OUR LADY OF THE BURNING BUSH

Day 130: September 17

Our Lady of the Burning Bush



The icon of the Mother of God called the "Burning Bush" owes its name to the well-known miracle witnessed by Moses himself in the Old Testament. In the third chapter of Exodus, God calls Moses to Mount Horeb, from the middle of a bush that burned with an open fire, but without being consumed. He hears the voice of God who communicates to him the task of saving the Jews from slavery in Egypt. On that occasion God confides his name to Moses: "I am who I am" (Exodus 3.14).

The miracle of the Burning Bush therefore consists of a prefiguration of the birth of Jesus from the Virgin Mary. The Virgin gave birth to Christ while remaining such, just like the bush that burns but is not consumed. Christian tradition has given more than one explanation for the phenomenon of the bush. The most common and constant interpretation is presented in a Christological and Marian key. Recognizing in fire the symbol of divinity and in the bush the symbol of humanity, the phenomenon was read as a prefiguration of the Incarnation of Christ through Mary. Mary herself, the instrument and place of the Incarnation, was not only not annihilated by the tremendous impact [with the divinity], but also kept her virginity intact.

From the fifth century onwards, the Greek Fathers interpreted the burning bush as a prefiguration of the Mother of God. The Byzantine liturgy sees in it a shining prophecy of the virginal conception of Jesus.

"Moses foreshadowed you as the burning bush of Sinai. You received, without being consumed, the unbearable fire of the divine essence, which unites a divine hypostasis with the fragility of the flesh."

The Mariological interpretation of the burning bush has also entered the Roman liturgy, as attested by the 3rd Antiphon of the II Vespers of January 1st, the Solemnity of the Mother of God.

"Like the bush that Moses saw burning intact, your virginity is intact, Mother of God: we praise you, you pray for us."

The Bush thus became a symbol and a name of the Virgin Mary. The Liturgy often returns to the theme of the Bush, the symbol and name of Most Holy Mary, as can be seen in the following texts:

"You are the bush that Moses saw:

it was full of fire and did not burn.

For the Son of God came and descended into your womb,

and the fire of his divinity did not burn your body.

You are the bush that Moses saw in the midst of flames

and was not consumed, which is the Son of the Lord.

He came and dwelt in your womb,

and the fire of his divinity did not consume your flesh."

The book The Tree of Mary – 31 Marian Biblical Icons by the biblical scholar G. Ravasi, reports the statements of the Patriarch of Antioch Severus, of the sixth century. The latter, after saying that "Mary's womb is like the bush into which the theophanic fire descends and in which YHWH makes himself present and experiential to Moses", he adds: "When I turn my gaze to the Virgin Mother of God and try to sketch a simple thought about her, from the very beginning I seem to hear a voice coming from God and crying in my ear: 'Do not come near! Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground... To draw close to her is like approaching a holy land and reaching Heaven.'"

The theme of the "Burning Bush" could not fail to captivate artists, who depicted it in miniatures in books, in frescoes on the walls of churches and monasteries, and on portable wooden icons. The oldest icons are found in the Convent of Saint Catherine in Sinai and date back to the 12th-14th centuries. From Sinai, the theme spread to various Orthodox countries and to the West.

In the East, two main types can be distinguished: the first is Greek, the second Russian and Slavic. The Greek theme more closely reflects the story of the Exodus. It always features Moses taking off his sandals at the Angel's command; in front of him is depicted the burning bush; in the middle, or at the top, Mary is seen in bust or full body with the Child in her lap: this iconographic type of the Madonna is that of the "Platytéra" [= larger than the Heavens] ; when the Child is surrounded by a circle , the type is that of the Madonna of the Sign.

One of the first representations of the Mother of God, originating from the monastery of Saint Catherine on Sinai, represents the Madonna as a "burning bush", showing her in the middle of a burning bush while she supports her divine son. Moses is depicted in a corner while he takes off his sandals, because the place where he is standing is sacred. (Exodus 3.5).

Many icons contain a stylized representation of the bush, represented by two overlapping diamonds: the first red represents fire, the second green represents the bush, forming an eight-pointed star (a well-known Marian symbol).  The Theotokos is depicted in the center of the star. In the four corners of the green diamond are the symbols of the four evangelists: a man for St. Matthew, a lion for St. Mark, an ox for St. Luke, and an eagle for St. John. These symbols derive from Ezekiel 1:10 and Revelation 4:7. The red diamond contains four archangels and are placed in the red rhombus.

From the burning bush, the Virgin Mary appears, holding her Son in her arms. God speaks to Moses from a bush because, as the rabbis comment, the bush is a painful plant and reveals to the people the salvific role of suffering that they must fulfill throughout the centuries and among the nations. It is here, in the bush, that God reveals to Moses his own name, his identity as Lord. Perhaps this is why Jesus holds a mirror in his hand in which both his image and that of his Mother are reflected: they are the mirror of that symbolic announcement. The bush itself is also a rose bush, a sign of purity, but also of pain.

There is an ancient story about a fire that consumed several wooden buildings. During a fire, an elderly woman, attached to her home and its memories, refused to abandon the now unsafe building, and so she stood in front of her house with faith, holding an icon of the "Burning Bush." ​​A witness happened to be there at the moment, and seeing the woman's great faith, he was deeply astonished. The next day, he returned to the same spot and was amazed to note that the woman's house had been completely spared by the fire, while all the others around it had been completely destroyed.

This explains why the Mother of God, through her Icon of the Burning Bush, is considered the protector of homes from fires. Imagine how important this title was in a historical period when many houses were made of wood and huddled together! Such Burning Bush icons are often hung in kitchens as protection from fire. The Russian Orthodox Church honors the Burning Bush Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos on the same day as Moses: September 4 in the old Julian calendar and September 17 in the new Gregorian calendar.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"O Virgin Priest, O Mediatrix of All Graces, be merciful to us! Grant that we may live and die in an act of continuous, loving contrition, loving compassion, immolation with the Crucified Jesus, with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, with you, Most Sorrowful Mother."

(Spirit of Prayer, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Fathers, New Jersey, 1996, pp. 158-159)

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