OF

THE REV. RICHARD HAYES.

ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, MOTHER OF GOD.

« And Mary said: My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejuced in God my kaviour. Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid for behold from henceforth all generațims shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done great things to me: and holy is his name." St. Luke, c. i. v. 46, &c.

For what purpose do I stand before this faithful congregation? What duty have I this day imposed upon myself? With what view, my brethren, have I mounted this chair of truth, and challenged your attention? What do you expect to hear me say? What language, what sentiments, what subject of edification do you await from my lips? For what end have I clothed myself in the sacred robes of my ministry, and invoked the adorable name of that God in Three Persons, frɔm whom I hold my mission?-Is it to tell you that Mary was this day taken into Heaven? You know it. The whole christian world proclaims it to you. The word Assumption' tells you the event you celebrate. Why ask

me, then, what you already know? Or, stand I here to tell you, who that Mary is? What Catholic is ignorant who she is? Shall I tell you, that she is a daughter of Eve, begotten of Adam's contaminated stock, yet unspotted by the stain of Adam's sin? Shall I tell you that, if Eve was the mother of man's corrup tion and damnation-Mary was the mother of man's justification and redemption? That if Eve yielded to the serpent's wiles-Mary crushed the serpent's head? That if Eve, by seducing Adam, opened to all mankind the pits of hell-Mary, by bringing forth Jesus, unlocked to all inankind, the gates of heaven? Shall I then go on to inform you that Mary, though a Mother, is still a Virgin? That, uncontaminated by original sin, she never sullied the purity of her blessed soul by mortal crime? Mortal-do I say? not even by a venial fault. Mortal! Venial! whither doth my tongue wander? No, nor by the slightest imperfection of human, of created frailty. Shall I tell you, that, though the most exalted of all creatures, she was yet the humblest? Though the most nobly descended of her nation, she was yet the poorest; though the most secluded from human intercourse, she was yet the most compassionate for human ills, the most tenderly affected towards human happiness, and the most punctually exact in all her human obligations? Shall I tell you that she was the model of virgins, of wives, of mothers, and of widows? That she, by the plenitude of her Son's grace, was to her sex, what he, in his humanity, was to ours-the

pattern of perfection both contemplative and active? Shall I proceed and say, that, as he, though Holiness itself, bore in his sacred flesh, the punishment of mankind's sins, so she, though innocent, suffered the tortures of a thousand penitents? Shall I call her Queen of Martyrs for her sufferings, Queen of Saints for her virtues, and Queen of Angels for her perfections? Shall I style her Mother of joys, of sorrows, and of glories? Shall I rank her, in the scale of nature, of grace, and of merit, above the Patriarchs, Prophets and Apostles? Shall I present to her, as her Son has done this day, a crown more splendid, than the united splendor of all the hosts of heaven? Shall I, in a word, comprize within the compass of one title, all that in Mary is holy, all that in Mary is venerable, all that in Mary is lovely, all that in Mary is pure and perfect, great and glorious, merited on earth, or crowned in heaven? Shall I comprize it all in one title, and in that one title, comprize, at the same breath, all that Omnipotence could do for a creature-for any being less than himself? Shall I do this, and in doing this, shall I attain the end for which I appear before you? or, shall I tell you aught but what you already know, while I name her, by her own all-expressive, all-comprehensive, inalienable and incommunicable title-THE MOTHER OF YOUR GOD?

Oh! my brethren, in all I have hitherto said, what have I said that you knew not before? What have I said that you do not say

daily? What new instruction then, what fresh information have I conveyed? None. For all is in one word-Mary is the Mother ef your God. And yet, though I have said nothing new, `in that one word I have said all. Had the inspiration of the Prophets, the faith of the Patriarchs, the tongue of the Apostles; had I the zeal of the Martyrs, the love of the Virgins, the contemplation of the Anchorets; had I the knowledge of the Angels, the flame of the Seraphs, the penetration of the Cherubs, I should still be unable to utter a word, more eloquent, more enrapturing, more celestial, than that Mary is the Mother of your God. None but God himself can fully comprehend that word. For, as none but God can comprehend God, and as the dignity of the Mother, inasmuch as she is a mother, is correlative with the dignity of her Son, inasmuch as he is her son-the man Jesus being, in his person, infinite and divine, his blessed Mother's maternity, relatively to him, is likewise, in this respect, infinite and divine; and therefore is comprehensible only to that God, who, as he made himself man, made a woman his mother. Let us then bow, my brethren, nor seek longer to fathom what is in itself unfathomable.

But if we cannot comprehend the dignity of Mary, Mother of God, shall we therefore be silent in the praise of that great Being, who in the mystery of the incarnation has displayed his tender mercy still more strikingly, than he did his boundless power in the mystery of the

creation. Shall we not praise Him, who loved us, his fallen, sinful, condemned crea tures, to so tender a degree of love, that as he had made both sexes to his own image and likeness, so he raised both sexes to the most intimate and affectionate union with himself of which created nature is capable with its Creator, by becoming man himself, and ma king woman his mother-yea, and more his mother, than any other woman is mother to her own son. For Mary, being a Virgin, had no partner in her parental dignity; it was all exclusively her own; even the sanctity of wedlock was not allowed to breathe upon her fruitful purity; but God the Holy Ghost formed from her immaculate substance alone, the whole of that divine flesh of the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world.

Oh miracle, oh prodigy of the love of Jesus! Oh dignity, oh eminence of Mary! Let all the Church of God, militant and triumphant, resound this day in praise, and let the praise be higher, the more it sinks beneath the debt it owes. Let every soul of man, of woman; let all the spirits of creation, on the earth below or in the heavens above, raise themselves and all their powers to the highest pinnacle of glory, and viewing human nature, in Jesus, seated on the throne of his Father, and in Mary, placed so high, that nought but God is higher-let all, I say, burst forth in praise; let the saints of ancient and of modern. times; those who hoped, and those who