CHAPTER XIV MARY IS BLESSED ON ACCOUNT OF HER FULLNESS OF
GRACE, THE
MAJESTY OF HER OFFSPRING, THE MULTITUDE OF HER MERCIES,
THE GREATNESS OF
HER GLORY
Blessed art thou among women. It has been shown how Mary,
because of the
innocence of her life, is saluted by the Ave: it has also
been shown how
she is rightly called "full of grace," because
of the most copious
affluence of her grace; it has moreover been shown how,
because of the
special presence of Our Lord with her, she is saluted
with the words "The
Lord is with thee." Now we have to show how, because
of the most pleasing
reverence of her person, she is hailed as "Blessed
among women." Behold,
therefore, that the Archangel Gabriel by saluting the
glorious Virgin Mary
with a glorious salutation, most fittingly consummated
her blessedness by
saying, "Blessed art thou among women," that
is, more blessed than all
women. And by this, whatever of malediction was infused
into our nature by
Eve, was taken away by the blessing of Mary. Let Gabriel
therefore say:
"Blessed art thou among women"; blessed, I say,
because of the fullness of
grace to be venerated in thee; blessed, because of the
greatness of the
mercy to be bestowed by thee; blessed, because of the
majesty of the Person
who is to take flesh of thee; blessed, because of the
weight of glory which
is to be accumulated in thee.
First, consider how Mary is truly blessed because of the
fullness of grace
to be venerated in her, as Gabriel shows most aptly when
he says: "Hail,
full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou
among women."
Blessed art thou, because thou art full of grace. Thou
hast found grace
with God, and therefore thou art blessed with the Lord.
St. Bernard well
says of this blessedness of Mary: "By thee we have
access to thy Son, O
blessed among women, finder of grace, Mother of life,
Mother of salvation."
Blessed art thou, O Mary, because of grace. Blessed, I
say, because of the
grace of the heart, of the lips, of the work. Blessed in
heart, because of
the grace of gifts; blessed in mouth, because of the
grace of the lips;
blessed in work, because of the grace of manners. Truly
is Mary blessed
because of the grace of the heart, for the grace of her
gifts in her heart;
for her heart was as the most delightful paradise of God,
so that of this
blessedness could be understood that word of
Ecclesiasticus: "Grace is like
a paradise in blessing." Here the commentary says:
"Bearing fruit in the
different species of virtues." Of these happy
degrees and blessings of
virtues the Apostle says: "Who hath blessed us in
all spiritual blessings
in the heavenly places in Christ." If, therefore,
grace makes the mind of
man delightful as the paradise of God in the blessings of
virtues, how much
more delightful must the soul of Mary be, that Paradise
of God, in the
blessings of the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Yea, verily,
not only was the
mind of Mary a Paradise of God, but also her bosom,
containing within
itself the tree of life, Jesus Christ. St. Bernard says:
"Truly thou art
the Paradise of God, who hast brought forth to the world
the Tree of Life,
of which he who shall eat shall live forever." Alas,
how far from this
blessedness of Mary is he whose mind is not a paradise of
God in the
blessings of grace, but a sink of the devils in the curse
of malice! Of
such is it said in the Psalm: "He loved cursing, and
it shall come unto
him: and he would not have blessing, and it was removed
far from him" (Ps.
CVIII, 18.)
Again, Mary is blessed, not only because of the gifts of
her heart, but
also because of the grace of her lips, according to that
word of the Psalm:
"Grace is poured abroad in thy lips, therefore hath
God blessed thee
forever." Oh, how great a grace was on the lips of
Mary, in devout prayers,
in useful conversations! Oh, how great a grace was always
on the lips of
Mary, for men, for angels, for the Lord! St. Bernard
tells us how pleasing
to God were the words of her lips, saying: "Him whom
thou hast pleased by
thy silence, thou shalt henceforth please much more by
thy words, for He
cries to thee from Heaven: 'O most beautiful of women,
let me hear thy
voice.' " Oh, how true, how sincere, were the lips
of Mary, and therefore
God truly hath blessed her forever. Oh, how far from the
blessedness of
Mary are they whose lips are so unlike hers, on whose
lips grace is not
poured, but malice; therefore, God hath not blessed, but
cursed them
forever.
Again, Mary is blessed not only because of the gifts of
her heart and of
her lips, but also because of the grace of her life and
conversation. Of
this blessedness can be understood what is said in
Jeremias: "May the Lord
bless thee, beauty of justice, holy mountain." The
holy mountain is Mary,
who is fitly called a mountain because of the loftiness
of her life and
manners. This is the mountain of which we read in Daniel:
"A stone was cut
out without hands" (Dan. II, 45.) This was when
Christ was born of Mary
without male co-operation. The beauty of this mountain is
the beauty of
justice. So great was the beauty of the life and manners
of Mary that it
could justly be said of her as in the Canticle:
"Thou art all fair, O my
beloved." She was beautiful indeed, in her life;
beautiful in the
discipline of her manners; and all beautiful. Without
doubt all in her was
beautiful. How all? Hear St. Jerome: "Whatever was
in Mary, was all purity
and simplicity, all grace and truth, all mercy and
justice, which looked
down from Heaven." Rightly did the Lord bless such
beauty in Mary. Alas,
how far are they from this blessing of Mary of whom it
may be said, not
what was said to Mary, "May the Lord bless thee,
thou beauty of justice,"
but, "May the Lord curse thee, thou vileness of injustice!"
Oh, what a
malediction that will be when it will be said:
"Depart from Me, ye cursed,
into everlasting fire!" Behold, we have seen, O most
dear Mary, that thou
art truly blessed because of thy fullness of grace.
Blessed, I say, because
of the grace of conscience and of gifts; blessed, because
of the grace of
the tongue and of the lips; blessed, because of the grace
of thy life and
thy manners.
Secondly, consider how truly Mary is blessed because of
the majesty of her
heavenly Child, because of the blessed fruit of her womb.
Rightly is that
land blessed which produces so blessed a fruit. The
Psalmist says: "Thou
hast blessed, O Lord, thy land." That land is Mary,
of whom it is said in
the same Psalm: "Truth has sprung up from the
earth." The Truth is Christ,
who said: "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the
Life." Blessed, therefore,
is this earth, because of its blessed fruit; blessed is
Mary, because of
her blessed Son. Therefore St. Bernard says: "Not
because thou art blessed,
is the fruit of thy womb blessed; but because He hath
prevented thee in the
blessings of sweetness, therefore art thou blessed."
Mary is blessed
because of her Divine Child. Blessed, I say, by the Lord,
by the Angel, by
man. Because of her Child she is indeed blessed by the
Lord, who is Himself
her blessing; blessed by the Angel, who announces her
blessing; blessed by
man, who prophesies her blessing. Truly is Mary blessed
by the Lord because
of her Child, who Himself is and gives her blessing. This
is well signified
in the second Book of Kings, where we read: "The
Lord blessed Obededom
because of the Ark." Obededom is interpreted
"Servant of blood."
Well doth he signify Christ, who, having become our
servant, serves us
miserable sinners even unto blood. For our sake He became
a slave, and shed
His blood--the blood of His back by the scourge; the
blood of His head by
the thorns; the blood of His side by the lance; the blood
of His hands and
feet by the nails. The house of this servant is Mary, of
whom it is said in
the Psalm: "We shall be filled with the good things
of His house." The ark
placed in that house signifies Christ, for Christ is our
servant and our
life. In the ark was the golden urn and the manna. The
holy ark is the
sacred flesh; the golden urn is the precious soul of
Christ; and the manna
signifies His divinity. Because of this ark, because of
Jesus Christ, the
Son of Mary, the Lord blessed the house of Mary. O truly
blessed house,
from whence the life of all hath come forth! St.
Augustine says: "Blessed
art thou among women, who hast brought forth life to men
and women."
Likewise, Mary is blessed because of her Child, not only
by the Lord
Himself being her blessing, but also by the Angel announcing
her blessing.
Gabriel says: "The Lord is with thee, blessed art
thou among women." How
"with thee"? St. Augustine explains: "With
thee in heart, in the womb."
Therefore, blessed art thou together with Him, because He
is in thee and
with thee. With thee, not only as the Creator is with His
creature, but
also as the Child is with her who is to bring Him forth.
Because of thy
Child, thou art blessed before thy delivery; because of
thy Child, thou art
blessed in bringing forth; because of thy Child, thou art
blessed after
bringing forth. Truly blessed art thou, who hast so
brought forth thy Child
that before His birth, and in His birth, and after His
birth, thou hast
remained a virgin; and therefore thou hast deserved to be
called blessed,
because thou hast brought forth not a mere man, not an
angel, but the Lord
of men and angels. Therefore St. Bede well says:
"Truly art thou blessed
among women, who without example in womankind rejoicest
in the honor of a
mother and the beauty of virginity, and as becomes a
virginmother, thou
hast given life to the Son of God."
Again, Mary is blessed because of her Child, not only by
the Lord Himself
being her blessing, not only by the Angel announcing her
blessing, but by
man prophesying her blessing. Elizabeth, when the infant
in her womb
exulted, cried out and said: "Blessed art thou among
women, and blessed is
the fruit of thy womb." Therefore, thou art blessed
indeed, because the
fruit of thy womb is blessed; as a field is blessed
because the fruit of it
is blessed. Mary is that blessed field of which it is
said: "Behold the
smell of my son is as the smell of a plentiful field,
which the Lord hath
blessed" (Gen. XXVII, 27.) St. Jerome says:
"Well is Mary called a full
field, because she is said to be full of grace, from
whose womb the Fruit
of life came forth to all believers." O field truly
blessed above all
fields because of its fruit! O Mother truly blessed above
all mothers
because of thy Son! St. Augustine exclaims: "O Woman
blessed above all
women, who knew not man, yet encompassed a Man in her
womb!" Behold we have
seen, O most sweet Mary, that thou, because of the
blessed Son of thy womb,
art truly blessed with a divine blessing, an angelic
blessing, and a human
blessing ! Alas, how far from this blessing of Mary are
those who, because
of the accursed fruit of their work, have incurred the
divine malediction,
the curse of angels and of men; for all eternity they
will be cursed by
God, cursed by angels, cursed by men.
Thirdly, think how truly Mary is blessed because of the
multitude of her
mercy. She is signified by Ruth, of whom it is said:
"Blessed art thou by
the Lord, because thy former mercy hath surpassed the
latter." The former
mercy of Mary was that which she showed while she still
lived in this
world; the latter mercy is that which she has now shown
for centuries from
Heaven. The latter blessing has surpassed the former,
because she has
exceeded it by an innumerable multitude of blessings. Who
can reckon how
inestimably Mary is blessed because of her mercy, when
her mercy in itself
is inestimable? And who can reckon how inestimable is the
mercy of Mary, on
account of which she herself is so inestimably blessed?
St. Bernard says:
"Blessed, therefore, is Mary for the manifold mercy
which man received
through her; blessed indeed, because by her, God was
induced to be
favorable to man; blessed is she also, because by her,
man was made
acceptable to God; blessed, moreover, is she, because by
her, the devil was
overcome." I say that Mary is blessed because by
her, God was induced to be
favorable to man, as is signified in the example of
Abigail, of whom we
read, that when David, being angry, wanted to kill the fool
Nabal, Abigail,
meeting him half-way, appeased him; who being appeased,
said: "Blessed be
thy speech, and blessed be thou, who hast kept me to-day
from coming to
blood, and revenging me with my own hand" (I Kings
XXV, 32 f.) The fool
Nabal signifies the sinner; for every sinner is a fool.
But, alas, as it is
said in Ecclesiasticus: "The number of fools is
infinite" (I, 15). Abigail
signifies Mary, for the name is interpreted, "joy of
the father." Oh, how
great was the joy of the heavenly Father in Mary, and
that of Mary in the
heavenly Father, when she herself said: "My spirit
hath rejoiced in God my
Savior." As Abigail typifies Our Lady, so David
typifies Our Lord. For
David was offended by the fool Nabal, when the Lord was
offended by guilty
man. David was appeased by the fool Nabal, when the Lord
was appeased and
reconciled to guilty man by Mary. Abigail appeased David
by words and
gifts; Mary appeased the Lord by her prayers and merits.
Abigail turned
away temporal vengeance, but Mary turned away that which
was eternal; the
former averted the sword of man, the latter, that of God.
Therefore St.
Bernard well says: "No one was so fitting, Lady, to
turn away the sword of
the Lord by their own hand, as thou, the most beloved of
God, through whom
we first received mercy from the hand of the Lord, our
God." Likewise, Mary
is blessed not only because by her God's wrath with man
was appeased, but
also because by her man was made acceptable to God,
inasmuch as man was
blessed because of her blessing. Therefore, is it well
said in Isaias:
"Israel will be a blessing in the midst of the
earth, whom the Lord of
hosts hath blessed, saying, 'Blessed be my people,'
" etc. The middle of
the earth which the Lord blessed can be said to be the
Blessed Virgin, in
whom was begun the blessing of our salvation, according
to that word of the
Psalmist: "But God our King hath wrought salvation
in the middle of the
earth." Of this middle of the earth, St. Bernard
says: "With wonderful
fitness is Mary called the middle of the earth; for
towards her, as to the
center, as to the ark of God, as to the cause of things,
as to the business
of the world, look all those who dwell in Heaven and in
hell, and those who
have gone before us, and those who follow us. Those who
are in Heaven, that
they may be repaired; those who are in hell, that they
may be delivered;
those who went before, that prophets may be found
trustworthy; those who
follow, that they may be glorified." In this blessed
middle of the earth,
therefore, blessed is Israel, blessed is the people of
God, since by the
blessed Mother of God, it is acceptable to God. What
wonder if by the
blessed Mary every rational creature is blessed and
acceptable to God,
since by her is blessed every creature? Therefore St.
Anselm exclaims: "O
Virgin blessed, and more than blessed, by whose blessing
every creature is
blessed, not only the creature by the Creator, but the
Creator by the
creature."
Again, Mary is not only blessed because by her the Lord
has been appeased
towards man, but also because by her the devil has been
rendered subject to
man. She is, therefore, signified by Judith, of whom it
is said: "The Lord
hath blessed thee in his power, who by thee has reduced
our enemies to
nought." Our enemies are the demons, whom the
Blessed Virgin reduced to
nought when, in herself and in many others, she brought
his wiles to
nought, as St. Bernard says: "Thou formidable
warrior"; and again: "The
entire militia of evil spirits has been put to flight
before thee." Let us,
therefore, fly, and fly all together to the protection of
the Mother of the
Lord, in all the attacks and vexations of the devil. For
she is terrible to
the enemies of our souls, as an army in battle array.
Alas, how manifold is
our misery, for which we need the blessing and mercy of
Mary. Let us,
therefore, invoke this mercy and this blessing with St.
Bernard, who speaks
thus: "Let it be thine, O blessed Virgin, that grace
which thou hast
merited from God, to show to the world pardon to the
guilty, healing to the
sick, strength to the faint-hearted, help and deliverance
to pilgrims, by
obtaining all these favors by thy prayers."
We have seen, O most sweet Mary, that thou art truly
blessed because of thy
manifold mercy. Blessed, I say, because by thee God is
appeased towards
man.; Blessed art thou, because by thee man is made
pleasing to God;
blessed art thou, because by thee the devil is overcome
by man. Alas, how
far from this blessing of Mary is one who is not pleasing
to God, one
towards whom God's wrath is not appeased, one who is
willingly subject to
the devil. And therefore such a one is accursed of God;
Fourthly, consider
how truly Mary is blessed because of the greatness of her
glory, according
to that word of Ezechiel: "Blessed is the glory of
the Lord from its
place." The glory of the Lord is the glorious Mother
of God, who is truly
blessed because of the glory which she possesses from her
twofold place.
She is blessed from the place wherein she rests with her
Son in Heaven; and
she is blessed from the place wherein her Son rested
within her. Both these
places are most worthy, as St. Bernard proves, saying:
"There was not in
the world a more venerable place than the virginal
bride-chamber into which
Mary received the Son of God; nor in Heaven, than the
regal throne to which
the Son of Mary elevated Mary." Blessed is Mary,
therefore, because of her
glory; blessed indeed because of her most sublime, most
copious, most
enduring glory. Blessed, I say, because of her glory most
sublime in
dignity; blessed because of her glory most copious in
immensity; blessed
because of her glory most enduring in stability. I say
that Mary is blessed
because of her glory most excellent in dignity. Of this
blessing can be
understood that word of the Psalmist: "Thou shalt
bless the crown of the
year of thy kindness." Note that there is a year of
equanimity, a year of
severity, and a year of benignity. The first year is that
of those still
fighting in this world; the second is that of those
weeping in hell; and
the third is that of those rejoicing in Heaven. The first
year has days and
nights; the second has nights, but no days; the third has
days, but no
nights. I say that the first year has days and nights,
that is, the good
and the bad, who are still in this world. There are as
many days and nights
in this year as there are good and evil people in the
world. The second
year has nights only, that is, only sinners who are
darker than night. For
there are as many nights in this year as there are
sinners in hell. The
third year has only days, that is, the good, who are more
resplendent than
the day. There are as many days in this year as there are
just souls in
Heaven. In the first year, that of equanimity, the good
and the evil are
equally tolerated; in the second year, that of severity,
the evil are most
severely tortured; in the third year, that of kindness,
the good are most
benignantly crowned. The crown of this blessed year is
the Virgin Mary. She
is without doubt the crown of all the days of this year,
for she is the
crown of all the Saints in Heaven. A crown is put on the
head; so Mary is,
as it were, placed over the heads of all the Saints, as
St. Jerome says:
"She deserved to be placed above the choirs of the
angels; and she went
beyond what is of the nature of our lowliness."
Without doubt the Son of
Mary is the highest crown of the Saints; but Mary is a
crown below a crown.
It is manifest, therefore, how sublimely blessed is our
crown, our Mother
Mary. Let us all, therefore, follow her who is so
sublimely blessed,
blessed indeed, of whom St. Bernard says: "We have
not here a lasting city,
but we seek that to which Mary has blessedly
attained."
Again, Mary is blessed, not only because of the most
excellent glory of her
dignity, but because of the most abundant glory in
immensity; its fullness
is such that it is blessed by all men, and reaches to
all, and, therefore,
rightly is it blessed by men, according to what is said
of it by figure in
the Book of Judith: "They blessed her with one
voice, saying: 'Thou art the
glory of Jerusalem, thou art the joy of Israel, thou art
the honor of our
people."' They all blessed her indeed. Note that
they say all. For this
there should be at least three. And there are three who
bless Mary: God,
the Angel, and man. God the Father indeed blessed Mary;
the Son blessed His
Mother; the Holy Ghost blessed her; all three Persons
blessed her. The
Angels also blessed Mary; the first hierarchy blessed
her, the second also,
and the third, all blessed her. Man also has blessed
Mary; the married have
blessed her; widows blessed her; virgins blessed her; all
have blessed her.
They have blessed her, saying: "Thou art the glory
of the triumphant
Jerusalem, the glory, I say, of all the Saints; thou art
the joy of Israel,
contemplating God; thou art the joy, I say, of all the
angels; thou art the
honor of our people who are still pilgrims, that is, thou
art the honor of
all the just who are in this world. Blessed, therefore,
be thy most sweet
Son, O Mary, who by thy abundant blessing bestows such
good things on
Heaven and on earth, so that the angels as well as men
can rejoice with
Anselm, and praise thee, saying: "These great gifts
came through the
blessed Fruit of the blessed womb of the blessed
Mary."
Again, Mary is blessed not only because of her glory most
sublime in
dignity, not only because of her glory most abundant in
immensity, but also
because of her glory most enduring in stability. That is
signified by the
house, spoken of in the First Book of Paralipomenon:
"Thou, O Lord, giving
the blessing, it shall be blessed for ever." Truly
forever, as it is said
in the Psalm: "Therefore hath God blessed thee
forever" (Ps. XLIV.) Thus,
therefore, O sweet Virgin Mary, thou art truly blessed
among women, and
above women, yea also above men, nay, even above the
angels. Blessed, I
say, because of the fullness of grace which thou hast
found; blessed,
because of the majesty of the Person whom thou hast given
birth to;
blessed, because of the multitude of the mercies which
thou hast shown;
blessed, because of the greatness of the glory which thou
hast received.
Thee, therefore, O Blessed One, we invoke, we implore, we
pray to thee with
St. Bernard: "Grant, O blessed one, by the grace
which thou hast found, by
the prerogatives which thou hast merited, by the mercy
which thou hast
brought forth, that He who through thee deigned to become
a partaker of our
weakness and misery, may, by thy intercession, make us
sharers of His
heavenly glory. Amen."
CHAPTER XV MARY IS BLESSED BY THE SEVEN VIRTUES AGAINST
THE SEVEN CAPITAL
VICES
Blessed art thou among women. Let us still speak of the
blessing of our
Blessed Virgin, let us still hear of it. Happy is the
Blessed Mary; unhappy
is every accursed soul to whom it shall be said:
"Depart from me, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire!" Cursed without doubt
is every sinful soul,
but blessed art thou, O virtuous Mary. The world incurred
malediction by
the seven capital vices; but Mary obtained blessing by
the contrary
virtues. Blessed, therefore, art thou among women, O
Mary. Blessed by
humility against pride, by charity against envy, by
meekness against anger,
by diligence against sloth, by temperance against
gluttony, by chastity
against lust.
First let us hear how Mary is blessed by humility against
pride. For the
proud are accursed, as it is written: "Thou hast
rebuked the proud; cursed
are they who decline from thy ways." Against this
curse of pride Mary
obtained the blessing of humility. Thus she may be
signified by that valley
of which it is said in Paralipomenon: "They called
that place the valley of
blessing" (2 Paralip. XX, 6.) If every humble soul
is, as it were, a valley
of God, according to that word of Isaias, "Every
valley shall be filled,"
how much more was Mary a valley, who was so deep in
humility! What wonder
if she were the valley of valleys, who was the most
humble of the humble?
Oh, how greatly is this blessed valley exalted with
blessings for her
humility, so deep, so useful, so pleasing! St. Augustine
says: "O truly
blessed humility of Mary, who brought forth the Lord to
men, gave life to
mortals, renewed the heavens, purified the world, opened
paradise, and
delivered the souls of men from hell." The deeper a
valley is, the more is
it a receptacle for waters; so was Mary for graces. A
valley receives
irrigation by waters, sometimes from above, sometimes
from below; from
above, when the rains flow down from the mountains; from
below, when there
are springs of water in it. In like manner the humble
Mary received waters,
as it were, both from above and from below; she was, as
it were, irrigated
from a mountain and from a spring, when from the divine
and from the human
nature of her Son so great a blessing of graces was
poured into her. This
is that blessing of which we read in the Book of Judges,
when Axa said to
her father: "Give me a blessing." Her father
gave her a place well watered
from above and from below. Axa was a type of Mary, who
received a well-
watered blessing from the heavenly Father. For God the
Father gave her a
blessing from above in the divinity of Christ, and from
below in His
humanity; again from above in her mind, and from below in
her womb; from
above in her charity to God, from below in her love for
her neighbor; again
from above in contemplation, from below, in action. Or
the heavenly Father
gave her an ineffable blessing, from above in Heaven,
from below on earth,
that in Heaven she might possess the blessing of glory,
and on earth that
of grace; and thus be blessed both in Heaven and on
earth, according to
what St. Bernard intimates when he says: "Remember,
O Mary, that Christ
bore the malediction of the cross, who blessed thee, His
Mother, in Heaven.
But thou wert blessed also on earth by the Angel, and art
rightly called
blessed on earth by all generations."
Secondly, let us hear how Mary is blessed for charity
against envy. The
envious are accursed, as it is said of the envious Cain:
"Cursed art thou
upon earth, which has opened its mouth, and received the
blood of thy
brother from thy hand." Against the curse of envy,
Mary has received the
blessing of charity. She may well, therefore, be
signified by Sara, of whom
the Lord said: "I will bless her, and out of her I
will give thee a son,
whom I will bless" (Gen. XVII, 16.) Sara is
interpreted as "coal." This is
well suited to Mary, who, like a coal, was on fire with
the ardor of
charity. Therefore, the burning bush is a fit figure of
Mary, by whom the
blessing of grace is ministered to every faithful soul.
It is said in
Deuteronomy: "The blessing of him, who appeared in
the bush, may it come
upon the head of Joseph." Joseph is interpreted as
"increase," and
signifies every faithful soul enriched by divine grace.
Blessed is the
bush, and blessed is He who by His Incarnation appeared
in the bush, by
whom so great a blessing came upon the faithful. O truly
blessed coal,
producing so blessed a flame, blessed Mary bringing forth
so blessed a
Child. "From her," saith the Lord, "I will
give thee a son, whom I will
bless" (Gen. XVII, 16.) Think, therefore, what great
charity Mary had
towards God, when God is her Son according to the flesh.
Think also what
charity she had towards her neighbor, when the good
neighbor is spiritually
her son. And if we are her sons, we are the brethren of
her Son. Well,
therefore, doth St. Anselm say of this blessed Mother:
"O blessed and
exalted one, not for thyself alone, but also for us, what
is it, how great
is it, how lovable, what we see happening by thee for us,
which, seeing, I
rejoice, which, rejoicing, I dare not utter ? For if
thou, O Lady, art the
Mother of God, are not thy other sons the brethren of
God?"
Thirdly, hear how Mary is blessed for her meekness and
gentleness against
anger. For the angry are accursed, as it is written in
Genesis: "Cursed be
their fury, for it was stubborn: and their wrath, because
it was cruel"
(Gen. XLIX, 7.) Against this curse of wrath, Mary
obtained the blessing of
meekness. For truly her meekness was such that not only
had she no anger of
her own, but she even turned the anger of God to
meekness. Therefore, she
is well signified by Abigail, to whom David said:
"Blessed be thy speech,
and blessed be thou, who hast kept me to-day from coming
to blood and
revenging me with my own hand" (I Kings XXV, 32.) It
is the property of
meekness to soothe with kind words the anger of those who
are offended,
according to that word of Proverbs: "A mild word
turneth away anger" (Prov.
XV, 1.) The meek Abigail signifies the meek Mary. Do you
wish to know how
meek Mary was? Listen to St. Bernard: "Turn
over," he says, "diligently in
your mind the whole of the Gospel story, and if you note
in Mary anything
of rebuke, anything hard, or even the slightest sign of
indignation, you
may perhaps suspect her in other things, and fear to
approach her. But if
you find that in all things she was rather full of grace
and loving
kindness, full of meekness and mercy, give thanks to Him
who with such kind
compassion has provided thee with such a mediatrix, in
whom thou hast
nothing to fear." David signifies Christ, who by
Mary's meekness is soothed
and placated, lest He should take vengeance on the sinner
by eternal death.
Let every soul in danger of eternal death never cease to
sigh to Mary in
her great meekness, for which she is rightly so blessed.
I say, therefore:
Let every soul about to die say with St. Anselm: "O
thou blessed above
women, who conquerest the angels by thy purity,
surpassest the Saints by
thy loving kindness, let my dying soul sigh at the sight
of such great
kindness; but let it blush at such resplendent
whiteness."
Fourthly, hear how Mary is blessed by her diligence
against sloth. For the
slothful are accursed, because they do not do the work of
God faithfully
and earnestly. Jeremias says: "Cursed is he who doth
the work of God
negligently." Against the curse of torpor, Mary
deserted the blessing of
earnestness. For she may be signified by that Jahel, who
killed Sisara with
a nail. Therefore, in the Book of Judges it says:
"Blessed is Jahel among
women." Jahel is interpreted as "going
up," which suits Mary, who did not,
like the slothful, go down, but most earnestly always
ascended from virtue
to virtue, from a lower to a higher grade, according to
that word of the
Canticle: "Who is this who cometh up from the
desert, like a rod of
incense?" What has this blessed Jahel done? She
killed Sisara with a nail.
Sisara is interpreted as "the shutting out of
joy," and well does this
signify the devil, because he himself, being shut out
from eternal joy,
tries also to keep others out of it. Alas, yes, by means
of the first
mother of the human race he excluded all of us, and the
curse of this
exclusion was lifted by the Mother of our Savior. Well,
therefore, does the
Venerable Bede say: "Blessed art thou among women,
by whose virginal
bringing forth the curse of the first mother was excluded
from those born
of women." But what is signified by the nail
wherewith the head of Sisara
was pierced? What is this nail but severity of
discipline? What is
strictness of life to the lazy, but a sort of nail
through the eyes ?
Strictness of discipline is, as it were, a nail painfully
transfixing the
devil, and sharply wounding him. The blessed Jahel,
therefore, pierced the
head of Sisara with that deathdealing nail, while the
blessed Mary
extinguished in herself the strength of Satan by
strictness of discipline.
Blessed, therefore, is Jahel among women, blessed is Mary
among women.
Among which women ? Listen to Bede, who says: "Not
only art thou blessed
among women, but among women who are blessed thou art
eminent by a greater
blessing."
Fifthly, hear how blessed is Mary by her liberality
against avarice. For
the avaricious are accursed, as St. Peter says:
"Having their heart
exercised with covetousness, children of
malediction" (2 Pet. II, 14. )
Against this curse of avarice, Mary merited the blessing
of generosity and
profusion. For she was like a fountain ever flowing and
ever giving, and
therefore was truly blessed, according to that word:
"Let thy vein be
blessed" (Prov. V, 18.) In temporal things Mary,
that vein, was more than
generous, because she generously and liberally despised
all things.
Therefore, according to Haymon, the Blessed Mother of God
had the moon
beneath her feet because she despised all temporal
things. Oh, how great
graces have flowed on to men by means of this vein I
Therefore, O Church,
thy vein be blessed, by whom so great good gifts have
come to thee. Truly a
noble vein, a vein full of the Holy Ghost, a vein the
fountain of life;
Mary is to us a vein of salvation. For by this vein
Christ, the fountain of
life, came to us, and by this vein we come to Jesus
Christ, who is the
fountain of life; truly, therefore, is it blessed. St.
Bernard says: "By
thee, O blessed finder of grace, we have access to God,
Mother of life,
Mother of salvation, that by thee He may receive us, who
by thee was given
to us."
Sixthly, hear how Mary is blessed by temperance against
gluttony. For the
gluttons are accursed, as it appears in the greediness of
our first
parents, for which both they and the whole human race
incurred a curse.
Against this curse of gluttony Mary obtained the blessing
of abstinence and
of every kind of temperance. Rightly indeed, in
opposition to the curses of
gluttony in the material paradise, did the blessings of
temperance abound
in the spiritual paradise, according to that word of
Ecclesiasticus: "Grace
is like paradise in blessings." So great an
abundance of grace was in Mary
that she, the gracious Virgin, might almost be called
grace itself. This
grace, that is, the most gracious Virgin Mary, was as a
paradise in
blessings. For as in the material paradise the gluttony
of Eve merited the
curses of punishments, so in the spiritual paradise the
temperance of Mary
merited the blessings of graces. Therefore Augustine
says: "The curse of
Eve was turned into the blessing of Mary." As the
gluttony of Eve brought
forth a curse not only in the body, but also in the soul,
so Mary obtained
for us a blessing not only in the body, but also in the
soul; not a
spiritual blessing alone, but likewise a corporeal one.
The malediction of
the greedy Eve was to bring forth in pain; the blessing
of the temperate
Mary was to bring forth without pain, as St. Bernard
says: "Blessed art
thou among women, thou who hast escaped that general
curse, in which it is
said: 'In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children,' and
yet at the same time
too that other, 'Cursed is the sterile in Israel'; and
thou hast obtained a
singular blessing, that thou shouldst neither remain
sterile nor bring
forth in sorrow."
Seventhly, let us hear how Mary is blessed by her
chastity against lust. To
the lustful it is said: "Cursed is he who shall
sleep with the wife of his
neighbor; and all the people shall say, Amen."
Against this curse of
incontinence, Mary merited the blessing of continence, as
it may be
signified in the Book of Judith, where we read:
"They all blessed her with
one voice, saying: Thou art the glory of Jerusalem, thou
art the joy of
Israel, thou art the honor of our people: for thou hast
done manfully, and
thy heart has been strengthened because thou hast loved
chastity, and after
thy husband hast not known any other: therefore also the
hand of the Lord
hath strengthened thee, and therefore thou shalt be
blessed for ever"
(Judith XV, 10 f.)
In this blessing of the chaste Judith, the blessing of
Mary may not only be
signified, but by this passage we may pass to a higher
conclusion. If such
was the blessing of a chaste widow, how much more will be
that of a chaste
virgin? And above all, of such a virgin as merited to
bring forth God, and
to do this in such a manner as not to lose her virginity.
Well therefore
doth Bede say: "She is incomparably blessed, who
both received the glory of
the divine seed, and kept the crown of virginity."
Note, however, that in
Scripture we find a blessed wife, a blessed widow, and a
blessed virgin.
The blessed wife was Sara, of whom it is said in Tobias:
"A blessing was
pronounced over the wife of Tobias." The blessed
widow was Judith, as we
have pointed out. Of a blessed widow it is also said in
the Psalm:
"Blessing I will bless his widow." And the
Blessed virgin was Mary, as the
Angel testifies, saying: "Blessed art thou among
women." She is blessed,
therefore, because she was a wife; she is more blessed
because she was a
widow; she is blessed above all those who loved virginal
chastity. She is
blessed without doubt, who, like Sara and Susanna, was
chaste in wedlock;
she is more blessed, who, like Judith and Anna, was a
chaste widow; she is
blessed above all, who with Mary shall have been chaste
as a virgin.
Therefore St. Augustine says: "We praise Susanna as
a model of conjugal
chastity; but we prefer before her the virtue of the
widow Anna, and much
more that of the Virgin Mary." This is truly meet
and just. It is just that
she should be blessed who had known no other man than her
husband; it is
more just that she should be blessed who neither during
her husband's life-
time nor after his death had known any man. It is meet
and just that she
should be blessed above all who neither knew her own, nor
any other man,
yet conceived a Man so supreme. Therefore St. Augustine
exclaims: "O woman
blessed above women, who knew no man, yet encompassed a
man in her womb!"
Thus, therefore, was Mary deservedly blessed for her
humility, for her
charity, for her meekness, for her diligence, for her
liberality, for her
sobriety, for her chastity; she who was most excellent in
humility, most
rich in charity, most patient in meekness, most fervent
in diligence, most
temperate in sobriety, most continent in virginity. Thus,
therefore, thou
who art so manifoldly blessed, thou more than blessed
Mary, let us pray
that by thy blessing thou mayest free us wretched ones
from every curse,
and mayest make us worthy of the divine blessing, through
Our Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen.
CHAPTER XVI WHO AND WHAT WAS THE FRUIT OF THE WOMB OF
BLESSED MARY
Blessed is the fruit of thy womb. It has been shown above
how Mary, because
of the innocence of her life, is rightly saluted by the
Ave; how because of
the abundance of her grace, she is called full of grace;
how because of the
familiar presence of God with her it is said that the
Lord is with her. We
have now to show how, because of the most useful
excellence of her Child,
the Fruit of her womb is called blessed. Blessed,
therefore, is the Fruit
of thy womb, O Blessed Mother of the Son of God ! This is
that Fruit of
which the Prophet saith: "The Lord will give
benignity, and our earth will
give its fruit." Commenting on this passage, Bede
says: "The Lord gave
benignity, because, by the entrance of His Only Begotten
Son, He
consecrated by the grace of the Holy Ghost the temple of
the virginal womb.
And our earth will give its fruit, because the same
Virgin, who had her
body from the earth, brought forth a Son, co-equal indeed
in divinity with
God the Father, but in the reality of His Flesh
consubstantial with her."
We have to consider, that this Fruit is a most well-born
Fruit, a most
delicious Fruit, a most virtuous and most abundant Fruit.
A Fruit, I say,
most sublime in being well-born, most desirable in
delight, most useful in
virtue, most universal in its abundance.
First, consider how the Fruit of the virginal womb is
most well-born. It is
well-born, because it is from a regal womb; it is more
well-born because it
is from a virginal womb; but it is without doubt most
wellborn because it
is from the paternal womb, that is, from the womb of the
Eternal Father. I
say that this Fruit is well-born because it proceeds from
a regal womb,
that is, from the womb of King David, as the Lord had
promised him, saying
in the Psalm: "Of the fruit of thy womb I will place
upon the throne." The
Apostle bears witness to this in his letter to the
Romans: "Who was made
from the seed of David according to the flesh."
Without doubt this Fruit is
well-born and noble, not only because of King David, but
because of all
those noble kings, his progenitors, by whom, according to
the genealogy
described by Matthew, He came into this world, according
to that word of
Wisdom: "He came from a royal throne" (Wisd.
XVIII, 15.) Again, this Fruit,
although it is well-born because of the regal womb, is
even more well-born
because of the virginal womb, of which it is said:
"Blessed is the fruit of
thy womb," of that womb which, according to what is
signified by the rod of
Aaron, retained the flower of virginity together with the
fruit of
fecundity. Therefore, St. Bernard says: "Christ is
born of a woman, but one
to whom the fruit of fecundity came in such a manner that
the flower of
virginity did not fall." This nobility of the
virginal fruit, as it is more
wonderful, so it is also more excellent than the former,
as far as the
heavens are above the earth. O truly wonderful and
unheard-of nobility! O
truly noble birth from the Virgin! "The nobility of
the Child was in the
virginity which brought Him forth," says St.
Augustine, "and the nobility
of the parent was in the Divinity of the Child."
Again, this Fruit is well-
born because of the regal womb which bore it; more
well-born because the
womb was virginal; most well-born of all, because of its
fatherhood. We can
understand of this Fruit that word of Osee: "From me
is thy fruit found to
be" (Osee XIV, 9.3 The original text has
"thy," but the Septuagint has
"hers." Let God the Father, therefore, say to
Mary: let Him say to the
faithful soul, let Him say to the Church: "From Me
is thy fruit." Thine, O
Mary, chosen to produce this fruit; thine, O soul, who
art drawn to love
this Fruit; thine, O Church, gathered together to partake
of this Fruit.
Thine, without doubt in the body by the nature He
assumed; thine
spiritually by grace; thine sacramentally by the
Eucharist; thine eternally
by glory. But it is of me that He is thine, because He
was begotten from my
womb, as it is written in the Psalm: "From the womb,
before the day-star I
have begotten thee." O truly wonderful and venerable
nobility, that the
fruit of the maternal womb is the Son of the Eternal
Father, and the Wisdom
of the paternal Heart, as St. Bernard says of this Fruit:
"O Mary, thou
wilt be the Mother of Him whose Father is God; the Son of
the paternal love
will be the crown of thy chastity; the Wisdom of the
paternal heart will be
the fruit of the virginal womb." The nobility of
this most well-born fruit
precedes in dignity the first and the second in an
infinite degree, and
exceeds by its sublimity every intellect, both human and
angelic. Well,
therefore, is it said of this fruit by Isaias:
"There will be a bud of the
Lord in magnificence and glory, and a sublime fruit of
the earth"; in
magnificence, because of the regal dignity; in glory, because
of the
virginal dignity; and it will be sublime, because of the
eternal or
paternal generosity.
Secondly, let us consider how the Fruit of the virginal
womb is most
delightful. It is delightful in smell, more delightful in
appearance, but
most delightful in savor. Its beauty is in faith, its
odor in hope. We
perceive its beauty by faith, its fragrance by hope, its
savor by charity.
I say that the Fruit of Mary is delightful by its sweet
fragrance.
Therefore, the Mother of this Fruit can well say with
Ecclesiasticus: "I
like a vine have borne a fruit of sweetness of
odor." The fruit of the vine
is the Child of the Virgin. But what is truly wonderful,
and wonderfully
true, as says St. Augustine, speaking of this fruit:
"The Creator of all
things is born of a creature, a great fountain flows from
a little rill,
the root of all things springs from its stem, and the
true vine is the
fruit of its own branch." The fruit of the vine is
wine; the smell of wine
is delightful. So without doubt the fragrance of the
examples of Christ,
the fragrance of the consolations of Christ, the
fragrance of promises of
Christ, is most delightful to the soul that thirsts for
Christ. And,
therefore, as the smell of wine draws one who thirsts, so
does the odor of
Christ draw one who runs and says: "Draw me after
thee," etc. That we
miserable ones do not run, but creep, is a sign that we
little relish the
sweet odor of this Fruit. Oh, that we had Isaac's sense
of smell, who
perceived the odor of this divine fruit from such a
distance; as St.
Bernard says: "He perceived the fragrance of this
sweet-smelling fruit, who
said: Behold the smell of my son is as the smell of a
full field, which the
Lord hath blessed." Again, this Fruit is not only
delightful to the sense
of smell, but it is more delightful in beauty and
fairness. Note on this
point what is said in Leviticus: "Ye shall take on
the first day the fruit
of the most fair tree." The first day illumining the
soul is faith. And
certainly, if we ought to eat the Fruit of the most
beautiful tree, that
most fair tree is Mary; fair indeed in the leaves of the
words of her
mouth; fairer in the flowers of her heart; fairest of all
in the most
beautiful Fruit of her womb. Of which St. Bernard well
says: "If that fruit
of death was not only sweet to the palate, but also,
according to
Scripture, 'delightful to behold'; how much more should
we seek the
vivifying beauty of this life-giving Fruit, on which the
angels long to
look? Christ indeed is a beautiful Fruit, beautiful in
form above the sons
of men." But if we wish to appreciate more fully the
beauty of this Fruit,
let us have recourse to the beautiful tree itself, let us
seek that most
beautiful Mother herself, and let us speak to her that
word of the
Canticle: "What manner of one is thy beloved of the
beloved, O thou most
beautiful of women?" And behold she will at once
answer: "My Beloved is
white and ruddy, chosen from thousands." He, the
brightness of eternal
light, is indeed white in His divinity, but ruddy in His
humanity, white in
His life, ruddy in His Passion. Behold how beautiful is
this Fruit! Well,
therefore, doth St. Augustine say of Him: "Beautiful
in Heaven, beautiful
on earth, beautiful as the Word in the Father, beautiful
in His Mother as
the Word and as Flesh" And this most beautiful tree,
Mary, has not only the
most beautiful Fruit of the womb, but also the most
beautiful Fruit of the
mind. Of these fruits the Apostle, writing to the
Galatians, says: "The
fruit of the spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience,
benignity, goodness,
longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continence, and
chastity." Again,
this fruit is not only delightful in fragrance, and more
delightful in
beauty, but it is also most delicious in savor. This was
felt by that holy
soul who says: "I sat under the shadow of Him whom I
desired, and His fruit
was sweet to my palate." What wonder if this Fruit
is so sweet, which is
also so high? For St. Bernard says: "The higher a
fruit is, the sweeter it
is." Therefore, thou alone art most sweet, because
thou alone art Most
High. But how can that fruit be most high, whose tree is
most short? But
without doubt this tree, which is Mary, is at the same time
most high and
most short. She is most high in dignity, most lowly in
humility; most high
in the eyes of the Lord, most lowly in her own; although
in this manner she
is lowly, her fruit is nevertheless exceedingly sweet.
Therefore is it said
in Ecclesiasticus: "The bee is small among flying
things, but her fruit
hath the chiefest sweetness" (XI, 3.) If, therefore,
the fruit of Mary is
most delicious in fragrance, in appearance, and in savor,
therefore is it
truly blessed, as St. Bernard testifies, saying:
"Blessed is the fruit of
thy womb": blessed in smell, blessed in savor,
blessed in beauty.
Thirdly, consider that the fruit of the virginal womb is
most powerful. It
has great power to save the lost, to multiply the number
of those who are
to be saved, and to preserve this great number. I say
that this blessed
fruit is powerful to save, or powerful unto salvation,
and for this reason
it is called the Fruit of salvation. Ecclesiasticus says:
"The fear of the
Lord is the crown of wisdom, filling with peace and the
fruit of
salvation." Why does he say, peace and fruit? The
fruit of our salvation
and our peace is He who maketh both one, Jesus Christ.
And certainly, the
fear of the Lord did fill this fruit, this peace, as Isaias
says: "And He
was filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord."
Well is He called the
Fruit of salvation, without whom we have no salvation,
according to that
word: "There is no salvation in any other." And
St. Anselm says: "There is
no salvation except Him whom thou, O Virgin, hast brought
forth." Thou,
therefore, O Mary, art truly the tree of salvation, who
hast borne for the
world the Fruit of salvation, as St. Bernard says:
"O truly celestial
plant, more precious than all, more holy than all ! O
truly a tree of life,
which alone was worthy to bear the fruit of
salvation!" But, alas, there
are many who make this life-giving fruit one of death;
they turn this
fruit, which is so sweet, so to speak, into an eternal
wormwood for
themselves, as it is said in Amos: "Ye have turned
judgment into
bitterness, and the fruit of justice into wormwood."
Again, this fruit is
exceedingly powerful, not only with a saving power, but
with a multiplying
power. We could explain it well perhaps by that word
which is written, "By
the fruit of their wheat, wine and oil they are
multiplied," if we say that
the wheat is the Body of Christ, the oil the soul of
Christ, and the wine
the Divinity of Christ. We can see in the fruit of the
wheat the Sacrament
of the Body of Christ, in the fruit of the wine the Blood
of Christ in the
Sacrament, and in the fruit of the oil the unction of the
Holy Spirit. By
this fruit sons are multiplied to the Church, and the
Church is multiplied
in sons. For all the sons of the womb of the Church are
the inheritance and
the fruit of the womb of Mary, as it is said in the
Psalm: "Behold, the
inheritance of the Lord is sons, the fruit of the
womb." Of this St. Jerome
says: "The Lord Himself, born of the Virgin, became
the fruit of the womb,
whose assumed humanity obtained this reward, that the
nations called to be
His sons should be His inheritance." Again, this
blessed fruit is powerful
not only in its salvific virtue, not only more powerful
by its multiplying
power, but also most powerful by its preserving virtue.
Of this fruit we
may understand that word of the Proverbs: "The fruit
of the just is the
tree of life." For, as the tree of life, which was
in the middle of the
earthly paradise, had power to preserve the life of
nature, so without
doubt the fruit of Mary's womb, which is the Tree and the
Fruit of Life, in
the midst of the Paradise of the Church, preserves the
life of grace; in
the midst of the Paradise of the heavenly life, preserves
the life of
glory. It preserves the life of grace from the corruption
of guilt, and the
life of glory from the corruption of every misery, that
so we may receive
in the fruit of Mary what we lost in the fruit of Adam
and Eve, as Bede
well says: "Blessed is the fruit of the womb of her
by whom we have
received the fruit of the seed of incorruption in the
field of the eternal
inheritance, which we had lost in Adam." Let,
therefore, the fruit of Mary
by spiritually giving salvation, by universally
multiplying those who are
to be saved, by eternally preserving those who are
multiplied, be most
powerful.
Fourthly, consider how the fruit of the virginal womb is
most abundant. It
is, in fact, so abundant that it can abundantly refresh
the soul; it is so
abundant that it can suffice for all; it is so abundant
that it can never
fail. In the first it is abundant; in the second it is
more abundant; in
the third it is most abundant of all. I say that this
blessed Fruit is so
abundant that it can refresh to satiety the rational
soul, which the whole
world and every creature cannot satisfy. Therefore it is
written: "Of the
fruit of thy works the earth shall be filled" (Ps.
CIII, 13.) The fruit of
the womb of Mary is the fruit of thy works, O Lord:
indeed, of Thine, not
of human beings, not of mortals, but of Thine. Thine, O
Lord, is the work
of the preparation of so much power; Thy work is the
mission of Gabriel;
the supervention of the Holy Ghost is Thy work; the union
of the Word with
Flesh is Thy work. Of such works of Thine, O Lord, is
this fruit, because
from such works proceeded this fruit, as it were from
flowers. Therefore
aptly did these flowers appear in Nazareth, which is
interpreted as
"flower." For St. Bernard says: "In
Nazareth is it announced that Christ
will be born, because of the flower is hoped the coming
of the fruit." The
earth which is filled with this fruit is human nature,
which, like the
earth, is ever ready to germinate either useful or
noxious plants, that is,
thoughts and desires. This earth, I say, is filled with
the fruit of Mary,
as is written: "I shall be satisfied when thy glory
shall appear." What
wonder if those enjoying this fruit in glory are
satisfied, when even those
in misery here below are satisfied in believing in it!
Therefore
Cassiodorus cries out: "Oh, that wonderful Fruit,
which has satisfied the
human race in sweet belief !" Not to taste of it is
to sin. See, therefore,
how abundant this Fruit is, which can satisfy the soul,
which the whole
world cannot satisfy. Again, this Fruit, this blessed
Fruit, is not only so
abundant that it can fully refresh the insatiable soul,
but it is also so
abundant that it can well suffice for the whole number of
those who are to
be saved. Hence it is the fruit of that glorious tree of
which it is said:
"Its fruit was exceeding much; and in it was food
for all" (Dan. IV, 9),
certainly for all those who live in the Lord, those who
rest and those who
rise again, as it may be beautifully signified in
Leviticus, where it says:
"I will give you my blessing in the sixth year, and
it will bring forth the
fruit of three years" (Lev. XXV, 21) The sixth year
signifies the sixth
age, the seventh the seventh age, and the eighth the
eighth. This sixth
year is the year of fullness, according to the Apostle:
"But when the
fullness of time was come, God sent His Son," etc.
This year, therefore,
brought forth the Fruit, the Son of God--a Fruit so
abundant, that by it,
in the sixth year of the living, in the seventh year of
the dead, and in
the eighth year of those rising again, we have all the
fruit of our souls.
He, therefore, is the Fruit sufficing to the universality
of souls, because
it is the Lord who suffices to all creatures. This indeed
is the Fruit of
the womb of Mary, as St. Augustine testifies, saying:
"This Virgin was
prevented and filled by a singular grace, that she might
have Him for the
fruit of her womb, whom from the beginning all things had
as their Lord."
Again, this blessed Fruit is not only abundant in this
that it can fill to
repletion all souls who are to be refreshed; it is not
only more abundant
in this that it can satisfy all the souls who need to be
refreshed; but it
is also most abundant in this that it can never fail in
satisfying souls
and angels, according to that word of Ezechiel, "Its
fruit shall not fail"
(Ezech. XLVII, 12.) O infinite abundance! O abundance
which knows no defect
! The abundance of this Fruit can never fail, for it is
most abundantly
blessed forever. St. Bernard says: "Blessed is the
Fruit of thy womb, who
is blessed forever." Thus this blessed fruit is
abundant, for it refreshes
unto complete satisfaction; it is more abundant, because
it suffices to the
whole multitude of those who are to be fed upon it; it is
most abundant
because it never fails those who feed upon it, nor ever
will for all
eternity. You see now, O reader, O hearer, how
exceedingly well-born, how
exceedingly delicious, how exceedingly abundant is the
blessed Fruit of the
womb of Mary. You see, I say, how it is well-born because
it is from a
regal womb, more well-born because it is from a virginal
womb, most well-
born from its paternal origin. You see also how it is
delightful in smell,
more delightful in beauty, and most delightful of all in
savor. You see how
powerful it is to heal, more powerful in multiplying,
most powerful of all
in preserving. You see, moreover, how it is abundant to
satisfy, more
abundant in its universality, most abundant in its
perpetuity. These twelve
conditions or qualities of this Fruit may be signified by
those twelve
fruits of which it is said in the Apocalypse, that the
angel showed John a
tree of life bearing twelve fruits. And because this
Fruit, the Fruit of
life, the tree of life, is produced for the life of all
men, therefore it
is fitting and right that all men should praise the Maker
of this Fruit in
the words of the Psalm: "Let all peoples praise
thee, O God, let all
peoples praise thee; the earth hath given its fruit"
(Ps. LXVI, 7.) O
blessed Mother of this blessed Fruit, grant us that we
may enjoy this fruit
forever, by the same Fruit, Jesus Christ Our Lord, thy
Son. Amen.
CHAPTER XVII TO WHOM THE FRUIT OF THE WOMB OF THE BLESSED
MARY BELONGS, AND
TO WHOM IT IS DUE
"Benedictus fructus ventris tui." After we have
seen, in some small
measure, of what kind and how great the Fruit of the womb
of Mary is and is
believed to be, let us now see to whom it belongs and to
whom it is due.
For this Fruit is not only the fruit of the womb, but of
the mind. It is
the fruit of the womb of Mary alone; but it is the fruit
of the mind of any
faithful soul; the fruit of the womb according to the flesh;
the fruit of
the mind by faith. Therefore St. Ambrose says: "If,
according to the flesh,
one only is the Mother of Christ; nevertheless, according
to the mind,
Christ is the fruit of all. For every soul conceives the
Word of God, if
only it is immaculate and immune from vices."
Therefore, according to St.
Ambrose, anyone who wishes to have this fruit of the
mind, should be free
from all vice. For Christ is the fruit of the virtuous,
not of the vicious
mind: not of the mind vicious by the seven deadly sins;
but virtuous
against the seven capital vices. Therefore, this fruit is
the fruit of the
humble against pride, the fruit of those possessing
fraternal love in
opposition to envy, the fruit of the meek as opposed to
anger, the fruit of
the diligent as against sloth, the fruit of the liberal
as opposed to
avarice, the fruit of the temperate as against gluttony,
the fruit of the
chaste against lust.
First, let us see how this blessed fruit is that of the
humble against
pride. On this we may understand what is said in the Book
of Kings:
"Whatsoever shall be left of the house of Juda,
shall take root downward,
and bear fruit upward" (4 Kings XIX, 30.) The
Blessed Virgin Mary was of
the house of Juda, and every faithful soul is of the
house of Juda; the
former in the body, the latter in spirit; the former by
blood, the latter
by faith. And, therefore, not only Mary, but every
faithful soul wishing to
bear fruit upward, should take root downward. The root
sending its shoots
downward is humility; which, after the manner of roots,
always tends to the
lowest. The higher the tree, the deeper should be its
root, according to
that word of Ecclesiasticus: "The greater thou art,
the more humble thyself
in all things, and thou shalt find grace before
God." Also, the taller a
tree is, the more danger there is of its being uprooted
by the winds of
elation, if the root is not firmly fixed in great and
deep humility. Let
us, therefore, ponder how deeply the root of this rod was
established (in
humility), which was to grow to so sublime a height that
it deserved to
bear a fruit higher than the angels, that fruit indeed of
which St. Ambrose
says: "This fruit is the flower of the rod, of whom
Isaias says: 'There
shall come forth a rod from the root of Jesse, and a
flower shall ascend
from its root.' " Whatever soul shall have struck
deeply the roots of
humility, shall deserve to bear fruit upward; upward, I
say, in high
understanding, in high affection; upward in
contemplation, upward in love.
Thus this blessed fruit is that of the humble. Therefore
Mary, above all
human beings, was most worthy, because of all she was the
most deeply
rooted in humility. Well, therefore, doth St. Bernard say
of her: "O
Virgin, rod sublime, to what a height dost thou raise thy
holy summit! Even
unto the throne of majesty, because thou strikest deep
down the root of
humility."
Secondly, let us see how this blessed fruit is that of
those who love God
and fly envy. Of this we can understand the word of the
Psalmist: "Behold
the inheritance of the Lord, the fruit of the womb."
Commenting on this
passage, St. Ambrose says: "The inheritance of the
Lord is sons, which
reward is the fruit of Him who came forth from the womb
of Mary."
Therefore, many sons are the reward of that only Son, who
is the blessed
fruit of the womb. But where or when did He merit that
reward ? Without
doubt He merited it in being born, in lying in the
manger; He merited it in
bearing to be circumcised, in teaching; He merited it in
doing the works of
our salvation; He merited it by dying; He merited it, I
say, in serving for
us for thirty-three years. And because of this, He justly
exacts this
reward, saying: "If it seems good in your eyes,
bring my reward" (Zach. XI,
12.) But without doubt it is not only sons who are the
reward of the Fruit
of the womb; but this Fruit of the most holy womb is
Himself the reward of
every son of adoption. Who are these sons? Listen and
hear. It belongs to
sons to love their father, and to the father to love his
sons. Those,
therefore, are sons of God and of the Church, who ever
love God and their
neighbor. Therefore, the Apostle says to the Ephesians:
"Be ye imitators of
Gad, as most dear children, and walk in love." And
in St. Matthew it is
said: "Love your enemies, do good to those that hate
you, and pray for
those that persecute and calumniate you, that you may be
the children of
your Father, who is in Heaven," etc. Such sons as these,
therefore, that is
to say, lovers of God and of men, are the reward of the
Fruit of this
blessed womb, and the reward of sons such as these is
this blessed Fruit
itself. Thus, therefore, is this Fruit that of those who
love; and Mary
above all men was most worthy of this Fruit, because she
was the most
affectionate in charity. Well, therefore, does St.
Augustine say: "Who can
doubt that all the bowels of Mary had passed into the
love of charity,
since within her rested for nine months that charity
which is God?"
Thirdly, let us see how this fruit of Mary is that of
those who are meek
and patient and avoid anger. It is said in the Book of
Job: "Submit thyself
then to him, and be at peace, and thereby thou shalt have
the best fruits"
(Job. XXII, 21.) To submit and to be at peace belongs to
the meek and to
the patient; and those who are meek and patient have the
best fruits by
these very virtues. But the best fruit of the mind is
charity, of which the
Apostle says: "Now the fruits of the Spirit,"
etc. The fruits which are
here enumerated are some, indeed, which are good, but
there are some which
are better; the first is best, namely, charity, by which
all the others, as
St. Augustine says, are good. The best Fruit of the womb
is Christ: for
whoever is sanctified in the womb, is the good fruit of
the womb:
therefore, good is the fruit of the womb of
Elizabeth--John; better is the
fruit of the womb of Anne--Mary; best is Jesus, the Fruit
of the womb of
Mary. Ponder, brother, who is this fruit, and from what
earth it was
produced, and thou shalt see that it is the best. St.
Jerome says: "The
fruit is a Virgin from a virgin, the Lord from the
handmaid, God from man,
the Son from the Mother, the fruit from the earth" O
happy ones, who in the
discipline of every sort of trial have a soul so patient,
so just, so well
prepared, that because of this they most justly reap the
fruit of patience,
that most peaceful fruit of which St. Paul says in the
Epistle to the
Hebrews: "Now all chastisement for the present
indeed seemeth not to bring
with it joy, but sorrow; but afterwards it will yield, to
them that are
exercised by it, the most peaceable fruit of
justice" (Heb. XII, 11) Having
had their patience tested, they reap the best fruit,
according to St. Luke:
"They bring forth fruit in patience." As this
blessed fruit is that of the
patient and the meek, Mary above all men was most worthy
of this fruit,
because she was above all most meek, so that neither in
looks, nor in word,
nor in deed did she ever show the very slightest sign of
impatience, but
was most patient, as St. Ambrose says: "There was
nothing fierce in the
looks of Mary, nothing prolix in her words, nothing
unbecoming in her
deeds."
Fourthly, let us see how the fruit of Mary is that of
those who labor and
are diligent, and fly sloth. Of this it is said in the
Book of Wisdom:
"Glorious is the fruit of good works." This
fruit, therefore, is to be
sought by labor, as the bee seeks the fruit of honey;
that fruit of which
Ecclesiasticus says: "Small among flying things is
the bee, and her fruit
has the first sweetness." Consider, how the bee
flies from garden to
garden, from flower to flower, from tree to tree, in
search of the fruit of
honey; so do thou in meditations, in desires, and zealous
imitation of
virtues. exercise thyself about the examples of the just,
and principally
of the perfect. Fly, I say, from garden to garden, that
is, from state to
state; run from tree to tree, that is, from one just soul
to another; from
flower to flower, that is, from one virtue to another,
from one good
example to another. Above all, ruminate chiefly upon that
flower in which
you will find the whole fruit of the divine honey, upon
that flower which
is both flower and fruit, of which St. Ambrose says:
"The Flower of Mary is
Christ, who, like the fruit of a good tree, for our
progress in virtue now
bears fruit in us."
Note that this fruit is not of any labors whatsoever, but
only of good
works; it is not of those labors of which we read in the
Book of Wisdom:
"He that rejecteth wisdom and discipline, is
unhappy: and their hope is
vain, and their labors without fruit, and their works
unprofitable" (Wisdom
III, 11.) Thus is this blessed fruit that of those who
exercise themselves
in good and fly sloth. And therefore Mary above all human
beings was most
worthy of this fruit, because above all she was most
diligent in good, as
Bede well shows, when, in discoursing on the Magnificat,
he puts these
words into her mouth: "I offer the whole affection
of my soul in the
praises of thanksgiving; all my life, all that I feel,
all that I discern
in contemplating His magnitude, all this I employ in
observing His
precepts."
Fifthly, let us see how the fruit of Mary is of those who
are liberal and
fly avarice--principally of those generous souls who for
the sake of this
fruit renounce all temporal things, according to that
word in the Canticle
of Canticles: "Every man bringeth for the fruit
thereof a thousand pieces
of silver" (Cant. VIII, 11.) The commentator says,
"by leaving all things."
And again he says: "By 'a thousand' perfection, by
'silver' every worldly
thing is meant." Whoever, therefore, has left all
worldly things for
Christ, as it were gives a thousand pieces of silver for
this fruit. But he
who is unwilling to give a thousand by leaving all
things, let him at least
give something for this fruit, by helping the poor, that
he may be as the
fruit-bearing olive by bearing the fruit of mercy.
Because the highest
fruit of mercy is the highest mercy, which is God;
therefore Mary, who bore
this fruit of mercy most abundantly, was most fittingly
said to be like a
fruit-bearing, a beautiful olive-tree in the fields. St.
John Damascene
well says: "Mary, planted in the house of the Lord
and nourished by the
Holy Ghost like a fruit-bearing olive-tree, became the
dwelling-place of
every virtue." Alas, how far from this fruit of
mercy of the merciful, and
of those detached from the love of earthly things, are
the souls of the
avaricious, of whom it is said: "Going their way
they are choked with the
cares and the riches and pleasures of this life, and
yield no fruit" (Luke
VIII, 14.) It is also said in Ecclesiastes: "He that
loveth riches, shall
reap no fruit from them" (Eccles. V, 9.) Thus this
blessed fruit is of the
liberal and of those who despise earthly things; and,
therefore, Mary was
above all most worthy of this fruit, because she was most
generous in the
contempt of temporal things, as St. Bernard says:
"Whatever honor Mary had
among her people, whatever she could have had of the
riches of her father's
house, she esteemed it all as dung, that she might gain
Christ."
Sixthly, let us see how the fruit of Mary belongs to
those who are
temperate, and fly gluttony. And on this point we must
note what is said by
Solomon: "Of the fruit of his own mouth shall a man
be filled with good
things" (Prov. XIII, 2.)
The fruit of Mary can be said to be the fruit of the
mouth, because it is
acquired not only by the prayer of the lips and by
teaching, but also by
abstinence. With this fruit he is filled with spiritual
things who for the
sake of this fruit abstains from temporal goods. He shall
be satisfied with
the good things of this fruit who bears in his body
hunger and thirst, but
who hungers and thirsts spiritually with more eagerness
for this fruit.
Therefore St. Bernard says: "This is a good fruit,
which is meat and drink
to the souls who hunger and thirst after justice."
It is well for those who
thirst for this fruit in the world, because they shall be
satisfied with it
in Heaven, according to that word of the Savior:
"Blessed are ye who thirst
now, for you shall be filled." Here the blessing is
for those who abstain
for the sake of this fruit, there it will be for those
who eat of this
fruit. Wherefore Isaias says: "Say to the just, that
it is well; for he
shall eat of the fruits of his doings" (Is. III,
10.) Thus this blessed
fruit is of those who are temperate and fly gluttony, and
therefore Mary
above all human beings is most worthy of this fruit, for
she was the most
temperate and shunned gluttony. Well, therefore, does St.
John Chrysostom
say: "Mary was never a great eater nor given to
wine; she was not light,
nor frivolous, not a loud talker, nor a lover of evil
words; these things
are always the consequence of intemperance."
Seventhly, let us see how the fruit of the womb of Mary
belongs to the
chaste and continent who fly lust. Of this the Wise Man
says: "Happy is the
barren; and the undefiled, that hath not known bed in
sin, she shall have
fruit in the visitation of holy souls" (Wisd. III,
13.) I say, in the
visitation by grace, but more so in the visitation by
glory. And truly, the
fruit of the most chaste womb, of the virginal womb, is
rightly the special
fruit of those who are chaste. When, therefore, by the
blessed fruit of the
Virgin all the faithful in general are blessed, rightly
the chaste are
specially Blessed by Him, by whom also the blessed Queen
of the chaste is
blessed above all, as St. Bernard says: "Truly
blessed is the Fruit of thy
womb, in whom all nations are blessed: of whose fullness
thou, too, hast
received with the rest, and also differently from the
rest." Woe to the
lustful, who have no part in the virginal fruit: woe to
the wretched, who
have no branch which can bear a virginal fruit. Therefore
is it said of the
adulterous woman: "Her branches will not bear
fruit" (Eccli. XXIII, 35.)
Therefore does this blessed fruit belong to the chaste,
who fly lust. And
therefore Mary was above all worthy of this fruit,
because she was most
chaste, as St. Chrysostom well says: "O ineffable
praise of Mary, Joseph
trusted more to her chastity than to her womb, and more
to grace than to
nature; he rather believed it possible for a woman to
conceive without a
man, than that Mary could sin." O Mary most happy,
who truly, as the most
virtuous one, wast most worthy of the divine fruit, help
us, that by our
virtues we may be worthy to attain to this fruit, Our
Lord Jesus Christ,
thy Son. Amen.
CHAPTER XVIII TO WHOM THE RESULTS OF THE FRUIT OF THE
WOMB OF MARY ARE
NECESSARY, AND OF ITS TWELVE ADVANTAGES
Blessed is the fruit of thy womb. We have seen of what
nature and quality
the blessed fruit of the womb of Mary was; we have also
seen to whom it
rightfully belongs; we must now see to whom and to what
effects it is
needful. For this fruit is a remedy against evil, and it
is necessary for
good. It is necessary in six of its effects as a remedy
against evil; and
it is necessary in six other effects for the attainment
of good. For this
blessed fruit has twelve very useful effects, or
remarkable advantages, on
account of which all men rightly praise its effects,
according to what is
written in the Psalm: "Let all peoples praise thee,
O God, let all peoples
praise thee: the earth has given her fruit" (Ps. LXVII.)
The first effect
of this fruit is the expiation of mortal sin; the second
is the
pacification of the supreme enmity; the third is the
healing of the wound
of original sin; the fourth is the satisfying of the
hunger of the mind;
the fifth is the avoidance of the anger of the Judge; the
sixth is
deliverance from the pains of hell; the seventh is the
renunciation of
temporal goods; the eighth is the enrichment of the
rational soul; the
ninth is the consummation of the spiritual life; the tenth
is the
multiplication of the universal Church; the eleventh is
the reintegration
of the empyreal ruin; the twelfth is the perpetuation of
eternal glory.
First, therefore, the blessed fruit of Mary is necessary
for the expiation
of mortal sin. Of this we can understand what is said in
Isaias: "This is
the whole fruit, that sin may be taken away" (Is.
XXVII, 9.) By the whole
fruit we may understand Him of whom St. Bernard says:
"On the cross hangs
all the fruit of life, because the tree of life itself is
in the midst of
Paradise." All the fruit, therefore, is the whole
fruit, the whole of Him.
This Fruit was given, born, and suffered that the sin of
man might be taken
away. For, as the Angel said: "He hath saved His
people from their sins."
He also is the one of whom John spoke: "Behold the
Lamb of God, who taketh
away the sins of the world !" This Lamb truly takes
away the sins of the
world, both mortal and venial. He who by this fruit is
purged from mortal
sins, may also be cleansed from venial sins, according to
the word: "Every
one who beareth fruit, He will purge, that he may bring
forth more fruit."
Secondly, the blessed fruit of Mary is necessary for the
removal of the
mortal enmity which existed between God and man, between
angels and men. Isaias says: "I created the fruit of the lips,
peace, peace to him that is
far off, and to him that is near" (Is. LVII, 19.)
The fruit of the womb of
Mary may well be called the fruit of the lips of Mary,
because while from
her lips distilled the honey-flowing words, "Behold
the handmaid of the
Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word," she
immediately conceived
her most sweet Fruit. O truly honeyflowing lips, as it is
said in the
Canticle: "Thy lips are as the dropping
honeycomb." It was God the Father
who created this fruit, which is Our Lord Jesus Christ,
or who made (in
Him) peace; peace, I say, to him who is afar, by guilt,
that he may become
near by grace, and peace to him who is near by grace,
lest he should be
made far by guilt. For He, as the Apostle says, is
"our peace, who maketh
both one." This fruit also was made peace between
man, who is far distant
in this world, and the angel, who in Heaven is near; for
Christ made peace
with both on the gibbet of the Cross, according to the
word of the Apostle:
"Making peace by the blood of his Cross, both those
things which are in
Heaven and those which are on earth." Therefore,
this fruit is peace from
man to man, peace from man to the angel, and peace
between God and man.
What wonder if by this fruit man has peace with God, when
He Himself, the
peace-giving Fruit, is both God and man? Bede gives
testimony to this,
saying: "Our earth will give its fruit, because the
Virgin Mary, who had
her body from the earth, brought forth a Son in divinity
indeed, co-equal
with the Father, but consubstantial with herself in the
reality of His
flesh."
Thirdly, this blessed fruit of Mary is necessary for the
healing of the
wound of original sin; for man, falling among thieves,
was wounded with a
grievous wound, nay, many grievous wounds, while by
original sin he became
so blind to the truth, so infirm in good, so prone to
evil. But these
wounds are healed by this fruit. In this life indeed they
are only
partially healed by grace; but in the future life they
will be entirely
healed in glory. Therefore, well is it said in the
Apocalypse: "The Angel
showed John the tree of life, bearing its fruits every
month, and the
leaves of the tree were for the healing of nations."
The tree of life is
Mary, the Mother of Life; or the tree of life is the tree
of the Cross; or
else the tree is Jesus Christ, the Author of Life, who is
also the Fruit of
Life. Those healing leaves are edifying words and deeds.
If even the leaves
are healing, how much more healing and life-giving is the
fruit? Therefore,
that we may be healed by this fruit, let us approach its
tree; let us draw
near, I say, to Mary. Let us pray with St. Anselm:
"Hear me, O Lady! Heal
the soul of thy servant who is a sinner, by virtue of the
blessed Fruit of
thy womb, who sitteth at the right hand of his Almighty
Father."
Fourthly, the blessed fruit of Mary is necessary for the
relief of hunger,
or the famine of the soul, lest for want of due
nourishment the animals of
God should perish. Therefore it is well said by the
Prophet Joel: "Fear
not, animals of the region, for the beautiful places of
the desert have
blossomed, and the tree has brought forth its
fruit." It is a desert or a
wilderness because it germinates without culture, and
brings forth food for
animals. This desert may signify Mary, who without
marital culture brought
forth a Son, who is the food of all the faithful.
Therefore it can be said
of her: "That earth is uncultivated, it has become
as a garden of pleasure"
(Ezech. XXXVI, 35.) The beautiful blooms of this
uncultured earth are the
flowers of heavenly desires, the grasses of good works,
the fair flowers of
virtues and gifts, the lovely leaves of useful words, and
the truly
beautiful fruit of Mary's womb, which is the food of all
the just. Mary is
this beautiful desert. Mary is also this fruitful tree,
of which it is
said: "And the tree brought forth its fruit"
(Joel II, 22.) Oh, truly
wonderful fruit, by which both the hunger and the thirst
of souls is
relieved, as St. Bernard says: "Good Fruit, which is
food and drink to
hungering and thirsting souls." Do not fear,
therefore, animals of God;
fear not, ye faithful of Christ, that you will perish
from want of food,
because you have full pasture in the desert, full fruit
on the tree, full
food in the manger." For St. Bernard says: "The
Child lies in the manger,
that all the faithful--as it were, the beasts of burden --may
find
refreshment for their flesh." St. Augustine says:
"O resplendent manger, in
which has lain the food of animals, but also the food of
angels !"
Fifthly, the blessed fruit of Mary is necessary for the
avoidance of the
anger of the Judge, which every unjust man has to fear,
in the same way as
every just man has by right that by which he may escape
the anger of the
Judge. Therefore it is said in the Psalm: "If indeed
there is fruit to the
just, God indeed judging them on earth," etc.
"Them," that is, the unjust,
for God will judge the unjust upon earth, while at the
judgment the just
will be in the air, but the unjust will remain upon the
earth, because they
preferred to cleave to earthly things instead of God, so
that they could
truly say: "My soul hath cleaved to the
pavement." There the Lord will be
indeed a sweet fruit to the just, but to the unjust and
wicked he will be a
severe judge. Woe, therefore, to them who turn so sweet a
fruit into a most
bitter judgment for themselves, as it is said in Amos:
"You have turned
judgment into bitterness, and the fruit of justice into
wormwood", (Amos
VI, 13.) The fruit of justice is the fruit of the just.
Just is the fruit
of Mary, of whom the Psalmist truly says: "The just
has borne fruit. The
earth is the virgin, because truth has sprung forth from
the earth."
Sixthly, the blessed fruit of Mary is necessary for the
avoidance of the
pains of hell, or eternal death, on which we can say that
which we find in
the fourth of Kings: "I will take you away to . . .
a fruitful land, and
plentiful in wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land
of olives, and oil
and honey, and you shall live, and not die" (4 Kings
XVIII, 32.) All those
who will be converted to her with their whole heart shall
be taken away
into the land of Mary, or the land of the Church. This
land is exceedingly
fertile, bearing fruit of bread, wine, oil, and honey,
that is, Our Lord
Jesus Christ. For He is to us the fruit of bread which
strengthens, and
puts to flight defect or failure; He is to us the fruit
of the vine, for
all perfection; He is to us the fruit of oil,
illuminating the intellect;
and He is moreover to us the fruit of honey, instilling
sweetness into our
affections. By this fruit ye shall truly live, dearly
beloved, and ye shall
not die. Blessed is the earth of this fruit; blessed
above all be this
fruit itself, by whom we are delivered from so many
evils, as St. Anselm
well says: "What praise shall I give that is worthy
of the Mother of my
Lord and God, by whose fecundity I, a captive, have been
redeemed, by whose
Child I am delivered from eternal death, by whose
offspring I, a lost one,
am restored, and led back from exile to my
fatherland?" Blessed among
women, all these things Christ, the blessed fruit of her
womb, has given me
in the regeneration of Baptism. Woe, therefore, to all
those who are
estranged from this fruit, for it is written: "Every
tree, that bringeth
not forth good fruit, shall be cut down and cast into the
fire."
Seventhly, the blessed fruit of Mary is necessary for the
renunciation or
contempt of earthly goods. Therefore, it is said in the
Canticle: "A man
shall give for this fruit a thousand silver pieces,"
namely, leave all
things. For, as the Gloss says, a thousand means
perfection, and silver
means all worldly substance. Therefore, anyone who
perfectly renounces all
earthly riches for Christ's sake, gives as it were a
thousand silver pieces
for this fruit, and rightly does he despise for the sake
of this fruit all
temporal things whoever diligently marks how exceedingly
precious is this
fruit, saying that word of the Proverbs: "My fruit
is better than gold and
precious stones, and my jewels than chosen gold"
(Prov. XVIII, 20.) He is
truly a man who has such virility as this; and this man
ought manfully, for
the sake of this fruit, to contemn not only possessions
and riches, but
also honors and dignities, saying: "Can I leave my
sweetness, and my
delicious fruits, and go to be promoted among the other
trees ?" (Judges
IX, 11. ) Most sweet are the fruits of Christ, and
charity. The trees of
the wood, says the Gloss, are barren men, prepared for
the eternal fire.
Therefore, for the sake of these most sweet fruits he
manfully contemns
most dangerous honors which promote him above the trees
of the wood; he
manfully contemns all things for the sake of this blessed
fruit, which is
blessed above all, God forever.
Eighthly, the blessed fruit of Mary is necessary for the
enrichment of the
rational soul. It is said in Proverbs: "Each one
shall be filled with the
fruits of his mouth" (Prov. XVIII, 20.) We confess
that the Lord Jesus is
truly not only the fruit of the womb, but also the fruit
of the lips,
because we obtain Him by the preaching of the mouth or
lips, by the praise
of the lips, and by the prayer of the lips. With the
external mouth we
receive Him sacramentally, with the inward mouth we
receive Him
spiritually. Therefore St. Jerome says: "The Flower
of Mary became fruit,
that we might eat of it." With this fruit of the
lips each one shall be
filled with the goods of spiritual riches, the goods, I
say, of virtues and
graces. Of such goods the Apostle says: "May the God
of hope fill you with
all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in
hope and in the
power of the Holy Ghost." O truly blessed fullness
of this fruit, with
which was filled not only the field of the Virgin which
produced it, but
also the soul of every faithful Christian who contains
it, as is manifest
by what St. Jerome says: "Truly is she called a full
field, for the Virgin
Mary is said to be full, from whose womb the Fruit of
life came forth to
believers, and all of us of His fullness have received
grace for grace."
Ninthly, the blessed fruit of Mary is necessary for the
perfection of the
spiritual life. Therefore it is well said in the Psalm of
the perfect man:
"And he shall be like a tree planted by the running
waters," etc. What
should we understand by the running waters but the
streams of grace, by
which man gives or produces his fruit, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Three
conditions of a perfect life are signified which
accompany the man who has
this fruit. It belongs to the perfect not to waste their
time, therefore it
is well said: "It will give its fruit in its
time." It is also a sign of
perfection nor to overflow in useless words, which we
understand to be
signified in the words, "and his leaf shall not fall
off." It is also a
characteristic of perfection not to omit those things
which are profitable
to the soul; hence we find, "and all that he shall
do shall prosper." Truly
anyone who shall bear this fruit by charity, shall find
all things
prosperous, for all things will work together unto good
for him, as it is
written: "We know that for those who love God, all
things work together
unto good." Blessed is the man who shall have borne
this fruit so perfectly
that he shall not pass his time uselessly, that he shall
utter no idle
word, that he shall let no opportunity of virtue pass,
and so he shall be
like the tree bearing fruit spiritually, as Mary did
corporeally, of whom
St. Bernard says: "O truly the tree of life, which
alone was worthy to bear
the fruit of salvation!"
Tenthly, the blessed fruit of Mary is necessary for the
multiplication of
the universal Church. Therefore is it said: "With
the fruit of her hands
she hath planted a vineyard" (Prov. XXXI, 16.) The
Lord Jesus, as He is
well said to be the fruit of the womb, because He was
conceived in the
womb, and as He is well said to be the fruit of the lips,
because He is
received in the mouth--so also is well said to be the
fruit of the hands,
because He is acquired by the labor of the hands in good
works, and is
ministered to the faithful by the hands of the priest.
Therefore, this
fruit is most fully the fruit of Mary: it is truly the
fruit of her womb,
because He was born in a most singular way from her womb.
He is also the
fruit of her mouth, because by her mouth He was most
sweetly communicated.
He is also the fruit of her hands, because by her hands
He was most
devoutly handled. Of this fruit of her hands, Mary, or
the primitive
Church, planted a vineyard, that is, the universal
Church, which is
diffused throughout the world. Oh, how the branches of
this vine, that is,
the faithful members of the Church, have been multiplied
by this fruit,
while the rulers of the Church have caused this fruit to
be spiritually
born in the hearts of the faithful! Hence it is well said
in the Psalm:
"They yielded fruit of birth, and He blessed them,
and they were multiplied
exceedingly" (Ps. CVI, 37-38.) And because the
Church in all ages has been
multiplied by this fruit, therefore, the Virgin producing
this fruit is
rightly called blessed by all generations. As she herself
well says:
"Behold from henceforth all generations shall call
me blessed." St. Bernard
explains these words as follows: "Behold I see what
is to come to pass in
me, what fruit shall come forth from me, how great and
how many good things
will come to pass, by means of me, not to me alone, but
to all
generations."
Eleventhly, the blessed fruit of Mary is necessary for
the restoration of
the empyreal ruin, the ruin, I say, brought about in the
high Heaven. On
this we may note what the Lord, wishing to plant of the
marrow of a high
cedar, said: "On the high mountains of Israel I will
plant it, and it shall
shoot forth into branches, and shall bear fruit"
(Ezech. XVII, 23) The high
mountain is that sublime mansion, that sublime society of
angels, which is
well called the high mountain of Israel, because Israel
is interpreted "the
vision of God." And behold the angels always see
God, as we find in the
Gospel of St. Matthew: "Their angels always see the
face of My Father, who
is in heaven." On this high mountain, in this
sublime society of angels,
God planted that which He had chosen from the mass of
perdition; He
planted, I say, the marrow of a cedar, the marrow of the
human race, that
is, all the elect, of whom some, in reality, some in
hope, are already
planted on the angelic mountain. O fruit, truly to be
loved above all
things, on whose account every elect soul is planted on
so sublime a
height! We must joyfully bear this fruit, Our Lord Jesus
Christ, for whose
sake we are already planted in hope among the angels. Let
us always give
thanks to this fruit by whose grace we fill up the number
of the angels.
Therefore Mary, the Mother of this fruit, may well glory,
and utter those
words which St. Bernard, speaking as it were by her lips,
says: "The number
of the generations of the angels is by my Child filled
up, restored, and
the race of men, cursed in Adam, by the blessed fruit of
my womb is
regenerated unto eternal blessedness."
Twelfthly, the blessed fruit of Mary is necessary for the
perpetuation of
eternal glory, which would not be eternal, unless it was
preserved by this
fruit. Therefore, is it said in Proverbs: "The fruit
of the just is a tree
of life." Excellently is this fruit said to be a
tree of life, because as
the tree of life was to preserve the natural life in the
terrestrial
Paradise, so Christ is to preserve eternal life in the
heavenly Paradise.
St. Anselm notes all the good things which we obtain
through the blessed
fruit of Mary, and says: "All these good things came
from the blessed fruit
of the blessed womb of the Blessed Mary."
Thus you have heard how the blessed fruit of Mary is
necessary, first, to
expiate mortal sin; secondly, to placate the supreme
enmity between God and
man; thirdly, to heal the wound of original sin;
fourthly, to relieve
spiritual obstinacy; fifthly, to appease the anger of the
Judge; sixthly,
to escape the pains of hell; seventhly, to obtain the
grace to despise
earthly things; eighthly, to enrich the rational soul;
ninthly, to
consummate the spiritual life; tenthly, to multiply the
universal Church;
eleventhly, to repair the empyreal ruin; twelfthly, to
preserve eternal
glory. And behold, these twelve effects or advantages of
this fruit may be
signified by the twelve fruits of the tree of life, all
of which are in the
fruit of Mary's womb. Of which twelve fruits we read in
the Apocalypse,
that the Angel showed John the tree of life, bearing
twelve fruits.
Help us, therefore, O blessed among women, that by the fruit of thy
womb we may obtain the blessing of these twelve fruits. Help us, O
fruitful Virgin, that by thy fruit we may be made fruitful in these
fruits; that by these fruits we may merit to enjoy thy fruit
forever! Help us, O sweetest one, that Jesus may grant us to enjoy
His sweetness, He, the most liberal communicator of the blessed
fruit of thy womb, who with the Father and the Holy Ghost liveth and
reigns
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