The Divine Lamp

THOSE who have only read the Fathers of the Church in the brief extracts from their works, which are so often cited, can have no idea of the amplitude and magnificence with which they extol the praises of the Mother of God. I propose, therefore, in this chapter, to give more satisfactory examples of the mode in which they speak of her. St Proclus was a disciple of St Chrysostom, and is highly commended by St Cyril, as well for his learning and piety as for his accurate observance of the discipline of the Church. In the year 429, on a feast of the blessed Virgin, in the great church of Constantinople, he preached a discourse on the Mother of God, which was received with great applause by the people. Nestorius was present, and unable to endure so much truth, he rose up and burst out with a reply. The discourse was afterwards placed at the beginning of the Acts of the Council of Ephesus. I propose to give the first part of it. St Proclus begins :” The Virgin s festival incites our tongue today to herald her praise. And well may this solemnity be considered fruitful to the assembled faithful. For we celebrate her, who is the argument of chastity and the glory of her sex ; her who is at once Mother and Virgin. Lovely and wonderful is this union. . . . Let nature rejoice, and mankind exult, for women have also received their honour. Let men show their delight, that virgins are held in esteem. For, where sin abounded there grace has superabounded. For now the holy Mary, Virgin, Mother of God, brings us together. That undefiled treasury of virginity ; that spiritual paradise of the second Adam ; that laboratory of the union of natures ; that mart of the commerce of salvation ; that bridal chamber in which the Word espoused flesh unto Himself; that animated bush of nature, which the fire of the divine birth consumed not ; truly the bright cloud, which bore Him bodily who sits upon the Cherubim ; the most clean fleece of the celestial shower, with which the Shepherd put on the condition of the sheep. Mary, I say, handmaid and Mother, Virgin and heaven ; the only bridge of God to men ; the awful loom of the Incarnation, in which, by some unspeakable way, the garment of that union was woven, whereof the weaver is the Holy Ghost ; and the spinner, the overshadowing from on high ; the wool, the ancient fleece of Adam ; the woof, the undefiled flesh from the Virgin ; the weaver s shuttle, the immense grace of Him who brought it about ; the artificer, the Word gliding through the hearing. Who ever saw, who ever heard how God dwelt in the womb, yet suffered no limitation r And now, Him whom the heavens do not contain, the Virgin s womb did nothing straiten. He is born of woman, not God only, nor merely man ; and by His birth He made woman the gate of salvation, who before had been the gate of sin. For where the serpent entered through the way of disobedience, and shed his poison, there the Word, through the way of obedience, entered, and built a living temple for Himself. From whence Cain, the firstborn of sin, came forth, thence, without man s concurrence, came Christ, the Redeemer of our race. It shamed not the loving God to be born of woman, for it was life He was building up. He contracted no stain from His lodging in that womb which He had formed without any dishonour. For except His Mother had remained a virgin, the offspring would be but man, and the mystery of the birth would be lost. And if after bearing she remained a virgin, how shall He not be also God, and a mystery which is unutterable ? He is born of no corruption, who went forth unhindered through the closed doors. And when Thomas saw His conjoined natures, he cried out and said : ” My Lord and my God.” * Think not, O man, that this is a birth to be ashamed of, since it was made the cause of our salvation. For if He had not been born of woman, He had not died ; and if, in the flesh, He had not died, neither would He have destroyed him through death, ” who had the empire of death, that is, the devil.” t By no means was the architect dishonoured, for He dwelt in the house which He Himself had built. Nor did the clay soil the potter in refashioning the vessel He had moulded. Nor did aught from the Virgin s womb defile the most pure God. For as He received no stain in forming it, so He received none in proceeding from it. O womb, in which the general decree of man s freedom was written. O womb, in which the arms against the devil were forged. O field, in which the divine husbandman grew wheat without sowing. O temple, in which God was made a priest, not changing His nature, but, through mercy clothing Himself as the priest according to the order of Melchisedec. ” The Word was made flesh,” though the Jews believed not our Lord when He said it. Truly God took the form of man, though the Gentiles deride the miracle. Wherefore St Paul exclaimed, ” To the Jews a scandal and to the Gentiles foolishness: They know not the force of the mystery, because it passes their reason and comprehension. For ” if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory. But if the Word had not dwelt in the womb, neither would flesh have been seated on the holy throne.” This commencement forms part of one of six discourses delivered by St Proclus on the blessed Virgin.~excerpted from chapter 2 of THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE MOTHER OF GOD, by Bishop William Bernard Ullathorne. The rest of the chapter can be read HERE on page 16, at the paragraph which begins: “Basil, Archbishop of Seleucia…”

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