The photograph above is the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in a darkened church at night, covered by an apparent phenomenal cloud of fire. Our Lady of Guadalupe brings the light that shines in the people who walk in darkness. (See Is 9:1). Our Lady mediates to us the light and grace of the Holy Trinity and brings us her greatest gift, Her Son Jesus, as the Ark of the New Covenant. THE BURIAL AND RESURRECTION OF MARY
2. The Incorruption of Her Immaculate Body.
The victory of Mary over death demanded the incorruption of the sepulcher. This singular grace having been granted by God to many bodies of saints, how could it be denied to Her? Says St. John Damascene rightly: "How could the corruption of death enter that body from which life had sprung?"
It has been said that Mary is the beginning of Christ. How then could He, who was already in heaven seated at the right and of His Father, surrounded by the majesty of His divine glory, permit that that body, which was something of His won, should be invaded by the corruption of the sepulcher?
That corruption of our body has its raison d'etre in sin. Sin is the seed of corruption. Consequently, Mary, conceived without original sin, preserved from every stain, even from the shadow of sin, could not undergo the slightest corruption. How could the virginal purity of Her immaculate body give way to that repulsive decay? Would not that body which was the first to be vowed virginity to God deserve heaven on this earth as a very special reward? The Ark of the Covenant was made of incorruptible timber and yet this was only a figure of the reality foreshadowed by it: the soul and the incorruptible body of Mary. Mary was the real Ark of the New Covenant. Beg of Our Lady to be given a share of this incorruptibility from sin which is the one that matters.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
2. The Incorruption of Her Immaculate Body.
The victory of Mary over death demanded the incorruption of the sepulcher. This singular grace having been granted by God to many bodies of saints, how could it be denied to Her? Says St. John Damascene rightly: "How could the corruption of death enter that body from which life had sprung?"
It has been said that Mary is the beginning of Christ. How then could He, who was already in heaven seated at the right and of His Father, surrounded by the majesty of His divine glory, permit that that body, which was something of His won, should be invaded by the corruption of the sepulcher?
That corruption of our body has its raison d'etre in sin. Sin is the seed of corruption. Consequently, Mary, conceived without original sin, preserved from every stain, even from the shadow of sin, could not undergo the slightest corruption. How could the virginal purity of Her immaculate body give way to that repulsive decay? Would not that body which was the first to be vowed virginity to God deserve heaven on this earth as a very special reward? The Ark of the Covenant was made of incorruptible timber and yet this was only a figure of the reality foreshadowed by it: the soul and the incorruptible body of Mary. Mary was the real Ark of the New Covenant. Beg of Our Lady to be given a share of this incorruptibility from sin which is the one that matters.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
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