St. Bonaventure: Our Lady

 

Sermon of St. Bonaventure

The courage of the Virgin is more blessed than that of all the

heroines of the Old Testament

We see from our reading that in scriptural times three things in women were regarded by men as blessings: that beautiful thing physical integrity, the gift of fruitfulness, and courage. The Virgin Mary, we find, was three times declared blessed—by the archangel Gabriel, by St. Elizabeth and by holy Simeon—because she possessed these three qualities to an eminent degree. There was reason and order in that. It was fitting that an angel should remark on the boon of her virginity; the pregnant Elizabeth was the right sort of person to praise her fruitfulness; Simeon, an upright man,2 could appreciate the brave and manly element in her conduct.

Notice that courage has three degrees. The first of them enables us to master an opponent when he is in flight. In that respect Jahe13 was called blessed, because when Sisara, the prince of the Madianites, was running away, she smote him and killed him. The second degree of courage enables us to worst our enemy when he attacks us. In that sense Judith was said to be blessed for cutting off the head of Holofernes. Courage of the third degree gives us the victory over an adversary who is already our master: and that was the sense in which the glorious Virgin was pronounced blessed by Simeon. Simeon blessed  them, and said to Mary: As for thy own soul, it shall have a sword to pierce it.l His prophecy was fulfilled in that combat between Christ and the Devil in which Christ suffered physical death and the blessed Virgin was pierced and wounded spiritually, thereby winning the supreme victory and displaying the supreme extent of courage. It takes more courage to bear a wound quietly than to inflict one: a woman who can bear to see her son hanging on a cross is braver than one who kills an enemy with her own hands. Blessings, then, to Jahel for her victory over the fugitive Sisara; blessings and more blessings to Judith for her triumph over Holofernes the aggressor; blessings above all to the Virgin Mary, for she vanquished the world and the Devil who crucified her Son and pierced her soul to its depths.

If, then, we refuse to do as the Virgin did—if we will not play the man and fight—that is, if we neglect to mortify our bodies, through which the Devil strives to make us his prisoners and reduce us to slavery—then of necessity the Lord's curse must rest upon us: Cursed the man who goes about the Lord's work grudgingly, nor with blood stains his sword.