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The Moral and Social Influence of Devotion to Mary by Orestes A. Brownson It was said by the late lamented Father Baker, in one of his sermons, that "the blessed virgin Mary was greater in that she heard and kept the word of God than in being the mother of God" This seems to be justified by what our Lord himself says to the woman in the crowd, who exclaimed: "Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck." "Yea rather," he answers, "blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it;" and also in reply to the one who told him his mother and his brethren stood without seeking him: "Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?" And stretching forth his hand toward his disciples, he said: "Behold my mother and my brethren. For whosoever doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother." He thus implies that doing the will of God is more than the closest ties of kindred. The distinction of being the mother of God was great, and for that all nations were to call Mary blessed; but she was more blessed in always doing the will of God, or in the possession of those virtues which led to her selection to be the mother of God. Her personal merit in always hearing and keeping the word of God was greater than in giving her consent to be his mother; and even the great merit of that consent was in its being given in perfect submission to the will of God: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to thy word." As much as to say:" I am the servant of the Lord; his will is mine." None but Mary alone can ever bear the honor of being the mother of God.
That is hers alone, and forever distinguishes her among all women; but her
virtues, those for which God chose her among all women to be his mother,
are such as all, whether men or women, may in some degree possess in
common with her. None can equal them, for she was I have insisted on this view, because the fact that Mary's virtues are
the virtues of our own race is a reason why the devotion to her which we
Catholics practice has exerted, exerts, and is fitted to exert a most
salutary influence on individuals and nations, and on the manners and
morals of society at large. Mary's own influence is included in that of
her Son, inseparable from it, and nothing would grieve her more than an
attempt to separate or even to distinguish it from his, as if she could or
would be anything without him. Her great merit is in willing only what he
wills, and in doing only what he inspires and enables her to do. What she
does in relation to our salvation or our progress or perseverance in grace
is only what he does by her. It is really he who does it, and in crowning
her, he crowns his own work. He makes her the channel or medium of his
grace and favors to men because he loves and delights to honor her by
granting them at her request, but it is he who grants them. She is all
powerful with him, and he will deny her nothing she asks for, because she
asks only for that which accords with his will, and which he is more ready
and willing to grant than even she is to ask. With all the love and
tenderness of her woman's nature, and of her mother's heart, she cannot
love us so much or so tenderly as he does. A woman may forget her sucking
child, but he cannot forget us. He delights to grant her requests for her
clients, because she makes no requests which he does not inspire, and
because to grant these favors at her request honors her, and gives her a
share in his glory. How much the world is indebted to her intercession
with him, we know not, cannot know, and need not to know. Be it more or be
it less, it is to him the world owes it, for it is he who filled her with
grace and made her the most blessed of creatures, and it is he who
inspires and listens to her intercessions, and her work is as
indistinguishable from his as is the work of the church herself.
But the fact that the influence of the mother is not distinguishable
from that of the Son, does not prevent us from distinguishing the
influence on individuals and society of the special devotion we Catholics
pay to our Lady, as a part of Christian worship in general. This influence
cannot indeed be separated from the general influence of Christian faith
and worship, but it may to a certain extent be distinguished, and
considered by itself. It leaves everywhere distinct marks of itself, and
modern civilization owes to it many of its characteristic features, and
much of its immense superiority to that of Greek and Roman antiquity.
The worshipper of God loves, adores, praises, thanks, believes, trusts
him, offers himself as a holocaust to him, implores mercy and pardon,
gracious protection and help; the worshipper of the saints honors their
worth, their holiness, and seeks, as the highest honor he can do them, and
as the greatest favor they can do to him, to possess virtues akin to their
own, and by constant meditation on them, their life and character, loving,
admiring, venerating, and striving to imitate them, he can hardly fail to
acquire kindred virtues, because their virtues are those of creatures like
himself, and therefore by the grace of God-never withheld from those that
seek it-within his reach. In this respect as being wholly human the saints
are nearer to us than is our Lord himself, and we can more easily approach
them. True, our Lord is "perfect man," but he is also "perfect God," the
divine and human, though forever distinct, inseparably united in one
divine person, and from what he could do, we cannot infer what we can do.
If he is like unto us he is also above and beyond us, and his ability is
no measure of ours. But the saints, even holy Mary, the chiefest of them
all, are wholly of our race, are wholly human, and their virtues, the
grace of God assisting, are not above our imitation. If we cannot equal we
can approach their sanctity and worth.
On the principle here asserted, the worship,-to use the proper English
word,-the worship of Mary, or the devotion which the faithful render her,
must have a direct and powerful tendency to promote in her clients the
virtues which they love, honor, and venerate in her. The devotion to Mary
is not that Teutonic worship of woman as a goddess to which this age,
where the Catholic faith and worship do not predominate, is strongly
addicted, to the great detriment of manliness, and of manners and morale;
nor is it precisely devotion to her rank, or dignity as queen-mother,
especially with us sturdy republicans, who honor kings and queens only as
symbols of just and legitimate authority; but it is the worship of the
highest and purest virtues embodied in a real person, living an] acting.
The virtues of our Lady are not only each perfect in its kind, but they
include every Christian virtue, grace, and perfection. Mary and the church
are often taken as types, so to speak, of each other. Each presents in her
living character, all the virtues, all the graces and perfections honored
and rewarded by our Lord. But we cannot speak of them all, for it would
require a volume to speak worthily of any one of them. We shall confine
ourselves to the three principal virtues or perfections which were most
wanting in heathen society, and which are most characteristic of
Christendom, namely: humility, maternity, and virginity or chastity. Of
these Mary is the perfect type.
1. Humility. The masters of spiritual life tell us that humility is not
only a virtue, but the root of all the virtues, without which there is and
can be no real virtue. Humility is not servility, meanness of spirit, but
is real greatness of soul, and the basis of all generosity and
disinterestedness. Pride, the vice opposed to humility, has no
magnanimity, no generosity,-is always cold, narrow, selfish, cruel. Yet
pride was the most prominent characteristic of the ancient Graeco-Roman
civilization. The whole philosophical and moral system of the Stoics, the
least discreditable of the ancient sects, vas founded on pride. The Stoic
taught as distinctly self-denial, detachment from the world, contempt of
riches and honors, and superiority to all the accidents of fortune, as
does the Christian, but from pride, because a man should have too high an
opinion of himself to suffer such trifles to afflict him. He scorns to
feel, to suffer, because he holds himself too superior to the world and
its accidents, and will not admit that any thing has power to affect or
move him against his own will. Very different is the Christian. The
Christian rises above the world by his humility, not his pride, and proves
his superiority to the world, to fortune, and overcomes it by proving that
his capacity to suffer pain, disgrace, degradation even, is stronger than
its power to inflict them. He overcomes all the evils and mishaps of life,
not by regarding them as trifles to be despised, but by regarding them as
the loving chastisements of his heavenly Father, and by making them a
means of spiritual progress. The Christian observes the moral law, not as
the Stoic professes to do, from a contempt for the weakness that would
violate it, but from love of the law itself, and a profound sense of its
sacredness, and the justice and love of its Author. The Stoic contemns
death, and flies to it as a relief from defeat and disgrace; the Christian
meets death, when it comes, with composure, not only knowing that to him
it is the entrance into a blissful eternity, but he has the true courage
that can bear disgrace, and defeat, and survive the loss of all the world
holds dear. The Stoic seeks always to assert his own superiority to
fortune, but finds his strength fail, and himself compelled not
unfrequently to seek death by his own hand; the Christian feels and
confesses his weakness, and seeks strength in one greater than himself,
who is ready to help and mighty to succor those who cast their burdens on
him. The Stoic fails in his strength, the Christian triumphs in his
weakness, or by relying on a strength greater than his own. The Stoic
isolates himself from humanity, and has nothing to work with or for him;
the Christian unites himself by love with humanity and humanity's Maker
and Redeemer, and has with him and for him all that is great, mighty, and
good in heaven and earth, and is invincible in his love, all powerful in
his humility, and triumphant in all he undertakes.
Now the history of the human race presents us no example of humility so
striking, so perfect, so lovely as that of the Blessed Virgin. Lowliest of
Jewish maidens, though exalted to the dignity of bride of Heaven and
mother of God, not a thought or a movement of pride or vain glory ever as
sails her. She magnifies not herself, but in the joy of her humility
exclaims: "My soul doth magnify the ford, and my spirit hath rejoiced in
God my Saviour, because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid, for
behold from henceforth all nations shall call me blessed; for he that is
mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is his name." Not a word in
glory of herself; her whole soul is filled with the greatness and goodness
of God, whom she gives all the glory of the great things done to her. Who
can say how much the study and meditation of her example, of her perfect
humility, to which the honors paid her by the faithful constantly lead,
have done to destroy that pagan pride, and to change the pagan idolatry of
self into the worship of the living God and to promote that meekness and
sweetness of temper, that respect for the poor and lowly, and that
tenderness and compassion, so different from any thing we find in the
heathen world, and so characteristic of Christian nations? How greatly has
her example helped to realize the truth of what she continues to chant!"
He that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is his name. And
his mercy is from generation to generations, to them that fear him. He
hath showed might in his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the conceit
of their heart. He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath
exalted the humble. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the
rich he hath sent empty away."
The whole order of Christian civilization is founded on humility, and
on respect for the humble and compassion for the poor and friendless, the
needy and the helpless. The Greek and Roman civilization was founded on
pride, on respect for the successful, and favored only the favorites of
fortune. We find in those proud republics before the coming of our Lord no
respect for the poor, no provision made for the needy, no sympathy for the
slave. They whom fortune favored not were regarded as cursed by the gods,
whom it would be impious to relieve or to compassionate. The Greeks
despised the poor and treated their slaves with gross inhumanity. The
Romans were no better. The God they worshipped was force. What they
honored was success, and no maxim did they more scrupulously observe than
the 2. In honoring Mary as the mother of God we honor maternity elevated to
its highest possible dignity. "Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and
blessed are the peps that gave thee suck." "Yea, rather, blessed are they
who hear the word of God and keep it." Maternity is not all in bearing and
nursing a child, nor is that after all the highest and most blessed
function of the mother. It is not by a figure of speech only that we speak
of spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers. Spiritual paternity or
maternity is as real in the order of regeneration as is natural paternity
or maternity in the order of generation. The Jews honored maternity,
because they held that he who was to come was to be born of woman, as we
believe that he who was to come has come and has been born of woman,-of
her whom we honor as the Blessed Virgin. The Jews honored as Christians
honor maternity in view of the Messiah, for they held the same faith that
we do. But among the heathen maternity can hardly be said to have been
honored at all, and the mother was prized only in proportion to the number
of children, especially of male children, she bore to her lord. Nowhere in
ancient or modern heathendom do we find maternity regarded as a holy
function, or any conception of its deep spiritual significance Motherhood
had hardly any rights of its own, even with free mothers, and none at all
with slave moth
It is mainly to the low estimate in which maternity is held among the
heathen that we must attribute in both ancient and modern times the
prevalence of child-murder, or the exposure of children, as in China,
India, and perhaps in all nations on which the light of the Gospel sheds
no ray. In ancient Sparta the law ordered all malformed children to be put
to death as soon as born, and in Rome the mother had no rights over her
new-born child, and the nurse must wait the word of the father to know
whether the babe just born is to live or to be strangled. If the father
refuses to own it and to say let it live, it cannot be reared. The father
can slay the child with his own hand or with the hand of his slave before
the mother's eyes without her having any right to complain, or the law any
right to intervene. If the mother herself had any proper respect for the
sacredness and dignity of motherhood she could never destroy her own
offspring, and infanticide by the hands of the mother or with her
knowledge and consent would be an unheard-of crime. If again, the father
or society had any due appreciation of the greatness and sacredness of
motherhood, the practice of child-murder could never be tolerated, or even
connived at. Not only did the low estimate in which maternity was held, an
estimate that placed it little above a mere animal function lead to the
toleration or authorization of child-murder, but it tended to degrade
womanhood, and to make woman herself a mere accomplice with man in
pleasure or ambition.
Under Christianity this estimate is corrected, and motherhood, as a
necessary consequence of elevating marriage to a sacrament, is elevated in
some sense to the spiritual order, and made a holy function. Woman herself
is elevated, ceases to be a mere drudge, or an article of luxury. She is a
person, not a chattel, has her own personal existence, rights, and duties.
If a wife, she is indeed under obedience to her husband, but the obedience
of a person morally free, not the obedience of a slave. If the rights of
the father are paramount, they are not exclusive, and the rights of the
mother are recognized, and in some cases even supersede those of the
father. Under this Christian view of woman and motherhood infanticide and
the exposure of children ceased in the nations that became, and just in
proportion as they became and remained Christian.
In general terms this change in regard to the estimate in which
maternity is held is of course due to Christianity, but it is more
particularly due to that element in Christian worship which we call
devotion to Mary, the virgin mother of God. In her motherhood was invested
with a significance, a sacredness, a dignity, an awe even, never before
conceived of as belonging to it. When God himself condescends to be born
of woman, and woman becomes the mother of him who is the Creator of heaven
and earth, and the Redeemer and Saviour of mankind, motherhood becomes
almost a divine function, and something to be treated with reverence and
awe, for not only did Mary bring forth him who is Christ the Lord, but
every human mother brings forth a child destined, if true to the law of
his Maker, to be one with Christ, one with God, and a real partaker of the
divine nature. Satan lied in the sense he intended to be understood, when,
in tempting Eve, he said, "Ye shall be as gods; "yet his promise was lees
than the truth, below the real destiny to which every human soul may
aspire, for God became man that man might become God, and the glorified
saints partake not only of the human nature assumed, but of the divine
nature itself,-are made, as Saint Peter says, divinae consortes
naturae.
Certainly I do not pretend that man ever becomes the Divinity or a
divine person. The glorified soul is still a creature, and creature always
will be; but it has all of the divine that is communicable, and is joined
to God by unity of nature as well as by union of will and affection. The
mystery of human destiny through the Incarnation is too great for our
comprehension; we cannot conceive what will be the greatness and dignity
of man when glorified. "Beloved," says the Apostle John, "now are we the
sons of God, and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be; we know that
when he shall appear we shall be like to him, for we shall see him as he
is." (I John, iii, 2.)
Now in estimating the greatness and dignity of the mother we have
regard to the Son. All nations call Mary blessed, because he whom she
brought forth was the only begotten Son of God, and for a like reason to
that for which we honor maternity in her, should we honor it, though of
course in an inferior degree, in every human mother. Every human mother
may chant with Mary: "My soul cloth magnify the Lord. * * * For he that is
mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is his name." It IB a great
and sacred thing to be the mother of a child, if we look to the destiny to
which every child may aspire. The mother who feels it, feels the
sacredness of her relation as mother, the high duty it imposes, and
studies diligently to train up her child in the fear of the Lord, in sole
reference to his lofty destiny. This estimate of her own dignity and
sacred function, reacts on the father, and compels him to think seriously
on his relation and solemn duties and responsibilities as father, for more
is exacted of him than even of the mother.
Now, devotion to Mary, the honor we pay in her to motherhood, brings
all these great and solemn truths home to our winds, and our hearts. We
are led to reflect on the great mysteries of the Incarnation, regeneration
and glorification, and thence on the awful dignity of motherhood, the
sacredness and worth of every child born of woman, and the obligation to
reverence the mother, to provide for the child's present and future
welfare, and to conform society itself, so far as may be, to the virtues
honored in the maternity of Mary. From this it is easy to see that
devotion to Mary has and must have a most salutary influence on all
domestic relations, and on the manners and morals, and therefore on the
progress of society itself.
3. We honor in Mary the virgin-mother; that is, purity or chastity of
mind and body, and in nothing in all history have the good effects of the
worship of Mary been more evident than in promoting this great virtue. The
elevation of motherhood, to which it leads, carries necessarily along with
it the elevation of womanhood, for maternity is the special function of
woman,-maternity, either in the natural order or the spiritual order, as
we learn from the history of her creation. Just in proportion as maternity
is honored is womanhood honored, and just in proportion as womanhood is
honored are manners and morals elevated. Licentiousness cannot obtain a
foothold where the real dignity and sphere of woman is understood and
respected. It can prevail only where a low estimate of woman obtains in
society, and indeed only where woman entertains a low estimate of herself
in relation to the designs or plans of divine Providence. Men, in general,
estimate women very much as they estimate themselves, or rather, estimate
womanhood as women estimate it, and if women regard womanhood as invested
with sacred and awful functions, they will be as averse to wronging her as
to the commission of the crime of sacrilege The maternity of Mary has
given sublime moral and spiritual significance to womanhood, as the
assumption of human nature by the Word has to manhood itself. Under one
aspect the virgin-mother, The Jews honored, as we have seen, maternity, in view of the Messiah
who was to be born of woman, but they do not appear to have honored
virginity, and, as the Jewish dispensation was in the order of generation,
though symbolizing a higher order; they could not; for virginity, in its
spiritual sense, is in the order of the regeneration, based on the
principle of election by grace. Marriage, with the Jews, was holy, for it
is But in passing from the Jewish to the gentile world chastity or purity,
in the a Christian sense of the word, and of which we find the type in
Mary, seems to have been wholly unknown or utterly disregarded. It seems,
at least, not to have been insisted on as a virtue either in man or woman,
and if conjugal fidelity was enjoined, which was not always and
everywhere, it seems to have been enjoined less as a virtue than as an
offering to the pride and authority of the husband. It would be obviously
out of place here to attempt by the citation of facts to prove any
assertions of this sort. The facts are such as it would be a shame even to
name. My pen would blush to describe, and hardly dare allude to, the
improprieties of the cities of the plain, or to those which the manners,
customs, laws, and even religion tolerated, sometimes enjoined, in
Babylon, and in the luxurious cities of Syria and Phenicia, and I must
pass over in silence the Bacchic and Isiac orgies, and the mysteries of
the Bona Deal Voluptuousness was worshipped as a goddess, through nearly
all polished heathendom, and nothing could exceed, if what grave
historians have re corded is to be believed, the licentiousness and
corruption of manners and morals in the very highest ranks of Roman
society; and Rome herself, the proud capital of the gentile world at the
time when the church was founded, was foul with the accumulated vices of
all ages and nations. The remains of her literature and art, the pictures
and sculptures of disinterred Eerculaneum and Pompeii, bear but too ample
evidence of the corruption of the Roman Empire. No one can read the Yet Christianity, wherever it was received, wrought changes in the
manners and morals of Roman society, so great, so pure, and so holy, that
they would alone suffice, if all other arguments were wanting, to prove
its divine origin, its divine truth, and its supernatural energy. The
Roman Empire was too rotten to be saved as a state. Long the haughty
mistress of the world, foul with the vices, gorged with the spoils, and
drunk with the blood of all nations, she needed "the Scourge of God;" she
needed to be humbled, and Christianity itself could not avert, could
hard]y retard her downfall; yet it did much for private morals and
manners, breathed into the laws a spirit of justice and humanity hitherto
unknown, and in those very classes which, with a Julia and a Messalina,
had thrown off all shame, it trained up devout worshippers of the virtues
of Mary. That very Roman matronhood, once so proud, then so abandoned,
furnished, under the teachings and inspirations of Christianity, some of
the purest and noblest heroines of the arose, who gave up all for Jesus,
and won bravely and joyously the glorious crown of martyrdom. Never has
the church of God had more disinterested, capable, and devoted servants
than she gained from the ranks of the Roman nobility in the city and
scattered through the provinces, and their names and relics are held in
high veneration throughout Christendom, and will forever be honored
wherever purity, sanctity, self-sacrifice, devotion, and moral heroism are
honored. Christianity freed and elevated the brave, made him a man, a
child of God, and heir of heaven, but none served the church better, none
did more to exemplify the truths of the Gospel, and to aid in converting
the empire, than the Roman nobility, once so foul and corrupt.
Christianity when once she had converted the city to her own pure and
living faith, cleared it of its filth, and changed it from the capital of
the empire of Satan to the capital of Christ's kingdom on earth, which it
still is, and will be to the end of time. The conversion of Rome from
paganism to Christianity, the substitution of the fisherman's ring for the
seal, and the freedman's cap for the diadem of the Caesars, is the
grandest event in the history of the church, and is a sure pledge of her
final victory over contemporary heresy, and both civilized and uncivilized
infidelity.
Devotion to Mary has had its part in effecting and sustaining this
marvelous change in manners and morals. Some Anglicans, indeed, tell us
that the worship of Mary was unknown at so early an age, and that it is,
in fact, a comparatively recent Roman innovation, rather, a Roman
corruption; but Anglicans themselves are of too recent origin to be an
authority on Christian antiquity. There are obvious reasons why less
should appear in the monuments of the earliest ages, when the church was
engaged in her life and death struggle with the Greek and Roman idolatry,
of that worship of Mary, than in later times, when the victory was won,
and the danger from idolatry was less; but it does not follow that it was
less known or less generally observed. Many of the mysteries and the more
solemn parts of the divine service were placed, as is well known under the
discipline of the secret, lest they should be profaned by the heathen, and
there is no part of Christian worship that the heathen would sooner or
more grossly have profaned than devotion to Mary. Their gross minds would
have been as little able to distinguish it from their own idolatrous
worship, as are the minds of our modern sectarians. But I have seen no
reason to doubt that devotion to Mary, the virgin-mother of God, was as
well known to the faithful, or that they were as fervent in its practice
in the earlier as in the later ages of the church. We see and hear more of
it as time goes on, perhaps because our information is fuller; but there
is no reason to conclude that there has been, in fact, any increase of it,
or any great development of it in later times. It would be very difficult
in any subsequent age to find or make, even among modern Italians,
supposed to be the warmest and most enthusiastic worshippers of Mary, such
demonstrations of enthusiasm and joy as were exhibited all through the
East, from Ephesus to Alexandria, as the news spread that the Council of
Ephesus had declared Mary to be the mother of God, and condemned
Nestorius, who denied it. Nothing equal or similar occurred, not even in
Italy, when a few years since, the Holy Father defined the Immaculate
Conception to be of Catholic faith. The fair inference is that the
position of Mary was better understood, and devotion to her was more
lively in the earlier, than in the later period. The fathers knew the
faith and all that pertains to it, at least as well as we do.
According to my reading of history, the epochs in which faith is the
strongest, piety the most robust, and the church wins her grandest
victories, whether in individuals or in nations, are precisely those in
which devotion to our Lady, or the worship of her virtue, is the most
diffused, the most vigorous and flourishing; and the epochs in which faith
seems to be obscured, and to grow weak and sickly, and the church is the
most harassed and suffers her greatest losses, are precisely the epochs in
which this devotion is the most languid and feeble. All the great saints
have been no less remarkable for their tender and assiduous devotion to
Mary than for their manly virtues and heroic sanctity, and I suspect that
most of us could bear witness, if we would, that the least unsatisfactory
portions of our own lives have been precisely those in which we were the
most diligent and fervent in our devotion to the mother of God. I claim,
then, for devotion to our Lady a full share of influence in rendering
Christian society so much superior in all the virtues to the polished but
corrupt society of pagan Greece and Rome. As with the pagans the worship
of the impure gods of their mythologies could not fail to corrupt the
worshippers, so with Christians the worship of the purity and sanctity of
the mother of God has not failed to purify and render holy those who in
sincerity, earnestness, and simplicity of heart were careful to practice
it.
I might tale up other virtues of Mary, for she is a Casket of Jewels,
and show in like manner how through devotion to Mary they have entered
into Christian society and formed its manners and morals; but this every
reader can easily do for himself. I have laid down and illustrated the
principle, and though I have said not all, rather the least that could be
said, I have said enough to show that the influence of this devotion hag
been and must have been great and salutary on individual and domestic
manners and morals, and in elevating and advancing general society.
But I should be wanting to my own faith, and do far less honor to our
Lady than I would, if I stopped here, and limited the effects of devotion,
to the natural influence of her example. This influence is great, and we
cannot hold intimate, loving, and reverent intercourse with the wise, the
great, and the good, without assimilating something to our own minds,
hearts, and life. Meditation on the humility, the maternity, the
virginity, the immaculate purity of the Virgin of virgins, Mother most
pure, Mother most chaste, Mother undefiled, cannot fail to give us
something of those virtues so characteristic of her, and of our holy
religion; but I do not believe that meditation on her virtues could alone
suffice to produce and sustain the effects I have adduced, any more than
the simple example of our Lord himself could have sufficed to redeem the
world, and elevate souls to union with God. All the peculiarly Christian
virtues are in the order of regeneration, as is Christianity itself,
though presupposing, as does regeneration, the order of generation, and
therefore are impossible without grace or supernatural assistance.
Pelagianism, even Semi-Pelagianism, is a heresy, and little would devotion
to Mary in reality effect, if we were to leave out all consideration of
the supernatural assistance which she obtains for her clients, by her
all-powerful intercession with her divine Son. Even faith alone in the
mysteries and teachings of the Gospel could not suffice; for the devils
believe and tremble, and yet are none the less devils. Most of us know and
believe much better than we do. We see, and approve the better, and follow
the worse:
Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor.
What we most need is not amply instruction or precept, but strength. We
are weak, and our appetites, passions, propensities, are too strong for
us, and enslave us. We feel ourselves sinking; the waves are closing over
us, and in fear and agony we cry out: "Lord, save us, we perish!" "Holy
Mother of God pray for us, or we are lost!" The soul oppressed with a deep
sense of its weakness, of its inability to conquer by its own strength in
the battle of life, calls out for supernatural aid, and it is precisely
this aid, so much needed, and which enables us to resist and overcome our
enemies, that I dare believe, and avow that I believe, the blessed Mary
can and does obtain for those who fly to her protection. There is no
superstition in so believing. We do not ask Mary to grant nor do we
believe that she can grant us supernatural aid. She is a creature and has
no supernatural aid to give. She grants us her prayers, her intercessions,
and these she can grant, for so much we can do for one another. The
supernatural assistance is granted by God himself, and is the immediate
act of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Sanctifier, the Consummator,
done at her intercession, which is all-powerful, as we have seen, because
it is always in strict accord with the will and pleasure of her divine
Son.
No doubt God could grant us the supernatural assistance we need,
without the intercession of holy Mary, but as he is a God who heareth and
answereth prayer, it is his will that they who need should ask, should
pray; and prayer itself is a favor, and is a necessary preparation for the
reception of other favors. God uses the ministry of saints and angels in
the works of providence and grace because he would honor them and give
them a part in his glory, and there can be none that he more delights to
honor than his mother, for there are none whose virtues do or can surpass
hers. She is his mother; she is more, for she hears the word of God, and
keeps it; she doeth always the will of God. Whom, then, shall he honor,
and make the channel of his graces, if not her?
Much is heard of the enthusiasm and extravagance of Italians in their
devotion to Mary. and we are gravely told by men who command our reverence
by their learning, ability, and virtues, that they will not suit the taste
of sober and undemonstrative Englishmen and their descendants, the
Americans. I know not whether it be so or not; but faith is faith, and the
experience of ages, of generation after generation of Catholics, proves
that never have men in simplicity and love sought her protection in vain,
and the belief in her ability and willingness to protect and assist us in
our dangers and necessities by her all-availing prayers and intercession,
is an integral and essential part of that very devotion which we render
her, and which is her due.
Including the supernatural assistance Mary obtains for us by her
prayers and intercession for us, it would be difficult to exaggerate the
individual, domestic, and social influence of Catholic devotion to the
blessed Mary, the holy mother of God. I believe not, nor am I required to
believe, every legend that floats about among the faithful, nor would I
rashly deny them; forms of devotion and expression may sometimes be
adopted which I do not find edifying to me, but if they exceed not the
limits of faith I quarrel not with them, for they may be edifying to
others, and may be acceptable, for the simplicity and good-will with which
they are adopted, to our Lady herself. Pious affection is not required to
speak always with the precision and exactness of a theological doctor, and
where there is no exuberance there is little life, or an unfertile soil.
Love never measures its words, for all words seem too weak for it, and
seldom does it, if deep and genuine, fail to express itself in
demonstrations that seem wild and extravagant, half-crazy, to those who
love not. It is not easy to love our Lady too much; and I have found it
always easy to distinguish those who really love her, and are really
devoted to her, by their purity of thought and expression, their
gentleness and sweetness of temper, and their amiable and obliging
disposition, from all others. Devotion to Mary marks itself on the
features and even in the complexion. We take note, as soon as we see or
hear them, that they have been with Mary. I speak of those who are really
her children, not of those light, frivolous, volatile creatures, who
practice, by fits and starts, certain little coquettish devotions to Mary,
but never reflect seriously, for a single moment, on her virtues, on the
solidity of her character, or the dignity of the position she holds in the
divine economy of grace. Mary heard the words of the angel; she heard the
words, and saw the deeds of her divine Son, and she pondered them in
heart. She never fails to assist those who follow her example.
I have spoken of the influence of devotion to Mary in elevating
maternity and with it, womanhood. The nations are in need of this
influence still. Christendom is lapsing anew into heathenism, and the
abominations I have referred to as existing in heathen nations, are
reviving in nations that profess to be Christian, and even to a lamentable
extent in the bosom of nations that call themselves Catholic. Faith has
become weak, charity has given way to a watery philanthropy, and the
worship of Mary is branded as idolatry or as besottish superstition. Every
thing is Profaned, the church, the state, God, man, and woman; and
society, while boasting of its progress, seems to be rapidly lapsing into
barbarism. Never did the nations more need the church, or the pastoral
authority of the vicar of Christ; never was there a greater need of the
prayers and intercession of her whom we invoke as Health of the Weak,
Refuge of Sinners, Comforter of the Afflicted, and Help of Christians. No
small part of the world, once Christian, and adoring the Cross, needs
converting anew. The crescent profanes the sacred dome of Saint Sophia,
and more than two-thirds of the population of the globe are infidels or
pagans; while heresy, schism, incredulity, indifferentism, dishonor Christ
and our Lady in fair lands that still retain the Christian name. The work
of converting and purifying the world is not finished, and is apparently,
to a great extent, to be done over again.
If there is any truth in the view I have presented of the moral and
social influence of devotion to the virgin-mother of God, it is to that
devotion, as a powerful means of reconverting and repurifying Christian
nations, and of converting and purifying heathen nations, that we must
have recourse. The enemy of man to be overcome, is the same old enemy of
God. Man would be God, not in God's way, but in his own; he would stand on
himself, and suffice for himself. In the pride of his strength, and the
light of his own intellect, he refuses to bend to the Highest, and to
learn of the Wisest, and his strength turns to weakness, his light to
darkness, and his manhood disappears. He loses heart, and likens himself
to a worm, and crouches, and grovels. What can restore him? Not to-day
need we fear an excess of faith, an excess of devotion. The enemy is a
cold, freezing rationalism, which, pretending to be reason, becomes
lifeless materialism. Nothing can overcome him but devotion to her who, as
the mother of God, was to crush the serpent's head. We must call on Mary
to call on God with us, and for us, to help us as he did the first
Christians.
In conclusion, I will say that efforts to increase devotion to the
Blessed Virgin are, to me, among the most encouraging signs that God has
not forgotten us; that there are still faith and love on the earth, and
that there is still a recuperative principle in Christian society. I thank
God, for society itself, that there are still those who delight to call
themselves children of Mary, and to keep alive in our cold, heartless
world, the memory of her virtues. While she is loved and reverenced there
is hope for society, and most grateful am I to God that the hard
reasonings of this reasonless age, and the chilling sneers of the proud,
the conceited, the worldly, the corrupt, have not frightened all out of
their deep, ardent, and simple devotion to her who is blessed among women.
If I have not been able to speak fit words in honor of our Lady, as I fear
I have not, let me at least avow that I honor and cherish, in my heart of
hearts, an who honor her, and show their devotion to her, by imitating her
virtues. They are the real philanthropists they are tile real moral, the
true social reformers, and are doing more for society, for the progress of
virtue, intelligence, wisdom, than all our statesmen and philosophers put
together. They love and honor God, in loving and honoring his mother, and
I love and honor them, and, all unworthy as I am, I pray them to have the
charity to implore her to bestow on me a mother's blessing, and to obtain
for me the grace, when my life's pilgrimage is ended, to behold the face
of her divine Son, my Lord, and my God.
Works, Vol. VIII, pp. 86-104 URL=http://www.execpc.com/~berrestr/bro-mor.html
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