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THE birth of the Blessed Virgin
Mary announced joy and the near approach of salvation to the lost world;
therefore is this festival celebrated by the church with praise and
thanksgiving. It was a mystery of sanctity, and distinguished by singular
privileges. Mary was brought forth into the world, not like other children
of Adam, infected with the loathsome contagion of sin, but pure, holy,
beautiful, and glorious, adorned with all the most precious graces which
became her who was chosen to be the Mother of God. She appeared indeed in
the weak state of our mortality; but in the eyes of heaven she already
transcended the highest seraph in purity, brightness, and the richest
ornaments of grace. I am black, but beautiful, 0 ye daughters of
Jerusalem. * The spouse says to her much more emphatically than to other
souls sanctified by his choicest graces: As the lily among thorns, so is
my beloved among the daughters. * Thou art all fair, and there is not a
spot in thee. * Man was no sooner fallen in paradise through the woman
seduced by the infernal spirit, but God promised another woman whose seed
should crush that serpent's head. I will put enmities, said he to the
serpent, between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall
crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel. * This curse is
evidently to be understood of the devil who seduced Eve, and with
implacable malice sought the destruction of her posterity. It is not the
real serpent that is here meant; the sense would be too low; and why
should the serpent, which was not in fault, be so treated, and the true
offender, the devil, who had either taken the figure of the crafty
serpent, or concealed himself in that reptile, escape all punishment? The
Hebrew original expresses the latter part of this prophecy as follows: It
(i.e. her seed) shall crush thy head. * In the birth of the Virgin Mary
was the accomplishment of this solemn prediction begun.
To understand the great present that in her God bestowed on the world, we
must consider her transcendent dignity and the singular by which she was
distinguished above all other pure creatures. Her dignity is expressed by
the evangelist when he says, That of her was born Jesus who is called the
Christ. * From this text alone is that article of the Catholic faith
sufficiently evinced, that she is truly Mother of God. It is clear this is
not to be understood as if she could be in any sense mother of the
Divinity, the very thought whereof would imply contradiction and
blasphemy, but by reason that she conceived and brought forth that Blessed
Man who subsisting by the second divine person of the adorable Trinity is
consequently the natural, not the adoptive Son of God, which was the
Semi-Nestorian error broached by Felix and Elipandus. In the Incarnation
the human nature of Christ was assumed by, and hypostatically, that is
intimately and substantially, united to the person of God the Son, so that
the actions done by this nature, are the actions of that Divine Person,
whose assumed or appropriated nature this is. Hence we truly say with St.
Paul, that we are redeemed by the blood of a God, and with the church,
that God was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered and died on the cross; all
which he did in that human nature which he had wonderfully taken upon him.
Nestorius, a man ignorant in ecclesiastical learning, but vain,
opinionated, and presumptumtous a degree of extravagance, introduced a new
heresy, teaching that there are in Christ two persons no less than two
natures, the divine and human united, not intrinsically, but only morally,
by the divinity dwelling in the humanity of Christ as in its temple. Thus
the heresiarch destroyed the incarnation held two Christs, the one God,
and the other man, and denied the Blessed Virgin to be the Mother of God,
saying she was mother of the man Christ, whom he distinguished from the
Christ who is God. The constant faith of the Catholic church teaches, on
the contrary, that in Christ the divine and human nature subsist both by
the same divine person, that Christ is both truly God and truly man, and
that the Virgin Mary is the Mother of God by having brought forth him who
is God, though he derived from her only his assumed nature of man. The
errors of Nestorius were condemned in the general council of Ephesus in
431, and from the ancient tradition of the church, the title of the Mother
of God was confirmed to the Virgin Mary. Socrates and St. Cyril of
Alexandria prove that this epithet * was given her by the church from
primitive tradition; and it occurs in the writings of the fathers who
flourished before that time, as in the letter of St. Dionysius of
Alexandria to Paul of Samosata, * in the Alexandria, manuscript of the
Bible, which, according to Grabe, * was writ before the year 390, &c. So
notorious and ordinary was this appellation, that, as St. Cyril of
Alexandria testifies, Julian the Apostate reproached the Christians that
they never ceased calling Mary Mother of God; * and so clearly was
Nestorius convicted in this point, as to be obliged to confess this title,
though he never departed from his heretical tenets.
The dignity of Mother of God is the highest to which any mere creature is
capable of being raised. * What closer alliance could any pure creature
have with the Creator of all things? What name could be more noble what
prerogative more singular, or more wonderful, He who was born of the
Father from all eternity, the only-begotten and consubstantial Son, Maker
and Lord of all things, is born in time, and receives a being in his
nature of man from Mary. "Listen and attend, O man," cries out St. Anselm,
* "and be transported in an ecstasy of astonishment, contemplating this
prodigy. The infinite God had one only begotten co-eternal Son; yet he
would not suffer him to remain only his own, but would also have him to be
made the only Son of Mary." And St. Bernard says; * "Choose which you will
most admire, the most beneficent condescension of the Son, or the sublime
dignity of the Mother. On each side it is a subject of wonder and
astonishment; that a God should obey a woman is a humility beyond example,
and that a woman commands a God, is a preeminence without a rival." The
first, which is the humiliation of him who is infinite, in itself can bear
no comparison with the other, but the astonishing exaltation of Mary
transcends what we could have imagined any creature capable of. No
creature can be raised to what is infinite: yet the object or term of this
dignity of Mary is infinite, and the dignity has a nearer and closer
relation to that object than could have been imagined possible by
creatures, had not omnipotence made it real. * To this transcendent
dignity all graces and privileges, how great and singular soever, seem in
some measure due. We admire her sanctity, her privileged virginity, all
the graces with which she was adorned, and the crown with which she is
exalted in glory above the cherubim; but our astonishment ceases when we
reflect that she is the Mother of God. In this is every thing great and
good, that can suit a mere human creature, naturally comprised.
To take a review of some other singular privileges of this glorious
creature, we must further consider that she is both a mother and a
spotless virgin. This is the wonderful prerogative of Mary alone; a
privilege and honor reserved to her, which shall not be given to any
other, says St. Bernard. The ancient prophets spoke of it as the
distinguishing mark of the Mother of the Messiah and the world's Redeemer,
and frequently call the Christ Jehovah or the true God, as Dr. Waterland
demonstrates by many passages. This was the miraculous token of the
assured deliverance of mankind by the long expected Savior, which God
himself was to give to the incredulous king Achaz, doubt and anxious about
his present deliverance from his temporal enemies. The Lord himself shall
give you a sign, said Isaias: Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a
son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel. * This must evidently be
understood of the Messiah, to whom alone many qualities and epithets in
this and the following chapter can agree, though a son of the prophet
mentioned afterward was also a present type of the king's temporal
deliverance. The title of Virgin must here mean one who remained such when
a mother; for this circumstance is mentioned as a stupendous miracle. *
Jeremy also, contemplating this mystery in spirit, * expressed his
astonishment at this prodigy unheard of on earth, that a woman should
encompass in her womb a man, the great Redeemer of the world.
The perpetual virginity of the Mother of God has been denied by several
heretics. Ebion and Cerinthus had the insolence to advance that she had
other children before Jesus; but this impious error is condemned by all
who receive the holy gospel, by which it is manifest that Jesus is the
first-born. In the fourth age Helvidius, and soon after him Jovinian,
pretended she had other children after Christ. Jovinian, and among modern
Protestants, Beza, Albertin, and Basnage, * will not allow her the title
of Virgin in the birth of Christ. Against these errors the Catholic church
has always inviolably maintained that she was a virgin before, in, and
after his birth; whence she is styled ever Virgin. This article is
defended in all its points by St. Jerome, * St. Epiphanius, * and other
fathers. St. Jerome shows that the expression of the evangelist, that
Joseph knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born, * no ways
intimates that he knew her afterward, as no one will infer that because
God says: I am till you grow old, he should then cease to be, &c. The same
father proves that first-born in the sacred writings means the first son,
whether any other children followed or not and that those who were called
the brothers of our Lord according to the Hebrew phrase, were only
cousins-german, sons of another Mary, called of Alphaeus, and of Cleophas,
sister to the Blessed Virgin. He confirms the belief of her perpetual
virginity from the testimony of St. Ignatius, St. Polycarp, St. Irenaeus,
St. Justin, &c. St. Epiphanius further observes that no one ever named
Mary without adding the title of virgin; and that, had she had other
children, Jesus would not have recommended her on the cross to St. John,
&c. The fathers apply to her many emblems and types of the old law and the
prophets expressive of this prerogative, calling her the Eastern Gate of
the Sanctuary shown to Ezechiel, through which only our Lord passed, * the
bush which Moses saw burning without being consumed, Gideon's fleece
continuing dry whilst the earth all around it was wet, &c. Her virginity
was not only a miraculous privilege, but also a voluntary virtue, she
having, by an early vow, consecrated her chastity to God, as the fathers
infer from her answer to the angel. * Such a privileged mother became the
Son of God. The earth, defiled by the abominations of impurity, was loaded
with the curses of God, who said: My spirit shall not remain in man for
ever, because he is flesh. * But God choosing Mary to take himself flesh
of, prepared her for that dignity by her spotless virginity, and on
account of that virtue said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. * It is by imitating
her perfect purity according to our state, that we shall recommend
ourselves to our heavenly spouse, who is the lover of chaste souls, and is
called by St. Gregory Nazianzen, the virgin by excellence, and the first
of virgins. In the example and patronage of Mary we have a powerful succor
against the opposite most abominable and destroying vice. We can only be
victorious in its most dangerous conflicts by arming ourselves with her
sincere humility, perfect distrust in ourselves, constant spirit of
prayer, and flight of the shadow of danger, and with the mortification of
our own will, and of our senses and flesh.
The Virgin Mary was the most perfect model of all other virtues. St.
Ambrose, in the beginning of his second book, On Virginity, exhorts
virgins in particular to make her life the rule of their conduct: "Let the
life and virginity of Mary," says he "be set before you as in a
looking-glass, in which is seen the pattern of chastity and virtue. The
first spur to imitation is the nobility of the master. What more noble
than the Mother of God! - she was a virgin in body and mind, whose candor
was incapable of deceit or disguise; humble in heart; gray in words; wise
in her resolutions. She spoke seldom and little; read assiduously, and
placed her confidence, not in inconstant riches, but in the prayers of the
poor. Being always employed with fervor, she would have no other witness
of her heart but God alone, to whom she referred herself, and all things
she did or possessed. She injured no one, was beneficent to all, honored
her superiors, envied not equals, shunned vain-glory followed reason,
ardently loved virtue. Her looks were sweet, her discourse mild, her
behavior modest. Her actions had nothing unbecoming, her gait nothing of
levity, her voice nothing of overbearing assurance. Her exterior was all
so well regulated, that in her body was seen a picture of her mind, and an
accomplished model of all virtues. Her charities knew no bounds; temperate
in her diet she prolonged her fasts several days, and the most ordinary
meats were her choice, not to please the taste, but to support nature. The
moments which we pass in sleep, were to her a time for the sweetest
exercises of devotion. It was not her custom to go out of doors, except to
the temple, and this always in the company of her relations, &c. The
humble and perfect virtue of Mary raised in St. Joseph the highest opinion
of her sanctity as appeared when he saw her with child. "This is a
testimony of the sanctity of Mary," says St. Jerome, * "that Joseph
knowing her chastity, and admiring what had happened, suppresses in
silence a mystery which he did not understand." Another ancient writer
improves the same remark, crying out: * "O inestimable commendation of
Mary! Joseph rather believed her virtue than her womb, and grace rather
than nature. He thought it more possible that Mary should have conceived
by miracle without a man than that she should have sinned." Yet this
sanctity of Mary, which was a subject of admiration to the highest
heavenly spirits, consisted chiefly in ordinary actions, and in the purity
of heart and the fervor with which she performed them. All her glory is
from within! * From her we learn that our spiritual perfection as to be
sought in our own state and depends very much upon the manner in which we
perform our ordinary actions. True virtue loves to do all things in
silence and with as little show and noise as may be; it studies to avoid
whatever would mend it to the eyes of men, desiring to have no other
witness but him who is its rewarder and whose glory alone it seeks. A
virtue which wants a trumpet to proclaim it, or, which affects only
public, singular, or extraordinary actions, is to be suspected of subtle
pride, vanity, and self-love.
To study these lessons in the life of Mary, to praise God for the graces
which he has conferred upon her, and the blessings which through her he
has bestowed on the world, and to recommend our necessities to so powerful
an advocate, we celebrate festivals in her honor. This of her Nativity has
been kept in the church with great solemnity above a thousand years. The
Roman Order mentions the homilies and litany which were appointed by pope
Sergius in 688 to be read upon it; and a procession is ordered to be, made
on this day from St. Adrian's church to the Liberian basilic or St. Mary
Major. * In the Sacramentary of St. Gregory the Great, published by Dom
Menard, particular collects or prayers are prescribed for the mass,
procession, and matins on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, with a
special preface for the mass. * A mass with particular collects for this
festival occurs in the old Roman Sacramentary or Missal, published by
cardinal Thomasius, which is judged by the learned to be the same that war
used by pope Leo the Great, and some of his predecessors. * This feast is
mentioned by St. Ildefonsus, in the seventh century. * The Greeks (as
appears from the edict of the emperor Emmanuel Comnenus), the Copths in
Egypt, and the other Christian churches in the East, keep with great
solemnity the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. * St. Peter Damian
pathetically exhorts all the faithful to celebrate it with great devotion.
*
We celebrate the anniversaries of the birthdays of earthly princes, who,
on those occasions, dispense freely their favors and liberalities. How
ought we to rejoice in that of the Virgin Mary, presenting to God the best
homage of our praises and thanksgiving for the great mercies he has shown
in her, and imploring her mediation with her Son in our behalf! We shall
doubtless experience the particular effects of her compassion and goodness
on a day observed by the whole church with so great devotion in her honor.
Christ will not reject the supplications of his Mother, whom he was
pleased to obey whilst on earth. Her love, care, and tenderness for him,
and the sorrows which she felt for his sake in the state of his mortality,
those breasts which gave him suck, those hands which served him, must move
him to hear her; the titles and qualities which she bears the charity and
graces with which she is adorned, and the crown of glory with which she is
honored, must incline him readily to receive her recommendations and
petitions.
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