Praises of the Virgin Mother by St Bernard : Homily III : §12-14/14

St Bernard, by Juan Correa de Vivar,
c. 1540-45. Museo del Prado.
(Public domain)

The following posts present the text of four homilies by St Bernard (1090-1153) frequently given the title of Missus est but which he himself called Praises of the Virgin Mother.

 

He was the first Cistercian monk to be placed on the calendar of saints and was canonized by Alexander III on the 18th January 1174. Pope Pius VIII bestowed on him the title of Doctor of the Church, “Doctor mellifluus,” on the 20th of August 1830. 

I offer this annotated presentation of St Bernard’s Homilies as a small gift to our gentle Queen and Mother in gratitude for her multitudinous graces and favours, requesting her continued help and protection for the author and his family.

The Latin text and references are based upon De laudibus Virginis Matris (Patrologia latina, vol. 183. J. P. Migne). The English text is based upon the version compiled and translated at St. Mary's Convent, York, and published by Washbourne in 1909.

Homily III : §12-14/14

 §12.   But let us consider what the Angel thinks of Him upon whom He bestowed such a name before He was even conceived. He says[1]: 

“He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High.” 

Great indeed is He who deserves to be called the Son of the Most High. 

 Saint Michael striking down Satan and the rebellious angels.
Rubens (1635). Thyssen Museum, Madrid. Public domain.

Is not He great of whom the Psalmist declares[2]: “of his greatness there is no end,”and asks[3]: “who is the great God like our God?” He is truly great who is so great and who is Most High, being Himself the Most High. As “Son of the Most High,” He thought it not robbery to be equal with God[4]. Satan, indeed, is rightly judged to have contemplated this robbery for, although made from nothing into an Angelic form, he compared himself with his Maker, and arrogated to himself what belonged of right to the Son of the Most High, the Son not made by God, but begotten of Him. For the Most High God the Father, though Omnipotent, could not make a creature equal to Himself, nor beget a Son who was not His equal. He made the Angel great, but not like Himself and therefore not Most High. The Almighty Father did not create but begat His only-begotten and Almighty Son; thus the Most High begat the Most High and the Eternal Father begat the co-eternal Son. The Almighty did not think it robbery nor an insult for His Son to compare Himself to Him in all things. Rightly, then, shall He be great who shall be called the Son of the Most High.

Footnotes

[1] Luke i. 32. 

[2] Psalm. cxliv. 3. 

[3] Psalm. lxxvi. 14.

[4] Phil. ii. 6. 

 §13.   But why is it here said “He shall be” rather than “He is” great, since He is always equally great, and can have no increase? He will not be more exalted after His conception than He was before. Perhaps the Angel would have us understand that He who was great as God will be great as man. It is therefore rightly said that “He shall be great:” a great man, a great teacher and a great prophet. Thus it is written in the Gospel[1]: 

“A great Prophet hath risen up amongst us.” 

And by a certain lesser Prophet, a great Prophet is likewise promised who is to come: “Behold,” he says, “a great prophet will come, and He Himself will renew Jerusalem.”[2]. 

The Virgin Nursing the Christ Child, by Guido Reni (1628-30).
North Carolina Museum of Art. Public domain.

And you, O Virgin, you will indeed give birth to a little one, you will nurse this little one in your arms and you will feed this little one at your breast; but while you look on Him as little, think upon Him as the Great One He is. He will be great, because God will magnify Him in the sight of kings; let all kings, therefore, adore Him and all nations serve Him. Let your soul magnify the Lord, for “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High.” He shall be great; and He that is mighty shall do great things for thee, and Holy is his name[3]. What name could be holier than “Son of the Most High”? 

This great Lord shall be magnified also by us, His little ones; for He became a Little One so that He might make us great. “A Child is born to us, and a Son is given to us.”[4] “To us,” and not to Himself, for He who before time began was much more nobly born of His Father did not need to be born in time of a Mother. Nor was He born and given to the Angels, for they who possessed Him in His greatness did not require Him in His lowliness. To us, then, He is born and to us He is given, because we have such great need of Him. 

Footnotes

[1] Luke vii. 16.

[2] Antiphon from Divinum Officium, first Sunday in Advent. See: Zacharias i 16 & ii. 10-12.

[3] Luke i. 49.

[4] Isai. ix. 6.

 §14.   Since He is born of our race and given to us, let us accomplish that for which He was born and given. Let us make use of Him who became one of us for our profit; let us work out our salvation by means of our Saviour. 

“And Jesus calling unto him a little child, set him in the midst of them.”
By james Tissot (1886–1896). Brooklyn Museum. Public domain.

Behold, “a child is set in the midst.”[1] O Little Child, desired by little children! O true Child, ignorant of malice not of wisdom[2]! Let us study to become as this Little Child. Let us learn from Him for He is meek and humble of heart[3], lest the great God should fruitlessly have become a little Child for us; lest He should have died in vain and have been crucified for nothing. Let us learn His humility; let us imitate His meekness; let us embrace His love; let us share His sufferings; let us be washed in His blood. Let us offer Him as a propitiation for our sins, since for this end He was born and given to us. 

Let us offer Him in the sight of His Father, and let us offer for the sake of His own; for the Father “spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all;”[4] and the Son “emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.”[5] He “delivered His soul unto death and was reputed with the wicked.” “He hath borne the sins of many, and prayed for the transgressors,”[6] that they might not perish. But they cannot perish for whom the Son prays that they will not perish[7] and for whose sake the Father delivers His own Son to procure for them eternal life. Therefore, pardon is to be hoped for equally from both, with whom there is equal mercy and compassion, equal power in will, and who are substantially one in divinity; and in which the Holy Spirit lives and reigns as God with them, for ever and ever. Amen.

Footnotes

[1] Matt. xviii. 2. & Mark ix. 35.

[2] in malice be children, and in sense be perfect: 1 Cor. xiv. 20. Consider the commentary of Cornelius A Lapide on this verse: “Howbeit in malice be ye children. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Ephrem render this: ‘Let malice be as unknown to you as to infants.’ So, too, S. Augustine (qu. lxi. lib. 73) says: ‘Be, like infants, free from malice.’ As ‘infant’ is derived from in, ‘not,’ and fans, ‘speaking,’ and as a child who cannot speak knows still less of malice or anything else, so too the Christian is to be an infant in evil, not to know it nor to be able to speak of it, e.g., not to know what emulation, defilement, fornication are. So Theophylact, following S. Chrysostom. Tertullian (contra Valent. lib. ii.) beautifully says: ‘The Apostle bids us after God be children again, that we may be infants in malice through our simplicity, and at last wise in understanding.’”

[3] Matt. xi. 29.

[4] Rom. viii. 32.

[5] Phil. ii. 7.

[6] Isai. liii. 12.

[7] John iii. 16.

[End of Homily III]

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The Virgin of Tenderness. >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.

He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting. Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xxiv. 30-31.30-31.