The blessed Virgin received the rays of “the sun” when she conceived the Lord. That is, the divinity of our Redeemer cloaked itself with the covering of human nature as with a shade, and by this means a virgin’s womb was able to bear him.
Bede points to Peter’s exaltation (historical and, it seems ongoing) over the other apostles as a sign: that those who would enter the Church and be saved must remain in the faith of Peter and in the fellowship of the Church.
Few preachers handle well both the temporal birth and the eternal begetting of the Son of God. One of them wrote in Latin in the middle of the fifth century, yet without passing along his name.
Jesus’ words in the Gospel today reveal how Peter and John would die, but also how the disciples provided patterns for two different states of life: the active and contemplative.
