of the Holy Virgin; for in her is found neither the knot of original sin nor the bark of actual sin.

He has indeed good reason to compare original sin to a knot. It is through knots that trees put out their branches; just as the first sin brings forth other sins. Again, even if a branch is cut away, it leaves a hard and misshapen area on the trunk where the knot was; similarly, we cannot help feeling the pernicious effects of the sin we are born with, even though washed away in Baptism.

Peter Damien puts it well when he says that the rod of Jesse comes forth from the twisted root of the Patriarchs and Prophets, even though it is tall and straight like a reed but without the knot and offshoot of sin.

St Jerome cries out[13]  that the Church is the blessed earth from which Jesus Christ the King sprang, from the most noble race and the most illustrious stem of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, men upright and noble by reason of their integrity and virtue. But much more noble and incomparably more free is the glorious Virgin. She comes forth from this trunk straight as a rod, having no buds about her but only at the crown the pleasing flower of the Canticles.

This rod has no germ or shoot, says St Bernard[14], not letting itself bear flowers. In the same way, Mary remains a virgin, not letting herself conceive. If the beauty of the former is not tarnished by the flower that emerges, then similarly the integrity of the latter is not affected by the fruit of live that she bears.

Footnotes

[1] § 2..

[2] Serm. de Beat. Mariæ laudib.

[3] Loco proxime citando.

[4] In c. 13 Osee.

[5] Serm. de Annuntiat.

[6] Homil. 2 in Missus.

[7] S. Bonavent. in Laude B. Mariæ Virg., etc.

[8] Cap. 11.

[9] Loco cit.

[10] Loco cit.

[11] Loco cit.

[12] Corruption: Il se dit aussi dans le Dogmatique, de l’Alteration qui arrive dans un Corps physique pour la generation & la production d’un autre. Les Philosophes disent que la corruption d’une chose est la generation d’une autre. l’espi ne se forme que par la corruption du grain.

[13] In c. 9 Eccles.

[14] Serm. 2 in Missus.

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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