The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1922-12-09
In Honor of Our
Lady Immaculate

recent centuries his imitators have
impeached without success her privi-
legged exemption from sin. The name
of the sanity Plus must ever be as
sociated with that of the ancient Syl-
vester in the signal honor of making
Mary better known and loved. While
the definition of the Immaculate Con-
ception came, may say, as the re-
sponse to the century-old call of faith
full Christians" rather than as an an
swer to the attack of it's enemies, it
joins the queenly council of Trent
which refrained from including Mary
in its decree on original sin to the last
council of the Vatican for which IL
prepared the way The same Plus
who published her supernatural love
liness to the world in eighteen hum
dred and fifty-four, again proclaimed
in eighteen hundred and seventy an.
other startling truth of the super
natural order.
A Three-foid Lesson Offered.
But above all, the definition of the
Blessed Virgins Immaculate Concep-
tion offers us three-fold lesson; it is
a singular refutation of heresy in the
name of the heroine of faith to
whom the Church says, thou alone
hast destroyed all heresies on the
earth;' it is lesson in humility in
the name of our Mother most humble
whose Magnificat sings the exultation
of the humble; lastly, it may be con-
sidered reward of the common peo-
pie, that is, a reward of their common
faith in Mary's spotlessness.
Consider it for moment as singu-
lar refutation of heresy. The Refor-
nation had, alas, opened the Sacred
Scriptures to private Interpretation
setting up the Book against the
Church. Those who would search the
Scriptures alone for the record of
Mary's Immaculate Conception must
be doomed to disappointment Did
the inspired author of the Old and
New Law omit mention of such a sub
lime prerogative? Emphatically no.
But the Scriptures in the hands OF
those outside the Church and the
Scriptures III ike hands of the children
of the Church are not the same divine
record. The Church with few pal
mary texts before her reminded ra-
tionalistic world-the faltering chill
dren within her fold, as well as the
rebellious without-of her commission
to teach ali nations. She appealed
from the Book taken alone to the Book
interpreted in the light of living, low
ing tradition. She appealed to her
venerable defenders, st. Justin, St.
Ignatius in the beginning, to the great
Bishop of Hippo in the fifth century
and beyond him downward to the
middle-time. She looked into the
varied religious life of her children to
ascertain the place which the Mother
of God occupied in their hearts. Then,
she said to her objectors, you assume
without semblance of reason that
the whole of Gods Revelation is con-
tained in the inspired Word Take up
the Scriptures in the spirit, not of
reason but of faith, and read them
with me. Find therein Mary's glori-
Gus prerogative. 1t is written there
from the beginning, in characters of
indelible beauty.
The Church the Guardian of Faith.
The definition of the dogma was
moreover lesson in humility in the
name of Mary the exemplar of hu,
mility. The Church is the guardian OF
the deposit of faith. There can be
no development of doctrine which
amounts to an addition, subtraction
u substantial change in that revelation
come down from heaven. Neverthe
less God chose not pure spirits, but
men to rule His Church. The Holy
Ghost, therefore, does not altogether
neglect the faculties nor the methods
of men in the teaching Church. The
| Church may we'll be called the Mother
of genius. 1t is an axiom of objective
history that under her protection
genius. and learning have ever found {
home. From her sanctuary the nation!
one by one have lit the lamps of thei
own civilization But let us not forge
that to no genius however exalted
/ that ito no genius however formed il
sarictity, is infallibility vouchsafed. Ii
it not rather more instructive thai
/ strange to behold how Proyidenc,
may hide Truth from the wise, an,
reveal it to the little ones? Is it no
a spectacle calculated to nourisl
Christian humility to see the opposi
tion to the doctrine of the Immaculat
Conception in the very ranks of tn
most learned and the most holy of
holy and illustrious age? To behol
on the other hand the same doctrin
pass ,unQuestioned in the ranks of th
lowly, the humble, the common faitf
full? pause to name but a few, a
Anselm, Bonaventure, a Bernar
whose praise of Mary is beyond a
praise. Yet st. Bernard does nc
] hesitate to call the institution of he
i feast an innovation! Nay more,
name the giant of that illustrious az
of giants. the Christian Aristotle, wh
charted the grand alliance betwee
!, Faith and Reason the saint who's
Summa, the glory of the age and th
j, glory of the human intellect as vel
merited place next to the inspire
word in the discussions OF gre;
ecumenical council Did he not ia
Il SContinued on page AZ