"I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon and aromatical balm; I yielded a sweet odour like the best myrrh." (Ecclus. xxiv. 20.)
"In the Holy City likewise I rested, and my abode is in the full assembly of the Saints." (verses 15, 16.)
1st Prelude. The Apostles carrying the body of their Mother to the grave.
2nd Prelude. The grace of faith and love to penetrate into these mysteries.
Point I.—Mary's Body
The Angels still continued singing, while the Apostles and missionaries and women wept around the body. But the heavenly music was catching, and it was not long before the mourners dried their tears and joined in the Angels' hymn of praise. We are told that the sick and the blind and the lame were allowed to come and kiss the precious body, and that in so doing they were instantly healed. Why was Mary's body so precious? Because it had been the tabernacle of the Son of God. Why is mine so precious? Because it, too, is so often the tabernacle of Jesus Christ. Do I realise that this makes my body holy? And do I regard it as something precious, consecrated and dedicated, God's Temple, His own dwelling-place? Often have Angels adored before it! How much respect, then, ought I to show it! How careful I ought to be as to what I do with it, and to what use I put it!
We are told that when the Apostles carried the bier to the grave, near the Garden of Gethsemani, all the faithful accompanied them, and the Angels never ceased their singing. The precious body exhaled a sweet fragrance which perfumed every place the procession had to pass through, and there were miracles and conversions all along the route. They laid their precious burden in the grave, put a great stone over it, and then dispersed. But they did not leave the grave alone. The Apostles watched and prayed there in turn, listening to, and rejoicing in the Angels' song.
Point II.—The Empty Tomb
On the third day, St Thomas arrived from the Indies (the Apostles felt sure that it was Our Lord's plan that he should be late), and naturally wanted to look once again on his Mother's face. So they removed the stone, but only to find an empty tomb. They found the linen and clothes all in order, and they noted the delicious fragrance, but the body was gone; the soul had come back for it and fetched it to share in its glory. Then the Apostles remembered that during the morning the celestial singing had suddenly stopped, and they knew that their Mother, clothed in her glorified body, was even then sitting at the Right Hand of her Son in Heaven. Why was it? Why was her body not left in the tomb? Because it was impossible for that body, from which the Word had taken Flesh, and which had never been touched by sin, to "see corruption." Also, although Mary had to die, and to bear the separation of soul and body, there was no necessity in her case for that penalty to be prolonged. God would not keep her—a perfect human creature—in an imperfect state, which the soul without the body must ever be. So, though not yet a dogma, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary has ever been a belief of the Church. If we need a proof, let us call to mind the fact that no one has ever pretended to possess relics of Our Lady's body. Our Lord would surely never have deprived the Church of such treasures, had they existed.
Point III.—The Fourth Glorious Mystery
Let me turn from the empty tomb, and try to realise the other side of the picture—Mary in Heaven. This Fourth Glorious Mystery was foretold more than once in Holy Scripture: "Arise, O Lord, into Thy resting-place; Thou, and the Ark which Thou hast sanctified." (Ps. cxxxi. 8.) What is this ark sanctified by God but Mary's body, of which the Son of God took flesh?
"The Queen stood on Thy Right Hand in gilded clothing surrounded with variety." Who is this but the Queen of Heaven clothed with her glorious body of immortality?
"A Throne was set for the King's Mother, and she sat on His Right Hand," (3 Kings ii. 19), in all the dazzling beauty of her glorified body, surrounded by adoring Saints and Angels. Her Son on His Throne is saying to her: Ask, My Mother, for I will not say thee nay. The beauty of the scene is so entrancing, the light is so dazzling, the music is so enchanting, the mystery is so wonderful, that I feel almost bewildered and want to shut my eyes and think what it all means. It means this—that I have a Mother in Heaven, and that when her Son bends towards her from His Throne, and when all the hosts of Heaven hold their breath to catch what their Queen is saying, they hear her ask some little favour for me, her child on earth. Why? Because I am saying: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me now." Let me, with the eye of faith and love, penetrate the thin veil, which hides these wondrous mysteries from my sight. Let me try to see things as they really are, and then my prayers will be less formal.
Colloquy with Mary on the Right Hand of Jesus in Heaven.
Resolution. To think of her there when I say my Rosary to-day.
Spiritual Bouquet. "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death."