First Sermon for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin: On the Reception of the Son by the Mother in the Incarnation and of the Mother by the Son in the Assumption

“ Now tt came to pass that He entered into a certain citadel and a certain woman received Him into her house.’’—Luke x. 38.

To-day, dearest brethren, the glorious Virgin ascended to heaven, bringing with her, doubtless, to the inhabitants of the holy city an abundant augmentation of their ecstatic joys. For she it is the voice of whose salutation of yore caused an infant, as yet enclosed in his mother’s womb, to leap from an excess of gladness (Luke i. 41). Now, if the soul of a babe unborn melted with tenderness when Mary spoke (Cant. v. 6), what, think you, must have been the exultation of those celestial spirits when they deserved to hear her voice and to see her face and to rejoice in her blissful presence ? And with regard to ourselves, most dearly beloved, how deservedly do we keep the feast of her Assumption with all solemnity! What reasons for rejoicing, what motives for exultation have we not on this most beautiful day! The presence of Mary illumines the entire world, so that even the holy city above has now a more dazzling splendour from the light of this virginal Lamp. With good reason, therefore, do “thanksgiving and the voice of praise ” (Is. li. 3) resound to-day through the courts of heaven. But it seems that we have as much cause for lamentation as the angels have for joy. For if heaven overflows with gladness from Mary’s presence, does it not seem to follow that this lower world has equal cause to grieve for her absence? But let us cease to complain, because we also “ have not here a lasting city, but we seek one that is to come ” (Heb. xili. 14), the same which the blessed Mary entered to-day. And if we are true citizens of that heavenly Jerusalem, we ought certainly to remember it even in our exile, even “upon the rivers of Babylon” (Ps. cxxxvi. I) we ought to communicate in its gladness and to share in its joys, above all in that which to-day with a mighty stream “‘ maketh the city of God joyful” (Ps. xlv. 5), so that we, even we, may catch some of the “drops that fall upon the earth”’ (Ps. lxxi. 6). Our great Queen has gone on before us, she has gone on, I say, and has been gloriously received, so gloriously that we, her poor servants, walk with confidence after our Lady, crying out to her, “ Draw us: we will run after thee to the odour of thy ointments ” (Cant. i. 3). Our exiled race has sent home an Advocate, who, being the Mother of the Judge and also the Mother of mercy, will be sure to advance the cause of our salvation, humbly, indeed, yet not less efficaciously.

To-day, then, most dearly beloved, this earth of ours sends up a most beautiful gift to heaven, so that by the kind intercourse of mutual giving and receiving the human order and the divine, the earthly and the heavenly, the lowest and the highest, may be bound together in a sweet alliance of holy friendship. For thither ascends “‘ the high fruit of the earth ” (Is. iv. 2), and thence comes down the best gifts and the perfect gifts (James i. 17). Therefore, “ ascending on high,”

the holy Virgin, like her Divine Son, will “ give gifts to men ” (Ephes. iv. 8). Who can doubt it, since she shall have both the power and the good-will? She is the Queen of heaven, she is the Queen of mercy, and she is also the Mother of the only-begotten Son of God--~a title which more than anything else commends to us the greatness of her power and her loving-kindness : unless perchance there be someone who does not believe that the Son of the Most High honours His Mother, or who hesitates to believe that the very vitals of Mary “ have passed into the affection ’’ (Ps. lxxii. 7) of charity, in consequence of having been the home wherein for nine months the “ Charity That is of God” (1 John iv. 7) “dwelt corporally ’’ (Col. ii. 9).

It is for your consolation, dearest brethren, I have made these remarks, because I know how difficult it is to discover in such spiritual poverty as ours that perfect charity which “ seeketh not her own ” (1 Cor. xiii. 5). But without speaking at all of the many benefits resulting to ourselves from her glorification, if we love her in truth, we ought to beglad because she goes to her Son (John xiv. 28). Yes, I repeat, we ought to rejoice with her, for otherwise, which God forbid !— we should be found utterly ungrateful to the Finder of grace (Luke i. 30). We ought to rejoice with her, because to-day she is received at her entrance into the holy city by Him Who was received by her at His entrance into the citadel (castellum) of this world. And oh! with how much honour is she received and welcomed ! with what exultation ! with what glory ! There was not upon earth a worthier place than the temple of her own most blessed womb, into which Mary might receive the Son of God ; nor is there in heaven a more

FOR THE FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION 22r honourable seat than the royal throne upon which to-day Mary has been exalted by Mary’s Son. Full of bliss must be pronounced both receptions, viz., that of the Son by the Mother and that of the Mother by the Son, and ineffable both, because both inconceivable. For why do we read to-day throughout the whole Church of Christ that Gospel lesson which tells how a woman, blessed among women, received the Saviour into her house ? * (Luke x. 38-42). In my opinion, the purpose is to enable us from that reception to form some kind of estimate of this which we are now commemorating, or rather to help us to such a realisation as is possible of the inestimable glory of the second by comparison with the inestimable glory of the first. Who indeed, even though he could “ speak with the tongues of men and of angels ” (1 Cor. xiii. I), is competent to explain how, by the descent of the Holy Ghost and the overshadowing of the Father’s power (Luke i. 35), ‘‘ the Word was made Flesh ” (John i.’¹), the Word by Whom all things were made (ibid. 3) ? how the Lord of Majesty, Whom the whole created universe cannot contain (2 Par. vi. 18) was enclosed, made man, within the Virgin’s womb ?

And who is able even to conceive with what splendour the glorious Queen of the universe mounted heavenwards to-day; with what mighty ardour of tenderest affection the whole multitude of the heavenly legions issued forth to meet her and to escort her to the seat of glory ; with what serenity of countenance, with what loving looks, with what joyous embraces she was welcomed by her Son and lifted high above every creature to that eminence of honour which becomes so great a Mother and is worthy of so great a Son! Happy, doubtless, were the kisses which the Mother received from the lips of her suckling Babe whilst she fondled Him on her virginal lap. But ought we not to regard as still happier those which He gives her to-day in loving salutation from His seat at the Father’s right hand, when she advances to the throne of Majesty, singing her epithalamium and saying,with the Spouse in the Canticle, ‘‘ Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth ” (Cant. i. 1)? “Who shall declare the generation ” (Is. liii. 8) of Christ ? Who shall declare the Assumption of Mary? For the glory wherewith she is crowned in heaven is as singular as the grace she found upon earth was incomparable. If “‘eye hath not seen nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for them that love Him ”’ (x Cor. ii. 9) : who can say or conceive what He hath prepared for her that bore Him and that loves Him—which no one doubts—with a love unparalleled ? Oh, happy in truth is Mary and doubly happy in that she has both received the Saviour and has been received by the Saviour. In both these signal honours the dignity of the Virgin Mother appears to us equally admirable, in both the condescension of the Divine Majesty appears equally worthy of praise.

“ Now it came to pass,” says the Evangelist, “ that He, namely, Jesus, entered into a certain citadel and a certain woman received Him into her house.”

But let us break off here and occupy ourselves rather with singing the praises of God, for this is a feast which ought to be celebrated, not so much with sermons or pious exhortations, as with uninterrupted canticles of joy and thanksgiving. But inasmuch as the Gospel text just quoted contains abundance of matter for another discourse, to-morrow we shall again assemble here, and I shall communicate to you ungrudgingly whatsoever lights may be vouchsafed to me thereupon ; so that whilst we occupy our minds with the thought of so great a Virgin, the feeling of devotion may be awakened within us and we may receive the grace to correct what is defective in our conduct and to begin a better life, unto the praise and glory of Mary’s Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen.

Footnotes

1. The holy preacher is taking here, in an accommodated sense, Luke x. 38, as the Church does also by appointing this Gospel to be read on the Feast of the Assumption.—(Translator.) ↩