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It is said on the one side that Our Lady revealed to
S. Mechtilde that the malady of which she died was no
other thing than an impetuous assault of divine love;
but S. Bridget and S. John Damascene testify that she
died an extremely peaceful death: and both statements
are true, Theotimus.
The stars are marvellously beautiful to see, and
send forth a fair light; but, if you have taken
notice, it is by flushes of light, by sparks and
flashes, that they produce their rays, as if they
brought forth light with effort, at distinct
intervals; whether it is because their feebler light
cannot so continuously shine with evenness, or
because our weak eyes do not allow us a constant and
firm view of them, on account of the great distance
there is between them and our eyes.
In the same way, generally speaking, the saints
who died of love felt a great variety of accidents
and symptoms of love, before it brought them to
death; many sudden movement, many assaults, many
ecstasies, many languors, many agonies; and it seemed
that their love with many renewed efforts brought
forth their blessed death: this happened on account
of the weakness of their love, not yet absolutely
perfect, which could not continue its loving with an
even fervour.
But it was quite otherwise with the most holy Virgin.
For, as we see the lovely dawning of day grow, not at
intervals and by shocks, but by a certain dilating
and continuous brightening, which is almost
insensibly perceptible, so that we truly see it grow
in clearness, but so evenly that no one perceives any
interruption, separation or discontinuance in its
growing; thus divine love grew at each moment in the
virginal heart of our glorious Lady, but by sweet,
peaceable and continuous growths, without any
agitation, or shock, or violence.
Ah! no, Theotimus, we must not suppose an
impetuosity of agitation in this celestial love of
the maternal heart of the Virgin; for love, of
itself, is sweet, gracious, peaceful and tranquil. If
it sometimes deliver assaults, if it give shocks to
the spirit, this is because it finds resistance
there: but when the passages of the soul are opened
to it without opposition or contradiction, it makes
its progress peaceably, with an incomparable
sweetness. It was so, then, that holy love employed
its force in the virginal heart of the sacred Mother,
without effort of violent impetuosity, because it
found no resistance or hindrance whatever.
For as we see great rivers boil and leap, with a
mighty roaring, in rough places where the rocks make
shoals and reefs to oppose and prevent the flowing of
the waters, but, on the contrary, finding themselves
on the plain, sweetly glide and flow without effort;
- so divine love, finding in human souls some
hindrance and resistance (as in truth all have in
some degree, though differently), does violence
there, combating bad inclinations, striking the
heart, pushing the will by divers agitations and
various efforts to get room for itself, or at least
to pass these obstacles.
But in the sacred Virgin, everything favoured and
seconded the course of heavenly love; its progress
and increase were incomparably greater than in all
other creatures, yet a progress infinitely sweet,
peaceful and tranquil. No, she swooned not away,
either with love or with compassion, by the cross of
her Son, although she then experienced the most
ardent and painful attack of love that can be
imagined: for although the attack was extreme, yet,
at the same time, it was at once equally strong and
gentle, mighty and tranquil, active and peaceful,
consisting in a heat which was sharp but sweet.
I am not saying, Theotimus, that in the soul of
the most holy Virgin there were not two portions, and
consequently two appetites, one according to the
spirit and superior reason, the other according to
the senses and inferior reason, so that she could
feel repugnances and contradictions of the one to the
other appetite, for this burden was felt even by her
Son; - but I say that in this celestial Mother all
the affections were so well ranged and ordered, that
divine love exercised in her its empire and
domination most peaceably, without being troubled by
the diversity of wills and appetites, or by the
contradiction of the senses, because neither the
repugnances of the natural appetite nor the movements
of the senses ever went as far as sin, not even as
far as venial sin; but, on the contrary, all was
employed holily and faithfully in the service of holy
love, for the exercise of the other virtues, which,
for the most part, cannot be practised save amid
difficulties, oppositions and contradictions.
Thorns, according to the vulgar opinion, are not
only different from, but even contrary to, flowers;
and it seems as if things would go better if there
were none in the world: which has made S. Ambrose
think that but for sin there would be none. But
still, as here they are, the good husbandman renders
them useful, making from them, about his fields and
young trees, hedges and enclosures which serve as
defence and rampart against cattle.
So the glorious Virgin, having had a part in all
human miseries, saving such as directly tend to sin,
employed them most profitably for the exercise and
increase of the holy virtues of fortitude,
temperance, justice and prudence, poverty, humility,
patience and compassion: so that these were so far
from hindering, that they even assisted and
strengthened heavenly love by continual exercises and
advancements. And, in her, Magdalen is not distracted
from the attention wherewith she receives from her
Saviour the impressions of love, by all Martha's
ardour and solicitude. She has made choice of her
Son's love, and nothing deprives her of it.
The loadstone, as every one knows, Theotimus,
naturally draws iron unto it, by a secret and most
wonderful virtue: yet five things there are which
hinder this operation. 1. A too great distance. 2. A
diamond interposed. 3. If the iron be greased. 4. If
it be rubbed with an onion. 5. If it be too weighty.
Our heart is made for God, who continually allures
it, never ceasing to throw into it the baits of his
celestial love. But five things hinder the operation
of his holy attraction. 1. Sin, which puts us at a
distance from God. 2. Affection to riches. 3. Sensual
pleasures. 4. Pride and vanity. 5. Self-love together
with the multitude of inordinate passions which it
brings forth, and which are to us an overcharging
load which weighs us down.
But none of these hindrances had place in the
glorious Virgin's heart. 1. She was ever preserved
from all sin. 2. Ever most poor in spirit. 3. Ever
most pure. 4. Ever most humble. 5. Ever peaceful
mistress of all her passions, and totally exempt from
the rebellion which self-love raises against the love
of God.
And therefore as iron, if clear of all obstacles
and freed from its own weight, would be powerfully,
yet gently and equably, drawn by the loadstone, in
such sort, however, that the attraction would ever
grow more active and forcible as they came nearer the
one to the other, and the motion nearer to its end: -
so the most holy Mother, having nothing in her which
hindered the operation of the divine love of her Son,
was united unto him in an incomparable union, by
gentle ecstasies, without trouble or travail,
ecstasies in which the sensible powers ceased not to
perform their actions, without in any way disturbing
the union of the spirit, as again the perfect
application of her spirit did not much divert her
senses. So that this Virgin's death was more sweet
than could be imagined, her Son sweetly drawing her
after the odour of his perfumes, and she most
lovingly flowing out after their sacred sweetness
even into the bosom of her Son's goodness.
And although this holy soul extremely loved her
most holy, most pure, and most love-worthy body, yet
she forsook it without any pain or resistance; as the
chaste Judith, though she greatly loved the weeds of
penance and widowhood yet forsook them and freely put
them off, to put on her marriage garments when she
went to be victorious over Holofernes; or as Jonathan
did when for the love of David he stripped himself of
his garments. Love had given at the foot of the cross
to this divine Spouse the supreme sorrows of death,
and therefore it was reasonable that at length death
should give her the sovereign delights of love.
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