The Presignation of Mary in the Old Law
September 1, O Radius
| ANT. O Radius divinæ claritatis, candor lucis æternæ, splendidior sole lumineque pulchrior, Virgo Maria! Noli tardare, cito veni, et illumina mentes nostras, ut oriatur in tenebris lux tua. | ANT. O Ray of Divine Glory, radiance of Eternal Light, more brilliant than the sun, more beautiful than its light, O Virgin Mary! Delay not, quickly come, and illumine our minds that thy light may arise in the darkness. |
| ℣. Omnia te exspectant, Domina. ℟. Veni jam, noli tardare. |
℣. All things await thee, our Lady. ℟. Come now, tarry not. |
| Oremus. Inclina, quæsumus, Domine, aures tuas ad preces nostras, ut qui Præsignationem Beatissime Virginis Mariæ celebramus, ad vitam æternam præsignati, in cœlesti Jerusalem collocari mereamur. Per Christum Dominum Nostrum. Amen. |
Let us pray Bend down Thine ears to our prayers, O Lord, so that we who celebrate the way the Blessed Virgin Mary was signified beforehand even in the old law, may, having been predesignated unto eternal life, merit to be gathered together in the heavenly Jerusalem. Amen. |
Shadows of Things to Come
The collect for today speaks of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s præsignatio, or the way that the old law signified her beforehand. The Marian Saints have never ceased to draw out images of her from the scriptures. Of course she is the new Eve, but she is also the Sarah who bears the Son of the Promise (Gn 21), the Rebecca that clothes us in the raiment of her firstborn (Gn 27). She is the Ark of the Covenant, carrying the tablets of the New Law (3 Kings 8:6-9). She is the Mercy Seat upon which God is adored. She is the furnace into which the three young men were cast by Nebuchadnezzar (Dn 3), she is the gate that Ezekiel saw that always remained shut, but through which, nevertheless, the King passed (Ez 44). It is as if she were within the old law, though shrouded in a dark veil. The reality that cast these shadows had not yet come into the world.
We saw yesterday how our Lady is the dawn that heralds the coming of Jesus. Jesus is her Light, and she shone Him forth to all those sitting in darkness.
At the time of the birth of the Virgin, this darkness was for paganism the lack of knowledge of the true God. The darkness of paganism knew only the worship of idols of wood and stone, or that of creatures and the forces of nature, and it gave honour to devils. For Israel, this darkness was the darkness of not yet knowing the Son of God and not yet seeing the incarnate Face of the Messiah. There were shadows waiting in darkness for their realities, types waiting their antitypes, promise waiting its fulfilment.
Just as Jesus is hidden on every page of the Old Testament, so Jesus willed that, in her own way, the face of Mary be hidden in the figures of the Old Testament. The practice of Lectio Divina, or Spiritual Reading can be called the practice of seeking the Face of Jesus in the Scriptures, the face of the Eternal Word of God in the text of the Written Word of God. Similarly, we can, and should seek the face of Mary that hides beneath beneath the veils of the sacred text as of once it hid within the womb of St. Anne. Jesus desires that we seek the face of His mother in His Word, we who have the joy of knowing not only the shadows but their fulfilment. We please the Son by seeking the face of His Mother. It was He that hid her in the Scriptures. He put into the Scriptures a sort of universally accessible Marian apparition so that those that seek her there in love can find her, can see her, can know her. In finding her, we find Jesus through, with, and in her.
It is a deep philosophical truth that God wills to bring about His creation with the cooperation of His creatures. Creatures come to be through other creatures, though He is their primary cause. Similarly, in the order of grace, God wills to bring light to His creatures through other creatures, though He alone is the Light that enlightens all things. He has willed to bring His light to all of us through His mother. Since this is His pleasure, and our delight, let us turn to her as the one that shares in His Eternal Light and has been given the grace to illumine our minds.
