5. Potest autem hujus
montis nomine, beatissima semper virgo Maria Dei Genitrix designari : mons
quippe fuit, quæ omnem electæ creaturæ altitudinem electionis suæ dignitate
transcendit. An non mons sublimis Maria, quæ ut ad conceptionem æterni Verbi
pertingeret, meritorum verticem supra omnes angelorum choros, usque ad solium
deitatis erexit? Hujus enim montis præcellentissimam dignitatem Isaias
vaticinans, ait : Erit in novissimis diebus præparatus mons domus Domini in
vertice montium (Isa. II, 2). Mons quippe in vertice montium fuit, quia
altitudo Mariæ supra omnes sanctos refulsit. Nam sicut mons altitudinem, ita
domus designat habitationem. Mons
quippe et domus apte dicitur, quæ dum incomparabilibus est illustrata meritis,
Dei unigenito, in quo recumberet, sacrum præparavit uterum. Nam mons in vertice
montium Maria non fieret, si supra angelorum altitudinem, hanc divina
fecunditas non levaret. Et domus Domini non fieret, si in ejus ventre, per
assumptam humanitatem, verbi divinitas non jaceret. Sed recte mons frugifer
dicitur, de qua optimus fructus, id est novus homo generalur, quam certe in
fecunditatis suæ gloria pulchram, ornatamque propheta respiciens, ait : Egredietur
virga de radice Jesse, et flos de radice ejus ascendet (Isa. XI, 1). De
hujus namque montis fructu, David Deo exsultans, ait : Confluentur tibi
populi Deus, confluentur tibi populi omnes, terra dedit fructum suum (Ps.
LXVI, 6). Terra quippe fructum suum dedit, quia quem Virgo peperit, non
concepit materiali opere, sed sancti Spiritus obumbratione (Luc. I, 35). Ilinc
eidem regi et prophetæ a Domino dicitur : De fructu ventris tui ponam super
sedem tuam (Psal. CXXXI, 11). Hinc Isaias ait : Erit fructus terræ
sublimis (Isa. IV, 2). Nam quem Virgo genuit, non solum homo sanctus fuit,
sed etiam potens Deus. De hoc fructu ad eandem beatam Virginem, Elisabeth
salutante, dicitur : Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus
ventris tui (Luc. I, 42). Recte igitur mons Ephraim dicitur, quæ dum
ineffabili dignitate divinæ generationis attollitur, in ejus fructu, arida
humanæ conditionis germina revirescunt. Vir igitur de Ramatha Sophim factus est
de monte Ephraim : quia qui per divinitatis suæ potentiam angelos condidit, de
carne præcisæ Virginis, formam suscepit humanitatis. Et quia per humanitatem,
quam assumpsit, non ex infidelibus, sed ex fidelibus nasci voluit, sequitur : Filius
Hieroboam, filii Heliu, filii Thau, filii Suph. (Gregory the Great, In
Librum Primum Regum, 1.5 [Migne, PL 79:25-26])
5. Moreover, by the name of this mountain, the most blessed ever-virgin
Mary, Mother of God, may be designated: for she was a mountain who surpassed
the height of every created creature by the dignity of her election. Indeed, is
not Mary a lofty mountain, who, in order to attain to the conception of the
eternal Word, raised the summit of her merits above all the choirs of the
angels, even to the throne of divinity?
For the prophet Isaiah, foretelling the most excellent
dignity of this mountain, says: “In the last days the mountain of the house
of the Lord shall be prepared on the summit of the mountains” (Isa. 2:2).
Indeed, she was a mountain on the summit of the mountains, because the
loftiness of Mary shone forth above all the saints. For just as a mountain
signifies height, so a house designates habitation.
She is aptly called both mountain and house: for, being
adorned with incomparable merits, she prepared a sacred womb for the
only-begotten Son of God, in which he might recline. For Mary would not have
become a mountain on the summit of the mountains, had divine fecundity not
raised her above the height of the angels. Nor would she have become the house
of the Lord, if the divinity of the Word had not lain in her womb through the
humanity he assumed.
But she is rightly called a fruitful mountain, because
from her the best fruit, that is, the new man, is generated. And the prophet,
contemplating her as beautiful and adorned in the glory of her fruitfulness,
says: “A rod shall go forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower shall
ascend from his root” (Isa. 11:1).
Of the fruit of this mountain, David, exulting in God,
says: “The peoples shall be gathered to you, O God; all the peoples shall be
gathered to you; the earth has given its fruit” (Ps. 66:6). Indeed, the
earth gave its fruit, because the Virgin bore him whom she conceived, not by
material agency, but through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35).
There the Lord likewise says to the same king and
prophet: “Of the fruit of your womb I will set upon your throne” (Ps.
131:11). Hence Isaiah says: “The fruit of the earth shall be exalted”
(Isa. 4:2). For he whom the Virgin begot was not only a holy man, but also
Almighty God.
Concerning this fruit, to the same blessed Virgin, when
Elizabeth greeted her, it is said: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed
is the fruit of your womb” (Luke 1:42).
Therefore she is rightly called Mount Ephraim: for,
while she is exalted by the ineffable dignity of divine generation, in her
fruit the withered shoots of human nature spring to life again.
Thus the man of Ramathaim-Zophim was made from Mount
Ephraim: for he who, by the power of his divinity, created the angels, from the
flesh of the Virgin, taken from her, assumed the form of humanity.
And because in the humanity which he assumed he willed
to be born not from the unbelieving but from the faithful, it follows: “The
son of Hieroboam, son of Heliu, son of Thau, son of Suph.”
