93 praise of the virgin mary, mother of god the death of her husband4 and father,5 that she in a certain sense offered herself together with them to the gods as an offering for the fatherland,6 would the Virgin Mother not have been able to bear the death of her Son without fainting? Who would believe this? She poured forth tears, for her love for her Son required this, but never did she give up, for her heroic spirit did not permit this. One can read about a certain mother, who carried her own son on her own shoulders for burning on the sacrificial stake together with other companions for the confession of the name of Christ; so why did the Blessed Virgin have to faint, when her Son bore the Passion and handed over His Spirit for the salvation of the entire world? No one will ever convince me. The Maccabean woman encouraged her sons to courageously go to their death, which the torturer prepared for them because they kept the law of God.7 And therefore, admiring the courage of this mother, Gregory of Nazianzus8 praises her in this way: “What a truly manly spirit in a womanly body! What a splendid dwellingplace of magnanimity!”9 The Mother of God, dear members, bore the death of her Son killed for us in such a way that if Gregory found himself then beneath the Cross, he would justly cry out: “O truly manly spirit of Mary in a womanly body!” She was the unshakable rock placed before all the beatings of the violent storm; pierced by sharp pains, and she did not give up; drowned by the waves of unspeakable sadness, she did not plunge herself in it; crushed by the weight of bitterness, she did not submit to it. For even though [her] heart suffered, it was comforted by the courage drawn from the awaited joy of the foretold Resurrection of the Son. He rewarded the acute pains of his Mother in such a way that He first appeared to her immediately after the Resurrection, and 4 Brutus. 5 Cato. 6 After the defeat at Philippi in 42 B.C. 7 Cf. 2 Macc 7:20-29. 8 In the original: ille sol Nazianzenus. 9 St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio XV in Machabeorum laudem.
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