REFLECTIONS ON MARY THE MOTHER OF GOD

By Byron LeBeau

On July 29, 2009, I was interviewing Paddy Heron from Ireland on our radio podcast, CURS-ED NET BREAKTHROUGH RADIO.  During the course of the conversation, the subject of MARIAN APPARITIONS came up, and Paddy categorically denied that any real apparition of THE BLESSED VIRGIN took place, but was rather connected with a Fallan Angel posing as the beautiful lady, as the one  who appeared to one, Jaun Diego of Tepeyac, Mexico, in 1531.

Dr. Heron went on to say that THE BLESSED MOTHER MARY could not have appeared since she was dead and buried, allegedly in Ephesus. END OF STORY?

While we did not have time to get into a debate on the subject (since this was only a side issue,) I do feel (in honor of the spirit of this same BLESSED VIRGIN MARY,) to offer the other side of the story of this most unique dynamic ever to enter into the history of salvation ~~ at least as I perceive it, and I do only speak for myself and none other!

First of all, I do not expect anybody to believe what I am about to tell you – but rather – just respect my opinion for what I believe, and more importantly, why I believe it!

SCRIPTURALLY SPEAKING, Mary was full of grace, and no one can argue with this since it was told her by the angel Gabriel himself as a messenger from the one and only God, our Father (Luke 1:28, Catholic Bible.)  Everything else I will relate in this reflection – stems from this statement!

If one is ‘full of grace’ then one is without sin since you cannot be full of something holy when you have something unholy (sin) within you!  Protestants will not agree with this, and some versions of the Bible bear out how they downplay this aspect of the history of salvation, but this is what it does say in The Catholic Bible.

CONTROVERSY – no matter how you slice it!  Of all the apparitions reviewed by The Catholic Church (and there were well over 200 regarding Mary,) only nine were approved for veneration, GUADALUPE among them. [This does not mean that Catholics look upon Mary as a “goddess” since Mary herself called herself the hand maiden of the Lord (Luke 1:46-55, the Magnificat,) which reflected nothing but Mary as showing herself to be a humble servant of the Lord (which is just the opposite of the “Queen of Heaven” that was addressed by Jeremiah 7:18,  which was a warning not to honor Ishtar, one of the fertility pagan goddesses, and what we may frame today as a Fallen Angel posing as a goddess.)

THE LOGIC BEHIND A TRUE APPARITION

UNLIKE Medjugorje where I believe Jeremiah’s ‘Queen of Heaven’ did try to mimic and real BLESSED VIRGIN, and so fool the children with errant scriptural comments, - the very opposite took place at GUADALUP {Cf. web page, “MEDJUGORJE CAVEAT, located at http://inspectorblebeau.pbworks.com/MEDJUGORJE-CAVEAT .”)

HOW SO?  For starters, the word Guadalupe actually means she who breaks – stamps – or crushes the serpent! Consider two things that Jesus had said in the New Testament: by their fruits you shall know them…& a kingdom divided itself cannot stand.

IF we apply this to what happened at Guadalupe, we find that the pagan Aztec Indians (who were very suspicious of their Spanish conquerors, who were unfortunately “espousing their belief in Jesus” to their intended Indian victims as they raped the poor Spanish people of their gold – and worse,) it is no wonder that it took an extraordinary event for these same Indians to be led back to the real Jesus – and this was accomplished through the miracle of OUR LADY who had somehow impressed her image on a cactus cloth that was shown to have been impossible to duplicate…especially when you consider that even if it could have been done, the image would have worn out within 20 years – but it again has miraculously maintained itself for now over 480 years and counting!

So the fruit of Guadalupe (unlike Medjugorje) was positive – if you believe in miracles. BUT HOW COULD A DEAD PERSON APPEAR, you might ask, as Paddy Heron already decided could not be? [To see more on this apparition, plus the stories behind the other approved apparitions, go to the web page: http://inspectorblebeau.pbworks.com/GUADALUPE-MARIAN-APPARITION

CONSIDER THIS: The Bible is filled with things that we either do not understand (from our natural human perspective) yet have been recorded for our wondering eyes to see, and our ears to hear.  For instance, when Jesus took His three trusted disciples up THE MOUNTAIN OF TRANSFIGURATION, who did they see? One of them was already dead – Moses! So maybe (when you’re dead you’re dead) is not absolutely true when it comes to how God (Jesus) operated during His earthly ministry.

DID MARY DIE?  According to Heron, there is a grave in Ephesus…but…is that real evidence that Mary’s DNA is residing in that grave?  [I would not bet my life on it.]  What I do see (harnessed by the scope of at least four apparitions) some very strange things, that included predictions that came true in time…something that that even Satan cannot control completely since he cannot control the future as GOD DOES!!!  Now it is true that the tradion of the early followers of Jesus had said that when it came to Jesus’s mother – she was seen no more…so to say that she died goes against what very holy people understood through tradition. [Can it be proven?  Of course not, but how do you prove the opposite?  Assumptions (no pun intended) are not a good thing to hang your hat on.]

A MOST THORNY ISSUE

Two of the approved apparitions revolved around RUE DU BAC & LOURDES, (which are among the ones cited on the above “GUADALUPE” web page.)  Rue du Bac was an extraordinary attestation by one (St.) Sister Catherine LaBoure, who in 1830 was blessed with a vision of Mary, after being escorted at midnight in  her convent by an angel of the Lord.  The bottom line in this series of visions led to instructions that resulted in  THE MIRCULOUS MEDAL (dedicated to the IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY)  so this reality (if true) was endorsing the fact that Mary (Jesus’s mother) was conceived without original sin!

This concept would be hard to grasp by anyone – and still is, but consider the following: Why wouldn’t God (who could if He wanted to) send a soul to

Earth who would be the ARK OF THE NEW COVENANT?  What does this mean? In the Old Testament, THE ARK OF THE COVENANT housed the word of God…and Mary (FULL OF GRACE) was asked to house God Himself – the Shekinah Glory of the Old Testament in the form of a human baby!  Does this not make Mary an ARK?

If something is to be an ARK for God, wouldn’t it be a prerequisite that it be completely pure and holy?  So for Mary to say in the approved apparitions (as she said to Bernadette of Lourdes,) that she is THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, was only stating (in 1858) what Catherine Laboure was being prepared to introduce way back in 1830.

A CURIOUS SIDENOTE: Both Catherine Laboure & Bernadette Soubirous, when they were exhumed, were both still incorrupt, and Catherine’s eyes were still showing as blue…and eyes are the first thing to turn black upon death! These are facts and can be corroborated, as well as the instantaneous miracles that were catalogued at LOURDES!  It seems that OUR LADY left the fruit of her visitations all over the place…so…it may not be wise to denigrate the characteristics of the mother of God!

IF ALL OF THE ABOVE MAY BE SEEN AS TRUE, then Mary (ipso facto) would not have been subject to death, since she was apparently not subjected to THE CURSE (the stain of original sin,) making her a singular exception in the history of salvation…AND WHY NOT?  If God can do anything, and Mary was full of grace (which, by the way was never said of any other human being,) then just how great was Mary even in her complete humility? 

CONSIDER THIS ALSO: Even John the Baptist, whom Jesus said of those born of women, he was the greatest, but even the least in the kingdom of heaven were greater than he, but if Mary was born of the Holy Spirit, then that also would be another singularity that only became known to us in time…by implication!

I, for one, feel a certain comfort knowing that God is allowing His mother to act as our spiritual mother also, and if we pray to her, because of her great interceding persuasion, may help us also in our journey toward eternity with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  After all, did not Jesus listen to His mother when she asked him to help out when her friends were running out of wine at the WEDDING AT CANA?  It is recorded that Jesus said, My time has not yet come…but He performed the miracle anyway. Do you think that the love for His mother had anything to do with this?

In the ‘Ethiopian Book of Enoch,’ within chapter 105,  although Noah was judged to be a human being (as told to Mathusala by Enoch himself,) there were some very unusual features regarding Noah, whose flesh was white as snow & red as a rose, whose hair was like white wool, and whose eyes were beautiful.  When he opened them, he illuminated the house, like the sun; the whole house abounded in light (Richard Laurence version.)   This does NOT sound like a normal human being ~~ and Noah was not a regular human being, to be sure, since he was “perfect in his generation,” but let us also remember that it was Noah who would build – (A WHAT?) an ARK that would begin again the bloodline that would lead to Jesus through (WHOM?) – Mary!  It seems that ARKS AND UNUSUAL HUMAN BEINGS GO TOGETHER!

I REST MY CASE!