When it was revealed to the angels that they would have to obey the
incarnate Word, another, a third precept was given them, namely, that they were
to admit as a superior conjointly with Him, a Woman, in whose womb the Only
begotten of the Father was to assume flesh and that this Woman was to be the
Queen and Mistress of all the creatures.
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| Queen and mistress of all creatures. |
The good angels by obeying this
command of the Lord, with still increasing and more alert humility, freely
subjected themselves, praising the power and the mysteries of the Most High.
Lucifer, however, and his confederates, rose to a higher pitch of pride and
boastful insolence. In disorderly fury he aspired to be himself the head of the
entire human race and of the angelic orders, and if there was to be a hypostatic union (two
nature in one; Divinity and humanity), he demanded that it be
consummated in him.
The decree constituting him inferior to the Mother of the
Incarnate Word, our Mistress, he opposed with horrible blasphemies. Turning
against the Author of these great wonders in unbridled indignation and calling
upon the other angels, he exhorted them, saying:
“Unjust are these commands and injury is done to my greatness; this human
nature which Thou, Lord, lookest upon with so much love and which thou favorest
so highly, I will persecute and destroy. To this end I will direct all my power
and all my aspirations. And this Woman, Mother of the Word (Christ), I will
hurl from the position in which Thou hast proposed to place Her, and at my
hands, the plan, which Thou settest up, shall come to naught.”
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| And Lucifer boasted to God before other angels |
This proud boast so aroused the indignation of the Lord that in order to
humble it, He spoke to Lucifer:
“This Woman, whom thou refusest to honor,
shall crush thy head and by Her shalt thou be vanquished and annihilated (Gen.
3, 15). And if, through thy pride, death enters into the world (Wis. 2, 24),
life and salvation of mortals shall enter through the humility of this Woman.
Those that are of the nature and likeness of that Man and Woman, shall enjoy
the gifts and the crowns, which thou and thy followers have lost.”
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| And God said to Lucifer "this woman whom thou refusest to honor shall crush thy head" |
To all this the dragon, filled with
indignation against whatever he understood of the divine will and decrees,
answered only with pride and by threatening destruction to the whole human
race. The good angels saw the just indignation of the Most High against Lucifer
and his apostates and they combated them with the arms of the understanding, reason and truth.
The Almighty at this conjuncture worked another wonderful mystery.
Having given to all the angels a sufficiently clear intelligence of the great
mystery of the hypostatic Union,
He showed them the image of the most holy Virgin by means of an imaginary
vision (I speak here according to our way of understanding such things). They
were shown the perfection of the human nature in the revelation of an image
representing a most perfect Woman, in whom the almighty arm of the Most High
would work more wonderfully than in all the rest of the creatures.
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| God show them an image representing a perfect woman; Mary, Immaculate in nature |
For therein
He was to deposit the graces and gifts of his right hand in a higher and more
eminent manner. This sign or vision of the Queen of heaven and of the Mother of
the incarnate Word was made known and manifest to all the angels, good and bad.
The good ones at the sign of it broke forth in admiration and in canticles of
praise and from that time on began to defend the honour of the God incarnate
and of his holy Mother, being armed with ardent zeal and with the invincible
shield of that vision. The dragon and his allies on the contrary conceived
implacable hatred and fury against Christ and his most holy Mother. Then happened
all that which is described in the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse. Saint Michael and his angels fought that
great battle with the dragon and his followers, which is described by the
apostle Saint John in the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse. The good angels,
persevering in grace, merited eternal happiness and the disobedient ones,
rebelling against God, merited the punishment, which they now suffer.
