Marie de Nazareth
To Jesus, through Mary
Icon of Saint Nicholas Cabasilas.
Nicholas Cabasilas, one of the most influential lay theologians of the Byzantine Church in the 14thcentury, called the Virgin Mary "the one in whom the creative project succeeded". In his First Sermon on the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God, he explains how the Nativity of Mary is a victory over evil.
"4] Nature could not bring about the generation of the All-Pure One, but God alone, invoked [cf. The prayer of Anne and Joachim], did everything in this work, setting nature aside to form the Blessed One immediately himself, so to speak, as he created the first man. And the Virgin is in fact, properly speaking, the 'first man': the first and only one who showed human nature in herself [in all its splendour]. [...]
"§ 7.She did not come into the world before the common infirmity, nor after the common doctor, but she came into the world when the evils were at their height, she came in the place of condemnation, in a nature accustomed to succumb every time, in a body subject to death, and beside her there were many who could help her in her wickedness, while those who knew that she was fighting were absent, and in spite of this, she kept her soul pure, in her humanity is pure, with only nobility of soul. What thought can know her in small part, what language can celebrate her with dignity? [...] By putting to work for herself the resources commonly given to all for virtue, she won the new and sublime victory.§ 8God favoured all men with the maximum of all the aids for a wise life: if God gave for all the maximum, he gave for all as much."
"Lk 1.28: God invites her to rejoice, because she is without fault - Lk 1.28-38: The angel does not speak to her of any prior purification (whereas, for example, at the threshold of his mission, the prophet Isaiah had to be purified) - We must believe that by speaking of "pre-purification" the fathers of the church meant "increase of grace".- Lk 8:21: If Jesus knew that those who were worthy of the name of mother kept the law perfectly... his own mother possessed a righteousness far higher than any human righteousness just as being really is far greater than just having the name- Mary is worthy to dwell in the Holy of Holies."
Source:
- Nicolas Cabasilas, Premier sermon sur la Nativité de la toute Sainte, Mère de Dieu, In: : G. Gharib e E. Toniolo (ed) Testi mariani del secondo Millennio. 1. Autori orientali, Città nuova Roma 2008, p. 442-446.
-on Nicolas Cabasilas († 1391), Orient Chrétienin the Marian Encyclopaedia
-on Mary and God's Plan (Nicolas Cabasilas)in the Marian Encyclopaedia
-on the birth of Maryin the Marian Encyclopaedia
-on The birth of Mary in the liturgies of the worldin the Marian Encyclopaedia
-on The birth of Mary in artin the Marian Encyclopaedia
Synthèse par F. Breynaert et l'équipe de MDN.