[Question 2]
Of the twelve victories of the blessed
Virgin over her twelve struggles against temptation
It is asked whether the Mother of Christ, a totally pure creature,
experienced strong and great temptations, especially before she became the
Mother of Christ?
{1.a} The argument for no is: concerning pride, she did not have
much opportunity to exercise a significant influence as did the first angel or
many saints who were powerful and famous among people. By worldly standards she
was looked down on and unknown, a person of the feminine sex; and before she
became a mother she was like a little girl. In the matter of carnal desires her
inclination to sin was stilled by grace and, given her circumstances, there was
but slight temptation.
{b} But for the contrary opinion: One of the principal reasons
for merit is a triumphal fight and victory over the strongest and most
difficult temptations, and against the large and strong army of the enemy.
Before becoming a mother she had such merit that she merited to become the
Mother of Christ; therefore, she did not lack the strongest reason for a
triumphal fight and crown.
{c} I agree with this. If you consider the evidence concerning
what is above and below, what is internal and external, you will find that she
triumphed over the heights completely and gloriously.
Using human reason together with the mystical evidence of Scripture,
the harmonious and forceful echo of the Holy Spirit is clearly presented, and
we note the triumphant struggles attributed to holy women in Scripture and in
types. For example in Genesis 3:15 God says to the serpent: I will put
enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; she[1]
will strike your head etc. Later there is enmity between Sarai and Hagar
and their children [Gen 16:4-15; 21:9-26]. In Exodus, Mary as a leader with
Moses sang with the women of the victory over Pharaoh [15:20]. In Judges,
Deborah was made the leader in the divine battle and prophesied that victory
would be given into the hand of a woman, namely, Sisera who killed the prince
of the enemy by the hand of Jael [Judg 4:4-23; 5:1-32]. In 2 Samuel 20:16-22 we
read of a wise woman who freed the city when given the head of Sheba son
of Bichri who was raising an opposition to King David. 1 Kings 1:3-4 refers to
Abishag who cared for and warmed David in his old age. This Abishag was the one
whom Adonijah tried to obtain by cunning against Solomon and with her the whole
kingdom, but he was killed by Solomon [1 Kings 2:13-25]. Also in Proverbs
31:10-31 there is a beautiful description of a capable wife and her work. In
the Song of Solomon, the woman against whom her mother’s sons were angry,
is compared to a mare of God fighting against Pharaoh’s chariots
[1:5-9]; her crown was made from the conquered mountains and from the
dens of the wicked, of the lions and leopards as stated in Song 4:8.
Likewise, Judith and Esther and the woman clothed with the sun against
whom and her seed is aimed the whole attack of the dragon, as seen in
Revelation 12:1-8.
{2} There are then twelve victories, signifying the twelve stars
of her crown, that is, her twelve main conquering glories.
{a} The first is her utmost enmity and hatred of evil which led
her to strike utterly the first stirrings of temptation, so that not only did
she strike the head of Satan but crushed it.
{b} The second is her love and possession of spiritual
freedom by which she overcame powerfully and strongly the whole of nature
and concupiscence, both natural and evil, and cast it out completely in so far
as it is inimical or dangerous to the spirit.
{c} The third is her submerging and destroying the prince of
darkness, his chariots and whole army in the deep waters of the Red Sea, that
is, in the cries of penance and mortification of one hastening and
longing for the land of the eternal home.
{d} The fourth is her clever development of sweet devotions, represented
by Deborah which means a bee,[2]
or her zeal for devotion, which led her to flee and overcome the army of Sisera
which means an exclusion of joy,[3]
the joy which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit as the Apostle says in Galatians
5:22.
{e} The fifth joined to the fourth is prefigured in the
inebriation and sleep of Sisera from the abundance of milk, namely, of
spiritual sweetness when with a tent peg the head of Sisera was fixed to the
ground. She pierced and extinguished completely every temptation to
laziness, idleness, impatience and every evil sadness by the shaft of divine
love which is the bond of love [Col 3:14] and the home of God, with the hammer
of strong zeal stimulated and strengthened by the sweetness of divine milk. She
did this by a joyful, firm and unbreakable hope of a reward and of divine
glory, as did Jael which means waiting for God.[4]
{f} The sixth is the bond of harmony and unity, by which
the city of David and Joab, his prince, was wisely and prudently freed from the
source of personal love or of one’s own will which stir up divisions and
discords against the kingdom of God and God’s unifying love. She did this by
excluding from the love of God every division and discord with their sources
and roots, and by reuniting herself in perfect harmony with God.
{g} The seventh is that for the sake of the incarnation and our
redemption she warmed and cherished in her womb the coldness of God, the Ancient
One [Dan 7:9. 13. 22] of the eternal days, towards the whole human race.
This coldness could not be warmed by any coverings of legal works or precepts
but only by her virginal humility, purity and love, that is, by a most lovable
graciousness of virtues, by a complete fulness of grace. She, like Adonijah who
wanted to get things for himself, took and gained possession of the kingdom for
Solomon, that is, for the peaceful Christ. Note that this properly refers to
the struggle of the Virgin against the above, that is, against the
highest justice of God, which was cold, hard and rigid towards the human race,
as if God had no warm love or piety towards fallen humans. Solomon also fights
for this justice, or rather for himself in relation to it.
{3} Although in each of the preceding six all vices and trials with
their leaders are wiped out, nevertheless by a kind of antonomasia each can be
applied to some principal vice, so that the others are understood to be joined
to it as to a leader.
{a} For example the first is mainly against pride which
is the beginning and source of every sin [Sir 10:13];
{b} the second
against concupiscence of the flesh;
{c} the third against the Egyptian darkness of avarice
and earthly possessions;
{d} the fourth against improper joy and an over-eager
restlessness;
{e}the fifth against laziness and wrong or imperfect sorrow;
{f} the sixth against discord and envy.
{4} A seventh can also be applied against a lack of
confidence based on the rigour of the divine severity, a diffidence which
arises from the absence and great remoteness of the divine majesty; or what is
more apt, arising from the ineffable, the completely extraordinary and singular
excess of the incarnation of Christ and of our redemption and reconciliation.
According to this, this seventh struggle with the five following is concerned
more with the supernatural.
{5} Just as it was most difficult to draw God to the incarnation, so
the Church or the Christian people belonging to it find it difficult to
propagate, foster and govern in a perfect way, and to subject to itself and
hold under its control the first places of the fallen angels and all the
kingdoms of people conquered by them. From this flow the seventh, eighth and
ninth victories.
{6} Proverbs 31:10-31 in describing the capable wife, who brings her
food from far away, that is, from the uncommon and rare grace of God,
speaks of how carefully she manages her home and family, and in obtaining
riches she surpasses all others. For this reason the heart of her husband
trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain; her children rise up and call
her blessed. There is reference also to her struggles when it says: She
provides food for her household; and also: She is not afraid for her
household when it snows. In reference to her weapons it says: She girds
herself with strength and makes her arms strong; and: Strength and
dignity are her clothing etc. - In the Song of Solomon it is said that the
bride is crowned with the tops or peaks of the mountains which before were the
possession of the wicked and of lions and leopards [4:8]. This is in accord
with what the Mother of Christ said in her canticle: He has brought down the
powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly [Lk 1:52].
{7} And for the eighth she said: Surely, from now on all
generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for
me [Lk 1:48-49]. To complete these three more fully three more struggles
against the enemies had to be endured, for the sake of faith in its highest
truths or of statements transcending human reason, and for the sake of
supernatural rapture and unstoppable flight to these.
{a.i} Judith, which is said to mean ‘confessing’[5]
the proclamations of God, blinded Holofernes by her wonderful and divine beauty
and, exposing herself to danger, strongly and wisely killed him and so
dispersed his whole army [Jdt 12:16; 15:2]. Judith is fittingly taken to mean
‘weakening the fatted calf’ or ‘weakness in division’, because the adversary of
the faith tries to weaken Christ, who is filled with the richness of the
Father’s truth and grace, and is the Father’s most rich offering by which we
are redeemed. This adversary of the faith has also and brings about a weakness
which divides one from the faith in a way contrary to a strong clinging to the
faith.
{ii} Esther was the queen and wife of King Ahasuerus, that is
‘blessed ones’: Ahasuerus, which means ‘beatitude’,[6]
was victorious over Haman who tried to transfer the kingdom of Assyria to
himself; Esther reigned instead of Vashti who was unwilling to come to the king
who was merry with wine, even though the king had commanded her. But Esther was
a little spring which became a river, and there was light and sun and
abundant water. She with her people used the new decrees of divine love
which Haman tried to violate; but the old decrees were destroyed by the new
decrees of grace and glory [Esth 1:10-12; 2:17; 3:5-14; 10:6].
{iii} There is the woman clothed with the sun, that is,
with the deity and sunny wisdom and love of Christ; having the moon under
her feet, that is, things temporal and created; standing in heaven,
that is, firmly fixed in her mind and contemplation on things heavenly; and
having in her womb, that is, in her inner and maternal affection, the Son of
God and the whole mystical Christ, the head with the whole body of the elect,
she triumphs over the red dragon with its seven heads by her
suffering in giving birth and by her Son being taken to the throne of God and
by her flight into the wilderness with the two wings of the great
eagle which were given to her [Rev 12:1-5. 13-14]; so that finally the
Lamb with one hundred forty-four thousand lambs signed on their
foreheads, the harpists playing on their harps, and those who had
not defiled themselves and who follow the Lamb wherever he goes,
takes possession of Mount Zion, that is, of the ascent and state of a
contemplative [Rev 14:1-4]: these represent the irresistible and imperturbable
rapture and flight to obedience and imitation, or to participation and
following, and to the praise and glory of the great God.
Perhaps one might object that these mysteries of the holy women
represent mainly the Church of God and its struggles.
{b} To this it can be responded that every divine sign or
mystery more suitably represents that in which its meaning is more suitably
completed. It is clear that as the Mother of Christ is seated in glory over all
the angels and humans as their lady and queen she exceeds in triumphal merit in
the same way over all the others: otherwise her merit would not correspond to
her reward.
{c} Moreover, the strength of branches does not obscure but
makes more evident the strength of the roots; and a child born represents the
fertility of the mother.
{d} In mysteries to go from lower members to higher and from the body
to the head is not to descend but rather to ascend; therefore, when we
say that by these women the Church of Christ is represented as subject to the
Mother, and when we say the Mother of Christ herself is represented in them, we
are not descending, but rather ascending and entering into the root of the
mysteries. Certainly the woman clothed with the sun, bearing Christ in
her womb and giving birth to him, represents the Church but much more properly
and singularly represents the Mother of Christ. The mysteries of Scripture are
so skilfully and ingeniously joined together by God that the particular is
included in the general, the proper in what is common, and vice versa; often
they move from the species to the genus, and from the genus to the species.
{e} That the victorious struggles of our salvation were based in the
Mother of Christ was made clear by a special sign. When King Ahaz was
exceedingly afraid because the King of Syria had made a treaty with Israel so
as to seize the kingdom of Judah and destroy the worship of God, when its main
and almost only centre was the kingdom of Judah, God gave a sign of victory
through Isaiah when he said: The Lord himself will give you a sign. Look,
the young woman [virgin] is with child and shall bear a son etc [Isa
7:1-14]. The first King, a Syrian, was a pagan and beyond the kingdom of
Israel; the second was from Israel but lived in error and idolatry against his
law and so was a heretic; but the third was from the line of David and Judah
and Jerusalem, nevertheless he was perverse, fearful and unbelieving. These
three represent every kind of enemy and reprobate, namely, pagans, heretics and
perverse faithful. Likewise, by the first are represented external objects of
temptation; by the second evil and inner criminal corruption. These two taken
together are called two smouldering stumps of firebrands [Isa 7:4], for
in them the fire of concupiscence and anger thrives from which goes out a
criminal smoke of terror, sorrow and sadness. Ahaz represents the higher part
of the mind which of itself, as is clear from what has been said, is afraid of
imminent battles, is unbelieving and lacking in devotion to signs and to the
wonders of God. Ahaz was ordered to ask for a double sign against the
preceding, a sign realized in the Virgin, namely a sign as deep as Sheol or
high as heaven [Isa 7:11]. In the Virgin the depths of evil concupiscence
were first completely bound and quietened, and later fully wiped out and torn
out by the roots. The height of pride and vain glory which could on occasions
have occurred to the Virgin because of the singular prerogative of virtues,
merits and the royal and high dignity of the Motherhood of God which was
offered to her, had not the least trace in her; rather she was troubled when
she heard from the angel: Greetings, favoured one [Lk 1:28]. Because her
Son emptied himself, humbled himself [Phil 2:7-8] even to Sheol,
he disarmed Sheol, and ascended into heaven to the right hand of God
the Father [Isa 57:9; Mk 16:19; Eph 4:9-10; Col 2:15], so also the Virgin
subjected herself even to Sheol and being humble before God she ascended on
high so that God became clothed not only with her love but also with her flesh
and was joined to her.
{8} And indeed in the very beginning of her struggle she looked
forth like the dawn [Song 6:10], as one fleeing from and shunning the
darkness of night, namely, the original stain and the bodily company of the
human race, and all the visible glory of the world; although she fled from
these, she was joined to them in her very first moment of life. But in time she
became fair as the moon, namely, filled with the light of heaven and of
the sun, although some trace of the natural darkness was still in her as it is
in the moon. But when by the annunciation and her consent she ascended to the
truth of the conception of Christ, she was bright as the sun, and to all
her enemies terrible as an army with banners [Song 6:10]. Rightly then
do we sing[7]:
`You alone have destroyed all heresies’, namely, when she conceived the whole
truth of God and became the Mother of truth itself. The Law was written by the
finger of God on the two stone tablets, that is, on the two natures of her Son:
the first she accepted from the Father, the second from the whole Trinity. And
so Dagon, the god of the Philistines, fell to the ground before
her and was dismembered with its head and hands cut off: because she
destroyed the head and the beginning of vice and its powerful action. And
the Lord struck with tumours five of their cities [1 Sam 5:1-12]: the final
delights of all the senses are completely abhorred, showing them to be rotten
and most reproachful.
{9} She is also the rod of Aaron, that is, of Christ the
priest who confounded the proud ambition, envy and schismatic discord of Korah,
Dathan and Abiram [Num 16:1-35], that is, of the demons and all the proud; when
she was dry in deep humility, she suddenly put forth leaves, flowers and fully
formed fruit [Num 17:8]. The serpent overcame the human race through the sin of
Eve who led Adam to eat the forbidden fruit and the destruction was complete
when Adam ate; so through the merit of the Virgin drawing God to assume her
flesh there began the crushing of Satan and our restoration which was completed
by the incarnate God.
{10} One can argue against this. First, to no pure creature was
such dignity offered and later given as to the Mother of Christ; had she wanted
to refuse, from where could she have more?
{a} Moreover, when the future glory of her Son was announced to
her, had she wished to follow the way of pride and its ruler, she would have
desired that most avidly for her child and for herself in him and through him.
{b} Moreover, to the extent that a lack of some good makes one value
and desire it all the more, as, for example, a sick person values health more
than a healthy person, and a person who is unwillingly poor values riches more
than rich people, so the Virgin had more opportunity to value the whole glory
of the world than had the demon to whom it was subjected.
{c} Moreover, a radical or habitual spreading of the original
infection reached her as is shown in its proper place.[8]
To throw upwards as if it were weightless the heaviest clod of earth pressed
strongly and closely together, and to fly more easily with it than do those who
carry no burden, is a greater victory than to be held back by a single external
weight placed on a person. So the Virgin was incomparably more triumphant since
she did not allow but rather always fled and avoided any spot of actual sin,
any omission or neglect of any good to be done provided it was becoming to her
and her grace. In this she was more victorious than the highest angels who
carried no weight of infection.
{d} Moreover, no painful difficulty could draw her back even in the
slightest from what was most difficult and exceedingly arduous, nor did her
sense of inadequacy cause her the least glimmer of unwarranted fear or
weakness, nor cause her to withdraw, nor impede her in the least from taking on
the most arduous tasks with constancy and faithfulness. This is to be far more
victorious than if there had been no weight of infection or subjection to
suffering, nor a sense of inadequacy and weakness. Moreover, to wish to be
completely humbled and afflicted for the honour of God and for the salvation of
all the elect, not only in herself, but in the head and the whole body of the
elect, was to face and encounter the strongest contest.
{e} To have fire within her and all around her, and not only not to be
burnt, rather not even affected in the least and, what is more, as if in an
infinite sea of water or cooling frost to strive by a meritorious effort not to
feel the strength of the fire at all, is an exceedingly more wonderful triumph
against the fire of concupiscence in the flesh.
All these were in the Virgin before her consent, in the consent and
after the consent to her Child though in different ways; by these gradated
assents and increase of actions, every trace of infection was completely taken
from her after her consent. But she merited this by her earlier consents and
efforts.
Of what kind and how severe were the temptations she suffered from
Satan is not explained in Scripture. It is sure, however, that she was only
allowed to suffer as much as fitted the merit and crown of glory already taken.
{11} The more she was joined to Christ the Redeemer, the more did she
have to share in his struggles and trials, and to be conformed to him in this
more than in any other way. According to the Apostle, Hebrews 4:15, Christ was
tempted in every respect yet without sin. Therefore, just as we have
a priest who learnt by the experience of his own testing to sympathize
with our weaknesses, so too we have a Mother who learnt by the experience
of her own weaknesses and trials to sympathize and have mercy on our
weaknesses. Christ calls out to all his own: In the world you face
persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world [Jn 16:33]; so we
can and should be confident in the triumphal victories of his and our Mother.
Mary is called the Star of the sea precisely because as we sail in the waves
and storms of the sea we look to the Star to direct us to the port of our
eternal home and health. Amen.
[1] NRSV has he but the Bible used
by Olivi had she.
[2] Jerome, De
nominibus hebraicis (PL 23, 821. 853).
[3] Jerome, De
nominibus hebraicis (PL 23, 855).
[4] Jerome, De
nominibus hebraicis: ‘Jael : a hind … or beginning’ (PL 23, 854);
‘Jalel:
waited for God’ (PL 23, 839).
[5] Rabanus M., In Iudith, c. 8 (PL
109, 559).
[6] Jerome, De
nominibus hebraicis (PL 23, 835).
[7] The Roman Missal, Feasts of the
blessed Virgin, London: Burns Oates and Washbourne, 1949, p. 93*.
[8] It is not clear where; see however, Quaestiones
in II Sententiarum, q. 111, ad 3, (ed. B. Iansen, VI, 277ff.).