See to it that each one of you has that ointment, so that he may be devoutly disposed toward God and may repent and guard himself from sin. Some have compassion on their flesh, not on their soul. Whence in Lamentations: The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children. Such a one is not like the Virgin nor like Christ. He boils his children who has no compassion on his own soul, but exposes it to the fire of concupiscence and of infernal torments. Of such a woman it is said: Better is the iniquity of a man than a woman doing good: you cannot afflict the body too much. Let us not give our body to sin. We have been bought at a great price. Do not become servants of men nor of demons nor of sins. If I had redeemed some servant, I would not give him away for nothing. — It is now clear how the glorious Virgin brought forth that price as strong and holy and paid it in full as strong and loving.
22. Third, she possesses that price glorified in heaven, because she is strong and valiant, manfully fighting, nobly triumphing, and sublimely reigning.
First, I say, the blessed Virgin possesses that price, because she is strong and valiant as one valiantly fighting. In Genesis: The Lord said to the serpent: I will put enmities between you and the woman, and your seed and her seed; she shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for her heel. Bernard says of the glorious Virgin: "She crushed the head of the ancient serpent, when she reduced to nothing every suggestion of the evil one, both regarding the allurement of the flesh and the pride of the mind."
Do not allow the serpent to enter into your heart through suggestion; for Gregory says that when the head of the serpent has entered into any opening, then the whole body easily enters. For this reason the Psalm says: Blessed is he who shall seize and dash his little ones against the rock, that is, the first movements against Christ: and then he shall have peace. He who wishes to defend his land fears for himself, lest the enemy enter his land: for he who holds the borders of his land in strength possesses the interior more securely.
23. Second, the blessed Virgin possesses this price, because she is strong and valiant, nobly triumphing, which is signified in Judith, where it is said: One Hebrew woman has brought shame upon the house of Nebuchadnezzar. Judith cut off the head of Holofernes, and all his men fled. In the Gospel it is said: A sword shall pierce your own soul: and Judith slew Holofernes with his own sword. — How then does Judith signify the glorious Virgin? Consider the New Testament and the Old. Holy Simeon said: A sword shall pierce your own soul, that is, a living sorrow. Whence? Surely from the passion of Christ. Who inflicted the passion upon Christ? The Jew, the pagan, Pilate. These were the instruments, but who was moving them to this? Surely the devil was forging the sword by which the soul of the Virgin was pierced, and she herself was healed, and the devil was vanquished. The devil wished to have the bait of Christ's flesh; but the Divinity clung to his throat like a hook; she drove a nail into the temple of Sisera. The one who destroyed the army of the Midianites triumphed nobly.
Therefore, following her example, let us not allow ourselves to be conquered.
24. Third, the blessed Virgin possesses that price, because she is strong and valiant, sublimely reigning. Whence in Esther it is said that Esther found grace before Ahasuerus above all women, and he placed a diadem upon her head and made her queen. The blessed Virgin on account of her sanctity, piety, and sublimity had a crown of precious stone. Who is this stone? Certainly Christ. Whence blessed Peter: Behold, I shall place in the foundation a precious stone. The blessed Virgin was crowned with this stone in the flesh: seeing in the flesh the glorified body of Christ, seeing in spirit his glorified soul, and in mind his Divinity. Christ was crowned first, and she afterward. Whence in the Canticle: Go forth, daughters of Sion, and see king Solomon in the diadem with which his mother crowned him on the day of his espousals and on the day of the gladness of his heart, that is, in flesh and mind, because he first put on flesh, suffered, and afterward was glorified: and the whole Church was crowned through him. Whence in the Apocalypse: A great sign appeared in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. - We shall have this crown if we wish to imitate the glorious Virgin. Whence it is written: Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been proved, he shall receive the crown of life: and in the Apocalypse: Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life: which may he who with the Father, etc., deign to bestow upon us.