The Book of the Holy Rosary: Part I, Chapter VI. The Nativity
Chorus of Priests
Who can count the starry jewels Set in Mary’s crown of light?
Who can estimate her greatness?
Who can guess her glory’s height? What can measure its extent, Save the depth of God’s descent?
Chorus of Virgins
Hail! O Queen of nature’s kingdoms, Queen of Angels, hail to thee!
Greater none have been before thee, Greater none shall ever be:
Hail, divine Receptacle Of th’ Incomprehensible!
— From “The Mosque of Mary.”
But we must by no means here fail to take note in what way the Third Mystery of the Rosary shows the Divine plan of the Incarnation, making good one further and very signal step in unfolding itself to human belief. The time is now come for an entirely fresh order of witnesses to appear on the scene, to bear their testimony to the wonder which has been brought to pass. The infirmity of human faith, we may observe, will assuredly fail, except there comes to its aid a testimony consonant with the magnitude of that which has been accomplished. St Paul writes: “When He brings the First-born into the world, He says, Let all the angels of God worship Him” (Heb. i. 6). And to provide for the difficulty of human belief in the truth of so surpassingly great a mystery, an Angel is sent to shepherds watching their flocks by night, to bring to them the glad tidings. The brightness of God shone around them as they heard the Angel’s words telling them what had come to pass in Bethlehem, and giving them a sign, “You shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger.” Then suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly-host, praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace to men of good-will.” Here, then, we have given to aid our infirmity in believing, the testimony of the multitude of the Host of heaven, corroborating the words of the Angel; and there are theologians who say, that the sin on Satan’s part which caused his fall, was the pride which revolted from joining the other angels in their adoration of an Incarnate King of the angels, when this mystery was made known to them as hereafter to be accomplished.
Yet, however fitting it was that the multitude of the heavenly host should bear its unanimous testimony, still, as the inspired proverb says, “As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.” The heart of man surrenders better to the testimony that comes from its own world which it can see, than even to that of the angels, and hence we shall be more effectually drawn by the testimony of the shepherds than even by theirs. The shepherds then said to one another, Let us go to Bethlehem “to see.” And they went with haste, and found all things according to the sign that had been given them. “And they understood,” says the evangelist, “of the word that had been spoken to them of this Child.” They tell the wondrous story to others, “And all that heard wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.” Thus we reach, in the third mystery of the Rosary, a fresh stage in the unfolding of the Divine plan. The great mystery of the Incarnation begins to be known and talked of in Bethlehem, and there begin to be those who fall down and adore the first fruits of the great company of the faithful upon earth, which is to see the end of the world.