He Has Cast Down The Mighty From Their Thrones And Has Lifted Up The Lowly – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Family Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; August 15, 2024

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” Well, in the first place turn away from the mirror of vanity, or better yet break it. And toss away the spectacles of envy.

Turn your gaze to heaven to contemplate her who is truly the most beautiful, the perfect glory of womanhood, clothed with the sun of divine glory, with the moon of corruptibility beneath her feet, surrounded as by a crown by her innumerable children, beginning with the twelve Apostles, the Blessed Virgin Mary, assumed into heaven body and soul, the Mother of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, and our Mother also in the order of grace.

Many times, Jesus insisted, Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. (Mt 23:12; Lk 14:11) The Blessed Virgin Mary is the lowliest of God’s children, raised up to the greatest height, lifted up above the choirs of angels, “more honorable than the Cherubim, more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim.” (Hymn to the Theotokos)

The Almighty has done great things for me.

Her pure soul is a resplendent mirror of God’s greatness. In her and through her Son, God has made known the holiness of his name.

He has shown the strength of his arm and has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly.

When, at the beginning of time, God revealed to the angels what was to be his most perfect creation, the humble Virgin, the pride of Lucifer was provoked, he seethed with envy, and he was cast out, he was darkened, he became Satan, the adversary, drawing in his train a third of the angels. To this day he rages against her, but his rage is impotent.

He has filled the hungry with good things, the rich he has sent away empty. Because the Blessed Virgin was empty of herself, she was filled with God himself, and even became the Mother of God. While those who are filled with the paltry riches of their own pride are left empty like their Satanic master.

Though she was always free from the slightest stain of sin and even the inclination to sin, the Blessed Virgin Mary is the greatest recipient of God’s mercy, for through her Immaculate Conception, she was redeemed beforehand in the most excellent fashion. It was in anticipation of the merits of her Son’s redeeming death and in view of her predestined role as his Mother that she was preserved even from contracting original sin.

As the greatest recipient of God’s mercy she proclaims to us, He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. For our part we want to join the generations that call her blessed.

How blessed?

Consider that she has been lifted up above the Seraphim, the highest of God’s angels. Now all the angels and saints behold the face of God, but one beholds in that inexhaustible vision more mysteries than another. So, as star from star differs in glory (1 Cor 15:41) and the glory of the Virgin exceeds them all together, she beholds more of the mysteries of God than any creature.

Let envy disappear, let wonder and admiration arise. There is between God and the Virgin a world of intimate knowledge that will be forever unknown to the rest of creation. There she shall always be God’s most hidden treasure, in whom he takes delight.

From that dizzying height I want now to return from a moment to the earth, to a specific time and place, the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Church in a mighty wind and tongues of fire.

The Blessed Virgin was there. (cf. Acts 1:14) Yet, though during her earthly pilgrimage she grew in grace, we must not think of her role on the day of Pentecost as being just another recipient of the Holy Spirit. She is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit; she was filled with the Holy Spirit from her Immaculate Conception; she was always most perfectly responsive to his most delicate inspirations.

So what was her role on Pentecost? She is there revealed as the great intercessor. As at Cana it was through her intercession that Jesus changed the water of graceless life into the wine of divine grace, so it was in answer to her prayers that on Pentecost he poured out the Holy Spirit upon his Church and continues to do so. Thus, Mary is truly the “Mediatrix of all grace.”

Then for some years before she was taken up into heaven, the Blessed Virgin remained upon the earth. What was her role in the infant Church? She did not go out, like the Apostles, and proclaim the Gospel. Yet, she is known as the Queen of the Apostles.

She was rather a secret treasure, hidden in the heart of the Church. The Apostles set out as witnesses of Christ’s resurrection; she was hidden in the heart of the Church as the unique witness of Christ’s birth and infancy, which is the mystery of God’s hidden wisdom. As in heaven she is possessed with a knowledge and wisdom in excess of every creature, so on earth, in the heart of the Church, she was possessed with a knowledge and wisdom above that of the Apostles. In her final days upon earth, she is revealed as the Seat of Wisdom, the treasure-house of the Church, the memory of the Church, who had guarded and pondered everything that pertained to her divine Son (cf. Lk 2:19, 51), the witness of the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. (Rm 11:33) To her the Apostles had recourse; they sought to draw from her treasure-house of wisdom.

To her we must have recourse, to our Mother, in all the necessities of life, that we might live always according to the wisdom of the children of God. “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.”