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C )LL CHRISTI REGIS SJ.

016. MAJOR

TORONTO

SINLESS MARY AND SINFUL MARY

I. — Mary's Social Mission as the Second Eve

II. — The Woman that was a Sinner

BY

BERNARD VAUGHAN, S.J.

C3LL CHRIST! REGIS S.J.

616. MAJOR

TORONTO

^077 BURNS & GATES LIMITEjD

28 ORCHARD STREET, LONDON, W. 1905

' ' Sinless Mary and sinful Mary — The Mary called the Magdalen"

FRANCIS THOMPSON.

THESE WORDS ABOUT MARY, CALLED THE MADONNA

AND

MARY, NAMED THE MAGDALEN

ARE DEDICATED WITH

REVERENCE, LOVE, AND GRATITUDE

TO

Our Holy Father POPE PIUS X

BY

His DEVOTED SON

BERNARD S.J.

CIVILTA CATTOLICA ROME December 17 th, 1904

I/

MARY'S SOCIAL MISSION AS THE SECOND EVE

Correggio\

VIRGIN AND CHILD

Mary's Social Mission as the Second Eve. Words spoken in the Basilica of the Apostles, Rome. December 3rd, 1904.

" All generations shall call me blessed." LUKE i. 48.

MY LORDS CARDINALS, RIGHT REV. FATHERS, AND DEAR BRETH REN, — We are met together, here, in the Eternal City, to celebrate a year that will be for ever memor able in the history of the Church, a year of double jubilee. From every nation have come delegates and representatives to keep high and solemn festival here, in the centre of Christendom, where fifty years ago was first proclaimed to a

Mary's Social Mission

similar gathering, and to all the world, the dogma of Mary's Imma culate Conception ; and where, in the past year, God has set upon the Throne of Peter a Successor whose career and whose Pontificate already bid fair to attain a dis tinction and a fame unique in the annals of the world.

The Faithful from every Christian land are gathered here, and we of England, as I trust, in no unworthy number, seeing that our dear native land has had this quite special glory and twofold honour ; the one, that of celebrating the Feast of Our Lady's Conception from as far back as the eleventh century — that is, at least one hundred years earlier than any other people ; and the other, that of giving, in the sixteenth century, the lives of her highest and noblest in the defence of the prerogatives of the Holy See.

The occasion and the time require that we should pass over this second motive for the jubilee to give our thoughts to that which is first and

The Second Eve 9

most dominant in the minds and hearts of all — the glorious privilege bestowed upon her whom we call the Immaculate.

And here again there is much we must set aside : many facets of that most brilliant Jewel, which our dear Lady is, we may not even glance at. Other preachers will declare and extol the intrinsic beauty, the trans cendent brightness, the supernatural grace of Mary's immaculate soul ; a soul, which is, as a fact, after the Sacred Humanity, the extreme of God's creative energy, the goal of His ambition, the pure, shining peak of human personality, the witness of His might, the mirror of His beauty, the monument of His skill, the trophy of His passion, the very triumph of His love ; while I, for my task, will endeavour to set forth but one aspect of Mary's matchless mission : the manner in which she has repaired the sin of Eve, and restored fallen woman to her right ful throne. That this was in part her mission, she herself bore witness

io Mary's Social Mission

when in that hymn of praise, her only song — more wonderful in its far-reaching significance than any other that ever poured from human lips — she prophesied before earth and heaven: "Henceforth all genera tions shall call me blessed."

We call Mary the Second Eve, and well is she entitled to this name. For, in the great drama effecting man's redemption, did not Mary play the part which answered by contrast to that taken by Eve in the tragedy that brought about the fall of man ?

Yes ; if it was Eve who, by listen ing to the insinuations of the evil spirit promising that she should be as God, brought perdition into the world, it was Mary, by consenting to the message of the good spirit assuring her she was to become the Mother of God, who brought salvation to mankind. Mary's co operation, then, in the work of reparation is analogous to Eve's part in man's prevarication : hence we call her the Second Eve.

The Second Eve n

" By one woman," writes St Augustine, " death came to us, and, by another, life ": perdition by Eve, salvation by Mary. And St Epiphanius, treating of the same subject, reminds us that: "Eve was the cause of death to men, because death entered into this world through her ; while Mary," he continues, " is the cause of life to them, because life and all that life implies came into the world through her." Hence the Church in her liturgical office says of Mary :

" Quod Heva tristis abstulit Tu reddis almo genuine."

Presently we shall see how splendidly Mary has fulfilled her mission to us as the Second Eve ; meanwhile let us for a moment pause to consider and examine the wiles and snares employed by the serpent, "more subtle than all the beasts of the earth," to compass his diabolical end : the ruin of man kind by original sin.

12 Mary's Social Mission

Abiding his time, the evil one waited till God had drawn forth from the region of man's heart a partner and helpmate in woman. Then when Eve came forth, fresh from the creative hand of God " brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn with fragrant roses," Satan (seeing her sweetness and loveliness, her weakness and gentleness, her fine sympathies, together with that infinite charm and grace and tact with which God, had dowered her exquisite soul), realised at once what seemed to him to be his opportunity of robbing man of his wealth of grace and of dragging him into the slough of sin. He would attack Adam through Eve ; he would play upon her finer feelings and sensi bilities, awakening both her curio sity and her vanity, till at length, being borne away by ambition, she would, so he felt, o'erleap herself, and thus bring about not only her own ruin but, what most of all the enemy was scheming and plotting for, the

The Second Eve 13

fall and ruin of her partner and lord, Adam.

Alas, my brethren, there is no need for me to put before you the details of that terribly graphic story, beginning with the word : " Why hath God commanded you ? " and ending with the fatal climax : " You shall be as gods." So de finitely, and yet so simply, is the story told in Genesis that, whether we accept its literal interpretation or not, we cannot help recognising that we have in it an account of the fall ; while between the lines is re vealed to us the character of him who " once was beautiful as he is hideous now."

Observe well, my brethren, that man and woman, husband and wife, are meant in the designs of God to be helpful and not hurtful to each other. " Each has what the other has not, each completes the other, and is completed by the other ; they are in nothing alike." And furthermore, notice that, as the happinesss and perfection of both

14 Mary's Social Mission

depend on each sacrificing self and studying the good of the other, so too the misery and perdition of both in no small measure depend on the selfishness of each to the neglect of the interests of the other. That this is so I need but remind you of the scene enacted beside the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden, where Eve " took of the fruit thereof, and did eat ; and gave to her husband, and he did eat : and the eyes of both were opened." And now to proceed to the next chapter in the history dealing with the downfall of woman and of man through woman. Fully satisfied with the success of his plan for the ruin of our first parents, Satan, whose one ambition is the ruin of their children also, has changed his tactics in little or nothing since he first set them in action. In that first attempt, having brought woman from her exalted position to the depths of degradation, it has been Satan's endeavour ever since to hold her down, to keep her from ever

The Second Eve 15

rising again in the social scale, so that she should ever be in his hands an apt instrument for the ruin of her husband and of her offspring, and so in time of the human race. And the arch-enemy of mankind, in act ing as he has done, has proved him self to be as malignant as he is astute.

Indeed, constituted and circum stanced as woman is, a cleverer plan than that employed by Satan to mar and spoil God's great creative work cannot be conceived. For, putting aside her matchless gifts and charms to fascinate the eye of man, woman in her unspoilt per fection, whether as wife or mother or daughter or friend, is knit to man's very soul by ties so fine and strong, she is woven into the very fibre of his being by relations so tender, so affectionate, and so in timate that she seems to hold in her hand the key itself of man's heart, and, therefore, the very springs themselves of his life may be said to be under her control.

1 6 Mary's Social Mission

The history of woman from her first fall in Eve till her rise again in Mary is a painful proof that, if woman in her innocence may have such a powerful influence on the destiny of man, woman in her fall may deserve and incur man's bitterest contempt and scorn. With rare exceptions, now in a chapter dealing with the Jewish people, now in that of the Greeks, or again in that of the Romans, and lastly of the German races, woman stands out before us as moving, ever surely if sometimes slowly, lower and lower down the incline, till at last she is seen in the time of the Empire on a social plane so base and degraded that a French writer speaks of her as "la divinite de la corruption, trouvant son supreme honneur dans sa supreme haute." Whatever in fluence at an earlier date she was able to exercise for good, later, alas ! we are forced to admit what little power was left to her she was permitted to put forth for evil only.

The Second Eve 17

Time does not permit us to estab lish this statement by a series of quotations from historians, philo sophers, satirists, and poets, who lived in what was called the Golden Age, but what in reality was an age of mud and blood and shame. But one author I will cite, Seneca, whose noble pagan wife was Paulina. " Woman," he writes, '' is but a shameless animal, in whom men can see nothing but a savage creature incapable of restraining its passions." Alas ! be this as it may, anyhow it is true to say that, in the last days of the Empire, the unfortunate sisters of fallen Eve were treated as though they were little better than non-human beings w7ith no human rights.

And what other fate was woman to expect in an Empire where it was openly proclaimed that woman was not man's soda but serva, not the partner of his life and helpmate, but the toy of his fancy and the instrument of his pleasure ? True, at one time Greek andfRoman life

1 8 Mary's Social Mission

had recognised the sanctity of the marriage tie and the duty of rearing children, but when so-called civilisa tion had reached its highest point in paganism, not only was the indissol uble character of wedded life utterly ignored, but its duty to the race was looked upon as an intolerable burden, to be cast off as unworthy of freemen. Hence, in the time of Augustus, the very highest and noblest Roman families were dying out for want of heirs ; while lower down the rungs of the social ladder self-inflicted extinction was, a his torian tells us, obtaining far and wide, desolating whole provinces, and even Rome itself.

The far-seeing Augustus, realising the revolting state of things, ad dressed himself to the task of at tempting to stem the tide of corrup tion which was sapping the very foundations on which his empire rested — family life.

With infinite patience and per severance he succeeded at length, in the teeth of opposition, in framing

The Second Eve 19

and passing laws punishing adultery as a civil crime, fining profligate celibacy, and rewarding fruitful marriages. But if these laws themselves bear witness to the in iquitous state to which a shameless race had come through its scorn and contempt of its mothers and sisters, their utter impotence to deal effect ively with the widespread evil is a proof, if proof were needed, that no merely human legislation can touch the springs of moral action. Augustus, as he stood beside the death - bed of his empire expiring through moral suicide, was forced to confess that not even he could pre scribe an antidote to neutralise the poison which was infecting its life- blood, bringing it swiftly to inevit able destruction.

What Augustus failed to achieve by force of will and law, Mary, under God, accomplished by the simple fiat of her will ; where the greatest Roman Emperor failed a simple village maiden, as we shall now see, succeeded :

20 Mary's Social Mission

" Sumens illud ave Gabriel! s ab ore, Funda nos in pace, Mutans Evae nomen."

Come with me, my Lords Car dinals, and dear brethren, in spirit, and, leaving behind the city of the Caesars, let us cross the tideless Medi terranean, and make our way through the plains of Israel, till, beyond Esdraelon, nestling in the bosom of the highlands of Galilee, we catch sight of the most obscure village of the most obscure province of Rome, called Nazareth.

" Can any good come out of Nazareth " ; can any balm for the healing of the nations be gathered in that high-perched hamlet beyond the reach of civilisation ; can any virgin fountain of life, " purer than foam on central ocean tost," be there found to send forth its cleansing stream to purify the nations of the earth ? Look up, listen, and be satisfied : " Behold, an angel is sent by God to a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a

The Second Eve 21

Virgin, and the Virgin's name was Mary."

In that interview with Gabriel Mary is asked to give her consent to become the Mother of God. But she, mindful of her vow of virginity, dearer to her than pearls beyond price, cannot see her way consis tently with it to become a mother, till, the angel assuring her that even this is possible with God, the modest maiden bows her assent, saying : " Behold the handmaiden of the Lord, be it done unto me according to Thy word." In that meeting between Mary and the good spirit the disgrace and degradation brought on the fairest portion of our race by Eve's seduction were more than repaired, for " in the world's sad aspirations, One Success," in the Immaculate Virgin - Mother of God, every woman, whether virgin or mother, recognises her ideal of true and pure womanhood — an ideal to be respected and revered for all time, in all lands, by all men. Did not the Second Eve with her own

22 Mary's Social Mission

lips proclaim that it should be so ? Did not Mary utter, as already we have said, the prophetic word when, shortly after the Annunciation, she stood upon the threshold of the holy priest's house, locked in the arms of her sainted cousin Elizabeth, and declared : " From henceforth all generations shall call me blessed " ? And was not that canticle of the Incarnation a song of triumph, in whose chorus every member of Mary's sex may gladly and with conscious pride join to the full com pass of her voice ?

Not only is Mary ever-blessed be cause she sprang from the hand of the Triune God — " Coming forth as the morning, rising fair as the moon, bright as the sun, shining in the Temple of God as the morning star in the midst of a cloud " ; not blessed merely, because later on she was to appear in the heavens as " the Woman clothed with the sun, with the twelve stars about her brow, and the moon beneath her feet " ; but blessed also, and most

The Second Eve 23

especially in our eyes, because in her and through her woman was to be blessed with a blessing that should be for the healing of the nations. Well, then, may the Bride of Christ, the Church, turn to the Second Eve, " the blessed among women," and exclaim : " O, thou glory of Jerusalem, thou joy of Israel, thou honour of thy people " ; and well may we too lift up our voices with that of the Church, and in full choir proclaim to all the world that Mary is the First and Only

Mother whose Virgin bosom was un-

crost With the least shade of thought to

sin allied ;

Woman above all women glorified, Our tainted nature's solitary bc.a«t:''

The world, my brethren, is governed more by ideals than by ideas, more by example than by precept. Accordingly, the unique

24 Mary's Social Mission

moral and social status universally recognised in every Christian nation as belonging to Mary's devout sex is to be attributed and ascribed not, indeed, so much to the teaching of Christ's Church as to the example of Christ's Mother. Mary's example is most truly a potent factor and a really vital energy penetrating and permeating every Christian family going to make up the Christian state. Thus is the Second Eve more to the Second Adam than the fallen Eve was to the fallen Adam : she is Mater viventium, the Mother of all living in Christ. She it is who may be said to rule the Christian home. Yes : the Christian home : does it not owe its sweet orderliness and its pure loveliness as well to M?rv, the Second Eve ? Home, we are told, is the place of peace, " the shelter not only from all injury, but from all terror, doubt, and division. And wherever a true wife comes, this home is always round her. The stars only may be over

The Second Eve 25

her head ; the glowworm in the night-cold grass may be the only fire at her foot, but home is yet wherever she is, and for a noble woman it stretches far round her, better than ceiled with cedar or painted with vermilion, shedding its quiet light far for those who else were homeless." Oh, what an up lifting influence does not the Christian wife exert upon him whose partner and helpmate she is and whose home she is !

Listen to the poet giving expres sion to King Arthur's mind upon this subject :

" I know

Of no more subtle master under Heaven Than is the maiden passion for a maid, Not only to keep down the base in man, But teach high thoughts and amiable

words

And courtliness and the desire of fame And love of truth and all that makes a

man."

And to come to a later date, what, indeed, \vas Beatrice but an influence

26 Mary's Social Mission

to purify and sanctify the soul of Dante ? The mere smile of the maiden as she passed sufficed to flood the poet's soul with joy and peace, to blot out his pride, and dispose his soul to virtue ; and when she appeared to him in the topmost point of purgatory it was not to receive mere flattery and empty praise but, on the contrary, blame for not having vowed to her a love that was pure and sweet enough for one whose ideal was Mary, who will have no one

" Following false images of good that

make No promise perfect."

Listen again to the Christian type of woman as presented to us in St Bathilda, Queen of the Franks. " Being of Saxon race," says the chronicler, " she was of a gracious and subtle form, and of a beautiful and cheerful countenance. To the king her husband she showed herself as an obedient wife, to the princes as a mother, to the priests as a

The Second Eve 27

daughter, to young men and boys as the best of nurses, to her friends as splendidly loyal and true. To the poor she was always distribut ing alms, and to Christ, the Heavenly King, always commending herself with tears."

" Happy the men," exclaims the ancient chronicler, " to whom God has given wives and mothers such as are to be seen throughout Christen dom."

Did time permit, my brethren, I might here enumerate a very litany of sainted names under the title of wife or mother, cited from any Christian nation under the sun, each one of them conspicuous for a delicacy, a dignity, and a purity, borrowed from the ever - blessed Virgin-Mother. With reason, then, did pagans who were witnesses of the wrords and works of this new creation, called into being by Mary's example, exclaim : " Quales feminas habent Christiani"

If to Mary, under God, we owe the Christian home, it was she,

28 Mary's Social Mission

as St Ambrose reminds us, who in it raised the standard of virginity, an ensign never before unfurled, as the rallying-point for those wish ing to signalise themselves in His service who born of a Virgin was Himself a Virgin, and who, as St Augustine tells us, is followed by a bodyguard of virgins singing a song which others may hear but cannot utter. And what a brave and glorious troop it is, including such names as Agnes, Cecilia, Ursula, Hilda, Mildred, Bridget of Kildare, Ethelreda, and Winefride, and ten thousand times ten thou sand others, called from the utter most part of the earth to the Virgin Standard, and armed each one of them in defence of it with the strength of ten, because her heart is pure.

Observe then, my brethren, that the prototype set up before the Christian woman is not the Spartan mother, or the Roman matron, or the Vestal virgin, but the ever- blessed Woman, who is the Virgin-

The Second Eve 29

Mother. Nor is her image, her example, her life, and character confined merely to the domestic and social life of Christendom, but it broods no less over its philosophy, its literature, its poetry, and its painting, as though the arts would unite in saying of her :

" All higher knowledge in her presence

falls

Degraded; wisdom in discourse with her Loses, discountenanced, and like folly

shows."

Nay, I do not hesitate to say that the Church is in no small meas ure indebted to woman for many of the more brilliant names adorn ing the list of sainted heroes which she holds up before her children for their admiration and imitation. Take, for example, such saints as Francis of Sales, Louis of France, or Francis the Seraphic, or Benedict and Augustine, or Gregory and Jerome, not to mention a score and more of others equally familiar to you ; and let me ask you : Where

30 Mary's Social Mission

did these giants among men learn those special lessons in the art of Divine Love which have made them so deservedly attractive and so popular with the faithful, irres pective of nationality ? You will tell me they were taught the finer touches of delicate sympathy with the suffering and the sorrowful children of humanity by the spiritu ally-gifted women with whom it was their privilege to have been brought into contact. Truth to tell, there are phases in the all- embracing character of Christ rarely found in men who have not felt the influence of woman. It is her mission as Mary's representative on earth to soften, sweeten, and chasten man, and so in her hands he becomes more truly Christlike in his character and more Christ- like in his sympathies.

To summarise what Mary's social mission as the Second Eve has been to Christianity I will say with a modern rationalistic historian : k' Because of her and through her,

The Second Eve 31

woman was elevated to her rightful position, and the sanctity of weak ness became recognised as well as the sanctity of sorrow. No longer the slave or tool of man, no longer associated only with the ideas of degradation and sensuality, woman rose in the person of the Virgin- Mother into a new sphere, and became the object of a reverential homage of which antiquity had had no conception. Love was idealised, the moral charm and beauty of female excellence were fully felt, a new type was called into being, a new sort of admiration was every where fostered. Into a harsh and ignorant and benighted age this ideal type infused a conception of gentleness and purity unknown to the proudest civilisations of the past. ... In * the many millions who in many lands and many ages have striven with no barren desire to mould their characters into her image, in those holy maidens who out of love of Mary have separated themselves from the glories and

32 Mary's Social Mission

pleasures of the world to seek in fastings and vigils and humble charity to render themselves more worthy of her benediction, in the new sense of honour, in the chival rous respect, in the refinement of tastes displayed in all the walks of Society — in these and in many other ways we detect the influence of the Blessed Virgin Mary. All that was best in Europe clustered round this ideal of woman, and it is the origin of many of the purest elements of our civilisation."

Yes, my brethren, to the observant student of history there is, perhaps, nothing more striking in the making of Europe than the part played in almost every department and pur suit of life by Mary's fair and gentle followers. Who would care to deny that the contrast between woman's position within and without the pale of Christianity is always, and nearly everywhere, as the differ ence between light and darkness, day and night ? In vain will you search through the purest and

The Second Eve 33

brightest pages of pagan literature for a galaxy of names to mate those which shine forth, like constellations, on almost any chapter dealing with the story of Christianity.

Hence, we must conclude that, wherever the " world-wide Mother " has been recognised as the archetype of woman, there have her devout and gentle handmaidens been given a sphere of influence and a place of honour which, so long as Mary shall retain her hold upon the world, they can never lose.

And indeed, when we glance at our immediate environment, or look back upon the last three glorious Pontificates, we are free to confess we can detect no signs of any diminu tion on the part of the faithful in their whole - hearted devotedness to her whom they address as the most prudent, most venerable, most renowned Virgin ; as the inviolate, amiable, and admirable Mother ; the Refuge of sinners, the Comfort of the afflicted, the Help of Christians, the Queen of men and

34 Mary's Social Mission

of angels. On the contrary, through out the Universal Church, we see a most sure and steady growth (especially fostered in the numerous congregations and confraternities), of devotion to her whom they claim as their " Mother, Queen, and Ad vocate."

But what need have we to ask the experience of others in order to bring home to us the reality of Mary's rightful place in the economy of the Incarnation ? For us who are among her children, "mourning and weeping in this vale of tears," it is altogether superfluous to borrow from others what we ourselves already possess in ample abundance. We know, and do we not know it with a knowledge which is one of the dearest treasures of life, that to Mary, after Jesus, we are more deeply indebted for all that smoothes the rough ways of this present life, for all that soothes its sufferings and sweetens its sorrows, than to any other of God's creatures ? Glance back but for a moment upon the

The Second Eve 35

ways by which you have come, and I tell you, no matter whether they have been shaded by sorrow or flooded with sunshine or chequered by both, you must acknowledge that the " blessed among women " and the most blessed of all mothers, has been through all your paths more than a mother to you, and that she to whom God hath done mighty things hath through Him done mighty things for you also ; so that you, no less than St Bernard, can from your own experience proclaim to the world : " No one ever had recourse to her protection without obtaining relief"; and, with the Church, that " no one ever fled to her patronage and had his petition despised or denied."

Thanks be to God, we, the mysti cal members of Christ, have the guarantee of His expiring utterance assuring us that this should be so. For, as He lay dying on the Cross, did He not say " Behold thy son," and "Behold thy mother" ; and what, let me ask you, was that

36 Mary's Social Mission

save an all but creative word and sacramental sign, teaching the whole Church that, as He Himself through Mary came to us, so would He have us by Mary go to Him ? Provided that we, on our part, in this vale of tears, continue to look upon her as " our life, our sweetness, and our hope," she on hers, when this same exile shall be ended, will " show us the blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus."

" O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary ! "

On earth, then, as in heaven, there is no pause in the praise and worship of God's " Perfect One."

" When Jesus looks upon thy face, His heart with rapture glows ; And in the Church by His sweet grace Thy blessed worship grows."

What a refining, elevating, and spiritualising influence does she not exercise, this " Woman clothed with the sun," through her devout clients, upon the sons of men ; what

The Second Eve 37

a power for checking evil and pro moting good is in their hands ; with what a magic delicacy do they not bestow sympathy, mitigate pain, and alleviate sorrow ; how wisely do they inspire virtue and create a very atmosphere of purity where soever they come. Follow them from their homes into the slums of poverty and misery, or into the fever wards of the hospital, or the nursing homes of the sick, or indeed where you will, for always and where- ever there is wrong to be redressed, or suffering to be relieved, or sadness to be comforted, or sorrow to be pitied, or loss to be mourned, there you will find self-sacrificing, self - forgetful Christian women, practising the lessons learned at the feet of their Mistress and their Queen — the Virgin-Mother.

And here, lest perchance some one among my hearers, alien to the Church, may feel disposed to call to account the strict accuracy of my statements, permit me to cite, in support of them, the testimony

38 Mary's Social Mission

of one who has studied from without the wondrous influence of Mary upon the Church. " I am per suaded, after the most careful ex amination," writes this student of history, " that the worship of the Madonna has been one of the noblest and most vital graces of Catholicism, and has never been otherwise than productive of true holiness of life and purity of character. There has probably not been an innocent cottage home throughout the length and breadth of Europe, during the whole period of vital Christianity, in which the imagined presence of the Madonna has not given sanctity to the humblest duties and comfort to the sorest trials of the lives of women ; and every brightest and loftiest achievement of the arts and strength of manhood has been the fulfilment of the answered prophecy of the Israelite maiden : ' He that is mighty hath made me great, and holy is His name.' "

Yes ; and let me, in gratitude, add

The Second Eve 39

that, among the twelve millions of Catholics who under the liberty- giving flag of England exercise their religion unmolested, and amid an equal number of our co-religionists enjoying beneath the star-spangled banner of America an inalienable right no less marked, there has been ever since the proclamation, now fifty years ago, of the dogma defining her Immaculate Conception, a steady tightening of the love-ties between them and her who shields pure women and strengthens brave men.

And now, my Lords Cardinals, Right Rev. Fathers, and dear Brethren, let me conclude this discourse, spoken to remind you of the world's indebtedness to Mary as the Second Eve, by especially exhorting my fellow countrymen and countrywomen not to forget that we, the liegemen and vassals of her dowry, are bound by quite ex ceptional ties of fealty and homage to this " Lady mighty as she is great."

If Albion, that gemlike land

4° Mary's Social Mission

set in the silver sea ; if that rock- bound home, studded with shrines called by her name ; if even Anglo- Saxon England can make good the proud boast of ..V having been the very first to keep, the feast of Mary's Conception as a " great and joyous festal day" (though Ireland may have caught a glimpse of its morning rising yet earlier still) —then, surely, on a unique occa sion such as this, when delegates from every nation under the sun are met here, in the centre itself of Christendom, to commem orate with a splendour, pomp, and solemnity rarely seen before this miraculous immaculate event, it is but fitting and appropriate that we of England should be here not only as the representatives of our Catholic forefathers, Mary's devotees, but also as the living witnesses of the tradition of England's devo tion to that Conception, which, as a rich heirloom, has been so faith fully handed down to us.

And while we offer homage and

The Second Eve 41

praise and thanksgiving no less on our own behalf to her whom " all generations call the Blessed," let us remember to implore, with a very storm of prayer, that Mary's Dowry, our island home, may be in no distant day given back to her, and that England may thus through her become once more restored to its rightful place as a great Catholic nation.

" And now fixing our gaze Unto that visage most resembling Christ, For in her splendour only shall we win The power to look on Him,"

let us raise our voices to her the greatest of the great and the mighti est of the mighty, the fairest of the fair, the loftiest of the lofty, and the holiest of the holy in God's creation, beseeching her to incline her gracious countenance, and to stretch forth her sheltering arms, that in them England may regain what Ireland has never lost — faith and trust in the united love of the Mother and the Child Divine. May that most

42 Mary's Social Mission

fruitful blessing rest upon our beloved King and Queen and their royal house, and may it extend to the farthest limit of our world-wide Empire !

" Nos cum prole pia Benedicat Virgo Maria."

THE WOMAN THAT WAS A SINNER"

Carlo Dolci\

[A linari

THE MAGDALEN

" The Woman that was a Sinner." Words spoken at the Church of Notre Dame de Bon Voyage, Cannes. Lent 1898.

" And behold, a woman that was in the city, a sinner." — ST LUKE vii. 37.

YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESSES, RIGHT REV. FATHERS, AND DEAR BRETHREN, —The woman whose name, out of a delicacy of feeling, the Evangelist has in my text suppressed, and who is introduced to us in the character of a sinner, I take to be the sister of Martha and Lazarus, whose home was at Bethany. In doing so I am following a cherished tradition con cerning her in the Catholic Church. According to it, the woman here described as "a sinner " is Mary of Magdala, or Mary Magdalen,

45

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who, after her conversion, became, like the other members of her family, very dear to Jesus Christ. Refer ring to them, the Beloved Disciple says : " Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus."

At the time when Mary " was in the city, a sinner," Jesus Christ, " the Friend of sinners," was there also. He was staying at Nairn, " preaching and evangelising the Kingdom of God " ; showing forth His miraculous powers, proving Himself to be God in the flesh. In its streets His voice was heard proclaiming : " The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, to the poor the Gospel is preached " ; " nigh to the gate of the city" His power was felt, for, meeting there a funeral procession, He touched the bier, and forthwith an only son was restored in health to his widowed mother. Thus by the magic of His presence, by the power of His word, and by the might of His deed, did the " Son of Man "

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win a way into the hearts of the poor people of Nairn, who, in their enthusiasm on account of what they heard and saw, lifted up their voices as they ran through the narrow, winding streets of their town, shouting : " A great Prophet is risen among us ; and God hath visited His people."

While God was thus visiting His people of Nairn, Mary Magdalen, it would seem, happened to be staying there. Tradition says that while yet a mere girl she was enticed away from her peaceful home at Bethany, and married to one Pappus, who, growing jealous of her, finally de serted her, and that it was then, when her life, lonely and blighted, craved for sympathy, that she became entangled with Pandera, an officer of Magdala. What this tradition is worth we have no means of knowing with any certainty, but this much we do know, that St John, speaking of her at the time to which I refer, calls her " a sinner," and the word which he uses, coupled with the

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tradition of her extreme beauty, and of her profligacy, which has come down tousfrom Talmudist and Chris tian writers alike, as well as the whole setting of the beautiful and touching story of her conversion at the feet of Our Saviour, seem to leave no doubt as to the true character of the sin which was washed out in the house of Simon the Pharisee. Nevertheless, as I have already stated, St John, with a refinement of feeling which we cannot too much praise, omits the name of the sin as he does the name of the sinner.

It was then, while Magdalen was playing the part of a public sinner in Nairn, while she was vainly seek ing, like so many others before and since her time, to satisfy the soul's hunger with the Dead Sea fruit of sin, that she came upon the path of the sinner's true Friend. Perhaps she was present at the city's gate when He restored to the widow's embrace her only son as they were carrying him outside the walls for burial ; or perhaps it was her good

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fortune to have heard the Divine panegyric pronounced not long afterwards on the hair-clad Baptist. Nay, it is not at all impossible that she may have been on the outskirts of the throng which pressed about Him when, on another occasion, He spoke the words which have ever since been the comfort of every sorrow-stricken soul, and even now ring out clear, a harmony of heaven, above the din and discord and despair of the human life of to-day,: " Come to Me all ye that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you." However, whether it was a look or a word, a smile or a miracle of " the Son of Man " that first stirred the heart of " the woman that was a sinner," we cannot positively say. We are not even told by the inspired writer what motive it was that in the first instance drew Magdalen to seek and find our Lord. Likely enough the rumour of His gift of speech, of His command of nature, and of His empire over hearts had reached her ears as she

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walked, shameless, through the city, and her curiosity had been aroused. And so she may have been led to follow the crowdjthat went after Him, attracted perhaps by a desire, not so much to hear what He had to say, as to look upon His face.

Poor Magdalen ! When she had drawn near enough to catch sight of Him, when, for the first time, her eyes fell full on that countenance, so intensely human although so ineffably Divine, she felt in her soul a quickening never felt before. How to account for it she knew not, it was stronger than herself, she could not pluck her eyes away — still she gazed on in wonder, in awe ; she held her breath to listen, and she drank in, with a thirst never ex perienced before, the flow of that Divine eloquence, which seemed to thrill her soul with a new life, re vealing to her the awful contrast between the sanctity of God and the foulness of sin.

The marvellous utterance has ceased, the crowd disperses, Magdalen

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takes her way home from the Divine Presence with slow and faltering steps, as though oppressed by the weight of some heavy burden. Sin, which she had reckoned so little of hitherto, which she had come to look upon almost as a necessity of life, sin, which she had so often made merry over, or dressed out in tine phrases, or used to season a joke, sin grew before the eyes of her soul into a Shape, monstrous, horrible, detestable. The words of the Messiah had stripped all its disguises away, and she saw it as God sees it — as it is. The weight of guilt, of shame, seemed to threaten to crush out her very life. Yet again and again, even when she seemed on the point of sinking helpless, hopeless, beneath the consciousness of her sins, a secret voice seemed to whisper in her ear, as though the refrain of some hymn : " All ye who labour and are heavy burdened come to Me, and I will refresh you."

What was the burden of which

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the Prophet spoke ? She remem bered His pleading eyes and out stretched arms : " Come to Me ! " Did He then mean literally what He had said ? Could it be that One so sinless could desire the com pany of the sinful, and invite the wicked and transgressors to venture into His saintly Presence, that they might lay down, at His sacred feet, their burden of filthy pleasures and shameful sins ? Oil ! what would she not give to be certain that in that gracious invitation she herself had been included. But it seemed almost like presumption even to hope so. And, even supposing her own sad case had been specially contemplated in that Divine appeal, how could it help her, unless she broke with the past ? How could she ever break asunder those chains of her own forging which bound her hand and foot to evil ? Nay, even if that Prophet were actually to put forth His miraculous power on her behalf, and release her from these habits of sin, what guarantee

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had she that, with the return of temptations, she would not relapse into them, so that her last state would become even worse than the first ? What remained for her to do, whither could she turn in her misery? She fell upon her knees, and buried her face in her hands, and in agony of spirit groaned aloud. She tried to pray, and as she wrestled in prayer she seemed to gain confidence, till at length light came to her mind, warmth to her heart, and strength to her will. When Magdalen rose from prayer she stood resolved to go forth, and at all risks to surrender herself un conditionally to Him whose gracious words kept ever sounding in her ears : " Ye that are heavy burdened come to Me."

Now, while " the sinner in the city " was thus struggling between her higher and lower nature, while she was emerging from the fight of faith with the signs of victory already gleaming on her brow, it chanced that one Simon, a Pharisee,

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sent an invitation to our Lord ask ing Him " to eat with him." The rumour of the invitation soon spread abroad, and became the occasion of no little comment among the various sections of the community at Nairn. Was not Simon, it was asked, setting at defiance all the unwritten laws which regulated Pharisaical society ? It was an open secret that not only were the Pharisees as a party embittered against Jesus Christ, but that He too had been at no pains to conceal His strong disapproval of their whole policy and spirit. If it was strange that the invitation had been given, it seemed stranger still that it had not been declined.

But we may venture to conjecture with no want of charity that the motives urging Simon to ask our Lord to sup with Him were not altogether of a disinterested char acter. No doubt he honestly de sired to meet that Jesus of Nazareth whose name was on everyone's lips, and he was glad to entertain a

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Preacher who was said to work miracles in confirmation of His words. Further, the Pharisee would consult his own best interests by placing so popular a Prophet under an obligation to him, and it might even be the means of checking oppor tunely any possible public utterance unfavourable to the party which he represented. Perhaps this hos pitality would win for him what he had so long sought for in vain, the reputation of being a man of large and generous views, with a soul above mere party spirit. On the other hand, when we ask our selves why did Our Lord accept the hospitality of a man who, as He knew only too well, was half ashamed of entertaining Him, and who, to avert criticism, would studiously omit to offer Him the ordinary courtesies which prevail in the East when a guest is received by his host, we have the answer in the very character of the Divine Guest Himself. The " Friend of sinners " was ready and willing

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to endure all these slights and insults, which He foresaw. He even yearned for the approach of this hour of His humiliation, because He knew that at this banquet He would meet " the woman that was a sinner." For her sake, in order to give her in exchange for the " burden of sin ': " the yoke of peace," Jesus accepted the invitation to eat with the Pharisee. Though our Lord's fine nature felt a slight like a wound, yet He did not pause to reckon up the cost when there was question of winning the soul of a sinner. Had he not come to save sinners ? Magdalen was one, that was enough. Accordingly Jesus Christ looked forward with longing to that moment when, at His feet, Magdalen should find salvation and He could send her thence with the blessed word : " Go in peace."

Of course, the little town of Nairn was astir on the evening of Simon's banquet given in honour of Jesus the Prophet. I have already spoken of the difference of opinion between

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the busybodies of the neighbour hood as to the propriety or wisdom of their fellow-townsman's conduct, and they awaited, with no little impatience the hour when the meeting between the host and his Guest should take place.

The sun was already setting when most of the invited guests had passed up to the great house, and little groups of citizens began to move stealthily in the same direction. They knew very well that the law of hospitality which obtained in the East was so universally respected that the Pharisee would not dare to act in the teeth of it, and forbid their crossing his threshold, moving freely under the verandah, looking into the dining-room, or even pene trating into the house itself, where they could witness, as freely as those included in the dinner party, all that went to make up the evening's entertainment.

That very evening Mary Magdalen was abroad. Under the cover of twilight she had stolen forth from

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the struggle of prayer in the hope of meeting Him who had made so deep an impression on her soul. And yet, as the story of her past life rose in terrible distinctness before her mind, and as in her loneliness she thought what that life might have been had she only followed the advice of Martha and her brother Lazarus, nay, what actually it would have been had she only listened in patience to her own better self, she almost began to hope she would not encounter Him. After all what would He, what could He think of one, whose path in life had been strewn with broken vows and with glorious gifts abused ? Others might hope for pardon, they had not sinned so deeply, but what place of repentance could be found for her ? Buried in these bitter thoughts, she chances to hear one of the passers-by cry out to a friend that Jesus Christ is already at supper in the house of Simon the Pharisee. A Pharisee, she knew, had no human pity for a frailty so notorious as

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hers had been through all the borders of Magdala. Nay, more, she had no doubt that to venture into his house would be to expose herself to public criticism, and perhaps to insult, even if some pretext were not found for putting her forth, and closing the door in her face. Was it then prudent on her part, was it a matter of duty, to court such treatment ? Had she sufficient courage to support the gaze of the many scornful eyes which would be bent upon her if " the sinner in the city " intruded into so august a company ? She did not stay to argue with these agonising objec tions which crossed and recrossed her mind. This was her first, it might be her last, opportunity of forgiveness ; at any hazard she would seize it. By one supreme effort, at one bound, so to say, she over-passed all the obstacles in her path, and with a heroism good for us to remember, she resolved to venture all.

" Come to Me." " Come to Me

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all ye that labour and are heavy burdened " —the words kept chiming in her ears. She would go to Him through fire, if need be, through shame worse than death, if only in the end she could be near to Him. Gathering up the folds of her dress she conceals in it an alabaster box of precious ointment, which shall be spent upon Him whose gracious sweetness has already drawn after Him her sin-burdened soul.

The board is spread with rare viands and costly wines, with frag rant flowers and luscious fruit, when Simon, conducting his guests to the supper-room, bids them take their appointed places, and recline on the couches set around the tables. Presently swarthy slaves pass noise lessly to and fro in attendance on the guests with movements as graceful and measured as if they were pacing to the music of the half-concealed orchestra, while the townsfolk and the unbidden onlookers, now that the banquet has begun, dis tribute themselves where best they

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may in order to gratify their curiosity to the full.

The feeling of constraint which marked the opening of the feast relaxes a little as the entertainment proceeds. The guests speak to gether more freely ; there is merri ment, and not ill-bred laughter ; the host is congratulating himself on the complete success of his scheme ; when lo ! without warning, suddenly there is a pause in the conversation — a felt silence, abrupt as though an earthquake shock had been experienced ; every sound of laughter is checked, even the most giddy have become suddenly serious. The draped form of a well-known figure is seen to fling its darkness across the gaily-lighted supper-room. The guests look up, exchange glances with one another, scarcely trusting their own eyes. " Surely," they thought, " it cannot be. It must be someone resembling her. It is not possible that a sinner so well known as Magdalen should dare thus to transgress all laws

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of decency, and to show herself in so distinguished an assemblage on such an occasion." And yet it was impossible to mistake that well- poised figure, even the outlines of that beautiful form, the graceful mien, the shapely head with its wealth of beautiful hair. The young men sit up on their couches, and whisper to one another : "It is, it is she — it is Magdalen herself ! " Meanwhile the woman who, to the intense indignation of Simon, has caused this strange commotion at his supper-table, has glided almost like one wralking in her sleep across the length of the room. Preoccu pied seemingly by some over powering thought, the sinner ex changes glances with^no one, but is borne onward past^them all till she reaches the couch from which the feet of the Divine Guest are turned towards her. There, trem bling with emotion, she pauses, her eyes riveted on the sacred feet so often wearied in the pursuit of sinners. As she gazes, big hot

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tears, like the first drops of a summer storm, begin to fall upon those unsandalled harbingers of peace. Broken with grief the Magdalen sinks to her knees, and as she does so her unloosed hair, like a silken veil, falls over her, concealing from the rude gaze of Simon's guests her sorrow and her shame.

Then at last, from the full fountain of her heart, gushes over her Saviour's holy feet the unchecked stream of sorrow — burning, contrite tears, which with her long, flowing hair she strives to wipe away, vainly, again and again. And still, as she washes those feet with her tears and wipes them with her hair, she almost fancies that she can read written upon them the awful story of her past life — its rebellion, its treachery, its treason against the majesty of her only true Friend, her Saviour, her God. Ah ! what an agony it is to her ! How can she undo what has been already done ; how shall she blot out these sin stains upon the feet of Him, the

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Sinless One ? What would she not give to wipe out from her own soul that history, the thought of which pierces her through and through with the keenest pangs of remorse ? Drawing from her bosom the ala baster box of precious ointment she empties its sweet-scented con tents over those beautiful feet, which have been a magnet to her soul, attracting her so gently ; while from her heart she utters a prayer that this sweet nard, pressed out of God's sinless creation, may in mystic symbol sweeten her life's bitter past and blot out all its stains. Ah ! that she had never offended Him from whose Presence she now feels a virtue going forth, transforming her, steeping her soul in a calm she has never known before. Is it the echo of the songs of angels re joicing over her penitence that she seems to hear as she next ventures with trembling hands to lay hold of His feet, and with cleansed lips adores and kisses them again and again, with love chastened by

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sorrow ? By what name to call this new life which thrilled her through and through Magdalen knew not ; all she knew was this, that her bold act of faith was now more than rewarded, her hope more than realised, and her love more than satisfied at the feet of Him who had said : " Come to me ye who are heavy burdened, and I will refresh you." She had come ; she had been refreshed.

Meanwhile no word had been spoken. Magdalen's heart was too full of emotion to utter a word ; our Lord's heart was too full of compassion to speak ; while Simon's heart was too full of what he con sidered righteous indignation to allow him to break silence. He looked upon this woman's intrusion as an intolerable insult offered him in his own home. That a woman who was a notorious sinner should dare to defile by her impure presence him and his company, that she should brush past him to stand un bidden at the feet of his chief Guest,

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was a crime which he did not know how to punish, simply because it was so outrageous, so inconceivable. Could it be, he asked himself, that he was mistaken in this Nazarene Prophet ? Surely, if He were a Prophet, He would know what kind of woman this Magdalen was. And did He know, why then, of course, He would shrink from the defilement of her touch as from a serpent. He would spurn her from His feet, and, in spite of that storm of tears and those agonies of con trition, He would turn away from her as from some unclean thing. " Why does He not make me a sign," thought Simon, " and give me a pretext for ejecting her from the supper-room, and relieving us all from the scandal of her presence ? " While Simon is thus arguing within himself, and while his guests are still hushed in surprise and expecta tion, Jesus Christ, reading the thoughts that were uppermost in the mind of His host, yet not wishing to embarrass one who from motives

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however selfish had shown Him a kindness, conveys His answer and His rebuke in the form of a parable. " Simon," said our Lord gently, " I have somewhat to say to thee." " Master, say on," was the curt reply. " A certain creditor had two debtors, the one owed five hundred pence, the other fifty, and whereas they had not wherewith to pay, he forgave them both. Which therefore of the two loveth him most ? " Simon, still as slow to catch our Lord's true meaning as David was slow to understand the parable of Nathan, answered carelessly, with the assumed indiffer ence and languid manner of a man who thinks it fine not to appear to be interested too easily ; "I suppose that he to whom he forgave most." ' Thou hast judged rightly," said Our Lord, and then followed the application of the parable, the point of which, we may be quite sure, the self-condemned Magdalen was quicker to see than the self-righteous Pharisee.

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But what must have been the emotion of her soul when Our Lord, who hitherto had given no sign of His recognition of her presence, now turned His Sacred Face towards her, and with outstretched finger, calling attention to her as she knelt, hiding her face behind her flowing hair that covered His feet, thus addressed the Pharisee : " Simon, dost thou see this woman ? I entered into thy house, and thou gavest Me no water for My feet, but she with tears hath washed My feet, and with her hair hath wiped them. Thou gavest Me no kiss, but she, since she came in, hath not ceased to kiss My feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but she with ointment hath anointed My feet. Wherefore I say to thee, many sins are forgiven her because she hath loved much. But to whom less is forgiven he loveth less." Simon in his confusion could not utter a word.

Our Lord turned to Magdalen, whom He refrained from calling

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by her name, which had passed into a byword throughout the city, and said : " Thy sins are forgiven thee." Whereupon the guests at the table began to say within them selves : " Who is this that forgiveth sins also ? " Jesus said to the woman : " Thy faith hath made thee safe, go in peace." Yes ; it is faith, the supernatural gift of God, in which every conversion begins, as it is charity, that other gift of God, which perfects it, producing in the soul of the penitent that peace of God which is the earnest, as it is the foretaste, of the bliss of heaven. "Go in peace ! " Magdalen rose to her feet, crossed the supper-room, and, passing from that house of wonders into the darkness of night, was soon lost to sight.

Let us pause for a moment to dwell on the change that had been wrought in the soul of " a woman in the city, that was a sinner," while she knelt at the feet of Jesus Christ, in the house of Simon the Pharisee. She entered it overwhelmed with

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confusion and sorrow, she leaves it made whole, in peace and joy. For the first time since her first fall Magdalen begins to feel that her whole being has been set in order, attuned, even as one of the harps of heaven, to the blessed concords of grace. " Go in peace ! " The words are, as it were, sacramental, creative, producing that which they signify, giving the peace which they describe. They are a peal of joy bells, making ceaseless melody in the temple of her soul, wherein not seven devils, as of old, but the Holy Spirit of God now dwells. That night, we may be sure, Mary of Magdala spent in the seclusion of prayer, praising and thanking her Benefactor, who by His preventing grace had drawn her out of the darkness of sin into the admirable light of His love.

Here, my brethren, it may not be out of place to ask ourselves this question : What was it that con verted Magdalen from evil to good, what was the process which changed

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her from being one of the greatest sinners in the city of Nairn to become one of the greatest of saints in the Church of God ? Clearly the change was not due to any formal set of words publicly acknow ledging her state of sin, and as publicly renouncing it, for, from her first entrance into Simon's house till leaving it, no word of any kind seems to have escaped her lips. " From the heart come forth evil thoughts," and " the things which defile a man," Jesus Christ has said, and in the heart is the victory over sin to be won. Yes, it was there, deep down in Magdalen's heart, far away from the eyes of all but One in the supper-room, that was wrought this wonderful, this beautiful con version, which throughout the Christian world has made the name of Magdalen the synonym for a true penitent, who presented to God that contrite and humble heart which holy David tells us He will not despise.

Who can read the story of

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Magdalen's conversion, as it is told by St Luke, without feeling his own heart thrilled with strong emotion, and his eyes filling with tears for his own past follies ; who can study the action of grace, as one sees its wondrous workings made almost visible in Magdalen's soul, without praying for a larger share of it in his own ; and who can follow the stages of her conversion, and watch in her soul the strife between grace and nature, without gaining fresh strength himself to vanquish self in his own conflict, so incomparably less severe ; and finally, who can note Mary's bravery and generosity, her humility, and her contempt of the opinion of men, which have won for her, a fallen woman, the praise as well as the forgiveness of the Son of God, without being conscious that Magdalen's conversion has given him courage and true help to begin his own ?

Yes, my brethren, I venture to think that the penitence of Magdalen has brought to the feet of the

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Saviour a larger harvest of souls than even the innocence of John. Truly God is wonderful in His saints, but is He not most wonderful in the sinners whom from sinners He changes into saints ?

And if, after watching the example set us by Magdalen, we begin to feel within our own souls the pangs of remorse, or the call to nobler things, surely we cannot pass from the scene in which the sinner's Friend shows forth so much sweetness and compassion without making up our minds, like Magdalen, once and for all, to convert these stirrings of grace into tears of compunction for the past, and into purposes of amendment for the future. What Magdalen did, we can do ; and what Jesus did for her, he will do for us. Only bring to Him a contrite and humble heart — that is to say, a heart broken with sorrow and crushed with shame — and with the unction of His sweetness He will make it whole, and with the virtue of His goodness fill it with a

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peace that surpasseth all under standing.

How ingenious are the devices of the Redeemer's love ! Remember ever how wonderfully He smoothed the way for the Magdalen's return to Him ; first of all drawing her by the cords of Adam, and then by those of grace, till finally He held her, a willing captive, bound to His feet, nay, rather bound to His heart for ever by the golden links of love. Mark, too, though at first He said nothing, how observant all the while He was of her conduct, noting each graceful act of humble, confid ing, and lovingkindness offered there at His feet, and contrasting each of these traits of courtesy with the several slights He met with at the hands of His ungracious host. And once more forget not, for your own instruction, the lesson which this parable teaches to the end of time : that this same Lord, who gently rebuked Simon and delicately praised the Magdalen, although as God He stands not in need of our

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goods, still, as Man, feels the sting of a slight, yet never forgets a kindness.

In Him you will find a Friend, everlastingly chivalrous, unfailingly generous. When the Magdalen gave up the friendship of this world, which ever promises, ever dis appoints, for the friendship of Him whose gifts are ever in excess of our deserts, she found in Our Lord One ready not only to make what in her soul was red as scarlet here after as white as snow, and to remove her sins from her as far as the East is from the West, but in Him she found also the rare Friend with whom to forgive means likewise to forget. Never afterwards re ferring to her past, or even hinting at it ever so indirectly, our Lord seems to have made use of every opportunity to assure her that she was now to Him not less dear, certainly,- than another who, in the course of a flawless life, might have served Him with greater sted- fastness of loyalty but with less

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ardour of love. To take a single instance in illustration of my mean ing. Who can ever forget the picture representing that pathetic scene in the Garden between the Risen Saviour and the repentant sinner, when to convince her, as it would seem, that the startling events of the past days had in no way changed the feelings of His Heart towards her — that He was "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever " —He appeared in the guise of a gardener before her. Almost beside herself in her despair of ever again seeing on earth her Crucified Re deemer, Magdalen had been seen hurrying to and fro with flying feet, she knew not where, in agonised eagerness to catch the faintest tidings about Him, when suddenly Jesus presents Himself before her. She, whose heart is where she be lieves her Lord to be, far away from the garden- tomb, fails at first to recognise Him, until in the music of His own familiar voice He, on the only occasion recorded in Scrip-

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ture, calls her by her name — " Mary ! "

Oh ! the winning ways of His kindness ; oh ! how unwearied is His love. Alas ! that we are sinners ; . if we have hearts at all, let us lay them down, like Magdalen, at His feet. Since we now know Him to be what He is, what rival henceforth shall compete with Him for our love? Where shall we ever find a Friend like Him ? Ask Magdalen, and she will tell you that in Him she dis covered not only a Friend who never upbraided her for the past, but a Friend who was ever ready to take her part, to make excuses for her, and to sound her praises, not once only, but whenever the occasion arose — in the house of Simon the Pharisee, in the house of Martha her sister, in the house of Simon the Leper, and who on one occasion went so far in her praise as to de clare that, wheresoever His Gospel should be preached, her acts of lov- ingkindness to Him should be told for a memorial of her. Nor was His

7 8 The Woman that was a Sinner

friendship for Magdalen misplaced, for whatever may have been the true history of her unhappy life before she washed its stains away in her tears upon His feet, when she had once found there her real treasure there ever after was found her heart also. At his feet in the house of Simon of Nairn, at His feet in the house of Martha of Bethany, at His feet in the house of Simon the Leper, at His feet on Calvary, at His feet in the garden, Mary Magdalen has become, in her ever-abiding sorrow for sin, where- ever the Gospel message of peace is carried, the model of all true Penitents. At His feet on earth, what place will she hold in Heaven ? Fancy, my brethren, that the blessed hour has arrived when we, by God's most dear mercy, shall wing our flight to the land beyond the stars, when we have crossed the golden threshold, and are standing within the precincts of the presence- chamber of God. We raise our eyes above the troops of Virgins, singing

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the song which they alone may sing, above the glorious companies of Confessors, above the armies of Martyrs, who have dyed their garments white in the Blood of the Lamb, above the twelve Apostles, who for the Master laid down their lives — higher, higher still, even to the steps of the Great White Throne itself, and there we see Magdalen again, clasping in adoration those Sacred Feet at which she first threw herself in abasement in the supper- room of Simon the Pharisee.

But oh ! how changed in appear ance from her former self : now no longer bathed in a flood of tears, for behold ! every tear is wiped away from her eyes ; now no more lamenting over a bitter past, for lo ! " the former things are passed away." Yes, she has passed from time into eternity — Magdalen has exchanged a world of shadows, hypocrisy, and death for a land of truth and light and love. Look up once more, dear brethren, and let us try to realise that she whom

So The Woman that was a Sinner

we see so radiant, so exalted, is, nevertheless, the self-same Magdalen who was once introduced to us as " a woman that was in the city, a sinner," and whom afterwards wre knew as the penitent in the house of the scornful Pharisee. Yes, it is the same Magdalen, only the light of glory has completed in her beauti ful soul what grace had begun, and her whole being is flooded with bliss unspeakable, breaking forth into transports of joy and praise. Can we not fancy that we can distinguish, even in the full concert of the melodies of heaven, one voice unlike all others, not loud but entrancingly sweet, the voice of the repentant sinner, of Magdalen, singing for ever more : "I have found Him whom my soul loveth ; I hold Him, and I will not let Him go " ?

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