WE can begin to love God in this life, but it is only in the next that
we shall be able to love Him perfectly. In the expression _we_ I do
not intend to speak of the Most Holy Virgin, because she is the
Daughter of beautiful Love, the one only dove, the perfect Spouse.
Yes; the charity of Mary surpassed that of the Seraphim. 'If all the
daughters have gathered riches, thou hast surpassed them all.'
The Saints and Angels are compared to stars, but Mary is beautiful as
the moon, distinguished amidst the Saints as the moon amidst the
stars. As her charity surpasses in heaven that of all the blessed, so
did she exercise it with greater excellence on earth; for never having
sinned, even venially, her love never met with any obstacle, and thus
increased at every instant. What progress, then, must she not have
made in the exercise of holy love? Say not that the Most Holy Virgin,
like all men, was subject to the necessities of life. It may be said,
in the words of the Canticles, that her sleep was the sleep of Love,
the celestial Spouse saying, _'I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem,
that you stir not nor awake my love till she please.'_
The Queen of heaven and earth granted to her chaste body that repose
only which was necessary to restore its strength, in order to serve
God more perfectly; and we may say that her sleep never interrupted
the exercise of holy love, because it proceeded from an act of most
excellent charity. Does not St. Augustine teach that we must love our
body, that it may serve us in those works which God requires of us,
and because it forms part of ourselves, and is one day to share our
eternal felicity?
The Most Holy Virgin, indeed, had other reasons to love her body with
a virtuous love, because it was not only pure, submissive, and docile
to all the functions of holy love and embalmed by Divine sweetness,
but it was, moreover, the living source of the Sacred Body of Our
Saviour. Thus it belonged to her in an incomparably singular manner,
so that before yielding to sleep she could truly say to it, 'Rest from
your fatigues, O throne of the Divinity, tabernacle of the new
Covenant, ark of all Sanctity; recruit your strength through the
repose which I allow you to take.'
Ah! sweet Jesus! what must have been the thoughts of your Most Holy
Mother whilst sleep refreshed her body and her heart was watching! We
may imagine that her most frequent thought was of her Divine Son, Who
had so often slept upon her bosom as the lamb reposes upon the soft
wool of its mother. She would also feel that she rested in His
adorable side, opened by the lance on Calvary, as a white dove rests
in the cleft of a rock. Thus her sleep, which was a sweet repose and
an agreeable solace to her body, became a kind of ecstasy to her soul,
through the spiritual effects and operations it produced.
If she also represented to herself her future glory, like Joseph, the
saviour of Egypt, and saw herself clothed with the sun and the moon
under her feet--that is to say, surrounded by the glory of her Divine
Son, and resplendent with the glory of the Saints who form her crown
as she rules over the universe, of which she is the Queen; or if, like
Jacob, she foresaw the wonderful fruits that Angels and men would
obtain through the Redemption, O! conceive, if possible, children of
Mary, the delights caused by such spiritual entertainments!
There is one kind of diamond which has this special property--that
nothing can diminish its fine water or the brilliancy which nature has
given it. The Heart of the Virgin Mother, like this diamond, never
ceased to glow with the sacred fire of love that she had received from
her Divine Son. However, though the brilliancy of precious stones does
not diminish, yet it does not increase; whilst the love of the Most
Holy Virgin never remained in the same state, but made continual and
incredible progress until she entered heaven. With good reason, then,
is Our Lady called the Mother of pure Love--that is to say, the most
lovable amongst all creatures, and the most beloved by her only Son,
Who is loved by her as the most lovable and loving of Sons.