Mary Scholar Talks on the Virgin Mary in the Bible

Angeline Dee, who has an MA in Theology from the Augustine Institute in Denver, Co., U.S.A., gave a Marian talk on ‘The Bible and the Virgin Mary’, organized by Formation Ministry last May 15. The talk took place from 7:30 pm to 9 pm at the CTK Divine Mercy Chapel.

She started with Adam and Eve in the garden with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam and Eve were born without sin, but by eating from the Tree, Eve brought onto humanity the three scourges of – painful childbirth, mortality, and difficulty in looking for food. She then talked about the Virgin Mary, the only other female aside from Eve who was born without sin and she drew parallels between the old Eve of the Old Testament and the ‘new Eve’, that is, the Virgin Mary. For example, Eve invited Adam to commit the Sirst sin; while Mary invites Jesus to do his first ‘sign’ at the wedding in Cana.

What some Bible readers don’t appreciate, Angeline pointed out, is that aside from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the garden also had the Tree of Life. was She deftly illustrated how Jesus and Mary set right and restored all the harmony that Adam and Eve destroyed by sinning. The tree of life and its fruits that give immortality that were taken from humanity when Adam and Eve were banished from the garden was restored to us by Jesus and Mary in the form of Christ’s Cross (as the new ‘tree of life’) and the Eucharist (as the new fruit that grants immortality.) Jesus died on the ‘tree of death’ which by his dying becomes the new Tree of Life.

Recall ‘I am the Bread of Life. He who eats of this bread will have eternal life!’

As Christ neared death, he bequeathed his Mother to John. He had no other possession save her and he uttered the formal words of adoption, ‘Woman, behold your son.’John himself was a symbol for all the disciples. Though he spoke to him when he said, ‘Behold your Mother’, Jesus was also speaking to everyone of us.

She then spoke about the Ark of the Covenant, the most holy of holies, that Moses, the greatest Jewish prophet, had made after coming down from Mt. Sinai with God’s ten commandments. Here, she drew parallels between Moses and Jesus. For example, Moses came to deliver the Jews from the Egyptians. Jesus, on the other hand, came to deliver his people from sin.

The Ark, a rectangular wooden container made of acacia and covered in gold, carried by two golden rods carried by four men, contained not only the two stone tablets that Moses brought down but also manna that fell down from heaven, and Aaron’s rod that budded. She described the space in the middle of the twelve tribes devoted to the ‘tabernacle’ which housed the ark that went with the Israelites as they traveled for forty years in the desert on the way to the Promised Land.

It was David who brought the ark to Jerusalem but it was Solomon who built the permanent tabernacle, on the spot where the Temple Mount now lies, with a veil hiding the ark inside, the same veil that would later be rent asunder upon Christ’s death on the cross. Since then, the word ‘tabernacle’ had been used to designate the area where God is present. Angeline posed the question – so where is the Ark now? Theories abound, she said – Ethiopia? Babylon? underneath the Temple Mount itself ? or in a cave that only the prophet Jeremiah knew?

Aside from the comparison of Eve to Mother Mary, Ms. Dee also drew parallels between the Old Ark of the Covenant with Virgin Mary, the new Ark of the New Covenant.

Angeline also pointed out that Sr. Lucia’s last vision was of Christ on the cross with God above him. On Jesus’ right, below the crucifix was Mary, with grace and mercy Slowing down. At every mass, the boundary between heaven and earth is opened. Jesus comes down each time to nourish us with his word and his body & blood. At each ‘heavenly’ mass, God the Father pours down an abundance of mercy and graces like liquid crystal on the altar and onto the whole earth.

She noted the richness of imagery regarding Mary, Mother of God. But to Ms. Dee, the greatest of the images is the Lady of Guadalupe. In the 1531 image, Mary is depicted as an Aztec princess, and yet after nearly 500 years, the image is not faded at all. But the greatest miracle is how in the span of 10 years, 10 million Mexicans were converted to Catholicism, thus giving up their traditional rituals of human sacrifice in one swoop.

Ms. Dee recapitulated thus – Mary is the link between the Old Testament and the New Testament. She is the ‘new Eve’, the ‘new Ark of the new Covenant, and the new Queen Mother. Therefore, all Christians should be devoted to Mary.