Today, on “Behold the Man” we dive into the scriptural, and traditional, roots of Mary’s assumption into heaven by God.  If you would like to read my actual show notes, with the references, click HERE, to download a PDF copy.  Watch the VIDEO version of this episode HERE.

Article on Mary’s immaculate conception & assumption into heaven from Catholic Answers HERE

Article: “Mary Crowned in Glory” from the Saint Paul Center for Biblical Theology HERE

The intro song was “Your Grace is Enough” by Bob Rice; check out his website HERE.

CHECK OUT THE VERY COOL MEA CULPA IPHONE APP FOR THE SACRAMENT OF CONFESSION HERE

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The Video Version

The intro song was “Love” by Curtis Stephan. Check out his  website HERE.

Check out in the Johannine Tradition (Part 2) by Dr. John Bergsma for an OUTSTANDING review of the Cosmic Temple in Jewish Tradition.

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NOTE: I need to correct myself… I was referencing Moses & the burning bush & said “in Genesis”. This, of course, is not where the account is found, rather it is found in Exodus 3.

The Intro song was “You Are The Way” by artist Steve Angrisano. Check out Steve’s site HERE.

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The intro song was The single, Our God Is Here from the album “Innocence” by Chris Muglia. Click HERE to check out his website.

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My entire life, even growing up in the Church of Christ Sunday school, when I thought of Jesus’ passion and death, I have thought of him as a helpless victim.  The weak, beaten, emaciated, frail, man who was dragged through the streets of Jerusalem, taken outside the walls, stripped naked, then nailed to the cross; helpless!   This never really sat well with me; as a man I do not like to see Jesus weak, and helpless. I always winced when I read St. Matthew 15:34, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me”. My lack of understanding on this verse plagued me with great doubts about our Lord.  I didn’t know he was quoting Psalm 22…  rather, on the surface, it was a cry of desperation. Was the King of Kings really that weak? Surely not! Could he be?

The more I study the Catholic faith, mediate on the Gospels, and contemplate the life of Jesus the more I’m convinced that Jesus was a United States Marine.  Sounds strange to read that hu?  But, when I read passages like John 18:1-12 I see not a weak, helpless victim but, rather, the man that inspires me to face off with an overwhelming, armed, and highly motivated, enemy hell bent on taking me down.   In the face of just such a situation, in a Garden, our Lord went and faced off with the cohort come out to arrest him.  Unlike Adam, who also was in a Garden and faced with the real threat of an intruder, Nahash, the serpent of old (Rev. 12:9), cowered, and allowed Eve to do all the talking. Then, when confronted by our Lord, walking in the Garden, in the cool of the Day (Gen. 3:8), hid in a bush, and blamed his troubles on the Woman, whom God gave to him! This was all God’s fault!

Jesus, the last Adam, does not cower, does not allow someone else, especially Mary, the new Eve, to do the talking…. No Jesus looks them dead in the eye and says “Whom do you seek” (vs. 4)? “Jesus of Nazareth”, they reply, eager to set the trap, and ambush our Lord with their mob that was now encircling him.  Does Jesus “barter a better deal with the “Band of Solders” before he tucks tail and runs” (to steal a line from Braveheart)?

No; our Lord leans in… with a Gunny Highway (Clint Eastwood from “Heart Break Hotel”), teeth clenched, growl, squinted eyes, and a grimaced face, and says, “I AM”!  Well, at least that’s the image that comes to my mind anyway.  Recalling Psalm 56:9 “Then my enemies will retreat on the day when I call. This I know, that* God is for me.” The very name of God, the great “I AM”, turns the hunters into the hunted!  No… Jesus does not cower, or retreat when found in the “kill zone”, but rather, like a good Marine, counter attacks, and overwhelms the enemy with superior fire power.   He is not weak, emasculated, emaciated, or a victim, but rather strong, in control, and a man on a mission!  This is the Jesus that speaks to my heart… he inspires me, and motivates me.  This is the man I long to be… courage, conviction, devout, sacrificial, and resolute.

When St. Peter draws his sword (vs. 10), to defend our Lord in battle, “11 Jesus said to Peter, ‘Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?’” I will drink it! Jesus proclaims with boldness.  Jesus knew what was to come, the fight of all time, the taking of the hill, and yet he accepts it bravely with out wavier.  In commanding Peter to drop the sword our Lord clears the way to the true garden, his heart, and the true tree of life, the cross on Calvary, so that we may be drawn to him, take, eat of the fruit of the womb, his flesh and blood, and have life (Gen. 3:22-24)!

As a former Marine, I recognize an order when I hear it… Mark 8:34 “He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Jesus wasn’t dragged to Calvary helplessly; no… he marched on Calvary as a King before his army!   Like a Marine, our Lord leads the way in the fight.  The question is; will you fight with him? Will you take up your cross today and march on Calvary, or will you lie down, cower in the face of a ferocious, and uncompromising enemy, and die? “Fight, and you may die.  Run, and you’ll live — at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days, from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take… our FREEDOM (Another line from Braveheart)!

Today, decide to fight! Don’t be silent, like the coward Adam, refusing to call upon God for help, rather be like our Lord who, pulls himself up on his nails, digs deep down, enduring the pain, to draw a breath, and proclaim “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me”! The first verse of Psalm 22 which starts in despair, yes… but, ends in triumph. Do not be like the coward Judas, who leads the “band of solders” out, then betrays our Lord with a kiss. No,  today take up your cross and follow our Lord as we assault Calvary. Chose to fight and seek holiness today; that is the Calvary we must conquer. Its a daily choice… fight or die; you decide.  I will see you on the Hill!

By Joe McClane

I had an interesting dream last night/this morning…. I dreamt I was in an old theater room. It was a room like the old town hall rooms you would find in 100 plus year old New England buildings, with wooden floors, old beams, and a stage like in a school, about 3 and half feet off the ground.  The lighting in the room was reddish brown… like the wood floors, walls, and stage; sort of a warm glow. I didn’t look out any windows but it felt as though it was cold and dark outside. There was something going on the stage, but I don’t know what it was as I never looked to see. I was in the back right corner looking on the entire room as if I were on the outside looking in. There was an audience sitting in old wooden fold up chairs in front of the stage, in the center of the large room, with a roof support pillar sitting in the middle of the chairs, which blocked part of the view.  To my right, along the wall, was a couch and on it was sitting my mother.

In the audience I saw a woman that caught my eye so I started to walk forward a few feet to get a better look. She was right next to that roof support pillar so I couldn’t see where I was standing. When I moved up I saw her… I said to myself its Bernadette Soubirous! I immediately got on my knees.  It was her face… I recognized her face as Bernadette from pictures I had seen a few weeks ago of her incorruptible body.  I turned around to my mother on the couch, and said, “I just saw Bernadette Soubirous “!  Bernadette was holding the Christ child, wearing a cream colored shawl with what looked like her hair in a bun wrapped in a white cloth of some kind.  I don’t recall exactly the color of her dress but I seem to think it was a brown or grey color, and floor length. I sat there on my knees just staring at her with the child and being enamored with them. Then what ever was going on stage ended and the audience got up to leave. Bernadette, who never looked my way, got up and headed toward the stage. She then exited the stage through a door, on the right, that led into a side hallway, on my side of the room, and stood in a long, dark hallway, with a soft light coming from the other end, with her back to me, and the room.

She then turned around, the child was no longer in her arms, or with her, and she looked into the room, from the door well of the darkened hallway, as if looking for someone.  I ran over and fell on my knees, grabbed her hand, and began to cry.  I begged her to ask Jesus to have mercy on me. I recall her voice was pleasant and soft but I cannot recall her words… my sense was that she would ask Jesus for mercy. Her peace was overwhelming. It was then that I woke up.

I do not think this was a vision from heaven, in the since of Our Lady of Fatima, or Lourdes, etc. This does not make me a visionary or a mystic.  Rather, I have been contemplating my sinfulness and lamenting how much purging I will require to enter into the beatific vision as nothing “unclean can enter it” (Rev. 21:27).  I thank God for the opportunity to be purged however; Saint Paul doesn’t make it sound all that pleasant in 1 Cor. 3:15-17.   My wife and I have also been defending the Catholic Church’s doctrines with a group of Protestants on Facebook, especially on the communion of the saints, and the texts were fresh in my mind. So I think all of this, with the images of Saint Bernadette from a few weeks back, was weighing on me when I laid down last night.

To some degree, it is truly a gift from heaven to allow my sub-conscience, to pull together these images in order to receive a wonderful message. The message is this….  God desires all people, to be in communion, and to be saved. This is pleasing to him (1 Tim. 2:1-4) as he sent his only Son to be the one mediator (vs. 5), the ransom for all, to become the vine that connects the branches, weather on earth or in heaven (St. John ch.15), the communion of Saints (Hebrews 12:1&2).

I have heard it said that when we die we will not care about anything, or anyone, on earth however, this is simply not true.  The truth of the matter is that when we die will not just care… we will care more! Our desires will be those of God and not our own.  Just as the righteous martyrs, In Revelation 6:9-11, cried out for God’s Justice, or the “rich man”, from Luke 16:19-31, who begged Father Abraham to send Lazarus back so that his brothers might know salvation.  In the separation of soul and body, our desires will cease, and God’s desires will be manifest.  This is magnified in the relationship of the Father to the family.

God is the TRUE Father where as I am a horrible example of a Father. He loves perfectly, with charity, mercy, and justice where as I do not.  In recognizing my own sinfulness, my soul can be honest in its assessment, and therefore beg God for Mercy… to ask the “great cloud of witnesses” to also beg God for Mercy on me.  God; in his infinite wisdom, and love, has provided for us the Church triumphant who want nothing more than what God wants…. To seek God’s justice, and beg God for mercy upon the people on earth who are too foolish to ask for it.

St. Bernadette, while on earth, found it all joy to participate in the “one mediator-ship” of Christ by praying for the salvation of others.

As Saint Paul wrote in 1Timothy 2: “2First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings should be made for everyone, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. 3This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, 4who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, 6 who gave himself a ransom for all—this was attested at the right time.”

Now, that she enjoys the most intimate union with God, her bride, our Lord Jesus Christ, she does not desire to intercede less…. She desires it more!  Like God, she desires for the salvation on my soul! Emulating our Mother, Mary, she took my hand, like she took the Christ Child, comforted me with her soft voice, and radiant glow of the peace of God!  My tears streaming down my face, as I clutched on to her and begged her to ask Jesus for mercy! It was as if I felt this was my only chance at obtaining this favor and I did not want to let go!  She was anxious to do just what I asked her for.  To intercede for the Church Militant is the enjoyment of the Church Triumphant.  I awoke from my dream in peace…. Even if it was only a dream I know that Saint Bernadette is interceding for me, and you, right now in Heaven.  What a gift our Father has given to us…. A Family to see us through!

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The intro song was by Ed Bolduc called “Have No Anxiety” off of his album Word for Word. Check out more on Ed here!

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