Feast of the Immaculate Conception
I am clean and without sin, I am unspotted and there is no iniquity in me. — Job xxxiii, 9.
Synopsis: Introduction — Glance at world within us and without, must convince of reality or the twist or taint in human nature, we call original sin; and of the consequent need of redemption. Man not a risen but a fallen being. Faith aids reason, in showing how the race fell in Adam and Eve; and rose in Christ, with Whom was associated also a woman, his mother, Mary Immaculate. Both sexes, morally and spiritually shattered in our first parents, are thus restored in the new Adam, Christ, and the new Eve, Mary. This new Eve's first grace or favor, was sinless conception, our theme today. Let us dwell then briefly.
I. On the meaning and history of the dogma of her Immaculate Conception.
II. Its lessons and the practical bearing it should have on our lives.
(a.) Even in his fall, man, is God's masterpiece. By nature progressive in all states. Created sound, gifted in highest degree, with intelligence, morality and supernatural holiness. Meant to advance simultaneously in all three; thus there was limitless aptitude and capacity for the all-round perfection of his nature. (b) Fall reduced him to low natural level. Progress continued, but one sided and incomplete. Holiness, main source of perfect progress, lost. (c) Promise of Redeemer to atone for sin, and lift up race to its first level. The promise took shape in a woman and her child. This wondrous creature gifted and favoured like Eve. Ideal of womanhood. Germ of sinless conception latent herein. (d) What this title of sinless or immaculate conception means, and implies. (e) Not formally expressed in scripture or tradition; yet legitimate development, growth and expansion of doctrine on our Lady contained in both. Vagueness in doctrine, gives way eventually, to clearness. Mind and heart of devout ever strove to put this belief into fixed formula. This finally effected in definition of Pius IX.
II. (a) This truth has also practical side. Our lady, the new Eve, set up as a model, and ideal, both for admiration and imitation. (b) This more needful today than ever. Conflict of ideals, "battle of the Standards," waxes fiercer than ever. "Our Lady's Dowry," true charter of woman's rights. Is self-willed, self-indulgent and disobedient Eve to be model of our womanhood or self-denying, law abiding, holy and ever faithful Mary? (c) Church our guide in conduct, as in belief, holds up Christ, as ideal man, and His immaculate Mother, as ideal woman. (d) The lessons to bring home, front thoughts, dwelt on today, are:
1. Hatred and flight of sin.
2. Love and pursuit of holiness.
Introduction
We meet today for the purpose of honoring the Mother of God in the first great privilege bestowed upon her, that of sinless conception. Alone of women born, she came into being stainless, flawless, immaculate.
The state of our souls within, and of the world without, the conflict raging between human nature as it is, and human nature as we feel it might be, and ought to be, tells us that depravity runs in the blood, that there is an inherited taint, a moral twist in man's character, redemption from which is our most crying need. But today, we rejoice that one privileged soul escaped the common disaster, and both came into life, and continued therein, "Full of grace." This creature is Mary, the spotless maiden mother of Bethlehem, the new unfallen Eve, the second mother and model of our race, on whose soul her Son's redeeming power acted specially, and by way of anticipation, from the first moment of its existence. Of her, the first resting place of God, in human form, on earth, it may be said with truth: "There shall no evil come to thee, nor shall the scourge come near thy dwelling" (Ps. xc, 10).
To understand the doctrine of the "Immaculate Conception," we must remember that man, in the beginning, even in his simple elemental stage, was more a product of grace, than of nature. There was more in him of the glittering angel, than of the uplifted beast. He did not, therefore, rise, as is the fashionable teaching today, from a lower animal level to a higher, but from the lofty sinless state, in which he was created, as lord of the world, fell to the lower level of the natural and animal man. There is no convincing evidence whatsoever, that even bodily, he ever emerged from lower animal forms; whilst mentally and morally, the gulf between man and beast, cannot be bridged. Faith thus aids reason, in ascribing the origin of man's admittedly abnormal condition, to the abuse of the gift of free will, by sin, which, consequently, involved a fall from the primitive grace or justice, in which he first came into being. Human nature, by this lapse, got loosened from its moorings in God, and became a derelict.
The two peerless models of humanity in its ideal state, fell therefore, in Adam and Eve. Both sexes thus lost their privileges, as sinless beings, and fell to the low level of naturalism. Both are now happily restored in the sinless Man, Christ, and His sinless Mother, Mary, whose dowry of Immaculate Conception is our theme today. Let us briefly dwell:
I. On the meaning and history of this prerogative; and,
II. On the moral application of this truth to us personally.
I. In spite of the fall, man is still the highest manifestation of God's creative power in the world, a being apart, a class to himself. Mind lifts him immeasurably above other living beings, making him capable of almost infinite progress. Knowledge has, therefore, never stood still, and with it, man's dominion over the earth and its resources, has ever kept pace. But man is more than intelligent, he is, by nature, just and moral. He distinguishes right from wrong, and by free will, at the dictate of conscience, can choose between them. He has a sense of justice, and the duty of living up to it. Though sorely bruised in this respect, by the fall, he is still the only being on this earth, endowed with a conscience, guiding him to do what is morally right, and shun what is morally wrong. But more than this, man has a capacity for holiness. Not only may he progress in the intellectual and moral order, but he may also advance in the spiritual order of grace, or holiness. By this great gift of God, a holy man is as far raised above the merely natural man, i. e., the merely intelligent and moral man, as the latter in turn, is raised above the beasts of the field. For "God is wonderful in His saints." It is holiness, that, in the long run, makes the ideal man or woman, not great mentality, or mere natural morality. An unlettered peasant, dowered with this gift of God, is a higher specimen of our race, than a cultured Greek without it. This was the gift that our first parents lost for themselves and us, by sin, and that our Lady was the first to recover through redemption, in all its original splendor. She alone of mortals came into being immaculate. From the loss of Eden, holiness, in the full sense of the term, had fled the earth, but returned with her. God had meant, and still means, that holiness should dominate man's entire soul. Without it, progress in other directions, is partial, halting, one-sided. Hence God created man in the high and holy state of grace, as this gift is not merely the highest endowment of which man is capable; but also perhaps a necessary corrective element of his complex nature. Reason alone, with all "its sweetness and light," is no match for the animal passions in any, and every state. For free will without grace, tends, almost necessarily, to engender sin. But dowered with the gift of holiness, our first parents mirrored God. Their whole being was in perfect harmony with Him, and with nature around. They were but the first seedlings of the race, it is true, germinal and undeveloped; but the seed was sound and untainted — capable of growth, expansion and progress, not partially and unevenly as at present, but perfectly, fully, and in every sense, physically, intellectually and morally. In the time of trial, however, they were found wanting. They chose, by willful sin, a lower state, and, like outlaws or criminals, forfeited their privileges, rank, and honor amongst creatures, not only for themselves personally, but for their descendants. The source was poisoned, and with it, the stream. The germ was damaged and corrupted, and with it, the tree and its branches. Humanity lost its ideals. There was neither perfect man nor woman to fix its type. Man no longer worshipped and mirrored the true God; but adored his own spoilt and tortured image, in loathsome gods and goddesses.
Notwithstanding, God in His mercy, promised a Redeemer, who should not only heal and save our stricken race, but become likewise, the purest type and model of its manhood, associating with Himself a new and sinless Eve, as the ideal of its womanhood. To them, both sexes could look up, as founders of the new family of God; and on them, pattern their lives. Hence, from the earliest times, we find those, "Looking forward to the redemption of Israel," ever wistfully straining their eyes towards signs of the coming of the Mother and Child, that were to bring back holiness to the earth; undo the work of Adam and Eve; and restore again the golden age of harmony with God.
In due time this great Woman appeared in the maiden Mother, Mary of Nazareth, saluted by the angel of the Annunciation, as, "full of grace." And in these words, as I said, lies the germ of the title, under which we honor her today, a virgin, "conceived without sin."
By the dowry of Immaculate Conception is meant, that, through the redeeming merits of the Child she was to bear, and the supreme excellence of the rank and office thus bestowed upon her, our Lady escaped the inherited taint of the race into which she was born. This simply implies, that, like Eve at her creation, Mary too, came from her Maker's hands, a creature of incomparable spiritual loveliness, to be queen and mistress of the new world, as being the Mother of its Lord and Redeemer. Immaculate Conception, therefore, means more than sinless birth. John the Baptist and Jeremias, it is believed, were born, but not conceived, without sin, whereas exemption from the law of inherited guilt was bestowed on the Mother of God, from the very dawn of her being. To her, as to Esther of old, it was said, "Fear not, for this law is not made for thee but for all others" (Esther xv, 2).
It is indeed true that this doctrine is not mentioned in set terms in Holy Scripture; but neither are any, of even the fundamental truths of the Christian creed. You will search in vain for such words as the Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, the personality of the Holy Ghost, yet they are all implied therein, just as are particular truths in general principles, or as a full blown rose is contained in the bud from which it springs. When in 1851, Pius IX, amid the acclamations of the Catholic world, defined the Immaculate Conception as a matter of faith, he made no essential addition to the creed. His action was merely the formal and express authoritative statement of a truth, already part of the deposit of faith, which it is the duty and office of the Head of the Church to guard, defend, and declare in set terms, if needful. There may thus be an increase of definitions and explanations, but never an addition to the measure of revealed truth taught by Christ, and left to the guardianship of the Church, just as it is the same sun that shines in the dim morning dawn, as well as, in the glare of midday. "Teach all nations," "He that heareth you heareth Me," said the Lord.
The truth, therefore, that our Lady was conceived without sin, is a legitimate development of the statements made regarding her in the Old and New Testament, as well as in the traditions, teaching, and devotional practises of the early, medieval, and modern Church.
Though not perhaps with the same clearness of vision, or exactness of expression, Catholic instinct, in all ages, must have felt, dimly, at least, as we feel clearly, today, that the Woman of Genesis, who was destined to crush the serpent's head, could never have been his slave by sin; and that this very woman, the maiden mother of Bethlehem to whom, "fullness of grace" was attributed by the angelic messenger of the Incarnation, could never have been the victim of sin, the very antithesis of grace, be that sin either actual or inherited. Redemption like creation is harmony, not discord, on God's side. We cannot, surely, think, that the Saviour, who was to redeem the world by His precious Blood, would draw that Blood from a tainted source; and set up as the type, model, ideal, and pattern of redeemed Womanhood, one less richly dowered, on her entry into life, than faithless Mother Eve. Hence, the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mother of God, though not an historical truth, in the usual sense of the term, yet, in its Divine fitness, in its harmony with the scheme of Redemption, and in the call for it, on the part of reason, sentiment and faith, is far beyond all historical facts, in cogency.
I quite own it was possible for God to have chosen any daughter of Eve as the vehicle of the Incarnation, without freeing her from the sad law, entailed by sin. God is not sullied by contact with the lowest of His creatures, be they saints or sinners. He is in closest touch with all things. As man even, he entered all dwellings, and gave Himself in Holy Communion, both to Judas and St. John; but the question does not hinge on what, in the abstract, God could do, but what He actually did do, and what, in our way of thinking He must, as He ought to have done, in the case of one destined to be His Mother in the flesh, and stand for all tine, as the ideal standard of her sex. When we claim for her a place apart amongst women, and special privileges and prerogatives rightly due to her rank and office, we do but follow the example of the angel declaring her "Blessed amongst women." Female beauty and excellence, spiritualized and idealized, form an inexhaustible source of inspiration, to orator, painter and poet, alike. Can we err then, in saying, that on no member of the sex, did God lavish these gifts from His treasury, more abundantly, than on her, within whose sacred person, was woven the body of His Divine Son, — "the Word made flesh."
Happily for us Catholics, the sinless conception, like the perpetual virginity of our Lady, is a closed question. The mind of the Church in this matter, is the mind of God. Her authority in deciding what is, or is not, revealed by Him, is His authority. "He that heareth you heareth Me." "He that will not hear the Church let him be to thee as a heathen and a heretic." This seal of Divine authority, affixed to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, makes us realize more vividly, the truth, beauty, and splendor of the vision of our Lady, conjured up by the prophet, ages before her birth. "Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array" (Cant. vi, 9).
II. We have dwelt so long on the doctrinal aspect of the mystery honored today, that little time remains to view it, from its practical standpoint. For remember, the Immaculate Conception is no mere abstract dogma, but a concrete actual truth of fact, lived and realized in the life of a person of flesh and blood, like ourselves. "I am the Immaculate Conception" were our Lady's own words to the vision-favored peasant child of the Pyrenees. She is raised aloft, "the pattern on the mount," not merely for invocation, and admiration, but for imitation as well. This is all the more needful to keep in mind, as the conflict between good and evil, between the old Adam and the new, between God commanding and Satan tempting, rages stronger and fiercer than ever. Man on trial, "half angel, half beast," is ever free to choose his gods, so to say, and therefore, the conflict between right and wrong goes on, and always will go on till free will is confirmed in either good or evil, and the story of our race is over.
Not that evil is chosen as such, for the will is constrained to good; but then the difficulty lies in deciding what is really good and true, and what only such, in appearance. Man must progress, but in what direction, or along what lines, is this movement to be directed. Is it to be secularism or religion, pleasure or duty? Are we, men and women, to follow in the footsteps of the old Adam or the new, of the first Eve or the second? Are the passing needs and fleeting pleasures of time and self, or the great truths, bearing on God and Eternity, to regulate our lives ? Is body or soul what we must take care of most, in this world? These are pressing questions. The modern spirit, open or disguised, is setting up new idols, new aims, new ends for life. In all the phases it assumes, it holds or implies that a crucified Saviour is no fit model for the manhood of our race, nor a mother of sorrows for its womanhood.
But the Church ever true to her mission of holding tip the light in darkness, i. e., of guiding men aright in the paths of truth and righteousness, points to them and the saints, who, in imitation of them, have trodden the path to Calvary, as "The way, the truth and the life."
She points fearlessly and unhesitatingly to the Cross, emblem of self-denial, as man's highest symbol, the standard of our loyalty to God and His Christ; and "obeying God rather than men," tells us unflinchingly, that, if we would be perfect, if we would not walk in darkness but in light, if we would ascend, and not descend, in the scale of Manhood and Womanhood, we must take the bleeding figure who died on that Cross, and the sorrowing Mother standing beneath, as the Divine types and ideals of all godly men and women.
Now the lesson we have to learn from the reflections on our Lady's Immaculate Conception made today, is twofold, — first, the flight of sin, and next, the pursuit of holiness. Whatsoever our sphere of work, these must form the main purpose of life. Our measure of success therein, determines our place in the Kingdom of God; and indeed, our sole genuine happiness in the kingdom of this world too. A soul exempt from all stain of sin, and adorned with grace or holiness, formed our Lady's dowry, on entering life, and were the source and fountain head of all her spiritual wealth, grandeur and privileges. They alone made her body a fitting shrine for the Incarnate Word. They won for her her place in Heaven, and in the Church on earth. By nature, we shrink from evil; but there is only one real evil, sin, the product of our depraved wills. It is the only thing, that is truly wrong with the world, and with us. Take it away, and this wicked world becomes an Eden. There can be no sure progress, no genuine advance in civilization, that is not based on the uprooting of moral evil, i. e., the avoidance of sin. We cannot, like our Lady, live immaculate lives; but with the help of God's grace, we can, at least, shun actual deadly sin, and keep our souls unspotted from a world at war with God.
The second lesson we have to take to heart, is the pursuit of holiness. This is the wealth of Heaven, with which our Lady was so enriched. The angel saluted her as full of grace, and on account of it, "all generations have called her blessed." All other gifts of God are fleeting, and decay, they perish with this life, but holiness abides for ever, like the eternal life, for which we are destined, and for which it fits us. Hence our Lord tells us to grow in holiness, He does not say, in power, in wealth or in learning, but holiness, — "Be ye perfect, i. e., holy, as your Heavenly Father is holy." Our Lady was favored in all the graces, that can adorn her sex; but holiness was her main endowment; and fidelity to it, has made her what she is today, "Queen of angels and saints."
Bear in mind, that flight of sin and increase of holiness, form the necessary germs of happiness, both here and hereafter. Learn from the mystery of our Lady's Immaculate Conception, then, ever to regard sin as the main evil of life, and holiness, in the felt possession of God's holy grace and friendship, as its chief good.
© Joseph F. Wagner, Inc.
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