Nov 08 - Homily: Blessed John Duns Scotus

2010-11-08 3

Temptation will always be about us drawing us toward sin, but the only evil in this is to give into sin.
Today we celebrate the feast of Blessed John Duns Scotus.
Though belief in Mary's Immaculate Conception never wavered among the truly faithful, for centuries theologians were at a loss to explain adequately and with satisfactory doctrinal clarity this privilege accorded the Mother of Christ. Then in the greatest of centuries a humble and brilliant friar brought resolution to this knotty question: How was Mary, who was like all human beings in need of redemption, conceived without sin?
To the keen and penetrating mind of the thirteenth-century Franciscan philosopher and theologian, Blessed John Duns Scotus, all Christendom owes respect and honor. For it was Duns Scotus who plodded carefully through the maze of theological reasonings to explain clearly Mary's Immaculate Conception. His study and consideration of the disputed questions regarding Mary's conception with