The Book of the Holy Rosary: Part III, Chapter IX. Scripture Types of the Fourth Glorious Mystery: The Queen of Saba Goes Up to Jerusalem; Judith Returns with the Head of Holofernes
1. The Queen of Saba ascends to the Holy City to see the glory of Solomon, and to hear his wisdom.
The history of the coming of the Queen of Saba to Jerusalem is thus related in the Sacred Scripture:—“The Queen of Saba having heard of the fame of Solomon in the wisdom of the Lord, came to try him with hard questions. And entering into Jerusalem with a great train, and riches, and camels that carried spices, and an immense quantity of gold and precious stones, she came to King Solomon, and spoke to him all that she had in her heart. And Solomon informed her of all the things she proposed to him: there was not any word the king was ignorant of, and which he could not answer her. And when the Queen of Saba saw all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house which he had built, and the meat of his table, and the apartments of his servants, and the order of his ministers, and their apparel, and the cup-bearers, and the holocausts which he offered in the house of the Lord, she had no longer any spirit in her; and she said to the king: The report is true which I heard in my own country concerning thy words, and concerning thy wisdom. And I did not believe them that told me, till I came myself, and saw with my own eyes, and have found that the half hath not been told me; thy wisdom and thy works exceed the fame which I heard. Blessed are thy men, and blessed are thy servants, who stand before thee always and hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy God, whom thou hast pleased, and who hath set thee upon the throne of Israel, because the Lord hath loved Israel for ever, and hath appointed thee king, to do judgment and justice. And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices a very great store, and precious stones. There was brought no more such abundance of spices as these which the Queen of Saba gave to King Solomon” (3 Book of Kings x. 1).
“Ought it not to follow,” writes St Bernard, “that in the same proportion as the heavenly city exults over the presence of Mary within it, in a like proportion this our lower world ought to deplore her absence. Yet, nevertheless, let all complaint on our part cease, for we have not here a continuing city, but we seek that one which the Blessed Mary has this day attained. In the which, if we are ourselves enrolled as citizens, it is doubtless fitting, even in our exile, and by the waters of Babylon, that we should recall it to memory, share in its joy, and participate in its gladness, and especially in that which, on this day, as it were, floods the city of God with so overflowing a stream of delight, that even we may feel the presence of the drops of joy distilling upon the earth. Our Queen has gone before us, she is gone before us, and has been so gloriously received, that her servants are able to follow courageously in the footsteps of their mistress, crying out: Draw us after thee, we will run after the sweet odour of thine ointments’ (Cant. i. 3). Our land of sojourning has sent its Advocate before us, who, in the double character of Mother of the Judge and Mother of mercy, will suppliantly and yet effectively transact the business of our salvation” (St Bernard, Sermon i. on the Assumption, § 1).
The Blessed Mary, the sweet and gentle Advocate whom our land of sojourning has sent before us to the heavenly Jerusalem, affectionately calls all the banished children of Eve to lift up their eyes from the land of their exile to behold in spirit the glories of their true home. For she herself has been assumed thither, not merely to report and bear testimony to us of its glories, as the Queen of Saba bore testimony to the glories of the earthly Jerusalem, but by her prayers and intercession to aid us to accomplish our pilgrimage thither in safety. “Ye are not come,” says St Paul, “to the mountain that might be touched, to a burning fire, a whirlwind, the darkness and storm. But you are come to Mount Sion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to the company of many thousands of angels, and to the Church of the First-born who are written in the heavens, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the just made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Testament, whose blood speaketh better things than the blood of Abel. See that you refuse not Him that speaketh” (Heb. xii. 18–22). “Blessed are thy men, and blessed are thy servants who stand before thee always and hear thy wisdom,” is the report of the Queen of Saba of the earthly Jerusalem. And St Paul, who had been also caught up into heaven, and who had seen the glories of the heavenly Jerusalem, bears testimony, “That eye hath not seen, neither hath the ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the good things that God has prepared for them that love Him” (1 Cor. ii. 9).
“There was brought no more such abundance of spices as these which the Queen of Saba gave to King Solomon.” “O thou that dwellest in the gardens, make me to hear thy voice,” says the Bridegroom in the Canticles, calling His beloved to himself; “and be like to the roe and to the young hart upon the mountains of aromatical spices” (Cant. viii. 14). From among the many who have been, equally with the Blessed Mary, citizens of the earthly Jerusalem, which now is in bondage with her children, and whom God has called to behold the glories of the heavenly Jerusalem, there is not one whose coming within the gates of the city has diffused around such an abundance of aromatical spices, as the triumphal entrance of the Virgin Mother of the King Himself. “For if,” writes St Bernard, “the soul of the infant unborn melts within him as Mary speaks, what must have been the joy and exultation of the hosts of heaven, when they were first permitted to hear her voice, to behold her countenance, and to enjoy the happiness of her being present amongst them. Oh, who among us is able to picture to himself how gloriously the Queen of Heaven approached in procession the affectionate devotion with which the whole multitude of the hosts of heaven came forth to meet her, the canticles with which she was conducted to her throne, the calmness and serenity of countenance, the Divine embrace with which she was received by her Son, and by Him exalted above every creature, with the honour to which so august a Mother was entitled, and with the glory which became so great a Son! Of a truth, full of happiness as must have been the kisses which were impressed on the lips of the Infant as He lay in the virgin bosom of His Mother, yet must we not deem those happier still which she on this day received from the lips of Him who sitteth on the right hand of the Father, as she was ascending the throne of glory, singing her bridal hymn, and saying, ‘Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth?’ Who is able to declare the generation of Christ, and the Assumption of Mary? For in the same manner as she was peerless while on earth in the graces which she received, so none can approach to the singular honour which is her portion in the heavens.” Thus, “there were brought no more such abundance of spices as these which the Queen of Saba gave to King Solomon.” “Behold,”
says the Blessed Mary, as she is assumed by the angels, “Behold, my Beloved speaketh to me, and saith, Arise, make haste, My love, My dove. My beautiful one, and come; the fig-tree hath put forth her green figs, the vines in flower yield their sweet smell. Arise, My love, My beautiful one, and come” (Cant. ii. 10).
2. Judith ascends the mountain, and enters the gates of Bethulia, carrying the head of the enemy of her people in her hands, and as she shows it to them, she receives their praises and acclamations of joy.
The following is the Scripture narrative describing Judith returning to her city with the head of Holofernes:—“And Judith from afar off cried to the watchmen upon the walls: Open the gates, for God is with us, who hath shown His power in Israel. And it came to pass, when the men had heard her voice, that they called the ancients of the city. And all ran to meet her, from the least to the greatest: for they now had no hopes that she would come. And lighting up lights, they gathered all round about her, and she went up to a higher place and commanded silence to be made. And when all had held their peace, Judith said: Praise ye the Lord our God, who hath not forsaken them that hope in Him. And by me, His handmaid, He hath fulfilled His mercy which He promised to the house of Israel, and He hath killed the enemy of His people by my hand this night. Then she brought forth the head of Holofernes out of the wallet, and showed it them, saying: Behold the head of Holofernes, the general of the army of the Assyrians, and behold the canopy where he lay in his drunkenness, where the Lord our God slew him by the hand of a woman” (Judith xiii. 13, &c.)
It was foretold by God in Paradise, “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” And the victory which was there foretold as to be accomplished in the person of the Blessed Virgin Mother of Jesus Christ, is here prefigured in the person of Judith. “By thee He hath brought our enemies to nought,” exclaimed all the citizens of Bethulia, as they beheld the head of Holofernes in the hands of Judith. “And when Vagao the chamberlain beheld the body of Holofernes lying upon the ground without the head, weltering in his blood, he cried out with a loud voice with weeping, and rent his garments; and going into the tent of Judith, and not finding her, he ran out to the people and said: One Hebrew woman hath wrought great confusion in the house of King Nabuchodonosor, for behold Holofernes lieth upon the ground, and his head is not upon him” (Judith xiv. 16). Judith in her victory is universally understood to be typical of the Blessed Virgin, and in the recent office of the Immaculate Conception in the Roman breviary, the words of the citizens of Bethulia and their acclamations in honour of her victory are applied to her in a figure. “This day the Lord hath so magnified thy name, that thy praise shall never depart from the mouth of men.” As also those of the high priest Joachim, and the elders of the people who came from Jerusalem to greet her and said, “Thou art the glory of Jerusalem, thou art the joy of Israel, thou art the honour of our people.”
Judith’s work in behalf of her people, however, was not limited solely to crushing the head of their enemy; she also wisely directed the assault of her people upon the hosts of the discomfited chieftain, whose head had fallen by her hand. “Judith said to all the people: Hear me; hang ye up this head upon the walls, and rush down as if making an assault; the watchmen must then needs run to awake their prince for the battle; and when the princes shall run to the tent of Holofernes, and shall find him wallowing in his blood, fear shall fall upon them, and when you shall know that they are fleeing, go after them securely, for the Lord will destroy them under your feet” (Judith xiv. 1–5).
“Who is this,” says the Canticle of Canticles, “that cometh forth bright as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in battle array?” (Cant. vi. 9). Mary our Queen has not only crushed the head of our adversary the old serpent, but she is ever with the Church, marshalling and leading the hosts of Israel to the battle against his princes and the captains of his hosts. What is there of all that is done in the Church for destroying the works of the old serpent, and for building up the kingdom of God and His Christ, which Mary does not either direct by her counsel, or aid and sustain by her intercession! One branch indeed of the warfare against the kingdom of darkness, the destruction of heresies, is especially under her leadership; as the Church sings—“Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary!
For thou alone hast destroyed all heresies in the whole world.”