HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 21, 20 September 1873, Page 13

HISTORY OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

By the Abbe" J. E. Dahbas.

(Translated from the French for the New Zealand Tablet.) il.— Aarani and Joachim. The name alone of tradition scares Protestantism ; we are not ignorant of this. Yet, it will be seen, further on, that the Church was founded not on a written word, but on a doctrine, transmitted by an oral teaching ; so that Christians are not, as the Jews, children of a book* but children of a word,— Sons of the ever-living Word. This marked distinction, which St. Paul stated with so much precision, suggested to St. Augustine, later on, the famous expression: «»I would not believe in the Gospel, if the authority qf the Church had not moved me thereto. It will suffice at present to have laid down the prinei&u Atß.A tB .£ c ? el ?S ment and ifc * P* oo * wiU be treated b 7b 7 •" elsewhere, lne Catholic Church knows the names of the parents of the Virgin of Nazareth. Mary had for father Joachim, of the ancient race of the Kings of Judah. Anne, her mother, was descended from Aaron, and by this latter side, Mary was kinswoman lo Elizabeth. Christian antiquity has preserved these names, inscribed, not by obscure legendaries, or by apocryphal writers, but by the pen of the Doctors and Fathers of the Church. St. Epiphanius (310-403,) in his immortal work, Adversut haerese*, expresses himself thus : •• Mary had for mother, Anne, and for father, Joachim. Sha was cousin to Elizabeth, and was descended from the family and house of David."(l.) Behold in these words of the illustrious Bishop of Salamin, the tradition of. the Catholic world, such as the Apostles have transmitted it to üb. We repeat to-day what St. Epiphanius wrote, in the year 350. We know all that, he knew concerning the family of Mary ; andlwe believe it as he did. (2.) 12. — IMMAOULATB CONCEPTION OV MABY. At the period in which the pious parents of Mary lived at Nazareth, Herod was directing the construction of the sumptuous edifices which he wished to add to the Temple of Jerusalem. Who should have-told him then, that, in an humble city of his kingdom, the Lord was preparing for Himself a temple more august than that of Zorobabel purer than the tabernacle of Aaron, holier than the ark of Moses ! That which never came to the knowledge of Herod, the entire world contemplates to-day. The Immaculate Conception of Mary, attested by all ages, hailed by all the Doctors and Fathers of the Church, haß been proclaimed in our own day, from that august Chair, where the ever-living Word ceases not, by the mouth of the successor of Peter, to teach His Church. Let us give heed to this sacred word -whioh has caused the Universe to thrill with an unwonted gladness, and which, falling on our souls, seemed like the prolonged echo of the angelical salutation of Nazareth : « God the ineffable, whose ways are mercy and truth, whose will is omnipotent, and whose wisdom, with ease, spans all space from end unto end, and sweetly disposes all things, foresaw from all eternity, the most dire destruction which awaited the whole human race, having its rise in the transgression of Adam. By virtue of a mystery, hidden for ages within His own mind, He had determined with deep design, to complete, in a manner still more hidden, through the Incarnation of the Word, the first work of his goodness. From the beginning therefore, and before all ages, He made choice of, and set m her proper place, a mother for his only begotton Son, from whom He should be born in the blessed fulness of time j and he loved her above all other creatures besides, and to such a degree that in her alone He look complacency with the most exceeding good-wi11(3.) Wherefore He enriched her so wonderfully with the plenitude of every celestial favour; that she, entirely free as she always was from every stain, and all beautiful and perfect, presented such a full measure of innocence and sanctity, that a greater than it, under God, is not understood, and no one, except God can ever in thought comprehend it(4.) Wherefore, as Christ, the mediator between God and man, has, by assuming human nature, blotted out the handwriting of the decree of condemnation against us, and, as conqueror, fastened it to the Cross j so, in like mariner, the most holy Virgin, linked to Him in the closest and aao3t indissoluble bonds, in union with Him and through Him, waging eternal hostilities against the poisonous serpent, and obtaining />ver him a most signal triumph, completely crushed his head under her immaculate heel(s.) . . . Wonderful and singular triumph of tho Virgin ! Her innocence, so immeasurably surpassing that of all others ; her purity, sanctity, And entire freedom from every stain of sin, and the indescribable abundance and magnificence of all the graces, virtues, and privileges which Heaven can bestow, have been proclaimed by the Fathers ! They have seen her prefigured in the Ark of Jtfoah, which the hand of God caused to float in safety above the universal shipwreck of the human race. She was for them the Ladder of Jacob, which reached from earth to heaven, on the steps of which the Angels of God ascended and descended, and on the top of which the Lord himself was leaning. She was the burning Bush, that Moses beheld surrounded with fla-nies, yet not sustaining the slightest injury, but, on the contrary, growing beautifully verdani, and budding iorth blossoms ; the impregnable Tower, from which were suspended a thousand shields, and all the armour of the brave—the terror of the enemy ; the Garden enclosed which never yet felt the invader's touch ; at whose gates, ambush and fraud are powerless j the effulgent City of God, whose foundations are placed in the sacred mountains j the august Temple of Jerusalem, beaming with divine splendour, and filled with the glory of the Lord. (6.)