CHAPTER XVI.

THE NATIVITY.

A sign foreshadowing the revival of grace.

Attinget a fine usque ad finem fortiter, et disponit omnia suaviter ("She reacheth from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly"). These words of Holy Scripture are perfectly verified in the birth of Mary. The promise of redemption, made to our first parents after their fall, was renewed two thousand years before the Incarnation to the father of that race of which the Messias was to be born; a thousand years later, God reiterated it to David, manifesting to him that the Christ was to spring from his family. And notwithstanding the revolutions of empires, notwithstanding the great powers which successively enslaved and carried into captivity the chosen people, notwithstanding their own infidelities and those of their kings,-spite of time, spite of the world, spite of all the powers of earth and hell,-behold at length, on the day marked out by the irresistible Providence of God, that woman promised from the beginning appears upon earth,—the Virgin of Isaias, the Daughter of David, the Child of Abraham, the second Eve, the Mother of the new Adam; and she appears not amid the delights of Eden, but in the humble and sublime poverty which befitted the God of the manger, the Mother of the voluntary Victim of the sin and pride of man.

Nativitas tua gaudium annuntiavit universo mundo; ex te enim ortus est Sol Justitiæ, Christus Deus noster, says the Church in her chants ("Thy birth gave joy to the whole world; for from thee is sprung the Sun of Justice, Christ our Lord"), even as the sun rises from the bosom of the dawn. The appearance of Mary was at first as little regarded as that of her Son, but she was no less the true dawn of the great day of redemption. 1 Wis. viii. 1.

For the same reason, the Church invokes Mary as the Morning Star (Stella Matutina), because she was truly the mild planet which preceded that great day of the Lord.

But what the birth of Mary was to the human race in general, such is the birth or revival of her love in the hearts of each one of us in particular-it is a sign announcing the rising or the return of the Sun of Justice in our soul. It is not wonderful that Jesus, having willed to give Himself to the world through His Mother, should will also to give Himself to each one of us by her. Experience has decided this point; for all to whom God has revealed the secrets of the consciences of men will attest, that never has filial piety towards Mary remained long alone in a soul,—it has ever been the harbinger of the return of God, by leading the soul itself back to His love, and that because a loving confidence in Mary is in itself the commencement of correspondence with grace, and an act of faith in the order established by God for the communication of His graces.

When the name of Mary is sweet to a poor sinner, and restores hope to his enslaved heart, the chains of the captive are about to be quickly broken. When a poor soul loves to repeat, "Hail, Mary, full of grace," it will soon obtain from that plenitude of grace, which is the fulness of light and of life, a ray of life to dispel its darkness, and a drop of heavenly life to quench its thirst for happiness and peace.

Prayer.

O Mary, my Mother, how greatly do I need that light, and how ardently do I thirst after that life! I know indeed that here below we can but enjoy the divine reflection of the true light, the divine germ of the true life; but obtain for me at least to enjoy them both; obtain for me sufficient light and strength to enable me, by perseverance in prayer and the frequent reception of the Holy Eucharist, to follow even to the hour of my death that road whose is perfect light and eternal life.

I understand now, my Mother, why the Church, which celebrates thy birth, does not celebrate even those of the most heroic of her children, saving him only whom Jesus sanctified by thy word whilst yet in his mother's womb; and I understand also why she calls the day of our death natalis dies (the day of our birth); it is because when we leave the womb of our mother (the first world we inhabit), we do but break the bands of that dark prison, to enter into a new darkness and to fall into new chains. But when we shall leave this our land of captivity, when we shall emerge from the bosom of that second Mother who shall also bring us forth in pain, our soul will then break her last ties to enter into possession of the perfect" liberty of the children of God," in the true abode of light, of life, and of peace (in locum refrigerii, lucis, et pacis).

I hope for thy presence at that hour of death, that beginning of true life, O divine Mother of Him Who suffered death that He might give us life. In that hour may the remembrance of thee, and the faithful invocation of thy name, be to me the star to guide me into port, the dawn of the eternal day! Amen.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE PRESENTATION.

The great law of grace, which obliges all men to give themselves wholly to God.

WE must not confound the Feast of the Presentation of Mary with that of the Presentation of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Infant Jesus was presented in the Temple by His holy Mother on the day of her Purification, according to the law of Moses; and the child Mary was presented there by her blessed parents, S. Joachim and S. Anna, not in virtue of the law of Moses, which related only to the first-born son of a family,-Omne masculinum ad aperiens vulvam sanctum Domino voca

bitur! ("Every male opening the womb shall be called holy to the Lord"),—but in accordance with the custom of the Hebrews, to consecrate to God (either in fulfilment of a vow, or for some other pious motive) one or more of their children, who then received a holy education in the school of the Temple itself. Historical tradition assures us of this fact, and it is confirmed also by the writings of the Old Testament. It was this custom which enabled Josaba, the daughter of King Joram, and sister of Ochozias, to rescue the young Joas, the son of the latter, from the fury of Athalia, and to keep him "for six years hid in the house of the Lord," as we read in the 11th chapter of the 4th Book of Kings, and the 22d chapter of the 2d Book of the Paralipomenon. The Gospel also refers to this custom when it speaks of Anna, the prophetess, who lived in the Temple, quæ non discedebat de templo2 ("who departed not from the Temple"); living there as Josaba had doubtless done: devoting her time to the education of the children consecrated to God.

And, truly, this holy place was well suited for the early abode of her whom God had not only chosen for His own Temple, but to be the living Ark of the Holy of holies in the New Testament.

The Feast of the Presentation of Mary offers us a lively and touching picture of the perfect fulfilment of two great duties: one of which belongs to parents; the other, to every child of man.

Whatever, in truth, may be the destiny or vocation of their children, parents should never forget that God wills to have these children for His own, and that the different states of life to which He calls them are but so many roads which lead to that one true end of man. We ought to belong to God because we came from God. The mother of the Machabees reminded her heroic children of this truth when she said to them: "I know not how you were formed in my womb; but the Creator of the

1 Luke ii. 23.

2 Luke ii. 37.

world, who formed the nativity of man, and found out the origin of all, He will restore to you again, in His mercy, both breath and life, as now you despise yourselves for the sake of His laws."

All are not called to the sacrifice of martyrdom; but all are called to a life of sacrifice, and, sometimes, to the martyrdom for duty's sake, which is always the sacrifice of love. S. Augustine exclaims, in reference to this: Da amantem et sentit quod dico (“Give me one who loves, and he will understand me"). The royal Prophet thus loved when he said to God: "Thy hands have made me, and formed me; give me understanding in the way of Thy commandments." As if he said: "I came from Thee alone, O my God; teach me to understand this truth, that I may, in like manner, live to Thee alone" (Manus tuae fecerunt me, et plasmaverunt me: da mihi intellectum, et discam mandata tua).2

This is the truth of truths, the great law which concerns all men -the law of love and of justice; because love is evidently due to God—the heart to Him who made it: Hoc est maximum et primum mandatum3 "This is the first and great commandment").

("

We know not a more striking proof of the injury inflicted on human reason by the fall of our first parents, than the difficulty which men experience in discerning any thing so clearly evident as the obligation which rests upon them of belonging solely and entirely to God.

This difficulty is less in childhood, when our passions have not yet cast their gloomy shadows over baptismal grace. Who does not remember the facility with which he then realised the thought of God? Who does not recollect the reality and the sweetness of the first glimpses of God? Who speaks so plainly to the hearts of the innocent? As time goes on, God speaks to us in a different language, and reiterates the great law of love in other terms: "If any man will come after Me, let 1 In Joan. tr. 26. 2 Ps. cxviii. 73. 5 Matt. xxii. 38.