This article is part of the Marian Mondays Series, a weekly reflection on the mysteries of the rosary by Jonathan Conrad, owner and founder of The Catholic Woodworker.
In Revelation 12, we’re given this remarkable image:
“A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.”
In Catholic tradition, this woman has long been interpreted as Mary, crowned as Queen of Heaven. At the same time, she also represents the Church as a whole as it labors to bring Christ into the world.
After that, the chapter goes on to describe a conflict between the woman and her enemy, the dragon:
“Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadems. Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and hurled them down to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth. She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and his throne. The woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God, that there she might be taken care of for twelve hundred and sixty days.”
Like the woman here, God calls us each to our own mission, our own way of bringing Christ to others. At the same time, it’s all but guaranteed that we’ll be attacked by the devil for witnessing to Jesus in our calling, just like Mary and just like the Church.
This reality can and does feel like a weight at times, but in some ways it’s a consolation too. If we’re doing our best to follow Christ and find ourselves in the middle of spiritual battle, then we’re probably doing something right because the enemy will try to stop us from striving for holiness.
When we’re in the thick of this fight, we can look to Mary for help and use her victory and crowning as encouragement. Because if she can defeat the devil in her humility, then, as our spiritual mother, we can be confident that she’ll help us do the same.
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