Development of Catholic Doctrine by Armstrong Dave

Author:Armstrong, Dave [Armstrong, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Appendix One

John Henry Newman: The Theory of Developments in Religious Doctrine (from Oxford University Sermons—1843)

A University Sermon Preached on the Purification, 1843.

LUKE 2:19.

“But Mary kept A these things, and pondered them in her heart.”

Little is told us in Scripture concerning the Blessed Virgin, but there is one grace of which the Evangelists make her the pattern, in a few simple sentences-of Faith. Zacharias questioned the Angel’s message, but “Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” Accordingly Elisabeth, speaking with an apparent allusion to the contrast thus exhibited between her own highly favoured husband, righteous Zacharias, and the still more highly favoured Mary, said, on receiving her salutation, “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb; Blessed is she that believed for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.”

2. But Mary’s faith did not end in a mere acquiescence in Divine providences and revelations: as the text informs us, she “pondered” them. When the shepherds came, and told of the vision of Angels which they had seen at the time of the Nativity, and how one of them announced that the Infant in her arms was “the Saviour, which is Christ the Lord,” while others did but wonder, “Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” Again, when her Son and Saviour had come to the age of twelve years, and had left her for awhile for His Father’s service, and had been found, to her surprise, in the Temple, amid the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions, and had, on her addressing Him, vouchsafed to justify His conduct, we are told, “His mother kept all these sayings in her heart.” And accordingly, at the marriage-feast in Cana, her faith anticipated His first miracle, and she said to the servants, “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.”

3. Thus St. Mary is our pattern of Faith, both in the reception and in the study of Divine Truth. She does not think it enough to accept, she dwells upon it; not enough to possess, she uses it; not enough to assent, she developes it; not enough to submit the Reason, she reasons upon it; not indeed reasoning first, and believing afterwards, with Zacharias, yet first believing without reasoning, next from love and reverence, reasoning after believing. And thus she symbolizes to us, not only the faith of the unlearned, but of the doctors of the Church also, who have to investigate, and weigh, and define, as well as to profess the Gospel; to draw the line between truth and heresy; to anticipate or remedy the various aberrations of wrong reason; to combat pride and recklessness with their own arms; and thus to triumph over the sophist and the innovator.

4. If, then, on a Day dedicated to such high contemplations as the Feast which we are now celebrating, it is allowable to occupy the thoughts with a

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