The Faith of Our Fathers Part 15

St. John in his Revelation describes the Saints before the throne of G.o.d praying for their earthly brethren: "The four and twenty ancients fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints."(205)

The prophet Zachariah records a prayer that was offered by the angel for the people of G.o.d, and the favorable answer which came from heaven: "How long, O Lord, wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, and on the cities of Juda, with which Thou hast been angry?... And the Lord answered the angel ... good words, comfortable words."(206)

Nor can we be surprised to learn that the angels labor for our salvation, since we are told by St. Peter that "the devil goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour;" for, if hate impels the demons to ruin us, surely love must inspire the angels to help us in securing the crown of glory. And if the angels, though of a different nature from ours, are so mindful of us, how much more interest do the saints manifest in our welfare, who are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh?

To ask the prayers of our brethren in heaven is not only conformable to Holy Scripture, but is prompted by the instincts of our nature. The Catholic doctrine of the Communion of Saints robs death of its terrors, while the Reformers of the sixteenth century, in denying the Communion of Saints, not only inflicted a deadly wound on the Creed, but also severed the tenderest chords of the human heart. They broke asunder the holy ties that unite earth with heaven-the soul in the flesh with the soul released from the flesh. If my brother leaves me to cross the seas I believe that he continues to pray for me. And when he crosses the narrow sea of death and lands on the sh.o.r.es of eternity, why should he not pray for me still?

What does death destroy? The body. The soul still lives and moves and has its being. It thinks and wills and remembers and loves. The dross of sin and selfishness and hatred are burned by the salutary fires of contrition, and nothing remains but the pure gold of charity.

O far be from us the dreary thought that death cuts off our friends entirely from us! Far be from us the heartless creed which declares a perpetual divorce between us and the just in heaven! Do not imagine when you lose a father or mother, a tender sister or brother, who die in the peace of Christ, that they are forgetful of you. The love they bore you on earth is purified and intensified in heaven. Or if your innocent child, regenerated in the waters of baptism, is s.n.a.t.c.hed from you by death, be a.s.sured that, though separated from you in body, that child is with you in spirit and is repaying you a thousand-fold for the natural life it received from you. Be convinced that the golden link of prayer binds you to that angelic infant, and that it is continually offering its fervent pet.i.tions at the throne of G.o.d for you, that you may both be reunited in heaven. But I hear men cry out with Pharisaical a.s.surance, "You dishonor G.o.d, sir, in praying to the saints. You make void the mediatorship of Jesus Christ. You put the creature above the Creator." How utterly groundless is this objection! We do not dishonor G.o.d in praying to the saints. We should, indeed, dishonor Him if we consulted the saints _independently_ of G.o.d. But such is not our practice. The Catholic Church teaches, on the contrary, that G.o.d alone is the Giver of all good gifts; that He is the Source of all blessings, the Fountain of all goodness. She teaches that whatever happiness or glory or _influence_ the saints possess, all comes from G.o.d. As the moon borrows her light from the sun, so do the blessed borrow their light from Jesus, "the Sun of Justice, the one Mediator (of redemption) of G.o.d and men."(207) Hence, when we address the saints, we beg them to pray for us through the merits of Jesus Christ, while we ask Jesus to help up through His own merits.

But what is the use of praying to the saints, since G.o.d can hear us. If it is vain and useless to pray to the saints because G.o.d can hear us, then Jacob was wrong in praying to the angel; the friends of Job were wrong in asking him to pray for them, though G.o.d commanded them to invoke Job's intercession; the Jews exiled in Babylon were wrong in asking their brethren in Jerusalem to pray for them; St. Paul was wrong in beseeching his friends to pray for him; then we are all wrong in praying for each other. You deem it useful and pious to ask your pastor to pray for you. Is it not, at least, equally useful for me to invoke the prayers of St. Paul, since I am convinced that he can hear me?

G.o.d forbid that our supplications to our Father in heaven should diminish in proportion as our prayers to the Saints increase; for, after all, we must remember that, while the Church declares it necessary for salvation to pray to G.o.d, she merely a.s.serts that it is "good and useful to invoke the saints."(208) To ask the prayers of the saints, far from being useless, is most profitable. By invoking their intercession, instead of one we have many praying for us. To our own tepid pet.i.tions we unite the fervent supplications of the blessed and "the Lord will hear the prayers of the just."(209) To the pet.i.tions of us, poor pilgrims in this vale of tears, are united those of the citizens of heaven. We ask them to pray to their G.o.d and to our G.o.d, to their Father and to our Father, that we may one day share their delights in that blessed country in company with our common Redeemer, Jesus Christ, with whom to live is to reign.

Chapter XIV.

IS IT LAWFUL TO HONOR THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY AS A SAINT, TO INVOKE HER AS AN INTERCESSOR, AND TO IMITATE HER AS A MODEL.

I. Is It Lawful To Honor Her?

The sincere adorers and lovers of our Lord Jesus Christ look with reverence on every object with which He was a.s.sociated, and they conceive an affection for every person that was near and dear to Him on earth. The closer the intimacy of those persons with our Savior, the holier do they appear in our estimation, just as those planets which revolve the nearest around the sun partake most of its light and heat.

There is something hallowed to the eye of the Christian in the very soil of Judea, because it was pressed by the footprints of our Blessed Redeemer. With what reverent steps we would enter the cave of Bethlehem because _there_ was born the Savior of the world. With what religious demeanor we would tread the streets of Nazareth when we remembered that _there_ were spent the days of His boyhood. What profound religious awe would fill our hearts on ascending Mount Calvary, where He paid by his blood the ransom of our souls.

But if the _lifeless_ soil claims so much reverence, how much more veneration would be enkindled in our hearts for the _living_ persons who were the friends and a.s.sociates of our Savior on earth! We know that He exercised a certain salutary and magnetic influence on those whom He approached. "All the mult.i.tude sought to touch Him, for virtue went out from Him and healed all,"(210) as happened to the woman who had been troubled with an issue of blood.(211)

We would seem, indeed, to draw near to Jesus, if we had the happiness of only conversing with the Samaritan woman, or of eating at the table of Zaccheus, or of being entertained by Nicodemus. But if we were admitted into the inner circle of His friends-of Lazarus, Mary and Martha, for instance-the Baptist or the Apostles, we would be conscious that in their company we were drawing still nearer to Jesus and imbibing somewhat of that spirit which they must have largely received from their familiar relations with Him.

Now, if the land of Judea is looked upon as hallowed ground because Jesus dwelt there; if the Apostles were considered as models of holiness because they were the chosen companions and pupils of our Lord in His latter years, how peerless must have been the sanct.i.ty of Mary, who gave Him birth, whose breast was His pillow, who nursed and clothed Him in infancy, who guided His early steps, who accompanied Him in His exile to Egypt and back, who abode with Him from infancy to boyhood, from boyhood to manhood, who during all that time listened to the words of wisdom which fell from His lips, who was the first to embrace Him at His birth, and the last to receive His dying breath on Calvary. This sentiment is so natural to us that we find it bursting forth spontaneously from the lips of the woman of the Gospel, who, hearing the words of Jesus full of wisdom and sanct.i.ty, lifted up her voice and said to Him: "Blessed is the womb that bore Thee and the paps that gave Thee suck."

It is in accordance with the economy of Divine Providence that, whenever G.o.d designs any person for some important work, He bestows on that person the graces and dispositions necessary for faithfully discharging it.

When Moses was called by heaven to be the leader of the Hebrew people he hesitated to a.s.sume the formidable office on the plea of "impediment and slowness of tongue." But Jehovah rea.s.sured him by promising to qualify him for the sublime functions a.s.signed to him: "I will be in thy mouth, and I will teach thee what thou shalt speak."(212)

The Prophet Jeremiah was sanctified from his very birth because he was destined to be the herald of G.o.d's law to the children of Israel: "Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee."(213)

"Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost,"(214) that she might be worthy to be the hostess of our Lord during the three months that Mary dwelt under her roof.

John the Baptist was "filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb."(215) "He was a burning and a shining light"(216) because he was chosen to prepare the way of the Lord.

The Apostles received the plenitude of grace; they were endowed with the gift of tongue and other privileges(217) before they commenced the work of the ministry. Hence St. Paul says: "Our sufficiency is from G.o.d, who hath made us _fit_ ministers of the New Testament."(218)

Now of all who have partic.i.p.ated in the ministry of the Redemption there is none who filled any position so exalted, so sacred, as is the incommunicable office of Mother of Jesus; and there is no one, consequently, that _needed_ so high a degree of holiness as she did.

For, if G.o.d thus sanctified His Prophets and Apostles as being destined to be the bearers of the Word of life, how much more sanctified must Mary have been, who was to bear the Lord and "Author of life."(219) If John was so holy because he was chosen as the pioneer to prepare the way of the Lord, how much more holy was she who ushered Him into the world. If holiness became John's mother, surely a greater holiness became the mother of John's Master. If G.o.d said to His Priests of old: "Be ye clean, you that carry the vessels of the Lord;"(220) nay, if the vessels themselves used in the divine service and churches are set apart by special consecration, we cannot conceive Mary to have been ever profaned by sin, who was the chosen vessel of election, even the Mother of G.o.d.

When we call the Blessed Virgin the Mother of G.o.d, we a.s.sert our belief in two things: First-That her Son, Jesus Christ, is true man, else she were not a _mother_. Second-That He is true G.o.d, else she were not the _Mother of G.o.d_. In other words, we affirm that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Word of G.o.d, who in His divine nature is from all eternity begotten of the Father, consubstantial with Him, was in the fulness of time again begotten, by being born of the Virgin, thus taking to Himself, from her maternal womb, a human nature of the same substance with hers.

But it may be said the Blessed Virgin is not the Mother of the Divinity.

She had not, and she could not have, any part in the generation of the Word of G.o.d, for that generation is eternal; her maternity is temporal. He is her Creator; she is His creature. Style her, if you will, the Mother of the man Jesus or even of the human nature of the Son of G.o.d, but not the Mother of G.o.d.

I shall answer this objection by putting a question. Did the mother who bore us have any part in the production of our _soul_? Was not this n.o.bler part of our being the work of G.o.d alone? And yet who would for a moment dream of saying "the mother of my body," and not "_my_ mother?"

The comparison teaches us that the terms parent and child, mother and son, refer to the persons and not to the parts or elements of which the persons are composed. Hence no one says: "The mother of my _body_," "the mother of my _soul_;" but in all propriety "my mother," the mother of me who live and breathe, think and act, _one_ in my personality, though uniting in it a soul directly created by G.o.d, and a material body directly derived from the maternal womb. In like manner, as far as the sublime mystery of the Incarnation can be reflected in the natural order, the Blessed Virgin, under the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, by communicating to the Second Person of the Adorable Trinity, as mothers do, a true human nature of the same substance with her own, is thereby really and truly His Mother.

It is in this sense that the t.i.tle of _Mother of G.o.d_, denied by Nestorius, was vindicated to her by the General Council of Ephesus, in 431; in this sense, and in no other, has the Church called her by that t.i.tle.

Hence, by immediate and necessary consequence, follow her surpa.s.sing dignity and excellence, and her special relationship and affinity, not only with her Divine Son, but also with the Father and the Holy Ghost.

Mary, as Wordsworth beautifully expressed it, united in her person "a mother's love with maiden purity." The Church teaches us that she was always a Virgin-a Virgin before her espousals, during her married life and after her spouse's death. "The Angel Gabriel was sent from G.o.d ... to a Virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, ... and the Virgin's name was Mary."(221)

That she remained a Virgin till after the birth of Jesus is expressly stated in the Gospel.(222) It is not less certain that she continued in the same state during the remainder of her days; for in the Apostles' and the Nicene Creed she is called a Virgin, and that epithet cannot be restricted to the time of our Saviour's birth. It must be referred to her whole life, inasmuch as both creeds were compiled long after she had pa.s.sed away.

The Canon of the Ma.s.s, which is very probably of Apostolic antiquity, speaks of her as the "glorious _ever Virgin_," and in this sentiment all Catholic tradition concurs.

There is a propriety which suggests itself to every Christian in Mary's remaining a Virgin after the birth of Jesus, for, as Bishop Bull of the Protestant Episcopal Church of England remarks, "It cannot with decency be imagined that the most holy vessel which was once consecrated to be a receptacle of the Deity should be afterwards desecrated and profaned by human use." The learned Grotius, Calvin and other eminent Protestant writers hold the same view.

The doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary is now combated by Protestants, as it was in the early days of the Church by Helvidius and Jovinian, on the following grounds:

First-The Evangelist says that "Joseph took unto him his wife, and he knew her not _till_ she brought forth her first-born son."(223) This sentence suggests to dissenters that other children besides Jesus were born to Mary. But the qualifying word _till_ by no means implies that the chaste union which had subsisted between Mary and Joseph up to the birth of our Lord was subsequently altered. The Protestant Hooker justly complains of the early heretics as having "abused greatly these words of Matthew, gathering against the honor of the Blessed Virgin, that a thing denied with special circ.u.mstance doth import an opposite affirmation when once that circ.u.mstance is expired."(224) To express Hooker's idea in plainer words, when a thing is said not to have occurred until another event had happened, it does not necessarily follow that it did occur after that event took place.

The Scripture says that the raven went forth from the ark, "and did not return _till_ the waters were dried up upon the earth"(225)-that is, it never returned. "Samuel saw Saul no more _till_ the day of his death."(226) He did not, of course, see him after death. "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand _until_ I make thy enemies thy footstool."(227) These words apply to our Savior, who did not cease to sit at the right of G.o.d after His enemies were subdued.

Second-But Jesus is called Mary's _first-born_ Son, and does not a first-born always imply the subsequent birth of other children to the same mother? By no means; for the name of first-born was given to the first son of every Jewish mother, whether other children followed or not. We find this epithet applied to Machir, for instance, who was the only son of Mana.s.ses.(228)

Third-But is not mention frequently made of the brethren of Jesus?(229) Fortunately the Gospels themselves will enable us to trace the maternity of those who are called His brothers, not to the Blessed Virgin, but to another Mary. St. Matthew mentions, by name, James and Joseph among the brethren of Jesus;(230) and the same Evangelist and also St. Mark tell us that among those who were present at the Crucifixion were Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James and Joseph.(231) And St. John, who narrates with more detail the circ.u.mstances of the Crucifixion, informs us who this second Mary was, for he says that there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother and His Mother's sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen.(232) There is no doubt that Mary of Cleophas is identical with Mary, who is called by Matthew and Mark the mother of James and Joseph. And as Mary of Cleophas was the kinswoman of the Blessed Virgin, James and Joseph are called the brothers of Jesus, in conformity with the Hebrew practice of giving that appellation to cousins or near relations. Abraham, for instance, was the uncle of Lot, yet he calls him brother.(233)

Mary is exalted above all other women, not only because she united "a mother's love with maiden purity," but also because she was conceived without original sin. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception is thus expressed by the Church: "We define that the Blessed Virgin Mary in the first moment of her conception, by the singular grace and privilege of Almighty G.o.d, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from every stain of original sin."(234)

Unlike the rest of the children of Adam, the soul of Mary was never subject to sin, even in the first moment of its infusion into the body.

She alone was exempt from the original taint. This immunity of Mary from original sin is exclusively due to the merits of Christ, as the Church expressly declares. She needed a Redeemer as well as the rest of the human race and therefore was "redeemed, but in a more sublime manner."(235) Mary is as much indebted to the precious blood of Jesus for having been _preserved_ as we are for having been _cleansed_ from original sin.

Although the Immaculate Conception was not formulated into a dogma of faith till 1854, it is at least implied in Holy Scripture. It is in strict harmony with the place which Mary holds in the economy of Redemption, and has virtually received the pious a.s.sent of the faithful from the earliest days of the Church.

In Genesis we read: "I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head."(236) All Catholic commentators, ancient and modern, recognize in the Seed, the Woman and the serpent types of our Savior, of Mary and the devil. G.o.d here declares that the enmity of the Seed and that of the Woman toward the tempter were to be identical. Now the enmity of Christ, or the Seed, toward the evil one was absolute and perpetual. Therefore the enmity of Mary, or the Woman, toward the devil never admitted of any momentary reconciliation which would have existed if she were ever subject to original sin.

It is worthy of note that as three characters appear on the scene of our fall-Adam, Eve and the rebellious Angel-so three corresponding personages figure in our redemption-Jesus Christ, who is the second Adam;(237) Mary, the second Eve, and the Archangel Gabriel. The second Adam was immeasurably superior to the first, Gabriel was superior to the fallen Angel, and hence we are warranted by a.n.a.logy to conclude that Mary was superior to Eve. But if she had been created in original sin, instead of being superior, she would be inferior to Eve, who was certainly created immaculate. We cannot conceive that the mother of Cain was created superior to the mother of Jesus. It would have been unworthy of a G.o.d of infinite purity to have been born of a woman that was even for an instant under the dominion of Satan.

The liturgies of the Church, being the established formularies of her public worship, are among the most authoritative doc.u.ments that can be adduced in favor of any religious practice.