This Friday Catholics celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. The Assumption of Mary is a very difficult doctrine to accept let alone grasp without having first taken hold of the more basic Marian doctrines. Why was she sinless? Why do Catholics venerate her? Where do you find any of the Marian nonsense in the Bible?
One place we find the Marian nonsense is in the book of Revelation. Revelation is not an easy book to understand and Biblical scholars from all different denominations have hundreds of ways of interpreting the book. The whole book is highly symbolic, but there are portions of it that more clearly represent the people and things than other more obscure passages. The passage I am highlighting today is certainly symbolic, but it also has a plain meaning that is easily recognized by the average reader. Revelation 12:1 reads, “And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and crying out in birth pains and the agongy of giving birth.”
The rest of Revelation 12 is amazing! I remember the first time I read it – the apologist Tim Staples had recommended it to me after I asked a question about the Immaculate Conception on Catholic Answers Live. I sat there in bewilderment – it describes an evil dragon, who John names as Satan, who pursues the pregnant woman and tries to devour her child. Verse 5 says, “She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and his throne.”
This woman is a symbol of the Church, but even more clearly she is Mary, the mother of God. From this passage we see that Mary is crowned and that she is the mother of all of us – verse 17 says, “Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.” We, as believers, are those who hold to the testimony of Jesus, and this verse says that we are the offspring of the woman – Mary.
Many Sola Scriptura Christians argue that if Mary is everything the Catholic Church says she is, then she would be mentioned as such in Scripture. This is a good point. Cardinal Newman spoke to this – “It is sometimes asked, why do not the sacred writers mention our Lady’s greatness? I answer, she was, or may have been alive, when the apostles and evangelists wrote; there was just one book of Scripture certainly written after her death and that book does (so to say) canonize and crown her.” The book of Revelation was the last book of Scripture written and it honors Mary as clearly as can be done in an apocalyptic book.
So, so, so much more to say! Alas, enough for now.
I encourage you to read the entire chapter on your own and let me know your thoughts. Here is Mary and Jesus portrayed fulfilling the prophecy of Genesis 3:16. Here is Mary, clothed with the sun. Here is Mary, our mother.
*A wonderful book on Mary from whence I learned most of what I wrote today is “Hail Holy Queen – The Mother of God in the Word of God” by Scott Hahn. Check it out.
Our Lady of What? 