The
Woman Clothed with the Sun (Revelation 12:1-6)
The Faces of Mary in Sacred Scripture
Revelation
(the Apocalypse) is a book about
struggle, streaked with the blood of history, but also a product of contemplation
wrapped in a halo of light, from which emerges the happy ending of the story,
when every tear shall be dried and death conquered forever. (21:14) This text
belongs to the "apocalyptic" genre, rich in mysterious, grandiose,
and frightening signs and symbols.
Nonetheless, the author of the text defines it as a "prophecy"
(1:3; 22:7 and 19), which, in Biblical language is, above all, an
interpretation of present signs and the call to fidelity in the present
moment. The intention of the author of
the text is, therefore, that of helping us live with hope and to be optimistic
while not ignoring suffering, in the certainty that the Evil One has no power
over us and that the universe is in the hands of God the Father who takes care
of His creatures without ever tiring.
In
Chapter 12, certainly one of the most well-known pages of Revelation, appears a
mysterious figure - the Woman clothed in white, about to give birth before the
Dragon who is waiting to devour the Baby.
The tradition of the Church has alternately seen in this woman the
concrete person of Mary and the personification of the People of God (Israel and
His Church). The birth of the Messiah,
in fact, happened and is continually made present in every believer, just as it
was in Mary, by means of the Incarnation of the Word and the action of the Holy
Spirit. This mysterious woman, therefore,
is, before all else, the woman par
excellence, the Mother, the Spouse, and the Queen. In her, we contemplate, as in Judith, Esther,
and the spouse in the Canticle of Canticles both the beauty of Mary and the
greatness of her whom every woman is called to be, in the measure in which she
becomes God’s collaborator for the salvation of the world. Each one of us is called to be this woman in
the Church today.
In
the Messianic Birth described on this page, we do not find ourselves in front
of the Birth at Bethlehem but, rather, at the one on Easter morning. The pains of childbirth correspond to those
of Calvary where all Creation was renewed in the "birth" on the Cross,
in which both Jesus and Mary were involved, each in the way proper to Him or to
Her. The Son of the Woman, indeed is not
only the Christ. In that Baby are represented
all those who, reborn in Baptism, became sons and daughters of God, of the Church,
and of Mary. The flight of the Woman
into the desert is one type of this new Exodus.
The desert, in fact, is a place of intimacy and divine protection. After the Pasch of the Lord, the time of the
Church and the time of persecutions began, in which, however, the bread of life
– of the Word and of the Eucharist – will never be lacking.
Praying with the
Word (II Sam 6:1-2 and 9-15)
1. I
become aware of God's presence. I
imagine that I am in the scene before the Woman and the Dragon and I ask the
Father for the grace to mirror myself in her.
2. I
invoke the help of the Holy Spirit by slowly repeating this (or another)
prayer:
“Holy
Spirit, life of my life, come to inundate me with your light divine! Teach me to recognize in my daily life the
signs of the times: make your Word become flesh in me, just as in Mary! Make me a collaborator in the Church,
generating sons and daughters for God. Amen.”
3. I
read Revelation 12:1-6 slowly and reflect a while on these three points:
-
The
sun and the moon (v. 1): The light of
the sun is God's truth, while the moon represents the ambiguity of the creature,
always tempted by egoism and closing in on himself. I place myself under God's gaze, which
illumines the truth of my being and helps me stamp out the ambiguity within me.
-
The
pains of childbirth and the Dragon (vss.
2-4): The woman screams in pain but does not complain for she knows she is to
give birth to a son of God! For this
reason, the Dragon is angry! At this moment
in my life, what can I offer to the Father, so that he might unite it to Jesus’
sacrifice, in the logic of the da mihi
animas; caetera tolle?
-
The
baby and the desert (vss. 5-6) The Baby and
the Woman are carried promptly to safety.
I contemplate God's care in my life story and His interventions of
salvation, so I may grow in the certitude that He will do anything – whatever
He must – lest anyone be lost!
4. I
finish this prayer with a heart-to-heart conversation with Mary: I entrust to
her what provokes anxiety or fear in my work and I ask for the grace to be able
to share in her courage and her maternal fecundity.
5. Our
Father
After having concluded this prayer, I sit still and
reflect a little: What has the Holy Spirit said to me through this prayer? Has He encouraged me? Has He invited me to conversion? How do I think I may correspond to the gift
received in this prayer?
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