HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 20, 13 September 1873, Page 13

HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

By the Abbfi J. E. D areas. (Translated from the French for the New Zealand Tabiet.) • 9.— The.Vbkbbatioit of Maey and Pbotestaotish. By what right, now, do men dare to subvert the history of the ancient world, trample underfoot the evidence of contemporary' FaotsP and deny the conformity of universal tradition with the Gospel teaching, concerning the influence of & Virgin Mother ? There is nothing new, unusual, and in reality, inadmissible here, but the pretension to subvert, tb,e whole past, to render the present, an inexplicable enigma, and to substitute an absurdity in the place of the clear, radiant manifestation of ages. The Virgin Mother was honoured witfi ' the homage of expectation, during the four thousand years, which preceded her coming, and you will have thft Virgin of Nazareth* whose name is Mary, whose son, Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, redeemed the world, to remain in oblivion, without honour and without veneration, from, the generations who owe their salvation to her! This is not so, and it cannot be. She herself, the humble handmaid of the Lord, declared, as we shall soon have occasion to see, that all nations would call her blessed. Let our brethren who are wandering in the icy- regions of Protestantism, be pleased to interrogate their own hearts, apart from all spirit of bigotry, and pre-cosceived notions. Let them a6k themselves what is being done amongst them to exalt the glortf'of ,' the-blessed Virgin. Where are the testimonies of veneration, respect, gratitude and love with which they surround, her memory ? Supposing the entire universe ignored the name of Mary, is it Protestantism that would remedy this neglect, glorify this name, and place it on all hps, as the synonyme of happiness ? And yet, the Beatam me dicent omnes generationes, is, in very truth, one of the evangelical sentences* which Protestantism reads with us, in the sacred text. Why is it that this word remains without fruit, and without an active application iif the bosom of the pretended Reformation ? • /

10. — Tbaditiojtai. History op, Maby. Tbuth lias n6ne of these contradictions, incoherences, and systematic antipathies. The Catholic Church, now, as ever, guardß inviolably' the . deposit of the Divine Word, and preserves it in an immortal fruitfulneßß. The Immaculate Virgin has shrines in every corner of the earth.' There is not a point of space or time in which the, virginal oracle, Beatam me dicent omnes generationes, \% not being verified to the - letter. Apart. from the G-ospel narrative, in itself so explicit with' regard to the greatness of Mary, the Church has preserved the traditional details, of her. history. And how could it be otherwise ? The Apostles had known Mary personally ; some among them were related to her ; all were her compatriots. In the Cfflnaculum, when the Holy Spirit descended in the form" of tongues of fire, Mary was witK the twelve, persevering like them in prayer and- the (breaking of bread. John, the beloved disciple,* Lad received, at the foot: of the dross, the> divine legacy oij Christ, who confided to him the care of His'" mother. These are undoubted and authentic facts, since they are re- 1 corded in the Gospel. ' Now, can we imagine that the kinsfolk f of Mary, the Apostles, all of whom suffinrtol persecution or death for the name of Jesus, can have been ignorant otJhe origin and history of His ' mother P The courtiera of Alexander will have learned the history "of Olympias, and will the Apostles of Jeius Christ aiot have deigned to inform themselves of that of Mary ? They will have lived with her, and, as it were, under her maternal direction, after the glorious ascension of their Master, without gathering from her lips any recital, without questioning her oa a past, which was dearer, to them: than life! The sole mention of such a proposition proves its falsehood to demonstration. Poubtless, then, the Catholic Churoh has -inherited from the Apostles a series of traditions concerning the Immaculate Virgin. • .