Today we celebrate the dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, often considered the oldest church dedicated to Mary in the West. It was dedicated by Pope St. Sixtus III around A.D.
435. This was a few years after the Council of Ephesus had, in 431, defined the dogma that Mary is the mother of God, thereby vindicating a title long used by the faithful. This title is also important because it affirms the unity of Christ, so that when Jesus died on the cross, the person who died was the Word of God, and that made his death sufficient to save us and a thousand worlds besides. There had already been a church in that place, which Pope Liberius had built about 70 years earlier, in a place called the Siccininum. It's not clear what the Siccininum was, some think it was a large hall to which Liberius added an apse to make it a church, but it could also have simply been a square or a street where there was space to build. St. Sixtus rebuilt the church and dedicated it to the honor of the mother of God, decorating it with mosaics. The mosaic over the apse has the inscription, Bishop Sixtus, for the people of God. In a floor mosaic, he wrote a short poem. The last traces of this mosaic disappeared at the beginning of the 17th century, but by then there were many copies of the poem. It said, Virgin Mary, to you, I, Sixtus, dedicated a new building, a tribute worthy of your salvation-bearing womb. You, a mother who did not know man, you brought forth our salvation while remaining intact. Behold, those who testified about your womb bring you booty. Under the feet of each lies whatever he suffered, iron, flame, beasts, a river, and cruel venom. Yet one crown awaits these several deaths.
The inscription refers to mosaics on the walls that depicted two processions of martyrs toward the altar. On the one hand, these martyrs bore witness to the faith, which includes the fact that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, as the ancient baptismal creed of Rome says. So the Pope rightly began the poem by calling Our Lady Virgin Mary, as the Apostle's Creed does. On the other hand, it was grace that made them capable of bearing martyrdom without denying the faith. Before Sixtus was elected Pope, St. Augustine had written to him in a letter that when God crowns our merits, he crowns his own gifts. So they owe the merit of their martyrdom to the grace of God. But they received that grace through Mary's mediation, which St. Sixtus of Alexandria had extolled to the Council of Ephesus. So they process and toward the altar of Mary's church, bringing the trophies of their victories, that is the instruments of death over which they triumphed. At least some of these martyrs had probably invoked Mary as the mother of God. An Egyptian papyrus from around the year in 250, so almost two centuries earlier, contains the prayer Subduum Presidium in Greek. This is the prayer that in English begins, We fly to thy patronage, O holy mother of God.
This was the prayer of persecuted Christians, at least in Egypt, when Christianity was still illegal. It may well have been prayed in other regions where the climate was not as gentle to ancient manuscripts. So that Mary is mother of God is a truth of faith, but a truth especially important for the confidence that it gives us in the power of her intercession. In fact, she is the mediatrix of all graces, as popes have said so many times. Grace descends from heaven like snow. Martin Luther liked this symbol. He saw grace as merely covering our sins to hide them from God, as a pile of manure can look beautiful after it snows. But grace really does change us inside. It makes us partakers of the divine nature, as St. Peter says. And St. Paul said of himself, the inward man is renewed day by day. Grace is like snow in that it is from above, coming down from the father of lights. In scripture, says St.
Lawrence of Brindisi, snow is a symbol of holiness and purity, and he gives many examples.
Daniel saw God, so to say, clothed with snow. His clothing was snow white, the prophet writes.
At Christ's transfiguration too, his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as snow. Christ also appeared to John in the apocalypse with the hair of his head as white as snow. The angel who announced Christ's resurrection appeared clothed with snow. His appearance was like lightning, St. Matthew says, and his clothing white as snow.
Jeremiah says that Zion's young men were once brighter than snow. And the psalmist refers to a soul sanctified by God and referred to baptismal innocence in these words. Wash me, make me whiter than snow. The Lord finally says through Isaiah, though your sins are like scarlet, they may become white as snow. So it's fitting that medieval legend associates St. Mary Major with snow. The legend says that the Virgin Mary appeared in a dream to the patrician John on August 4th and told him to build a church on the site where he would find snow the following morning. In the morning, he went to Pope Liberius and told him about his dream. And the pope believed him because he too had dreamed that it would snow and that the Virgin Mary told him to lay out a church where the snow fell. It is not snow often in Rome, and snow in August would be a convincing sign from heaven, especially if it was foretold by a dream. In memory of this story, on this day, a snowfall of jasmine petals is dropped from the ceiling of the basilica at the Gloria during the main mass.
And this snowfall inside the basilica is repeated at Vespers during the Magnificat.
Even if this legend is not true, it is very fitting. But the immaculate conception of Our Lady is like a snowfall in the dark days of summer. It is something that nature cannot produce. It brings refreshment to us and marks the beginning of the salvation brought by Christ. Like the snow, it comes from above and brings purity.
Mary is so full of grace that it is almost as if she has become grace. St. Lawrence says, Today's miracle reveals Mary with a purity unmatched below God himself. What is whiter than snow? She is purer than the angels and archangels and cherubim and seraphim. Her purity and sanctity are astonishing beyond belief. Whiteness like snow in the soul consists in perfect observance of God's laws. Only sin can stain the soul and smudge the purity of conscience. So today we are shown Mary's purity and reminded of her mediation, which can make us purer and give us the strength to resist sin, even when the alternative is death. May the snow of grace refresh us when the heat of the passions threatens and help us to become holy and immaculate like our Blessed Mother. Praised be Jesus and Mary.