THE CATHOLIC EPISTLE OF S. JUDE THE APOSTLE.
3 I was under a necessity to write unto you: to beseech you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.
This faith was delivered by oral teaching. We may see in this short Epistle several points of divine revelation which are not mentioned anywhere else in holy writ, arid must have been transmitted by tradition. So too is it with much of the explicit teaching on the Blessed Virgin. S. Jude supposes this faith to be known by those to whom he writes. He alludes, at the same time (v.v. 17, 18), to Epistles of Apostles, whence they derived their knowledge on some particular matter, thus in 1 Tim. iv. 1-3; 2 Tim. iii. 1-5; 2 Pet. iii. 3, 4. Hence we see the late date of this Epistle.
The very essential ideal of everything that is most opposed to Jesus Christ is Antichrist, and the spirit of Antichrist. On the contrary, the most perfect ideal of all that is for Jesus Christ, is Mary, and her spirit, which breathes in the souls of the faithful devotion to her. For Mary is the living testimony and pledge in the Church on earth, and in heaven to Angels and Saints for all eternity of the truth of the Incarnation, that God is indeed become Man. Take away Mary and Jesus Christ is dissolved. Whoever entertains wrong thoughts and ideas of her will hold error, explicitly or implicitly, with regard to Our Lord Jesus Christ. Let devotion to Mary droop, and Catholic Faith will soon grow weak, or die. Mary is still the guardian of her Divine Son, as she is of us her children. The experience of ages has proved this. Hence the Church sings: Gaude Maria Virgo, cunctas hcvreses sola interemisti in universo mundo. Dignare me laudare te Virgo sacrata. Da mihi virtu-tern contra hostes tuos. The Spirit of Mary is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God.
