OF THE CHARITY OF MARY TOWARDS GOD.
St. Anselm says, that where there is the greatest purity, there is the
greatest charity: “Ubi major puritas, ibi major charitas.” The purer and
more emptied of self is a heart, the more it will be filled with charity
towards God. Most holy Mary, because she was all humility, and entirely
emptied of self, was entirely filled with the divine love, so that she
surpassed all men and all angels in love to God, as St. Bernardine
teaches.[1574] Therefore St. Francis of Sales has justly called her: The
queen of love. The Lord indeed has given to men the precept to love him
with their whole heart: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole
heart;”[1575] but, as St. Thomas declares, this precept will never be
perfectly fulfilled by men on this earth, but in heaven.[1576] And here
the blessed Albertus Magnus remarks, that in a certain sense, it would
be unbecoming for God to give a commandment which none could perfectly
fulfil, if the divine mother had not perfectly fulfilled it. These are
the words of Albertus: Either some one fulfils this precept or no one; if
any one, it is the most blessed Virgin.[1577] And this is confirmed by
Richard of St. Victor, who says: The mother of our Emmanuel was perfect
in all virtues. Who has ever fulfilled as she did that first commandment:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart?” In her the
divine love was so ardent, that there could be no defect of any kind in
her.[1578] Divine love, says St. Bernard, so penetrated and pervaded the
soul of Mary, that no part was left untouched by it, so that she loved
with her whole heart, her whole soul, and her whole strength, and was
full of grace.[1579] Wherefore Mary might well have said: My beloved has
given himself wholly to me, and I have given myself wholly to him: My
beloved to me, and I to him: “Dilectus meus mihi, et ego illi.”[1580] Ah,
says Richard, well might even the seraphim descend from heaven to learn
from the heart of the Virgin how to love God.[1581]
God, who is love: “Deus charitas est,”[1582] came on earth to kindle
in all men the flame of his holy love; but he inflamed no heart so
much as the heart of his mother, who, being entirely pure from every
earthly affection, was perfectly ready to be enkindled by this blessed
flame. Thus St. Jerome teaches.[1583] 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: “Lampades ejus, lampades ignis, atque
flammarum.”[1584] Fire burning within, through love, as St. Anselm
explains,[1585] and flames shining forth upon all, by the practice of
virtue. Mary, therefore, when she bore Jesus in her arms, might indeed
have called herself: Fire carrying fire: “Ignis gestans ignem,” more
properly than a certain woman who was carrying fire in her hand was so
called by Hippocrates. Yes, for St. Ildephonsus said: As fire heats iron,
the Holy Spirit so wholly inflamed Mary that nothing was seen in her but
the flame of the Holy Ghost, nothing was felt but the fire of the love
of God.[1586] St. Thomas of Villanova says that the bush which Moses
saw entirely in flames without being consumed, was really a symbol of
the heart of the Virgin. Wherefore with reason, as St. Bernard says, was
she seen by St. John clothed with the sun: And there appeared a great
wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun: “Et signum apparuit in
cœlo, mulier amicta sole.”[1587] For, says the saint, she was so united
to God by love that it seems as if no creature could be more united to
him. Mary, then, is justly described as clothed with the sun, for she has
penetrated to an incredible depth the abyss of divine wisdom, so that, as
far as it is permitted to a creature not personally united with God, she
appears immersed in that inaccessible light.[1588]
Therefore St. Bonaventure asserts, that the holy Virgin was never tempted
by the spirits of hell: For as flies, he says, are driven away by a great
fire, so from the heart of Mary, which was one flame of love, the devils
fled, and did not even dare to approach her.[1589] And Richard also says:
The Virgin was terrible to the princes of darkness, so that they did not
presume to approach and tempt her, for the flame of charity deterred
them.[1590] Mary herself revealed to St. Bridget, that in this world
she had no other thought, no other desire, no other joy, than God: I
thought of nothing but God; nothing pleased me but God: “Nihil nisi Deum
cogitabam, nulla mihi nisi Deus placuerunt.” So that her blessed soul
being, as it were, on this earth in a continual contemplation of God, the
acts of love she made were innumerable; as Father Suarez has declared:
The acts of perfect love which the blessed Virgin made in this life were
innumerable, for she passed almost her whole life in contemplation, and
was very frequently repeating an act of love.[1591] But Bernard de Bustis
pleases me more when he says, that Mary did not so much repeat the acts
of love in order, as other saints do, but, by a singular privilege,
always actually loved God with one continued act.[1592] Like the royal
eagle she kept her eye always fixed upon the divine Sun, so that, as
St. Peter Damian says, neither did the actions of life prevent her from
loving, nor love prevent her from acting.[1593] Thus, says St. Germanus,
Mary was prefigured by the altar of propitiation, on which the fire was
never extinguished by day or by night.
Neither did sleep interrupt the love of Mary for her God. For if such a
privilege was given to our first parents in the state of innocence, as
St. Augustine asserts, saying: Their dreams when sleeping were as happy
as their life when waking: “Tam felicia erant somnia dormientium, quam
vita vigilantium,”[1594] it certainly could not be denied to the divine
mother, as Suarez and Rupert the Abbot believe, with St. Bernardine and
St. Ambrose, who has written concerning Mary: While her body rested,
her soul watched: “Cum quiesceret corpus, vigilaret animus.”[1595] Thus
were verified in her the words of the wise man: Her lamp shall not be
put out in the night: “Non extinguetur in nocte lucerna ejus.”[1596]
Yes, for while her blessed body, with a light sleep, took its needed
rest, her soul, says St. Bernardine, freely rose to God, so at that
time her contemplation was more perfect than is that of any other
person when awake.[1597] Therefore could she well say with the spouse
in the Canticles: I sleep and my heart watcheth: “Ego dormio et cor
meum vigilat.”[1598] Happy in sleep as in waking: “Tam felix dormiendo,
quam vigilando,” as Suarez says. In a word, St. Bernardine asserts,
that Mary, while she lived on earth, was continually loving God: “Mens
Virginis in ardore dilectionis continue tenebatur.”[1599] And he adds
further, that she never did any thing that she did not know was pleasing
to God; and that she loved him as much as she knew he ought to be
loved.[1600] Hence, according to blessed Albertus Magnus, it may be
said that Mary was filled with so great charity that a greater was not
possible in any pure creature on this earth.[1601] For this reason St.
Thomas of Villanova has said, that the Virgin, by her ardent charity, was
made so beautiful and so enamored her God, that captivated as it were, by
love of her, he descended into her womb to become man.[1602] Wherefore
St. Bernardine exclaims: Behold a Virgin who by her virtue has wounded
and taken captive the heart of God.[1603]
But since Mary loves her God so much, she certainly requires from her
servants nothing else so much as that they should love God as much as
they can. And precisely this she said to the blessed Angela de Foligno
one day after communion: “Angela, may you be blessed by my Son; seek to
love him as much as you can.” And the blessed Virgin herself said to St.
Bridget: Daughter, if you wish to bind me to you, love my Son: “Si vis me
tecum devincire, ama filium meum.” Mary desires nothing more than to see
her beloved, who is God, loved by all. Novarino asks why the holy Virgin,
with the spouse of the Canticles, begged the angels to make known to her
Lord the great love she bore him, saying: “I adjure you, oh daughters
of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I languish
with love.”[1604] Did not God know how much she loved him? Why does she
desire to show the wound to her beloved who gave the wound? “Cur vulnus
ostendi quærit dilecto qui vulnus fecit?” The same author answers, that
the divine mother did not wish by this to make known her love to God,
but to us; that, as she was wounded, she might be able to wound us also
with divine love: “Ut vulnerata vulneret.”[1605] And because she was
wholly inflamed with the love of God, she inflames all those who love and
approach her, and renders them like herself.[1606] For this reason St.
Catharine of Sienna called Mary: The bearer of the flame of divine love:
“Portatrix ignis.” If we also wish to burn with this blessed flame, let
us always endeavor to draw near to our mother with prayers and affections.
Oh queen of love, Mary, the most lovely, the most beloved, and the most
loving of all creatures, as St. Francis of Sales said to thee: Ah, my
mother, thou wert always wholly inflamed with love to God; ah, deign to
bestow on me at least one spark of it. Thou didst pray thy Son for that
family whose wine had failed: They have no wine: “Vinum non habent,”
and wilt thou not pray for us, who are wanting in love to God, whom we
are under such obligations to love? Say to Jesus: They have no love:
“Amorem non habent.” Do thou obtain for us this love. We ask of thee no
other favor than this. Oh mother, by the great love thou hast for Jesus,
graciously hear us and pray for us. Amen.