O Separated Christians, Return Quickly to Your Mother!

A biblically scholastic proof of (1) the Immaculate Conception of Mary (2) her Universal Queenship, and (3) her terrible crushing enmity over Satan, “terrible as an army set in array” (Cant. 6:9).

From One Peter Five

By Nishant Xavier

In October of 1917, to the general amazement of Marxists and secularists, on a foretold date, 70,000 eyewitnesses saw the supernatural Miracle of the Sun. The Immaculate Virgin foretold the rise and fall of the diabolical sect of atheistic Communism, and the terrible persecutions it would raise up against Christendom and the Church — prophecies that still stun secular historians by their accuracy. Many decades later, convert to Christianity from communism and former communist party worker Bella Dodd would testify, “In the 1930s, we put eleven hundred men into the priesthood in order to destroy the Church from within.” In 1950, she warned, “Right now they are in the highest places in the Church.” Mrs. Dodd was not a prophet, but she could predict the changes they would implement would be so drastic that “you will not recognize the Catholic Church.” The last few decades show how true were the warnings of the Queen of Prophets to our Church.

At all of this, should Catholic Christians be terrified? Not at all. Our Lady said to saintly Sr. Lucia, “No, my daughter. Do you suffer a great deal? Don’t lose heart. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God.”

Below, we consider several solid biblical proofs that demonstrate doctrinally and theologically, (1) the Immaculate Conception of Mary (2) her Universal Queenship, and (3) her terrible crushing enmity over Satan, “terrible as an army set in array” (Cant. 6:9).

Biblical/Theological Proof I: The Proof from the Promise of Almighty God in Eden

The day of the fall, Almighty God promised a special woman to come, who will have an altogether unique enmity with Satan and crush his head as the new Eve. Gen. 3:15: “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” (Latin Vulgate/Douay-Rheims). This remarkable prophecy is called the Proto-Evangelium, the First Gospel. Remember that God is grieved at sinful Eve and her fall; He promises therefore a new immaculate woman, who will not fall for Satan’s snares, but crush his head by remaining always immaculate. When it is said “her seed,” it is shown that the child born of her will be born without a human father — i.e., He is Christ, as Isaiah (7:14) would reiterate.

She will be the eternal enemy of Satan, whom he fears most. Eve was Satan’s victim. How can Mary crush Satan? She must be all-immaculate; the seed of the serpent must have no part in her. She crushed him every time she refused his temptations and remained immaculate. She crushed him at the Annunciation by saying her fiat to God. She obeyed the holy angel, as Eve had obeyed the fallen angel. Eve snatched the fruit from the tree; Mary gave the fruit of her womb to the Tree of Life, the Cross. She crushed him by co-operation at the Cross.

Everything is necessarily different. Mary is the new and true Eve. She has crushed him very many times in history, for example crushing pagan infanticide at Guadalupe, Islamist extremism at Lepanto, and communist terrorism through Fatima.

Major Premise from Genesis: A woman is destined to crush Satan’s head (Gen. 3:15).

Minor Premise from Gospels: Whoever sins is a servant of sin and Satan (Jn. 8:34).

Theological/Doctrinal Conclusion I: The woman will never sin or be subject to sin — that is to say, Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, is here promised to be sinless and immaculate.

In defense of the Vulgate’s correct translation:

Cornelius Lapide says that another early Jewish witness to the “she” reading is the historian Josephus, who died around 101 A.D: Whence also Josephus (Book 1, Chap. 3) reads it this way as our translator writes. For he says: “He ordained that the woman should inflict wounds on his head” from which it is evident that Josephus in his day read aute , that is to say, “she.” Josephus and Philo wrote in Greek, but knew Hebrew, so their testimony witnesses to the fact that both the Septuagint and the Hebrew of their day read “she.” Lapide gives an even later Jewish witness, later even than the Massoretes, the Jewish philosopher, Moses Maimonides, who died around 1204. Of course, Maimonides did not believe in the Messianic or Mariological content of our prophecy, thinking that the woman of the context was merely Eve, but he obviously believed that the text read “she.” [I]

Theological Proof II: Proof from the Biblical Typology of Jael crushing Sisera

A highly important aspect of biblical and patristic studies is recognizing typologies. As studies into the Sacred Writings advance, more and more typologies become readily apparent. Take the typologies of Christ: Abel typifies Christ, for he offered to God a more perfect sacrifice, and then was killed, typifying how Christ, the great High Priest, would give His own life as a perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. Abraham sacrificing his son foreshadows how God the Father would sacrifice God the Son. The three men who appear to Abraham in Genesis 18, according to many ancient Western and Eastern commentaries alike, are none other than Theophanies of the Three Persons of the Trinity. The Theophany of Melchizedek, who offered bread and wine as a priest, was a figure of Jesus Christ, Eternal Priest, Who has established the Holy Sacrifice under the forms prefigured in this ancient offering. The patriarch Joseph, esteemed by God above the rest of his brothers, also prefigures the Messiah to come, for he was thrown into a pit and left for dead but gloriously raised up by God to the king’s right hand and made lord of his house, typifying Christ’s passion, death, resurrection, and ascension.

Are there many female biblical types of Mary? Certainly: Jael who crushed Sisera; Queen Esther who saved Israel by prayer and fasting; Judith who delivered Israel from Holofernes; Mary the sister of Moses and Aaron, the leader of all Israelite women, etc.

Major Premise from Judges: Jael, called “blessed above women,” who “smote Sisera, she smote off his head” so that “[a]t her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell: where he bowed, there he fell down dead” (Judges 5:24, 26–27).

Typological Minor Premise: Jael is clearly a type of the woman who will crush Satan’s head. Sisera in this passage signifies not a temporal human enemy, but the worst enemy.

Theological Conclusion: As Jael crushed Sisera, Mary will crush Satan’s head; as Jael delivered Israel, Mary will deliver the Church; as Jael saved one nation, Mary will save the world — for there the people sang, the Lord defeated Sisera by a woman’s hands; here, the world will confess, God has crushed Satan under the feet of His Mother.

Biblical Proof III: Proof from the glorious golden and stainless ark of the Covenant

Are there immaterial prefigurements of Mother Mary, recognized by the Fathers of the Church, in Sacred Scripture? Yes, prominent among them is the golden Ark of the Covenant. St. Athanasius, the great defender of the Holy Trinity, says, “O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? You are greater than them all. O Covenant, clothed with purity instead of gold! You are the Ark in which is found the golden vessel containing the true manna, that is, the flesh in which divinity resides. Should I compare you to the fertile earth and its fruits? You surpass them, for it is written: “The earth is my footstool” (Is. 66:1). But you carry within you the feet, the head, and the entire body of the perfect God” [II].

In Exodus 25, God commands the Prophet Moses:

[11] And thou shalt overlay it with the purest gold within and without: and over it thou shalt make a golden crown round about: [12] And four golden rings, which thou shall put at the four corners of the ark: let two rings be on the one side, and two on the other. [13] Thou shalt make bars also of setim wood, and shalt overlay them with gold. [14] And thou shalt put them in through the rings that are in the sides of the ark, that it may be carried on them. [15] And they shall be always in the rings, neither shall they at any time be drawn out of them[.] …

[18] Thou shalt make also two cherubims of beaten gold, on the two sides of the oracle. [19] Let one cherub be on the one side, and the other on the other. [20] Let them cover both sides of the propitiatory, spreading their wings, and covering the oracle, and let them look one towards the other, their faces being turned towards the propitiatory wherewith the ark is to be covered.

Thus, the angels are shown to hold the Ark in supreme reverence.

This is how the Ark of the Covenant is described in Hebrews 9:3–4:

[3] And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holy of holies: [4] Having a golden censer, and the ark of the testament covered about on every part with gold, in which was a golden pot that had manna[.]

The Ark of the New Testament is the woman, whose body contained God, whose heart always was pure gold, whose every deed was stainless and spotless, whose whole life was all-immaculate, who is the very holy of holies herself.

Biblical Major Premise: The Ark of the Covenant that contained God was golden and spotless.

Typological Minor Premise: This Ark of the Covenant signified the woman who bore God.

Doctrinal Conclusion: Therefore, the mother who bore God is golden and spotless.

Theological Proof IV: Proof from the Glorious Queen, Daughter of God the Father, in David’s Ps. 44

But are there Biblical examples where a princess or queen is spoken of whose heart and interior are purely golden and glorious? Certainly, in the Psalm 44 (Vulgate) of David.

Ps. 44:10–18:

The daughters of kings have delighted thee in thy glory. The queen stood on thy right hand, in gilded clothing; surrounded with variety. Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thy ear: and forget thy people and thy father’s house. And the king shall greatly desire thy beauty; for he is the Lord thy God, and him they shall adore. And the daughters of Tyre with gifts, yea, all the rich among the people, shall entreat thy countenance. All the glory of the king’s daughter is within in golden borders, Clothed round about with varieties. After her shall virgins be brought to the king: her neighbours shall be brought to thee. They shall be brought with gladness and rejoicing: they shall be brought into the temple of the king. Instead of thy fathers, sons are born to thee: thou shalt make them princes over all the earth.  They shall remember thy name throughout all generations. Therefore shall people praise thee for ever; yea, for ever and ever.

Here we see plainly prophesied (i) a glorious queen beautifully adorned beside Christ, (ii) the King, the Lord God Himself, is fascinated at the beauty of her immaculate soul; (iii) all her glory is within (cf. 1 Pet. 4:3–4, Prov. 31); (iv) she is richly adorned in choicest gold; (v) virgins follow in her train; (vi) she appoints princes of the royal priesthood of Christ, and virgins for service in the Temple — i.e., priests and nuns in the Catholic Church; (vii) her holy name, Mary, shall be remembered for all generations. People will praise her forever and ever for all ages! See, dear Evangelicals, how Catholic veneration of Mary with hyperdulia is only the fulfillment of Bible prophecy!

Biblical Major Premise: King David prophesies the queen whose beauty fascinates God.

Biblical Minor Premise: This queen is to be praised forever and ever by all generations (this is what the New Testament means when the Holy Ghost tells us there, through St. Gabriel and St. Elizabeth, and the Blessed Virgin herself, in her glorious Magnificat, Lk. 1: “[48] Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. [49] Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is his name. [50] And his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him.”

Doctrinal Conclusion: Therefore, the supreme veneration of Mary is desired and foretold in the Bible, and, further, all generations of Christians should join in. If Catholic Christians didn’t praise Mary always, the Bible would be guilty of a false prophecy!

Theological Proof V: Proof from the biblical example of special exception for Esther

Recall how the king Ahasuerus made a special exception for Queen Esther alone: “And when he saw Esther the queen standing, she pleased his eyes, and he held out toward her the golden sceptre, which he held in his hand: and she drew near, and kissed the top of his sceptre” (Esther 5:2). The saints and fathers say God made a similar exception for Mary, from the law of death and sin: “All the king’s servants, and all the provinces that are under his dominion, know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, cometh into the king’s inner court, who is not called for, is immediately to be put to death without any delay: except the king shall hold out the golden sceptre to him, in token of clemency, that so he may live” (Esther 4:11). This shows us quite plainly what God did for Mary; in order to redeem her in a more excellent manner, by the merits of His Son, He saved her from falling into sin in the first place, for as one can save a beautiful sparrow after it has fallen into a dung heap, or save it more excellently by preventing it from falling in the first place, we see that God Almighty, for the highest honor of his holy mother, has chosen the latter.

Biblical Major Premise: The king exempted his queen by exception from the law of death.

Typological Minor Premise: Queen Esther clearly signifies God’s own glorious queen, Mary.

Doctrinal Conclusion: Mary was therefore preserved by Christ from the death of sin.

Footnotes, References, Links and Further Reading:

[I] Please see https://catholicism.org/mary-co-redemptrix.html.

[II] St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Fourth Century Homily of the Papyrus of Turin, ed. T. Lefort, in Le Muséon 71 (1958): 216–217.