A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. Now, this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. Notice this is the birth we're celebrating the birthday of our lady. So this is how the birth of her son, Jesus Christ, came about. When his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they had lived together, she was found with child through the power of the holy spirit.
One sentence. What a sentence. Joseph, her husband, an upright man, unwilling to expose her to the law, decided to divorce Mary quietly. Such was his intention when suddenly the angel of the lord appeared in a dream and said to him, Joseph, son of David, have no fear about taking Mary as your wife. It is by the holy spirit that she has conceived this child.
She is to have a son, and you are to name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. All of this happened to fulfill what the lord had said through the prophet. The virgin shall be with child and give birth to a son, and they shall call him Emmanuel, a name which means god is with us. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen.
Everything that we can say about Mary as regards her prerogatives, all are based solidly on the fact that she was the mother of god. So it's very appropriate that this reading today emphasizes the birth of Jesus Christ or his conception and Mary's role as his mother and the fact that his father was the holy spirit. Now in the New Testament, we are told that Mary is the mother of Jesus and the wife of Joseph. The New Testament does not tell us the names of her parents, but there are two basic truths in the New Testament beyond all dispute. That doesn't mean they're they're not beyond the actuality of being disputed because they are not only disputed, they're contradicted.
But the point is there the two basic truths about Mary are subs are more than substantially justified in the New Testament. The first one is her immaculate conception, that from the first moment of her coming into existence, there was no taint of original sin about her, whatever original sin is. And the second fact is that she was the mother of god without any intervention of a human male, the immaculate conception and the virgin birth. These are the two great truths about Mary which are in the New Testament beyond all dispute. Now these texts can be be finagled.
I know that, and so do you, even in the best circles, of course. But the point is the texts are there. This is not a a twentieth century conclusion based upon premises which are supposed to be in the New Testament. These texts are there perfectly clearly. Of course, mostly in Saint Luke, but they're there.
I repeat the immaculate conception of our lady and the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. These are the great prerogatives of Mary upon all which all the others rest. And the church is unceasing in her I said the church is unceasing in her efforts to keep Mary in focus, just slightly out of focus these days in many in many, many instances. Her cult, if you want to use that word, has diminished considerably. Because of her in some unknown reason, the Catholic church in some parts of the world has succumbed to the very fine Protestant attitude, which Newman thought tooth and nail.
Although at one time, he was very much a champion of the view that the devotion to Mary took away from adoration of her son. Notice those two words I used. Devotion to Mary, adoration of her son. In Newman's time, that is this that are part of the nineteenth century. No one will deny that in the lives of many Catholics, there was an exaggerated attitude towards Mary and towards the saints.
But what does an exaggeration of something prove about the something? Proves nothing. Just means you have a lot of people who are in error. That's all. So Newman is a wonderful example of this.
He was totally sold, he was one of the and especially after he himself took the grand tour, as an English young Englishman did in those days, and saw some of these practices in Italy especially. And he was repulsed, and so would you be repulsed. But they were not the doctrines or the devotions of the holy Roman Catholic church. They may have taken place in churches, a building, but a building is not the Catholic church with a big c, capital c. And so it's an amazing fact, absolutely startling, for anyone who takes the time and the labor, it is labor, is not sitting down and reading our one and great only newspaper.
To take and read the early history of the church, how this doctrine was fought, Mary's place, the divinity of Christ, was the only God, was the only man. Or if you put the two together, how do you do it? And all of this had terrific repercussions on the role of Mary. Was she the mother of a man? Was she the mother of God?
Or was she mother of nothing or what? And how these doctrines surfaced and how they were fought, I repeat, fought over. It wasn't merely an academic squabble, and how down the centuries, Mary's figure has loomed large. But there has always had to be an effort on the part of the church, the Catholic church, to preserve her image pure and unadulterated from exaggerations. That's that's perfectly all not why should we be amazed at that?
Human beings all tend to exaggeration. We will wanna divide people into conservatives and radicals, liberals and conservatives or what have you. But the church has always been calmly pointing out the truth, not always easily, but I say calmly. But it can be the the calmness of a ship being tossed around violently on an anchor or on course, but can be tossed around plenty, but it can still be on course, that has that kind of tranquility and peace, which is not if it which can is certainly compatible at times with considerable turbulence. And so today, as we honor Mary in her birth, the church keeps bringing her feasts up to us all every month to remind us of Mary's role.
Mary was a 100% human being. No admixtures of anything else. She is one of us as Jesus Christ was not or as we are not one of him. He was truly man, of course, but the personality of Jesus Christ is 100% total god. That baby in Mary's arms, you could say there is god.
But Mary is one of us. And all down the centuries, where the faith has flourished, there Mary has been. And in England, as I've seen and I'm sure some of some of you, where you have had that movement from the low church, the Protestant attitude, to a high church, the Catholic attitude, you see a return of the devotion of Mary. You see her chapels being rebuilt as I have seen and as you have seen. So Mary is a touchstone of Catholicism, and we don't turn Mary into a human goddess or a divine woman.
If some Catholics exaggerate her role, all the worse for them. But that doesn't touch the true doctrine. Because you take a fine piece of silver and use steel wool to clean it doesn't mean it's poor silver. It doesn't turn it into stainless steel. Because you abuse and misuse something, there's no judgment about the thing which you are abusing, although you may destroy it.
And so the church has held Mary up right down the centuries from the earliest days, from the earliest councils Chalcedon and Ephesus and Nicea, all the way down the centuries. The church has held up Mary and especially the eastern church, the Greek Orthodox. Mohammed, Islamism puts Mary in a very high position, very high position, not as the mother of god, but the mother of Jesus. And so today, as she as the church does in season and out of season, directs our attention to our lady, our mother. She is the mother of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ being our brother makes his mother our mother.
In the name of the father and of the son, holy spirit. Amen.