IV. The Blessed Virgin's Nativity

(Being two of Bossuet's Sermons combined.)

"Quis, putas, puer iste erit? " (St. Luke i. 66).

Before the birth of Our Lord, all good men who lived in expectation of Israel's Redeemer incessantly longed for His coming. They ardently desired that the Eternal Father should hasten the hour of sending them their Deliverer; and the transports of joy with which they would have greeted the smallest sign that that hour was approaching may be well imagined by us. Suppose them, then, to have known when the Blessed Virgin was born that she was to be the Saviour's Mother, what may we not conclude would have been their delight? Even as those races that worship the sun rejoice at the sight of his herald, the dawn, so would the men of faith in Israel have been enraptured at the thought of beholding the glorious birthday of her who was to usher in the coming of the " Desired of all Nations ". We who come after them can understand their feelings. Moved by reverence for Him Who chose her for His Mother, we come to-day to do honour to this newly-risen star: to deck her cradle — not, indeed, with actual lilies and roses — but with the holy desires and heartfelt praise that are the true flowers of the Spirit.

I shall best express what I have to say of Mary's Nativity by arranging my subject under certain definite heads. I shall try to show that her first great advantage as the Mother of Jesus Christ will be her lasting blessedness in loving Him with a quite unequalled affection, and her second prerogative the corresponding love — incapable of comparison — that He will bear to her. I hope further to prove that she will possess a third wonderful privilege in the fact that her union with Jesus will unite her also in the closest manner with the Eternal Father; and finally to explain how this union will confer on her the Motherhood of the Faithful, who are at once children of the Father and brethren of the Son.

The subject is great and difficult; but I enter upon it with confidence in the helping grace of the Blessed Trinity; for is not Mary daughter of the Father, mother of the Son, and spouse of the Holy Ghost?

To begin with the two first-named privileges: — my first point is that this new-bom maiden is unspeakably blessed in being predestined to experience such exceeding love for Him Who is alone really worthy of our hearts.

We all acknowledge that the highest gift ever given by God to His saints is love for the Lord Jesus, From the beginning of all ages, before His coming, He was the delight of the Patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob could hardly contain their joy at only remembering that He was to be born of their race. How, then, can Mary, from whose very flesh He is to spring — who is to gaze on Him sleeping in her arms, or feeding from her virginal breast — do otherwise than feel her whole being dilate with love of Him? And afterwards, when with His first infant lisp He begins to call her " Mother "; when, as His childish speech develops a little, she hears Him offer His earliest tribute of praise to God His Father; and when, later, she sees Him in the privacy of home moving about, eagerly obedient to her lightest word: — how burning will not be the ardour of her love?

But, besides the grace of loving Our Lord, another great gift of God is to be able to think much of Him. We well know that His Name is honey to the lips, light to the eyes, and a flame to the heart: ^ God has conferred a nameless grace on every one of His words and actions, to think on which is Eternal life. Those who think of them often, undoubtedly find unspeakable comfort in so doing. In this practice consisted the whole sweetness of Mary's life: we see from the Gospels that she incessantly went over and over again in her thoughts whatever her Son said to her and ^ St. Bernard, Serm. xv, in Cant., n. 6, torn, i., col. 13 ii.

whatever was said to her about Him: Maria aiUem conservabat omnia verba hcec in corde siw.^ Only by-depriving her of life itself could one have obliterated these thoughts from her heart, for they formed part of her very life-blood. If even ordinary mothers have their interests bound up in those of their sons how much more must Mary's have been so bound? How intensely must she have admired His life, been charmed by His words, suffered in His passion, loved with His love, and rejoiced in His glor>'! And when He returned to His Father, what must have been her impatience to go to Him?

St Thomas ^ says that the inequality amongst the Blessed in Heaven will consist in this: — that those who have most ardently desired the Divine presence in this world will enjoy it most abundantly in the next, because the sweetness of enjoyment is in proportion to the desire. By the burning impatience of St. Paul, who so craved for his Lord's embrace in eternity that he ardently wished to "be dissolved to be with Christ," ^ we may judge somewhat of what would be the feelings and longings of Christ's mother. Even Tobias's mother felt terribly one year's absence from her son: * and what an immeasurable distance between her love and that of Mary! What, then, must be the place in Heaven to be attained by the Blessed Infant round whom our thoughts are centring to-day? If

^ Luke ii. 19. * I. Part., Quaest. xii., art. v.

^ Phil. i. 23. * Tob. V. 23 et seq.

her greatness is to be according to the measure of her desires she must surpass all the hierarchies of angels; for her only fitting place amongst the heavenly hosts will be-close to the throne of her much-loved Son Himself, there to share the most intimate secrets of His heart, and to exert her all-powerful influence with Him for ever: — there to offer those petitions for us which His filial love will make Him unable to refuse.

This thought brings us naturally to consider the other side of our great subject: — that Love with which the Son of God honours the Blessed Virgin. If it is difficult to treat the first affection as it deserves, it seems well-nigh impossible to say anything adequate of the second; for in as far as Our Lord necessarily surpasses Mary in all other things, so He must be far greater in His capacity of Son than she in that of Mother. The only suitable, as well as the most moving, way of treating such a subject is to see what can be found about it in the Gospels: — as, indeed, may be said of all subjects; for one word of Holy Scripture has more power over the soul than all that human eloquence can produce. What, then, can we discover in the Sacred writings that will help towards some realisation of Christ's feelings for His Mother? Nothing, I think, to equal the wonderful account of His deep love of human nature, itself. It is worth while to make a short digression for considering this. *■

071 the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. 57

The manner in which Our Saviour took upon Himself everything belonging to man — sin alone excepted — even to our greatest infirmities, is an unanswerable argument against those unpardonable heretics who, having dared to deny the reality of His sacred flesh, necessarily denied the reality of His sufferings and human passions. By doing this they deprived themselves of the greatest possible consolation; for, whatever sort of trouble we may be afflicted with, we may always remember that we have the honour of enduring it in our Divine Master's company, when we know that all His human weaknesses were actually real. If a man suffers from want, let Him think of His Saviour's hunger and thirst, and extreme indigence. Is he injured in reputation? His Lord was " despised and rejected of men". Does some depressing infirmity keep hold of him? Christ " suffered unto death". Or, again, we may be overpowered by a crushing sense of weariness: — then we can go to the garden of olives, and there behold Our Lord in a state of such fear, sadness, and overwhelming oppression that He actually sweats blood and water at the mere thought of His trial. No one has ever heard of such a thing as this in the case of any other person; therefore we may safely say that never did any human being possess feelings so tender, so delicate, and so strong, as Our Saviour's: though they were kept under extreme control because of being perfectly subject to the Will of His Father.

5^ Devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

Now, the relation that all this bears to the special point under consideration is twofold. First — (as we have already seen in connection with the subject of Mary's immaculate conception) — the thought that Christ took upon Himself, so wholly and sincerely, such infirmities of our race as might even seem unworthy of Him, makes us certain that He cannot possibly have failed to adopt the universal and natural feeling of filial devotion towards her who had bestowed His human life upon Him. Next, if we remember how deeply the special acuteness of His feelings would make Him love His Mother on even ordinary grounds, we shall the better understand what must have been His affection for such a mother as Mary, in return for such gifts as He had received from her. It is not too bold to say that, as man, He owed to her — besides life itself — a portion of His glory, and the purity of His flesh.

This statement, though perhaps a little startling at first sight, is none the less true; neither does it in any way detract from the glory of the Master. It may be well proved from an argument set forth by St. Augustine in many fine passages of his writings, but especially in his books against Julian. This great man, from the lamentable fact that concupiscence has a share in all ordinary births, draws the conclusion that that accursed thing — corrupting whatever it comes near — so poisons the matter whence our bodies are formed that the flesh composed of it necessarily contracts corruption. Hence, the glorified bodies which we are to have at the Resurrection will not be bom anew " of the will of man, or of the will of the flesh "; but the spirit of God wiU breathe life into them again, when they shall have left in the Earth all the impurities of their first birth. Now, if the concupiscence attached to the ordinary mode of generation has thus deeply contaminated our bodies, we may be sure that the fruit of virginal flesh will, contrariwise, draw marvellous purity from its incorrupt root; and as Our Saviour's sacred flesh must of necessity exceed the very Sun itself in purity. He chose from eternity — as we have also seen in speaking of her conception — a Virgin Mother from whom He should take this flesh, so that she might bear her Son by faith alone, untouched by concupiscence.

What, then, must we bfelieve this Child born to-day will become? " Quis, putas, puer isle erit? " To love God, and to be loved by Him, are two purely gratuitous, supernatural^ gifts to all ordinary beings. But she is to be the Mother of God: her Divine Saviour is to be her Son. Therefore, as a mother, she will naturally love her Son; whilst she will have a right to His love, as her Child, which no other human being can possess.

From this necessary mutual love spring two important consequences. First, the greatness of the gifts that Our Lord will undoubtedly bestow on His Mother; secondly, the wonderful relation of Mary to the Eternal Father which this beautiful tie between

6o Devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

Mother and Child will produce: — for can the Father help loving what the Son loves? Is it not in the very person of God the Son that heaven and earth are to be reconciled; and are not • all our hopes actually founded on His being the eternal bond between God and man? So that it must be taken as indisputably established that she, through whom this bond is formed, will be especially loved.

But the union of Mary with God the Father, caused by her wonderful maternity, is not merely a tie on the human side, as may possibly be supposed. It includes a further and peculiar privilege, the nature of which I shall now go on to discuss separately.

The line of reasoning that I shall take upon this point — an exceedingly delicate one, on account of the ease with which one may fall into error on the subject — has been to some extent suggested by what has been already said of the Blessed Virgin's love for her Son, The doctrine I would now set forth rests on the conclusion that this love of hers did not stop short at His humanity; but, taking that humanity for a connecting link, passed on to the Divine Nature, which is inseparable from it. If we would illustrate such a deep theological point by something familiar, we can only remember once more how the love of any really devoted mother extends to everything connected with her son: — to his friends — his general concerns — his

On the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. 6i possessions, and so on: — but, most of all, to whatever has to do with hh own person, about which she is apt to be sensitive to the very highest degree.

Now, let us ask, what was the Divine Nature to the Son of Mary? In what way, and how nearly, did it touch His Person? We need only our Faith to give an answer. Every day, when we say our Creed, we profess belief in " Jesus Christ — the Son of God — born of the Virgin Mary ". Do we, then, understand that He whom we acknowledge as the Son of Almighty God, and He who was bom of the Virgin, are two persons? Most certainly not. It is the same Person Who, being God and man, is Son of God according to the Divine Nature, and Son of Mary according to humanity. Hence it is that the Fathers declared the Blessed Virgin to be the Mother of God. It was faith in this truth that triumphed over the blasphemies of Nestorius, and that will make the devils tremble to the end of the world. Now, surely, if I say that Mary must love her Son entirely no one will venture to dispute it: and if it is true that both these natures belong to Him, then she must necessarily cherish Him as a God-man. The mystery of such a love, it is true, can be compared to nothing on earth; and hence we are compelled to raise our thoughts even as high as the Eternal Father Himself to find a comparison.

Ever since human nature was joined to the Person of the Word, it has necessarily been an object of complacency to the Father. These are lofty thoughts.

I acknowledge; but, as they are really fundamental principles of Christianity, it is of importance that they should be understood by the faithful; and I shall put forward nothing that cannot be proved from the Scriptures. Of whom, then, are we to suppose that the Eternal Father was speaking when that miraculous voice from God broke forth on Mount Tabor: " This is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased "? ^ Was it not of that Word made flesh who was then appearing transfigured before the eyes of His Apostles? By such an authentic declaration as this, therefore, God made it clear that His Fatherly Love reaches to the humanity of His Son; and that, having joined the human nature so closely to the Divine, He will never more separate them in His affections. In this declaration, too, if we can but thoroughly grasp it, we shall find the whole foundation of our hope to consist; for it puts before us the fact that Jesus, Who is man even as we arey is recognised and loved by God as His own Son.

Now, let none take scandal when I say that there is a certain likeness to this love of the Father in the Blessed Virgin's affection, inasmuch as her love embraces at once the Divinity and humanity of her Son which God's almighty Hand has so closely joined: — for God, in His mysterious counsels, having judged it fitting to decree that the Virgin should beget, in Time, that One Whom He is continually begetting ' Matt. xvii. 5.

in Eternity, has thus in some sort associated her with His eternal act of generation. Consider this deep mystery well: understand that to make her mother of that self-same Son to Whom He is Father, is indeed to let her take part in His own begetting. Hence, having once given her, as it were, this share in His eternal act of generation, it was becoming, and worthy of His wisdom, that a spark of His Infinite Love for that Son should enkindle her breast. As the providence of God disposes of all things with wonderful justice, it seems even necessary that He should fill the Blessed Virgin's heart with an affection far beyond that of mere nature, and reaching even to the very highest degree of grace; so that she might have for her Son feelings that should be at the same time fit for a mother of God, and worthy of a God-man. Not even the intellect of the sublimest of angels could enable one to comprehend this most perfect union of the Eternal Father with her. God " so loved the world," as Our Lord Himself says, " as to give His only-begotten Son "; ^ and the Apostle further declares that He has " also, with Him, given us all things ".^

If, then, He did this out of the true affection He had for us because He had given us His Only-Begotten as Master and Saviour, what far greater designs must not His unspeakable love have made Him form for Mary, concerning whom He had decreed that Jesus

1 John iii. i6. 2 RQm, viii. 32.

should belong to her in the same capacity in which He belongs to Him: — that she should be the Mother of His only Son, and that He would be the Father of hers?

O prodigious abyss of love! The mind gets beyond its depth in trying to think of this mysterious union: in considering what an object of delight Mary must have been to the Father, from the moment when a Divine Son — common to a woman of flesh and to the Godhead Himself — became the bond between Him and her.

Truly, then, whatever praises we may offer to a Child with this destiny are far below her deserts. The mere contemplation of her grandeur as predestined Mother of God dazzles our mental sight, and makes us unable to speak of her as we would. But, having treated of her to the best of my power in this great position, which seems to raise her so far above us, I would now bring her shortly before you in that relation to ourselves which I have referred to as a special consequence of her alliance with the Eternal Father. I may, as my final point, show how her greatness must necessarily be a beneficent greatness, and how her wonderful dignity carries with it the office of Mother of the Faithful.

It is the very nature of God, who possesses in Himself every perfection and everything that can possibly have existence — every grace and gift, every beauty that we behold in creation — to give. One of the noblest and most worthy of many ideas that we may form of the Divine Essence is to look upon It as not only a treasure-house of unlimited perfections, but as one that must open and pour itself forth on creatures. And why? Chiefly because one of its chief attributes is goodness. To begin with, creatures would never exist at all if God did not draw them forth from their nothingness by imparting to them, so to speak, a share of His own Being; and we have already discussed the great extent to which His love for man makes Him go in bestowing favours upon Him. St. Augustine says that there are only three reasons for giving at all: first, necessity, or compulsion; secondly, self-interest, or expectation of some advantage in return; thirdly, beneficence, which proceeds from pure goodness. It is very clear that God cannot give from either of the two first motives; hence He must give out of simple love, which is the quality proper to goodness.

But if love is proper to goodness, fertility is proper to love. Indeed, one sort of fertility is love, as opposed to the fertility of nature. In the ordinary course of things we see people without children adopt them; and hence St. Augustine often calls charity ** a Mother ": Charitas Mater est} Now, this double kind of fertility that we see in creatures emanates ^ In Ep. Joan., tract ii., n. 4, torn, iii., part ii., col. 838.

from the same quality in God, whence all paternity proceeds. The Nature of God is fruitful, and produces His Son by Nature Whom He begets in Eternity. The love of God is fruitful, giving Him adopted sons; and all who are His " children by adoption " are born of this second fertility. Mary shares in the natural fertility of God by begetting His own son; but as the sole cause of her dignity, and of Christ's Incarnation, is the love of God for man, she must necessarily also share in the fertility of His Love by begetting the Faithful, in whose birth she has " co-operated by her charity ": cooperata est charitate}

Mary, then, is at the same time Mother of Christ and our Mother; and this gives us double reason for keeping the anniversary of her birth with joy, since it gives her a twofold power of intercession. To be a perfectly efficacious intercessor before the throne of God, the one who pleads must possess equal nearness to God and to man; and of what creature but Mary can this be said? As Mother of Christ she is close to the Eternal Father, and as Mother of the Faithful she is close to us: hence her position as a pleader is quite exceptional.

But if she is, by virtue of her dignity and office, necessarily Mother of the Faithful, not all the Faithful are her worthy children whom she will acknowledge and help: — on certain conditions only may we rely on

^ St. Aug. de Sancta Virginit., n, 6, torn, vi., col. 343.

her powerful intercession. These conditions, however, may all be reduced to one: to the fulfilment of the Will of God after the pattern of Our Lord Jesus Christ. If Mary's existence is bound up, as we have seen that it is, in that of her Son, those only who love Him can be loved by her; and He Himself has placed the true test of love for all Christians in obedience. But our obedience is to be like His: — and what was that? It was very simple: Christ pleased not Himself} He did only the Will of His Father without any choice as to what It should be; and as the Father's Will was suffering, He suffered "unto death". His Mother did the same: she had not even a sight of the glory on Mount Tabor, but had to bear her full share of the ignominy of the Cross. Nay, it was actually at the foot of the Cross that her Son specially proclaimed her our Mother; and this for two reasons: — that she might have a true experience of the deepest sorrows of motherhood, so as to sympathise with us; and that we might know how only through courageously and lovingly suffering what God wills, and taking up our cross as He has commanded, can we ever be her genuine children. And — to finish my subject with a suggestion far above ordinary human ideas — this is not all. We may do more than be worthy and trustful children of Mary, by doing the Will of God in all things and loving the Cross. We may even — O wonderful thought! — share in some sort the glorious privilege of her Maternity. If this sounds impossible or presumptuous, listen to Christ Himself; for does He not say: " He who doth the Will of My Father Who is in Heaven, the same is My brother, and My sister, omA My Mother''?^

^ Mark iii. 32, seq.