My Soul Proclaims the Greatness of the Lord…

How often do you say that? I’m learning I need to say it more and more. Through the days of stress and disappointment, through the times of joy and hope, it doesn’t matter. I just need to say it. It’s been a stressful summer and I’ve not blogged at all. But now that I’m back, I’m posting an intense concept. Thanks for hanging with me.

Wednesday of last week was a feast day in the Catholic church for the Assumption of Mary into Heaven. Today is the day that they celebrate the Queenship of the Mary as queen of Heaven. Those are both pretty heavy details, aren’t they? Why do Catholics believe such things? What evidence is there?

I typically don’t like to use Church evidence as it comes down to a belief that not everyone shares. However, I do like to use science to explain things that seem odd. 

Revelation 11:19 says, “Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.” (NIV)

The Ark of the Covenant was considered by the Israelites to be where God’s presence lived, where He existed among them, the Holiest of Holies. It was a movable sanctuary that represented who God was to the Jews and his covenantal promise.

Verse 19 is the last verse of chapter 11 and Revelation 12:1-2 continues with, “A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.”

Seems odd, doesn’t it?

First we need to remember in Corinthians 6:19 that, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit…”

So human beings contain a temple in which the Holy Spirit can exist if we let Him. 

So where does the science come in? 

Some time ago I shared with you the research done by Dr. Mancuso concerning how mother’s inherit traits from their children (read my blog post). To sum it up, I explained that throughout a pregnancy the child in the womb sends messages to the mother in the form of lymphocytes (the baby’s DNA) that attach to the mother’s nervous system telling the mother’s body that the baby is not a foreign object but another human to be nurtured. Those lymphocytes can be found even thirty years later, still in the mother’s nervous system. So while the mother also cleans the blood of her unborn child and that DNA is mingled between the two separate beings, the lymphocytes also represent a piece of the child that never leaves the mother. The mother is forever changed, altered, connected.

If Mary was mother to a son that Christians believe was wholly divine wholly human, then his being, his DNA would reflect this (I also posit that Jesus’ DNA, his human side, came from his human mother and can imagine that they looked very similar because of it – except for the XY chromosome of course!) So Mary’s body still contained lymphocytes from her Divine Son after he was born and she continued to carry those through her earthly life. So what happened to those lymphocytes when she died? 

Catholic tradition holds that Mary had to experience death because she was human, but then her body was taken to Heaven.  

But why? Why would her body be taken to Heaven?  She was just Jesus’ mother after all.

I think science fills in the blanks. If Mary’s body contained Jesus’ DNA after her pregnancy, then she contained a taste of that perfect DNA from her son. I believe God took Mary’s physical body to Heaven because she still contained that piece of her son. And why not? If He didn’t stay physically, why would he leave other physical pieces of himself? Jesus was clear that unless he left physically and went to Heaven, the Holy Spirit could not come. I think God was just cleaning up loose ends. And I think the book of Revelation backs that up properly.

The Ark of the Covenant was the physical representation of the house of God, where he existed. Why does the author of Revelation then go right into the discussion of the woman clothed with the sun, giving birth to a son after he talks of the ark of the covenant? Mary’s body also became the ark of the covenant when she carried the Jesus in her womb. If we believe that he is part of the Trinity, he is God, then, logic takes us to this conclusion. Her body was a temple for the Lord in a unique, physical way. 

Since I don’t believe God neglects any details of anything (especially in His love for us,) I don’t believe He would neglect the temple that held His Son either. Her soul proclaimed the greatness of the Lord…

(I always find it interesting that in all of our archeological pursuits, we’re never interested in finding Mary’s tomb. Perhaps there’s a reason for it. I can’t believe that her tomb wouldn’t be a huge Christian memorial such as even we Americans have memorials for important people.  Perhaps this is the reason?)

Yes, it was a hard summer for me, and I didn’t post at all, but I learned to say, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord…”

And I’m glad to be back.