in Pars Occidentalis, Evangeliorum Quadragesimorum Expositiones,
Antwerp 1536.
Text quoted in French by Réné Laurentin (in Maria,
Ecclesia, Sacerdotium, Nouvelles Éditions Latines, Paris 1952, pp.
180) and translated into English by John Wijngaards.
Page 36 verso.Mariginal title: ‘Mary is
a priest and vests the priest [=Christ?]’ (Latin: Maria est sacerdos et
induit sacerdotem. Text: ‘The second privilege of the
first born was the splendidly decorated priestly vestment; for in early times
when there was not yet a priest for the whole community, everyone had in his
house a specific priest chosen from among the children: it was the first born,
and one gave him a priestly vestment. That is why the commentary on Genesis
25,32: “Who will give me my right of firstborn?”, says as follows:
“The right of the firstborn was the priestly vestment, for the firstborn
was vested in it with the blessing of his father and he offered to God the
victims, as a high priest. Nothing applies more to Mary, for no one should be
ignorant in which way Mary, fulfilling a priestly function when standing
upright before the altar of the cross, offered for us to God the Father a
living victim who was no one else than her son. She did not “spare
him” but delivered him up for all of us.’ ‘Reflect more
profoundly and you will find that the Son of God, without the vestment of
humanity, could not offer the sacrifice to God. This vestment was Mary who gave
it to him. ’
