Our Lady and Epiphany

 

St. Peter Damiani: Sermon 1. post.ini. Mary is our star

B0th Jews and gentiles were in the dark until the appointed time came. But when that time came, for men abiding in a land where death overshadowed them, for Jews and gentiles alike, the dawn broke. Thus, it was that at the birth of Christ, God's glory shone about the shepherds, for the angel brought them the good news of a great rejoicing; l and again on that day a star shone to announce that the Savior had been born.

Well might the gentiles be glad and the Jews rejoice, for where a star had glittered the Sun now shone: the Virgin's Maker had himself been made, and that in a thing of his own making—that same Virgin. The place of the Sun's rising had been marked by a star; a star had heralded his coming.

There are four main points, brethren, to consider in the stars. A star is essentially a thing of fire; it is by nature bright and shining; it sends out rays; it shines in the darkness. These same points are to be found in that other star of ours, the Virgin Mary. A star, as we said, is essentially a thing of fire, and so is the Virgin Mary: she is the burning bush in which the Lord appeared to Moses. The bush was seen to be on fire, and yet it did not burn away; the Virgin was obviously pregnant, and yet she had not been burned by the flames of lust. She is bright and shining, too, by nature; so much so that the Song of Songs says of her: Who is this, whose coming shews like the dawn of day? No moon so fair, no dawn so majestic. She sent out a Ray that penetrates to the inmost places of the heart; no thought or desire escapes his scrutiny: for God's Word is something alive, full of energy; it can penetrate deeper than any two-edged sword, reaching the very division between soul and spirit. And just as the ray comes out of the star and leaves the star as it was before, so the Virgin's Son came out of his mother and left her still a virgin. The stars shine in the darkness, and the Virgin shone with extraordinary luster in the darkness of this world. "All heresy everywhere she destroyed unaided",  we sing of her; and so she did. 

Such, then, brethren, is this star of ours, Mary the Virgin, star of the sea; and since she has left us her example and we are to follow in her footsteps, such should our own souls be. We too should be essentially creatures of fire; the fire we should have within us is the one the Lord came to spread over the earth. We too should be bright and shining; and if once we were all darkness, now, in the Lord, we must be all daylight. 8 We must put on the armor of light and pass our time honorably, as is fitting in the day-time. We must also send out rays, brethren: we must do good works; for we are told: Your loins must be girt, and your lamps burning. And as the stars shine in the darkness, so must we shine, brethren, in the darkness of this world. You shine out among them, Scripture says, like the luminaries set in the firmament.

So then, brethren, if we want to reach the true Sun, we shall be able to do so by following the Virgin, our star.