The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Friday, December 8, 2023

Luke 1, 26–38

The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end.” But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.” Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

Today I translated a section of a sermon by St. Albert the Great on the Blessed Virgin Mary to offer as a source for meditation in honor of her Immaculate Conception.  It begins with a familiar text from Numbers 24, 27: “A star shall arise from Jacob.”  Although traditionally this “star” is interpreted as the Son of God made man, Albert sees this as the Virgin Mary, and this is certainly good, for she indeed rose out of Jacob, the People Israel, as a “star”.  This section of the sermon compares the Virgin Mary to stars as they were understood in his time, the thirteenth century, even speaking of the “harmony of the spheres” which was thought to be a celestial music made by the stars and planets.  This archaic understanding does not affect the insights Albert offers but rather adds a certain charm, I think, and reminds us of the people of long ago who loved our Mother and celebrated her feast days.  We should also note that Albert continues a long tradition of understanding the personified Wisdom of the Old Testament wisdom books as the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The excerpt from the sermon begin here:

The Blessed Virgin Mary may be compared to the stars with respect to six characteristics that come together in her.

First, as the night is illuminated by the stars, so the whole Church is brightened by the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Thus the Christian should say what is written in Wisdom 7, 10: “I loved her more than health and beauty, and I chose to have her rather than light, because her radiance never ceases.”  The Christian should love the Blessed Virgin very much because her light is inextinguishable, for there is no one who has sinned so greatly that if he wished to turn back to her through true penance she would not be, immediately, as if a light for his feet and lead him back to the way of eternal salvation.

Second, the Virgin is revealed to be of great purity as it is the nature of the stars to be.  Wisdom 7, 24-25 tells of her very great purity: “Because of her purity she reaches everywhere. For she is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her.” Truly it is said that the purity of the Blessed Virgin Mary “reaches everywhere” because it reaches the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Through it she reaches the Father, receiving his only-begotten Son from his bosom.  Through it she reaches this same Son, receiving him into her womb.  Through it she reaches the Holy Spirit, whom she had as her aid in the divine conception.  And truly the Blessed Virgin Mary was pure for she was the unsullied emanation of the Almighty God.  “From the beginning and before the ages” (Sirach 24, 14) she emanated from God, for she was predestined from eternity for this, that she be made the Mother of the Son of God, and therefore nothing impure could enter into her.  Because she was to be the Mother of God it was fitting that she be holy and immaculate.  That the Blessed Virgin be preordained from eternity to be the Mother of God is proved from Proverbs 8, 22-23, where it is written: “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made any thing from the beginning. I appointed from eternity.”

Third, any star is greater than it seems to be.  So also the Blessed Virgin.  Although she was of great merit with God through her humility still she was little in her own eyes.  Thus it is written in Luke 1, 28 that when the Angel said: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you”, she, hearing this with her disarming humility, was disturbed.  As if she were to say: I am not worthy that I may be or may be said to be “full of grace”, and that the Lord was is with me, and that I may be called “blessed among women”.  For this reason, when the Angel afterwards made known to her that she would conceive and bear the Son of God, she did not abandon her humility.  But when the angel fulfilled all his mission to her she said to him: “Behold the Handmaid of the Lord”.  She did not say, Behold, the Spouse of the Father, Behold, the Mother of the Son, Behold, the Shrine of the Holy Spirit.  Moreover, she would not have lied if she had said these things.  We also ought to imitate the humility of Blessed Mary, namely that through her humility we may be little in our own eyes and so we shall be great in the eyes of God.  1 Samuel 15, 17: 1 “When you were a little one in your own eyes, were you not made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you to be king over Israel.”  As if to say: Once when you were very little in your own eyes, you were great in the eyes of the Lord, but now since you are great in your own eyes, you are little in the eyes of the Lord.  For this reason Samuel added: “The Lord has also rejected you from being king” (1 Samuel 15, 23).

Fourth, a sweet harmony arises from from the regulated motion of the stars although we cannot hear it.  So also the Blessed Virgin pours forth a sweet harmony of praise into the devoted ears of the Lord when she gives thanks to him for the benefits received from him.  For she said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit rejoiced in God my Savior, etc.”  Similarly we also ought to return magnified praises and devoted thanks for each of the gifts we have received from God and so raise up sweet harmony to the ears of his kindness.  For so it shall be proclaimed that many gifts of his mercies are granted to us.  Sirach 43, 33-34: “Blessing the Lord, exalt him as much as you can; for he is above all praise. When you exalt him put forth all your strength, and be not weary: for you can never go far enough.”  As if to say: He will fill you up with greater gifts of strength if you exalt him by paying him thanks.  And also St. Bernard says: “Learn in giving thanks not to be late or slack, for ingratitude is a burning wind, drying out the font of mercies and the dew of piety.”

Fifth, a star, in the effusion of its rays, is not corrupted or profaned.  Thus also the Blessed Virgin Mary was not corrupted in the Birth of the Son of God.  But the One whom she conceived as a Virgin and whom she carried in her womb as a Virgin, this One also she bore as a Virgin, and after the Birth she remained inviolate and ever a Virgin.  Thus it is sung in the (twelfth century) sequence Laetabundus (“Joy Abounding”):

“As a star shining forth rays

the Virgin brings forth a Son

to her likeness.

“The ray gone forth leaves no wound to the star,

nor does the Virgin receive a wound from her Son.”

We also ought to take heed lest the devil corrupt our faith.  As the Apostle says in 2 Corinthians 11, 3: “But I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his cleverness, so your minds should be corrupted and fall from the simplicity” — that is, the faith — “that is in Christ.”

Sixth, a star is inseparably fixed to heaven, nor is it separated from it.  Thus, the Blessed Virgin also in all the persecutions which came to her Son did not separate herself from him.  Indeed, she suffered great poverty in the inn st Bethlehem.  Thus, it says in Luke 2, 6-7, when she was in Bethlehem for the census: “And it came to pass that when they were there, her days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her first born son and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger: because there was no room for them in the inn.”  She also, with her Son, suffered seven years of exile in Egypt.  Thus it is said in Matthew 2, 14 that Joseph “arose, and took the child and his mother by night, and retired into Egypt: and he was there until the death of Herod.”  Nonetheless, the Blessed Virgin endured incomparable sorrow with her Son, standing beneath the Cross.  John, who saw this, wrote in his Gospel, 19, 26: “When Jesus saw his Mother, he said to his Mother, Woman, behold your Son.”  As if to say: See, attend, and consider you your Son suffers so many torments.  We ought also to love our Redeemer and to adhere inseparably to him.  Thus the Apostles says in Romans 8, 35: “Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Or distress? Or famine? Or nakedness? Or danger? Or persecution? Or the sword?”

Let us beseech this glorious Star, dearly beloved, that she might send her rays of piety to us who are set on the journey of this present exile, so that each of us, led by her rays, may attain our homeland of eternal happiness.