THIRD DAY
Mary's charity
towards God
St.
Anselm says, that wherever there is the greatest purity, there is also the
greatest charity. The more a heart is pure and empty of itself, the greater is
the fullness of its love towards God. The most holy Mary, because she was all
humility, and had nothing of self in her, was filled with Divine love, so that
her love towards God surpassed that of all men and angels, as St. Bernardine
writes. Therefore St. Francis of Sales with reason called her, the Queen of
love. God has, indeed, given men the precept to love Him with their whole
hearts: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart. But, as St.
Thomas declares, this commandment will be fully and perfectly fulfilled by
men in heaven alone, and not on earth, where it is only fulfilled imperfectly.
On this subject, blessed Albert the Great remarks, that in a certain sense, it
would have been unbecoming had God given a precept, which was never to have
been perfectly fulfilled. But this would have been the case had not the Divine
Mother perfectly fulfilled it. Divine love, says St. Bernard, so
penetrated and filled the soul of Mary, that no part of her was left untouched;
so that she loved with her whole heart, with her whole soul, with her whole
strength, and was full of grace. Therefore Mary could well say: My Beloved
has given Himself all to me, and I have given myself all to Him: My Beloved to
me, and I to Him. Ah, well might even the Seraphim, says Richard, have
descended from heaven to learn, in the heart of Mary, how to love God. God, who
is love, came on earth to enkindle in the hearts of all the flame of His Divine
love; but in no heart did He enkindle it so much as in that of His Mother; for
her heart was entirely pure from all earthly affections, and fully prepared to
burn with this blessed flame. Thus St. Sophronius says, that ' Divine love so
inflamed her, that nothing earthly could enter her affections; she was always
burning with this heavenly flame, and, so to say, inebriated with it. Hence the
heart of Mary became all fire and flames, as we read of her in the sacred
Canticles: The lamps thereof are fire and flames; fire burning within
through love, as St. Anselm explains it; and flames shining without, by the
example she gave to all in the practice of virtues. St. Thomas of Villanova
says, that the bush seen by Moses, which burnt without being consumed, was a
real symbol of Mary's heart. Therefore with reason, says St. Bernard, was she
seen by St. John clothed with the sun: And there appeared a great wonder in
heaven, a woman clothed with the sun; for, continues the Saint, she was so
closely united to God by love, and penetrated so deeply the abyss of Divine
Wisdom, that, without a personal union with God, it would seem impossible for a
creature to have a closer union with Him. Hence St. Bernardine of Sienna
asserts that the most holy Virgin was never tempted by hell; for he says: As
flies are driven away by a great fire, so were the evil spirits driven away by
her ardent love, so much so, that they did not even dare approach her.' Mary
herself revealed to St. Bridget, that in this world she never had any thought,
desire, or joy, but in and for God: I
thought, she said, of nothing but God, nothing pleased me but God; so that her
blessed soul being in the almost continual contemplation of God whilst on
earth, the acts of love which she formed were innumerable, as Father Suarez
writes. But a remark of Bernardine de Bustis pleases me still more: he says
that Mary did not so much repeat acts of love as other Saints do, but that her
whole life was one continued act of it; for, by a special privilege, she always
actually loved God. As a royal eagle, she always kept her eyes fixed on the
Divine Sun of Justice; so that, as St. Peter Damian says, the duties of
active life did not prevent her from loving, and love did not prevent her from
attending to those duties. Therefore St. Germanus says, that the altar of propitiation,
on which the fire was never extinguished day or night, was a type of Mary.
Neither was sleep an obstacle to Mary's love for God; since, as St. Augustine
asserts, the dreams, when sleeping, of our first parents, in their state of
innocence, were as happy as their lives when waking; and if such a privilege
were granted them, it certainly cannot be denied that it was also granted to
the Divine Mother, as Suarez, the Abbot Rupert, and St. Ambrose fully admit. In
fine, St. Bernardine asserts, that as long as Mary lived in this world she was
continually loving God: The mind of the Blessed Virgin was always wrapped in
the ardor of love. The Saint moreover adds, that she never did anything which
the Divine Wisdom did not show her to be pleasing to Him; and that she loved
God as much as she thought He was to be loved by her. But since Mary loves God
so much, there can be nothing which she so much requires of her clients as,
that they also should love Him to their utmost. This precisely she one day told
blessed Angela of Foligno after communion, saying, Angela, be thou blessed by
my Son, and endeavor to love Him as much as thou canst. She also said to St.
Bridget, Daughter, if thou desirest to bind me to thee, love my Son. Mary
desires nothing more than to see her Beloved, who is God, loved. Novarinus asks
why the Blessed Virgin, with the Spouse in the Canticles, begged the angels to
make the great love she bore Him known to our Lord, saying: I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you
find my Beloved, that you tell Him I languish with love. Did not God know how
much she loved Him? Why did she seek to show the wound to her Beloved; since He
it was who had inflicted it? The same author answers, that the Divine Mother
thereby wished to make her love known to us, not to God; that as she was
herself wounded, so might she also be enabled to wound us with Divine love. And
because Mary was all on fire with the
love of God, all who love and approach her are inflamed by her with this same
love; for she renders them like unto herself. For this reason St. Catherine of
Sienna called Mary the bearer of fire, the bearer of the flame of Divine love.
If we also desire to burn with these blessed flames, let us endeavor always to
draw nearer to our Mother by our prayers and the affections of our souls.
EXAMPLE
A
young nobleman who was on a sea voyage began to read an obscene book, in which
he took much pleasure. A religious noticed it, and said to him: Are you
disposed to make a present to our Blessed Lady? The young man replied that he
was. Well, the other answered, I wish that for the love of the most holy Virgin
you would give up that book, and throw it into the sea. Here it is, Father,
said the young man. No, replied the religious, you must yourself make Mary this
present. He did so, and no sooner had he returned to Genoa, his native place,
than the Mother of God so inflamed his heart with Divine love that he entered a
religious order.
PRAYER
Ah,
Mary, thou Queen of Love, of all creatures the most amiable, the most beloved,
and the most loving, as St. Francis of Sales addressed thee, — my own sweet
Mother, thou wast always and in all things inflamed with love towards God;
deign then to bestow, at least, a spark of it on me. Thou didst pray thy Son
for the spouses whose wine had failed: They have no wine. And wilt thou not
pray for us, in whom the love of God, whom we are under such obligations to
love, is wanting Say also, They have no love, and obtain us this love. This is
the only grace for which we ask. O Mother, by the love thou bearest to Jesus,
graciously hear and pray for us. Amen.
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