De comparatione Christi ad florem et Mariae ad virgam
by Richard of Saint Victor
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://migne.app/pl/196/de-comparatione-christi-ad-florem-et-mariae-ad-virgam/
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## On the Comparison of Christ to a Flower and of Mary to a Rod

[1031A]The Virgin, Mother of God, is a rod; her Son is the flower. For rightly is the blessed Virgin Mary called a rod: a rod upright, [1031B] a rod raised erect and stretched even up to heaven, a rod slender, a rod pliant, a rod flower-bearing, a rod fruit-bearing. Upright through faith, raised erect through vision, tall through long-suffering; slender through humility, pliant through compassion, flower-bearing through virginal conception, fruit-bearing through the childbearing of salvation. The Virgin, Mother of God, is a rod; her Son is the flower. O how well, how rightly is he called a flower, who is brought forth from the virginal rod! What is more delicate than a flower, what more tender than a flower? What gentler to the touch, what lighter to carry? What more beautiful than a flower, what more fragrant than a flower, what more fruitful than a flower, if we attend to its effect? For in the flower is the making of honey, from the flower the bearing of fruit. From the flower, therefore, come both honeycomb and fruit. In the honeycomb are honey and wax; in the fruit are drink and food. If these things are small, I add that in the flower too there is [1031C] medicine. For what is more delicate than a flower, when it is pressed; what more tender, when it is crushed; what gentler, when it is handled; what lighter, when it is carried; what more comely, when it is beheld; what more fragrant, when it is smelled; what more useful, if its effect be considered? There are, then, seven things that we marvel at in the flower: delicacy, [1032A] tenderness, gentleness, lightness, beauty, fragrance, usefulness. From these things, therefore, gather [1032B] of what sort that Son of the Virgin is found to be by those for whom he is turned into a flower. For he who to the unbelieving and to transgressors is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, is a flower to those who cleave to him in hope and love; a flower indeed wonderful, singular in hope and usefulness; a flower, I say, is the Son of the Virgin. A flower delicate unto indignation, tender unto compassion, gentle in mildness, light in condemnation, beautiful through his manner of life, fragrant through his promise, useful through his reward. He is therefore delicate in scourgings, tender in mercies, gentle in gifts, light in precepts, beautiful in examples, fragrant in promises, fruitful in rewards. This flower has become for us medicine; from him, honey and wax; in him, drink and food. Medicine in redemption; drink and food in justification; honey and wax in glorification. [1032C] From this medicine comes the health of everlasting incorruption; from his food, the refreshment of inward satiety; from such drink, the inebriation of eternal security; from his wax, the splendor of highest brightness; in his honey, the sweetness of unfailing happiness.
