Salesian Literature

1. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Sermon for the Feast of the Assumption, August 15,1602,concerning Our Lady's life on earth after Our Lord's Ascension, Our Lady's death, the close union between Mary and her Son during His Passion, the voluntariness of Our Lord's death, the cause of Mary's death. Our Lady's exemption from the law of corruption, the "perfumes" of graces and virtues which she brought with her to Heaven, the honor due to Mary, God as the source of all Mary's graces, the true way to honor Our Lady, and the true Christian teaching on the mediation of Our Lady and the saints.

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"Who is this coming up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her Lover?"  (Song 8-.5)

 

The Ark of the Covenant had been kept under tents and pavilions for a long time when at length the great King Solomon placed it in the rich and magnificent Temple which he had prepared for it. [1 Kgs. 8]. The rejoicings in Jerusalem were so great at this time that the blood of the sacrifices flowed in the streets, the air was thick with clouds from so much incense and perfume, and the homes and public places resounded with the canticles and psalms sung by all with music and melodious instruments.

 

But, O God[1], if the reception of that ancient Ark was so solemn, what must we not think to have been that of the new Ark? I speak of the most glorious Virgin Mother of the Son of God on the day of her Assumption. O joy incomprehensible! O feast full of marvels which makes devout souls, the true daughters of Zion, cry out in admiration: "Who is this coming up from the desert?" And indeed these facts are admirable; The Mother of Life is dead; death is resurrected and ascends to the abode of life. What a feast of consolation! She has ascended for the honor of her Son and to arouse in us a great devotion. This is the subject of which I will treat with you, O my people, but I cannot do so well unless I first obtain the assistance of the Holy Spirit. Ave Maria.

 

In the beginning God placed in the heavens two lights. The one, because of its great brilliance, was called the greater light; the other was named the lesser — the greater one to enlighten and govern the day, the lesser to enlighten and govern the night [Gen. 1:16]. For, though our Creator willed that there should be changes of day and night, and that the shades of night should succeed the brightness of day, being Light Himself [Jn. 1:5], He did not will that darkness and night should remain completely devoid of light. Having created the greater light to govern the day, He created a lesser light to govern the night so that the obscurity of the night's darkness might be tempered by means of its brightness.

 

This same God, with His holy Providence, determining to create the spiritual world of His Church, placed over it as in a divine vault of Heaven two great lights: one greater, the other lesser. The greater is His Son Jesus Christ our Saviour and Master, abyss of light, source of splendor, true Sun of Justice [Heb. 1:3; Mal. 3:20]. The lesser is the most holy Mother of this great Son, all-glorious Mother, all resplendent and truly more beautiful than the moon [Song 6:10].

 

Now, this greater Light came here upon earth. The Son of God assumed our human nature. He is the true Sun which comes over our hemisphere and makes the light and the day — happy day, so long desired, which lasted for about 33 years, during which He enlightened the land of the Church by the radiance of His miracles, example, teachings, and holy words! But at length when the hour came in which this precious Sun must set and take its radiance to the other hemisphere of the Church, Heaven and the angelic hosts, what could be expected but the obscurity of a dark night? And the night came all too quickly after the day. What were so many afflictions and persecutions which came upon the Apostles but a night?

 

But this night had also its light which brightened it so that the darkness was more tolerable. For the Blessed Virgin remained on earth among the disciples and the faithful. We cannot doubt this, since St. Luke in the Acts testifies that Our Lady was with the disciples on Pentecost Day and that she persevered with them in prayer and communion [Acts 2:1-4, 1:14]. Thus, they are convicted of error who say that she died with her Son because of the words of Simeon who foretold that a sword would pierce her soul through [Lk. 2:35]. But I will soon expound on this passage and demonstrate by its true meaning that Our Lady did not die with her Son.

 

Let us first consider the reasons why her Son left her in this world after His own departure. (1) This light was needed for the consolation of the faithful who were in the night of afflictions. (2) Her remaining here below gave her an opportunity to achieve an accumulation of good works so great that it could be truly said of her: Many daughters have gathered together riches, but you have surpassed them all! [Prov. 31:29, Douay]. (3) As soon as Our Lord died and ascended to Heaven, some heretics were saying that He had not had a natural and human body but only an imaginary one. The Virgin, His Mother, in remaining after Him, served as a reliable witness of the truth of His human nature, thereby already beginning to verify what we sing of her: "You, O Holy Virgin, have destroyed all heresies throughout the world." Thus did she live after the death of her life, that is to say, of her Son, and even long after His Ascension, though the number of the years is not definitely known. But they could not have been less than 15, which would have made her 63 when she died. At least 63, I say, inasmuch as others, and with more probability, would have her live until she was 72. But that matters little. It suffices for us to know that this holy Ark of the New Covenant remained in this desert of the world under tents and pavilions after the Ascension of her Son.

 

If this fact is certain, as it truly is, it is equally certain that at the end this Holy Lady died — not that the Scriptures explicitly say so, for I can find no word in the Scripture that says that the Virgin died. Ecclesiastical Tradition alone assures us of the fact, and so does Holy Church, which confirms this Tradition in the prayer she uses in the Mass of this feast. It is true that Scripture teaches us in general terms that all die, and that no human being is exempt from death. But it does not say that all are dead nor even that all those who have lived have already died. On the contrary, it exempts certain ones such as Elijah, who, without dying, was carried up to Heaven in a chariot of fire, and Enoch, who was taken away by Our Lord before he tasted death [2 Kgs. 2:11; Gen. 5:24; Heb. 11:5], and also St. John the Evangelist, the one I think to be most probable according to the word of God as I have demonstrated to you before on his feast in May [Jn. 21:22]. These three saints are not dead. Yet they are not exempt from the law of death, because if they are not dead they will die at the end time under the persecution of Antichrist, as appears in Chapter 11 of the Book of Revelation [Rev. 11:7].

 

Why may we not say the same of the Mother of God, namely, that she is not yet dead but will die at some future time? Certainly, if anyone wished to maintain this opinion we could not refute it by the Scripture, and according to your principles, O adversaries of the Catholic Church, it would be well-founded. But the truth is that she died and was buried, as well as her Son and Saviour. For though the fact cannot be proved by Scripture, yet Tradition and the Church, which are infallible witnesses, assure us of it.

 

Certain then that she died, let us now consider what kind of death she died. What death was so foolhardy as to dare to attack the Mother of Life, the Mother whose Son had conquered death and its sting, which is sin? [1 Cor. 15:55-56]. Be attentive, my dear listeners, for this point deserves consideration. I will soon have responded to the question, but it will not be easy for me to prove and explain it well.

 

My answer in a word is that Our Lady, Mother of God died of the death of her Son. The fundamental reason is that Our Lady had only one same life with her Son and thus could have but only one same death with Him. She lived only by the life of her Son. How could she die of any other death but His? They were in truth two persons, Our Lord and Our Lady, but of one heart, one soul, one spirit, one life. For if the bond of charity so bound and united the Christians of the early Church that St. Luke assures us that they were of one heart and one mind [Acts 4:32], with how much greater reason may we not say and believe that the Son and the Mother, Our Lord and Our Lady, were only one soul and one life?

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Consider the great Apostle St. Paul. He felt such a union and bond of charity between his Master and himself that he professed to have no other life but that of the Saviour: The life I live now is not my own; Christ is living in me [Gal. 2:20]. O my people, this union, this fusion and bond of hearts which made St. Paul speak such words was great, but not to be compared with that between the Heart of the Son Jesus and that of the Mother Mary. For the love which Our Lady bore to her Son far surpassed that which St. Paul bore to his Master, inasmuch as the names of mother and son are more excellent in matters of affection than the names of master and servant. Hence, if St. Paul lived only of the life of Our Lord, Our Lady also lived only of the same life, but more perfectly, more excellently, more completely.

 

Now if she lived of His life, she also died of His death. And indeed the good old man Simeon had long before predicted this kind of death for Our Lady when, holding her Child in his arms, he said to her: And a sword will pierce your own soul [Lk. 2:35, Douay]. Consider the words. He does not say: "A sword will pierce your body," but he says: '"your soul." What soul? "Your own soul," said the prophet. The soul of Our Lady, then, is to be pierced, but by what sword, by what dagger? The prophet does not say. Nevertheless, since there is question of the soul and not of the body, of the spirit and not of the flesh, we must not understand a material and physical sword but a spiritual sword which can attack the soul and spirit [Heb. 4:12].

 

Now I find three swords which can smite the soul. (1) The sword of the word of God, which, as the Apostle says, is sharper than any two-edged sword [Heb. 4:12]. (2) The sword of sorrow which the Church understands from the words of Simeon: You’re your own soul, she says, was pierced by the sword of sorrow.

 

Through her heart His sorrow sharing,

All His bitter anguish bearing,

Now at length the sword has passed.

[Stabat Mater]

 

(3) The sword of love of which Our Lord speaks; It is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword [Matt. 10:34], which is the same as when He says: I have come to light a fire on the earth [Lk. 12:49]. And in the Song of Songs, the Spouse[2] regards love as a sword by which He has been wounded, saying: You have wounded My Heart, My sister, My spouse [Song 4:9, Douay]. The soul of Our Lady was pierced by these three swords in the death of her Son, and principally by the last, which includes the other two.

 

When we strike a great and powerful blow upon an object, all that it touches receives a counter-blow. The body of Our Lady was not joined to, nor did it touch, that of her Son in the Passion. But as to her soul, it was inseparably united to the soul, heart and body of her Son, so that the blows which the blessed body of the Saviour received on the Cross caused no wound to the body of Our Lady, but they gave a mighty counter-blow to her soul, so that the prophecy of Simeon was verified. Love is accustomed to receive the counter-blows of the afflictions of the beloved.

 

Who is weak that I am not affected by it? Who is scandalized that I am not aflame with indignation? Who receives a blow of pain and I do not receive the counterblow? said the holy Apostle [2 Cor. 11:29]. Yet the soul of St. Paul did not touch the rest of the faithful so closely as the soul of Our Lady touched and was firmly attached to Our Lord. No union with His soul and with His body is greater than hers, for she was His source. His root. His Mother. It is no wonder, then, if I say that the sorrows pf the Son were the swords which pierced the soul of the Mother.

 

Let us explain a little more clearly. An arrow aimed straight at a person, having pierced his body, may also wound those who are next to him and touching him. Our Lady's soul was joined in perfect union to the Person of her Son. Her soul was knit to her Son. Jonathan's soul became closely bound to the soul of David, says the Scripture [1 Sam. 18:1]. The soul of Jonathan was bound or knit to that of David, so intimate was their friendship. Consequently, the thorns, the nails, the lance which pierced the head, the hands, the feet, the side of Our Lord, passed through them to pierce the soul of the Mother. Therefore I may say in all truth, O holy Virgin, that your soul was pierced with the love, with the sorrow, and with the words of your Son.

 

As for love, oh how deeply it wounded you when you saw a Son die whom you had so loved and adored. As for His sorrow, how keenly did it touch you, mortally wounding all your joy, your pleasure, and your consolation! As for His words, so sweet yet so bitter, they were as so much storm and wind to fan the fire of your love and your sorrows and to batter the boat of your heart, already almost broken in the tempest of a sea of so much bitterness! Love was the archer, for without it sorrow would not have had sufficient movement to attack your soul. Sorrow was the bow which shot the interior and exterior words, as so many arrows that had no other target but your heart.

 

Alas, how was it possible that arrows so loving were so painful? Let us not forget that the honeyed stingers of the bees are extremely painful to those who are stung by them, and it seems that the sweetness of the honey quickens the sharpness of the point. Truly, O my people, the sweeter were the words of Our Lord the more piercing they were to the Virgin His Mother, and they will be so to us also if we love her Son. What sweeter word than that which He spoke to His Mother and St. John [Jn. 19:26-27], words that were an undeniable witness to the constancy of His love, His solicitude, His affection for this holy Lady. Nevertheless, without a doubt they were words that were extremely painful for her. Nothing makes us feel more keenly the sorrow of a friend than the assurances he gives us of his love.

 

But if you please, let us return to our subject. It was at that moment that Our Lady's soul was pierced by the sword. And why, you say to me, did she not die at that moment? I have already said that some who maintain that she did have erred gravely, and Scripture bears witness that she was still living on the day of Pentecost and that she persevered with the Apostles in the exercise of prayer and communion. Moreover, the tradition is that she lived for many years after. But listen, does it not often happen that a stag is wounded by the hunter, yet escapes with its shaft and its wound and goes off to die many days after in a place far distant from where it received the wound? Certainly Our Lady was struck and wounded by the dart of pain in the Passion of her Son on Mount Calvary, yet she did not die immediately but bore her wound for a long time, and from it she finally died. O loving wound! O wound of charity, which was so cherished and loved by the heart you wounded!

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Aristotle and Pliny relate that the wild stags and goats of Crete have a cunning trick, or rather a wonderful instinct. When pierced by an arrow, they seek out the herb, Cretan dittany, which rejects and expels the arrow from the body. But who is the Christian who has not been wounded at some time by the dart of the Saviour's Passion? Where is the heart that has not been struck, considering his Saviour scourged, tortured, bound, nailed, crowned with thorns, crucified? I do not know if I dare to say it, but the greater part of Christians resemble the men of Crete, of whom the Apostle speaks: "Cretans have ever been liars, beasts and lazy gluttons!" [Titus 1:12]. At least I can say that many resemble the wild stags of Crete. Having been wounded and struck in their soul by the Saviour's Passion, they immediately have recourse to the dittany of worldly consolations, by which the darts of divine love are rejected and erased from their memory. In contrast the holy Virgin, feeling herself wounded, cherished and carefully guarded the shafts by which she had been pierced, and never desired to reject them. This was her glory, this was her triumph; and consequently, of this she desired to die—as at the end she did. So did she die of the death of her Son, though not at the same time.

 

Now, ought we not stay here? This subject is so pleasing in my opinion. Our Lady died of the death of her Son. But her Son — of what death did He die? Here are new fires to inflame our hearts, O Christians! Our Lord suffered infinitely in both soul and body. There are no sorrows in this world comparable to His. See the afflictions of His heart; see the Passion of His body; look, I beg you, and see: Is any suffering like His? [Lam. 1:12]. Nevertheless, all these sorrows, all these afflictions, all these blows of the hand, of the reed, the thorns, the scourging, the hammer, the lance could not make Him die. Death had not sufficient power to render itself victorious over such a life; it had no point of access. How then did He die?

 

O Christians, love is strong as death [Song 8:6, Douay]. Love desired that death should enter into Our Lord, so that by His death, love could be spread abroad into all people. Death desired to enter there, but it could not do so of itself. It waited the hour, blessed hour for us, in which love gave it entrance and delivered over to it Our Lord, nailed hands and feet. What death was unable to do, love which is as strong as death undertook and accomplished. He died of love, this Saviour of my soul. Death could do nothing except by means of love: He was offered because it was His own will [Is. 53:7, Douay].

 

It was by His own choice that He died and not by the power of evil. I lay down My life; no one takes it from Me, but I lay if down freely [Cf. Jn. 10:17-18]. Any other man would have died from so many sufferings; but Our Lord, who holds in His hands the keys of death [Rev. 1:18] and of life, could have resisted forever the efforts of death and the effects of sufferings. But no, He did not will it so. The love He bore us, like another Delilah, took away all His strength [Jgs. 16:19], allowing Him to die willingly. This is why it is not said that His spirit went put from Him but that He gave it up. Emisit Spiritum [Mt. 27:50; Jn. 19:30]. And St. Athanasius notes that He bowed His head before dying: Inclinato capite, emisit spiritum [Mt. 27:50; Jn. 19:30], to call death, which otherwise would not have dared to approach. This is also why He cried out in a loud voice while dying [Mt. 27:50; Lk. 23:46], to show that He had sufficient strength not to die, but that He willed it. It was the maxim He Himself had given: There is no greater charity than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends [Jn. 15:13]

 

It was death from love then, and it is this that makes His sacrifice of the Cross a holocaust: because it was consumed by this invisible, but so much the more ardent fire of His Divine Charity, which rendered Him — and not the Jews or the Gentiles who crucified Him — the sacrificer in this sacrifice, inasmuch as they could not have been able to bring death upon Him by their deeds if His love, by the most excellent act of charity which ever was, had not permitted and commanded the final effect. All the torments they inflicted upon Him would have remained ineffectual if He had not willed to allow them to take hold on His life and given them power over Himself. You would have no power over Me whatever unless it were given you from above [Jn. 19:11].

 

Now, since it is certain that the Son died of love and that the Mother died of the death of the Son, we must not doubt that the Mother died of love. But how? You have observed that in seeing her Son die she was wounded by the wound of love on Mount Calvary. From that moment on she received such assaults from this love, she experienced so many transports, this wound became such a burning fire that in the end it was impossible that she should not die from it. She could only languish with love. Her life was no more than swoonings and ravishments from it. It was wasting away from so much passion, so that she could well say; Strengthen me with raisin cakes, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love [Song 2:5].

 

Amnon, captivated by the infamous love of Tamar, became so sick from it that they saw him waste away and   die [2 Sam. 13]. Oh, indeed, how much more active and powerful is Divine Love! Its object, its principle is so much greater. That is why there is nothing strange in my saying that Our Lady died from it. She always bore the wounds of her Son in her heart. For some time she suffered them without dying from them, but at the end she died from them without suffering. O passion of love, O love of the Passion!

 

Alas, her treasure, that is to say her Son, was in Heaven; her heart then was no longer in herself [Matt. 6:21]. The body that she loved so much, bone of her bone, flesh of her flesh [Gen. 2:23], was in Heaven. There she flew, this holy eagle. Wheresoever the body is, there shall the eagles be gathered together [Matt. 24:28, Douay]. In short her heart, her soul, her life were in Heaven; how could she remain long on earth? Finally, after so many spiritual flights, after so many suspensions and ecstasies, this holy tower of chastity, this fortress of humility, having miraculously sustained a thousand thousand assaults of love, was carried off and taken captive by a last and universal assault. Love, which was the conqueror, took this beautiful soul away as its prisoner, and left to the sacred body cold death and the tomb. O death, what are you doing in this body? Do you think that you have power to keep it? Do you not remember that the Son of the Lady whose body you possess has vanquished you, defeated you, rendered you His slave? Ah, it is only for a time that He leaves you the glory of this, your victory [1 Cor. 15:55]. You will soon slink away as shamefully as you arrogantly remain there; and love, which by a certain excess allowed you entrance into this holy place, returning in a little while, will deprive you of your possession.

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The phoenix dies from the fire, and this holy Lady died of love. The phoenix assembles a funeral pyre of aromatical wood, and placing it on the mountain peak, flaps its wings over this pyre so rapidly that a fire is kindled by the rays of the sun. This Virgin, gathering in her heart the Cross, the crown, the lance of Our Lord, placed them at the summit of her thoughts. Over this pyre she made a great movement of continual meditation, and fire was kindled by the rays of the light of her Son. The phoenix dies in that fire. The Virgin died in this; and it must not be questioned that she had engraven in her heart the instruments of the Passion. Ah, if so many virgins, such as St. Catherine of Siena, St. Claire of Montefalco, had this grace, why not Our Lady, who loved her Son and his death and Cross incomparably more than did ever all the saints together? Indeed, she was nothing but love, and in the French language the anagram of "Marie" is nothing else but "to love"; "aimer" is "Marie," "Marie" is "aimer." Go, then, go, O happy, O beautiful phoenix, burning and dying of love, sleep in peace on the bed of charity!

 

Thus died the Mother of Life, But as the phoenix rises very soon after its death and assumes a new and happier life, so this Blessed Virgin remained only a brief space of time, no more than three days, before returning to life. Her body, the body which had never experienced any corruption during her holy life, was not subject to corruption after death. Corruption had not tainted such integrity. This ark was of incorruptible wood of acacia [Ex. 25:10] like the ancient Ark. Ah, it is believed, as is said in the Book of Revelation [Rev. 11:7-11], that the bodies of Elias and Enoch will die, but only for three days, and without corruption. How much more the Virgin, whose immaculate flesh has so intimate a union with that of the Saviour that one could not imagine any imperfection in the one but that the dishonor would reflect on the Other.

 

You are dirt and to dirt you shall return. That was said to the first Adam and the first Eve [Gen. 3:19]. The second Adam and the second Eve have had no part in that sentence; and that is certainly a universal law, but not without exception, as I have demonstrated with the example of Elijah and Enoch. The whole city of Jericho was sacked and pillaged, but the house of Rahab was privileged and exempt from the sacking because she had lodged the spies of the great Judge Joshua [Jos. 6:24-25] for one night. The world and all its inhabitants are subject to the universal sack and pillage and fire; but does it not seem to you only right to exempt Our Lady and her body, the body which received and lodged not spies but the true Joshua, the true Jesus, and not for one night but for many: Beatus venter, beata ubera ["Blessed is the womb, blessed are the breasts" — Lk. 11:27]. Worms will eat our bodies, but they reverenced the one which produced the body of their Creator.

 

The high priest Abiathar had joined in the sedition of Adonias. Being discovered and apprehended, Solomon said: You ought to die, but because you carried the Ark of the Covenant before my father you shall be spared [1 Kgs. 2:26]. Certainly, according to the universal laws, the Virgin ought not to have been resurrected before the day of the General Resurrection, nor even to have been exempt from corruption. But the honor she had had of carrying before the Eternal Father, not the Ark of the Covenant but His only Son, the Saviour, the Redeemer, rendered her exempt from all these laws. Is it not true that notwithstanding these laws, many arose on the day of the Resurrection — Multa corpora sanctorum qui dormierant resurrexerunt ["Many bodies of the saints that had slept arose" — Matt. 27:53]. And why not the Virgin, to whom, says the great St. Anselm, we ought not to refuse any privilege or honor which can be accorded to any simple creature.

 

But finally, if anyone presses me to know what certitude we have for the resurrection of the Virgin, I will respond that we have as much for it as we have for her death. Scripture, which does not gainsay either of these two truths, does not assert either the one or the other in explicit words. But holy Tradition, which teaches us that she was deceased, informs us with equal assurance that she was raised. And if anyone refuses credence to Tradition for the resurrection, who will be able on the same grounds to convince him of her death and burial? But we who are Christians believe, assert, and preach because Tradition supports it, because the Church bears witness to it, that she died and very soon after was brought back to life. And if anyone wishes to gainsay it, we must respond to him as the Apostle did in a like instance: If anyone wants to argue about this, remember that neither we nor the churches of God recognize any other usage. [1 Cor. 11:16].

 

Now it is not sufficient to believe that she was resuscitated, for we must fix firmly in our soul that she was not resuscitated only to die another time, as in the case of Lazarus, but to follow her Son to Heaven, as did those who were raised on the day that Our Lord arose [Matt, 27:53]. The Son, who, on coming into this world, received His body and His flesh from His Mother, would not allow His Mother to remain here below, neither in the body nor in the soul. But shortly after she had paid the universal penalty of death. He took her to Himself into the kingdom of His holy Paradise. It is to this that the Church bears witness, calling this feast the "Assumption," based on the same Tradition by which she is assured of Mary's death and resurrection.

 

Storks have great filial devotion toward their fathers and mothers. When their parents are old and decrepit and the harshness of the season and times compels them to take passage and retreat to a warmer spot, they take hold of their parents, burden themselves with them, and carry them on their wings that they may in some manner reciprocate the benefits they had received from them in their rearing. Our Lord had received His body from that of His Mother. He had been carried for a long time in her sacred womb and in her chaste arms when, because of the harshness of the persecution, it was necessary to take passage and retreat into Egypt. Ah, Lord, said the heavenly court after the death of the Virgin, wake to the judgment You have decreed [Ps. 7:7]. You have commanded that children provide assistance to their aged parents and have embedded this law so deeply in nature that even the storks observe it. Awake to the judgment You have decreed: Permit not that this body which engendered You without corruption now be tainted with corruption in death, but raise it up, and grasping it by the wings of Your power and goodness, carry it from the desert of that lower world to this place of undying happiness.

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It must not be doubted that the Saviour willed to observe to the highest point of perfection imaginable this commandment, which He had given to all children. But who is the child who, if he could, would not raise his good mother and place her in Paradise after her decease? This Mother of God died of love, and the love of her Son resuscitated her. And in view of this consideration, which as you see is most reasonable, we say today: Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning upon her Lover? [Song 8:5J. It is the subject of our feast. It is the occasion of this great joy which all the saints celebrate in the Church Militant and Triumphant.

 

When the patriarch Joseph received his good father Jacob into the court of Pharaoh [Gen, 47:7] in the kingdom of Egypt, over and above the favorable welcome afforded him by the king himself, there is no doubt that the principal courtiers came before him performing all sorts of most jubilant demonstrations. In the same way, there is no doubt that at the Assumption of the most holy Mother of the Saviour all the angels were festive, celebrating her coming in all manner of joyful songs. Joining our wishes and affections to theirs, we ought to have a solemn feast with exclamations and songs of triumph: Who is this coming up from the desert, flowing with delights? [Song 8:5, Douay].

 

And was not this the most beautiful and magnificent entrance into Heaven ever seen, second only to that of her Son? For what soul was ever received there so full of perfection, so richly adorned with virtues and privileges? She comes up from the desert of the lower world, but nevertheless so perfumed with spiritual gifts that, excluding the Person other Son, Heaven has nothing comparable. She comes up like a column of smoke laden with myrrh, with frankincense: Who is this, it is asked in the Song of Songs, coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, laden with myrrh, with frankincense, and with the perfume of every exotic dust? [Song 3:6]. As you know, the Queen of Sheba came to visit King Solomon to consider his wisdom and the beautiful order of his court, and at her arrival she gave him a large amount of gold, spices, and precious stones. Never again did anyone bring such an abundance of spices as the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon [1 Kgs. 10:1-2, 10].

 

But the Virgin, coming up to Heaven into the court of her Son, brought with her so much gold of charity, so many perfumes of devotion and virtue, such a great quantity of precious stones of patience and sufferings that she had borne in His Name, that reducing them all to merits we can truly say that never was so great a quantity brought to Heaven. Never did anyone present so much to her Son as did this holy Lady.

 

Do you want further enlightenment on this doctrine? Know that in the matter of good works no one began so early in life nor persevered so diligently as did Our Lady.  The rest of us begin quite late, and if we do perform some good works, very often we lose out on them because of sin and inconstancy, so that the sum total is not found to be very much. For, although perhaps we gather some coins in merit, it is only sometimes, and very often we are frivolous and squander our money in one fall into sin. And if by penitence we return to grace, do you not see that we manage our affairs poorly, for we waste very much time. And besides, our strength remains weakened after sin, and even after penitence, so that our store of merits cannot be very great. But let us speak of the more perfect. Even St. John the Baptist, your great patron, O my people, was not exempt from venial sin. Now venial sin tarnishes our works, delays our progress, and impedes our advancement. But our holy Lady was full of grace from her Conception. As soon as she had the use of reason she never ceased to profit and grow more and more in all manner of virtue and graces, so that her accumulation of merits was incomparable: Many daughters have gathered together riches, but you have surpassed them all [Prov. 31:29, Douay].

 

Oh, how she was overflowing with delights, since in this world she had been so rich in good deeds and works! And so she was established in the highest reaches of the glory of the saints. Pharaoh paid such deference to Joseph that when his father arrived in Egypt, Pharaoh said to him: Your father and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is at your disposal. Settle your father and your brothers in the pick of the land [Gen. 47:5-6]. But on this holy day on which Our Lady arrives in the Kingdom of her Son, think what the Eternal Father will say to Him; All My glory is Yours [Jn. 17:10], O My Beloved Son. Your Mother has come to You. Have her dwell in the highest reaches, in the best and most eminent place of this Kingdom.

 

Let us not doubt this, O Christians. When Our Lord came into this world. He sought the lowest place there was [Eph. 4:9] and He found none lowlier in humility than the Virgin. Now He raises her up to the highest Heaven in glory. She gave Him a place according to His desire. Now He gives her one according to His love, exalting her above the cherubim and seraphim.

 

But let us look at the remainder of the sentence we have chosen for our subject. It says that this holy Lady, coming up from the desert flowing with delights, is leaning upon her Lover. This is the last word in all the praises which the Church holily gives to the saints, and above all to the Virgin. For we always refer them to the honor of her Son by whose strength and virtue she ascends to receive the plenitude of delights. Have you not noticed that the Queen of Sheba, in bearing so many precious things to Jerusalem, offered them all to Solomon? Ah, all the saints do the same, and particularly the Virgin. All her perfections, all her virtues, all her happiness are referred, consecrated and dedicated to the glory of her Son, who is their source, their author and finisher [Heb. 12:2, Douay].  Soli Deo honor et gloria ["To the only God be honor and glory" — 1 Tim. 1:17]. All returns to this point.

 

If she is holy, who has sanctified her if not her Son? If she is saved, who is her Saviour if not her Son? "Leaning upon her Lover": All her felicity is founded on the mercy of her Son. You would name Our Lady a lily of purity and innocence? Yes, she is that in truth. But this lily has its whiteness from the Blood of the Lamb in which she has been purified, like the robes of those who have washed them white in the Blood of the Lamb [Rev. 7:14]. If you call her a rose because of her most excellent charity, her color will be only the blood of her Son. If you say that she is a column of smoke, sweet and pleasing [Song 3:6], say at once that the fire of this smoke is the charity of her Son; the wood is His Cross. In brief, in all and through all she is leaning upon her Lover. It is in this way, O Christians, that we must be jealous of the honor of Jesus Christ, not like the adversaries of the Church who think they honor the Son by refusing the honor due to the Mother. On the contrary, the honor borne to the Mother, being referred to the Son, renders magnificent and illustrious the glory of His mercy.

 

To witness to the purity of intention of the Church in the honor she renders the Virgin, I present to you two contrary heresies which are opposed to the just honor due to Our Lady: The one, by excess, named Our Lady a goddess of Heaven and offered her sacrifice, and this was maintained by the Collyridians; the other, by default, rejects the honor Catholics pay to the Virgin, and this was held by the Antidicomarites. Errors always go to extremes and are contradictory to each other.

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The Church, which always takes the royal road and holds to the middle course of virtue, combats the one no less than the other. Against the one she declares that the Virgin is only a creature, and henceforth we ought not offer her any sacrifice. Against the other she asserts that, nevertheless, this holy Lady, since she is the Mother of the Son of God, should be recognized as deserving of special honor — infinitely less than that of her Son, but infinitely greater than that of all other saints. To the one she reveals that the Virgin is a creature — but so holy, so perfect, so perfectly bound, joined and united to her Son, so much loved and cherished by God that, in truth, one can love the Son rightly only when for love of Him one has a very great love for the Mother, and when for the honor of the Son he pays highest honor to the Mother. But to the other she says: Sacrifice is the supreme honor of latria, which must be offered to God alone as Creator — and do you not see that the Virgin is not the creatrix but only a creature, although a very excellent one?

 

For myself, I am accustomed to say that in a certain manner the Virgin is more a creature of God and of her Son than is the rest of the universe. God has created in her many more perfections than in all the rest of His creatures, since she was more redeemed than all the rest of humankind, inasmuch as she was redeemed not only from sin but from the power and even the inclination to sin. To purchase the liberty of a person who was to be a slave before she becomes one is a greater grace than to purchase it after she is in captivity. Thus, far are we from attempting to make any one-to-one comparison of the Son with the Mother, as our adversaries believe — or pretend to believe in order to convince the people that we do.

 

In short, we call her beautiful, and beautiful far beyond all other creatures — but beautiful as the moon [Song 6:10], which receives its brightness from that of the sun, for she receives her glory from that of her Son. The thorn called "aspalatus," says Pliny, is not of itself odoriferous, but if the rainbow touches it, it leaves it with an odor of incomparable sweetness. The Virgin was the thorn of that bush, flaming but not burned, which the great Moses saw: In the burning bush which Moses saw we acknowledge your holy virginity [Ex. 3:2], says the Church. And assuredly, of herself she was not worthy of any honor, she was without fragrance. But since that great Arc of Heaven, that great sign of the reconciliation of God with men [Gen. 9:13-17], came to rest little by little on this holy thorn — first by the grace of her Conception, then by her Motherhood, making Himself her true Son and reposing in her precious womb — its sweetness has become so intense that no other plant has ever had so much: sweetness which is so pleasing to God that the prayers which are perfumed by it are never rejected or useless. But the honor she receives always returns to her Son, from whom she received her fragrance.

 

Her Son is our Mediator [1 Jn. 2:1]; she, our Mediatrix — but in a very different manner, as I have said a hundred times. The Saviour is the Mediator of justice, for He intercedes for us, exposing the right and reason of our cause. He produces our just claims, which are none other than His Redemption, His Blood, His Cross. He acknowledges to His Father that we are debtors, but He shows that He has paid for us. But the Virgin and the saints are mediators of grace. They pray for us that we may be pardoned — all through the mediation of the Passion of the Saviour. They themselves have nothing to show by which we may be justified, but entrust themselves to the Saviour for this. In brief, they do not join their prayers to the intercession of the Saviour, for they are not of the same quality, but to ours.

 

If Jesus Christ prays in Heaven, He prays in virtue of Himself; but the Virgin prays only as we do, in virtue of her Son, but with more credit and favor. Do you not see that all returns to the honor of her Son and magnifies His glory?

 

That is why in order to honor Our Lord all antiquity greatly honored His Mother. Look around Christendom; Of three churches, two are under the patronage of the Virgin or are outstanding for the devotion of the people toward her. The daughters of Sion see her [Song 6:9]. The daughters of Sion, the souls of the faithful, the people, have considered her and have praised her for her blessedness. And queens have praised her [Song 6:9]. And not only the people, but the most illustrious personages: Prelates, doctors, princes and monarchs have praised and magnified her. Just as birds begin to chirp at daybreak, each in his own melody, so all peoples bestir themselves to celebrate her honor as she herself has prophesied, saying: All ages to come shall call me blessed [Lk. 1:48]. Consequently, all the faithful, and you most particularly, O Parisians, ought to invoke her and obey her. These are the two primary honors we can render her and she has invited us to render her them.

 

I find that Our Lady spoke to people only twice according to the account of the Gospel: once when she greeted Elizabeth [Lk. 1:40]—and there is no doubt but that at that time she prayed for her, for greetings of the faithful are made by prayer. The second was when she spoke to the servants at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee, and at that time she said only: Do whatever my Son tells you [Jn. 2:5]. These two acts comprise the exercise of charity and the will of the Virgin regarding us — to pray for us, and consequently we ought to invoke her with great confidence. In all dangers, in all tempests, O Parisians, "Look at this star of the sea, invoke her." With her favor your ship will arrive at port without disaster and without shipwreck.

 

But if you want her to pray for you, listen to her second word by obeying her commandments. Now her commandments are, in a word, that you do the will of her Son: Do whatever He tells you to do. O Christians, do we desire that the Virgin should hearken to us? Hearken to her. Do you desire that she listen to you? Listen to her. With all her heart and with all the weight of her affections as well, she asks that you be obedient servants of her Son.

 

One day Bathsheba came to David with many acts of obeisance and reverence in order to make a request and petition. In the end she asked only that her son Solomon be king after his father and succeed him to the throne. [1 Kgs. 1:16-17]. This Virgin, O people, asks of you above all, as the most certain demonstration of your devotion to her, that you have her Son for the King of your heart and soul, that He reign in you and that His commandments be carried out. Do this, O people, as your duty, for your salvation, and for love of Our Lady, who, as you have seen, remained for some years yet on earth after the Ascension of her Son. After some time she died of the death of her Son — that is to say, of love. But she did not remain dead for any length of time but was raised up and came up from the desert of this world into Paradise, where she is enthroned above all creatures — and all this for the greater glory of her Son! For this she prays for us, and asks us to be His faithful servants.

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O most sacred and most happy Lady, who are in the heights of the Paradise of felicity, alas, have pity on us who are in the desert of misery. You are in the abundance of delights, and we are in the abyss of desolations. Obtain for us the strength to carry our afflictions well and always to be supported by your Lover, the only support of our hopes, the only recompense of our labors, the only medicine of our ills.

 

Alas, glorious Virgin, pray for the Church of your Son. Assist with your favors all superiors, the Holy Father, prelates and bishops, and particularly those of your city of Paris. Be propitious to the king. Your ancestor David, mindful of the services and offices of Jonathan, was good to Jonathan's son [2 Sam. 9:7]. This king is the descendent of one of your most faithful and devoted servants, the blessed St. Louis. We pray you to grant him your protection in the name of that holy king. May the queen, who has the honor of bearing your name, ever be under the shelter of your holy patronage. O heavenly Lily, stir up the lilies of France with your holy benedictions, that they may always remain white and pure in the unity of true faith and religion. You are a sea. Let the waves of your graces fall on this young dauphin. You are the Star of the Sea. Oh, be propitious to the ship of Paris, that it may arrive at the holy harbor of glory, there to praise the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

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[1] The expression "O God" or "Oh, my God" is very characteristic of St. Francis de Sales, who lived and spoke in the presence of God.

[2] That is, Christ. In this book, the terms "Spouse," "Divine Spouse," "Lover," "Divine Lover," and "Beloved" are capitalized when they refer to Christ, and are in lower case when they refer to the Church, to each faithful Christian soul (especially religious), or to the Blessed Virgin Mary — who, as St. Francis de Sales states, merits above all others the name of "spouse" and "lover" of Christ (cf. Annunciation). The word "divine" here is not always to be taken in the literal sense of referring to God Himself.

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