👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾A Holy Lesson on Our Lady, #Prophecy, and #Parable
Beloved in Christ, brethren most precious, who seek wisdom not from the vanities of men but from the living fountain of the Scriptures: let us today contemplate the mystery of the Holy Theotokos, our Lady and Queen, as foretold in prophecy and foreshadowed in parable. For from the very dawn of history God revealed her, veiled in figure and shadow, and in the fullness of time brought forth through her the salvation of the world.
I. The Woman of Enmity: Eve and Mary
Hear the first proclamation of the Gospel in Genesis: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it will crush your head, and you will bite his heel” (Gen. 3:15).
In Eve we see the mother of corruption, for by her disobedience sin entered, and death reigned.
In Mary, the new Eve, we behold the mother of life, for by her obedience the curse was overturned and the blessing restored.
The serpent triumphed over the first woman, but the second woman crushed his head. This is the warfare St. John saw: “The dragon was enraged with the woman, and went to make war with the rest of her offspring” (Rev. 12:17). Already the Psalmist declared: “You crushed the heads of the dragon” (Ps. 74:14). And the piercing of Christ’s hands and feet (Ps. 22:16) reveals how the serpent sought to wound the Seed of the woman but in striking, he was undone.
Thus Paul proclaims: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman… that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4–5). This “woman” is none other than Mary, in whom the promise was fulfilled.
Even at Cana she appears as the “woman,” through whom Christ began His miracles (John 2:4). Again at Calvary He calls her “woman” (John 19:26), signifying that she is the same foretold from the beginning, through whom salvation would dawn.
Therefore, as the first Eve became the advocate of death, the Virgin became the advocate of life, the “Second Eve” who, by trust and obedience, brought blessing upon the human race. And thus is fulfilled the word of the Apostle: “The Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).
II. The Parable of Noah’s Ark
Consider, brethren, how God prefigured her in parable. Though mankind fell under the curse through Eve, yet the Lord did not abandon His creation. He gave them signs and shadows, so that they would not despair in darkness. Among these signs shines most brightly the ark of Noah.
Noah, righteous among a wicked generation, built by divine command a three-storied ark (Gen. 6:14; Heb. 11:7). In it he and his household found refuge from the deluge of wrath.
The ark itself is the Virgin Mary.
Noah himself is a type of Christ, the just man who delivers his household.
Noah’s entrance into the ark signifies the Word’s conception in the Virgin’s womb.
The ark’s three parts reveal the threefold purity of the Virgin:
purity of body,
purity of soul,
purity of heart.
They also signify her perpetual virginity:
before conception,
during conception,
after conception;
before childbirth,
during childbirth,
after childbirth.
As the dove of peace returned to Noah with the olive branch (Gen. 8:8–12), so Mary is the ark of salvation, the dwelling of peace, the vessel chosen by God for our deliverance.
Mark this well: as all who despised the ark perished in the flood, so all who despise the intercession of the Virgin risk shipwreck of their souls. To reject her is to reject the work of God Himself, for she is the faithful vessel He has chosen. And if God has justified her and magnified her, who shall accuse? For indeed, she is “blessed among women” (Luke 1:42).
Continues 👇🏾