Noe et Maria

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

Yesterday's Old Testament reading for daily Mass was Genesis chapter 6, the beginning of the story of the patriarch Noah. There is an interesting parallel to be found between Noah and the Blessed Virgin Mary which I hadn’t previously noticed. Both are called “favored” or “full of grace.” In Genesis 6:8, the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate describes Noah as having found grace (i.e., χάριν and gratia respectively). In Luke 1:28, the Greek original and the Latin Vulgate describes Mary as most favored or full of grace (i.e., κεχαριτωμένη and gratia plena respectively). Note in both cases the occurrence of the Greek that root word χαρι (grace). You can easily see it in χάριν used to describe Noah and in right after the κε and before the τωμένη in κεχαριτωμένη used to describe Mary.

Now why were both Noah and Mary found with grace before the Lord God? Because in the face of being given what was humanly impossible (e.g., prepare for a world-wide flood and conceive a child without having known a man), both Noah and Mary said YES to God. The first built an Ark (to rescue people and animals), and the second became an Ark (the Ark of the New Covenant). The first provided the means of saving humanity from a planetary flood, and the second provided the Christ Child who would save humanity from its sins.

So Noah found grace with God and Mary was full of grace. Here is a comparison of the Greek, Latin and English texts. Gaudeatis magna cum laeitita!

GENESIS 6:8

GREEK SEPTUAGINT

Νωε δὲ εὗρεν χάριν ἐναντίον κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ

LATIN

Noë vero invenit gratiam coram Domino

ENGLISH

Noah found grace before Lord the God.

LUKE 1:28

GREEK

καὶ εἰσελθὼν πρὸς αὐτὴν εἶπεν, Χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ κύριος μετὰ σοῦ.

LATIN

Et ingressus ad eam dixit: “Ave, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.”

ENGLISH

And [the angel] having come to her said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord with you.”

Cur Virgo Maria Vocabatur Beata?

Amici, Americani, Compatriotiae,

Elizabeth, the cousin of the Virgin Mary, said to her the following in Luke 1:42:

Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
Why was the Virgin Mary called blessed? Today's Gospel Reading in the Divine Liturgy tells us why in Luke 11:27-28 which states:

While Jesus was speaking,
a woman from the crowd called out and said to him,
"Blessed is the womb that carried you
and the breasts at which you nursed."
He replied, "Rather, blessed are those
who hear the word of God and observe it."

The Virgin Mary heard the Word of God from the Angel Gabriel and what was her response? Luke 1:38 tells us:

Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.

It wasn't the Virgin Mary's womb which was blessed, nor the breasts at which Jesus had nursed while an infant; rather, it was the Virgin Mary Herself Who is blessed because She heard God's Word and observed it.

Iob et Feminismus

Job's Three Daughters

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

Today's Old Testament reading in the Divine Liturgy is from Job chapter 42. Here God more than restores Job's fortunes that Satan had taken away in chapters 1 and 2. I observed during the reading two interesting things.

First, nowhere in Job's restoration is his wife mentioned. Recall that she told Job, "Are you still holding to your innocence? Curse God and die!" (Job 2:9) Then she disappears from the remaining Sacred Text.

Second, when Job's fortunes are restored, the Sacred Text gives us the names for his three new daughters but not his seven new sons (recall that in Job 1:19 his first sons and daughters had been killed by a great wind collapsing the walls of the house where they were eating and drinking). Job 42:14 says, "The first daughter he called Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch." According to one of my many study Bibles, Jemimah means Handsome as the Day, Keziah or Cassia means Fragrance and Keren-happuch means Horn of Color. The verse 15 goes on to say, "In all the land no other women were as beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers." So their father Job treated them with the same dignity and concern that he treated his sons in that (contrary to general custom in the ancient Middle East) he gave them an inheritance as well. Thus does God consider women equal to men in dignity (but NOT in function!).

So what are the lesson here to learn? First, defy God like a liberal feminist as Job's wife did by saying curse God and die, and you will be wiped out from any mention. Your name will be absent from the Lamb's Book of Life (Revelation 20:11 through 15). But a real man who perseveres through Satan's affliction and persecution as Job did will always give honor and respect to the nobility and virtue of true femininity and womanhood. And the honor and respect that Job gave to authentic womanhood are contained in the names that he gave to his new daughters: Handsome as the Day, Fragrance and Horn of Color.

Now we don't know what became of Job's wife for the Sacred Text is silent on that score. She may have died and Job married another by whom he begot his new offspring, or she may have lived on and remained with Job, birthing to him his new family. But the important point is this: God hates the defiance and disobedience of feminism with its hubris, ego and arrogance, but loves authentic womanhood. How could He not for He deigned to become incarnate by a woman - the Blessed Virgin Mary?

Sancta Maria Dei Genetrix (Θεοτόκος)

St. Cyril of Alexandria

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

The readings for Vigil Mass of the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of God on New Year's Eve included the following:

• The Priestly Benediction in Numbers 6:22-27
• Nations Called to Praise God in Psalm 67:2-8
• Adoption as a Child of God in Galatians 4:4-7
• The Shepherds Visit and Jesus' Circumcision in Luke 2:16-21

Today used to be called the Feast of the Circumcision. Father Hunwicke at his Mutual Enrichment blog has a great explanation of how this Feast Day came to be subsumed into the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The declaration that She is the Dei Genetrix (or Θεοτόκος in Greek) had been definitively made at the Church Council of Chalcedon in AD 451. This declaration was based on the prior work of St. Cyril of Alexandria who wrote in his third letter to the heretic Nestorius:

Confessing the Word to be united with the flesh according to the hypostasis, we worship one Son and Lord, Jesus Christ. We do not divide him into parts and separate man and God as though they were united with each other [only] through a unity of dignity and authority... nor do we name separately Christ the Word from God, and in similar fashion, separately, another Christ from the woman, but we know only one Christ, the Word from God the Father with his own flesh... But we do not say that the Word from God dwelt as in an ordinary human born of the holy virgin... we understand that, when he became flesh, not in the same way as he is said to dwell among the saints do we distinguish the manner of the indwelling; but he was united by nature and not turned into flesh... There is, then, one Christ and Son and Lord, not with the sort of conjunction that a human being might have with God as in a unity of dignity or authority; for equality of honor does not unite natures. For Peter and John were equal to each other in honor, both of them being apostles and holy disciples, but the two were not one. Nor do we understand the manner of conjunction to be one of juxtaposition, for this is insufficient in regard to natural union.... Rather we reject the term 'conjunction' as being inadequate to express the union... [T]he holy virgin gave birth in the flesh to God united with the flesh according to hypostasis, for that reason we call her Θεοτόκος ... If anyone does not confess that Emmanuel is, in truth, God, and therefore that the holy virgin is Θεοτόκος (for she bore in a fleshly manner the Word from God become flesh), let him be anathema.

So today we remember that the Blessed Virgin Mary gave birth to True God and True Man. He is both our Divine High Priest (hence the Priestly Benediction in the reading from Numbers) and our human brother True Man (hence his circumcision according to the law in Luke). Indeed, as the Nicean Creed states:

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.

Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

Today's Scripture readings for the Saturday in the Fourth Week of Advent have so much to unpack:

• Nathan's Admonition to David about the Temple in 2nd Samuel 7:1-6
• The Psalmist on the Davidic Covenant in Psalm 89:2-29
• The Canticle of Zechariah on the Birth of John the Baptist in Luke 1:67-79

ASIDE: Having read the notes in the Navarre Study Bible for each of these Scripture passages, I highly recommend the acquisition of such a study bible. It is expensive but well worth every penny.

Due to time and space limitations, I cannot repeat here everything I learned this morning. But one important thing did occur to me. King David wanted to build a Temple of marble and gold to replace the Tent of the Meeting which the Hebrews used for their worship in the Exodus from Egypt, and to house the Ark of the Old Covenant.

The Mosaic Tabernacle Tent
ESV Study Bible

The Mosaic Tabernacle and Court
ESV Study Bible

Nathan told David, "Thus says the LORD: Should you build me a house to dwell in?" While David's immediate son Solomon did build a Temple, the house in which the Lord would dwell would not be in a physical building made by man, but in the hearts of the Believers comprising the Body of Christ, the Una Sancta Catholica et Apostolica Ecclesia.

King Solomon's Temple
ESV Study Bible

Canticle of Zechariah in Greek

Thus Zechariah declares the following about his son:

You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
to give his people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

That dawn is shown in Revelation 12:1 in the Ark of the New Covenant:

A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

Virgo Maria Regina Caeli

John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, and from Him came the Church - the Body of Believers - in whom the Lord dwells. Thus is fulfilled 2nd Samuel 7:16:

Your house and your Kingdom shall endure forever before me;
your throne shall stand firm forever

Gratia et Arca Veti Testamenti

Hannah, Samuel and Eli the Priest

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

During daily Mass at Our Lady of Grace today I learned two new things, (a) the meaning of the name Hannah and (b) the end of the Ark of the Old Covenant. Fr. Kirby (whom Gov Nikki Halley has just awarded the Order of the Palmetto - congratulations!) gave the homily for the Thursday in the 4th Week of Advent whose readings included:

• The Account of Hannah Presenting Samuel to Eli in 1st Samuel 1:24-28
• Hannah's Song of Rejoicing in 2nd Samuel 2:1-8
• Mary's Magnificat in Luke 1:46-56

HANNAH MEANING GRACE

Hannah (meaning grace) was one of two wives, the other being Peninnah (meaning jewel), of a man named Elkanah (meaning God has possessed or God has created). These names are significant because of their relation to what would happen a little over a millennium later. Peninnah had many sons and daughter but Hannah had none. In those days it was a mark of shame not to have children (so unlike today). Even though Elkanah would give a double portion of the sacrifices to Hannah, nothing would console her grief except a child. So she prayed silently at Shiloh one day and Eli the priest saw her. Initially he suspected her drunk from seeing her lips move with no sound, but she explained to him the desire of her heart and he said to her in 1st Samuel 1:17, "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have requested." And Scripture says in verse 19, "When they returned Elkanah had intercourse with his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her." Samuel (meaning heard of God) was then born, and after he was weened, she brought him to Eli in dedication to the Lord. It is significant that God created (Elkanah) through Grace (Hannah) the boy child Samuel just as some 1105 years later the Holy Spirit (God) would overshadow the Blessed Virgin Mary (Our Lady of Grace) so that she would conceive the Christ Child (truly heard of God, hence the name Samuel) within her womb. And truly Hannah's song of rejoicing presages Mary's Magnificat in the Gospel of St. Luke.

FATE OF THE ARK OF THE OLD COVENANT

One of the things which has always puzzled Biblical archaeologists and others is the eventual fate of the Old Covenant. But first we have to understand what replaced that Ark. Fr. Kirby explained that just as Mary pregnant with Jesus went to visit Elizabeth in the hill country of Judea for three months, so did a similar thing happen to the Old Ark of the Covenant. 2nd Samuel 6 gives the account of the return of the Ark of the Old Covenant to Jerusalem by King David. Some interesting parallels exist here:

• The Ark of the Old Covenant was holy, being filled with the presence of God, such that Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ox cart by which it was being transported, God struck him dead on the spot.
• The Ark of the Old Covenant then remained at the House of Obed-edom in the hill country of Judah for three months.
• David the King danced before the Ark of the Old Covenant on its eventual return to Jerusalem.

In the same Mary is the Ark of the New Covenant:

• Mary was filled with the Christ Child, God Himself, and as such could not be touched by mortal man, hence her perpetual virginity.
• Mary made haste to stay with her cousin Elizabeth in the hill country of Judah for three months.
• John the Baptist leaped - danced - within the womb of Elizabeth upon being in the presence of Mary and Jesus within her womb.

The parallels are very clear. Indeed, Hebrews 9:4 tells us what was within the Ark of the Old Covenant: "...the manna, the staff of Aaron that had sprouted, and the tablets of the covenant." Those things also were within Mary:

• Jesus the Bread of Life - the Manna
• Jesus the High Priest - the staff of Aaron
• Jesus the Fulfillment of the Law - the Tablets of the Covenant

So to make way for the Ark of the New Covenant, what happened to the old Ark? Fr. Kirby said that it was destroyed in the final Babylonian attack against Jerusalem in 2nd Chronicles 36:15-21. However, 2nd Maccabees 2:5-8 says the following:

When Jeremiah arrived there, he found a chamber in a cave in which he put the tent, the ark, and the altar of incense; then he sealed the entrance. Some of those who followed him came up intending to mark the path, but they could not find it. When Jeremiah heard of this, he reproved them: “The place is to remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows them mercy. Then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud will be seen, just as they appeared in the time of Moses and of Solomon when he prayed that the place might be greatly sanctified.”

So after Mass I asked Fr. Kirby what might actually have happened: did the Babylonians find the hiding spot and destroy the Ark? He explained what Ezekiel 9:3 and Ezekiel 10 indicate: that the Glory of the Lord departed from above the mercy seat, from between the Cherubim on the Ark of the Old Covenant because of the idolatry being committed in the Temple, and then finally left the Temple itself and all Jerusalem as the Babylonians came in to finally level the city. Without the Glory of the Lord there was no Ark. For all intents and purposes it was destroyed at that point. This had to be done in order to make way for the Ark of the New Covenant, for God's final Pact with Mankind - the promise of Grace, hence the name Hannah.

Nullum Conloquium cum Hodierna Humanitate Saeculare

13th Century Painting
Virgin Mary Punching Satan

Amici, Americani et Compatriotae,

Father Zuhlsdorf at his blog has written an entry entitled:

Archbp. Chaput: a smaller Church of fewer believers rather than compromise orthodoxy.

In this entry is referenced two other rticles:

Philly’s Chaput welcomes idea of smaller, holier Church
Transcript: Chaput's remarks at Notre Dame University

These articles may be summarized as follows: No dialog with today's secular culture. The Blessed Virgin Mary does not dialog with Satan, for Genesis 3:15 states:

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; she shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

Virgin Mary
Crushing the Serpent's Head

And Revelation 11;19 through 12:5 states:

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. And a great portent 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 with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron...

The Church has weathered the storm of pagan Roman Emperors, barbarian invasions from the Goths and Huns and Mongols, ruthless wars of aggression and dhimmitude by Ottoman Turks and North African Moors, and persecution by the likes of Maximilian Robespierre, Otto von Bismark, Plutarco Elias Calles, Josef Stalin, Mao Tse Tung and Adolf Hitler. The Church - the Body of Christ, that male child who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron - is still here.

The Democratic Party shall not win. So-called Catholics like Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Tim Kaine, John Kerry, et alias are traitors to the Church and would do well to remember the lesson provided by Phinehas in Numbers 25:6-9:

And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Mid′ianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the tent of meeting. When Phin′ehas the son of Elea′zar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation, and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the inner room, and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman, through her body. Thus the plague was stayed from the people of Israel. Nevertheless those that died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

Nostra Domina de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe):