ACCORDING to the common opinion of the Doctors of the Church, when the
Blessed Virgin Mary had attained the age of sixty-three she died, or
rather, she slept the sleep of death. But how is it, some will say,
that Our Lord, Who loved His Holy Mother so tenderly, did not grant
her the privilege of exemption from death, since death is the wages of
sin, and she had never sinned? How contrary are such thoughts to those
of God, and how far removed are such judgments from His! We know that
death became precious when Our Lord permitted that its blow should
fall upon Him, on the Tree of the Cross. Certainly, the Most Holy
Virgin thought it no advantage or privilege not to die, but she always
desired death, for she saw it lovingly embraced by her Divine Son. He
had rendered it so sweet and desirable that the Angels would consider
themselves most fortunate to be able to die, and the Saints looked
upon it as a happiness, and therefore experienced great consolation in
it. Our adorable Saviour, who is Life Itself, gave life to death by
His own death, so that to those who die in the grace of God, it is the
beginning of eternal life.
Consider this Queen, dying of a fever, that was sweeter to her than
health, because it was the fever of Divine love, which, by burning up
her heart, consumed it so completely as to open to her soul the way by
which it flew into the arms of her Divine Son.
All the Saints die in the habit of holy Love; but some amongst them
die in the exercise of this Divine love; others, on account of it, as
the Martyrs; and others, by its power. But the most sublime degree of
holy love is to die of love itself; and this occurs when the soul is
so inflamed by charity that it can no longer be detained by the bonds
of the flesh.
If it be true that such as is _the life of a man such will be his
death_, what else can have been the death of the Most Holy Virgin but
the death of love? This is certain; because she who is called in the
language of Sacred Scripture, the _Mother of fair Love_ could only die
the death of love. We read not of ecstasies and raptures in the life
of Our Lady, and for this reason, that they were continual. She loved
God with so tender, so strong, and so ardent a love, at the same time
so tranquilly, and with so much peace, that although her love went on
increasing, the increase was not impetuous, but she continually, and
almost imperceptibly, hastened towards this so greatly desired union
of her soul with God, like a river that calmly flows to the ocean.
The hour having then arrived when the Most Holy Virgin was to leave
the earth, Divine Love separated her soul from her body, and
incomparably pure as it was, it flew directly to heaven. Ah! what
obstacle could detain her whom the Celestial Spouse calls 'His
beloved, all fair and without spot'? Our imperfections and the stains
of our sins are the only obstacle to our entrance into heaven at the
moment of our death; and it is these that are the origin of the flames
of Purgatory.
The Saints are ever burning with the fire of Divine love; and by their
exemplary lives spread a continual odour of sanctity in the presence
of men and of God. This odour is incomparably increased at their
death; hence the Prophet says: 'Precious in the sight of the Lord is
the death of the Saints.'
If, then, the Saints are odoriferous and burning lamps, what shall we
say of the Most Holy Virgin, whose perfection immeasurably surpassed
that of all the Saints united together? If in life she was a Burning
Lamp, fed with the perfumed oil of every virtue, what a fragrance must
she have exhaled at the hour of her death! So great was this fragrance
that young virgins, as we read in the Canticles, were attracted by it:
'We will run after thee to the odour of thy perfumes,' 'the young
maidens have loved thee.'