Chapter 9 : The Eighth Star or Splendour in the Crown of Excellence of the Mother of God
Continuing our translation of the 1845 reprint of Fr François Poiré's Triple Crown of the Mother of God (1643 French edition).
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| Notre Dame des Grâces, Cotignac.(Poggi, 2020) |
She is singularly blessed
§ 2. The Holy Virgin was singularly blessed among women
Exemption from the curses pronounced against women, first Blessing of the Mother of God
4 In the midst of this deluge of evils and curses, let us take not to imagine the MOTHER OF GOD in any other way than as the true Ark of Noe, floating on the waters; the waves serve only to raise her still higher and show her as being even more astonishing in her singularity.
Reason demanded this must be the case, says St Leo[1], granted that the conception and the birth of the Saviour were altogether exceptional.
When would anyone speak of punishment, asks Richard of St Victor[2], in a case where there was no fault?
But to focus in particular on the three scourges decreed as punishment for the disobedient woman, St Bernard[3] says at the outset we should :
distance our thoughts from these painful and distressing pregnancies that are the first punishment for her sin. In the case of the MOTHER OF GOD, all is heavenly and divine. Just as she is the first flower of virginity and has become pregnant without defilement, so then it is reasonable to conclude she bears her charge effortlessly and without inconvenience.
St Fulgence could not have put it any better, in my opinion, than when he said on this point[4] that:
her womb was no more burdened than her soul, that the fruit in her womb gave her a feeling of lightness, and that it was impossible for her to be weighed down by the light who had His abode within her.
St Bernard[5] adds that this little infant actually carried her rather than being carried by her. Just look at her in the mountains of Judah at a time when she should have found such a journey too demanding. She does not walk, but she hurries; she does not hurry but she flies; she does not fly but seems to be borne by the hands of Angels, or to have become as light as fire, from the moment the divine fire was lit within her womb.
Footnotes
[1] Serm. 1 de Nativit.
[2] Lib. II de Emmanuele, c. 28.
[3] Serm. in Signum magnum, etc.
[4] Lib. de Laudibus Virg.
[5] Loc. cit.
5 As far as labour pains are concerned, you will never see any trace of such in the case of Mary. But, as St Cyprien sagaciously remarks[1]:
why even look for them since the contractions experienced in childbirth are only enforcing God’s sentence and they would never do this to the innocent?
St Gregory of Nyssa[2] adds that these pains were fitting for the mother of death but not for the mother of life, and the words of the heavenly messenger speak only of joy, grace and blessedness.
St Fulgentius, it seems to me, puts it even better[3], saying that:
He who came to raise the world out of the distress into which it had sunk could not possibly bring sorrow into her who had provided such a loving home for Him and treated Him so well for the space of nine whole months.
I must admit how pitiful it is to hear poor Rebecca when she was carrying her twins fill the house with her disconsolate cries. But what can be done in such a case? She has to be patient because she had wanted so impatiently to become a mother. As for Mary, she conceived only through the will and movement of the holy Ghost. We should therefore not be surprised for her to be exempt from such cries as well as from the mess that accompanies childbirth. Neither the Holy Councils[4] nor the Holy Fathers allow us to have any other opinion of her.
What? Asks St Zeno[5], Bishop of Verona, do you really want to picture the MOTHER OF GOD overwhelmed in labour, worn out and exhausted by the demands arising from bringing little infants into the world? Would the mess of childbirth be in any way fitting for the Son or the Mother? He who came to cleanse a world infected with sin would never have countenanced anything like this around him.
St Augustine[6] has marvellous things to say on this matter when he is addressing a certain Manichaean (with whom he had a conversation earlier):
The golden rays of the Sun dry the mud on public roads, but hast thou ever seen the rays besmirched through contact with the mire? Now if that could not possibly happen, how canst thou dare to say that the bright ray of eternal light could have been sullied while passing through this virginal crystal? Tell me, poor man that thou art, whence might the Holy Virgin have contracted filth, she who was purer than the Angels?
St Ildephonsus[7] goes so far as to say:
If there was anything unseemly or indecent about the Virgin’s delivery of her Son, then He who would have partaken thus of the effects of the first curse could not bear the name of the natural Son of God.
I have in fact already made clear in a parallel context the meaning to be given to this statement.
Footnotes
[1] Serm. de Nativit.
[2] Homil. 3 in Cant.
[3] Loc. cit.
[4] Concil. Trullanum, can. 79.
[5] Serm. 3 de Nativit.
[6] Lib. de quinque Hæresibus, c. 5.
[7] Loc. sæpe cit.
6 We now come to the dominant role given to the husband and the status of the wife which is subservient rather than honourable. This is the third consequence of sin, and was not an established order within a well-regulated nature. This is what we learn from the Angelic Doctor after he has already given his word to us that it has no place in the case of the MOTHER OF GOD, any more than the other punishments for the first sin. From this he concludes that it was with good reason that St Joseph, spouse of the blessed Virgin, learned the mystery of the Incarnation from the same Virgin, and not the other way round.
7 I am bringing this first discussion to a close with words altogether worthy of a great Pope, Alexander III, in a Brief he addressed to the Sultan of Iconium in Lycaonia:
Great indeed, he says, and worthy of every praise was the blessed Virgin Mary, who was found worthy to bear the Mediator between God and ourselves, and who among women had no peer, there being none even like unto her. For she conceived free from any shame, she gave birth without any pain, she passed over from this life to the next without suffering corruption, so that :
• the word of the Angel might be perfectly accomplished in her• she might be found not partially but entirely full of grace, and• the Eternal God, who willed to be her Son temporally, might Himself render to His Mother the honour he had preordained long before.
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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.
The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
© Peter Bloor 2024
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