The Mighty One has done great things to me and has exalted the humble.
It was fitting that the Virgin should share in every aspect
of her Son’s providential care for us. Just as she had bestowed
her flesh and blood on him and had received a share of his graces
in return, so in like manner she also participated in all his
pains and sufferings.
When his side was wounded by the lance
as he hung on the cross a sword pierced his Mother’s heart,
as saintly Simeon had foretold. And so, after our Savior’s death,
she was the first to conform herself to the Son who resembled
her, and hence she shared in his resurrection before all others.
When her Son had broken the tyranny of death by rising from
the grave, the Virgin saw him and heard his salutation; and
when the time came for him to depart for heaven, she escorted
him on his way, as far as she could.
Finally, when he had gone
away, she took his place among the apostles, uniting herself
with the other companions of our Savior by means of her good
works, through which she benefitted the whole human race. She
more truly than anyone else made up what was lacking in Christ;
for who could more fittingly do so than his Mother?
Now it was necessary for her most holy soul to be separated
from her hallowed body; and it was indeed released and united
with the soul of her Son, the second light with the first.
For
a short time her body remained upon earth and then it too departed.
It had to go everywhere the Savior had gone, and to shed its
light on both the living and the dead. It had to sanctify nature
in every respect; then, at last, it could take its appointed
place.
And so the grave received it for a short time, but heaven
soon took from the grave that new earth, that spiritual body,
that treasury of our life, more revered than the angels, holier
than the archangels.
His throne was restored to the King, paradise
to the tree of life, the sun’s orb to the light, the tree to
its fruit, the Mother to her Son; for in every respect she was
in accord with her Child.
O blessed one, what words can adequately praise your virtue,
or the graces you received from our Savior for the benefit of
the whole human race? It would be impossible to do so even if
one could speak in the tongues of humans and of angels, to use
the words of Paul.
It seems to me that part of the eternal happiness
in store for the righteous will be really to know and proclaim
your graces in a fitting way. For these no eye has seen nor
ear heard. To use the noble John’s words: The world cannot
contain them.
The only theater in which your marvelous gifts
can fittingly be displayed is the new heaven and the new earth
where the sun is the sun of Righteousness whom darkness neither
precedes nor follows. The Savior himself will proclaim your
worth, and the angels will applaud.
(Marian Homilies: PO 19 [1926] 508-509)
Nicolas Cabasilas (b. 1322/23)
was a native of Thessalonica. Alter receiving an excellent education,
first at Thessalonica and then in Constantinople, he entered
the imperial service, in which for ten years he played a prominent
part. After the deposition in 1354 of his friend, the emperor
John VI Cantacuzenos, Cabasilas entered the Manganon monastery
near Constantinople, and probably became a priest. This was
the period of his greatest literary output, his two principal
works being The Life in Christ and A Commentary on
the Divine Liturgy, both of which were written for lay people.
The kernel of Cabasilas’ teaching which was praised by the Council
of Trent and by Bossuet, is the Christians’ deification by means
of the sacraments. Cabasilas died some time after the capture
of Thessalonica by the Turks in 1387.
(top
of page) |