Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation
After having meditated on Jesus in the temple, we will consider Mary, His mother, present there, and we shall admire in her, as in her divine Son, the spirit of sacrifice, for she sacrifices: 1st, within herself, the two objects which are dearest to us, self-will and self-love; 2d, outside herself, the two objects which interest her the most, she offers in sacrifice her adorable Son, and she resigns herself to extreme and unknown evils. We will then make the resolution: 1st, not to attach ourselves to anything in this world, and to tear courageously from our hearts every fibre which is not steeped in the love of God; 2d, to sacrifice our own will in particular by obedience to our superiors, and by condescension to our equals or inferiors. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of the Imitation: “Empty thine heart of all which is not God and unite thyself to God alone” (II. Imit. viii. 5).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore the Infant Jesus presented in the temple by the hands of Mary, and let us congratulate Mary on having, as priest of this great sacrifice, offered the adorable victim to God the Father with such pure hands and so lofty a perfection, whilst offering herself also in sacrifice together with her divine Son.
First Point
Mary in the Temple Sacrifices the two Things to which we are the most attached, Self-will and Self-love.
1st. She sacrifices self-will; evidently the law of purification was not in any way obligatory upon her; for what could there be to purify in the Mother of God: in a creature purer than the angels, and who, far from having by her supernatural delivery contracted the least stain, had only through it become still more pure and more virginal? Yet she submits to the law, and does not dispense with any of its prescriptions; like ordinary women, she stays in retreat and remains secluded from intercourse with the world; like them, she abstains, during forty days, from entering within the temple; like them, she offers the victim of purification prescribed by the law. A beautiful example, which teaches us to obey without availing ourselves either of the advantage under favor of which we need not be confounded with the commonalty, nor of the pretext of dispensation with which self-love delights to cover itself. True obedience never asks the why of the commands; it performs with simplicity what is prescribed; it does not love dispensations, but accepts them if they are imposed, and solicits them only in so far as duty makes a law of them.
2d. Mary sacrifices self-love. It was great glory for her to be at once a virgin mother and the Mother of God. She sacrifices this double glory, first in submitting herself to the ceremony of the purification, which made her to be looked upon in the opinion of the public as an ordinary woman, whose delivery had rendered her unclean; secondly, in redeeming her Son like a slave, and redeeming Him at the modest sum given by the poor. What a lesson of humility for us, who like to make a display of all that does us honor, and to speak to our own advantage!
Second Point
Mary in the Temple Sacrifices her own Son and resigns herself to extreme unknown Evils.
1st. She sacrifices her own Son. She loved this dear Son a thousand times more than herself; He was her joy, her happiness, her treasure, her all. Nevertheless she makes a sacrifice of Him to God His Father, for the salvation of the world. Upon the altar of her heart, still more than within her arms, she presents this adorable victim to divine justice, consenting to have Him taken from her one day for the redemption of man. In presence of this spectacle, could we call ourselves children of Mary, if we are attached to anything whatever in this world, to our vanity, to our ease, to whatever it may be which seems to us to be precious? Alas! what are all these sacrifices in comparison with the sacrifice which Mary made in sacrificing her adorable Son?
2d. Mary resigns herself to extreme unknown evils. “This child,” said the old man Simeon to her, “is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and a sign which shall be contradicted; and thy own soul a sword shall pierce” (Luke ii. 34, 35). But what will be this sword of sorrow? Mary knows not. These terrible words, not announcing any evil in particular, gave her latitude to fear all kinds of evil. Threatened with extreme evils, without knowing what they are, her soul beholds on all parts swords suspended over her head; does not know to what side to turn for safety and dies a thousand deaths in one moment; yet Mary, although she was in such suffering, did not allow herself to be cast down; she abandons herself to all the designs of God with regard to her; what God wills will happen to me, she said to herself; and what God wills I ought also to will. O admirable calmness of Mary amidst such great sacrifices! Oh, what a beautiful example of resignation and of abandonment to God!
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.