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A Woman clothed with the sun
“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” (Revelation 12:1)
Who is Mary?
God is love.
This simple truth, reaffirmed by John in his First Epistle (1 John 4:8), must be fully understood by all those who study and analyze the Scriptures.
In God we find Love of the Father, surely. But what about the love of the Mother? Is it also part of divine love or isn´t it ?
It’s convenient to read the following metaphor closely:
“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should, not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” (Isaiah 49:15)
In the beauty of that analogy, we discover the fathomless, total and perfect love of God for His children. Mary, at the foot of the Master´s cross, symbolizes all the mothers of the universe, that´s why Jesus says to her: “Woman, behold thy son!” (John 19:26) In the Acts of the Apostles, it reads that these lived after the Crucifixion and resurrection of their Master, in continuous prayer and vigil with “Mary the mother of Jesus…” (Acts 1:14)
The presence of the Holy Spirit in Mary (Luke1:35) is undeniable for those who believe that the Scriptures of the so called New Testament are inspired and true in their essence.
And that the presence is eternal, continuous and constant in Mary is revealed in the careful analysis of the versicle in Apocalypsis (or Book of the Revelation) quoted at the head of this document .
Mary, the Divine Tenderness
What is the meaning of the prophet seeing the woman clothed with the sun? Let´s remember that the time when that happens in the seeing is once the Sixth Seal has been opened. The Sixth Seal… the sixth day….the sixth stage.
What happens on the sixth day of Creation? Let´s see.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them.” (Genesis 1:27)
If God had to create a male and a female in order to create an image of Himself on Earth, then it´s natural to deduce that within God there is masculine nature, symbolized by the Father, and a feminine one symbolized by the Mother. Otherwise, why bother to emphasize that the female was created when the verse clearly is dedicated to the image of God in man?
Another logical deduction would be to think that both divine powers, the Father and the Mother, posses different qualities. Within the Father, strength, law, order. And which are the qualities of the feminine part within God? Surely tenderness, charity and infinite comprehension. And if the Father is eternal, so the Mother must be.
The Eternal Feminine in God
The divine eternal feminine took the shape of woman. Just like the Verb of God (another of His powers) became flesh in Jesus, the Divinity could also adopt, in order to manifest its feminine side, the shape of a woman, blessed amongst all women of all times, and “full of grace”. Those words belong to Gabriel, one of the High spirits that assist God, according to the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:28 and 30).
And some good and faithfull Christians cannot accept the virginity of that blessed woman when without hesitation they accept the chastity of her son Jesus. And they base their opinions on several passages of the Gospels and the Acts where the brothers of Jesus are mentioned (Mathew 12:46/Luke8:20), although those same evangelists never, in any case, mention that those brothers are also Mary´s children.
When Joseph, widower, takes Mary the maiden to be his wife, he´s already a man of age and it is known with certainty that at that moment he had children with the one who had been his first deceased wife; Jacob (James), Joseph, Simon and Judas (Mathew 13:55).
On the contrary, the Scriptures themselves are very careful and precise in specifying that Jesus is the son of Mary (Mathew 13:55/Mark 6:3).
Wouldn’t they have been as careful to point out that fact if that were also true pertaining the brothers of Jesus on the part of His earthly father? Wouldn’t the evangelist, in the passage of Mark 6:3, have written that story in another way had it not been for the fact that, precisely, Jesus was the only son of Mary?
Jacob (also known as James) who was called the Just, son of Joseph and “brother” of Jesus remained, after the crucifixion, as the leader of the “nazarites”, the Jews that had believed that He was the promised Messiah. Jacob dies, beat to death, on the stairs of the Temple of Jerusalem on the year 62 or the Christian Era, close to 80 years old! (Memoirs of Hegesippus, quoted by Eusebius and Julius Africanus/Antiquities of The Jews by Flavius Josephus). A simple arithmetical operation reveals that when Jesus was born (give or take three years; scholars haven´t agreed yet in this point -see please Jesus birth-) Jacob had to be at least 17 years old! And different authorized primitive Christian sources -mainly Eusebius and Origen- assure that when Jesus was born, Mary was scarcely 14 years old. Could, by any means, a four year old girl bear children?
Maybe it serves to transcribe here a surprising version of how Mary was seen by the early followers of Jesus:
“At this time the mother of Jesus died and was buried in the same place were He had been crucified, and a stone was erected on the site. On that stone, the relatives of Jesus wrote these words: “Behold that here is a ladder erected upon the land that reaches heaven, and upon it the angels of God ascend and descend, and the Mother rejoices here with Her children”. (Memoirs of Heggesipus quoted by Eusebius/Acts of the Nazarites by Julius Africanus)
The presence of Mary in the Third Era.
The Woman clothed with the Sun
A reflective analysis of Revelation 12:1 and following versicles can come upon certain deductions:
- The woman is a mother for she is about to give birth.
- The fact that she is clothed with the sun, symbol of light, warmth and life, can very well represent her divine essence. What other visions contained in the Bible concede these attributes to another person?
- The moon beneath her feet could very well indicate that she has conquered and surpassed her material feminine nature (it could represent menstruation in women) like Christ overcame the world.
- And as a crown upon her head, twelve stars that can symbolize two thing which are not excluding of each other: The twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of Jesus.
One way or the other the spirit of the eternal feminine that lives in God, as announced by John the prophet, could not be put aside in this Third Era.
All biblical quotes mentioned here are taken from the commonly known as King James New and Old Testament version.
Family Values
Do not be surprised if I say that you must honor your family, that you love your parents, that husband and wife love each other, that man must not regard the woman as a slave, but a worthy companion, that the woman may see man as her defender, her shield, and that the parents bring to the world healthy children, whom they will guide along the path of righteousness.
Beloved fathers, you who were sent to form a home and have a family, have the responsibility that your young ones do not stray, and as heads of family, you should set a good example and give your blessings.
You, women of Israel, have a delicate mission on Earth, similar to Mary, the Purest Mother, because you should be the loving skylarks filled with warmth, filled with love, and because of it, you should not carry a whip in your hands toward your little ones. No, my beloved ones, it is the perfect will of the Father that with love you should be guiding the steps of your young children; speak to them about the Father so that at an early age they may recognize their Father who is in the Great Beyond, and from those little ones of today will emerge the illuminated, the prophets, the doctors.
Love one another and live in peace within your home because I have observed that out of five members who form a family, two are against three and three are against two.
Watch over the virtue of your family and over the peace in your home. Behold how even the poor can be the owners of this treasure.
You men: Are you practicing patience with your partner? You women: Have you been patient with your husband? And both consorts: Have you been patient in amending your children?
If I find of his home the hearth unlit, I will call the husband and say: Why aren’t you gentle and understanding? If I find him away from his obligations I will surprise him saying: Why have you strayed away from the path?
I will touch the wife’s most delicate fibers of her heart and ask: Woman, do you think you will find the love and respect that you are longing for outside your home? No, do not deceive yourself.
No one heart will remain that I cannot make it perceive My voice, inviting it toward reconciliation, love and peace.
From now on moralize your life, rebuild your homes and unite your family. That the father goes in search for the son who ran away from home and the sons look for the one who abandoned them; that the wife returns to the arms of her companion and that the husband who abandoned his duties, looks for his partner and rebuilds a new and better existence.
Live in harmony and in peace within your home and your society.
If you are sons, understand and appreciate the kindness of your parents. If you are parents, learn how to understand your children. If you are husband and wife, know and love each other.
I say to the parents of the family, that in the same way they are concerned about the material future of their children they should do the same for their spiritual future.
Men, when you rush home because you want to hold your wife in your arms, or see yourself in the eyes of your children, and your heart is happy because you are going to give your family the fruits of your labor: Pray for those men who are in the battlegrounds and who will not be able to return to search for their homes, because they have been razed.
When you feel some joy do not forget that at that same hour many are weeping.
You, women and mothers, when you lower our head to kiss your child’s forehead who sleeps peacefully in the cradle, think about those mothers who were once like skylarks and have now lost their nest, their partner and their sons, because the war like a hurricane-like wind destroyed everything.
When you close the door and feel the sweet warmth of home and its protection, think also of those mothers who search in the bowels of the earth for a place to protect their children against death; think about the children who call for their parents without receiving any answer, and those who can only say one word: bread.
Turn your home into a second temple, and make of your affections a second act of reverence. If you believe you love Me, love your spouse and love your children, because from that shrine great deeds, thoughts and examples will also sprout.
