In his letter to Optimus, a bishop, around A.D. 377., Basil of Caesarea imputed personal sin to Mary:
6. About the words of
Simeon to Mary, there is no obscurity or variety of interpretation. "And
Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary His mother, Behold, this Child is set
for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be
spoken against; (yea, a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also,) that
the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." Here I am astonished that,
after passing by the previous words as requiring no explanation, you should
enquire about the expression, "Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own
soul also." To me the question, how the same child can be for the fall and
rising again, and what is the sign that shall be spoken against, does not seem
less perplexing than the question how a sword shall pierce through Mary's
heart.
7. My view is, that
the Lord is for falling and rising again, not because some fall and others rise
again, but because in us the worst falls and the better is set up. The advent of the Lord is destructive of our bodily affections and it rouses the proper
qualities of the soul. As when Paul says, "When I am weak, then I am
strong," the same man is weak and is strong, but he is weak in the flesh
and strong in the spirit. Thus the Lord does not give to some occasions of
falling and to others occasions of rising. Those who fall, fall from the
station in which they once were, but it is plain that the faithless man never
stands, but is always dragged along the ground with the serpent whom he
follows. He has then nowhere to fall from, because he has already been cast
down by his unbelief. Wherefore the first boon is, that he who stands in his
sin should fall and die, and then should live in righteousness and rise, both
of which graces our faith in Christ confers on us. Let the worse fall that the
better may have opportunity to rise. If fornication fall not, chastity does not
rise. Unless our unreason be crushed our reason will not come to perfection. In
this sense he is for the fall and rising again of many.
8. For a sign that
shall be spoken against. By a sign, we properly understand in Scripture a
cross. Moses, it is said, set the serpent "upon a pole." That is upon
a cross. Or else a sign is indicative of something strange and obscure seen by
the simple but understood by the intelligent. There is no cessation of
controversy about the Incarnation of the Lord; some asserting that he assumed a
body, and others that his sojourn was bodiless; some that he had a passible
body, and others that he fulfilled the bodily oeconomy by a kind of appearance.
Some say that his body was earthly, some that it was heavenly; some that He
pre-existed before the ages; some that He took His beginning from Mary. It is
on this account that He is a sign that shall be spoken against.
9. By a sword is
meant the word which tries and judges our thoughts, which pierces even to the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a
discerner of our thoughts. Now every soul in the hour of the Passion was
subjected, as it were, to a kind of searching. According to the word of the
Lord it is said, "All ye shall be offended because of me." Simeon
therefore prophesies about Mary herself, that when standing by the cross, and
beholding what is being done, and hearing the voices, after the witness of
Gabriel, after her secret knowledge of the divine conception, after the great
exhibition of miracles, she shall feel about her soul a mighty tempest. The
Lord was bound to taste of death for every man--to become a propitiation for
the world and to justify all men by His own blood. Even thou thyself, who hast
been taught from on high the things concerning the Lord, shalt be reached by
some doubt. This is the sword. "That the thoughts of many hearts may be
revealed." He indicates that after the offence at the Cross of Christ a
certain swift healing shall come from the Lord to the disciples and to Mary
herself, confirming their heart in faith in Him. In the same way we saw Peter,
after he had been offended, holding more firmly to his faith in Christ. What
was human in him was proved unsound, that the power of the Lord might be shewn.
(Letters 260.6-9 in NPNF2 8:298-99)
Notice how Basil interprets the sword in
Luke 2:35 as “the word which tries and judges our thoughts” and applies it to
Mary doubting at the cross, imputing personal sin to Mary. Further, Basil
claims this interpretation of Simeon’s prophecy is universally accepted at his
time (“, there is no obscurity or variety of interpretation”). This, of course,
presents a problem for Catholic theologians and apologists who rely on the authority
of patristic tradition for their understanding of the interpretation of
Scripture and those who hold that the personal sinlessness of Mary was part of
this tradition. As we read from the Council of Trent:
[DS 1507] Furthermore, in order to curb impudent clever
persons, the synod decrees that no one who relies on his own judgment in
matters of faith and morals, which pertain to the building up of Christian
doctrine, and that no one who distorts the Sacred Scripture according to his
own opinions, shall dare to interpret the said Sacred Scripture contrary to
that sense which is held by holy mother Church, whose duty it is to judge
regarding the true sense and interpretation of holy Scriptures, or even
contrary to the unanimous consent of the Fathers, even though interpretations
of this kind were never intended to be brought to light. Let those who shall
oppose this be reported by their ordinaries and be punished with the penalties
prescribed by law.…
