Crushing the Serpent's Head - It's All Pregnancy Weight

Many of my recent posts have looked at Mary's appearance at Guadalupe in the light of Scripture.  An interesting piece of data that emerged in my research: in the Nahuatl language, in which our Lady asked to be known as "Holy Mary of Guadalupe," there are no "g" or "d' sounds.  It has led to speculation that Mary may have said something similiar to "Guadalupe," a word that the Spanish bishop, to whom the report was given, mistook for Guadalupe (a Marian shrine in his Spanish homeland).  It has led to the speculation that Mary referred to herself as Quatlasupe, "one who crushes the serpent."

That designation would be yet another point of connection between Guadalupe, Revelation 12, and the connected passage in Genesis 3:15.  The Genesis passage, as noted previously, is known as the protoevangelion, or "first gospel."  In it God addressed the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and hers.  He will crush your head while you strike at his heel."  In Genesis it's clearly the seed, the Son of the woman, who crushes the serpent's head; so what is with all the Catholic art work showing Mary standing on the serpent's head ... and her possible reference to herself as Quatlasupe?

The Douay-Rheims, a popular, older Bible translation among Catholics, rendered Gen.3:15 as "she will crush your head, while you strike at her heel."  According to Jimmy Akin, the Douay's translators followed a manuscript variant found in many early Fathers and some editions of the Vulgate (although not in Jerome's original Vulgate translation).  The modern translations we are familiar - where the woman's offspring, Jesus crushes the serpent's head - are faithful to the original Hebrew.

So again, what's up with images of Mary crushing the serpent's

head?  Isn't that theologically inaccurate, applying to Mary what should only be applied to Jesus?  If it is inaccurate, then why would the Church grant approval to the 1830 Marian apparition at the Rue de Bac, where Mary appeared to St. Catherine Laboure, crushing the head of the serpent?  (Granted, Church approval doesn't say you must believe it; but it does guarantee that there is nothing harmful in the apparition, nothing at odds with the Faith handed on by the Apostles.)

A simple thought occurred to me the other day as I was preparing a talk on Our Lady of Guadalupe.  I was looking at our Lady, clearly pregnant with the Lord Jesus, thinking about how Mary's appearance and image on the Tilma dealt a death-blow to the Serpent in the New World, when it struck me - it was pregnancy weight, that's how "Mary" could be represented crushing the Serpent's head.  The weight that crushes the Serpent beneath Mary's feet is the weight of her Son's glory.  It's all pregnancy weight!

This goes right back to the gospels.  Look at the authority Jesus granted to His seventy-two disciples, "Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you" (Lk 10:19).  We read of it in John's first epistle too, "He that is in you is greater than he [Satan] who is in the world" (1 Jn 4:4).  Jesus was there within His Mother, the Ark of the New Covenant, crushing the enemy's head beneath her just as He decapitated the idol of Dagon before the Ark of the Old Covenant!

Jesus is within His Church, fighting the ancient serpent.  And He was clearly within His Mother, the Church's preeminent member and icon.  Stay pregnant my friends! (Mt 12:50)

O Jesus living in Mary, 
come and live in Thy servants,
in the Spirit of Thy holiness,
in the fullness of Thy might, 
in the truth of Thy virtues,
in the perfection of Thy ways,
in the communion of Thy mysteries,
subdue every hostile power
in Thy Spirit, for the glory of the Father.  
Amen.

Interpreting the Symbolism of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The imagery displayed in the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe comes from Revelation 12, but it bore special meaning for the Nahua, or Aztecs.  Their language Nahuatl, was pictographic, and so the image of our Lady is a multi-layered one announcing the one, true God to the people of the Americas:

Rays of the sun	Symbol of the Aztec’s chief god, Huitzilopochtli - the of the sun and warfare.  The Woman announces the God Who is greater than the sun god.
Standing on the moon	Moon was god of night; she is greater than their god of darkness.
Turquoise color of mantle	The color of the gods and royalty
Stars on the mantle	The Woman comes from heaven The research of Fr. Mario Rojas Sánchez and Dr. Juan Homero Hernández Illescas of Mexico (published in 1983) shows that the stars on the Lady’s mantle in the image are exactly as the stars of the winter solstice appeared before dawn on the morning of December 12, 1531. Leo (the Lion, symbol of Judah) would fall on the our Lady’s womb. Stars are symbol of end of one civilization and birth of a new, often accompanied by astronomical phenomena
Angel supporting the Lady	Royalty – only kings, queens, and dignitaries were carried on others’ shoulders.  She wanted to come to them; royalty told their bearers where to take them.
Rose-colored gown	Color of earth; she is of the earth.
Eyes looking down in submission	The Woman is not God, but his servant.  The gods of the Aztecs always represented looking straight ahead with large eyes.
Face	The Woman’s complexion – she is a mestiza; a person of mixed birth, both Nahua and Spanish.  Face the window to the soul, and this face said to show great compassion.  Age appears to be 15
Hair parted	A maiden, a virgin
Hands	We interpret as gesture of prayer; but to the Aztecs it was the manner of offering – she is offering a gift
Maternity band	Sign of a pregnant woman – Someone is coming. The bow forms a four-petaled flower, the nahui ollin, the flower of the sun, a symbol of plenitude.
Jade broach marked with black cross	When a woman bore a son, her husband gave her a gift made of jade.  The Cross on the broach told them that the Spanish missionaries were speaking of her Son.
Cuffs of dress	White fur is a sign of nobility … however, not among the native people, but the Jews.

The Woman is the Ark

"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, voices, 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." (Rev. 11:19 - 12:2)

I do not believe it to be coincidental that John's vision moved directly from the Ark to the Woman.  Both are images of the Virgin Mary.

Now the Ark was the holiest object under the Old Covenant.  It was the golden chest that contained the Tablets of the Ten Commandments, the staff of Aaron (the first high priest), and sample of the "heavenly bread," manna, the Israelites ate in the desert.  It was God's earthly throne; the Lord was said to sit enthroned upon the cherubim atop the Ark.  When Israel's priests carried the Ark into the Jordan River it parted, just as the waters of the Red Sea had, allowing the Israelites to enter the Promised Land. After it was carried in procession for seven days around the city of Jericho, the city's walls collapsed.  

In the New Testament, when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, he told her,"the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God (Lk 1:35).  "Overshadow" - it was the same term used to describe God's coming to dwell in the Tabernacle and Temple when the Ark was placed in their Holy of Holies.

It's fascinating to see how Luke developed this insight in his telling of Mary's visit to her kinswoman Elizabeth.  Allow me to set it next to the Old Testament's account of David bringing the Ark of the Covenant to his newly won capital, Jerusalem.


The Ark was a type, a prophetic symbol, of the Virgin Mary.  The original Ark contained the Ten Commandments, high priest's staff, and manna; but Mary's womb contained Jesus - the Word of the Father, our great High Priest, and the true "Bread of Life."  Mary's lap was the only throne our Lord knew during His earthly life!  The holiness of the Ark, the way it was completely set apart for the service of God (note above how Uzzah died simply from touching it), prophesied the holiness of Our Lady.

Recall how the angel Gabriel began his message to Mary, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!...Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God” (Luke 1:28,30). “Full of grace,” or “O favored one,” in some versions of the Bible, is a translation of the Greek term “Kechari-tomene.” It refers to an absolute plentitude of grace, Mary “‛has been’ and ‘is now’ filled with divine life.”  There was never a moment of separation between she and God. This belief is what Catholics mean when they speak of her “immaculate conception.”

Mary, like all of us, had to be saved from sin.  She herself said, “my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:47). She was saved from sin – only the manner differs. 

Jesus' offering to the Father cuts forwards and backward in time; He is the "lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (1 Pet 1:19-20). His sacrifice is the source of salvation for people from the beginning of history all the way through its end (Heb 9:28; Rev 13:8; 1 Pet 3:19-20). You and I received God's grace into our souls after we had already contracted original sin; but in Mary's case, the fruits of Jesus’ victory were applied at conception, saving her from ever contracting original sin. Now, if John the Baptist could respond to the Holy Spirit while in his mother’s womb (see Lk 1:41,44 above), then how can we object to Mary receiving the Spirit but a few months earlier, at conception?  Mary had no way to earn this gift; it was granted at the instant she came into being. Nor was it a requirement to bear the sinless Jesus. It was certainly fitting, but not a requirement.  It was God’s sovereign choice, His free gift.

Our Lady of Guadalupe & the Rights of the Unborn

Very honored to be asked to pen the Life Group Devotion for this morning on this feast of Our Lady.  They are an awesome organization.  Hope you click the link above to check them out.  (You can receive Pro-Life reflections on the daily Scripture readings sent to your inbox every morning.)  Here is my reflection:

Since the Roe v. Wade decision over 50 million unborn children in the United States alone have been sacrificed to maintain, or in the hope of achieving, a certain material lifestyle.  It is not the first time human sacrifice has been practiced on our continent, and today the Church celebrates the manner God chose some 500 years ago to convert the hearts of millions of native people to the Gospel of Life.  In December, 1531, Jesus sent his mother to Juan Diego, and through him millions of adherents to the Aztec religion, a religion that portrayed many of its gods as serpents and was focused upon human sacrifice.  Mary was sent to our continent as the Woman of Revelation 12 – pregnant, clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, at war with “the ancient serpent, Satan” (Rev.12:9).  Within ten years of her appearance in Mexico, 9 million Native Americans embraced Jesus Christ and in doing so, renounced the culture of death.  To aid us in our current fight against the Serpent and the revival of human sacrifice on our shores, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Our Lady of Guadalupe as Patroness of the Americas and Protectress of the Unborn.
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Faith Challenge: Invoke Our Lady of Guadalupe’s intercession on behalf of the unborn today, that she petition her beloved Son to release the grace of God on our country and the world.

Guadalupe - Things We Don't Often Hear

Still prepping for Saturday:

A couple of years back, I read Donal Anthony Flew's Marian Apparitions, the Bible, and the Modern World, and was surprised by the background information it contained on Mary's appearance outside Mexico City.  I had heard before how the Aztecs were looking for the return of their pale-faced god, Quetzalcoatl, and his reclamation of their empire, and how the Aztecs thought Cortes was either Quatzalcoatl's emissary, or the god himself.  What I had never come across before was how ten years before Cortes arrival, Princess Papantzin, sister of the Aztec ruler Montezuma, fell into a coma and was buried.  She revived in the tomb and recounted for her brother the dream she had had.  Dolan narrates, "In it she was taken by a shining being with a black cross on his forehead to the shore of the ocean to see a number of ships with black crosses on their sails approaching.  She was told that these were the future conquerors of the country, who would also bring knowledge of the true God" (p.8).

The Aztecs expected Quatzalcoatl to return on his personal name day according to their calendar and to be wearing black when he did so.  It just so happened that Cortes arrived in the New World in ships with black crosses on the sails and stepped ashore wearing black due to the date on the Christian calendar, Good Friday (April 22, 1519).

Am I not here, who is your Mother?

I think those words of our Lady to St. Juan Diego, and through him to us, are some of the most beautiful in history. I just renewed my consecration to Jesus, through the heart of Mary, this past week and wanted to share a thought that struck me in that regard. Before I come to it though, I need to lay a bit of groundwork:

What does it mean to be consecrated to Jesus through Mary? St. Louis De Montfort wrote the book on the subject. It is popularly known as True Devotion to Mary. De Montfort himself though, spoke of the devotion to Mary he prescribed as being "a perfect consecration to Jesus Christ." As difficult as this may be for some Christian brothers and sisters to understand, that is Marian devotion's raison d'etre. What De Montfort espoused was entrusting ourselves to Jesus' Mother, our Mother, totally and completely. We ask the Holy Spirit to knit our souls together, so that the grace that was in her, will be participated in by us as well. Sounds heretical? It sounded very foreign to me too, but after years of looking at it and seeing its fruits in others, such as John Paul II, I espouse it as well.

The Apostles themselves gave us the doctrinal foundations! Listen to this beautiful image given us by the Apostle Peter, "Come to Jesus, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God's sight chosen and precious; and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house...to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:4-5). The Apostle Paul developed it further, teaching that "we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another" (Romans 12:5). In being fused to Jesus, we find ourselves then, at the level of the soul, mysteriously joined to one another. As a result, Paul could teach that "If one member of the Body suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together" (1 Cor.12:26); and could even claim, "in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church" (Colossians 1:24).

And so, the grace that is in one member of the Body can be of benefit to all. And who received the grace to love Jesus with a perfectly pure heart from the moment of conception? Who was a disciple to Him like no one else in the cosmos? Our Mother Mary! As the angel Gabriel said, she is the "Kecharitomene," the one who is "completely filled" with God's grace. She is the Church's ultimate success story, God's greatest masterpiece of grace! Now that's the living stone that I want to be fitted to, the cell of the Body that I want to be functioning alongside. The grace that God gave her disposed her to overcome every difficulty and give herself to Him without reserve, so that the Holy Spirit could fashion Jesus within her. I want that grace that God poured into Mary, to yield to Him as she did! My soul, of itself, is still so underdeveloped, has so many impediments that prevent the Holy Spirit from moving it the way He wishes.

Do you remember your Old Testament? The great prophet Elijah told his pupil Elisha to ask a favor of him before he (Elijah) was assumed into heaven. Elisha's request? "I pray you, let me inherit a double share of your spirit" (2 Kings 2:9). And that was exactly what Elisha got! Well, there's no way we can receive a "double" portion of the grace Mary did - since as Mother of the Incarnate Word she received more than all of the angles and saints put together! - but she and the Holy Spirit sure want us to participate in it! They want us to tap into it to accelerate our spiritual growth. Again, as Paul said, "we are members of one another." To share in the grace given to Mary's soul is to make ourselves ever more docile instruments of the Holy Spirit, more perfect disciples of Christ Jesus! And this brings me back to that thought I was struck by earlier this week:

I was meditating on the third Luminous Mystery, Jesus' Proclamation of the Kingdom. My mind turned to that episode when Jesus was preaching, and He was told that His Mother and family were outside. He looked at those sitting around Him and said, "Here are my mother and my brethren! Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother" (Matt.12:49-50). I've always understood Jesus to be saying that we are to share in the mission of His Mother, the mission of doing God's will by giving Him our flesh and allowing Him to "enter the world" through us. And that's true. But for the first time, I recognized Jesus' words as having a deep fulfillment in this idea of being consecrated to Him through spiritual union with Mary. It is "common" to think of ourselves as Jesus' brothers and sisters, but mother strikes us a bit strange. Not when we conceive of it as our souls being knit to Mary's by the Holy Spirit though. Not when we understand it as being allowed to share in that beautiful grace that was hers - becoming completely fluid in the Hands of the Spirit, so that He can form Christ Jesus in our souls as He did within the womb of Mary.

We become completely Mary's (as Jesus did in the Incarnation), so that we may become more perfectly Jesus'. Our Lady stands before us today as she did Juan Diego, "Am I not here, who is your Mother?"


Quite an honor: This entry was re-printed by Catholic Exchange on Dec.17th.