The Transfiguration by Raphael
Available from Montfort Publications and Amazon. A free ebook edition can be found at Montfortian.info.
Length of book: 139 pages
Considering the great renown that St. Louis de Montfort, the great Marian apostle of the 17th century, has in the Catholic world, it is surprising that this work of his is relatively unknown. Though his books The Secret of the Rosary and True Devotion to Mary deserve their high place in the vast library of spiritual reading (and how one prays their contents were known and cherished by all men), this book is no less grand in theme nor less magnificent in depth.
Without Mary, we would not have Jesus. Yet, without Jesus we would not have received Mary, for He, the Eternal Wisdom, preserved her from Original Sin. Thus, Mariology and Christology are intertwined, and this book presents an excellent example of this truth. It should not come as a surprise to the faithful Catholic how St. Louis de Montfort weaves together the crucial message of devotion to Jesus and Mary, but the manner in which he does so strikes the soul with its profundity. Observe how, after stating that the Word is identical to Eternal Wisdom in a reference to John 1:3, St. Louis describes the role of the Son in the Creation of the universe:
He laid out the heavens, He placed the sun, the moon, the stars and the planets in perfect order; He balanced the foundations of the earth; He marked boundaries and gave laws to the sea and the deep; He established the mountains; He poised and balanced even the fountains of water.
(13)
Thus, with such a grand explanation followed by an even more weighty elaboration which takes up Chapter Three of this book, St. Louis gives one a pinch of the glory and power of the Son. And so, when he goes on later in this book to detail the choice of the Son to become Incarnate and suffer a cruel death to repair the loss wrought by the Fall, he gives one a deep sense of the immeasurable love of God for us men. Indeed, against the existential anxiety taught by the world, these words set us free:
Drawn by an unheard of and incomprehensible excess of love, this lovable and sovereign Prince offers Himself in sacrifice to His Father in order to satisfy Divine justice, to calm Divine anger, and to redeem us from the slavery of the devil and the flames of hell, and to merit for us eternal happiness.
(19)
From the very moment of the Fall, this was the desire of the Eternal Wisdom. One might ask: why? St. Louis gives us the answer:
The reason for the affection of Eternal Wisdom for man, is that in Creation man is the summary of all His wonders; he is His little and His great world, His loving image, His representative on earth.
(31)
Furthermore, this immeasurable love of the Son of God only seemed to increase, if it were possible, after the Incarnation:
And from the moment when, out of His exceeding love for man, Divine Wisdom became like unto him by assuming human nature, and died to redeem him, man is loved by Divine Wisdom as a brother, a friend, a disciple, a pupil.
(Ibid)
Therefore, St. Louis writes that after the Incarnation mankind is “the price of His blood” as well as “the co-heir of His kingdom”. In light of such truths, the saint concludes in this one of many illuminating passages with the warning that “…infinite violence is done to Him when man either refuses to give Him his heart or wrests it from Him” (Ibid). As St. Alphonsus sagely argued, the eternal torment of Hell is a just punishment for precisely this reason. In offending the infinite dignity of a God who bought us with a “great price” by resisting His grace is to commit a crime of an everlasting nature (1 Corinthians 6:20). From this, it follows that a crime of infinite value is worthy of an everlasting punishment.
Among weighty reflections such as these, there is also a numerous quantity of practical advice given on the subject of the spiritual life. Most of these, as with St. Louis’ explanations of the role of the Eternal Wisdom in Salvation history, are drawn quite heavily from quotations from the Sacred Scriptures, which only serves to enhance the text. Such recommendations are not limited to the saint’s excellent “Spiritual Maxims” inserted at the end of this edition (their inclusion here was a wise decision, despite not being a part of the original work), but include deeply uplifting passages such as these:
As wood is the fuel of fire, so is the Cross the fuel of love. The Cross is the surest proof that we love God. The Cross was the proof God gave of His love for us, and it is also the proof which requires of us to show our love for Him.
(95)
Our crosses are not curses (as our fallen nature and the world would want us to perceive them), but rather blessings, because if united to the Cross of Jesus Christ, they become meritorious and even much more bearable to our souls: “Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls” (Matthew 11:29).
As an added delight, St. Louis includes a much more condensed version of his great and splendid argument he presents in his True Devotion to Mary. For as he writes, in embracing and practicing a deep devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, we practice the “…greatest means of all, and the most wonderful of all secrets for obtaining and keeping Divine Wisdom…” (113).
In reflecting upon these and many other brilliant aspects of this book which I would like to keep veiled, as it were, for the reader, I absolutely endorse it. For those Catholics who wish to nourish a more tender devotion to the Sacred Heart, and to understand in some capacity its glories and mercies, this is a must read. Because it is so spiritually profound, I have struggled to place my admiration for this work in words and to give it a proper summary, but I hope this presentation may satisfy the interest of my readers.