The child to be
born of you will be called holy, the Son of God, the fountain of wisdom, the
Word of the Father on high. Through you, blessed Virgin, this Word will become
flesh, so that even though, as he says, I am in the Father and the Father is in
me, it is still true for him to say, I came forth from God and am here.
In the beginning
was the Word. The spring was gushing forth, yet still within himself. Indeed,
the Word was with God, truly dwelling in inaccessible light. And the Lord said
from the beginning: I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction. Yet your
thought was locked within you, and whatever you thought, we did not know; for
who knew the mind of the Lord, or who was his counsellor?
And so the idea
of peace came down to do the work of peace: the Word was made flesh and even
now dwells among us. It is by faith that he dwells in our hearts, in our
memory, our intellect, and penetrates even into our imagination. What concept
could man have of God if he did not first fashion an image of him in his heart?
By nature incomprehensible and inaccessible, he was invisible and unthinkable,
but now he wished to be understood, to be seen and thought of.
But how, you
ask, was this done? He lay in a manger and rested on a virgin’s breast, preached
on a mountain, and spent the night in prayer. He hung on a cross, grew pale in
death, and roamed free among the dead and ruled over those in hell. He rose
again on the third day, and showed the apostles the wounds of the nails, the
signs of victory; and finally in their presence he ascended to the sanctuary of
heaven.
How can we not contemplate this story in truth, in piety, and in holiness? Whatever in all this I ponder, it is God that I am pondering; in all this he is my God. I have said it is wise to meditate on these truths, and I have thought it right to recall the abundant sweetness, given by the fruits of this priestly root; and Mary, drawing abundantly from heaven, has caused this sweetness to overflow for us.
From the Sermons of St. Bernard,
Abbott (Sermo de Aquaeductu),
Office of Readings, Memorial of
the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary