Jesus Christ filled the Old Testament or rather the ancient world; the whole earth was impatient to open and bring forth the Just One. All the prophets spoke of Him, all the rites of the Old Law and all its sacrifices prefigured His Sacrifice, all the principal personages whom God sent into the world not only foretold Him but in a manner pointed Him out; they were more than His heralds, they were His types.
So also was Mary announced from the beginning of the world in a threefold manner: by the numerous prophets who spoke of her, by the emblems that pointed to her, by the illustrious women who were her types.
I.
The first prophecy properly so called goes back to the beginning of human history, and clearly points out the future office of the Virgin Mary.
The human race had just fallen through the fault of its first parent. Adam and Eve wept over their lost innocence and foresaw the miseries which would fall on themselves and on all generations. But when the short lived happiness of Eden crumbled away under their sinful feet, God did not leave them without hope; He made to shine before their eyes, then first wet with tears, the far off dawn of a new happiness. All generations had just perished in a man and a woman; to whom God showed that in a time far off but fixed, all generations should be restored and saved by a Man and a woman, by a Man-God and a Woman Mother of God. He foretold the Redeemer Who should be born of a woman, and seeing the devil who had just triumphed under the form of a serpent He foretold his irreparable defeat: I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.
Holy Church has always seen in these words a prediction of the glorious victory of Mary over hell: and there is no doubt that Adam and Eve understood this prophecy. They learnt that the world ruined by themselves would be saved by Jesus and Mary: turning their eyes towards that Blessed Woman, their Daughter and their Liberator, they fixed on her their hope, and traversing four thousand years, addressed to her that first salutation which earth offered to its Queen: A longe aspicientes et salutantes.
This hope was cherished not only by the Jews, but by all nations; and from all parts of the earth we hear the echo of the prophecy of Eden. Mary expected and foretold is the Virgin Mother, to whom the pagans of ancient Gaul raised an altar with the inscription: Virgini pariturae—to the Virgin who shall bring forth. Mary is the chaste Virgin of whom Eschylus, the interpreter of Grecian theology, speaks; she is the Virgin who, according to the same poet in his Prometheus bound,was to bring forth the Redeemer after three generations and yet ten other generations. Mary is the Virgin, sung by Virgil, who was to restore the golden age.
Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna.
It was because of the promise made by God to our fallen parents that the whole world expected the Messias, and expected that He would be born of a woman. After the deluge when the earth was peopled anew, God did not delay to determine the family of the Redeemer, and by consequence His Mother’s. He said to Abraham: All the nations of the earth shall be blessed in Him Who shall go out from thee; and the same promise was repeated to Isaac and to Jacob. The Saviour shall be the Son of Abraham, Mary will be the daughter of Abraham. That Patriarch knowing the mysteries which would be accomplished in their proper time, contemplated from afar with inexpressible joy the ravishing figures of Jesus and His Mother: “Abraham,” said our Lord, “rejoiced that he might see My day, he saw it and was glad.” And so the mystery of the Son of God become Son of Man through Mary was the consolation of the patriarchs during their long exile.
Daughter of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, from what son of Jacob will Mary spring? She will belong to the tribe of Juda, and to the royal race of David. And the Prophet King was more than once inspired to strike his harp and sing of that Virgin who was to be the glory of his race. “Hearken, O Daughter,” he says, “and see and incline thy ear: and forget thy people and thy father’s house. And the King shall greatly desire thy beauty.” He represents her as a Queen seated on the right hand of God in a vesture of gold and embroidery.
“After her shall virgins be brought to the King.” So he speaks in the forty-fourth Psalm and in a hundred other places in his prophetic songs.
Solomon, son of David, seems only to praise and celebrate Mary; his books are full of her. Holy Church causes them to be read by her ministers on the feasts of our Queen. She is the mother of beautiful love; she is the lily amongst thorns. She cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array. She cometh up from the desert flowing with delights, leaning upon her Beloved.
Isaias, who merited the title of Evangelist by the clearness and precision of his prophecies, which one takes for a recital of past events, speaks as clearly of Mary as of Jesus; as he paints the self-humiliation of the Son, he shows, by a stroke of his pen, the incomparable glory of the Mother: Ecce Virgo concipiet et pariet. Hear, O house of David, the Lord Himself shall give you a sign. Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and His name shall be called Emmanuel, that is, God with us.—These words of the Prophet contain all one can say of the glory and praise of Mary; virginity fruitful and its fruit—God; a Virgin Mother and Mother of God. The most devout panegyrists of the Blessed Virgin have found nothing more admirable; it is the sign of the Lord Himself: Dabit Dominus Ipse vobis signum.
It is useless to multiply prophecies. They have all one characteristic, which is, that in the bringing forth of the Messias, nothing is ever said of the co-operation of a man, but only of a woman, of a virgin, of the Virgin, of the Woman; and this character is given as one of the greatest wonders of God upon earth; dabit Dominus Ipse vobis signum: Ecce Virgo concipiet, says Isaias; and according to the words of Jeremias, Creavit Dominus novum super terram: Femina circumdabit virum. It is a woman, it is the woman, who, by a divine operation, bears a perfect man in her virginal womb.
II.
Passing on to the emblems, we find that Mary is the virgin soil of the terrestrial paradise, which at the command of God produced, without seed, all kinds of vegetation, and in its midst the tree of life.
Mary is the ark of Noe according to the unanimous interpretation of the Doctors. The ark of Noe was made of a polished and incorruptible wood, coated within and without with pitch, which rendered it impervious to the waters of the flood. And was not Mary’s virginal flesh free from all stain? Mary enveloped in an atmosphere of grace, which protected her soul from the corrupt waters of sin? The ark floated on the foaming waters, bearing within itself Noe who had made it, and with Noe all the just of that time, from whom were to spring the just of all times. And does not Mary float above the deluge of corruption? Has she not borne in her chaste womb the true Noe, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all the elect, at once the maker and inhabitant of that holy Ark?
Mary is that ladder of Jacob, whose one end rested upon earth while the other reached up to heaven. The Heavenly Father supports her with complacency while His Divine Son descends towards us that we may mount to Him.
She is that burning bush which burnt without being consumed in the desert. She is that ark of the Covenant made of pure gold and incorruptible cedar, destined to contain the most precious treasures, the sacred bread, the manna gathered in the desert, the law written by the hand of God, the covenant of God with His people.
She is that mountain from which Daniel saw detached a little stone that filled the world. That stone is Jesus Christ, Who said of Himself: And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall it shall grind him to powder. That mountain is Mary, a mountain of grandeur, of riches and of grace, Mons coagulatus mons pinguis; a mountain upon which God has established His throne, Mons in quo beneplacitum est Deo habitare in eo. And the stone separates itself from the mountain without any co-operation of man, as the ripe fruit falls from the tree without being plucked.
She is the white fleece of Gideon alone dry while the ground is wet with dew; and which afterwards becomes wet while the ground around remains dry. So Mary alone is preserved from original sin which covers the whole earth, and she alone receives the beneficent dew of grace, while the earth is desolate with dryness.
All these emblems are found in an eloquent passage of St. Tharasius, which the Church has placed in the new Office of the Immaculate Conception for the fifth day within the octave. We give it as a specimen of the application by the Fathers of Holy Scripture to the Blessed Virgin:
“With what praises shall we salute thee, O Mary? O Immaculate Maid; O Virgin without spot; O ornament of women, and glory of young maidens! O holy Virgin Mother thou art blessed amongst women, thou art celebrated for thy innocence, and renowned for thy virginity. Thou art the expiator of the curse of Adam, the payment of the debt of Eve. Thou art the most pure oblation of Abel, the choice of our first parents, the sacrifice undefiled. Thou art the hope of Enos in God, not covered with shame, the grace of Henoch and his migration to a more certain life. Thou art the ark of Noe, and the conciliation of the second regeneration with God. Thou art the shining splendour of the majesty and priesthood of Melchisedech, the firm trust of Abraham and the faith of his posterity in future promises. Thou art the new sacrifice of Isaac and the reasonable holocaust. Thou art the ascent of Jacob on the mysterious ladder and the noble expression of the lasting fruitfulness of the patriarch in the twelve tribes. It is thou who didst appear to Juda, daughter of his race; it is thou O Immaculate One who art the purity of Joseph and the destruction of that old Egypt—the synagogue of the Jews. Thou art the divinely inspired book of Moses, the great legislator, in which is written the sacrament of regeneration; in which the Divine finger traced the law as upon the tables of Sinai, to save the new Israel from the bondage of Egyptian idols, as It had satisfied the ancient people in the desert with manna and water from the rock; and that rock was Christ before going forth from thy womb as the bridegroom from his marriage-bed. Thou art the budding rod of Aaron, the daughter of David enveloped in golden clouds and beautiful in thy embroidered garments.
“Thou art the mirror of the prophets the issue of which they foretold. . . . It is thou whom Isaias, eloquent among the eloquent, saluted in advance as the stem of Jesse from which should spring the flower which is Christ, and by which vices should be rooted out, and the divine knowledge planted in the field of souls. It is thou who wert pointed out by Jeremias when he said: Behold the days shall come saith the Lord: and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Juda which I have established with their fathers; thus signifying the coming and birth of thy Son, and calling the Gentiles to adore God even to the ends of the earth. It is thou that Daniel, the man of desires, hath proclaimed as that great mountain, from which Christ the corner-stone, should detach Himself, and bruise and grind into powder the numberless images of the old serpent. I honour thee, O Immaculate Lamb, I celebrate thee, full of grace, I sing of thee, the dwelling-place of God, pure and without spot.
“Truly where sin hath abounded, grace hath superabounded. By the woman we have inherited death, by the woman God hath renewed all things. By the serpent we have received the food of bitterness, by her we shall be fed anew with the milk of immortality. Our first mother Eve gave Cain to the world, the prince of envy and wickedness; thy only Son will be the first-born of life and the resurrection. O unheard-of prodigy! O wonderful novelty! O wisdom that no word can express!
“. . . Hail, delight of the Father, by whom the knowledge of God is spread to the ends of the earth! Hail, dwelling-place of the Son, from whom He took the Flesh with which He is clothed! Hail, unspeakable tabernacle of the Holy Ghost! Hail, more holy than the Cherubim, more glorious than the Seraphim! Hail, more vast than heaven, more splendid than the sun! Hail, brighter than the moon and the united light of the stars! Hail, silver cloud diffusing celestial rain! Hail, holy breath which drives from earth the spirit of evil! Hail, noble inspiration of the prophets! Hail, voice of apostles heard throughout the world! Hail, excellent confession of martyrs! Hail, just hope of the patriarchs! Hail, sovereign ornament of the saints! Hail, cause of the salvation of mortals! Hail, Queen of peace! Hail, immaculate splendour of mothers! Hail, mediatrix of all under heaven! Hail, reparation of the whole world! Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, He Who was before thee, and is of thee, and with us. To Whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be praise for ever and ever. Amen.”
III.
The illustrious men of the Old Testament were the types of the Saviour Jesus. So also the celebrated women were types of the Virgin Mary, the woman, in whom were to be united in an incomparably higher degree, all the gifts of wisdom, grace, strength, beauty, courage, and chastity found among them.
Tertullian said that God in fashioning the first man, thought of His Son Jesus Christ and that the second Adam was not the copy, but the type and model of the first. So also in forming the first woman, the Creator thought of the second Eve,—Mary, who with more reason than the first should be called the Mother of all living. As Eve gave to all men their natural life, Mary has given them the life of grace; as Eve gave to the world the just Abel slain by his brother, Mary has brought forth Jesus, immolated by His brethren on the summit of Calvary. But Mary is Eve remaining pure and beautiful, Eve always Queen of the paradise of grace, Eve ever victorious over the assaults of the demon, Eve raising the first Eve after her unhappy fall. Later on these two figures, so like and so different, will again come before us, and then we shall consider them more fully.
Mary by her miraculous fruitfulness, the result of a voluntary sterility, is like Sara, for a long time barren and afterwards mother of an innumerable people: as our Queen, who submitted herself to the barrenness of virginity, became the Mother of the Christian race. Her Son, like Isaac, the son of Sara, climbed the hill bearing wood for the sacrifice.
Rebecca was a young maiden of great comeliness, a most beautiful virgin whom man had never known. Prepared for the son of Abraham, she gave drink to his servant and cattle. Jacob her son was the inheritor of the promises, and through him the blessing promised to Abraham was extended to all nations. Clad in the vestments of his brother Esau, he presented himself to his father who blessed him.
In Rebecca we recognize Mary, in Jacob we see Jesus. Mary is the Virgin adorned with every grace, and an incomparable beauty, Tota pulchra es. Spouse of the Holy Ghost, she becomes Mother of the Son of God, and leads to the waters of Divine grace the servants of God and even the animals, that is, according to the figurative language of Holy Scripture, the just, faithful to God, and poor sinners represented by the beasts.—Her Divine Son is the blessing of the world, the expected of nations, the desired of the eternal hills. He clothes Himself in our humanity, and under this mask of servitude He presents Himself to the Father and appeases His wrath.
We can point to Mary in Rachel, mother of Joseph the saviour of Egypt; in Debora the prophetess; in Anne, mother of Samuel; in Jahel the strong woman. But we prefer to consider for a moment the sweet figure of Ruth, ancestress of Jesus. That amiable and pious stranger found grace before Booz in proclaiming herself the servant of her Lord. She placed herself at his feet, covered with a mantle; coming after the reapers in the field she gleaned the ears of corn that escaped from their hand. And it is Mary who declares herself the servant of the Lord at the moment of becoming His Mother, when the heavenly messenger bows low before her, saying: Hail, full of grace! Thou hast found favour in the sight of the Lord. It is Mary who was covered with the shadow of the power of the Most High, when the Holy Ghost accomplished in her that most astonishing and wondrous prodigy. It is she who in the field of mercy raises with her virgin hands the fallen souls, finds out helpless sinners, separates them from the chaff destined for the flames, and places them with the good grain reserved for the celestial granaries.
And Judith, the pure and beautiful woman who restored courage to Israel, saved her people, humbled the proud Holofernes, put to flight the numberless legions of Assyria, and preserved her own chastity, is she not a splendid type of the Virgin without spot, who bruised the head of the deceiving serpent, scattered the infernal legions, saved the elect, and heard the nations vie with each other in celebrating her praises: Thou art the glory of Jerusalem, thou art the joy of Israel, thou art the honour of our people.
Another liberatress of the Jewish people recalls in a not less striking manner the great Liberatress of the human race. Esther, a poor and unknown maiden, took captive the heart of King Assuerus, was crowned with a diadem and advanced to the place of the proud Vasthi. When Queen, she took in hand the cause of her oppressed and condemned nation, foiled the murderous designs of a cruel and powerful Minister, caused the fatal edict issued against the Hebrews to be revoked, and heard from the mouth of the great King these glorious words: I am thy brother, fear not. Thou shalt not die: for this law is not made for thee but for all others. This law of death, this law of separation, this law which raises a barrier between the King and all the subjects of his empire: yes, it is a universal law, but it does not apply to you; I am your brother, fear nothing, you shall not die.
All these characteristics are so evident in Mary that it would be superfluous to point them out in detail. It is she who has captivated God’s Heart: Thou hast wounded My Heart, My Sister, My Spouse, thou hast wounded My Heart. It is she who has replaced Eve, disgraced before the Lord. It is she who pleads our cause, and thus foiling the plots of hell, helps us to obtain eternal happiness. Lastly, it is she and she alone who is exempt from that law of original sin which envelopes as in a shroud the unhappy posterity of Adam.
As error is but the depravation of truth, some respectable writers have seen certain traits of the features of Mary in the pagan goddesses. Here is the parallel set up by Cornelius à Lapide, between the Most Holy Virgin and the pagan Diana: Diana, daughter of Jupiter and Latona, was called, Diana quasi Deviana, because as guide and goddess of roads and woods she brought back hunters who had lost their way in the forest. They also call her Juno, or Juwando, says Cicero, because of the assistance she renders to men. It is well known how popular was the worship of Diana at Ephesus; the temple which was dedicated to her in that town, four hundred and twenty-five feet in length, two hundred and twenty in width, and ornamented with one hundred and twenty-seven columns given by so many kings, was one of the seven wonders of the world. They said that through love of virginity and to better preserve that virtue she carefully avoided all intercourse with men, and dwelt in woods and mountains where she followed the chace with other virgins, always armed with a bow and quiver, and with buskins on her feet. Clad in a modest habit, says Cicero, her arrows hanging from her shoulder, in her left hand she held a bow, and in the right a lighted torch. She was the foster-mother of animals and all living beings.
These qualities which, applied to that false goddess were only a mass of falsehoods, become so many truths when applied to the Mother of the God of the Christians. She is surrounded by a company of virgins. She traversed the mountains to consecrate the solitude of St. John the Baptist. Daughter of the Eternal Father and Mother of Him Who is the light of the world, she is that radiant star which shines for all the faithful in the night of the world, illuminating the road to heaven. The new Eve, the Mother of the living, she freely distributes to those who invoke her the milk of grace and consolation. As Jesus Christ is the sun of the Church, so Mary is its moon or Diana, for Diana was nothing but the star of night. The same year, or a little time after that St. Paul began to overthrow the worship and temple of Diana at Ephesus, Mary leaving this earth ascended into heaven. Kings and princes were wont to deposit their treasures in the temple of Diana, and that asylum was so universally respected that the enemy who became master of the city and surrendered it to pillage did not dare to touch them there. So Mary is the safeguard of virtue and salvation, a refuge so sure that he who confides to her his dearest interests can never perish.
Thus then, sung by the inspired voice of the prophets, seen in every important event, typified in every illustrious woman, Mary, before being given to the earth, filled and occupied the forty ages which waited the coming of the Saviour, as she has filled and given life to the nineteen centuries that have since passed away. For around her “the universe and its worlds, grace and its marvels, heaven and its elect, oscillate like the golden censer which the priest swings before the altar in the Holy Mysteries.”
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