Myth And Ritual In Christianity Part 7

Hail, Lady of the Angels!

Salutation to thee, root and portal, whence the light of the world has arisen.

Tradition traces her ancestry back to Jesse, the father of

1 Great Antiphon for December 23rd in the ancient English Use of the Sarum Breviary.

2 At Compline, Final Antiphon B.V.M.

Advent ro 3 David, and even to Abraham himself, so that she represents a culmination of the entire history of the Chosen People-the Tree sprung from the Root of Jesse and the Seed of Abraham, whose own wife, Sarah, brought forth her son miraculously in her old age. But behind this earthly descent the Church discerns her heavenly origin, according her a mysterious kins.h.i.+p with Sophia, the Divine Wisdom, in the time bef time was. It is presumably with reference to this premundane origin that, at the Feast of the a.s.sumption of the Virgin, the Lesson at Ma.s.s is taken from Ecclesiasticus 24, In omnibus requiem:

In all things, I sought rest; and I shall abide in the inheritance of the Lord.

Then the Creator of all things commanded, and spake to me;

and he that made me rested in my tabernacle.

And he said to me: Let thy dwellings be in Jacob, and thy inheritance in Israel, and take thy root in my elect.

From the beginning, and before the world, was I created, and unto the world to come I shall not cease to be; and in the holy dwelling,place I have ministered before him.

And so was I established in Sion, and in the holy city likewise I rested,

and my power was in Jerusalem;

and I took root in an honourable people, and in the portion of my G.o.d his inheritance, and my abode is in the full a.s.sembly of saints.

1 The genealogies of Christ given by Matthew and Luke trace the descent of Christ through Joseph to David and Abraham. But mediaeval writers such as de Voragine argue that since Joseph was not the natural father of Jesus, and that since Jesus was of the line of David, it must follow that Mary also was of the satne line-an opinion in which St. John of Damascus likewise concurs, tracing Mary's descent through David's son Nathan.

8.

I was exalted like a cedar in Liba.n.u.s, and as a cypress/tree on mount Sion; I was exalted like a palm/tree in Cades, and as a rose-plant in Jericho; as a fair olive/tree in the plains, and as a plane/tree by the water in the streets was I exalted.

I gave a sweet perfume like cinnamon and aromatic balm; T yielded a sweet odour like the best myrrh.'

It would seem that the a.s.sociation of the Virgin with Sophia, the Second Person of the Trinity, is that she is his feminine, though material, counterpart, consort, and image-being that Prima Materia which was the original Womb of Creation. For the Virgin is both Bride and Mother of G.o.d the Son-Bride in so far as she represents the universe and the Church, destined for an eternal union with Christ, and Mother in so far as the Son takes from her his human nature when he enters into the Womb and is born in the world. The nuptial symbolism of the relations.h.i.+p between G.o.d and the world is both ancient and very widespread in mythology and mysticism alike. No doubt it has historical origins in ancient cults of fertility, where the fertilization of the Earth Mother by sun and rain from Heaven was seen in a.n.a.logy with human procrea tion. No doubt it is sometimes-in mysticism-a "compensatory fantasy" for the celibate life. But a s.e.xually self/conscious culture such as our own must beware of its natural tendency to see religion as a symbolizing of s.e.x, for to s.e.xually uncomplicated people it has always been obvious that s.e.x is a symbol of religion. That is to say, the ecstatic self/abandonment of nuptial love is the average man's nearest approach to the selfless state of mystical or metaphysical experience. For this reason the act of love is the easiest and most readily intelligible

1 Ecclaiasticus 24 7-15. The lesson Dominws poszedit me from Proverbs,

quoted in the first chapter, where the wards are also those of Sophia, is used at the Ma.s.s of the Immaculate Conception.

Advent tos ill.u.s.tration of what it is like to be in "union with G.o.d", to live the eternal life, free from self and time 1 The importance of the nuptial symbolism of the unto mystica explains the presence in Holy Scripture of that great Hebrew love/poem The Song of Songs or Canticles, consistently interpreted in Christianity as the dialogue between Christ the Bridegroom and his Bride, the Church or the human soul, of which the Virgin is the supreme type. Canticles is therefore one of the most important sources of both symbols of the Virgin and liturgical devotions in her honour.

Who is she that riseth up as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners ?W

I am black, but comely, 0 ye daughters of Jeru/ salem; therefore the King delighteth in me, and hath brought me into his chambers .3

Lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone: rise up, my love, and come away.

From this poem the Church derived such symbols of the Virgin as the Rose of Sharon, the Lily, the Enclosed Garden, the Sealed Fountain, and the Ivory Tower, and its glowing language runs through the whole liturgy like a thread of gold in a woven tapestry.

Whither is thy beloved gone, 0 thou fairest among women? Whither is thy beloved turned aside ?

1 Thus, much of the Freudian interpretation of mythology is valid only for those Western subcultures where the repression of s.e.x has led to its obsessive overvaluation. The notion that the s.e.xual experience is so much the summurn bonum of human life that it is the final, inner meaning of all mythological symbols, is a paint of view which seems quite fantastic to those for whom s.e.xual realization is as natural and usual as eating and sleeping.

2 Feast of the a.s.sumption, antiphon at Lauds, from Canticles 6: to.

3 Common of the B.V.M., antiphon from Canticles I: 5 and 4.

4 Common of the B.V.M., antiphon from Canticles z: 11 and ro.

Eo6 Myth and Ritual in Christianity

A bundle of myrrh is my well beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Stay me with flagons, and comfort me with apples; for I am sick with love.'

The forty,fifth Psalm is another source of the poetry of the Virgin, and the Churchs conception of her glory has no doubt been enhanced by the language of the scriptural pa.s.sages which seemed applicable to her:

Thou an fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips;

therefore G.o.d hath blessed thee forever... .

All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and ca.s.sia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.

King's daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.

Hearken, 0 daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear;

forget also thine own people, and thy

father's house; So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and wors.h.i.+p thou him... .