The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 362: The Woman Clothed with the Sun (2022)

Episode Date: December 28, 2022

Fr. Mike continues to interpret the symbols within Revelation. He compares story of Our Lady of Guadalupe to the woman in Revelation. Fr. Mike provides context to the letter to the Hebrews, a letter that makes the case for Jesus, explaining who he is and the beauty of what he did for us. Today’s readings are Revelation 12-14, Hebrews 1-4, and Proverbs 31:16-18. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to where we are, which is Revelation. We're also discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 362. We're reading from Revelation chapters 12, 13, and 14. We're

also reading our final book of the Bible. Of course, Revelation is the last book, but the last new book we have, which is Hebrews chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4. We're also reading Proverbs chapter 31 verses 19 through 22. Today, as always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in your reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year and store that up for five days from now when you're starting back on day number one. You can also subscribe to this podcast and click on that and receive daily episodes and daily updates. Today is day 362. We are reading Revelation chapters 12, 13, and 14, the letter to the

Hebrews chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4, and Proverbs chapter 31, verses 19 to 22. The Revelation to John, chapter 12, the woman and the dragon. And a great sign appeared in heaven, 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 she cried out in her pangs of birth in anguish for delivery. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a red dragon with seven heads and 10 horns and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child that he might devour her child. When she brought it forth, she brought forth a male child, one who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron,

but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God in which to be nourished for 1,260 days. Michael defeats the dragon. Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought.

But they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, The dragon makes war against the woman's offspring. And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had borne the male child.

But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time and times and a half time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with the flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon was angry with the woman,

and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea. Chapter 13. The Beast from the Sea. And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems upon its horns, and a blasphemous name upon its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth followed the beast with wonder.

Men worshipped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it? And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and tongue and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it. Everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world and the book of life of the lamb that was

slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes. If anyone slays with the sword, with the sword he must be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints. The Beast from the Earth Then I saw another beast, which rose out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, who makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. It works great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of men. And by the signs which it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast, it deceives those who dwell on the earth, bidding them make an image for the beast which was wounded by the

sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast should even speak and to cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. Also, it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom. Let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number. Its number is 666. Chapter 14. The Lamb and the 144,000. Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand, who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads.

And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. And they sing a new song before the throne, and before the four living living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are chaste. It is these who follow the lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the lamb. And in their mouth no lie lie was found for they are spotless. The messages of the three angels. Then I saw another angel flying in mid heaven with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and tongue and people. And he said with a loud voice, fear God and give him glory for the hour of his judgment

has come and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the fountains of water. Another angel, a second, followed, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of her impure passion. And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast and its image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also shall drink the wine of God's wrath poured unmixed into the cup of his anger. And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name. Here is a call for the endurance of the saints,

those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, Write this, Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord. Blessed indeed, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them. Reaping the Earth's Harvest Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat upon the cloud, Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.

So he who sat upon the cloud swung his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. Then another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has power over fire, and he called with a loud voice to him

who had the sharp sickle, put in your sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, The letter to the Lord. and blood flowed from the winepress as high as a horse's bridle for 1,600 stadia. The Letter to the Hebrews Chapter 1 God Has Spoken by His Son In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the ages whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the ages. He reflects the glory of God, and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at

the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has obtained is more excellent than theirs. The Son's Superiority to Angels For to what angel did God ever say, You are my son, today I have begotten you? Or again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, Let all God's angels worship him. Of the angels, he says, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your comrades. And you, Lord, founded the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all grow old like a garment, like a cloak you will roll them up, and they will be changed.

But you are the same, and your years will never end. But to what angel has he ever said, Sit at my right till I make your enemies a stool for your feet? Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation? Chapter 2. Warning to Pay Attention. Therefore, we must pay the closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For if the message declared by angels was valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his own will. Exaltation through suffering. For it was not to angels that God subjected the

world to come of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere. What is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified have all one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will proclaim your name to my brethren. In the midst of your congregation, I will praise you. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, here am I and the children God has given me. Since therefore the children

share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage. For surely it is not with angels that he is concerned, but with the descendants of Abraham. Therefore, he had to be made like his brethren in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make expiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered and been tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted. Chapter 3. Moses, a servant, Christ, a son. Therefore, holy brethren, who share in a heavenly call, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.

He was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in God's house. Yet Jesus has been counted worthy of as much more glory than Moses, as the builder of a house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now, Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later., Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ was faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if we hold fast our confidence and pride in our hope. Warning against unbelief. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, They always go astray in their hearts, they have not known my ways. As I swore in my wrath, they shall never enter my rest. Take care, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we share in Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end, while it is said, today, when you hear his voice, do not

harden your hearts as in the rebellion. Who were they that heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? And with whom was he provoked forty years? Was it not with those who sinned whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they should never enter his rest but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. Chapter 4. The Rest That God Promised Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest remains, let us fear, lest any of you be judged to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message which they heard did not benefit them,

because it did not meet with faith in the hearers. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, As I swore in my wrath, they shall never enter my rest, although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works. And again, in this place, he said, they shall never enter my rest. Since therefore it remains for some to enter it. And those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience. Again, he sets a certain day today saying through David so long afterward in the words already quoted today, when you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua

had given them rest, God would not speak later of another day. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever enters God's rest also ceases from his labors as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, that no one fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Jesus, the Great High Priest. Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,

Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession. For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. The book of Proverbs chapter 31 verses 19 through 22. She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle. She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet.

She makes herself coverings. Her clothing is fine linen and purple. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you so much. Thank you once again for your word. We thank you for this last book that we're reading, the letter to the Hebrews. We ask that you please open our minds, enlighten us so that we can know what we're reading, know what we're hearing. We ask you to please prepare our hearts, prepare our hearts for your judgment, prepare our hearts for love that comes upon the earth. Even if that love is purifying, help us in this way to receive you. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus

Christ, our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So we'll start with the revelation today because, you know, why not? If you remember yesterday, yesterday we concluded with chapter 11 of the book of Revelation. And what did John see? John looked into heaven and he saw the Ark of the Covenant seen within his temple. Remember the Ark hadn't been seen since Jeremiah hid it away hundreds of years before this. And then chapter 12 happens and he just says, and. So this is the same vision. He sees the temple, the Ark of the Covenant, and a great sign appeared in the heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head, a crown of 12 stars. She was with child and she

cried out in her pangs of birth and anguish for delivery. Another sign in heaven, a red dragon. I remember seven heads, 10 horns, seven diamonds upon the heads, signifying power and signifying some wisdom, signifying some influence here. Let's go back to the woman though. There are at least three images of who this woman is. One image is the woman is ancient Israel. It's faithful Israel. And that is legit. Another image is that this is the church, which makes sense too, because here is this image of Satan, again, waging war on the church, on the children of the church, the bride of Christ here. The third image, of course, is Mary is the woman because Mary gave birth to the only

begotten son of God. Now, all of those images are valid. We can see all those and say, yeah, there's a way in which all of them represent. So here's a secular example. It might be helpful, but in the book series, The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien, he has a number of figures of Christ, Christ figures. So one of them is Gandalf, right? He's the wizard. He's a Christ figure in the sense that he has wisdom and power and those kinds of things. And at one point he dies and comes back, comes back transformed from Gandalf the gray to Gandalf the white. He's an image of Christ, the priest. You have Aragorn who is the king and he's, he's going

to take his throne at some point. He's, he's exiled in many ways, but at some point he's going to take his throne. So here's an image of Jesus Christ, the king. You also have Frodo, who's the hobbit, who carries the ring. And in Tolkien's work, he said that he actually, Tolkien said about the Lord of the Rings, he said that it's a religious and it's specifically Catholic work. So Frodo is the ring bearer and ring in Middle-earth and in the whole book series, the ring symbolizes the corruptive power of sin. And so here's the one who's carrying the corruptive power of sin, carrying the ring in order to destroy it. In the process, it costs him something. So here is Frodo, the ring bearer, in terms of like, here's Jesus, the cross bearer. So you can see that in that work of fiction,

there are three images or three ways you can see, oh, this is a Christ figure. This is a Christ figure. This is a Christ figure. In a similar way, you have this book of Revelation chapter 12, this woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head with a crown of 12 stars, who gives birth to this child as, yeah, the faithful remnant of Israel, the early church or the church itself, as well as Mary, the mother of God.

And so all of those are legitimate interpretations of this. Now, one thing to kind of keep in mind, though, if you want to read an incredible story about Our Lady of Guadalupe, there's this story that dates back hundreds of years around what's now known as Mexico City, where people had come to the new world, Christians had come to the new world, in fact, trying to bring the gospel of Jesus. And it was after maybe 50 years or so, made a couple hundred, maybe a couple thousand conversions. And there was some kind of stranglehold that prevented the gospel from really thriving in the new world here in this land, essentially. You know, if you know anything about the ancient world in the Central

America is that it was dominated in a lot of ways by human sacrifice, was dominated by what you might call by this point, you know, demonic oppression and whatnot. And at one point, there's a man named Juan Diego and this young woman appeared to him. She looked Aztec. She looked native, essentially. And she asked him to go to the bishop to ask the bishop to build a cathedral, a church in honor of the Lord. And he went to the bishop. The bishop said, yeah, I need proof. Basically, here's a short story. Juan Diego went back to the woman, the young woman, and she said, okay, well, she pointed out some flowers and it was the middle of December there in Mexico in the mountains. And so flowers shouldn't be growing there. And so there was these flowers that went full bloom,

Castilian flowers, Castilian roses, in fact. And so he took off his tilma, which is like a poncho made out of like dried reeds. So it's really fragile, but, um, probably new is fine. And she arranged these flowers on them, gave it back to him. He wrapped them up or she wrapped them up, gave them back to him. And he presented the bishop, like, here's the proof, the flowers. And he unfolds this tilma and the bishop not only looks at the flowers and says, okay, this is incredible, Castilian roses in the middle of December in Mexico, but also on that tilma was an image of the woman, the image of the young maiden, Our Lady of Guadalupe. And that image has endured to this day. There's no scientific way that it's even possible to have this image

imprinted on this tilma. The tilma itself, normal tilmas only last a couple years, if maybe a dozen years. This has been hundreds of years this has existed. It's remarkable. In the image, the woman, the image of Arlia of Guadalupe, she is what? She's clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on on her head a crown of 12 stars. And this is the point of the story. Now, ultimately, the point is not just that Mary appeared and did a miracle on a poncho, and they built a church in honor of God through what he's done. The point is, immediately after this, I believe there was something like five to nine million conversions to Jesus Christ.

Remember in Genesis chapter three, there was talk about, you know, someone striking the head of the evil one, crushing the head of the serpent. And we see that that happened here in the new world. Our lady appeared with clothes in the sun, moon under her feet, on her head, a crown of 12 stars. And what happened after that was the, uh, the stranglehold that the evil one had on the native people here, whom God died for whom he loves, uh, were set free from that. And they came to know Jesus Christ and gave their lives for him and to him. That's just a incredible story. I think, I think it's incredible. Um, we also have the rest of the Bible here and we have all of these images of the beasts, uh, from the sea, the beast from the earth, as

well as the lamb and the 144,000. One of the things we can keep in mind in all of this is that in the midst of all this persecution, we also have the number 666, remembering that this is both a vision of what happened to the people, the people in the early church in that first century of Christianity, as well as some projection of what will happen at the end of time. So we have, this is the persecution they went under. And this is one of the things that we can take solace in, take comfort in, that our

brothers and sisters have been through this before. That, yes, they have not lived through the final judgment, but they lived through persecution and they've survived that. And God was with them the entire time. When we go through persecution, we will survive it because God will be with us until the very end, all the way through the very end. Now, quick note on letter to the Hebrews, which is, I think this is just unfair that we've set this up so that the two most complicated books of the Bible, I would say Hebrews and the book of Revelation are the last two books. And we have

like a thousand chapters every day, but that's just me whining. We have, cause I can't say as much as I want to say about it. What we have is letter to the Hebrews and we don't know who authored it for years. People thought it was St. Paul who authored it. And maybe it was, but maybe it was someone else, but who he's writing to. It seems really clear, even from the opening pages, that seems really clear that the audience of Letter to the Hebrews were Hebrews, of course, they were Jewish people who knew the Old Testament very well, who had come to know Jesus Christ. In fact, who themselves had experienced a degree of persecution and maybe were even, according to Hebrews chapter 13, maybe were even tempted to turn back to their former

ways of worshiping God. So there's this temptation there in the midst of persecution. There's this desire to say, wait, who is Jesus really? And that's why at the very beginning of these chapters talking about, okay, wait, let's, let's establish this before we go any further. Jesus is superior to the angels. So we know angels are incredibly powerful, incredibly incredible. Uh, Jesus is superior to them. He's make, they're making the case that Jesus is God himself. In fact, chapter one, verse three, it says this, he reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature. And that is in Hebrew, basically, that is saying, oh yeah, he reflects the glory of God. Basically,

he is to the sun as the rays of the sun are to the sun, right? The same thing. It's the same thing. If you look at the rays of the sun and the sun itself, it's the same thing. You also would say the very stamp of his nature. If you have the stamp, like the imprint, the insignia on a ensign ring, right? That stamp is the same as the ring itself, the stamper. And so they're basically saying that here is Jesus who is much higher than the angels. In fact, in chapter three, he says that he is not only higher than the angels, he's higher than Moses who gave us the law, but in Moses, he was a servant, but Christ is a son.

And this is so incredible. I, gosh, there's so many things you wanna be able to say about this because you not only have him higher than the angels, and at the same time, he was lifted up, purified, made perfect by what he suffered. I wanna just highlight this one. Now, not that Jesus neededified, made perfect by what he suffered. I want to just highlight this one. Now, not that Jesus needed to be made perfect in that sense that you and I need to be purified,

like our hearts need to be purified. That's not the same kind of thing. But here he is going through this privation, going through suffering for the sake of those who made his brethren. And this is just incredible. So let's go back to chapter 2, verse 9. We see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering and death, so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. This is what Jesus has done for you and for me, that he has tasted death so you and I can taste life. For it was fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist and bringing many sons to glory should make the pioneer of their salvation, that's Jesus, perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified have all one origin. That is why

he is not ashamed to call them brethren. He's not ashamed to call them brothers. And this is so important. He calls you his brother. He calls you his sister. God loves you and he's made you his own through the death of his son, Jesus Christ. This is super long. I know it is. I'm so sorry, but I want that to sink in. He's not ashamed to call you his own. He's not ashamed to call you his brother. He is not ashamed to call you his sister. And he's not ashamed when you call him your brother and your Lord. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.