Mary, House of Gold, Mary: Day 142

Mary, House of Gold

The traditional Marian title “House of Gold” may seem an unlikely one. But Blessed John Henry Newman explains why it’s fitting for the beautiful, precious mother in whom God chose to make his home.

Why is Mary called “House of Gold”? Gold is the most beautiful, the
most valuable, of all metals. Silver, copper, and steel may in their way be made good to the eye, but nothing is so rich, so splendid, as gold. We have few oppor- tunities of seeing it in any quantity; but anyone who has seen a large number of bright gold coins knows how magnificent is the look of gold.

Mary is called golden because her graces, her virtues, her innocence, her purity, are of that transcendent brilliancy and dazzling perfection, so costly, so exquisite, that the angels cannot, so to say, keep their eyes off her any more than we could help gazing upon any great work of gold. But observe further: She is a golden house, or I will rather say, a golden palace.

Let us imagine we saw a whole palace or large church all made of gold, from the foundations to the roof. Such, in regard to the number, the variety, the extent of her spiritual excellences, is Mary. But why called a house or palace? And whose palace?

She is the house and the palace of the great King, of God himself. Our Lord, the coequal Son of God, once dwelt in her. He was her Guest; no, more than a guest, for a guest comes into a house as well as leaves it. But our Lord was actually born in this holy house. He took his flesh and his blood from this house, from the flesh, from the veins of Mary.

Rightly then was she made to be of pure gold, because she was to give of that gold to form the body of the Son of God. She was golden in her conception, golden in her birth. She went through the fire of her suffering like gold in the fur- nace, and when she ascended on high, she was, in the words of our hymn, “above all the angels in glory untold, standing next to the king in a vesture of gold.” —Blessed John Henry Newman, Meditations and Devotions

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
The beauty and precious value of gold is reflected in many common expres- sions: “good as gold,” “golden opportunity,” “a heart of gold,” “the Golden Rule.” In what ways do I find Mary to be “golden” in beauty and value?

CLOSING PRAYER
Mary, Queen of Heaven, I will acclaim you in the words of the psalmist: “The daughter of the King is decked in her chamber with golden-woven robes!” (Ps 45:13–14).

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