Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/42

 her: "  The  peerless  queen  of  air,  who  as  sandals  to her  feet,  the  silver  moon  doth  wear."

Brethren, for  us  Catholics,  the  ultimate  proof  that Mary was  immaculately  conceived  must  ever  be  the fact that  for  centuries  this  truth  was  accepted  by  the entire Catholic  world,  and  defined  at  last  as  an  article of our  faith  by  Pius  IX. in 1854. Nor are  we  without reasons for  the  faith  that  is  in  us. This privilege  of Mary  was  foreshadowed  in  the  words  of  God  to  the demon-seducer of  our  first  parents:  "  I  will  put  enmities between  thee  and  the  woman,  and  thy  seed  and her  seed,  and  she  shall  crush  thy  head." We can readily understand  the  enmity  between  Mary's  Son and Satan,  but  that  Mary  herself  should,  as  promised, vanquish the  serpent,  is  explainable  only  on  the  theory that she  was  never  for  an  instant  subject  to  him  by sin,  that  she  was  immaculately  conceived. Jesus and Mary were  prefigured  in  Adam  and  Eve — they  are  as like  as  the  light  of  to-day  and  to-morrow,  and  yet they differ  as  the  waning  twilight  from  the  coming dawn. Adam's hands,  outstretched  toward  the  forbidden fruit,  point  to  death  and  darkness; the  hands  of Christ  in  Gethsemani,  receiving  from  the  angel  the chalice of  His  sufferings,  point  to  life  and  light:  and it was  not  until  the  water  from  the  side  of  Christ  on the  cross  trickled  down  on  Adam's  skull  that  life  met death in  Baptism. Adam was  made  of  immaculate earth, as  yet  uncursed — a  true  figure  of  the  stainless Virgin who  was  to  conceive  and  bear  the  Saviour. " Holiness  becometh  Thy  house,  O  Lord,"  says  the Psalmist; and  Mary's  body  was  the  house  of  the