Our Lady In The Old Testament

 

To My Readers: This week's post is from Mr. Dominic Caggeso, whose ability to connect today's situation to the Old Testament is nothing short of astounding. Please feel free to comment as usual. If you have a specific question or comment for me, I will respond as always, but it may take me a while longer to respond this week. 

God bless you all, my dear readers---Introibo

Our Lady in the Old Testament

By Dominic Caggeso

One of the benefits of getting older is realizing the precious and unique nature of each moment. Youth tends to view its remaining time as almost boundless, making individual moments seem less special.  However, as one approaches the middle or the end of one’s life and looks back, one sees the importance of decisions, relationships and all manner of occurrences, discovering that each was very unique and meaningful after all. Perspective sheds light on the significance of each moment.

What is true for an individual’s life is also true of the Church’s life. Many Catholics, including myself, tend to view our time in Church history with a myopic lens. Our collective attention as Catholics is drawn to the immediate condition of the Bride of Christ. The Second Vatican Council and its aftermath has defined the state of the Catholic Church, in so much as we strive to preserve the Faith without a pope, slogging through splits, arguments and the hovering and persistent threat coming from the secular world. 

With this limited view, it seems to me that there is a monotonous nature to the last couple decades of Church history, devoid of special character or importance. In other words, we cannot see the forest through the trees.  But, just as the elderly are able to perceive past moments in context when they look at their life as whole, so too can Traditional Catholics see the unique nature of contemporary Church history when it is contextualized in the longer view. Each bygone event in Church history has set the stage for the next occurrence, forming a seamless progression of events leading up to our present day.  

Recent events in Church history are neither random nor coincidental. God has foreknown them from all eternity and has either directly willed them or permitted them to occur.  They are immensely imbued with meaning and importance, far greater than we can perceive or imagine.  In my recent book, Divine Poetry, I think that I give a persuasive demonstration of this truth. Divine Poetry endeavors to show that the entire history of the Catholic Church has been prefigured by the entire Old Testament, even in the same chronological order, right up to our present day! God has not only foreknown Church history but has directly caused it to mirror the events of the Old Testament.  This further proves how unique, meaningful and important was each event in Church history, including contemporary events.  

Our Lady’s Apparitions In Light of the Old Testament

Unlike the history of the Catholic Church, which is largely unrecorded in Holy Scripture, the Old Testament has been solidified and made immutable through precise and deliberately chosen words. We can confidently contemplate and draw meaning from Old Testament stories, knowing that Heaven, through the Church’s granting of the Biblical canon, has given us a proper orientation. Thus the linking of events in Catholic Church history to Old Testament events through typology adds another layer of meaning and significance. In this post, I wish to demonstrate just a little bit of the omniscience of God by showing that events in Church history occur with the same deliberateness and purpose that is so clearly perceived in the Old Testament.  To honor Our Blessed Mother in the month of May, I intend to show how certain Marian apparitions are so unique, momentous and important as to have been prefigured by specific stories in the Old Testament relating to the Ark of the Covenant and the prophets. 

Our Lady is the new Ark.  Just like the Old Testament Ark, She is incorruptible, revered, and bore the presence of God. Perhaps you might also be aware that God spoke to the Israelites from the “oracle” of the Ark (Numbers 7:89) just as Our Lady came and spoke to us from Heaven throughout Church history.  She is a prophetess for our times.  A prophet is one who speaks forth the mind of God. Our Lady, through Church approved, pre-Vatican II apparitions such as Lourdes, Fatima and Guadalupe (among others) gave us messages from Heaven. These messages take the form of both actual spoken words and vivid images that surround and permeate each particular apparition. So as not to make an exhaustively long post, I’ll demonstrate three Marian apparitions, namely Guadalupe, Rue de Bac (the Miraculous Medal), and Fatima.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

One aspect about Our Lady’s apparitions that is so striking is the images that Heaven employs.  They are straightforward and distinctive, capturing the imagination of children and adults alike. Layers of meaning are conveyed in the most simple actions. Our Lady of Guadalupe is very notable in this regard, employing imagery and vivid color through Juan Diego’s tilma, which seems inexhaustible in its ability to convey Heaven’s wonders. Apart from the tilma, we have the words in which Our Lady spoke to Juan Diego and also the roses which bloomed miraculously overnight in the middle of December. Of all the miracles in which Heaven could have used to prove the authenticity of Juan Diego’s claims, flowers were chosen. 

As I have just mentioned, Church history seems to be chronologically prefigured by the Old Testament. After being inspired with this idea, I was excited to explore the Old Testament for possible typological connections with Marian apparitions. This very idea filled my heart with joy! My mind grabbed onto the peculiarities in each apparition, like the cave at Lourdes or the flowers at Guadalupe.  Knowing that Our Lady is the new Ark, I searched the Old Testament for those same concepts in connection with the Ark. My heart swelled, my mind raced, and to my astonishment, the parallels unfolded in the most glorious fashion. It was so simple and so beautiful.

I would like to give you the chance, child of Mary, to experience this same feeling as well. Dear reader, with this idea of Old Testament prefigurement in mind, and with the miracle of the roses from Guadalupe in mind, can you think of any stories in the Old Testament in which flowers miraculously bloom overnight before the Ark? Think of Moses’ brother, Aaron, and the Israelites time in the Sinai Desert. Has it occurred to you yet? By now, you probably have already said to yourself “Yes, in the story of Aaron’s blossoming rod, flowers miraculously bloomed overnight before the Ark”!

In that story, the Israelites were rebelling against Moses’ authority.  They didn’t believe that Moses was selected by God to be His special representative. To prove to the Israelites once and for all that Moses was invested with God’s authority, each of the twelve tribes were told to produce a rod.  These rods were left overnight before the Ark. In the morning, the rod from the tribe of Levi (Aaron’s rod) was found to have miraculously bloomed, proving that God had chosen Moses and Aaron.  Then the rod was placed in the Ark “that it may be kept there for a token of the rebellious children of Israel, and that their complaints may cease from me lest they die.” (See Numbers 17:10). 

Just as Moses and Aaron were vindicated by these miraculous blossoms, so too was Juan Diego proven to be Our Lady’s messenger by producing flowers that had likewise bloomed miraculously before the new Ark.  Just as Aaron’s rod was to be placed in the Ark and kept as a perpetual reminder to the children of Israel, so too has Juan Diego’s tilma been miraculously preserved so as to give us a perpetual reminder of Our Lady’s intercession. However, in the Old Testament, the reminder was meant to stop the Israelites from grumbling and complaining to God.  This is not the case in Church history, for Our Lady of Guadalupe is recorded to have said “I will hear their weeping, their complaints and heal all their sorrows, hardships and sufferings” because She is our merciful mother!

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

My wife and I had the occasion to visit France in 2004.  In Paris, in a convent on an obscure street named Rue de Bac, lies the incorrupt body of St. Catherine Labouré.  She received the Miraculous Medal from Our Lady in 1830. Like the tilma and roses of Our Lady of Guadalupe, there are very particular details surrounding Our Lady’s visit to St. Catherine that uniquely stand out. Do you remember that St. Catherine was awoken in the middle of the night by a little boy?  St. Catherine was a nun, living in a convent.  Little boys were distinctively out of place there, especially in the middle of the night.  The little boy, whom St. Catherine believed to be her guardian angel, told her that Our Lady was waiting for her in the convent chapel.

Again, dear reader, I would like to ask you to contemplate. Do you know of any stories in the Old Testament in which a little boy is awoken in the middle of the night as he sleeps close to the Ark?  Did your eyes widen when you remembered the story of the little boy, Samuel?  Can this be a coincidence? The goodness, omnipotence and beauty of God strongly suggests otherwise.

In this Old Testament story, Samuel is awoken by God in the middle of the night and told that the house of Heli was about to end. Soon afterward, Heli’s two sons, Ophni and Phinees, took the Ark into battle at which point it was stolen by the Philistines. The Ark went throughout Philistia, causing plagues and curses upon the Philistines until they were compelled to return the Ark to the Israelites, along with metal cast images of the plagues they had endured. See 1 Kings 3-6.

After St. Catherine entered the chapel, being awoken by the young boy, Our Lady appeared. Just as the Lord told Samuel that the house of Heli was going to be removed from their position as the high priest, Our Lady told St. Catherine "The days are evil. Terrible things are going to happen in France. The King's throne will be overturned.” Our Lady then gave the Miraculous Medal to St. Catherine, which after having received acceptance by the Church, spread throughout France, then the world, leaving a wake of healing and blessing wherever it spread.  In the Old Testament, the Ark left a trail of plagues and curses upon the Philistines, but in Church history, the new Ark had the opposite effect. The Philistines cast metal images of their plagues, but in Church history it is the image of Our Lady that is cast in metal!  Absolutely glorious!  

Our Lady of Fatima

As I mentioned above, Our Lady is not only the new Ark, but also a prophetess. If that is so, then perhaps certain of Her apparitions are prefigured by prominent stories of prophets in the Old Testament.  Such seems to be the case with Our Lady of Fatima.  Just like Guadalupe and Rue de Bac, Our Lady of Fatima is overflowing with imagery.  I am certain you all know very well the story of Fatima, but allow me to lay out some particular details.

The three children’s claims were vindicated to the crowd by the miracle of the sun.  At that point, no one present doubted that Our Lady was appearing to them. That day, on May 13th 1917, it had been raining hard and everyone was soaking wet.  During the miracle of the sun, when the sun came crashing down towards earth, everyone and everything was made dry. Complementing the imagery of the rain storm at Fatima, Our Lady appeared to the children while standing on a small cloud.

With these poignant figures in mind, let us again scour the Old Testament for paralleling images. I propose to you the story of Elias on Mount Carmel. In that story, Elias was having a contest with the prophets of Baal.  They were each to erect an altar and prepare a sacrifice on it, but they were not to set fire to it.  Then they were both to pray to their respective deity, to send down fire from Heaven to consume the sacrifice.  The deity who did so would be declared the True God. “All Israel” was present on Mount Carmel to witness this contest.  

Before he prayed, Elias first instructed that his altar and his sacrifice be drenched with water, thus making the miracle all the more amazing. After having prayed, God responded to Elias by sending fire from Heaven which not only consumed the sacrifice but dried up all the water surrounding Elias’ altar.  After this miracle, everyone present on Mount Carmel declared Elias to be the prophet of the True God. Then, Elias saw a small cloud to the west which turned into a torrential downpour, thus ending the three-and-one-half year drought. You can read this story in 3 Kings 18: 31-45.

In both stories, it was fire from Heaven which convinced the crowds, for indeed, the miracle of the sun at Fatima was “fire coming down from Heaven”. The miracle of the sun caused everyone and everything to be miraculously dry just as the fire from heaven dried up all the water that drenched Elias’ altar. It was pouring rain on May 13th just as “there fell a great rain” that day on Mount Carmel. Finally, Elias saw a “little cloud” just as Our Lady appeared on a little cloud at Fatima. Clearly, these connections are again too numerous and specific to be a coincidence!

Conclusion

It seems to me that other Marian apparitions are prefigured in the Old Testament as well. You can find these on my YouTube channel “Maccabean Uprising."  Or, you can find them in a booklet that I published, complete with colored pictures.  This can be found at www.maccabeanuprising.com/books. On this website you can also find my recent book, Divine Poetry, which details the astonishing chronological parallels between the entirety of the Old Testament and Catholic Church history, right up to our present day. 

Glory be to God!  And may we honor Our Lady, especially in this month of May.