www.hdrwa.com at Flickr

Do you recognize your own kind?

To reject Mary is to reject heaven.  People think in terms of dogma or doctrine as if it were reality itself.  Now bear with me, if you will.  I have an incredibly high view of dogma and doctrine that surpasses most.  It is a pure explanation of things as they are. But one could hold to proper definitions of any given subject matter without knowing the subject itself.

For instance, a little child could see the Kingdom of God in more clarity as it is than a man trained in biblical hermeneutics.  We know as subjects relating to subjects, as personal knowledge, as person to person.

We are persons in seed form, complete and whole but changing.  In fact we have an expectation that these mortal bodies shall put on immortality, unto a greater glory, a heavenly glory.  We the faithful have been given a deposit of this hope through faith and baptism. We have been sealed with heaven itself, marked by God with the Holy Spirit and this is even a taste of what is to come, like a sample at the grocery store.

Heaven is filled with persons that are further along in this journey; many are waiting for their immortal bodies to be joined with their perfected souls when time gives way to eternity.  One has gone before us, body and soul, exalted as King of King’s and Lord of Lord’s.  In His exaltation of humanity His deity flowed to men as cloven tongues of fire.

But there is another that was not deity itself, but bore deity in her womb.  One who was highly favored, blessed to be the God bearer.  One among us that was full of grace.  This creature was preserved by grace to carry and embody heaven in the tabernacle of her womb, a worthy place for the Holy of Holies to dwell.

And yes, because of her station as Mother of the God-man she has been given different graces and privileges as Mother of the Lord of all things. She, in light of her perfected love and ‘yes’ to the eternal will, was assumed body and soul to heaven, received her eternal reward, and has been given the honor due to Mother of God.  This is dogma, but more than that, it is reality as it is!  Maybe your doctrines have no room for this.  Maybe you think otherwise.  My response would be, who cares what you think, oh little man!

Mary is Mother of the Church, whether you believe it or not, just as Jesus is Lord whether the Atheist believes it or not.  What you think is not reality.  Reality simply is.  And we are not saved by our doctrinal convictions as much as the power and glory of God dwelling in our hearts by faith, hope, and love.

If Mary is the first fruits of God’s family to receive the eternal reward in the Son of God and Son of Mary, and we see her not in her heightened state in which we hope to receive ourselves–if we cannot taste the Kingdom when we contemplate the woman, the new eve–then what are we?  What sort of children of God are we if we cannot even recognize the Arc of the covenant that carried the King of Kings?

If we have the deposit and seal of the Holy Spirit, who over-shadowed this Lady of Ladies, who bore eternal life in her womb, and we shriek at her, attempt to strip her of the dignity that God has given her, by what spirit are we being moved?  Is it the Holy Spirit that became in a great mystery one flesh with her humanity to conceive the Incarnation within her?

If you can’t see her maternal love that God has graced her with as millions upon millions of God’s children behold every day, of what spirit are you?  If she offends you, all her love and beauty causes you offense, of what spirit are you?  If she is the first fruits of the inheritance you claim to love, and you despise her glorification, of what spirit are you?

You claim to hope for heaven, but heaven is radiating out of her like the moon lightens the night sky, and you see unbelief or worse, of what spirit are you?  I am not speaking about dogma or doctrine, but heaven itself in the here and now.

If you cannot see the brightest star after the created order, of what spirit are you, and have you received what your doctrine thinks you have?

To love Mary is to love your own eternal hope, for she is the first fruits of resurrection glory singularly after her Son.  In fact she is the archetype of humanity’s resurrection.  To be blind to her is to be blind to your own resurrection, for she is the first of our kind to ascend to the glory we hope to receive.

She is the first of the children of resurrection; do you know your own Kind?