from the Church Times 10 June 1938
The Anglo-Catholic Pulpit
In Honour of Our Lady
A sermon preached in the Pilgrim Church, Walsingham on Whit Monday
By the Rev. Frank Biggart, C.R.

My Lord Archbishop, Right Reverend and Reverend Fathers, Brethren of the Laity. You will agree that this, our Day of Thanksgiving, has a significance of wider range than that which derives from the actual enlargement and enrichment of this Shrine, here in Norfolk, of Our Lady of Walsingham. It is that wider significance that I would ask you to consider at this time.

If therefore little is said about the history of this holy place, of its glories in ancient days, of its later destruction, or of its completion in this the four hundredth anniversary of is spoliation – if little is said, it is not because we would, or could, keep silent in regard to such matters, but rather because our thanksgivings are most fittingly made, as we have made them, before the altar of God; and because we fear lest it should seem that any who had had the privilege of sharing in this restoration should be thought boastful in spirit, seeming to ask that men should look on them as though by their own power this wonder had been wrought. For as we contemplate that which our eyes can see and reflect on those hidden things which are infinitely greater, we cannot but exclaim, in the words of the psalmist: “This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes”; and again, “The Lord hath done great things for us already, whereof we rejoice . . . . . our captivity has turned as the rivers in the south.” In the wilderness have waters broken forth and streams in the desert.

Let us try then to set forth in plain words what is the true significance of this joyful day. For its observance will not pass unnoticed, either by those who hold in veneration the Mother of the Incarnate Lord, or by those – and they are many – in whose minds the expression of Catholic devotion to our Lady causes distress; and by not a few in whom it arouses active opposition. In regard to these last, we can but pray that there may come to them a change of heart, since by argument alone but little is likely to be done. But for those distressed and perplexed who are seeking to serve God in all good faith, but who, for a variety of reasons, are fearful lest devotion to Mary should derogate from the honour due to God alone – for these we can do much by careful and charitable words, and by giving the adversary no cause to blaspheme. We must therefore, at the outset, most carefully affirm what every Catholic knows, that the difference between the Creator and His creatures is infinite; and Mary is among the creatures. She is the hand-maid of the Lord; and with us she rejoices in God her Saviour.

But having once established that point, we are then free to extol her honour; to sing her praises; to proclaim her distinction; and to demand for her the recognition of that unique place which is hers in the plan and purpose of Almighty God for the redemption of the world. Caution is a word, as we are well aware, which may easily savour of timidity, but it need not be so if by it we mean the striving to be void of offence. We must be careful that nowhere do we ever lend colour to the suspicion that any honour is being paid to our Lady which should be paid to God along, though we may remember, as the same time, that it is not always fair to arraign at the bar of dogma the language of devotion; nor can every poem be translated into prose. Yet, none the less, we must give good heed to our words. We know full well that exaggerated words have been spoken and written at various times; words which seem, for example, to contrast the mercy of Mary with what is thought to be the pitiless severity of the Judge of all men. And there have been, and, I suppose, there will be, superstitious and unedifying stories to illustrate the tenderness of Mary’s love. You may remember that Dr. Pusey referred to statements of this kind in his famous Eirenicon, and notably, he said that it had been affirmed “that the mercy of Mary is infinite – that it is safer to seek her than to seek her Son – that Mary is the only refuge of those with whom God is angry.” Of such statements, Newman said: “They seem to me like a bad dream, they do but scare and confuse me; I consider them calculated to prejudice everyone, to frighten the unlearned, to unsettle consciences, to provoke blasphemy, to risk the loss of souls.”

But why name these things on such a day as this? For one reason only; namely, that we whose delight it is to promote the honour of our Blessed Lady need to make quite plain the ground on which her honour is established.

Mary is unique, for three reasons; first, because she alone is chosen to be the Mother of God incarnate, therefore she is, in the words of the great East hymn,
Higher than the cherubim,
More glorious than the seraphim.
Since she is the bearer of the Eternal Word, this, which is her peculiar splendour, shines forth with its intrinsic glory when we compare it with all other vocations to which God has, in any and every age, called His elect servants. Mary is unique in her vocation.

Secondly, our Lady is unique in her response to this signal call. The rest of us falter and fail. We accept and we refuse and we accept again. We vacillate and are half-hearted. We are of little faith, and we fear. But from the beginning to the end, in the Holy Mother we find no hesitation, no wavering, no looking-back. Her immediate acceptance is echoed in one of those few words she spoke to the world, “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.”

And thirdly, Mary is unique in her endowments, in what we may call her equipment for this high place. For just as it is true that God suffers no one to be tempted, to be tried, above that which he is able, so also is it true that God asks of no one to perform that for which He does not supply the grace. So it was said by the angel at the Annunciation, “Hail thou that are highly favoured” – Gratia plena, full of grace. It is surely not for us to limit the extent of that grace, of that divine endowment. Indeed, in insisting on this, we do but emphasise that all the graciousness of Mary comes from God, even as the splendour of the moon is that of the sun which shines upon it, whose brilliance it reflects, and that all the glories of Mary are for the sake of her Son. Among these glories is the sinlessness of the Virgin Mother. If some of us believe, with the rest of Western Catholicism, in her Immaculate Conception – though the Orthodox are not agreed upon that definition – yet, and here I speak for myself alone, since the formularies of the Church of England make no pronouncement on the doctrine, I cannot hold that we have the right to teach that doctrine as part of the deposit of the Faith which all must accept.

None the less, we must hold and teach with the authority of united Christendom the doctrine of our Lady’s sinlessness; that doctrine is summed up in the memorable words of Bishop Pearson: “We believe the Mother of our Lord to have been, not only before and after His Nativity, but also and forever the sinless immaculate and Blessed Virgin. If Elisabeth cried out, ‘Blessed are thou among women’ when Christ was but newly conceived, what expression of honour can we think sufficient now that Christ is in heaven and that Mother with Him? We cannot have too reverent a regard unto the Mother of our Lord so long as we give her not that worship which is due unto the Lord himself.”

We are thinking of that wider significance which is attached to these celebrations today. I have mentioned the first, which is to further the true honour due to the Bless Mother of God; and hereby we make also an act of reparation for past neglect, and, indeed, for no small dishonour towards her whom God has honoured so highly.

It is not only that her images have been broken and her shrines laid waste, but it is that her name has been practically forgotten in the sense that Christian reverence and love demand. And we mean by Christian reverence and love the attitude and expression of Christians who hold by the Faith of the undivided Church. Previous to the Reformation there was no difference between the English and other Western Churches, nor any fundamental distinction between East and West in this matter.

But widely we have fallen away. In England, in former days in the great cathedrals and in simple village churches, you would ordinarily have found two images of our Lady; you would have seen by the side of the cross on the great rood the figure of the Mater Dolorosa, the Mother of Sorrows, standing by her crucified Lord. By her presence there she proclaims that the strange Man on the Cross, Whom we worship as God, is most truly man. Elsewhere, you would have seen her image, crowned and glorious, holding in immaculate hands the divine Child, her crown and the glory proclaiming that He is most truly God. Thus true devotion to Mary provides a safeguard of the Catholic doctrine of the Incarnation. Can it be said that the removal of her image and the forsaking of all devotion to her has made that doctrine to be more securely held? Is it not rather true that where the gracious image of Mary has been withdrawn the true nature of her Son has been imperilled, and today is being widely denied? But I speak to the converted. Yet we may not rest in the security of our faith as though it were some treasure to be kept like jewels in a strong room for fear of thieves, only to be seen on rare occasions when safety is assured. Rather is it to be used, and we use it by our active defence of the Faith once delivered. And to that end we have need to be furnished with bright weapons, both of mind and spirit; and to that end we must seek to live within the grace of our salvation, and, therefore, as we need each other’s prayers, so must urgently do we need the intercession of the Mother of Jesus, whose children we are, children by nature disobedient, made obedient by grace. For we are the children of Mary, her sons and daughters whose obedience has ever been set over against the disobedience of Eve.

Much could be said beyond the few words that have been said: much indeed, of Mary as the guardian for the future, as she has ever been in the past of the divine humanity of her Son; of the protection which her influence spreads over the Christian home and the marriage state; of the excellence and fragrance of her purity; of the example of her fortitude in sorrow; of her nearness to the Cross – none nearer – and no less of her sharing in the divine victory over sin and death, and consequently of her glory in the heavenly state.

It is hard to speak of these high and holy things in words which shall not hide the very beauty they would reveal. Suffer me, then, again to draw from the writings of John Henry Newman, who ever made the qualities of an acute mind the servants of his ardent faith, and gave both to the world with an ineluctable charm.

“Such are thou, Holy Mother, in the creed and the worship of the Church, the defence of many truths, the grace and smiling light of every devotion. In thee, O Mary, is fulfilled, as we can bear it, an original purpose of the Most High. He once had meant to come on earth in heavenly glory; but we sinned, and then He could not safely visit us, except with a shrouded radiance and a bedimmed majesty: for He was God. So He came himself in weakness, not in power; and He sent thee a creature in His stead, with a creature’s comeliness and lustre suited to our state. And now thy very face and form, dear Mother, speak to us of the Eternal: not like earthly beauty, dangerous to look upon, but like the morning star, which is they emblem, bright and musical, breathing purity, telling of heaven, and infusing peace. O harbinger of day! O hope of the pilgrim! Lead us as Thou has led, in the dark night, across the bleak wilderness, guide us on to our Lord Jesus, guide us home.” Ora pro nobis peccatoribus, Nunc et in hora mortis nostrae.

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