III. Mary a Foreshadowing of Christ

{Preached on a Feast of Mary's Nativity.)

" Nox praecessit, dies autem appropinquavit " (Rom. xiii. 12).

Art and nature alike produce their works gradually, and God Himself does the same. The pencil precedes the brush; the architect's design maps out the building to come: — there is no chef d'ceuvre accomplished in the world but goes through its preliminary stages; whilst nature, in the development of her designs, often tries her 'prentice hand in ways that seem almost like play.

The work in which our Maker most remarkably follows the same plan is that of the Incarnation, for the sake of which He declared that He would " move the heaven and the earth " ^: — this being His One Work above all others. Although its fulfilment was not to be till " the middle of years," ^ He nevertheless began it from the beginning of the world. The natural and the written Law — ceremonies and sacrifices — priest-

^ Agg. ii. 7. ^ Habac. iii. 2.

hood and prophets — were all, speaking reverently, merely sketches or outlines of the " perfect Man, Christ Jesus ". They are called by an ancient writer Christi rudimenta; and the grand work itself was reached only through a succession of images and figures that served as preparatory designs. But when the time comes close for the Mystery, God plans something yet more excellent than these: — He forms the blessed Mary, that He may represent Jesus Christ to us more naturally than before. He is about to send Him on earth, and so combines all His most beautiful characteristics in the person of her who is to be His mother.

Tertullian,^ contemplating and discussing the marvellous interest that God displayed in the act of forming man from " the slime of the earth," seeks for some explanation of the immense pains that He bestowed on the work. He declares himself unable to believe that He put forth so much power, to mould so base a material, without some further great end in view: and this end, he finally concludes, is nothing less than Jesus Christ, Who is to be born of the race of man, and Whom God, therefore, chooses to typify to us by His manner of forming the first members of that race. Quodcunique limus exprimebatur, Christus cogitabatur homo futurus.

If this idea is true: — if God, when He created the first Adam, meant to trace out the second; if He

^ De Resur. cam., n. 6, formed our first father so carefully with Jesus our Saviour in view, and because His Divine Son was to spring from him after many generations: — surely today, when we see Mary — who was to bear Christ within her womb — come into the world, we may conclude that in creating her God was thinking of our Lord and working for Him alone? Hence there is no cause for surprise either in His having formed her so carefully or in His endowing her with so many graces as He did: for to make her worthy of His Son He models her upon that Son Himself Intending soon to bestow on us His Word Incarnate, on the day of Mary's nativity He gives us an outline — I might almost say a beginning — of Jesus Christ, in one who, though a creature, is in some sort a living expression of His own perfections. Thus we may truly apply to such a day the Apostle's beautiful words: " The night has passed and the day is at hand ".

The Redeemer of mankind, besides being in Himself an inexhaustible Fount of Love, must necessarily possess the two qualities of exemption from sin and fulness of grace. He must be innocent to purify us from our crimes, and full of grace to enrich our poverty; for these qualities are inseparable from the character and office of the Saviour. When God formed the Blessed Virgin on the pattern of the Sun of Justice, some of the rays by which He was to dispel our darkness were permitted to shine forth in her, though only in a degree that faintly foreshadowed the brilliant light they were to shed over the world when they should stream in their fulness from Jesus Christ Himself; and hence it came that she was endowed with the very qualities that were to form an intrinsic part of Her Divine Son's human nature, especially with these two of innocence and fulness of grace. We are here to consider shortly both the cause and the manner of Mary's likeness to her Son in these particular points: — and, first, the special relation of her innocence to His.

In the whole teaching of the Gospels there is nothing more touching than God's gentle and loving way of treating His reconciled enemies: that is, converted sinners. He is not satisfied with blotting out our stains and washing away our filth: to His infinite goodness it is but a little thing that our sins should do us no harm: — He would have them actually profit us. He draws out of them such benefits for our soul that we even feel constrained to bless our very transgressions, and to cry with the Church: O Felix culpa /^ His grace seems to struggle with our sins for the upper hand; and St. Paul says that it even pleases Him to make grace abound more where sin has abounded.^ In fact, He receives penitent sinners back with so much love that innocence itself might almost be said to have cause for complaint — or at least for some jealousy — at the sight of it. The

1 Blessing of the Paschal Candle on Holy Saturday. ^ Rom, V, 20, extreme gentleness with which He treats them, if their regret for sin be but real, appears to do away with all further need for regret. Let but one sheep stray from His side, and it seems to become dearer to Him than all the others who remained constant; like the father in the parable, His heart melts over His returned prodigal rather than over the elder, faithful brother.

We seem, indeed, at first sight to have ground for saying that the penitent sinner has the advantage over the just who have not sinned: — that restored virtue may triumph over innocence preserved; nevertheless, it is not so. We may never doubt that innocence is a privileged state; and if there were no other reason for maintaining this it would be enough to remember that Jesus Christ chose that state for Himself. Observe the terms in which the great Apostle declares His Divine Master's innocence: ^ Talh deccbat ut esset nobis pontifex: "It was fitting that we should have a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens: Who needeth not to offer sacrifices for His own sins " — but, being holiness itself, expiates sin. Must not the Son of God, then, have dearly loved the innocence that He took for His own lot? No: His tender feelings for converted sinners does not place them above holy souls that have never been stained by sin. Only, just as we feel the blessing of

1 Hebr. vii. 26, health most keenly on recovering from a long illness, though we would far rather have been spared the illness and kept our strength unbroken; or, again, as a lovely mild day in the midst of a hard winter is peculiarly enjoyed from its unexpectedness, yet is by no means so pleasureable as a long mild season would have been: — so, humanly speaking, we may understand how Our Lord lavishes tenderness on freshly converted sinners, who are His latest conquest; yet nevertheless has a more ardent love for His early friends, the Just. We may, indeed — to go higher for an explanation — describe His whole attitude, as regards the "one sinner that repenteth" and the " ninety-nine just," very shortly and simply by keeping in mind His twofold nature, which causes Him to feel differently as Son of God and as Saviour of men.

Though Jesus Christ, as Son of God, may take pleasure in seeing at His feet a sinner who has returned to the right path, yet, being Himself essential Sanctity He must love the innocence that has never strayed with a stronger love; for as it is nearer to, and more perfectly imitates, His own infinite holiness. He cannot help honouring it by closer familiarity. Whatever favour the tears of a penitent may find in His eyes, they can never equal the pure charm of a holiness ever-faithful to Him. But when God becomes man to save us from our sins He, as our Saviour, comes to seek the guilty: for them He lives, because to them He was sent.

How does He Himself describe the object of His mission? "/ came, not to seek the Just," ^ that is to say: "Though they may be the most noble and worthy of My friendship, My commission does not extend to them. As Saviour, I am to seek the lost; as Physician, the sick; as Redeemer, those who are captive." Hence it is that He loves only the society of such as these — because to them alone He was sent into the world. The angels, who never fell, may approach Him as Son of God: — that is the prerogative of innocence; but, in His quality of Saviour, He gives the preference to sinners; just as a doctor who, as a man, will prefer to hold intercourse with the healthy, would nevertheless, as a physician, rather tend the sick. Here is an evangelical interpretation of the whole mystery which is full of comfort for sinners like us. At the same time, however, it tells strongly in favour of Mary's perpetual purity; for if the Son of God loves innocence so intensely, could it be that He should find none on earth? Of course He has it Himself in the highest degree of perfection; but shall He not have the satisfaction of finding here below something like Himself, or at least slightly approaching His own spotlessness? We cannot believe that He should have to live entirely among sinners without the consolation of intercourse with one spotless soul, and who should this be but His mother? If He must spend His life in seeking sinners throughout the

^ Matt. ix. 13, whole range of Palestine, and find criminals wherever He turns outside His home, surely just within it He may find wherewith to feast His soul on the lasting beauty of unsullied holiness?

True: — Our Lord not only never shows contempt for sinners by banishing them from His presence, but actually calls them to the highest offices in His kingdom. He entrusts the charge of His flock to a Peter who has denied Him; He puts the publican Matthew at the head of the Evangelists; and makes Paul, the chief of persecutors, into the first of preachers: — not the just and innocent, but the converted sinners, have the first places. Nevertheless, He does not take His holy mother from among their ranks: between her and others there must be a difference of a special kind, and to which careful attention must be paid; for it is an essential and fundamental part of the subject I am treating.

Christ chose the former — the penitent sinners whom He put in high places — for others; and He chose Mary for Himself. For others: " All things are yours, whether it be Paul, or Apollo, or Cephas ".^ Mary for Himself: " Mjy beloved to me, and I to Him^: He is my Only One and I am His only one; He is my Son, and I am His mother". He drew those whom He chose for others from the ranks of sinners that they might the better announce His mercy and the remission of sins. His whole design was to restore

• I Cor. iii. 22. 2 2 Cant. ii. 16.

confidence in souls that were cast down by guilt; and who could better preach divine mercy than those who themselves furnished striking examples of it? Who could say with greater effect that it was " a faithful saying... that Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners," than a St. Paul who could add " of whom I am the chief"? ^ It was just as if he had said to the sinner whom he wanted to win: " Fear not; I know the hand of the physician I would send you to. He Himself has sent me to tell you how He cured me: — how easily — how tenderly; and to promise you the same happiness ": — as St. Augustine said in after years. ^ It was, then, a truly wise means of drawing sinners to God to have His mercy proclaimed to them by men who had so deeply experienced it. St. Paul teaches this plainly: " For this cause," he says, " I have obtained mercy; that in me first Jesus Christ shall show forth all patience, for the information of them that shall believe unto life everlasting "? Thus we see why God honours reconciled sinners with the first offices in the Church: — for the instruction of the Faithful.

But if this was the course He pursued with those whom He appointed for the good of others, it was not His mode of proceeding where the extraordinary, privileged, and cherished being was concerned whom He created for Himself only: with her whom He

^ I Tim. i. 15. 2 Serm. clxxvi., n, 4, torn, v., col. 841.

^ I Tim. i. 16.

chose for His Mother. In her case He did — not, as whea He chose His Apostles and Ministers, what was profitable to the salvation of all — but what was most sweet and satisfying to Him, and most for His own glory. She was to possess none but Him for her own, and He none but her, and therefore He would have her innocent from the beginning. The gift of perfect innocence, of course, may not be too freely lavished on our corrupt nature; but for God to bestow it on His own Mother alone cannot be called lavish; whilst to refuse it even to her would be restricting it too far.

We may, then, I repeat, consider that with Mary's birth a preliminary ray of the full light of Christ is shed on the world: as St. Peter Damian beautifully puts it: Nata Virgine surrexit Aurora} But, perfectly as her innocence foreshadows His, we are not to suppose that it puts her on a par with Him; for it belongs to Jesus by right, to Mary only by privilege; to Jesus by nature, to Mary only by giace and indulgence; in Jesus we honour the very source of all innocence, in Mary only a stream from that source. Mary's innocence, in short, is but the outflowing on to a specially chosen creature, of Christ's own freedom from sin: and her spotlessness possesses a quality in which it differs from the purity of other innocent creatures, which is peculiarly comforting and encouraging to us. Innocence of life in ordinary human beings is rather apt to

^ Sermon xi. (in Assumpt. B. Mar. Virg.).

be a reproach to those of bad life, and to have a repelling effect on the guilty by seeming to condemn them. In Mary, however, the Divine Innocence from which hers is derived shines forth with its own character: and that character does not consist in a purity that seems to judge or reproach criminals, but in one that exists only to be their life and salvation. Hence this holy and innocent creature never repels or discourages us by the sight of her faultlessness, as she uses it only to raise and win pardon for us; whilst by the shining light of her purity we may see to cleanse away our own offences.

Then, having done this, we may become spiritually rich by filling our emptiness at the fountain of those innumerable graces, the possession of which — as I said above — constitutes the second special likeness of Mary to her Son. To treat adequately of these graces is, however, more difficult than to discuss her innocence; for the mere recollection of her dignity as Mother of God makes it easy to realise her exemption from sin. But when it comes to setting forth the fulness of her graces, the mere thought of their number is overpowering, and one knows not where to begin. What I propose, therefore, is to indicate what their extent must be by considering the principle whence they all sprang, rather than to attempt describing them individually.

This principle, of course, is the same as that of every grace and virtue that has adorned the whole human race from the beginning: the fact of Jesus Christ's union with mankind. But His union with His Mother is so much closer than with any other creature that it must naturally result in her 'being much more richly endowed with grace than any one else: indeed, we can hardly place any limit to the endowments that such a bond as hers with her Son would entitle her to. Had this bond been only such a one as ordinary mothers have with their children it must have brought her innumerable gifts from God; but we must remember what is too often overlooked, that the tie between Mary and Christ was something beyond that of mere parent and child, in two ways.

First, it was a spiritual tie; for Mary — as we are specially told in Holy Scripture — conceived her Son by Faith. When she went to visit St. Elizabeth the latter cried: " Blessed art thou that hast believed

! " ^ which was as much as to say, " thou art a mother, indeed, but it is thy faith that has made thee so ". From this the Fathers of the Church have unanimously argued that the Blessed Virgin's union with her Son began in the exactly opposite way to that of ordinary mothers. They are united to their children corporally at first, conceiving them naturally, according to the flesh; but she conceived hers purely by the Spirit, apart from nature, and had no corporal union with Him till after her act of faith and obedience had enabled her to receive Him within her: Prius concepit ^ Luke i. 43.

mente quam corpore, St. Augustine says.^ Thus, its spiritual nature is the first great distinction between Mary's motherhood and that of other women.

The second difference between them is that Christ chose to be miraculously born without a human father, and thus to receive His sacred flesh and blood from her alone when He became man. Hence His tie with her was not merely that of an only Son, but of an only Son to Whom she stood — humanly speaking— in the place of both parents, and from Whom she therefore had the right to a double share of His holy affections.

Here, then, we have plainly set before us the Blessed Virgin's title to the " fulness of grace," modelled on that of Christ Himself, that I have claimed for her; and from the greatness of her claim we may judge of the liberality with which it would be granted. When we see so clearly what she is to be to Him, we find no room left for doubting that He will send her into the world not only free from sin, but actually endowed with every virtue, that she may thus truly shadow forth, as a faithful image, the Messias to Whom she is to give birth when the time is ripe. Christ, we must never forget, is the Author of His own Mother's existence; and if even ordinary man is formed on the model of the Sacred Humanity, how much nearer to it must not that Mother's likeness be?

1 Sermon ccxv., n. 4, torn, v., col. 950