Mother of the Church
The "Woman" of Gen. 3:15... and of Rev. 12
Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Church:
Next statement of the Vatican Council II gave rise to the official bestowal on Mary of the title 'Mother of the Church' by Pope Paul VI at the closing of the third session of the Council on November 21, 1964, a title which has since been incorporated into the Litany of the Holy Rosary: very significantly between the titles 'Mother of Christ' and 'Mother of Divine Grace'.
Virgin Mary, the Mother of God...
redeemed in a specially sublime manner by reason of the merits of her Son, and united to
him by a close and indissoluble tie, she is endowed with the supreme office and dignity of
being the Mother of the Son of God. As a result she is also the favourite daughter of the
Father and the temple of the Holy Spirit. Because of this gift of sublime grace she far
surpasses all other creatures, both in heaven and on earth.
At the same time, however, because she belongs to the offspring of Adam
she is one with all human beings in their need for salvation. Indeed she is 'clearly the
mother of the members of Christ ... since she cooperated out of love so that there might
be born in the Church the faithful, who are members of the Christ their Head' (St
Augustine, De sacra virginitate, 6). Therefore she is also hailed as a preeminent and
altogether singular member of the Church, and as the Church's model and excellent exemplar
in faith and charity. Taught by the Holy Spirit, the Catholic Church honours her with
filial affection and piety as a most beloved mother.
See also Lumen gentium Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 21 November 1964. Mary's Role in the Church. Excerpts from CHAPTER VIII: OUR LADY, from sections 60-65.
See the pronouncement of the Vatican II on the titles of Mediatrix, Advocate...
Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.[16] This, however, is so understood that it neither takes away anything from nor adds anything to the dignity and efficacy of Christ the one Mediator.[17] (Section 62).
Virgin Mary is the Mother of the Church of Christ, the Mother of the Mystical Body of Christ.
St Paul in Ephesians 4 states that the Mystical Body of Christ is one body, with one faith, one baptism, one Spirit, one Father, God the Father... but there is not a body without a mother, or may be a monstrous body!...
... and the Mystical Body of Christ is not a monstrous body, but a perfect one, and, of course, with a Mother:
... The Mother of Christ, of the Head of the Body, is also the Mother of the whole Body, otherwise, again, it will be a monstrous body, the one whose head has a mother and the rest of the body has no mother... but the Mother of the Head is also the Mother of the whole Body, Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ, is also the Mother of the Church of Christ, praise the Lord!.
Mary is the mother of God and your Mother... do you want to try Her?... do!... Her job is like the one of any good Mother, to care for you, to help you, to clean you, to love and kiss you a thousand times... Try Her!... she is your spiritual Mother, believe it or not... just try Her, and you will see wonders in your life... and if you are not a Christian, she is also your Mother, so try Her!, your whole life would be a different glorious one, here on hearth, and eternally in Heaven, praise the Lord!.
"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring (seed) and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." (Gen.3:15).
This verse is so important that has been called "the proto-gospel", the first promise of a Redeemer... and if we understand it well, we will understand all the glories and atrocities related in the Bible, and even more important, we will understand the history of our own life, with its ups sand downs, because in our life on earth "we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph.6:12).
In this short verse there are 5 protagonists, and 3 statements of God:
1- The 5 Protagonists:
1- "I" is God.
2- "You": Is Satan, as we can see in
the previous verse, 3:14.
3- The "Woman": Is the Church or
Virgin Mary... because the prophecies in the Bible about Mary can be applied to the Church,
and the prophecies about the Church can be applied to Mary.
4- The "offspring of Satan", or the "Seed of Satan": The demons, and
those living in mortal sin on earth.
5- The "offspring of the Woman", or the "Seed of the Woman": Jesus
Christ, and His Church, those living in the grace of God.
2- The 3 Statements of God:
1- Two enmities, eternal, irreconcilable...
- The first one,
between Satan and the Woman.
- The second one,
between the Seed of Satan and the Seed of the Woman
2- Satan will always strike the heel of the
Church... and the Seed of Satan will always strike the heel of the Seed of the Woman.
3- The Woman will crush the head of Satan...
and the Seed of the Woman will crush the head of the Seed of Satan.
Understanding the Bible:
All the glories and atrocities described in the Bible are those carried out between giants, between spiritual powers, between God and Satan, between those who trust in God and those who trust in Satan...
... and that's why many pages of the Bible look gigantic atrocities, as if they won't belong to the Bible, the killing of people, the unjust and one-sided wars, the temporary triumph of the bad ones, the chastisements of God...
... all the stories of the Bible are connected with this colossal struggle between the spiritual powers of good and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places... in Revelation, as we will see next, still are fighting Satan and the Woman, the Seed of Satan and the Seed of the woman...
... and that's why all the doctrine and message of every page of the Bible can be resumed in 3 words: "Trust in God", in the Old Testament, and "Faith in Christ", in the New, which is almost the same!.
Understanding Your Own Life on Earth:
Your life on earth, the life of any man or woman, is the deep struggle between these two colossal spiritual forces... much better expressed by St. Paul: "we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph.6:12).
It looks awesome your struggle and mine on earth!... and it is!... it is the reality of your life on earth, like it or not, know it or not, believe it or not... it is a fact!... revealed by God Himself!... and it will last exactly until the last minute of your life on earth!...
In this struggle, right now, you are either a child of God or a child of the Devil, it is awesome, but that's how it is... and "by this it may be seen who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not do right is not of God, nor he who does not love his brother" (1Jn.3:10)...
... and there is only one way to do right and to love the brother, and that's to Trust in God, by Faith in Christ, because only with God in your heart you can do right and love your brother... and not you, but Jesus who lives in you, who is going to use your hands to give bread to the hungry, and your heart to love your neighbor... it is the essence of Christianity, "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal.2:20)... Faith and trust in Christ, every second of every minute of your life on earth!... praising God always for every thing and in any circumstance, praise the Lord! (Eph.5:20, 1Thes.5:16-18).
The Woman clothed with the Sun of Revelation 12:
1: A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed
with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.
2: She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give
birth.
3: Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with
seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.
4: His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to
the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he
might devour her child the moment it was born.
5: She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations
with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
(Rev.:12:1-5)
There are three heroes here:
1- The Woman.
2- Her Son.
3- A great Red Dragon.
Two of them are relatively easy to identify, and once we find who those two are, the third one will be unmistakable.
1- The Dragon:
It is the easiest to identify, because later, in Verse 9, we are told
exactly who he is. The verse says, "The great dragon was hurled down -- that ancient
serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray." Here, then, is
the devil, appearing as a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns
upon his heads. We are also told that he is the ancient serpent, the very one who appeared
in the Garden of Eden to Eve, deceived her, and introduced sin into the human race. He
appears here as a dragon, which is simply a super-serpent and a symbol of satanic worship
in many countries of the world yet today.
His work is described also in Verse 9: The entire career of the devil is engaged in deceiving the whole inhabited earth, i.e. lying to the human race.
2- The male child born to the woman:
This is the next easiest to identify because we are told in Verse 5
that he is the one "who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter," or
"a rod of iron." This phrase is taken from the Second Psalm, which is quoted or
referred to four different times in Revelation. In some ways Psalm 2 is the basic
Scripture out of which the whole book is expanded and grows. Clearly that is a reference
to our Lord Jesus.
The Rod of Iron with which He will rule all the nations, in Psalm 2 says "You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." (Ps.2:9), and it is identified in the Book of Revelation as "a sharp, double edge sword coming out of his mouth" (Rev.2:16, 19:15)…
What is this "rod of iron", and this "double edge sword"?:
I don't know how the Jews could understand it in Psalm 2, but look at Jesus how He is ruling the nations, and you and me: The sword is his love, and the two edges are his suffering at the Cross, and his humility in the Eucharist, made only bread and wine: With his humility, Jesus is shattering our pride as a potter's vase, day by day, and with his suffering and patience he is telling us "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matt.16:24)… and again, day by day, with such a sword, Jesus is conquering the nations, day by day… we are now in the third millennium over 2 billion Christians!.
3- The Woman Clothed with the Sun:
This "woman" has been identified with Virgin Mary, Israel, and the Church… and the three possibilities are true:
1- Virgin Mary is the woman who gave birth to our Lord Jesus. The picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe is Rev.12.
2- It is clearly also a description of the nation of Israel as figured in Genesis 37, the story of Joseph as a young boy who has a dream. He dreamt one night that the sun, the moon and 11 stars came and bowed down before him (Joseph would make the twelfth of the stars.)… It was Israel that humanly brought forth the Christ, and that's why John says that "salvation is from the Jews" (Jn.4:22).
3- The Church is pictured in Revelation 19, 21, and 22 as the bride of Christ, i.e. as a woman. It looks impossible though for this woman to represent the Church because the Church did not produce Jesus. It is quite the other way around. It was the Lord who produced the Church -- the Church is born out of the wounded side of Jesus. Therefore that symbolism looks like it can't fit the picture here…. but it does!… it is the Spiritual Israel of Romans chapters 9 to 11, the one true Church of Christ, the People of God continuation of the real Israel.
The sun clothing the woman is the Lord Jesus. The 12 stars are the 12 tribes of Israel, and the 12 apostles of the New Israel, the Church. The moon at her feet, is the symbolism of Genesis 3:15, with the woman crushing the head of the serpent.
It is the continuation of the struggle of Gen.3:15:
It is Satan against the Woman, an enmity eternal, irreconcilable, Satan will always strike the Woman, but the Woman will always end up crushing the head of the serpent... the Seed of Satan will always strike the Church, and you personally, but the Church and you will always crush the head of the serpent, of Satan...
... it is the whole story of the book of Revelation: The total and complete defeat of Satan and his followers, his Offspring, and the total and complete victory of the Woman and her offspring... the total and complete victory of Christ in his Church, for his Church, and in his Church...
... the last verse of the chapter, tells us who are "the rest of the offspring": "those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus" (Rev.12:17)...
... "Then the Dragon was angry with the Woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring", because the Woman had crush his head three times in that chapter 12... "And the Dragon, Satan, stood on the sand of the sea" (Rev.12:17)... and, you know, comes chapter 13, the description of the last try of Satan to brush the heel of the Woman, the Antichrist of End of the World, and the Antichrist of the End of your World, the end of your Days... because you and I will have to fight that battle against the Antichrist!. See The Antichrist.
Virgin Mary is the mother of the Church and your Mother, and she is always there, with her humility, and her power, and her mercy, to help you against the struggle with Satan and his Seed...
... What a great God we have: He wants us to be saved with the Blood
of God Himself, with his immense love, and with heart of His Mother, the Mother of the
Church and your Mother... Try Her!.