St. Bonaventure: Sermon IV: The Assumption: "He that made me rested in my tabernacle"

 

The Virgin Mary can say, He that made me rested in my tabernacle, because the Creator of all that is chose her virginal womb to rest in on his wedding night, there to become our Brother; and made of it a royal throne, there to sit as our King; and put on a priestly robe in it, so to make himself our Priest. Through the marriage-union the Virgin became God's mother, the royal throne made her Queen of Heaven, the priestly robe the advocate of the human race. It was appropriate that she should be all these things, since she belonged to the human race herself and her ancestors had been kings and priests. How that Virgin loved God, and how justifiably she can say: He that made me rested in my tabernacle.

That God would consummate his marriage in her womb David foresaw in the Spirit with prophetic certitude when he said, He hath set his tabernacle in the sun. He added as a bridegroom because the Virgin's room was the bridal room in which God was united to human nature, the place where he kissed his bride as he made the contract that bound her to him in marriage.

In that womb also God set up his royal throne, there to sit as our King. As the prophet says: Mercy and faithfulness return; a throne set up in David's dwelling-place, for a judge that loves right and gives redress speedily.

And from that womb God took the priestly vestment which he would have to wear if he was to enter the holy of holies. Christ has taken his place as our high priest, to win us blessings that still lie in the future. He makes use of a greater, a more complete tabernacle, which human hands never fashioned; it does not belong to this order of creation at all. It is his own blood, nor the blood of goats and calves, that has enabled him to enter, once for all, the sanctuary. On his way to the holy of holies, Christ our high priest passed through the Virgin's womb, where he put on the priest's robe, and from there proceeded to the cross, where he offered the holiest Of all victims and so obtained for us God's friendship. The reason why the Lord was bent on robing in the tabernacle of the Virgin's womb was this: he wanted to make her our advocate as well as himself. There could be no resisting mother and Son together; the two of them would bring firm confidence to us poor wanderers, bidding us cling to the hope we have in view. I will set my tabernacle in the midst of you, he said, and my soul shall no more cast you off for the blessed Virgin, our advocate, can never ask in vain.

We can approach the Virgin, then, with every confidence; whatever our need, we can go to her in all security. We shall do well to honor this tabernacle and flee to it for refuge, since the Lord himself took his ease there and the blessed Virgin could say with literal truth: He that made me rested in my tabernacle.