I have expressed all along, and shall explain more fully by and by; that is, that Jesus is called her firstborn Son, because all who are saved are made children of Mary, and brethren of Christ by adoption, and so, and in no other way, become inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. In saying this, of course I am not saying when or where or by what means God may put them under so great a Mother: but I do bless God for those whom he gives this love of her in this life. I think then, that the sword of grief which passed through her soul has a special tendency to reveal, whether or no God's grace has been working in men's hearts. This interpretation too is clear from all Pelagian leanings: it only asserts, that those whom God loves, love Mary, whereas the other comes near upon making the life men have been leading the ground of their call. We need only look at the Magdalen at the foot of the cross, to see how false this is. 8. In this way of explaining the prophecy, Simeon is made first to give a rapid glance at the whole of our Lord's life from beginning to end: the ruin he brought to the infants, and the resurrection of many in Israel, are but outward types of what would also go on invisibly in many more. The mention of the resurrection of many bodies of the saints which took place at the time of our Lord's death, brings that death to his mind, and the blasphemies of the Jews against him while he was dying. The thought of this naturally leads to that of the sword then piercing Mary's soul, and to the effects of those pains which she then felt, and which constituted her the Mother of all living a life of grace. These effects shewed themselves in drawing Christ's brethren to her, and thereby manifesting who were his. This inter pretation also accords with the language of the Church: Quis est homo, qui non fleret In tanto supplicio? Hath he indeed a human heart, From whom the tear-drop would not start! All writhing in her agony *! Here the passion of our Lady is made the test of a good heart the sword which passes through her reveals the thoughts of the heart, shews whether or no God has taken away our natural heart of stone and given us a heart of flesh. Upon the whole, this mode of interpretation seems sufficiently justified to enable us to proceed. Whoever looks into commentators on the text, will find sufficient variety to shew, that there is no one received interpretation, which it would be unsafe not to follow: whoever looks to the hymn of the Church just cited, will see how well it accords with that hymn: whoever considers the order of the words in Scripture, will see that it explains these without assuming an unnatural parenthesis. If it be worth adding, it is also consistent with the principles hitherto laid down in this work, not only with those just alluded to, but with what was said of St. Joseph's ignorance of Mary till God enlightened his soul. For this interpretation takes it for granted, that we can not feel for Mary till God gives us a heart of flesh. We may pray to That this is the real sense of Quis est homo, we learn from the authorized Italian version in the Raccolta d Indulgenze, p. 188. Alla funerea scena Qui tiene il pianto a freno, O cuore in sen non ha! feel aright, when we remember that it is his gift: when we forget this, if neither sermons nor books on the subject lead us to feel aright, the fault may be with ourselves, and not with their bad reasoning or indistinctness. But a fault there is somewhere, as God took a Mother to help us through her to love him more, and not to keep us from him if we diligently seek him. 9. It has been said before, that Simeon's prophecy might have taken place while Joseph and Mary were on their way up the temple, and not yet in the priest's hearing. The same may be said of Anna's profession of faith' in our Lord, and speaking of him to all that looked for redemption in Israel. It is not likely, that people on the look out for a Redeemer would be able to talk very openly of their expectations. Herod might have made them pay dear for indulging openly in them. in them. Hence it seems probable that Anna talked about the Lord privately to those about the temple then, and at other times, and did not preach upon the occasion, so as to excite suspicion. Like Holdah, she probably dwelt in a sort of school attached to the temple, and would have many opportunities there of seeing people quietly, and letting them know what was going on in the world of grace. But as the Gospel was preached to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile, it was necessary that our Lord should shew himself first to those in Israel who expected him, and then to the Magi afterwards. And it may be observed here, that the Catholic notion of a good woman is one which, though handed on from the Jewish Church, was yet sanctioned on this occasion by the countenance our Lord lent to it. Continuance · ἀνθωμολογεῖτο τῷ Κυρίῳ. in the temple, fasting and prayer day and night, these were the graces by which Anna was prepared to meet her Saviour. After seven years of married life, she had clung to the widow's state, and not waxed wanton against the coming Saviour. Thus there was married chastity in St. Joseph, virgin's in Mary, widow's in Anna, to greet the Infant Saviour. We have had also poverty in the offering they bring : chastity is before us: and now they have heard the prophecies, it seems from St. Luke, that they proceed, lastly, to the virtue of obedience to the law of the Lord, and to do all that is requisite with the priest. 10. After this, it seems that they started for Nazareth; and as their journey lay through Bethlehem, they may have stopped there upon their return, and were, we may suppose, very shortly after overtaken by the wise men who went to Jerusalem to make enquiries about the Child. This is the order of events observed in the ancient harmony of the Gospels, and the order which will secure to the Magi a period of forty days and upwards to make their journey. If we suppose some faint whispers about the Birth of the Child to have got abroad in Jerusalem, the occurrence of the fact now before us would of course rouse the suspicious monarch's rage. More need not be said here of this visit of the Magians, and of the gracious reception by the young Child's Mother in the house at Bethlehem. Materials have been furnished already to suggest to the reader reflections upon what then took place, so far as our Lady was concerned. But it will be more to our purpose to make some reflections upon the flight of the holy family into Egypt, and the hardships which the Sacred Infant then occasioned them. The first circumstance which attracts our notice is the fact, that both in going and returning an angel of the Lord appears to Joseph and not to Mary, to inform him what to do. Doubtless Mary was already too well informed of the whole course of her Son's life, to need any further order from God what to do. Joseph, however, by being Mary's husband, had become the natural protector of the Infant and head of the household, and therefore it was in order to send the injunction to him. The superior knowledge of Mary exempted God her Son from any disrespect to her, in not sending his messenger to her, and furnished a scope for him to do homage to St. Joseph. He is addressed as if he bore rule in the family, and had the rights of a husband over Mary. 11. The journey at that time of the year could not have been else than toilsome and wearing: it probably exceeded two hundred miles. The presents of the Magians might have sufficed to maintain them. upon their journey, and perhaps during their residence in Egypt. But the duration of this residence is very uncertain: some assign seven months for it, and some seven years: others other periods. The highest numbers probably in part originate from the assumption, that our Saviour was born four years later than he really was; the lowest computation seems to be favoured by St. Luke, who would hardly have spoken of our Lady returning to Galilee immediately after speaking of the Purification, if so long a period as seven years intervened. Hence the reflections found, in pious books sometimes, upon the Child Jesus wearily walking back with his parents, cannot be looked upon as of much value, and probably this is a modern view of the matter |