XXXXXXX
“And the Lord God said to the serpent… ‘I
will put enmities between thee and the woman, and
thy seed and
her seed: she shall crush thy head,
and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.’”
(Genesis 3:14a, 15 DRC)
“And Mary said: ‘My soul doth magnify
the Lord. And
my spirit hath rejoiced in God my
Saviour. Because he
hath regarded the humility of his
handmaid; for behold
from henceforth all generations shall
call me blessed…
He hath put down the mighty from
their seat, and hath exalted the humble.’”
(Luke 1:46-48, 52 DRC)
COMPOSED MARCH 2008 TO MAY 2008. EDITED NOVEMBER 2010.
XXXXXXX
Intended by the
Author of This Book
for the
Greater Glory of the Adorable Triune Catholic God,
for the
Worship of the Sacred Heart of King Jesus Christ of
for the
Praise of the Immaculate Heart of Queen Mary, the Blessed Ever-
Virgin Mother of
God,
unto the Protection
& Propagation of the Holy Roman Catholic Church &
Her Most
Precious Heavenly Dogmas,
and
under the
Euphonious Patronage of St. Cecilia, the Eloquent Patronage
of St.
Catherine of
Ven. Mariana de
Jesus Torres, Virgins &
Martyrs.
XXXXXXX
“Domine, non est exaltatum cor meum, neque elati sunt oculi mei. Neque ambulavi in
magnis, neque in mirabilibus super me. Si non humiliter sentiebam, sed exaltavi animam
meam; sicut ablactatus est super matre sua, ita retributio in anima mea.Speret
in Domino, ex hoc nunc et usque in saeculum.” (Psalmus CXXX,Vulgata)
St. Francis
Xavier, Patron of Catholic Missioners, Ss. Catherine of Alexandria &
Francis of Sales, Patrons of Catholic Philosophers & Apologists, respectively,
and St. Peter of Verona, the Glorious Martyr, may you be pleased to guide this
arrow to its target, either unto eternal life or eternal death! “Now
thanks be to God, who always maketh us
to triumph in Christ Jesus, and manifesteth the odour of his knowledge by us in every
place. For we are the good odour of
Christ unto God, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the
one indeed the odour of
death unto death: but to the others the odour of life
unto life.” (2 Corinthians 2:14-16b DRC)
St. Francis of
Assisi, Humble Seraph of the Incarnate God, and St. Dominic the Preacher,
Dogged Cherub of the Triune Deity, pray for your children that they may not
fail the test but suffer the malice of the wicked gladly and so gain the Crown
of Life!
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A NOTE TO THE
READER: The series of quotations from the Bible that follow below, each
quotation in turn trailed by in-depth commentary, is the first half of a small
book entitled Mary Exalted that champions the Queenship
of the Blessed Virgin Mary over Highest Heaven and the Celestial Prerogatives
that She has been given by God, as well as defends Her Ancient Veneration by
members of the Roman Catholic Church. It is intended for those who might call
themselves ‘christian’ or ‘born again’ or ‘followers
of jesus’ --- i.e., Protestant --- utilizing the
words of Sacred Scripture and simple good sense to uphold Her Privileges in the
face of their prejudices and contrary assumptions. It is also intended for real
Catholics who are eager to defend themselves against the wicked lies of God’s
enemies toward His Son’s Precious Mother, although, of course, my dear soul,
you’re invited to read it despite not falling into these categories. However,
those who practice some other form of religion (or no religion at all) may wish
to browse the Questions & Answers or Straight & Simple sections of this
website instead. The writings there will require less familiarity with a
subject prior to launching into detailed exposition about it.
+ + + 1. The Crushing
of the Serpent + + +
“And the Lord God said to the serpent:
‘Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and
beasts of the earth: upon thy breast shalt thou go,
and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy
life. I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and
her seed: she shall crush thy
head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her
heel.’” (Genesis 3:14-15 DRC, emphases & punctuation added)
Comment
on Genesis 3:14-15:
Basing themselves upon the Masoretic
Text of the Old Testament, Protestant and other modern scholars pretend that “she shall
crush thy head” in Genesis 3:15c should read “he shall crush thy
head,” instead. Yet the oldest surviving manuscript of the Masoretic
(a record of Jewish scriptures in Hebrew) comes from the 9th century
A.D., while the oldest extant manuscripts of Catholicism’s Latin versions,
which uphold “she shall crush thy head,” come from the 4th century
or earlier. Moreover, St. Jerome, the translator of the Old Testament
in the Church’s Latin Vulgate version of the Bible --- not to mention a staunch
supporter of reliance on the ancient Hebrew text of the Jews for his
translation, contrary to the pro-Latin & pro-Greek sentiment of his
fellow Catholics from that era --- upheld “she shall crush thy
head…” This is particularly telling given that we today consider documents in
our hands from his time, circa A.D. 400, to be among our most
valuable links to the authentic biblical text. Whereas Jerome, who actually
lived all the way back then and had scholarly access to even older Hebrew
& Greek manuscripts, was perfectly positioned to correct this
reading of “she shall crush thy head” were it false. Nor do
the Dead Sea Scrolls change our conclusion. Thought to have been
written during the first two centuries before Christ, eighteen, and possibly
twenty-one, of their approximately 813 manuscripts contain the text of Genesis.
However, each of these is fragmentary (literally, nothing but little random
fragments of the ancient text as a whole) and none of them, apparently,
contain the 15th verse of chapter 3.
The simple truth is this: most of the Jews remained
unconverted to the Catholic Faith during the first few centuries after Christ.
This majority despised the Virgin Mary and refused to acknowledge that at least
some of their ancient manuscripts of Genesis preserved a prophecy from the very
beginning, hidden in plain sight, of the magnificent woman to come who, by
perfectly obeying the Will of God regarding His Divine Son, would, by His
Power, undo the terrible evil that St. Eve had done, thereby crushing
the Serpent’s Head. Rather than admit that they were wrong to reject Jesus and
slander His Mother, they preferred to abandon an otherwise laudable loyalty to
scriptural purity and purposely ignore ancient testimony that this text
in Genesis 3 spoke of a woman. An admission that would then lead to the
Roman Catholic Church since, logically speaking, all roads of evidence, history
& scripture converge upon the Faith of Catholic Rome, their Messias & His disciples having established this
religion and none other. Protestants happily follow suit --- covertly when it
comes to Jesus’ Kingship (for although they call Him ‘lord’, they do not in the
manmade ideas of their heresy truly obey Him as Lord),
overtly when it pertains to Mary’s Queenship (since,
unconverted to Her Son’s Catholic Body, they openly mock Her
God-Given Heavenly Splendor & Royal Prerogatives).
2. An Old Testament Woman
+ + + Prefigures the Serpent’s Bane + + +
“And behold, he came out of
Comment
on Ruth 2:4-5a, d, 3:9b-11:
Just as the Old Testament often foreshadowed Jesus
in various persons & events, so the book of Ruth is one of many instances
where the Blessed Virgin Mary herself is prefigured. St. Ruth’s very
name means ‘friend’, and she was indeed not only a dear friend to her
mother-in-law, Noemi (or ‘Naomi’, as Protestants
and others will usually spell it nowadays), but was a beloved friend especially
to the One True Most High God of the Israelites, obeying all of His
Commandments and His One True Religion of the Old Covenant. Too, the man who
became her husband, Booz, was an older man, as
his remark that Ruth “has not followed young men either poor
or rich” reveals. (Ruth 3:10d) Likewise St. Joseph, the spouse of
Mary. He was older than her and did not wed Mary for the sake of lust or
offspring, but out of obedience to God & His priests, who chose him
to look after Mary when she, at fourteen, exceeded the age allowed by the law
for a girl living within the
He was as well a close relation to Mary’s family,
preserving Jesus’ legal lineage & Davidic ancestry by keeping His Mother
within her royal tribe of Juda. Known to
everyone in the region as “a virtuous woman” (Ruth 3:11e),
Mary had taken a vow of perpetual chastity --- that is to say, a
vow to be a nun, which is why she had lived as a child within the confines of
the Temple --- thereby setting the stage to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the
miraculous nature of Jesus’ Divine Conception within Her Virginal Womb.
There being no convents at this time in
+ + + 3. Some Very
Crucial Words About Mary + + +
“And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a
city of
4. These Words Simply Explained:
+ + + Mary’s Reply Proves Her Perpetual Virginity + + +
Comment
on Luke 1:26-56:
The Blessed Virgin Mary was of the royal “house of
David”, Her Divine Son being given “the throne of David his
father” and a “kingdom” of which “there shall be no end.” (Luke 1:27b,
32b-c) And what does that make the mother of a king? A queen,
of course! Even to this day the mother of a reigning monarch in
Furthermore, Catholics have always called the
Virgin Mary by the title of ‘Blessed’ for a very simple reason --- because
she is. Look at the verses above from St. Luke’s Gospel very closely. I
have carefully highlighted the relevant parts. What does St. Gabriel the
Nor did the Blessed Virgin Mary prefer to follow
after “young men either poor or rich”, but devoted herself entirely to the God
of the One True Faith of the Old Covenant in the good works of prayer, virtue
& other pious deeds. Notice, too, how Mary responded to Gabriel after being
told that she would bear the Son of God --- God Himself --- within her womb:
“How shall this be done, because I know not man?” (Luke
1:34b-c) And yet, she having been espoused to St. Joseph, as both Matthew 1:18
& Luke 1:27 tell us, prior to the Angel Gabriel’s message
--- and thus due very soon to consummate this marriage by having
intimate relations with Joseph, as worldly minds would like to think --- then
how could any intelligent person in Mary’s situation fail to understand the
archangel to be talking about her having a child by means of normal
marital relations in the very near future with her bridegroom,
Joseph?
Certainly the Blessed Virgin Mary was highly
intelligent, as her magnificent response to St. Elizabeth’s greeting proves.
(Luke 1:46-55) Consequently, her question (“How shall this be done, because I
know not man?”) to St. Gabriel makes no rational sense… unless,
of course, what Roman Catholics have said about her is true: that
she really had taken a vow of perpetual chastity and
hence really was morally perplexed --- wondering how she could obey God’s
Commandments by keeping her vow of chastity to Him, on the one hand, while,
simultaneously, not failing to keep His prophetic word spoken to her through
the Angel Gabriel about bearing a son, on the other hand.
5. These Words Simply Explained:
+ + + Too, Zachary Clinches Mary’s Vow of Virginity + + +
This is further demonstrated by Gabriel’s reaction
to her question. For when earlier God sent Gabriel to the priest, Zachary,
Elizabeth’s husband, to tell him about St. John the Baptist’s impending birth
--- something astonishing to hear, considering Zachary & Elizabeth’s old
age and their complete childlessness up until that moment --- Zachary demanded
additional evidence, as if having a gloriously fearful archangel appear to you
in person was not evidence enough! “And Zachary said to the angel: ‘Whereby
shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.’”
(Luke 1:18 DRC, punctuation added) And how did Gabriel respond? Did he
kowtow to Zachary’s wishes for further proof? “And the angel answering,
said to him: ‘I am Gabriel, who stand before God: and am sent to speak to thee,
and to bring thee these good tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not
be able to speak until the day wherein these things shall come to
pass, because thou hast not believed my words, which shall
be fulfilled in their time.’” (Luke 1:19-20 DRC, emphases & punctuation
added)
Now contrast this to St. Gabriel’s reaction to the
Blessed Virgin Mary’s morally necessary question of how she would bear a
son when she is not to be intimate with a man: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon
thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And
therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of
God. And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old
age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: because
no word shall be impossible with God.” (Luke 1:35-37) No punishment, no
reproach. Merely an answer to her very sensible and very devout query… how
shall I bear a child when I am a nun, having made a vow of chastity to
God forever?
But if this doesn’t make the distinction between
Zachary’s sinful unbelief and Mary’s moral consternation --- she wishing to
humbly believe in Gabriel’s words whilst not disobeying her vow --- clear
enough to the skeptical reader, we hear again the words of St. Elizabeth to
Queen Mary when the two met a little later: “And blessed art thou that
hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken
to thee by the Lord.” (Luke 1:45) So indeed Mary had believed the words of
God spoken to her through St. Gabriel the
Echoing again her predecessor, Ruth, who called
herself “thy handmaid” in rejoinder to Mary’s ancestor, Booz. (Ruth 3:9d DRC, emphasis added) For a handmaid
is but a servant, and the humblest of all women. Which humility is why God
honored Mary more highly than any of His other creatures, placing Himself in
Her Womb and thus made Her the Mother of His Son, and thereby justified the
words of the Holy Ghost spoken prophetically through Her about Her own self:
“Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold
from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and
holy is his name. And his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them
that fear him. He hath shewed might in his
arm: he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He hath put
down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.”
(Luke 1:48-52)
Other evidences from Sacred Scripture exist, too,
proving Queen Mary’s perpetual virginity; but this one point alone all by
itself at the very least is enough to galvanize the Protestant, or other
ridiculer of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is of truly good will, to take
Catholicism seriously and look into it further.
+ + + 6. The
Incredible Example of Judith + + +
“And Judith was alone in the chamber. But Holofernes lay
on his bed, fast asleep, being exceedingly drunk. And Judith spoke to her maid
to stand without before the chamber, and to watch: and Judith stood before the
bed praying with tears, and the motion of her lips in silence, saying: ‘Strengthen
me, O Lord God of Israel, and in this hour look on the works of my
hands, that as thou hast promised, thou mayest raise
up Jerusalem thy city: and
that I may bring to pass that which I have purposed, having a belief that it might be done by
thee.’ And when she had said this, she went to the pillar that was at
his bed’s head, and loosed his sword that hung tied upon it. And when she had
drawn it out, she took him by the hair of his head, and said: ‘Strengthen me,
O Lord God, at this hour.’ And she struck twice upon his neck, and cut off his head, and
took off his canopy from the pillars, and rolled away his headless body. And
after a while she went out, and delivered the head of Holofernes to
her maid, and bade her put it into her wallet. And they two went out according
to their custom, as it were to prayer, and they passed the camp, and having
compassed the valley, they came to the gate of the city. And Judith from afar
off cried to the watchmen upon the walls: ‘Open the gates for God is with us,
who hath shewn his power in
7. The Poison of the Reptile’s Head Is
+ + + Unbelief in God’s One & Only Religion + + +
Comment
on Judith 13:3-31:
Protestants reject the book of Judith, having expunged
it from their bibles when they left the Catholic Church in the 1500s. The
cleverer among them cite various reasons --- such as neither Jews before Jesus
nor earliest Christians universally accepting it as canonical --- but what it
really boils down to is this: that the book says the heroine, Judith, did plainly
Catholic things, living the life of an ascetic nun after the death of her
husband. (Judith 8:4-6) This the first Protestants could not endure.
Hence, they rid themselves of the book lest in the course of reading their own
bibles they would recognize themselves as condemned for having destroyed holy
convents, broken sacred monastic vows and mocked the lives of good monks &
nuns.
Meanwhile, St. Judith is the most marvelous
foreshadowing of the Virgin Mary --- who was also a chaste nun --- in all of
Sacred Scripture. The arrogant, wicked & pagan Assyrians had besieged
It was at this point that God raised up a
holy woman, Judith, in their midst. Boldly traipsing into the Assyrian camp,
she went to their general, Holofernes, and he,
amazed at her indescribable beauty as well as by her wonderful intelligence,
fooled himself into thinking he could win her affections and that she would
turn against her own people. Thus began his downfall, for he drank himself into
a stupor one night shortly thereafter, having allowed only Judith to be present
with him in his luxurious tent, and she then used his own sword to smite him:
“And she struck twice upon his neck, and cut off his head,
and took off his canopy from the pillars, and rolled away his headless body.”
(Judith 13:10)
And what does this remind us of? The prophetic
words of God to the wicked serpent in the
Yet what was the poison of Holofernes’
headship? Judith tells us, “The God of Israel, to whom thou gavest testimony, that he revengeth himself
of his enemies, he hath cut off the head of all the unbelievers this
night by my hand.” (Judith 13:27b-c) In other words, the thing which threatened
--- the poison in Holofernes,
backed by his huge pagan army --- was unbelief in the
One True God of the Israelites and in His One True Religion that they
practiced. Indeed, the peril of Holofernes’
particular poison were his boasts against God & His Religion. He
bragged loudly how the gods of no other nation had been able to defeat the
Assyrian army; so, too, railed he, would God & His Religion be powerless to
stand against him. In short, he both lied about God and about God’s Religion… and
then expected everyone around him to believe what he said! That the
Israelites did not believe him, and would not capitulate, he
resented. Enraged, he besieged one of their cities.
+ + + 8. Holy Chastity
and the So-Called ‘Brothers’ of Jesus + + +
Into this viper’s den Judith walked unscathed. “But
as the same Lord liveth, his angel hath been my
keeper both going hence, and abiding there, and returning from thence
hither: and the Lord hath not suffered me his handmaid to be defiled,
but hath brought me back to you without pollution of sin,
rejoicing for his victory, for my escape, and for your deliverance.” (Judith
13:20) Likewise, Queen Mary entered the viper’s den of this fallen world unscathed
by its poison, by its Pollution of Original Sin. Kept immaculate at her
conception by the Power of God from any stain due to St. Adam’s ancient
rebellion, she also cooperated with God’s graces in such a fashion that never
did she commit any act of sin at any point during her earthly life. This
includes the lust of fornication. For although God --- knowing the weakness of
human flesh --- tolerates pleasure of the body to a certain degree within the
bounds of a Catholic marriage, He demands a higher level of holiness from
anyone who dares to approach Him more intimately, as God’s instructions to
St. Moses make manifest:
“…The Lord said to him: ‘Lo, now will I come to
thee in the darkness of a cloud, that the people may hear me speaking to thee,
and may believe thee for ever… And let them be ready against the third day: for
on the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people
upon mount Sinai. And thou shalt appoint
certain limits to the people round about, and thou shalt
say to them: “Take heed you go not up into the mount, and that ye touch not the
borders thereof: every one that toucheth the
mount dying he shall die…”’ And Moses came down from the mount to the people,
and sanctified them. And when they had washed their garments, he said to them:
‘Be ready against the third day, and come not near your wives.’”
(Exodus 19:9a-d, 11-12, 14-15 DRC, emphasis & punctuation added)
The conclusion is stark. Marital relations since
the Fall of Adam are tainted, almost invariably, by the wickedness of carnal
lust --- a carnal lust that causes the one lusting, gripped as the flesh so
often is in the heat of too strong a passion, to care little whether the person
lusted for is one’s spouse or not, or whether it is one’s spouse who gratifies
this passion or not. Hence why God required the Israelites not even to
touch their wives for three days prior to His descent upon the mountain in
their sight to speak to them personally with an audible voice from out of the
cloud. And this carnal lust the Blessed Virgin Mary eschewed from
earliest age, taking, as do all nuns, the vow of chastity so
that she might never be intimate with a man and instead be intimate with God… and
God alone. In fine, she strove to be perfect in all her ways, free
from carnal lusts. Which in turn is why she vowed perpetual chastity, having
never bore children with
Nor are the handful of verses in the
Gospels mentioning Jesus’ brothers & sisters proof to the contrary. Ancient
Jews and other Semite peoples considered all close relatives --- such as
cousins or uncles or nieces --- to be ‘brothers’ in the metaphorical sense of
an extended family. Evidence for this is found elsewhere in the Bible. For
instance, we read how “…it came to pass at that time, that Amraphel king of Sennar,
and Arioch king of Pontus, and Chodorlahomor king of the Elamites,
and Thadal king of nations, made war… And
they took all the substance of the Sodomites, and Gomorrhites,
and all their victuals, and went their way: and Lot also, the son of
Abram’s brother, who dwelt in
There are other evidences in Sacred Scripture of
Jesus’ ‘brothers’ or ‘sisters’ being actually His cousins, and so forth,
through Mary’s side of the family. That is to say, through Mary’s siblings.
But, again, this one example at the very least is enough to galvanize the Protestant,
or other ridiculer of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of truly good will into taking
Catholicism seriously and examining the Church of Rome far more closely.
9. Catholics Magnify God
+ + + Through Their Praise of Mary! + + +
In the meantime, we note how Judith’s fellow
citizens exclaimed over her amazing deed: “The Lord hath blessed thee
by his power, because by thee he hath brought our enemies to nought.” (Judith 13:22b) And the leader of the
people, Ozias, declared: “Blessed art
thou, O daughter, by the Lord the most high God, above all
women upon the earth.” (Judith 13:23b-d) As well, Achior the
God-fearing Ammonite “fell down at her feet, and reverenced her,
and said: ‘Blessed art thou by thy God in every tabernacle of Jacob, for
in every nation which shall hear thy name, the God of
Moreover, Achior asserts
that “in every nation which shall hear thy name, the God of
Thereby allowing us to see that, while Judith
received the praise & reverence of Israel on that wonderful day when the
head of their enemy, the Assyrians, was struck down by her hand --- the God of
Israel nonetheless “magnified on occasion of thee”, asAchior put
it to her (Judith 13:31c) --- in the same way have Roman Catholics the world
over praised & reverenced the Blessed Ever-Virgin Mary “in every nation”
which has heard of her name, the Creator of All That Exists being in this way,
by His Own Good Will & Pleasure, “magnified on occasion” because of
her and in the mighty deeds that He does by His Strength working through
her. (Judith 13:31b, c) Again, as St. Judith’s compatriots said to her,
“The Lord hath blessed thee by his power, because by
thee he hath brought our enemies to nought.”
(Judith 13:22b) And, again, as Ozias the
leader of the Israelites said to Judith, too: “Blessed art thou, O
daughter, by the Lord the most high God, above all women upon the
earth. Blessed be the Lord who made
heaven and earth, who hath directed thee to the cutting off the head
of the prince of our enemies. Because he hath so magnified
thy name this day, that thy praise shall not depart out
of the mouth of men who shall be mindful of the power of the Lord
for ever, for that thou hast not spared thy life, by reason of the
distress and tribulation of thy people, but hast prevented our ruin in the
presence of our God.” (Judith 13:23b-25)
And so we also see how, in magnifying the Name
of Queen Mary so very highly, good Roman Catholics actually magnify the
Name of the Triune God & Creator of All That Exists even more
highly by far, being mindful of His Great Power & Mighty Strength
at work through the Blessed Virgin Mary in order to exalt her, the
humblest of all women or human beings ever to have lived, she who considered
God more highly in everything she did than anyone else ever has, to the praise,
glory, worship, honor & renown of His Divine Name in His One & Only
Roman Catholic Religion, world without end. Amen.
+ + + 10. So Scarlet
the Blood, How Secure the House + + +
“And they said to her: ‘…when we come into the land, this
scarlet cord be a sign, and thou tie it in the window, by which
thou hast let us down: and gather together thy father and mother, and
brethren and all thy kindred into
thy house. Whosoever shall go out of the door of thy
house, his blood shall be upon his
own head, and we shall be quit. But the blood of all that
shall be with thee in the house, shall light upon our head, if any man
touch them.’” (Josue --- spelled as ‘Joshua’ by Protestants ---
2:17a, 18-19 DRC, emphases & punctuation added)
Comment
on Josue 2:17a, 18-19:
The reputation of the True God & His True
Religion had preceded the Israelites, the pagan Chanaanites of
ancient Palestine increasingly frightened as the Jews came nearer and nearer
from out of the desert east of the Jordan River. The inhabitants of Jericho
were the first of these heathens to face the Israelites west of the Jordan, and
the Jews sent two spies into the area to scope things out before they
attacked. While there, they lodged at a house owned by Rahab, who kept them from being discovered by some Chanaanite soldiers. She had heard about the God
of the Israelites and thirsted for His One True Religion. A prostitute by trade
(Josue 2:1, Hebrews 11:31, James 2:25), she
later reformed her life completely and joined the God-fearing Jews as one of
them. (Josue 6:23, 25) Meanwhile, in return for
her protection, she begged the spies to spare her family when
And so in this way Rahab became
not only a member of the Old Testament Church and, by marrying Salmon, the
mother of Booz (who married Ruth, see
Matthew 1:5) and thus the ancestor of Mary & Jesus, but was also, in
her newfound holiness, a foreshadowing of the Blessed Virgin Mother and
demonstrated the latter’s crucial role in Salvation. For Jesus would not
have been born as a man of Mary if Mary had not obediently consented to
Gabriel’s Divine Message, and by acquiescing --- “Behold the handmaid of the
Lord; be it done to me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38b-c DRC) --- she
brought forth, together with the Power of the Almighty Maker, the Flesh &
Blood of the Man Who Is God, Whose Sacrifice of His Flesh and Shedding of His
Blood enables similarly obedient human beings to save their souls.
This is the significance of the “scarlet cord” tied
in the window of her house as “a sign” to spare the lives of those within. (Josue 2:18b) For what is the color ‘scarlet’? Red.
And what is the color of human blood when exposed to the air? Again --- red. And Whose Blood
was shed for the remission of sins? Jesus Christ, Who is God and the
Son of Mary. It was the spilling of Jesus’ Blood, the same blood that
ran through the veins of His Mother, which allows men to have Hope of
Salvation. Yet how is this hope secured? By staying in the house:
“…and gather together thy father and mother, and brethren and all thy kindred into
thy house. Whosoever shall go out of the door of thy house, his
blood shall be upon his own head, and we shall be quit. But the blood of
all that shall be with thee in the house, shall light upon our
head, if any man touch them.” (Josue 2:18e-19)
And what is the significance of this “house”? (Josue 2:18e, 19a & c) Simple. Jesus’
Body is the Church, as Sacred Scripture tells us (e.g., Colossians 1:18 &
Ephesians 1:22-23), which in turn is “the house of God,” as
the Bible also informs us (1 Timothy 3:15b DRC, emphasis added), whose members
join to His Body in Baptism. (for instance, Galatians 3:27 & 1 Corinthians
12:13) And who gave birth to Jesus? The Blessed Virgin Mary. Ergo,
she in a very real sense is the Mother of the Church since she is the
Mother of the One Whose Body is the Church. And can anyone
save himself apart from membership in this Church, apart from belonging to
Jesus’ Body? Can anyone despise Jesus’ Mother, she who is the Very Source of
the Flesh of His Body, and still hope that Jesus will
spare him from the Flames of Hell and include him in the number of those who
belong to His Body, the Church & House of God?
+ + + 11. An
Apocalyptic Vision + + +
“And the four and twenty ancients, who sit on their seats in the
sight of God, fell on their faces and adored God, saying: ‘We give thee
thanks, O Lord God Almighty, who
art, and who wast, and who art to come:
because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and thou hast reigned. And the
nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they
should be judged, and that thou shouldest render
reward to thy servants the prophets and the saints, and to them that fear thy
name, little and great, and shouldest destroy
them who have corrupted the earth.’ And the
+ + + 12. To Rule All
Nations with a Rod of Iron + + +
Comment
on Apocalypse 11:16-12:1, 5-17:
Now we come to the heart of understanding the
Blessed Virgin Mary as revealed to us in Sacred Scripture. For we have
called her a queen, and indeed she is. In the quote above we see “a woman clothed
with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of
twelve stars…” (Apocalypse 12:1b-d) Obviously, a woman wearing
a crown is a queen. And no ordinary queen, for
what sovereign upon earth ever wore a diadem consisting of twelve stars?
This is a mistress above all others --- truly, a heavenly queen!
Yet who is this fantastic woman? Christians of old
often allegorized, saying she was the Church with the twelve stars being the
twelve apostles who founded her firmly in Christ & His Teachings. There is
much truth in this assertion; however, a more literal interpretation is even
closer to the mark. For what do we learn about this woman in the next few
verses? That she was “with child,” and,
having “delivered… she brought forth a man child, who was to rule
all nations with an iron rod: and her son was taken
up to God, and to his throne.” (Apocalypse
12:2a, 4d-5 DRC, emphases added) And who is this “man child”?
That he is “to rule all nations with an iron rod”
is a big clue. For what single man since Nemrod once
reigned over the entire human race shortly after the Great Flood --- and this
before human beings had gained much in population or dispersed to all parts of
the earth like God had told them to do --- has ever ruled “all nations with
an iron rod”? No one. Whereas we read of Jesus Christ, spoken of
prophetically in the Bible: “The Lord hath said to me: ‘Thou
art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will
give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and the utmost ends of the
earth for thy possession. Thou shalt rule
them with a rod of iron, and shalt break them
in pieces like a potter’s vessel.’” (Psalm 2:7-9 DRC, emphases &
punctuation added) Plainly, this is Jesus, the Son of the Almighty God
--- God Himself --- who is spoken about, and to this passage in the
Psalms is what
“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse;
and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and with
justice doth he judge and fight… And he was clothed with a garment
sprinkled with blood; and his name is called, THE WORD OF GOD… And out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp two edged sword; that with it he
may strike the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of
iron…” (Apocalypse 19:11, 13, 15a-c DRC, emphases added) Sound familiar?
Does this not betoken Jesus Christ? For as
And which woman, out of all women ever to exist,
became Jesus’ Mother, who is it that gave him through birth His Flesh
upon this earth? Precisely --- the Blessed Ever-Virgin Mary. Consequently,
Mary must be the “woman clothed with the sun,
and the moon under her feet, and on her head a
crown of twelve stars…” since Mary is the only woman to
have been “with child,” and then “brought forth a man child” who
would some day “rule all nations with an iron rod…”
(Apocalypse 12:1b-d, 2a, 5a-b)
13. The Inaccessible Light of the
+ + + Origin of All Goodness & Truth + + +
There is no way to get around this. No matter how
fair it might be to allegorize the woman in this passage into a metaphor of the
Church, it is also just as equally fair & logical & justifiable --- and
even more so --- to take the passage literally as
talking about the Blessed Virgin Mary. How so? Because there is no
other woman who literally fulfills the criteria of the woman
described in the passage! Mary alone of all women to
have graced the realm of human existence fits this
description. Period. Ergo why Catholics call Her the Queen of Highest Heaven:
because Her Divine Son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, is the King of Highest Heaven, Who
delights in obeying the Fourth Commandment by honoring His Mother Mary as the Queen
Mother of His Kingdom; and also because the Holy Ghost through St.
John in his Apocalypse reveals to us “a great sign… in heaven” which then turns
out, upon a simple, sensible & literal examination of its description of
“a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet,
and on her head a crown of twelve stars…”, to fit Jesus’
Blessed Mother --- and no one else --- to a tee.
(Apocalypse 12:1a, b-d)
This is one of the reasons, too, why Roman
Catholics say that the Virgin Mary is immaculate, i.e., perfect and
without sin, right from the moment of her conception. For what does John inform
us about her? That she is “clothed with the sun…” (Apocalypse
12:1b) And what is the significance of this? Well, have you ever tried to look
at the sun? It’s impossible, isn’t it? At least with the eyes of a
physical human body on this earth. The sun is simply too bright. It will
blind us. Yet what does brightness have to do with anything? We read elsewhere
in Sacred Scripture that God is “the Father of lights…” (James
1:17d DRC, emphasis added) And that His Son, Who is God as well, is
“the true light, which enlighteneth every
man that cometh into this world.” (John 1:9 DRC, emphasis added)
Moreover,
Indeed, when Paul, called Saul during his earlier
life, was confronted by a vision of Jesus right before he converted to the True
Faith --- and Whom he had persecuted by hounding those who were a part of
Jesus’ Body, His Church --- we read that “as he went on his journey, it came to
pass that he drew nigh to Damascus; and suddenly a light from heaven
shined round about him. And falling on the ground, he heard a voice
saying to him: ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me?’ Who said: ‘Who art thou, Lord?’ And he: ‘I am Jesus whom thou persecutest…’ And Saul arose from the ground; and when his
eyes were opened, he saw nothing. But they leading him by
the hands, brought him to
And Jesus the Light said regarding Himself, “I am
the light of the world: he that followeth me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light
of life.” (John 8:12b-d DRC, emphases added) Too, “As long as I am in
the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5 DRC,
emphasis added) So Jesus is like the sun --- yet even greater than the sun and
able to blind us by His Brightness. He is as well the Light of the World and
the Light of Life. But what is this Light of His, really? The light of the sun allows
us to see and enables life to exist upon the earth. What, therefore,
distinguishes Jesus’ Supernatural Light from the sun’s natural light --- what
is it that Jesus’ Light allows us to see, what kind of Life is it that Jesus’
Light enables to exist?
Jesus informs us, “And this is the judgment:
because the light is come into the world, and men
loved darkness rather than the light: for their works were
evil. For every one that doth evil hateth the
light, and cometh not to the light, that his works may not
be reproved. But he that doth truth, cometh to the light, that his
works may be made manifest, because they are done in God.” (John
3:19-21 DRC, emphases added) And as Jesus told St. Paul when He converted Paul
from the relative darkness of his Old Covenant Religion into the superseding
light of Jesus’ New Covenant Religion, sending him forth to the nations in
order “to open their eyes, that they may be converted from darkness to
light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may
receive forgiveness of sins, and a lot among the saints,
by the faith that is in me.” (Acts 26:18 DRC, emphases
added)
The Light of Jesus, then, in contrast to the merely
material light of the sun, is goodness & truth, whereas the Darkness
of the Devil is evil & falsehood. Or, to be more precise, the
Light of Jesus Christ is the Goodness & Truth of God’s True
Religion, whereas the Darkness of the Devil is the Evil & Falsehood of
Any False Religion. That is to say, good works are good, but they
are no ultimate good unless they are worked within the One That Is Truly Good,
with the Religious Faith That God Commands Us To Believe & Obey, the dogmas
of this faith being exactly what Jesus came to the earth to
teach the human race to profess & do in great detail and with absolute
certainty. Hence, the person who does evil can also do good at other
times, yet, for him, his goodness is ultimately no good if not grounded in the
origin of goodness. And God, Who is all-good and all-true, being the Very
Source of All Goodness & Truth, is the “Father of lights” and “inhabiteth light inaccessible” because He is the Most
Holy, Good & Truthful of All, being the Uncreated Creator of All That
Exists, being the “Lord God Almighty, who art, and who wast,
and who art to come…” and the One Who Spoke Light Into Being when He
said at the beginning, “Be light made.” (James 1:17d, 1
Timothy 6:16b, Apocalypse 11:17b-c & Genesis 1:3b DRC, emphasis added)
+ + + 14. Dressed to
Shine + + +
Likewise, those who are His. Being His children
and imitators of His Goodness and thus well-instructed members of His Son’s
Body, which is the Church that came to be called Catholic before the first
century was even half over, they are those about whom Jesus says, “Then shall
the just shine as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father.”
(Matthew 13:43a-b DRC, emphasis added) And about whom the prophet, St. Daniel,
says, “But they that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the
firmament: and they that instruct many to justice, as stars for all
eternity.” (Daniel 12:3 DRC, emphases added) In addition, Solomon tells us,
“The just shall shine, and shall run to and fro like sparks
among the reeds.” (Wisdom 3:7 DRC, emphases added) In other words, God shares
His Glory with those who are His, with those who obediently practice
His One True Religion and hence do their good works rooted in Him by
being rooted in His Son’s One & Only Body, which is the
As a result, it should surprise no one that Queen
Mary --- who was the holiest and most obedient member of Jesus’ Body for all
time throughout the entire world --- is “clothed
with the sun” in Heaven. (Apocalypse 12:1b) Such radiant splendor is
nothing less than what Jesus Himself displayed of His own normally hidden glory
prior to returning to Heaven, when He was changed right in front of the eyes of
His disciples, Ss. Peter, James & John, upon the mountain: “And he was
transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun: and
his garments became white as snow.” (Matthew 17:2 DRC, emphases
added) Another gospel adds: “And his garments became shining and
exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller upon earth can make white.”
(Mark 9:2 DRC, emphasis added) And yet another adds: “And whilst he prayed, the
shape of his countenance was altered, and his raiment became white
and glittering.” (Luke 9:29 DRC, emphasis added)
The point is, the Blessed Virgin Mary is
“clothed with the sun”
because she is superlatively holy & obedient like Her Regal Son, having
borne the King of Glory & Light of the World --- He Whose Face, when
transfigured, “did shine as the
sun” --- within her very womb. (Apocalypse 12:1b & Matthew 17:2b
DRC, emphasis added) Note, too, how she is merely “clothed with the
sun,” while it is the very “face” of Her Son Himself that “did shine as
the sun…” (Apocalypse 12:1b & Matthew 17:2b DRC, emphases added) This is
because she shines not with her own glory, as if it emanates
ultimately from her own self, but with the Glory of Her Son, Who is God, and
Who thus shines His Glory through her in order to both
honor her for her holiness and honor Himself for being the Source of All Such
Holiness. And she is superlatively obedient & holy, exceeded by no one
except Her Regally Divine Son, because God in His Sovereign Counsel chose her
out of all creatures from the beginning of the world, having foreknown her, and
bestowed upon her the prevenient graces
necessary for her to be preserved from any stain of sin, even from that
iniquity which every human soul otherwise suffers via their corrupted flesh
from Adam after His Fall in the Garden of Paradise, being the Original Sin that
humanity in St. Adam, their ancient father, first committed.
It is these prevenient graces,
and Mary’s faultless cooperation with such graces, which merited her the
privilege in God’s Sight of bearing the Second Person of God Almighty within
her womb, that kept her sinless from the start of her existence and
throughout her life, that raised her bodily into Heaven after her life was
finished here on the earth, and that grants her a Crown of Monarchy in Highest
Heaven for the Rest of Eternity as the Queen Mother, God delighting in honoring
her who delighted in honoring Him like no other person ever did whilst alive on
earth.
+ + + 15. The Eve of
Mary (Or, Eve’s Second Chance) + + +
What’s more, we find in examining this passage from
St. John’s Apocalypse that Queen Mary is not only the Mother of God, having
borne the Almighty Son of God within Her Womb, but that she is the mother of
all those who bear His Testimony, too! In other words, she is the mother
of all real Christians. “And the dragon was
angry against the woman: and went to make war with the rest
of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus
Christ.” (Apocalypse 12:17)
For who are those “who keep the commandments of
God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ…”? (Apocalypse
12:17c-d) Christians, obviously. And what does the Holy Ghost through
John call these Christians? He calls them “the rest of her seed,”
‘seed’ here being the old-fashioned word used in reference to human beings for
the children or descendants of a particular
person. (Apocalypse 12:17b) Which only makes sense. For what have we
already seen, from the previous commentary, is the Body of
Jesus? The Church. (Colossians 1:18 & Ephesians 1:22-23, for
instance) And how are people made members of this Church Body,
becoming a part of Jesus? Through Baptism. (e.g., Galatians 3:27 & 1
Corinthians 12:13) And from whom was Jesus born, who is it that gave birth to
His Divine Person and Most Sacred Body? The Blessed Virgin Mary. Consequently,
in a very real sense, Mary is the mother not just of Jesus, Who is God, but
of the rest of His Body, too, of those members of His Body, the
Church, who are baptized into Him and profess all of His Teachings and all of
His Commandments.
This woman, then --- who we cannot intelligently
argue is literally anyone else other than the Blessed Virgin Mary --- is
the mother of everyone who both obeys the commandments
of God and holds to the testimony of Jesus Christ. Indeed, Christians being
those who are “born again” (John 3:3, 5 & 7 & 1 Peter 1:23
DRC, emphasis added) in Jesus Christ, Her Son, and so become “new creatures”
(2 Corinthians 5:17 & Galatians 6:15 DRC, emphasis added) in God’s Sight,
then Queen Mary is the Mother of the Human Race of the New Creation.
For just as the First Eve was the Queen Mother of the Human
Race of the Old Creation before she fell into the first sin
and lost her hitherto unsullied crown, so Mary is the Last Eve
--- the Second Eve --- in conjunction with her Son,
Jesus, Who is the Second Adam, i.e., the “last Adam…”
(1 Corinthians 15:45 DRC, emphasis added) And just as Eve’s body was not
created simultaneous with Adam’s body but was taken out of Adam after he
was created, so Jesus’ Body was not formed simultaneous with Mary’s body but
was taken out of Mary after she was formed. For as
Satan had the Sin of Adam enter the world through Eve,
the First Woman of the Old Creation, so God had the Grace
of Jesus enter the world through Mary, the First Woman
of the New Creation. That is to say, since by woman sin first entered
into the world, then by woman sin is first cast out of the world. It is God’s
Will, making His Son’s Birth dependent upon the humble consent of a woman. A
consent & cooperation that is vital since, short of a man’s blood coursing
through His Veins --- and Royal Blood at that --- He could not
very well have shed what He did not have! Hence, just as Eve with the wicked
sanction of Adam’s Kingly Authority enabled Sin & Death to enter this
world, so, too, does Mary with the holy sanction of Jesus’ Kingly Authority
enable Grace & Life to enter the same.
+ + + 16. Moon
Which, by the way, is why Mary stands with “the
moon under her feet…” (Apocalypse 12:1c) For not only is the earth’s
moon poetically ‘feminine’ in relation to a ‘masculine’ sun --- for instance,
where the prophet says “…the sun shall be darkened in his rising,
and the moon shall not shine with her light…” (Isaias 13:10c-d DRC, emphases added, see also Ecclesiasticus 43:1-9), thereby showing us that Queen
Mary, the female, is to the heavens like the moon just
as Her Son, King Jesus, the male, is to the same like the sun,
the latter’s glory reflected in the former and hence, so to speak,
shining through it when the latter is not even to be seen in
the sky --- but the moon is the highest point of the earth anywhere to be
found. How so?
Consider. Is there any other orb in the heavens ---
what moderns now call ‘outer space’ or simply ‘space’ --- so intimately
connected to the earth, in such a way that the earth is the dominant mass? No,
there is not. Astronomers tell us that the moon is the earth’s one & only
natural ‘satellite’ and that all other denizens of the celestial realm, except
for the sun, are too far away to have anything other than an incidental or
passing effect upon the earth. Whereas, in contrast, earth & moon together
constitute one single system locked in a so-called ‘gravitational’ embrace.
Nevertheless… and this is the key thing to remember… the moon is much smaller
than, and thus subservient to, the earth. Or to put it another way: the center
of mass of the earth-moon system is far, far, far closer to the earth
than it is to the moon. It is, as a matter of fact, approximately 1000
miles beneath the surface of the earth wherever the moon might
be directly overhead. In the most literal sense of the words, then, the moon is
truly a part of this earth. It is like our highest mountain, higher than
Consequently, what is the significance of
+ + + 17. Snake
Killer + + +
Because know that, before Satan fell from Heaven,
he was the greatest of all angels. Hence why the picture of Our Lady of
Guadalupe portrays him like a cherub, the angels being, as Jesus infers, “the children of
God…” (Luke 20:36 DRC, emphasis added) Children, however, that, in the
original infancy of their creation, were totally innocent & thoroughly
guileless concerning the things of sin. Hence why angels are often portrayed as
babes in paintings of them --- for babies are the most innocent of human
creatures. Yet this innocence Satan lost due to his rebellion against God.
“Thou a cherub stretched out, and protecting, and I set thee
in the holy
There you have it. Satan, the Devil, is “the prince
of the power of this air…” (Ephesians 2:2b DRC, emphasis added)
Ergo the significance of Our Lady of Guadalupe standing upon the head of
a cherub with feathered wings, since Satan in the preternaturalness
of his airy, angelic being can roam throughout this world like a swift,
farsighted bird in flight. Ergo, too, the significance that Queen Mary stands
upon the head of this fallen cherub whose wings are the colors of the ancient
Aztec’s pagan god, Quetzelcoatl, the
Feathered Serpent. Because Satan is the Serpent that
tempted Eve in the Garden of Paradise at the beginning in
ancient times. As John informs us, “And that great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan,
who seduceth the whole world; and he was
cast unto the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” (Apocalypse
12:9, emphases added) And being angelic & spiritual in nature, not bound by
the restrictions of a merely physical existence, he is able to ‘fly’, as it
were, through the atmosphere of our earth, overseeing the war of his fellow
fallen angels, demons, against the souls of men.
The Central American Indians of the early 1500s understood
this. They knew that their Feathered Serpent was beaten, overcome by the Woman
Who Bore The God-Man Jesus Within Her Womb that the Spanish monks had
told them about. Heretofore, most of the Indians had ignored them, scorning the
religion of their conquerors. These Franciscan & Dominican missionaries had
labored hard with very little to show for their efforts… until the Blessed
Virgin Mary manifested Her God-Given Strength, crushing the head of their pagan
god and inviting them into the maternal embrace of Her Loving Arms. What before
could not be achieved for all the excellent preaching & charitable deeds in
the world by the good monks from Catholic Spain during the course of a dozen
years, Queen Mary accomplished, via a miracle that took less than a second, in
a mere matter of months.
+ + + 18. Every Moonth
an Agony + + +
Notwithstanding, “the moon under her
feet…” means something more as well. (Apocalypse 12:1c) For what do we think of
when we think of the moon? Right. Its phases. That is to
say, the moon goes through regular waxings & wanings, sometimes revealing to us all of her face,
sometimes none of her face, and sometimes in-between. This is why, for example,
Queen Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe stands upon a crescent moon;
the crescent is what the moon looks like just before, or right after, the moon
has finished being ‘new’ or dark in the sky, no light of the sun reflecting to
us on earth from its surface. And how long does this periodic waxing &
waning take, how much time passes between one new moon and another new moon, or
between one full moon and the next full moon? Twenty-nine-and-a-half
days. This is nearly a whole month. Indeed, the term ‘month’ derives from
the word ‘moon’ in ancient times… a ‘moonth’.
And what on earth, apart from the tides of the ocean, is more closely linked to
the moon than anything else? Correct --- the menstruation of a woman. The term,
‘menstruation’, in fact, comes from the Latin word, ‘mensis’,
meaning ‘month’. And what is the nature of this monthly period?
It is a time of suffering & bleeding for a
woman. Truly, it is the result of God’s Curse upon Eve --- after He had cursed
the Serpent and before He had cursed Adam, the man --- for her rebellion
against God’s Commandment which He had given to her via Adam, her husband, not
to eat of the fruit from the Tree at the center of the
This curse, though, the Blessed Virgin Mary
did not suffer. For since she, in particular, of all women,
was not tainted by the stain of sin from the moment of conception, then she, of
all women since the transgression of Eve, did not need to suffer the curse laid
upon all women in general. Therefore, while the rest of Eve’s daughters have
endured the pain every month which correlates with the cycles of the moon, Mary
did not. Nor did she suffer birth pangs. The Miracle of Jesus’ Divine
Conception, void of any carnal pleasure on Mary’s part, was mirrored in the
Miracle of His Nativity, bereft of any carnal agony that His Mother should
bear. For just as the bodily senses were not gratified and the usual physical
means not utilized at His entrance into Her Womb, so the bodily senses were not
agonized and the usual physical means not utilized at His exit from the same.
In both cases supernatural means of conception & birth were used,
and this is yet another reason
+ + + 19. Truly, But
Not Literally + + +
But, of course, particularly agile opponents will
cite an earlier part of the passage from John’s Apocalypse, where it says that
the woman “being with child, she cried travailing in birth, and was in pain to
be delivered.” (Apocalypse 12:2 DRC) How can this be referring to the Virgin
Mary, they chortle gleefully, when the Catholic Church tells us Mary was
without sin and hence free from the curse of a mother’s birth pangs?
Yet what do we see from another passage of Sacred
Scripture? We read, “O God my God, look upon me: why hast thou forsaken me? …O
my God, I shall cry by day, and thou wilt not hear…” (Psalm 21:2a-b, 3a-b DRC) In
Protestant bibles these verses are called Psalm 22:1a-b & 2a-b instead of
21:2a-b & 3a-b. Nevertheless, Protestants as well as Catholics recognize
how this psalm more than any other foretold the horrible sufferings
of Jesus upon the Cross. For instance, the Study Edition of the New Open Bible,
a famous instructional translation for conservative Protestants put out by
Thomas Nelson Publishers in
Now, consider. Both Protestants & Catholics can
agree that Psalm 21 (or Psalm 22, as Protestants would have it) speaks truly about
Jesus. All the same, were we to take the words of Jesus literally ---
“O my God… why hast thou forsaken me?” (Psalm 21:2a-b DRC, see also Mark
15:34e) --- then we are trapped in a conundrum that seems impossible
to escape. Because Jesus is God, right? Right. And yet
Jesus --- God --- says upon the cross, “My God… why
hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34e DRC, emphasis added), echoing the very
words of the prophetic Psalm 21:2a-b. So how could God say He has forsaken Himself?
How in the world is this possible when He is with Himself upon
the Cross as He hangs there dying?
It’s really quite simple. For although Psalm 21
speaks about Jesus truly, it doesn’t then mean that every thing it says
about Jesus --- and that Jesus Himself quoted upon the Cross --- is to be taken
literally. God cannot literally forsake Himself. Jesus did not,
and could not, stop being God as He died upon the
Cross. Nor can God fail to be omnipresent. As St. David observes regarding God
in another psalm, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee
from thy face? If I ascend into heaven, thou art there: if I
descend into hell, thou art present. If I take wings early in the
morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea: even there also
shall thy hand lead me: and thy right hand shall hold me.” (Psalm 138:7-10 DRC,
emphases & punctuation added) Consequently, God cannot literally
forsake Himself. Jesus was still fully God as well as fully Man upon
the Cross, and God is everywhere present in creation no matter where
one might be.
This is the reason neither the first quote from the
psalm (“O God my God, look upon me: why hast thou forsaken me?”) nor the second
quote (“O my God, I shall cry by day, and thou wilt not hear…”) can be taken
literally. (Psalm 21:2a-b, 3a-b DRC) It is impossible, because God cannot
possibly stop being Himself or stop hearing Himself. Rather, we must take the
quotes as an allegory for something spiritual. Accordingly,
the Person of God the Father rejected the Person of God the Son since His Son,
Jesus, took upon Himself the wickedness of sinners. The word ‘God’, therefore,
is used here in these verses metaphorically to mean the First
Person of the Triune Godhead. Furthermore, God unable to endure any sin within
His Manifest Presence (we are reminded of how no man on this earth can see God
Face-to-face and live due to a man’s sins in this world, as Exodus 33:20 &
Hebrews 12:14 inform us), then God the Father ceased to manifest His Presence
to God the Son’s Human Nature. Wherefore Christ --- Who had never
been without His Father’s Beloved Presence for all of eternity and was One
With Him in a way that no human being can even imagine --- suffered a misery of
infinite magnitude. We can only guess at the depth of His Agony. For
those who have felt such heartbreak that they have despaired of ever knowing
happiness again, left only with a wish to end their existence upon the earth,
this sense of merely human hopelessness gives us a tiny taste of something
akin, perhaps, to what He as the Eternal Word of God suffered during His excruciating
torment upon the Cross.
+ + + 20. Original Sin
Is Genetic + + +
At any rate, we now understand why Mary “cried
travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered.” (Apocalypse 12:2b-c DRC)
The Bible speaks truly in this passage, but it cannot be speaking
literally --- as in actual pangs of a physical child birth --- or else
the Blessed Virgin Mary had sin. But if she had sin, then Jesus had sin, too!
Think about it. Original Sin is the Sin of Adam,
that first sin that the human race committed in the person of their ancient
father, whom God made lord of the whole earth. In that first sin all of
creation fell, men now condemned to die and the rest of God’s creatures
suffering the penalty of death, too. Prior to this, the world was a very different
place. The consequences being physical, though, then
Original Sin cannot be something derived from the soul. It stains the
soul, just like blackberry juice will stain the shirt upon which it falls, but
the Sin of Adam cannot be transmitted hereditarily from soul to soul as
if souls breed like the bodies that they inhabit. They do not. God
creates each individual human’s soul anew, specially for the body
that it is to inhabit as soon as the body is able to receive it. As a result,
we see that Original Sin --- whatever it is exactly, physically speaking ---
must be something that derives from the body. Which is as much
as to say, Original Sin being hereditary, then the body transmits
Adam’s Sin from one generation to the next.
Nowadays we call this hereditary transmission
‘genetic’. I.e., something carried from generation to generation through one’s
genes. These genes are located in our cells. Every cell has them; every cell
transmits them. They provide the pattern of our bodies. Without them, physical
life as we know it is unthinkable. And these genes are located on the
chromosomes of the cells, of which human beings have forty-six altogether.
What’s more, and so far as we know, these chromosomes of genetic material are
all that is carried from one generation to the next. That is to say, nothing
more of real & intrinsic significance is transmitted, physically speaking,
from the bodies of the parents to the body of the child. The genes are
it. For while a mother’s milk may contribute substantially to the growth
of her child’s infant body, it does not, like the genes, essentially direct and
therefore determine the design of that child’s
body. Consequently, whatever exactly Original Sin is, it must
be associated with the genes --- or else it’s transmission
could not be physical, and a person’s parents could not be the ones
transmitting it. But this is not an option since the Sin of Adam is indeed a
transmission of bodily nature. Ergo, the genes on the chromosomes must transmit
it.
Which only makes sense, really. After all, did
not God design creation to be as it is? Did He not design our
bodies for a specific purpose? No one not under the sway of new-fangled macroevolutionary teaching or old-fashioned paganism can
disagree. And how is this purpose for our bodies carried from generation
to generation if not via physical means from parent to child?
Hence, knowing that the genes transmit physically the pattern of our bodies
from one generation to the next, and knowing that the design of our bodies was in
some way deformed from the perfection that they formerly possessed
prior to Adam’s Fall in the Garden of Paradise so as to admit injury &
mortality where before there was none, then Original Sin must be a
deformity now ‘programmed’ into the genetic material of our cells somewhere
upon the chromosomes. Which is where it gets interesting…
+ + + 21. The Y
Chromosome Connection + + +
Because there is a genetic difference
between men & women. All human beings have 46 chromosomes total in
their cells. But only one of those 46 chromosomes of genetic material is
what makes a man a man, apparently. Or, to put it another way, there is no
reason for a man to be masculine, physically speaking, except for the design
encoded on that 46th chromosome, called the ‘Y’ chromosome due
to its unique shape. Whereas for a woman, all 46 chromosomes look
roughly the same --- all 46 are shaped like an ‘X’.
Now, continue to ponder. Some people have said
that only men transmit Original Sin to their children, that women
have nothing to do with it. Thus, say they, Queen Mary could not have
transmitted Original Sin to King Jesus, Her Son. For Protestants who think a
bit deeply, this is a nifty way of avoiding the Doctrine of the Immaculate
Conception. To wit, the infallibly-defined dogma of the Roman Catholic Church
that the Blessed Ever-Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of Original
Sin upon her soul, the poison of Adam’s Sin having never been allowed, by God’s
Sovereign Will, to deform her holy flesh. Hence the term ‘immaculate’ in Immaculate Conception
since ‘immaculate’ means perfect and Mary was preserved perfect from sin right
from the moment of her conception within her mother’s womb. The well-instructed
Catholic will tell you that Original Sin was prevented from transmitting to
Jesus’ Body since Mary, His Mother, had no Sin of Adam to transmit from her
flesh. Whereas clever Protestants who accept the Doctrine of Original Sin (many
deny it today, some of them even oblivious to its existence) get around the
problem by saying Mary had Original Sin but, being a woman, that she couldn’t
pass it on to the Flesh of Her Divine Son, Jesus.
The problem is, this explanation doesn’t make
any genetic sense. Because the only difference, in genetic terms, between men
& women is one chromosome: the Y chromosome. Thus, if men are the only
ones to transmit the deformity of Original Sin --- whether to a daughter or
to a son --- then women could not physically inherit the Sin of
Adam. Could not, as in it is physically impossible. Remember,
the sole difference between men & women, genetically speaking, is the Y
chromosome. Short of this particular collection of genes, men would be,
apparently, indistinguishable from women. Which is why, were men the only
transmitters of Original Sin, then they must carry it upon the Y
chromosome, the only thing that genetically distinguishes them from women.
Otherwise, why can’t women transmit it, too? After all, both men &
women contribute a set of 23 chromosomes apiece to the child that they bear.
Which in turn is why men cannot be the sole transmitters of
Adam’s Sin since a daughter never receives a Y chromosome from her
father, who is the only one who could give it to her, and hence could never have
Original Sin were this theory correct. Or is there any sane & honest
person who would dare to say that, of all people on earth, only women
are without sin?
Granted that unlikely prospect (and it is an
infallible teaching of the Roman Catholic Church that both men and women
receive the poison of Original Sin, Jesus & Mary alone excluded), we must
then face the empirical fact… both men and women transmit the Sin of
Adam, the poison of Original Sin is not restricted to a man’s Y
chromosome. Bringing us back to the topic of Mary’s Immaculate
Conception. Because if she did have the stain of Original Sin upon her
soul (and may God pardon me for even suggesting the thought, as if it were a
plausible hypothesis), then how did the Divinely Perfect Jesus avoid the
stain of Adam’s Sin upon His Sinless Soul?
22. And Thus Why Mary
+ + + Had to Be Conceived Immaculately + + +
Ponder it carefully. Jesus is God and therefore
perfect, as almost any studious Protestant of a conservative theology will admit.
So how could He, the Perfect God-Man, foster the deformity of Original Sin
within His Holy Flesh, how could His Sinless Soul bear the stain of this ugly
& soul-killing iniquity upon its own exquisite spotlessness?
The very notion is inconceivable. Literally
--- Jesus could not be conceived in Original Sin. Ergo,
Mary could not have transmitted Original Sin to Him. Ergo,
Mary herself could not have had Original Sin and she was
perfect from the moment of her own conception, just as most Catholics have said
since the beginning of Christianity in the first century A.D., and just as
every real & well-instructed Catholic has always said since the Triune God,
by His Divine Authority, allowed a pope to define this doctrine infallibly in
1854.
Of course, extremely stubborn Protestants can get a
little bit more clever and ask why, if God by a divine miracle
prevented the Blessed Virgin Mary from acquiring the poison of Original Sin
from her parents, couldn’t God then by a divine miracle do the same with Jesus in
the Womb of Mary at His Conception as well? That is to say, why did it have to
start with Mary? Why did the transmission of Original Sin get cut off at her
beginning? Why not with Jesus at His Conception instead?
The answer is pretty plain. Aside from the fact
that it’s revolting to think of the Almighty Creator of the Universe, Who is
without any sin, residing in most intimate contact with an imperfect creature
via this woman’s womb, utterly dependent upon her, bodily speaking, in every
way during His Holy Infancy, it also poses an insoluble dilemma. Viz., how
can God be His Own Savior, He Who is without sin and needs
saving from no one?
Again, think it through carefully. Protestants love
to impugn Catholics for the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception by, amongst
other complaints, asking how it is Mary would say about herself to St.
Elizabeth, her cousin, the following: “My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my
spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.” (Luke
1:46b-47 DRC) How could she say this, scoff they, when she is immaculately
conceived --- without any sin --- and yet have called God her “Saviour”? (Luke 1:47 DRC) From what was she being saved?
What sin had condemned her that she would need God to forgive her, thereby
saving her soul from the torments of Hell?
The rejoinder is obvious, but we will spell it out
clearly for those who are not familiar with Catholic Theology and willing to
learn. Because the Church of Rome has never said that Queen Mary
was perfect by her own efforts. That is to say, she did not create
herself and she did not choose, by her own power, to make herself
without the stain of Original Sin. No, this was by the Sovereign Choice &
Omnipotent Act of God Almighty Himself. He is the
One Who made her perfect to begin with, He it is Who
kept her immaculate from the first moment of her conception. And He did this by
His Grace. Specifically, by applying the graces that He later won upon the
Cross, but which were applied to her preveniently --- before the
actual accomplishment of His Sacrifice upon the Cross --- to the Virgin Mary at
Her Conception, allowing her to be immaculate from the start. He is
All-Powerful and He is All-Sovereign; He can certainly do this should He so
choose. And He did so choose, since Jesus was conceived without sin and
He could not have avoided the threat of transmission of Original Sin
from His Mother were she not herself free from the stain of Adam’s
Iniquity.
Bringing us to the clincher. For how could God
have preveniently applied His Own Grace to
His Own Self to save Himself from the stain of Original Sin in
Mary’s Womb when, in fact, God is, both by logical definition and by innate
nature, utterly & perfectly holy and hence needs no
saving from anyone or anything, least of all from the stain of
sin?
Protestants don’t want to believe in the Dogma of
the Immaculate Conception. Nonetheless, if they’re going to use this dogma to
attack the dogma by posing an alternative application of the principle involved,
then, to mix metaphors, they’re going to have to face the music and swallow
their own medicine --- because you can’t have it both ways. Admit
that Mary is immaculate, and you handily solve the problem of how Christ was
conceived in Mary’s Womb without inheriting Original Sin. When asked how this
is possible, considering that Mary acknowledged God as her “Saviour”
and hence needed some sort of rescue from the threat of sin, Catholics respond
easily by pointing out that Mary still needed the prevenient graces
of God to miraculously protect her from the transmission of Adam’s Sin from her
parents. (Luke 1:47 DRC) Consequently, God really was her Savior whilst
she truly was Immaculate. On the other hand, admit the possibility that God
miraculously & preveniently kept Jesus
from inheriting Original Sin from His Mother in Her Womb at His Conception, and
you fly right into a net from which you can never escape. Accordingly, the
question of how it is God could be His Own Savior, He Who by
concrete, eternal reality and inexorable definition needs no saving from
anything, least of all sin. And yet this is what an immaculate conception
on His part would require, were we to insist on it… that He, Perfection Itself
& the Uncreated Creator, would both need to be and could be
His Own Savior, He Who cannot suffer the stain of sin somehow suffering the
threat of a certain & damning Original Sin were He to incarnate Himself
within the womb of a woman who would then transmit to Him, in His Flesh, the
Sin of Adam were He not to apply His own graces preveniently to
Himself! Ludicrously, God Himself would be thrown into the position of having
to say about Himself, as did Queen Mary, “My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my
spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.”
(Luke 1:46b-47 DRC) The Omnipotent wouldn’t be Omnipotent, the Creator
merely another pitiful creature who needs saving…
23. The “All Have Sinned” Protest Rebutted: Contrary to
+ + + Modern Bias, a Soul Always Can Choose Not to Sin + + +
The Protestant or other ridiculer of the Virgin
Mary is better advised to accept the obvious: that the Immaculate Conception is
after all the only sensible solution, the only reasonable way to explain what
cannot otherwise be satisfactorily explained. Indeed, there is really but one
more major objection that Protestants can rationally fling at Catholicism
regarding the Immaculate Conception. The old ‘St.-Paul-in-Romans’
protest. For he says --- and I quote --- “all have sinned, and do need the
glory of God.” (Romans 3:23 DRC) Other passages in Sacred Scripture say
something similar.
Aha, grouse haters of Catholicism. The Bible
says everyone has sinned. This includes Mary, too! Therefore,
she must not have been immaculately conceived. Meanwhile, they
are totally clueless that Catholics themselves wrestled with this verse, and
several other meticulous considerations, for centuries before defining the
Dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the middle of the 1800s. In short,
anything Protestants or other critics can dish out, Roman Catholics have
already dished out at themselves while they tackled all of the typical
objections to Her Immaculate Conception prior to the Papacy
taking an infallible stand at the end of it. And what did Catholics figure out?
Precisely what we have already stated --- that
Queen Mary was not perfect solely by her own efforts.
Rather, God made her perfect at her beginning. That is
to say, left to fallen nature and the transmission of Original Sin, then Mary, too,
would have been subject to Adam’s Sin were it not for the intervention of God
to apply the graces to Mary that He won upon the Cross by the shedding of His
Blood for the remission of sins. The difference is, all other human beings
may have their sins remitted after their conception. Indeed,
after their birth under normal circumstances. Whereas Mary
alone, of all persons, had grace applied to her even before she
could contract sin. To wit, at the moment of her conception.
The distinction is not semantic. To say she was
perfect from the first moment of her conception necessarily means that she was
free from stain of sin at all points during her life, even at her
beginning. Meanwhile, to say that a person is made perfect after one’s
conception is to say that, at first, one was conceived in sin, and then, only
after this start mired in sin, is one washed clean from the sin that has
already stained the soul. Both situations require the intervention of a Savior.
Nevertheless, the former intervention (perfect from the beginning) keeps from
happening what would certainly occur, due to the normal course of things in a
fallen world, were this intervention never applied.
The catch is, the vast majority of Protestants ---
and most people in general --- don’t think anyone can be without sin. “Nobody’s
perfect” is a common refrain we hear at one time or another from just about
everybody’s mouth. Meant to sound tolerant & forgiving, it is, in fact,
quite intolerant & unforgiving when pushed to the extreme. Truly, as used
by most people, it is usually a lame excuse not to be better than we are. Or,
put bluntly, to do less than we can. Hence, when
confronted by testimony or evidence that someone really is doing, or has done,
better than we are --- as much as one can ---
we are seized with fear & indignation. Fear, because we’re afraid of God
punishing us for our sins. And indignation, because in comparison with someone
who is more industrious, who exercises free will to do better than we are, mightn’t
God be angrier with those of us who are morally lazy? Hence why
Protestants latch onto biblical statements about everyone
sinning. “Everybody’s in the same boat,” think they. “Nobody’s
better. If God’s gonna punish me, then
He’s gotta punish everybody. But if
He’s gonna let them go free, then
He’s gotta let me off the hook, too!”
That in a nutshell is what Protestants think. I
know, because I used to be one. They may not think it explicitly, just like
I’ve stated it above, but they think it essentially, deep in their heart of hearts.
That’s why the Blessed Virgin Mary’s sinlessness offends
them. Because it condemns them for their moral
turpitude. We may not be able to be perfect from the first moment of our
conceptions like her --- that depends on the special act of God on her behalf
--- but we certainly can, by the Grace of God given freely to everyone
who asks for His Help and who strives doggedly without falling into despair,
become perfect from some moment after our conceptions onward. I.e., from
some moment in the not-too-distant future after we’ve begged the graces from
God to become perfect as He commands. I mean, did not Jesus say to His
disciples, “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father
is perfect…”? (Matthew 5:48 DRC, emphases added) Does God tell us to do
what cannot be done? Did He not give us autonomy, freedom of will to do as we
choose? Do we not have minds, capable of knowing what it is that He’s told us
to do? How, then, can we pretend that it’s inconceivable to freely choose to
obey God in all things whatsoever? Indeed,
So, then, this is really what bugs Protestants and
others of a worldly mind. The Immaculate Conception is not impossible,
as if God somehow couldn’t do it or would never choose to do it that way for
Mary. No, it’s entirely possible for an All-Powerful & All-Sovereign
Creator to do as He sees fit in this matter. It’s just that we don’t want to
believe it… because it offends us.
24. The “All Have Sinned” Protest Rebutted: Romans 3:23
+ + + Cannot Mean That Every Human Chooses to Sin + + +
And so such people cling to verses like Romans 3:23
where Paul informs us that all have sinned. “This has gotta mean Mary,” they declare with an air of papal
infallibility, as if incapable of misinterpretation. “Nobody gets off the hook
here. Everybody’s a sinner from start to finish. Sin, sin, sin, sin --- that’s
all we do! God knows it. And yet He still loves us. Although, when I stop
to wonder about it, I can’t imagine how.”
Indeed. How is it the Sinless God can
love a sinner? Although, when you think about it, what we really mean to
say is, “How can the Creator Who Hates Sin love the
creature who loves to sin?” It’s not the sinning
in & of itself that makes the sinner utterly hateful, but his love of
the sinning that makes him totally repugnant. That is to say, if a person loves
sinning with no reticence or remorse --- and either knows better or ought to
know better than to do what he’s doing --- then that person is just as hateful
& repugnant to God as is the degree to which the sin itself, that the
sinner commits, is hateful & repugnant to Him. Sinners are therefore
condemned by their attachment to sin, and forgiven by their repudiation of the
same.
Yet Original Sin is a unique case. For what man ever
chose to be attached to Adam’s Sin? Except for Adam & Eve
themselves, no one ever has, since no one can choose what one is not yet around
to be able to choose. All human beings after Adam & Eve sinned, sinned in
them corporately, as it were, without any individual choice in the
matter. We are born with the Sin of Adam, attached to it short of any
free will in the matter. Notwithstanding, does the baby only a day old
commit any actual sin --- i.e., a sin by act and not
just by origin? Of course not. Ergo, should that baby die
washed free of the stain of Original Sin (and the Catholic Church tells us that
this can only occur in the Water of Baptism), then that child is perfect
in God’s Sight. He has no sin, whether original or actual. Hence, whatever Paul
meant by saying all have sinned, he cannot
have intended it to be understood as though everyone sins by his own choice
until the day that he dies. Or do Protestants accuse a dead baby of having
sinned like a full-grown adult, at his own little infantile choice?
Likewise the Blessed Ever-Virgin Mary. She was
perfect in God’s Sight. She had no sin, whether original or actual. And if the
Holy Ghost by St. Paul’s hand cannot have meant to
include dead babies in his ‘all have sinned’ statement, as if they have
committed actual sins by their own free choice, then how is it we are to
understand --- automatically and without thinking very carefully about it ---
the Holy Ghost by the hand of St. Paul to have meant to include Mary in
his ‘all have sinned’ assertion, too?
Do you see? Protestants think they have an airtight
case here, but they don’t. Simple good sense reveals the opposite. Not only
that, but what about Jesus? Wasn’t He a man? Surely He was God.
Any conservative Protestant admits that. Yet He was fully human, too, as
they will also acknowledge. Consequently, when Paul talks about ‘all’ having
sinned, what are we to think about Jesus? Has He (and may God not hold it
against me for saying this) sinned, too? Surely not. Yet wasn’t Paul
talking about all of the children of Adam, isn’t Jesus included
in this number by being a descendant, in His Human Nature, of the first
man, Adam, who resided in the Garden with God? Certainly He is, as Luke 3:23-38
shows us!
Plainly, Protestants cannot be
interpreting
+ + + 25. The Real
Meaning of Mary’s “Travailing in Birth” + + +
So what can
What is this spiritual meaning?
That Mary, being the Mother of God --- which
includes God’s Body, the Church --- is hence the Mother of all those who
have joined themselves to God & His Body by joining themselves to His
Church. Indeed, it is in this way that we see how many early Christians could
interpret the woman of Apocalypse 12 to be the Church. For do we not perceive
how Queen Mary is, practically speaking, nearly identical to
Her Son’s Body, the Church? Truly. Therefore, in giving birth to
Jesus (in which she suffered no pains of childbirth due to her immaculate
state), she has given birth --- or does actually give birth even now, as it
were --- to each of those who are a part of Jesus’ Body, who are joined to
Him by membership in His Church. Yet we can get even more exact. For,
really, spiritual birth is only the death of a real Christian (read: Roman
Catholic) in the state of grace. Once this is accomplished, the man is
certainly in Heaven. He may have time to undergo in Purgatory where the temporal debt
(as opposed to eternal debt) of his sins that is left unpaid
is expiated, but he has nothing left remaining to everlastingly impede him from
seeing God Face-to-face in Heaven… it’s just a matter of a little more time.
As a result, just as the Blessed Virgin Mary
“travailed” watching the tribulation of Her Son as He suffered and died at the
hands of His persecutors, so she is “in pain to be delivered” having watched
Her spiritual children mired in sins or suffering at the hands of persecutors
as they uphold the Roman Catholic Testimony of Her Son. (Apocalypse 12:2b, c
DRC) Her maternal agony is spiritual, not physical. It is of
the heart, not of the flesh. And as any wise man knows who
has suffered both physically and spiritually, while physical pain may be
excruciating & intense, it is spiritual pain ---
agony of the soul and of the heart --- that is the worse. As a matter of fact,
when physical pain gets ‘too much’ for someone, it is really the spiritual pain
that the physical torment is causing that is the most horrible burden to bear
--- not the physical suffering itself. This is how great saints of the Catholic
Church could be in the most hideous of bodily agonies, suffering torment of the
senses unimaginable to most of us, and yet be in ecstasy of soul, happier than
we can fathom. It’s not that the pain itself is pleasurable, but that its
purpose & result is so very joyous when suffered correctly. This is what
elevated their souls beyond the lot of mortal men unto God in the highest
degree.
It is the same with Mary. She suffered to see Her
One & Only Son go through His Agony on earth. In this was fulfilled the
prophecy of St. Simeon the Priest to her at the
+ + + 26. War Between
the Woman and the Dragon + + +
This is the War Between Her and The
Dragon. This is the battle that is fought by Satan & his hosts with Mary
& her children. (Apocalypse 12:17) This is the Woman crushing the Serpent’s
Head. (Genesis 3:15) And is it not
curious how we begin in Genesis with the Serpent deceiving a woman, only to be
told, via God’s Curse, how a Woman shall crush the Serpent’s Head,
and then, at the end of the Bible in the Apocalypse, to see the thing
accomplished, a Woman fighting against the Satanic Serpent?
To wit, the war between “that great dragon… that old serpent, who is
called the devil and Satan…” and “…the woman, who brought forth the man
child…” (Apocalypse 12:9a-c, 13b-c DRC, emphasis added) For it is by her
children’s words and through their many good deeds that she prevails, they
honoring their Heavenly Mother in the face of an unbelieving world. For just as
Jesus must “keep the commandments of God,” one of which is to honor father
& mother (Apocalypse 12:17c, see also Exodus 20:12) --- and Mary is His
Mother --- so those who “have the testimony of Jesus Christ” must also “keep
the commandments of God” if they would uphold “the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
(Apocalypse 12:17d, c, d DRC) Hence, they as well must honor His Mother ---
who is their Mother, too, by virtue of the testimony of her Son, Jesus
--- that Woman who is “a great sign… in heaven…” (Apocalypse 12:1a)
Leaving us one last thing to examine in the
Apocalypse for now. Because how did we begin this latest quote from the
Bible? What verse comes right before the “great sign… in
heaven…” (Apocalypse 12:1a ) in perfect narrative sequence with
it, that we quoted with everything else? It is this:
“And the
Anyone who knows something about the
A question then begs to be asked. For why did John,
and why did the Holy Ghost through John, choose to mention this about the
Temple of God right before launching into the words
about the Celestial Woman? Because he says, and we quote again:
“And the
Then, not missing a beat (for chapter divisions
were an innovation of the 2ndmillennium and not something that the
original authors of the various books of the Bible employed as they were
writing Sacred Scripture back in the 1st century A.D or
earlier), he goes on to say in the very next verse in perfect sequence without
skipping a line:
“And a great sign appeared in
heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the
moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars…”
(Apocalypse 12:1 DRC, emphases added)
+ + + 27. The
The import is clear --- the Virgin Mary is
the Ark of God’s Testament in His New Covenant Church. We repeat: the Blessed
Ever-Virgin Mary is the
“Now of the things which we have spoken, this is
the sum: we have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the
throne of majesty in the heavens, a minister of the holies, and
of the true tabernacle, which the Lord hath pitched, and not man.
For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices… Who serve
unto the example and shadow of heavenly things. As it was
answered to Moses, when he was to finish the tabernacle: ‘See,’ saith he, ‘that thou make all things according to
the pattern which was shewn thee
on the mount.’ But now he hath obtained a better ministry, by how much also he
is a mediator of a better testament, which is established on
better promises. For if that former had been faultless, there should not indeed
a place have been sought for a second. For finding fault with them, he saith: ‘Behold, the days shall come,’ saith
the Lord: ‘and I will perfect unto the house of Israel, and unto the house
of Juda, a new testament: not
according to the testament which I made to their fathers, on the day when I
took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt: because they
continued not in my testament: and I regarded them not,’ saith
the Lord. ‘For this is the testament which I will make to the house of
This, then, is why St. Simeon the Priest prophesied
to the Blessed Virgin Mary, as she brought Her Son, the Word of God, to be
presented to God on the fortieth day after His Birth at the
“And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out
of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:35 DRC, emphases
added)
For she, the Ark of the New Testament who had borne
the Word of God within Her Womb, brought forth this Holy Word to the Temple of
God, wherein once laid the Ark of the Old Testament which had borne the Word of
God within Its Womb, in the Holy of Holies and place of the Divine Oracle. This
+ + + 28. Heavenly Queenship of the Marian Ark + + +
As Solomon remarked concerning God, inspired by the
Holy Ghost in his public prayer at the dedication of the Temple he had built
for God’s Old Covenant Church in Jerusalem: “…for thou only knowest the hearts of the children
of men…” (2Paralipomenon --- called ‘2 Chronicles’ by Protestants ---
6:30e DRC, emphasis added)
If, then, Simeon could prophesy, inspired by the
same Holy Ghost, to Mary that her “own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of
many hearts, thoughts may be revealed…” (Luke 2:35 DRC), how is
it Mary’s suffering is involved in revealing these thoughts
from men’s hearts when God alone knows the hearts of human
beings? Unless, of course, it is just like Catholics have said --- that God has
placed His Authority in her hands. The Divine Offspring they hold in common
(for God the Son is just as much the Son of Mary as He is the Son of the
Father) is the King, and she, His Mother, is the Queen.
Of all God’s creatures, no one is greater than she. Only God exceeds
her in power & glory, a power & glory that He shares with her more
than with anyone else. This is plain to see, for no greater honor
could be given to anyone than to bear the Person of God Almighty
within your womb… to impart to Him your flesh, with your
blood running through His Veins.
Should this Ark of Testimony offend you or cause
you to mock her, then the sword does indeed pierce Queen Mary’s Sorrowful &
Immaculate Heart and your heart is indeed one of many out of which thoughts are
revealed --- ugly thoughts, irreligious thoughts and thoughts of blasphemy.
What son worth his salt allows another to mock or attack his mother with
impunity? What king who expects his kingdom to endure permits others to savage,
mutilate or ridicule his queen? King Jesus has given to His Mother, Queen Mary,
everything that a Creator possibly could give to one of His creatures, even
unto the half of His Kingdom. He has placed “on her head a crown of twelve
stars…” (Apocalypse 12:1d, emphasis added) And where are stars to be
found? In Heaven. Which is why she is the “great sign” which
“appeared in heaven…” (Apocalypse 12:1a, emphasis added)
Do you see?
The
Blessed Virgin Mary is a Heavenly Queen.
It is only Protestant or other worldly minds that find this shocking,
reprehensible or ridiculous. God Himself found it to be so
marvelous that He decreed it to be so, telling her through His
messenger, St. Gabriel the Archangel, “…the Lord is with thee: blessed
art thou among women.” (Luke 1:28d-e DRC, emphasis added) This blessing
extends to her being given such powers & magnificence that she
exceeds even Lucifer at his unrivalled angelic height before he
fell into sin and became known as the Devil. And it is to her that God gives
the privilege --- and the strength --- to crush his poisonous mouth. “And the
dragon was angry against the woman…” (Apocalypse 12:17a DRC) To which
the Woman --- Mary --- responds, “Strengthen me, O Lord God of Israel,
and in this hour look on the works of my hands, that as thou hast promised,
thou mayest raise up Jerusalem thy city:
and that I may bring to pass that which I have purposed,
having a belief that it might be done by thee.” (Judith 13:7
DRC, emphases added) And as Solomon also remarked in his long & marvelous
prayer at the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem, “Now therefore arise, O
Lord God, into thy resting place, thou and the ark of thy strength:
let thy priests, O Lord God, put on salvation, and thy saints rejoice in good
things.” (2 Paralipomenon 6:41 DRC,
emphasis added) The
“I
will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she
shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in
wait for her heel.” (Genesis 3:15 DRC, emphasis added)
Wage war against the Blessed Ever-Virgin Mary, my
dear soul, and the wicked thoughts of your most blasphemous heart are very much
revealed to the Woman who crushes your master’s arrogant head. The King, Her
Son, also takes notice of this blasphemy. Do not imitate the river whose waters
end up buried in the earth, lifeless & dead: “And the serpent cast out of
his mouth after the woman, water as it were a river; that he might cause her to
be carried away by the river. And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up
the river, which the dragon cast out of his mouth.” (Apocalypse 12:15-16 DRC)
It is merely the Devil using you, his tool, to fight his battles. And need I
add that Satan loses?
+
+ +
The passages & commentaries above are the first half of a long
article, Mary Exalted. I will post the latter half of the article as
soon as I can. It is the forerunner of a much longer work called She Crushes
the Serpent’s Head, which I intend to publish --- Heaven-willing --- in the
next five years.
+
+ +
Pilate’s
query met:
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