December 24--Saints Adam and Eve, First Parents

Adam and Eve with Promise of Mary

Are the two people who brought evil to humanity considered saints of the Church? Even though they are not in the official Catholic Martyrology, they are accepted as being in Heaven. But let’s first consider their place in salvation history. First, they disobeyed God and brought about Original Sin and its consequences of concupiscence, sin, suffering, and death! Second, they lost original justice and original holiness, keeping us from benefiting from these graces. However, they also are the progenitors of humanity, from whom the Son of God is descended in his human nature. And, finally, they are the first holders of the covenant that God made with humanity in order to bring about our salvation!

Genesis 3:15 states the curse of God upon the serpent who tempted our parents:

I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
They will strike at your head,
while you strike at their heel.

This is the protoevangelium, the first proclamation of the Good News of God’s gift of salvation! Here God states that Original Sin is not the final word. The final Word is Jesus Christ! Thus we can proclaim, “O happy fault! O truly necessary sin of Adam, that won for us so great a Redeemer!” We have Adam and Eve in the Old Testament and the New Adam and the New Eve, Jesus and Mary, in the New Testament. Even so, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception includes this passage from Genesis as the first reading!

Even though Adam and Eve are not thought of as official saints of the Catholic Church, there has been honor given to them throughout history. As well, the Eastern Orthodox Churches honor them. We can pray to them for their intercession. Saints Adam and Eve, pray for us!

November 28—St. Catherine Labouré, Religious

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Many Catholics have a profound devotion to the Blessed Mother. We say rosaries, Memorares, and so forth, beseeching her intercession. One of those devotions is the Miraculous Medal, developed and promoted by today’s saint, St. Catherine Labouré. St. Catherine was born May 2, 1806 in the Burgundy region of France as the ninth of eleven children. She entered the novitiate of the Daughters of Charity, a religious order founded by St. Vincent de Paul in 1830.

Very soon after entering the convent, “she woke up after hearing the voice of a child calling her to the chapel, where she heard the Virgin Mary say to her, ‘God wishes to charge you with a mission. You will be contradicted, but do not fear; you will have the grace to do what is necessary. Tell your spiritual director all that passes within you. Times are evil in France and in the world.’” Later that year, she reported that Mary “displayed herself inside an oval frame, standing upon a globe; rays of light came out of her hands in the direction of a globe. Around the margin of the frame appeared the words ‘O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.’” She was told to take the images she saw to her confessor so they could be imprinted on medallions and given to the faithful. The medal became popular and is worn by millions of faithful Catholics. It became an important role in the declaration of the Immaculate Conception of Mary because of its declaration about Mary, “conceived without sin”. She died in 1876 and was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1947. Let us wear this medal as a sign of our devotion to our Blessed Mother and her efforts to bring the world to her Son.

*https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Catherine_Laboure.jpg  Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

November 8—Bl. John Duns Scotus, Priest and Religious

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It only took 685 years for today’s saint to be beatified after his death! John Duns was a Franciscan priest and friar born about 1265/66 and died in 1308. He is called Duns Scotus meaning Duns the Scot because he was from Scotland. He was a philosopher and theologian graduating from Oxford University. He is called “the Subtle Doctor” because of his complex and nuanced thought. He taught a metaphysical argument for the existence of God through the concepts of cause and effect. He also advocated for free will by stating that a person cannot stop what the person is doing if there is no free will; and yet people can stop what they are doing! 

He also defended the teaching of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, following St. Anselm of Canterbury’s principle: “God could do it, it was appropriate, therefore he did it!” In other words, according to Bl. Pope Pius IX, who infallibly defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854: “At the moment of her conception, Mary was preserved free from the stain of original sin, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ.” 

Philosophy is the handmaiden of theology! What this means is that the Church uses philosophy to help us understand what God supernaturally reveals to us by using our natural reasoning ability, which God gave to us! We are not fideists, meaning, all we do is believe blindly and not think. Nor are we rationalists, meaning, all we do is use our own unaided reason as the ultimate basis of truth or falsehood and thus not believe. We believe and we think! One is a supernatural gift, faith, and the other is a natural gift, reason. By using both we can share what we believe in a rational manner. Bl. Duns Scotus, pray for us!

*https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/JohnDunsScotus_-_full.jpg 

Justus van Gent, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

December 8--The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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First and foremost: The Immaculate Conception is about the conception of MARY, NOT JESUS. We celebrate her birthday on September 8, nine months later. The conception of Jesus is celebrated on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, when the Angel Gabriel came to Mary and declared God’s will for her that she become the Mother of God. The virgin birth of Jesus is then celebrated nine months later on December 25!

So, now that we have that straight, what is the Immaculate Conception? The Immaculate Conception is the dogma, as defined by Pope Pius IX in 1854, that Mary was conceived in her mother’s womb without the stain of Original Sin. She is immaculate, or pure! She had the fullness of God’s sanctifying grace in her life from the moment of the beginning of her existence. How do we know this? From God’s Revelation. In Luke’s Gospel, the Angel Gabriel declared to Mary: “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.” (Lk. 1:28) This also comes to us as: “Hail (Mary) full of grace, the Lord is with thee.” Sound familiar? It is the beginning of the “Hail Mary”. It continues: “Blessed art thou among women,” which is from the greeting Elizabeth gave to Mary in Luke 1:41. Further: "And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." Mary always points to Jesus!

Does this mean that Mary did not need salvation from Jesus Christ? No! Her fullness of grace was given to her by God in anticipation of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But why was she given this gift and not the rest of us? Because she is the Mother of God! She was given this special gift in anticipation of her fiat, or yes, to God’s request that she become the Mother of God.  A side note:  She is the patroness of the United States of America!  And so, we pray: Immaculate Mary, pray for us.
*By Bartolomé Esteban Murillo - [2], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3118612

April 16--St. Bernadette of Lourdes, Virgin

April 16—St. Bernadette of Lourdes, Virgin

St. Bernadette received the grace of a series of visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1858 in Lourdes, France.  A spring also had sprung from the grotto where she had experienced the visions.  The water from this spring cured many sick and lame people.  But it was the proclamation that the Immaculate Conception had appeared to St. Bernadette that was of utmost importance.  In 1854 Pope Pius IX had defined the infallible dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, that she had been conceived without original sin.  Although the Church had held this doctrine throughout her life, it had never been definitively declared until Bl. Pius IX.  This dogma assures for us that Mary indeed was the perfect Mother of God and had been give a special grace to be so.  She is the new Eve, the woman who brings us to Christ, her son.

St. Bernadette humbly accepted the gift that she had been given.  She bravely proclaimed the truth of her vision to both civil and Church authorities.  Her story has been commemorated in the movie, Song of Bernadette.  Our lives may not be the stuff of movies, but our humility and our steadfast adherence to the truths of faith and morals are the stuff of sainthood.  We are all called to salvation, to redemption, and to eternal beatitude with God and all the saints.  As we live our lives in hiddenness, in the daily ebb and flow of doing the right things with love and dedication, we can live like St. Bernadette.  We do not necessarily receive visions, but we have the presence of God in our lives at every moment.  We can receive the Eucharist, Jesus’ own body, blood, soul, and divinity.  We are blessed with the glory of God.