Where the Jewel Lay
Fr. Donald Macdonald, SMM
Reflections on a 17-th century poet George Herbert, and his poem “To All the Angels and Saints”. Brought up in the Protestant Tradition, the poet wants to open his heart to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Knowing her Son, Herbert warms to the presence of his mother. But this theological Tradition militants against this and he exclaims; “But now, alas, I dare not”, even though he knows her, “Blessed Maid and Mother of my God”.
WHERE THE JEWEL LAY
An artist guiding visitors around an exhibition of Spanish painting, drew their attention to one particular canvas.
He said he had known for twenty years, and “its calm, unpretentious beauty,” had long stayed in his mind when so much else had faded. It was a centuries old painting of four pots on a shelf. The insight that could capture four pots on a kitchen shelf and make them unforgettable is to be prized. The painter has enriched mankind. Their particular value has become a general blessing.
DRAWN TO . . .
The poet in his own idiom does as much, and George Herbert, the seventeenth century poet, in a poem, “To all the Angels and Saints” invites an understanding of Our Lady.
“I would address My vows to Thee most gladly,
Blessed Maid,
And Mother of my God, in my distress.”
. . . MARY
These unremarkable words echo a centuries long Catholic tradition in words and sentiments that have been repeated to this day in virtually every language under heaven. Mary, “Blessed Maid, and Mother of my God,” draws so many in trouble. Herbert uses his poetic gift to explain what may be drawing him to her.
“Thou art the holy mine, whence
came the gold,
The great restorative for all decay
In young and old;
Thou art the cabinet where the jewel lay:
Chiefly to thee would I my soul unfold:”
Our Lady attracts him as the setting in which Our Lord is to be found. By association with her Son she is “The holy mine . . . great restorative . . . the cabinet,” in which lies the wealth of God. He is drawn to ‘here the jewel lay”; seeing a woman graced by God becoming “Blessed Maid, and Mother of my God”; a lovely setting for the Word made flesh.
No artistic gift can ever do justice to those titles, but enough of the real person shines through to reach corresponding depths in the poet, so that, “Chiefly to thee would I my soul unfold”. He wants to open his heart to her. These are sentiments long felt and expressed in the Catholic tradition, and not least in the everyday currency of sheer human need. Knowing her Son, Herbert warms to the presence of his mother. It is a path taken by many.
One of the earlier wood carvings by Fr. de Montfort.
In a beautifully understated paradox he is all the time opening his heart to her, held as he feels himself to be by his inability to speak as he would like. His heart would be wholly hers; . . . she has his heart.
The entire poem is an extended expression of relationship in faith. It is only his theological tradition perhaps which has made him, in this instance, halting of speech, as he yet knows her, “Blessed Maid and Mother of my God” through his stammering faith.
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FALSE PERSPECTIVE
It comes as a shock to anyone brought up in that tradition, when he says in the next explosive line;
“But now, alas, I dare not.”
If this is true in fact and not just poetic rhetoric, it means that whatever the poet is expressing it is far from platitudes. This is genuinely felt. If Our Lady is as he has described, what is to stop him opening his heart to her? He is genuinely sad – ‘alas’ is his word – but, “I dare not”. It is regrettable, he wishes it were otherwise, but he must not do it. He explains why.
“For our King,
. . . Bids no such thing:
. . . All worship is prerogative, and a flower
Of his rich crown, from whom lies no appeal
At the last hour:
Therefore we dare not from his garland steal,
To make a posy for inferior power.”
Here Herbert parts from the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Worship is the sole prerogative of God never to be given to an ‘inferior power’ no matter how excellent. Obviously the Catholic agrees. Only God is to be worshipped. Whatever is given to others it is never that. But does this forbid the poet opening his heart to Our Lady, not least when he is in trouble? Does sorrow offer insight as to where healing may be found? So many of all generations and countries have found it so, that it is hard not to think of it as an inspiration of the Spirit of God in response to a human need.
BETTER PERSPECTIVE
Herbert knows that God in Christ is central – “The gold” – and he never leaves that perspective. But need that mean Our Lady is peripheral? As a woman from nondescript Nazareth she may have been one of the marginalized, but surely not in this context.
She reflects the wonder of the incarnation and is integrally part of its warmth. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. (Jn. 1:14). “John makes no attempt to soften the harshness of this terrific proposition”. Through Mary, the Word is truly earthed in humanity. There is no need to prize the jewel from its setting to highlight its radiance. As in most Gospel signs, the jewel and the setting merge in a superbly human cameo reflecting the divine among us.
As long as the setting is not mistaken for the jewel, can one avoid seeing the glory of God here full of grace and truth? Does Our Lady do other than reflect the radiance of the One she was called to bring into the world? The insight that transformed the Spanish kitchen is perhaps necessary here or we will not glimpse what is really there. Her son’s divine garland, to follow Herbert’s analogy, is not the poorer because flowers are offered to his mother. As she is “The mine whence came the gold,” it is hard to see how we, whose currency is like petty cash in comparison, can give anything to outweigh the wonder of the unfathomable riches of Christ already given her by God.
LIVING . . .
Herbert’s instinctive approach to Our Lady, “In my distress” is surely wise. As “Blessed Maid and Mother of my God,” all that is best in Mary’s humanity can only be enriched. The mistake perhaps is to approach the faith in general and Our Lady in particular from the outside, as disparate pieces on a chessboard over against ourselves, each of unequal value, primed to move in specific directions within one overall pattern. Yet even within such limits, while the static pieces on the chessboard keep their individuality, only the one who has the imagination to appreciate their potential as interrelated pieces, can successfully play the game. One must identify with the pieces.
Faith stems from relationship. As one in Christ in vine and branches, Christ is to me as the Father is to him. There I am invited to remain with all who share the same organic growth. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love”. (Jn. 15:9). We take our identity from being one in Christ, sharing the same God-given bloodstream of knowledge and love, which is always the basis of genuine relationships as we experience them. To be Christian, therefore, we live and look from within the body of Christ.
. . . FAITH
To turn to Our Lady within this perspective is not to neglect the child in the crib, the Son on the Cross, nor the Lord in heaven. The jewel and the setting, first created by God, is primarily a relationship of knowledge and love. It is often the immature who have the problem of conflicting relationships. When Herbert feels that “Chiefly to thee would I my soul unfold” he is expressing a mature Christian sentiment for someone who is one in Christ with himself, as of the same flesh and blood.
Having lived by faith, a woman in an often harsh world, Mary may well speak to Herbert at an instinctive level, as from the marrow of her being she knows just how harrowing a life in faith can be. One person in Christ through baptism with Our Lady now, nothing he gives her in return could be stolen from her Son, “To make a posy for inferior power.”
IF . . .
Reading the final stanza of the poem it is clear that Herbert feels this too.
“Although then others court you, if ye know
What’s done on earth, we shall not fare the worse,
who do not so;
Since we are ever ready to disburse,
If anyone our Master’s hand can show.”
The unease is evident, as his being wants to go to Mary though his tradition says he may not. But surely this is in fact what he is doing throughout the poem.
He really does articulate his instinctive feeling in this last stanza. Although ostensibly speaking of those who do not pay court to Our Lady, what else is he doing when he says she will be aware of his feelings for her; “If ye know what’s done on earth,” and then concludes in superb understatement; “We shall not fare the worse who do not so”. However tentative the vocabulary, Herbert has surely arrived. He is plainly telling Our Lady of his wish to approach her if only he knew how, and hurt in that quandary, yet feels that she understands him only too well. It is a compliment to his integrity and faith longing for understanding, and to Our Lady. Neither forces the other.
. . . ONLY
In a beautifully understated paradox he is all the time opening his heart to her, held as he feels himself to be by his inability to speak as he would like. His heart would be wholly hers; “If anyone our Master’s hand can show”. As his perception already suggests that she does that supremely well as; “The holy mine, whence came the gold, The great restorative for all decay in young and old . . . the cabinet where the jewel lay”, she has his heart. The entire poem is an extended expression of relationship in faith. It is only his theological tradition perhaps which has made him, in this instance, halting of speech, as he yet knows her, “Blessed Maid and Mother of my God” through his stammering faith.
Few of us, presumably, have the insight of the painter or the vocabulary of the poet, but we do have faith. That is all we need for insight to treasure in faith “where the jewel lay.”
FOOTNOTE
1 A.E. Harvey, Companion to the Gospels OUP/CUP 1972 p. 304.
