The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-01-23
ECCLESIASTICAL COLUMN.
Rev. Romanus Mattingly, pastor st. Peters
Catholic Church. Editor.
Christmas Sermon. The Incarnation.

God in sanctity and justice, trans
crossed the law of his creator. De-
filed with the stain of sin, he be-
came unfortunate himself. and
made his posterity sharers IN his
misfortune. Such is the teaching
of faith. But it would avail us lit
tie to know the origin of our evils,
if we did not also know their rem
edy. This so necessary remedy, re-
igion teaches us, is to be found in
the mystery of the Incarnation,
that is TO say, in the mystery of the
Son of God made man, a mystery
which we profess to believe every
time we recite the Greed, wherein
we say; 81 believe in Jesus Christ.
His only Son, Our Lord, who was
conceived by the Holy Ghost, born
of the Virgin Mary
That we may conceive "a just idea
Of the mystery of the Incarnation,
let us first give ear to the Apostle
st. John. SIN the beginning" he
says, twas the Word" that is to
say, the Son of God, "and the
Word was with God, and the Word
was God. All things mere made
by Thine, and without HIM was
made nothing that was made s.
He was IN the world, and the world
was made by Him, and the world
knew Him not i And the
Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us. And we saw his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of
the Father full of grace and truth"
This is the most sublime and
touching expression possible of the
mystery of the Incarnation. We
see here the eternal Word, the Sec
ond person of the most Holy Tim
ity, in all the majesty, which be-
comes Him as God; but this eternal
Word, by whom all things were
made, and without whom nothing
was made; this great God who filled
the whole world with his presence,
and whom the world knew not, to
what was He not reduced that He
might come and dwell among US.
and thus make himself known to
the world? ''He was made fesh.''
that is to say, He is united to the
flesh in such a manner, that He
was made but one with the flesh.
''He is made fesh," but the Son of
God took also a soul like ours.
Why then does the Apostle speak
here only of the flesh, only of that
body composed of flesh and bones,
which had its origin from the slime
of the earth? 1t was that we might
see more clearly the wonderful hui
initiation to which the Son of God
reduced himself through love of US.
"The Word was made flesh" the
Son of God became perfectly like
unto us poor creatures. Sin and
concupiscence alone excepted, Jesus,
the Son of the Eternal God, was as
we are. Like US he had BODY
subject to hunger, to thirst, to ia
tigue, to sleep, to pain, and to
death. Like US, he had a soul SEN
sible Of JOY, sadness, fear, hope and
pity. st. Paul admirably expresses
this when he says that our divine
Saviour twas tempted in all things
like as we are, yet without SIM
The Word was made flesh, and
the body which He assumed, He
took in the chaste womb of the Vir-
gin Mary, who was of the royal
family of David. In her chaste
womb he was conceived by the Holy
Ghost in manner miraculous and
divine. The same God who created
heaven and earth, who formed from
dust the body of the first man, and
his soul from nothing, this great
God, from the pure blood of the
Virgin Mary, formed a body like
ours, for which he created and to
which he united u human soul, but
a soul all pure and holy. at the
very instant when God formed this
body and this soul, the Eternal
Word, the Second person of the
Blessed Trinity united himself to
this body and to this soul, by tie