Divine wisdom and truth are communicated to the holy Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary in no lesser degree than Divine power and strength.
If the Holy Spirit assures us that the soul of the just man is the seat of Divine Wisdom, we can well say that the Heart of Mary, Mother of Jesus, is the throne of this same Wisdom, the highest and most magnificent throne that it ever had or shall have on earth and in heaven.
The Heart of Mary is not merely the throne of Wisdom, but its living image, for it is the Heart of the Mother of Him whom Sacred Scripture calls “the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:21-24). In Christ are all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God, and He certainly dispensed them in an incomparably higher manner to His Mother than to King Solomon and all the sages and wise men of the universe.
Mundane prudence and the wisdom of the flesh never found admittance into her wise Heart, which was and still is an inexhaustible treasure and bottomless abyss of angelic prudence, holy science, heavenly light and wisdom divine, because her luminous Heart always was and ever shall be the abode of the Eternal Sun and of Uncreated Wisdom, Who has always dwelt therein. It is the city mentioned by the Prophet Isaias: “One shall be called the city of the Sun” (Isa. 19:18).
St. Bernardine of Siena expressly states that Our Lady was so completely filled with the light of Divine Wisdom from her mother’s womb that from the initial moment of her existence she possessed a perfect general knowledge of the Creator and of all irrational, rational and intellectual creatures. (1) Our Lady knew all these things in God, as in their first and universal cause, for God was the single object of her gaze as well as of her love. She saw God in all things, and all things in God. She beheld God in all creatures, as the principle, end, center, exemplar, author and preserver of every created being, and she saw every creature in God as participating in His sovereign Being and divine perfections. God loves all that is, and hates nothing that He has made, according to the divine word: “Thou lovest all things which thou hast made” (Wis. 2:25), so also the Holy Heart of the Mother of God was always filled with affection and even respect for all God’s creatures. She looked upon the reasonable and intellectual beings as images and semblances of God; she considered the irrational and insentient beings as marks and vestiges of God; in a word, she saw in all creatures the expression of the wisdom of God and participations in His Divinity. If the Heart of the Mother of the Eternal Sun was thus bathed in divine splendors from the beginning of her life, judge of her progress and her end. As her heart ever grew in grace and love, so also it increased in light and wisdom.
“Mary is rightly represented as clothed with the sun,” says St. Bernard, “for she has penetrated into the profound abyss of divine Wisdom more deeply that we can think or believe, to such an extent, indeed, that she seems to have become immersed in that inaccessible light, so far as it is possible for a creature who does not have a personal union with God.” (2)
Since our incomparable Mother is in heaven, entirely absorbed in the ocean of eternal wisdom and knowledge, and as God has made her partaker of His empire and associated her in His divine kingship, establishing her Queen and Empress of Heaven and earth, and communicating to her His own dominion over every creature, so has God filled her Heart with the light of His adorable wisdom, that she may know all the subjects under her authority, and rule and govern every creature according to the necessities of each and the dispositions of the Divine Will.
Our Lady possesses a special knowledge of those who are most devoted to her; she knows God’s designs concerning them, the road they should follow to reach God, the state and dispositions of their souls, all the accidents that befall them, all their possible perils, the pains they suffer, interiorly and exteriorly. She knows the temptations that assail them, the evil schemes of their enemies and all their corporal and spiritual needs, so that she may assist, protect, defend and strengthen her faithful followers, obtain from her divine Son the help they need most, and be herself the best of mothers to them. From this you can estimate the happiness and advantages enjoyed by those who make themselves worthy to be numbered among the true children of Our Lady’s loving Heart.
Such are some of the effects wrought by Divine Wisdom in this admirable Heart. We shall now contemplate in it the workings of the Eternal Truth of God.
Divine veracity stamps its image most excellently on the Blessed Virgin’s Heart. As God is paramountly the God of all truth and calls Himself the Holy and True One (Apoc. 3:7), so is the Heart of the Mother of God filled with truth. Only of the Heart of Mary can it be said, speaking of simple creatures, that truth always filled it, because it was the only Heart ever completely faithful to its divine rule and exemplar, the Heart of God Himself. Give me all the hearts of the children of Adam, and I shall repeat of them all the words of the Holy Spirit: “Their heart is vain” (Ps. 5:10), for none will be found who were always truthful and faithful to God. Only of the Heart of the Mother of Him who is essential and uncreated Truth, could it be said from the first to the last moment of her life: “The Heart of Mary is holy and truthful,” because it always conforms to God’s eternal decrees. “Whatever was done in her,” says St. Jerome, “was all purity and simplicity, sanctity and truth.” (3)
Furthermore, as God is infallible in His judgments and knowledge and can commit no error, knowing and judging all things in His own truth (Ps. 95:13), so also He gave the Blessed Virgin Mary a knowledge of the truth which enlightened all her judgments. Her Heart was ever filled and possessed by the spirit of truth, which guided her with the infallible light of faith that can truly be called a participation of divine truth.
Finally, as all the actions and words of God are imbued with Truth itself, in like manner were the words and actions of God’s Mother always truthful, that is, they were always conformable to the holiness, perfection and truth of the deeds and words of God. This was because they stemmed from a Heart most holy, perfect, and truthful, and the Son of God Himself teaches us that man’s heart is the principle of all his thoughts, words and actions, be they good or bad (Luke 6:45).
All these considerations make us understand that the Holy Heart of Mary is a living portrait of the wisdom and veracity of God, given to us that we may invoke her guidance against the folly, deceit and falsehood of the flesh and of the world.
This article was excerpted from St. John Eudes, The Admirable Heart of Mary, Part Four, Chapter V, and edited by the Order of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts of Jesus and Mary, at www.heartsofjesusandmary.org. The Order of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts of Jesus and Mary is a contemplative community of lay and religious dedicated to serving the Hearts of Jesus and Mary through Eucharistic Adoration, contemplation, and corporal works of mercy.
Notes
(1) Serm. 13 de Exalt. B.V. in gloria.
(2) “Jure ergo Maria sole perhibetur amicta, quae profundissimam divinae Sapientiae, ultra quam credi valeat, penetravit abyssum: ut quantum sine personali unione creaturae conditio patitur, luci illi inaccessibili videatur immersa.” Serm. in Signum Magnum.
(3) Serm. de Assumpt. B. Mariae.