Fr. Scott A. Haynes
How did Mary, the Immaculate Conception, become the choice, delicate, perfect flower of God's spiritual creation? It was by being born, nurtured, and sheltered in the mystical garden or Paradise of God. Sacred Scripture makes use of the figure of a garden when it would speak of heaven and its blessed inhabitants. A garden is a spot of ground set apart for trees and plants, all good, all various, for things that are sweet to the taste, or fragrant in scent, or beautiful to look upon, or useful for nourishment.
Accordingly, in its spiritual sense, it means the home of blessed spirits and holy souls dwelling there together, souls with both the flowers and the fruits upon them, which by the careful husbandry of God they have come to bear, flowers and fruits of grace, flowers more beautiful and more fragrant than those of any garden, fruits more delicious and exquisite than can be matured by earthly husbandman.
All that God has made speaks of its Maker; the mountains speak of his eternity, the sun of his immensity, and the winds of his almightiness. In like manner flowers and fruits speak of his sanctity, his love, and his providence; and such as are flowers and fruits, such must be the place where they are found. That is to say, since they are found in a garden, therefore a garden has also excellences which speak of God, because it is their home. For instance, it would be out of place if we found beautiful flowers on the mountain crag, or rich fruit in the sandy desert. As then by flowers and fruits are meant, in a mystical sense, the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, so by a garden is meant mystically a place of spiritual repose, stillness, peace, refreshment, and delight.
Our first parents were placed in "a garden of pleasure" shaded by trees, "fair to behold and pleasant to eat of," with the Tree of Life in the midst and a river to water the ground. Thus, Our Lord, speaking from the cross to the penitent robber, calls the blessed place, the heaven to which he was taking him, "paradise," or a garden of pleasure. Therefore, St. John, in the Book of Revelation, speaks of heaven, the palace of God, as a garden or paradise in which was the Tree of Life giving forth its fruits every month. Such was the garden in which the Mystical Rose, the Immaculate Mary, was sheltered and nursed to be the mother of the All-Holy God, from her birth to her espousal to St. Joseph, a term of thirteen years. For three years of it she was in the arms of her holy mother, St. Anne, and then for ten years she lived in the Temple of God.
In those blessed gardens, as they may be called, she lived by herself, continually visited by the dew of God's grace, and growing up a more and more heavenly flower, till at the end of that period she was suitable for the inhabitation in her of the Most Holy Incarnate Son of God. This was the outcome of the Immaculate Conception. Mary is perfect in her sweetness and her beautifulness. And when the angel Gabriel came to her, he found her "full of grace."
Mary is the most beautiful flower that ever was seen in the spiritual world. It is by the power of God's grace that from this barren and desolate earth there have ever sprung up at all flowers of holiness and glory. And Mary is the queen of them. She is the queen of spiritual flowers; and therefore, she is called the rose, for the rose is fitly called of all flowers the most beautiful. But moreover, she is the mystical, or hidden rose; for mystical means hidden. How is she now "hidden" from us more than are other saints? The answer to this question introduces us to a substantial reason for believing in the assumption of the Virgin Mary, that happy reunion of her sacred body to her soul, and its assumption into heaven soon which came at the end of her earthly life. Mary’s body did not linger in the grave like the rest of mankind waiting until the general resurrection at the last day.
I ask you,
“If her body was not taken into heaven, where is it? Why do we not hear of her tomb as being here or there? Why are not pilgrimages made to it? Why don’t we have bodily relics of Mary?”
Is it not even a natural instinct which makes us reverent towards the places where our dead are buried? We bury our great men honorably. St. Peter speaks of the sepulcher of David as known in his day, though he had died many hundred years before.
When Our Lord's body was taken down from the cross, He was placed in an honorable tomb. Such too had been the honor already paid to St. John the Baptist, his tomb being spoken of by St. Mark as generally known. Christians from the earliest times went from other countries to Jerusalem to see the holy places. And, when the time of persecution was over, they paid still more attention to the bodies of the saints, as of St. Stephen, St. Mark, St. Barnabas, St. Peter, St. Paul, and other apostles and martyrs. These were transported to great cities, and portions of them sent to this place or that. Thus, from the first to this day it has been a great feature and characteristic of the Church to be most tender and reverent towards the bodies of the saints.
Now, if there was anyone who more than all would be preciously taken care of, it would be our Lady. Why then do we hear nothing of the Blessed Virgin's body and its separate relics? Why is she thus the hidden rose? Is it conceivable that they who had been so reverent and careful of the bodies of the saints and martyrs should neglect her—her who was the Queen of Martyrs and the Queen of Saints, who was the very Mother of our Lord? It is impossible. Why then is she thus the hidden rose? Plainly because that sacred body is in heaven, not on earth.