The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-01-02


one for instant would desire to introduce such
state of affairs into the vigorous, strong clergy OF
western Christendom.
Does not st. Paul reckon ''forbdding to marry as
one of the doctrines of the devil? Il Tim, iv, 81
ST. Paul is denouncing the early Ebiontc,
Marcionite and Manichean heretics who con
denEed marriage as an evil i'll itself, and proceed
ing from an evil principle. The Catholic church
has already considered matrimony one OF the seven
Sacraments of Jesus Christ, and therefore holy it
self in all its relations.
Can a human being be- the mother of the eternal
God?
why do you call the Virgin Mary the mother OF
God?
Because She is the mother of the divine person,
Jesus Christ, who is true God and true man. And
whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord
should come to me-" Qluke i, 45; CT /, 35). "lils
son, who was made to Him of the seed OF DAVID,
according to the flesh" Rom. l. 81. God sent bis
Son, made of woman" (Gal iv, ~.
Many Protestants, unaware of the true doctrine
of the Incarnation, call the Blessed Virgin the
mother of Jesus, and not the mother OF God, as
though our Savior existed in twofold personality
human and divine. The Catholic doctrine, how
ever is that the Second Person of the Blessed lrn-
ity, in His divine nature etemally begoten OF the
Father took to Himself from the womb OF HIS NlT-
gin Mother human nature of the same substance
as hers and therefore the mother of that divine
the mother of God.
As our mothers are not called the mothers OF
our bodies, but simply mothers, because the
soul which is directly created by God is united with
the body in one human personality, so the Blessed
Virgin is not called the mother of Jesus--that IS,
of the human nature alone-but simply the mother
of God, because the divine nature which is eternal
y begotten of the Father is united with the human
nature in one divine personality.
Strange indeed, too, / have met Episcopalians
who in one breath admitted the authority of the
first six General Councils, and yet in the next de-
MED the divine maternity which was expressly de-
clared By the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephe-
sus, in 431 against the HISTORIANS Strange, again,
that the followers of Luther and Calvin seem
aware of the fact that both of these reformers
never questioned Mery's claim to be the Mother of
God Quther. "Deutche Schriften," vol. xiv, p.
250; Calvin, "Com. sur. fhar. Evang., p. 20)
Why do you pay so much honor to the Blessed vir-
The Blessed Virgin was not an ordinary wo-
man Would, the Father, having the choice of
countless millions, create an ordinary woman to
be the mother of His only begotten SOM 1t is
to imagine it. On the contrary, she
is the most extraordinary of women, before whom
the greatest saints of the Old Law and the New
pale as do the stars at the rising of the
We honor her the masterpiece of>God-whom
God honored. indeed, above all creatures in her di
",
prophet Isaias tells of her elsa. vii, 14) coming
the court of heaven sends embassy to her (Matt.
l. 20); the Angel Gabriel salutes her with the
words Hail. full of grace, the Lord is with thee
blessed art thou among women" (Luke l. 28) her
cousin St. Elizabeth greets her. Blessed art thou
among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy
womb. And whence is this to me that the mother
OF my Lord should come to me!' (ib., 43): and
Mary herself prophesies truly: Behold from hence
forth all generations shall call me blessed" lib 49,
Are not we, therefore, who daily fulfill this proph-
ncy, stamped belonging TO the generations of
dods people, Must we not love her who was close
10 Christ from Bethlehem TO Golgotha? Must we
not love the Virgin Mother of God Immediately
and sinless, who shows the world what
1unan nature is capable of. through the grace of
sod, who teaches men the dignity of motherhood
ma the purity of ylrginity, which the pagans of
hose days had forgotten. ] could never under
tand why Protestants seem so jealous of the love
We have for the sweet Mother of God | never
'ould understand how men had hoped to extol the
hrst by beilttllng the mother He loved so dearly.
very true child resents bitterly the slightest dis
aspect to beloved mother. Is Christ the Son of
iod an exception to the law He himself planted
II the hearts of men!
God could no more be jealous of the love we
AVE Tor Mary, the masterpiece of His creation,
han all artist jealous of the pictures he painted,
r an author jealous of the book he had written
I)O not the terms appued TO Cne virgin IN CdtnOnc
rayer books border on biaspheny? She is sometimes
allied the only hope of Christians" 'the mother of
race etc.. One prayer says: Mary command thy
SOM"
We readily grant that some expressions In Cath
lie prayer books or books Of devotion are literally
nexact and exaggerated but there is sem
lance of blasphery, for every true Catholic knows
erfectly their true sense. We must in all hon
sty carefully distinguish the language of devo-
ion from the language of dogma To the unpreju-
iced the exaggeration, if there be any, will al
rays he manifest, and the accuracy of dogma may
e easily obtained by consulting a catechism. or a
manual of theology
Often the impassioned words characteristic of
he Italian Spaniord may be distasteful to the
older and less imaginative Englishman or Ameri-
an. The expressions of an ardent lover to his
weetheart may not all be literally true. for
7armth of feeling often begets exaggeration in
anguage. But who would caval thereat and ask
he lover always to speak in cold matter-of-fact
ermss Must there be no warmth in the exures-
ion of our love of the saints of God.
Speaking of these expressions of devotion. Rus
IN says that they "are rather poetical effus;ons
han serious prayers, the utterances of imaginative
rather than reasonable conviction. And
IS sueh they are rather to be condemned as ilusorv
nd fictitious than as idolatrous: nor even as such
condemned altogether, for strong love and faith
re often the roots of them, and the errors of
Election are better than the aceuracies of ana+hro
The Stones of Venice" VOL ii, D. 800, append;x
" We read in the Scripture (Joshue x. 1Q of
the Lord obeying the voice of man" Now. +h;s \