The Immaculate Conception and the New Eve (Part 3 of 5)

Watch Part 4 Here:    • The Immaculate Conception and the New...  

Every year Catholics celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on December 8th. And every year the readings selected for the Mass on this day revolve around Mary, her identity, and the role she plays in salvation history.

In this video, which is part 3 of 5, from the readings for the Mass for the Solemnity of Immaculate Conception, Dr. Pitre covers the 1st reading for the day, which comes from Genesis and the fall, in which there is a cryptic oracle by God about the battle that will take place of some future woman and the devil and the seed of the woman and the seed of the devil. This oracle was called the protoevangelium -- or "First Gospel" -- by the early Church.

Additionally, Dr. Pitre will cover the 2nd reading where St. Paul speaks of the "Immaculate" church in the Book of the Ephesians.


Notable quote from this video for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception:

"In the ancient Christian tradition they saw this prophecy as a prophecy of the mother of Christ, of the mother of the Messiah, and of the Messiah's battle with the devil. So according to this reading the woman in question is the mother of Jesus, Mary, right, who is being depicted as a kind of new Eve, and unlike the first Eve
who succumbed to the devil's temptation, this future woman, this future Eve, is going to be in a battle with the serpent, in a battle with the devil.

Her offspring, the Messiah, Christ, will also be in a battle with the offspring of the devil and he's going to conquer the devil and his offspring by striking the head of the serpent, right. But at the same time the serpent will strike his heel. Now I grew up in South Louisiana, lots of snakes, killed lots of snakes in my lifetime, in my childhood. The one thing you know if you grow up where there are snakes is that if you want to kill a snake you go for the head, you crush the head, right. You try to either chop the head off or crush its head, that's how you’ll kill it. However, you also know that if you try to crush its head with your foot you’re putting yourself in danger of getting bitten, right, and you yourself might get killed, right, through the poison of the snake.

So in this case, what’s mysterious about this oracle is that both sides of the battle appear to lose, right. The serpent's head is crushed so he dies, but the heel of the woman's son is struck and so, if it's a poisonous serpent, he too would be presumed to die. So it’s this mysterious battle in which the serpent will be conquered but the woman’s seed will also die, will also be struck by the serpent."
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This 5 part series is taken from The Mass Readings Explained, which can be learned about here: https://catholicproductions.com/pages...

Find other bible studies by Dr. Pitre at https://catholicproductions.com/colle...

Visit Dr. Pitre's website at www.BrantPitre.com

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