Mary and The The Last Days

Of all creation, Mary, the Mother of Jesus is second only to her Son in importance to mankind. She was chosen by the Father to be the physical earthly mother of Jesus. As such she was preserved from the moment of her conception from the stain of original sin. She still had free will and could choose to serve God or not, it was her choice.  Of course she did say yes to the angel Gabriel and her fiat, her "yes" started the final act in the redemption of mankind promised in the garden of Eden.  When the time came she delivered into this world Jesus who would go to the cross and save us from our sins. When her earthly life was finished she died as all of us will and displaying His great love for His mother Jesus caused her to be assumed body and soul into heaven.  

I do not think that anyone would disagree with me when I say that Jesus perfectly kept the ten commandments.  If He did not then He would have committed sin and we know that is not possible.  Since Jesus kept the commandments perfectly, that would mean he kept the fourth commandment perfectly and he honored his father and mother. So, we can see Mary is a very important person indeed. She is very close to her Son. Jesus even began his ministry early at the wedding feast at Cana when he changed water into the finest wine. 

It is important for us to realize the importance the Mother of God plays in the history of salvation.  To this very day some people believe she is interceding for the race of man and delivering urgent messages warning us of the coming of the end times or at the least a great chastisement because of the way we have strayed from the will of God. 

Mary, it is said, has appeared at various places in various times and has brought both requests for prayer and fasting and warnings of punishments that are to come upon the race of man. The Church classifies these appearances as private revelations and we are free to believe in them or not.  

Let's take a look at some of the apparitions and see what they were all about. 

 The first apparition is that which is called Our Lady of

Guadalupe.  This took place in Mexico in the year 1531 right after the city of Mexico had been pacified and the Catholic faith was starting to take hold.  A new bishop had just been appointed and had just taken up residence there.  Juan Diego, a typical peasant, was on his way to Mexico to attend Mass when he heard some beautiful singing. He topped the hill and was stopped by a beautiful woman whose garments shined like the sun. She identified herself as "the ever virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the True God"  She told him that he was to go to the bishop and tell him that he is to build a church in her honor on this spot.  Juan Diego went of and with some difficulty he was admitted to see the bishop. The Bishop was named Father Juan de Zumarraga, a Franciscan, listened to the peasant courteously and he told Juan basically. "I'll think about it." 

Juan left and was broken hearted because it appeared to him that he was not believed by the prelate. Mary appeared to him and Juan related with happened and told Mary that she had entrusted her mission to a nothing of a man.  Mary told him that she had many servants and he was one of them and she chose him for this mission. She sent him back telling him you come in my name and he should start the erection of the temple that I am asking for.  She said "Tell him that I, in person, the ever virgin Holy Mary, Mother of God, has sent you." 

So off he went and once again with much difficulty he was able to see the bishop. The bishop sent him away stating that he had to bring him a sign from heaven that what he said was true.  Juan immediately left. This time servants of the bishop followed him to see where he went and who he spoke to. When Juan reached the crest of the hill on which Our Lady appeared to him he vanished from their sight and they could not find him. They decided that if this churlish peasant ever darkened the door of the bishop again that they would punish him severely.  Juan told the Virgin what had happened and she told him to return the next day and that she would give him a sign of the bishop.  Juan returned home and found that his uncle was ill and near death. The next morning Juan set out to fetch a priest to hear his uncle's confession but the Virgin once again appeared to him. He told her of his uncle's sickness and she said not to worry, that his uncle was cured. He then sent him to the top of a hill where, once he arrived, he could not believe his eyes. Here it was in the chill of December and all around him were beautiful roses, they do not bloom in December.  They Virgin told him to gather them and she put them into his robe and told him that this is the sign the bishop needed to see and to show them to noone before the bishop saw them. 

Juan went off to the bishops house again.  True to their word the servants of the bishop gave Juan a hard time and refused to tell the bishop that he was there to see him.  But soon he was admitted to the presence of the bishop and he told him that the sign that the bishop wanted was in his robe.  The bishop opened the robe and the beautiful roses spilled on to the floor and inside the robe was a picture of the Blessed Virgin.  The bishop now believed and needless to say the church was built.  Juan Diego himself has been canonized as a saint.  

Okay. some peasant finds some flowers and paint a picture in his robe, big deal, cute, but not miraculous. It's not that simple, we cannot just throw away the possibility of the miraculous.  Let's talk about the robe, or as it properly called a "Tilma."  The tilma was a typical garment used by the natives in the 15th and 16th centuries. It is made of two pieces of coarse cloth fibers and is approximately 70 inches by 41 inches.  The normal life of this typical garment is approximately thirty years.  This tilma has been with us for almost 500 hundred years and in the early years it was handled by literally thousands of people, hung without any protection from insects, uv light and contamination of tens of thousands of candles that have been near it over the years and it has suffered no degeneration. 

In 1879 Dr. Jose Ignacio Bartolache had two copies of the image made by local artists placed them in identical conditions as the original and the copies disintegrated in twenty years. Further, human artists tried to embellish  the original by adding a crown around Mary's head and adding gold to the sun burst. All of these things faded away but the original remained perfectly preserved. 

Modern investigations have been made as well.  In 1936 a Noble Prize winner in chemistry examined the fabric and he was unable to tell how the pigments were made as they were from no known source, neith natural, animal, mineral, or vegetable. 

NASA has ascertained that the image floats above the surface of the tilma a distance of 1/100th of an inch without touching it! The Kodak Corporation in Mexico examined the image and says it bears more resemblance to a color photograph than a painting.

Microscopic examination of the eyes of the image reveal a most remarkable thing.  In the pupil of each eye can be seen miniscule image of a bearded man, Juan Diego!  Also, if a bright light is shined into the pupil, it reacts and the retina contracts and when the light stimulation is removed the retina returns to a dilated state, just as what happens to a living eye.  

Finally, one other miraculous occurrence bears mentioning.  On November 14, 1921 a bomb consisting of 29 sticks of dynamite was left near the tilma and the subsequent explosion broke the marble communion rail and windows up to 150 meters from the explosion but the tilma, housed in an ordinary frame covered with standard window glass was not damaged at all. A heavy brass crucifix near by was almost bent in half. 

So, given the facts above, I think we can say that the tilma is a very special piece of cloth that was left as an ongoing reminder of the love of the Blessed Virgin Mary for her children.  But what can we learn about the end times from this miraculous event that happened so very long ago.  About the end times, probably not a whole lot. But I believe that this visit of Mary to her Mexican people shows that she is a caring mother who will do what she needs to help her children.  And I think it also proves that Mary does appear on earth and that she uses the powerless of the world to get her message across.   We move next to a place called Fatima. 

(Thanks to Infallible Catholic which provided the facts quoted above. Please visit the blog by clicking on the link below. ) 

Infallible Catholic (Click Here)