Works › The Mariale: Questions on “Missus est”
Volume 37 · p. 232
Question 160. Whether she had the properties of Cherubim?
QUAESTIO CLX. Utrum habuerit proprietates Cherubim?
Secundus ultimae hierarchiae ordo est Cherubim, cujus, secundum beatum Dionysium quatuor sunt proprietates.
Prima est esse in circuitu. Secunda est reductivum. Tertia, activum. Quarta, exemplativum.
Prima ergo quae est in circuitu esse, per quam secundum Commentatorem intelligitur, quod in circuitu sunt, quia ad totum quod est intrant. Hanc igitur beatissima Virgo habuit in summo: quia ipsum totum circumdedit, et praeterea intima viscera misericordiae Patris intravit, et ei Filium unigenitum et unicum de corde extraxit.
Secunda est reductivum, per quod secundum Commentatorem intelligitur, quod ad Deum tendunt. Hanc etiam beatissima Virgo habuit in summo: quia omnia reducibilia ad Deum reduxit: ipsa enim est mulier, quae tria sata, id est, corpus, animam, et divinitatem conjunxit 1: per quod naturam in primum, imo super primum statum institutionis reduxit. Item, Ipsa est mulier quae lucernam accendit, per quam drachma decima inventa fuit 2.
Tertia proprietas est activum, quod ut dicit Commentator, est ut secundum Deum incedant. Hanc autem beatissima Virgo habuit in summo: quoniam maxime secundum Deum ascendit et incessit, et etiam deiformissimos actus habuit, et in summo actu ipsum singulariter imitata fuit, quando ipsum quem Deus ante Deum genuit, ipsum etiam Deum et hominem generavit.
Quarta proprietas est exemplativum, quod est secundum Commentatorem, ut secundum suum exemplum hoc faciant. Hanc etiam plenissime habuit: quia omnibus recreandis speculum et stella maris et exemplar exstitit, et doctrix disciplinae Dei omnia illustravit.
Patet igitur qualiter beata Virgo omnes proprietates Cherubim in summo habuit.
QUESTION 160. Whether she had the properties of Cherubim?
The second order of the last hierarchy is the Cherubim, of which, according to blessed Dionysius, there are four properties.
The first is to be around. The second is reductive. The third, active. The fourth, exemplary.
Therefore the first, which is to be around, through which, according to the Commentator, it is understood that they are around because they enter into the whole that exists. The most blessed Virgin had this in the highest degree, because she surrounded the whole itself, and besides entered the innermost bowels of the Father’s mercy, and drew from his heart his only-begotten and only Son.
The second is reductive, through which, according to the Commentator, it is understood that they tend toward God. The most blessed Virgin also had this in the highest degree, because she led back to God all things capable of being led back: for she is the woman who joined three measures, that is, body, soul, and divinity 1; through this she led nature back to its first state of institution, indeed above the first state. Likewise, she is the woman who lit the lamp through which the tenth drachma was found 2.
The third property is active, which, as the Commentator says, is that they walk according to God. But the most blessed Virgin had this in the highest degree, since she ascended and walked most according to God, and also had most God-formed acts, and in the highest act imitated him singularly when she generated that same one whom God begot before God, namely that same God and man.
The fourth property is exemplary, which according to the Commentator is that they do this according to their own example. She also had this most fully, because for all to be recreated she existed as mirror and star of the sea and exemplar, and as teacher of God’s discipline she illuminated all things.
Therefore it is clear how the blessed Virgin had all the properties of Cherubim in the highest degree.
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