Marian Feasts

IN THE MIDST of his Sermons for Sundays, to be precise between his commentaries for the 12th and 13th Sundays after Pentecost, Anthony placed a short set of Sermons for the Feasts of Our Lady. It is not clear why he did this, possibly because he had not yet conceived the idea of a companion work on the Festivals (a work which in fact he never completed), and wished to include preaching material in honour of the Mother of God. The set is self-contained, and may have been composed earlier as a separate work. It stands slightly apart from the sequence of ‘Ordinary Time’ as we now call the Green Season of the year.

As his master text, the Saint takes a passage from the Book of Ecclesiasticus (also known as the Book of Sirach) in which the author describes the jewelled breast-plate of the Jewish High Priest. Joshua Ben Sirach lived in a relatively peaceful time for Israel, the time of the Second Temple. Under the Persian Empire, the High Priest governed the people, and one of the greatest of the line was Simon, son of Onias. In the closing chapters of his book extolling the Torah as the Wisdom of God, Ben Sirach describes Simon as he presided at the Temple worship.

“How glorious he was when the people gathered round him... Like the morning star among the clouds, like the moon when it is full... When he put on his glorious robe and went up to the holy altar he made the court of the sanctuary glorious.” (Ecclesiasticus 50.5,6,11)

Anthony takes the twelve phrases of the passage as representing the twelve stars that form the crown of the Blessed Mother. He says that he will take two or three at a time on which to base four sermons for her festivals. These are the Nativity of the Virgin, the Annunciation (to which he adds the Lord’s Nativity), the Purification and the Assumption.

 

Our Lady’s Nativity

 

“Like the morning star...” The ancient name given to the planet Venus was ‘Lucifer’, ‘Light-bearer’, because at certain times of the year it rises just before the sun, and is brightest among the heavenly bodies. Anthony says that this is an apt image of Our Lady, the true ‘Light-bearer’, and is particularly suitable in reference to her birth, which as it were heralded the rising of the Sun of Righteousness, Jesus Christ, the true Light of the World.

Mary is also like the full moon, perfect in every way. The glorious Virgin was spotless, sanctified in her mother’s womb. In a lovely prayer, Anthony writes, “We ask you, then, Our Lady, that as you are the morning star you may drive away the cloud of the devil’s suggestions which covers the earth of our minds. Do you, who are the full moon, fill our emptiness and scatter the darkness of our sins. May he grant this, who brought you forth to be our light, who made you to be born on this day, that he might be born of you.” (Sermons, III, 394)

 

The Annunciation

 

The two images the Saint associates with the Annunciation are the sun and the rainbow; and the rose and the lily with the Nativity. “Blessed Mary was like the shining sun at the angel’s Annunciation, as a bright rainbow at the conception of the Son of God, and as the rose and the lily at his Nativity.” (Sermons, III, 395) Mary was sun-like because she shone out in the purity of her life, ablaze with love for her Lord. Just as the rainbow refracts sunlight into many colours, so Mary exhibited many different virtues, all derived from God. “Look upon the rainbow:” says Anthony, “that is, consider the beauty, holiness and dignity of blessed Mary; and bless with heart and mouth and deed her Son, who made her thus. In the brightness of her holiness she is very beautiful, beyond all daughters of God.” (Sermons, III, 400)

“It is of the Virgin’s virginal childbearing that we say: As the flowers of roses in the days of spring.” We are used to the image of Mary as the Rose that flowers in winter. Although spring-time is the time we normally associate with growth and greenness, with birdsong and gentle breezes, “We give you thanks, holy Father, that in the midst of winter and cold you have made us a spring-time full of delight.” Mary is also like a lily growing beside the waters, because “just as lilies rooted by the waters retain their freshness, beauty and perfume, so blessed Mary retained the freshness and beauty of virginity when she bore her Son.” (Sermons, III, 409, 413)

In this way, Anthony relates the beauties of the natural world to the wonders of grace that God creates in the souls of his holy ones, and especially in the soul of the blessed Virgin. The whole section is full of our Saint’s fervent love for Mary.

 

The Presentation

 

For the Feast of the Presentation (also called the Purification, and Candlemas), Anthony quotes Ecclesiasticus 50.8-9: “As the sweet-smelling frankincense in the time of summer; as a bright fire, and frankincense burning in the fire.” The frankincense tree bears sweet-scented blossom in the summer, in its natural condition. But it also yields a resin which, when burnt in the fire, sends up a sweet perfume which symbolises our worship. Mary offered Jesus in the Temple at Jerusalem, and Our Lord offered Himself in sacrifice on the Cross. We might say that in the joy of motherhood, Mary gave out the scent of the tree; but an even more beautiful perfume arose from her soul when scorched by the fire of the passion. Simeon predicted that a sword would pierce her soul; the incense-tree has to be cut with a knife to yield the resin that will be put in the thurible. (I am developing Anthony’s thought at this point.)

 

The Assumption

 

The final three images in Ecclesiasticus are a gold cup, an olive tree and a lofty cypress. Anthony associates these with the completion of Our Lady’s earthly life at her Assumption. Pure gold is a fitting likeness to Mary’s human nature, and the hollowness of the cup expresses her humility and receptivity to God’s word that enabled her to be the mother of the Saviour. The olive tree, so familiar around the Mediterranean, is beautiful in itself, but even more blessed in the fruit it bears. Also, the oil which the olive yields is used for healing and strengthening, and is regularly taken as representing the grace of God, and the Holy Spirit who ‘anoints’ us.

Lastly, the cypress is one of the tallest of trees, rising heavenwards and evergreen. Surely this too reminds us of Mary! Anthony was full of love for our blessed Mother, and loved to sing her praises in his preaching. It is no surprise that on his deathbed he called upon her in the ancient hymn: “O glorious Maid, exalted far beyond the light of burning star.” In this month of May, let us learn from Anthony how we too should love and praise her. “By her prayers and merits may the dew of the Holy Spirit refresh the fever of our minds, put away our sins, and infuse grace; that we may become fit to attain the glory of eternal and immortal life.” (Sermons, III, 407)