Père Sylvain PÉRUSSAULT (1679/1773) Prêtre Jésuite et...

- Father Sylvain PÉRUSSAULT (or Pérusseau) was a Jesuit priest and a preacher who wrote numerous sermons. - He was confessor to the Dauphin and then to Louis XV from 1743 to 1753. - Sermon Summary: The preacher takes Exodus 3 as his text: Moses, seeing the burning bush that is not consumed, says: “I will turn aside and see this great sight.” He applies this image to Mary, a creature born in the midst of the fire of original sin without being burned, daughter of a rebellious father who bears no mark of his revolt. He announces two parts: the holiness of preservation and the holiness of consecration. Mary preserved from sin. • He first depicts the misery of humanity under original sin: death, diseases, wars, the corruption of the heart. • He invokes Saint Augustine and the Council of Trent: when speaking of the sin common to all, one does not intend to include Mary in it. • Convenience argument: Mary had to be Mother of God. God multiplied prodigies and figures for Israel (Noah’s Ark, Aaron’s rod, the sealed fountain, the closed garden, Ezekiel’s closed door, etc.) in order to prepare this privilege. • The Son owed it to Himself: a tender and all-powerful son would not have left his mother in opprobrium. He likens the example of Ahasuerus and Esther, whom the king exempts from the common law. • He responds to objections: the Church would not celebrate a conception tainted; he excuses the ancient doctors (Saint Bernard, Saint Thomas) who doubted out of reverence for the Church; he cites the advance of tradition, 20 popes, 30 universities, the Council of Basel, the devotions of Louis XIV. • Moral application: he turns his speech to the listeners, who profess Mary’s purity yet live badly, treating sin as a game while judging it monstrous in her. Mary filled with grace. • Beyond preservation, Mary received from the very first instant a habitual, abundant grace: knowledge of God, love, the noblest desires. • Her graces and merits grew each day, without interruption, without disturbance of passions or inner revolt, like the psalmist’s tree planted beside the waters. • The preacher sets Mary against his listeners. She is the universal model (Saint Ambrose): they weaken and squander grace, do not preserve it, expose themselves to losing it by boldness and passion, adding daily to the inheritance of their first father. • He concludes on the necessity of surrendering oneself wholly to God, on not fearing to live “under the dominion of grace,” and on the impossibility of keeping grace in luxury, vanity, and pleasures.

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