A TAPESTRY OF MARY’S POWERFUL PRESENCE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

Sassoferrato_-_Jungfrun_i_bön

 “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true” (Luke 1:38)

If God’s own messenger, the Archangel Gabriel, hadn’t called her by the descriptive title, “Hail, Full of Grace” (Luke 1: 28); and if she had not been covered by the Holy Spirit’s “unspeakable shadow” (see Luke 1:42); and if St. Luke, in describing Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth, hadn’t drawn a stunning comparison between the Virgin Mary and the all-holy Ark of the Covenant (see link below); and if Mary’s visit (with Jesus in utero) to Elizabeth hadn’t unleashed a veritable explosion of grace; and if, at the sound of Mary’s voice, Elizabeth had not been filled with the Holy Spirit and boldly proclaimed Mary to be “the Mother of my Lord” (Luke 1:41-45); and if Simeon the prophet had not peered down through the decades to see that Mary, who had brought the baby Jesus to the Temple, was predestined to share closely in Jesus’ passion, saying to Mary, “And a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2: 35); and if Mary’s role as a powerful intercessor hadn’t been so clearly manifested at Cana when she moved her Son to work His first public miracle against His own will since His “hour had not yet come” (John 2:1-12); and if the Lord Jesus Himself hadn’t bequeathed her to us (from the cross) as our Spiritual Mother as He was meriting our very salvation, saying, “Behold, your Mother” (John 19: 25-27) as she stood faithfully at the foot of the cross in fulfillment of Simeon’s prophecy; and if Saint Luke hadn’t specifically pointed out that she was present with the Apostles in the Cenacle in preparation for Pentecost” and the “birth of the Church” (quotations from Pope John Paul II; see Acts 1:14); and if Saint John hadn’t seen her in a vision of heaven, “clothed with the sun” and wearing her Queenly crown of twelve stars (Revelation 12:1-2); and if Old Testament typology and New Testament fulfillment didn’t point to her as the New Eve and Queen Mother (see especially Scott Hahn’s masterful book, Hail Holy Queen); and if the testimony of the Catholic saints didn’t overwhelmingly verify beyond all peradventure the amazing assistance she provides to those who accept her spiritual motherhood (which Jesus merited for us), leading them to greater union with Jesus, perhaps then you could persuade me not to accept all of the beautiful and sublime teachings about her by the Roman Catholic Church, the only church in Christendom which can trace its origin directly back to Jesus and the apostles (and thus to Mary herself, Mother of the Savior).

Tom Mulcahy, M.A.

Sources:
Various Scott Hahn tapes including “Mary: Holy Mother,” and his book, Hail Holy Queen; various Father Faber books (I believe he used the beautiful phrase, “unspeakable shadow,” quoted above); internet article Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant (This Rock: October 2005); and other Catholic apologetic materials. See also, Ignatius Catholic Study Bible; Dictionary of Mary; and by Pope John Paul II (click on link ): Mary’s Presence in the Upper Room at Jerusalem
Image: The Virgin in Prayer by Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato (1609-1685), a Public Domain work in the U.S. A. per Wikipedia.

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8 comments

  1. Dear bretheren, revelation is all about things of future or knowled ge of unknown. The woman with twelve stars cant be Mary concede ring that Mary has come and gone as at the time. This is about the children of Israel with their twelve tribes, that shall be percecuted in days of antichrist after rapture. Let us be more careful of how we do interpret the Bible. We shoul use our time more is revealing the activities of the BABYLON THE GREAT, MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABORMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. Rev.17:1-15. Many of our church members are drunken already with the wine of her fornication by seductive dresses, adultery, lies, fornication,evil doctrine,ete, and are already on their way to hell by that. Gal.5:19-21. Lets salvage the souls of people before the coming of Christ please. 1Pet.5:1-4. Thanks

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    1. Dear Nwoga Nwachukwu, Thank you for your comment. Many Bible scholars have identified the woman of Rev. 12 as, first, an individual person, and then, collectively,
      as Israel or the Church (see ICSB). Here, as one example, is a quote from Pope John Paul II:
      “And by her ecclesial identification as the “woman clothed with the sun” (Rev. 12:1),139 it can be said that “in the Most Holy Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle.” Hence, as Christians raise their eyes with faith to Mary in the course of their earthly pilgrimage, they “strive to increase in holiness.”140 Mary, the exalted Daughter of Sion, helps all her children, wherever they may be and whatever their condition, to find in Christ the path to the Father’s house.”
      Tom

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  3. ENJOYED!!! Yet good to change the thought that, Mary ‘ moved her Son to work His first public miracle against His own will’ – We know this is not possible, either for Jesus or for Mary. Neither ‘Will’ could be so disordered; Mary would not, and could not, ask the Lord to act contrary to His Perfect Will, both Divine and Sacred, and Jesus could only be and act in His Perfect Will, never contrary to the Perfect Unity and Order of either, respectively…

    Jesus’ hour to reveal His Hour was being prophecied, this is what Jesus wills to reveal: when He would come to change wine into Himself in the Marriage Feast of Calvary; that the New Adam and New Eve will have an Alliance of Love and Hearts that will bring forth this Saving Sacramental of our birth as Their sons and daughters in this Redeeming Matrimonial Mercy [I do not have these verses in the Hebrew or Greek, but hazily recollect that I once read or heard that the original biblical word is, “What is this to ‘us, ‘our Hour’ has not yet come’ “…similar to Jesus’ conversation withe Peter and him being sifted – the plural is used not the singular…ot sure about the first but MAYBE we have some scholars who can shed some Light in this 🙂 ]!

    Easter Mercy Blessings!

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