Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/471

 the chilly  winter  and  the  sweltering  summer,  bearing her share  of  human  ills,  she  lightly  tasted  our  joys and drank  deep  of  our  woes. She is  now  high  above the earth  and  skies — nearest  to  the  throne  and  dearest to  the  heart  of  God. And not  her  soul  alone, but her  body  too,  has  attained  this  exalted  dignity, so that  we  hear  her  described  by  St.  John  as  the " Woman  [body  and  soul]  clothed  with  the  sun  and the  moon  under  her  feet  and  on  her  head  a  crown  of stars." And who,  I  ask,  hath  so  exalted  her? Her divine Son. And why? The Gospel  of  the  feast  tells us why,  where  it  says:  "  One  day  Jesus  entered  into a  certain  town,  and  Mary  and  Martha  received  Him into  their  house." For Mary  the  contemplative  and Martha the  solicitous  are  together  but  a  figure  of this  Virgin  Mary,  who  received  her  Lord  into  the house of  her  virginal  womb,  when  He  came  to  His own and  His  own  received  Him  not. Hence, since she made  Him  King  of  her  house  and  her  all  here  on earth,  He,  with  equal  hospitality,  makes  her  Queen of His  celestial  mansions  in  heaven.

But what,  you  ask,  was  that  house  into  which  the Virgin Mary  received  her  Lord  here  below? " The house  of  God,"  says  St.  Augustine,  "  is  founded  on faith,  is  built  of  hope,  and  roofed  in  with  charity." The spiritual  mansion  into  which  the  Virgin  received her Lord,  had  for  its  foundation,  faith;  for  its  walls, hope; and  for  its  roof,  charity. That is  why  the Church, in  the  prayer  of  the  feast  of  the  Assumption, prays the  almighty  and  eternal  God  to  give  us  an increase  of  faith,  hope,  and  charity,  that  by  receiving