 Thank you all. What a joy this this evening together our last night We're going to have a presentation But we're also going to have adoration and that's the main event and I'm kind of excited about just preparing the way but before I do I want to remind you that 24 hours from now You're going to be ending your pilgrimage and Really beginning another one heading home and This journey like the Magi who came to Bethlehem and went by a different way They thought their journey was over and it just begun. You thought your pilgrimage was here, but it's the rest of your life It's your own family. It's your world. I Want to remind you of that because tomorrow morning there are going to be resources available And I have a confession to make I have Several weaknesses, but one of them in particular is books If you come to our house and you see the library of over 50,000 that will be exhibit a Proof of my weakness. It's all catalog. We've got three desks students use them all the time But tomorrow morning the bookstore is going to be open from 7 30 to 9 and From 12 to 1 so what all the books are going to be Discounted 15% That's where my weakness gets really weak and a lot of the books by conference speakers are going to be available for 25% off Just saying okay, so you might want to plan your morning accordingly. I also wanted to mention too That Chris land is going to be available at the St. Paul's Center booth right next to the bookstore Almost 20 years ago Kimberl and I founded the St. Paul Center and then father Michael Scanlon our president had us officially Affiliated with the university so we could be on campus and work with the students as well as my colleagues Chris is going to showcase something that I want you to know about. It's called verbum It's based upon Lagos the most powerful Oh the most powerful software for Bible study you will ever see This is the Catholic version verbum all of the fathers all of the councils the Catechism and all of the references there the Lectionary the Old Testament and the new the Greek and the Hebrew the basic so that anybody can really get started to read The Bible so if you have any questions about this program or you're interested in it I wanted to mention that it's right next to the bookstore. You can't miss it It'll be during those hours as well I also wanted to answer a question that came up during the book signing about 10 times and that is what about the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible the New Testament's been out for nine years. What about the old next week? It's over. We're sending off the Old Testament in its completion to Ignatius Press after 21 long years I am so grateful so excited and so relieved It probably won't be out until well the end of 2020 maybe early 2021 But we never knew for sure if we would ever get it done But thanks to the St. Paul Center and one of our trustees Curtis Mitch with whom I've been working now for more than 20 years It is over and so pray that the editorial process can get that out I also wanted to mention that the whole story behind the Ignatius Study Bible is available in the next issue of Our newsletter breaking the bread and that'll be available too if you want to get a free copy every month You can just go down to that St. Paul Center booth and sign up And we will be happy to send it to you and keep you aware of all of the events because we do so many things here on campus With the university in the summer, but especially during the school year I also wanted to mention this because we're coming out in just a few weeks with a major series In fact, if you could cue the video, I'd like to introduce you to scripture and the Eucharist and so a little foretaste of this series When it looks like defeat for our Lord who's hanging on the cross in fact This is the victory because the cross represents the supreme expression of divine mercy and love The mystery of the Last Supper will be unveiled at the cross because there we will see the fourth cup the fulfillment of the kingdom The Eucharist the Last Supper and Calvary illuminate each other. They explain one another The one bread is the Eucharist to Christ because there is one bread. We are many are one The Lord of Lords the King of Kings the Alpha and the Omega the heavenly high priest the Lamb of God by suffering out of love and Obedience Christ gave more to God the Father than what was required to compensate for all the sins of the human race It is time for us as Catholics to lay hold of this by becoming faithful followers of our Lord Jesus Christ Okay So what is that all about? Well 20 years ago I wrote a book called the Lamb Supper and that was just the beginning then came consuming the word And then just last year the fourth cup this trilogy of books was sort of the foundation and the framework For my own conversion and discovering Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist That is the purpose of the cross But in the last year or so we took all three of those books and the talks that go with them and Professionally recorded those and made those available for parish based Bible study as well as for individual group studies So I just wanted to let you know that in a matter of days That is going to be released and again the news for that is going to be available in breaking the bread But this idea of the cross and God's purpose for it is really the subject matter of my presentation this evening Yesterday I filled in for Mark Hart and I was so grateful for the opportunity to do that because I got to speak on the first family my most recent book and the first family I traced all the way back to creation Where Adam and Eve were made of the image and likeness of God and where the two became one and in the process became three and one But then we traced it into eternity to discover that the first family really is the Holy Trinity the father son and Holy Spirit And that divine family is holy as a communion of persons from all eternity More than our Creator more than our lawgiver more than our judge God is a family But there wasn't a holy family on earth throughout the entire Old Testament And that's why I wanted to focus upon St. Joseph and the holy family in Nazareth to show that it really was not just the holy family But the first and only one but it's a kind of earthly trinity as St. Francis the sales put it And he's my patron saint. It's the model for the family And yet we recognize that none of our homes are ever going to measure up to that holiness and Yet that holy family is going to see us all the way home So what I'd like to do with you just this evening to begin to get started is to look at the cross in John 19 to see the other half of the holy family that Jesus gives us Not just a father a virginal father in St. Joseph But his own mother to become ours in the Blessed Virgin in John 19 beginning in verse 25 we read standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and His mother's sister Mary The wife of clopus and Mary Magdalene So the three Marys are there at the foot of the cross When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved Standing near the only one of the twelve who was there at the foot of the cross Jesus said to his mother woman behold your son and Then he said to the disciple behold your mother and From that hour his disciple Took her to his own home That expression to his own home is a Greek phrase. It's kind of hard to translate ta idea It's to his own home to his own heart to everything that is his It became hers and all of her became his you might say here we have the first Mary in consecration But I think that St. Joseph might say wait a minute Before the beloved disciple I was consecrated to the Blessed Virgin Mary also So what we have here is more than just pious imagery. It's more than religious rhetoric It is a reality that seems so far away and distant and yet this is the purpose of the cross It isn't just to redeem us from sin and damnation an eternal hellfire as Wonderful as all of that would be but it's not what we're redeemed from so much as what we were redeemed for We're redeemed for forgiveness, but even more we're redeemed for adoption for rebirth For a homecoming where we discover that it's almost too good to be true, but it's the truth of the gospel That God is our father That his eternal son is the first born among many brothers and sisters That the Holy Spirit who overshadows the Blessed Virgin Mary to form a kind of created icon our replica She becomes our mother as well Enveloping us in something that is just almost Unbelievable But we are called to believe the unbelievable because she was empowered to contain the uncontainable And this is the word of the cross This is the wisdom and the power of God It's not something that philosophers can explain. It's not something that scientists can duplicate demonstrate or replicate But it is the heart and soul and it's the one and only thing for which every one of us was made And so in this evening as we prepare our minds and hearts to enter into the adoration of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist I want us to look at the Blessed Virgin And find a new way to invite her into our home Our ta'idea our heart our lives She will get us to Christ Much faster than we can get get to him on our own So as we reflect upon this I want to take a step back And admit two things first of all it's been almost 20 years That I have spoken on the Blessed Virgin Mary here at defending the faith mea culpa But at the same time I want to also affirm The fact that as I looked over the schedule and I realized there is no other talk on our lady I just have to make this one and so I also want to acknowledge this that of all of the doctrines and devotions in the catholic church This was the biggest and the hardest one of all by far And not just for me, but for kimberley and for most other converts who come from an evangelical Protestant background Because I came from seminary I got graduation then ordination And I began to preach and I began to find in the bible with the help of the church fathers How the new testament is concealed in the old and the old is revealed and fulfilled in the new as st Augustine loved to put it and all of a sudden The Eucharist became more than bread and grape juice. It became more than symbolism It became the fulfillment of the covenant where the old is transformed into the new The only time Jesus even uses the expression the new covenant And he refers to the blood of the new covenant. He is himself the new covenant And so I was often running And I must admit The deeper I went into the bible the more things came up catholic and not just after ordination As the pastor at trinity presbyterian church in fairfax virginia, but even before graduation Two or three months before graduation I began to read the sunday sermons of the early church fathers And I began to share them with my friends including my older brother-in-law my my sister's husband bill Who is graduating with me? I was a presbyterian. He was a baptist, but together We grew more and more excited about what we were finding in the early church fathers those last few months before graduation Little did I know that in less than two years Would come my resignation and then a search for the church that would match what I found in the sacred scripture But as I just indicated the blessed virgin mary Mary mary seemed quite contrary to everything that I had been taught for years And so it was the eucharist all baptism the other sacraments as well I even came to realize that purgatory is rooted in first Corinthians three And other texts in the early church fathers saw that as well And it made sense in terms of the logic of love That we would have to have all the selfishness burned off before we could enter into the presence of god's love But the blessed virgin didn't really just fit very well And I think back to high school when I would ask my catholic friends where in the the bible do you find the immaculate conception? blank stares How about the bodily assumption crickets chirping? And what about her heavenly queenship? Oh, sorry Did you mean to leave suddenly? I mean, I just couldn't find any answers from my catholic friends And so this is what I went in search of and I found the answers in the bible with the help of the fathers So that at the easter vigil in 1986 I was receiving at the church, but even before that I'd begun to pray the rosary I'd begun to recognize the gift of jesus there at the foot of the cross Not just to one beloved disciple. He doesn't say john take care of my mother He says to the disciple whom he loved is john the only disciple whom he loves. No, we all are So john is a symbol a representative of every disciple who becomes a younger sibling of jesus Because any man who's going to give you his own mother is not going to withhold anything else And so I began to realize first and foremost Mary is the model disciple How do we know that? We'll just look in the scriptures and you'll hear her say fiat me he secundum verbum to him be it done in the me According to thy word But she's not just the model disciple. She is the mother of god And not just because the council of Ephesus defied it in 431 Theotokos, but because elizabeth declares it in luke 135 Who am I that the mother of my lord should come to me? And Mary doesn't correct her and say oh no, I'm just the mother of his human body I'm just bearing his human nature women know better than that Mothers don't bear natures. They bear persons And this little child happened to be the second person of the holy trinity So saint elizabeth got it exactly right and then The council of Ephesus does as well model disciple The mother of god and the masterpiece of christ our artist of redemption All of us are works in progress Christ is working in my life like he's working in yours But we cannot see the perfection of his saving work in me and I suspect in you either But we can and the blessed virgin Where is the proof that god is actually willing to give us all of his grace all of his mercy all of his power all of his life She is exhibit a She is the masterpiece And so if you go to an art gallery and the artist is there He will not feel slighted or insulted if instead of staring at him you spend more time staring at his greatest masterpiece And so when we look upon the blessed virgin we see the proof the living proof That god is not glorified by our groveling God is glorified by our opening our hearts up to his grace And the fact is he is ready willing able and powerful enough to give all of his grace And that's why she is kakaira tomane full of grace As the church teaches she has a fullness of grace that exceeds all of the angels and the saints And she is the channel the instrument whereby all of the angels and saints get grace because She is the queen mother of the angels as well as ours That's a tall order. How do you go about demonstrating that in sacred scripture? Well with the help of the early church fathers. I basically found it But at the same time I discovered that in becoming a catholic I really Created problems intentions in my own family not just with kimberley. She had issues but I had answers But with my mother and my sister and her husband bill now a baptist minister This was difficult. So when I got a call from my mother telling me I've got to mend some broken fences I knew what she was talking about I hadn't talked to my sister since I had entered the church and her husband thought I had lost my faith As a a lot of good baptists would think and so in a kind of Respectful way we scheduled a vacation And so I went out there with kimberley and our kids to meet with barb and bill and their kids But before we arrived kimberley had extracted a promise from me Not to debate bill She knew us and she knew how much we enjoyed studying the bible but also Debating certain issues. So I said I won't Unless he starts it So when we got there It's dinner And we finished dinner Bill's looking at me I'm looking at him like two prize fighters eyeing each other from our respective corners And then he got up and he said I'm going to take the garbage out and there were two bags And he said I want to take one scott. Can you grab the other one? I'm thinking you got two arms And then that wink I knew what he was up to and so I grabbed the other bag and followed him out to the garage And we stuffed him in the cans and we were going to go back to the kitchen But he said let's go the long way through the basement Which I suspected it was deliberate because we walked right past his office and he gave me the sign And so I walked into his office. He closed the door And he said what have you done? What do you mean? What have I done? You know what I mean? You become a catholic Like oh, yeah. Well, that's what I've done And he's like why and I'm like because of the bible Because reading the old and the new with the help of the fathers the way we were doing it those last two or three months before we graduated And he's like, okay, okay But now you're worshiping mary, aren't you? I'm like, well, no, I can't The catholic church condemned that heresy of coloridism back in the fourth century But I am imitating mary by wanting to love jesus as much as she does And I want to imitate jesus by honoring her as much as he does And he's like that's clever and I thought so too. I mean I I'd rehearse that line And he said but I mean where do you find the biblical basis for the doctrines? And I'm like, I know which ones you're thinking of the three great big mountains the immaculate conception The bodily assumption and he completed my sentence and her heavenly queenship. I'm like exactly So where do you find it? And I said, well go back a couple of years because when we were reading the bible together every week in that bible study When we were reading the early church fathers also What were the three mountain peaks in salvation history back in the old testament? And it was like he was primed he said creation when the world came into existence The exodus when israel came into existence and its freedom And then the kingdom of david when israel was exalted by god over all of the other nations And I said you got it exactly right And what did we see in the early church fathers those three events pointing to jesus in what terms he said The new adam The new creation The new moses the new exodus and the new Passover and he said the new solomon the son of david The son of god the king of israel And i'm like exactly I said but when you go back and you look more closely You will find what I found in the early church fathers That in creation the exodus and in the establishment of the israelite kingdom with david You have not only the foreshadowing of jesus as the new adam as the new moses as the new solomon You also have the blessed virgin mary He's like what are you talking about? I'm talking about the immaculate conception the assumption of mary I'm talking about her heavenly queenship He's like i'm not following you at all I said well go back to genesis one and two and that's where you find creation That's where you find adam and eve and that's where you see how adam is tested in the garden But he failed the test by going to the wrong tree And so jesus as the new adam is described in the new testament as being tested where in the garden the Gethsemane And then where does he go? He goes to the tree the cross What the early church fathers called the tree of life And I said but it wasn't alone. It wasn't just a solo act. It was mary and jesus just like it was adam and eve and he said show me where I said genesis one and two Read in the light of john one and two because in genesis one and two What do you see in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth and he said let there be light Let there be this let there be that day after day until the sixth day when he makes man male And female just in time for the seventh day the Sabbath when the two become one There is a wedding the marital covenant in genesis two is the climax of creation in the old testament But how does john one and two begin the same way genesis one one in the beginning Was the word and the word was with god and the word was god and everything that was made was made through the word And he is the true light that enlightens every man And the the darkness is not overcome it. So john is deliberately riffing echoing genesis one Not just in the opening verses of john one But throughout the rest of john one in the chapter two like in genesis one and two He's like, what are you talking about? I said look at john one verse 29 35 and 43 And we look together in john 129 the next day in john 135 the next day in john 143 the next day So in the beginning and then there's a series of days just like in genesis one leading to the seventh day Leading to the wedding at The wedding of adam and eve. I said in john one and two You have the next day the next day the next day leading us to the fourth day And then the first verse of john two is on the third day. There was a wedding at cana and galley Four days plus three days add up to what? seven days So john is deliberately reflecting upon Genesis one and two to show us how there's a new creation Brought about by a new adam and on the seventh day Where does he go to a wedding feast and who's getting married? We don't know the names of the bride the groom the best man Or anybody else because the only two characters who are identified bill are jesus and mary Only he doesn't color mary. He doesn't color mom. What does he call her? Woman gunai the same term in genesis two that adam used to address eve and the septuagint And so you see What the early church fathers showed me that adam and eve were created apart from original sin We also know that jesus as the new adam is created apart from original sin And so how fitting it would be for a new covenant to usher in a new creation for a new adam to create His own mother and to preserve her from original sin. And so it isn't an argument from necessity It's an argument from fittingness Because it wasn't necessary for god to create the world in the first place He doesn't get anything out of making the world that he was lacking beforehand He doesn't make the world to fulfill some need He makes the world to fill us up And so everything that god does in creating the world and in redeeming it is not necessary, but it is fitting What he does reflects who he is And so you can see how in the old creation the first adam and eve and in the new creation the new adam and eve Are created by god and preserved from original sin But the first couple fails and the second couple Succeeds by the grace and the power of the holy spirit He's like that's clever too I'm like I didn't make it up. I found in the early church fathers I found it in sacred scripture when you read how the new is concealed in the old and how the Old is revealed and fulfilled in the new you can see that john one and two is deliberately showing How all of this was foreshadowed in genesis one and two And that's where we go to see the basis and the source for the immaculate conception He said one down two to go What about the assumption of mary and i'm like thought you'd never ask, you know What's the second mountain peak event the exodus and what happens there? God brings israel into Existence and independence from slavery to egypt He brings them out through the instrumentality of moses And he brings them to sinai to renew a covenant Which bill knew is not the same as a social contract Because the covenant that god renewed with israel through moses makes them a nation, but it made them a national family And they have the genealogies to prove it the 12 tribes of one nation israel are also One family that god is fathering Through moses and the miracles that he performed bringing them out to sinai getting the law But i said ultimately it wasn't The two tablets of the law that represented god's covenant it was the ark of the covenant That was stored there in the holy of holies after moses and bezalil and a holy ab constructed the tabernacle With the outer court the holy place the holy of holies Was the sanctuary and why because The ark of the covenant was there Representing the proof of god's real presence in the midst of his people And so the climax of the exodus The climax of the book of exodus is the last chapter in exodus 40 bill in verse 34 You see how the Holy spirit the glory of god overshadowed the ark of the covenant And why because it contained the word of god Written on tablets of stone, but it also contained the hidden manna It also contained the priest's rod of erin as well The proof of god's presence in the midst of this family that makes up a nation now And I said when you follow israel under the leadership of moses for the next 40 years as they journey through the wilderness What is always out in front the levites carrying the ark of the covenant? And when moses dies and passes the torch on to joshua you turn to the book of joshua and in the opening chapters joshua has the levites carry the ark of the covenant down to the bank of the jordan And the water of the door jordan does for joshua what the red sea did for moses So that israel crosses the river on dry ground And then the next thing we read about is god giving moses The battle plans for the conquest of the promised land because the first city To besiege is jericho Which is really a poor military strategy from a human standpoint Because israel had no military experience you ought to start with the small talent villages Work up to the middle-sized cities until you tackle a big stronghold like jericho But the lords of the moses no jericho will fall first and how Because you'll have airplane strikes then the artillery before the infantry mops up. No It was a much stranger military strategy a battle plan that came from heaven And so in joshua 6 you read how the lord commanded joshua to lead israel into this strange battle plan By having the levites carry the ark of the covenant Out in front of the 12 tribes so that the first day of the week you have a liturgical procession around the city of jericho The second day one more the third the fourth the fifth the sixth One liturgical procession a circuit around the city of jericho Meanwhile the defenders are on the walls Looking down at these poor israelites who have obviously been out in the desert sun for 40 years too long What are they thinking and the walls of jericho were so thick that two chariots could ride side by side And they had layers of walls And so what did the lord command joshua and the levites to do to take the shofar the seven trumpets on the seventh day After seven circuits around the city They're to blow the trumpets to the lord and have all the people shout Thanksgiving to god Thanksgiving for what just thank him and you'll see They blew the trumpets on the seventh day and after the seventh trumpets were blown after the seven liturgical circuits the people shouted And to this day bill archaeologists and seismologists can't figure out what happened to those big thick walls Because jericho fell like overripe fruit into the hands of joshua and all of israel As he taught the people if the battle is the lords then the weaponry isn't physical It's spiritual trust the lord his presence in the midst of his people And the people took credit in their own pride They basically boasted that they had won the victory And so the next thing they do is they go off to the city of ai where they're cut to ribbons And why because they forsook the lord the ark wasn't there And i said bill you remember the conquest it could have been done in one generations But it took several generations because the israelites kept losing faith with the lord They kept taking credit for these battles. They kept getting enslaved to their enemies until finally after almost four centuries Along comes a man named david a man after god's own heart And he is the one who at long last completed the conquest and how did he do it by finding the ark of the covenant Which had been lost and forgotten So he finds it in the judaean hill country And when he finds that he's dancing for joy And when he finds that he sings and he prays and when he finds that he brings it up Into jerusalem to complete the conquest of this holy city And in the process you can see how the exodus is complete And through what instrumentality it's not just moses or joshua or even david It's the lord whose real presence is marked by the ark of the covenant And i said just as you see genesis one and two creation Mirrored or imaged in john one and two So you can see how the ark of the covenant and the ark narrative in the old testament is mirrored in luke one and two He's like what are you talking about? And i said look at luke's visitation narrative and you'll see what luke is up to it's very similar to john Only it's not creation. It is the new exodus the new moses But the language that luke employs in the first chapter is deliberately Evocative of the ark of the covenant narrative in exodus and following for example in luke 135 The holy spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will Overshadow you and i pointed out that the greek verb there epi schiazane is scarcely used But where you find it employed is back in exodus 40 In verse 34 through 36 were the power of the most high over shadows Guess what the ark of the covenant and what made that wooden box of acacia wood So valuable it wasn't the goal that overlaid it It was the word of god within it It was the bread of life. It was the manna itself that sustained israel's life for those 40 years And i said not only do you find that rare verb epi schiazane But you see about a dozen different parallels in luke's narrative So in luke 1 verse 39 mary arose and went where to the judaean hill country To the exact same geographical region where david went to find the ark of the covenant in second samuel 6 verse 2 In luke 142 elizabeth exclaims And the verb that is used for the exclamation is a technical term used for the levites shouting to the lord in the presence of the ark And who is elizabeth's husband? Zechariah the levite And so you see in luke 143 that upon it mary's arrival elizabeth is filled with such a sense of awe she says Why is this granted to me That the mother of my lord should come to me You go back to second samuel 6 verse 9 and when david found the ark He said who am i that the ark of the lord should come to me Look at the grammatical construction of the two sentences and you can see the convergences They're profound, but they're also deliberate luke is highlighting this But then also in luke 144 You see that the joyful response of elizabeth is sort of matched by david who's leaping for joy And then what does luke describe john the baptist is leaping for joy in his mother's womb Again the exact same description that you find in second samuel 6 In luke 145 the next verse goes on to describe how elizabeth pronounces a blessing upon mary Just as david pronounces a blessing upon the ark of the covenant the proof of the lord Completed the conquest in luke 146 mary responds to god's grace with the magnificat Just as david responds to finding the ark with his beautiful song of thanksgiving and i said to top it off How long does mary stay this there with elizabeth her kinswoman for three months How long did the ark of the covenant remain in that judaean hill country for exactly Three months. What a coincidence Not hardly the ark of the old covenant made of acacia wood for durability covered with gold to symbolize divinity Is a sign of mary's immaculate humanity Over shadowed by the divinity. She doesn't contain the word of god in stone She contains the word of god made flesh. She doesn't contain the manna She contains the one who is the very bread of life This makes her not like the ark but more of an ark than that box ever was in the old testament And this is why luke 1 and 2 are recognized by the early church fathers as a kind of proof That just as david carried the ark of the covenant up to the capital city the royal Jerusalem So likewise jesus carries the ark of his covenant up to the heavenly jerusalem in revelation 11 and 12 So you have the immaculate conception and you have the assumption of mary as the ark of the covenant to complete The new exodus and to inaugurate the kingdom And he's staring at me like This is almost beginning to make sense And he said okay two down one to go What about her heavenly queenship? Where do you get that? And i said well as soon as the conquest is complete as soon as the ark of the covenant is carried up into the royal capital of the earthly jerusalem You can see how david Arranges for the son of david to be crowned as the king of israel in first kings chapter two where everybody Is bowing and prostrating themselves before solemn on the day that he is crowned He's anointed by the high priest and he's also in throne But in first kings two versus 15 through 18, he's enthroned and everybody's bowing But in verse 19 Who should walk into the royal court? But his own mother and what does he do on his own coronation day? He arose from his throne and in the presence of all He bows and prostrates himself before his mother to honor her in the presence of all and when he arose He issues a royal decree bring me a seat a throne of honor Because on the day that he was enthroned as the son of david She was enthroned as the queen mother of the son of david and not just for that day But from that point on I never noticed that I said I hadn't either until the early church fathers just connected the dots But I said the queen mother becomes a permanent fixture in the kingdom of david Which foreshadows the kingdom of god that jesus comes to proclaim and inaugurate because he is the son of david He is the king of israel And just as you find in john 1 and 2 a new adam and even a new creation in luke 1 and 2 a new moses And the ark of the new covenant in matthew 1 and 2 you find what the early church fathers discovered And that is jesus is the son of david and mary is the queen mother In matthew chapter 1 verse 1 the book of the genealogy of jesus christ the son of david And then you have all of those unpronounceable names from in the hebru But you have three sets of 14 from abraham to david three more sets of 14 You have another set of 14 from david to the exile and then the third set of 14 generations From the exile to joseph and mary And I said why does matthew arrange it in terms of three cycles of 14 generations? Because he's writing to jews jewish christians who know hebru and in hebru there are no numbers There are only letters that are assigned numerical value like in latin with roman numerals And david's name consists of three consonants and when you look at dalith while dalith you will see the number 14 So three sets of 14 generations three letters to david's name 14 generations for each of the three cycles This is matthew kind of giving a nod and a wink to his jewish christian readers to show That jesus is the son of david coming to restore the kingdom of david And then in matthew one this all fulfills the prophecy of isaia 7 14 That is what a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and he shall be called immanuel god with us I said bill you go back to isaia 7 and you'll see that the person that isaia is talking about in his oracle Is the queen mother because as I said she's a permanent fixture in the kingdom of david Every time a new king is identified his queen mother is identified Why not the wife of solomon? Well, that would have been a little tricky because he had 700 wives and 300 concubines But he had only one mother if it was a wife the most you could hope for a bino like queen for a day Like that old tv show that we saw when we were kids, you know But he has only one mother. She's the wife of his father. She oversaw the smooth succession She sits at his right hand as a royal counselor And every time you see a new king you see the queen mother And in fact jeremiah and the other prophets give oracles thus say the lord Say to the king and the queen mother And I pointed out how the only chapter of the hebrew bible that is really originating from a woman is proverbs 31 And who is that the queen mother of king lemuel? And so when the davidic kingdom was conquered and the city of jerusalem was destroyed in 587 It created the greatest crisis of faith in israelite history What has happened to the davidic line? What has happened to the davidic covenant? What has happened to the davidic kingdom? And matthew is showing us That god has maintained that covenant line the dynasty through joseph and mary the queen mother And so what you find there is essentially the jesus the son of david Mary is the virginal queen mother of the son of david and the fulfillment of isaias oracle And I said you find all three of these creation exodus and the kingdom Braided together triangulated if you will in revelation 11 and 12 So we opened the bible and we turned to revelation 11. I pointed out verse 19 How in john's vision you have seven trumpets that are blown and then a city that falls Only it's not the old jericho It's the old jerusalem the earthly capital that was a prototype that now is giving way to the heavenly jerusalem Where the son of david the son of god is enthroned in the heavenly jerusalem And so john looks to see What happens when the seventh trumpet is blown? And the kingdom of christ is revealed Suddenly god's temple in heaven was opened and the ark of his covenant was seen inside his temple And I said the significance of that might be lost to us But it wasn't lost to first century jewish christian readers Because they knew what had happened to the ark Shortly before the babelonians came in 587 Destroyed jerusalem demolished the temple and desecrated the sanctuary Before they could desecrate the ark of the covenant the spirit of the lord provoked jeromeya the prophet To send men and they went into the holy of holies one night They pulled out the ark of the covenant and in second maccabees 2 verses 4 through 8 You can see what jeromeya did he took the ark of the covenant back to the hill country back into a cave He covered over the cave And people from the temple demanded where is it? The ark will not be revealed until the mercy of the lord is restored to his people And so they went searching but they never found it and they never did find it until harrison ford You know You know The movie was based upon the fact that it was lost but never found And so john is telling his readers i've seen it i found it And so he goes on to say The ark of his covenant was seen within his temple Flashes of lightning thunder and earthquake and then suddenly a great sign appeared in heaven A woman clothed with the sun the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of 12 stars And she's giving birth to the christ the messiah the king And i said but back it up look at that more closely Because on the one hand he just said at 11 19 I saw the ark of the covenant in the temple of god And then A verse later he says then a sign appeared in heaven a woman clothed with the sun the moon under her feet She's crowned with 12 stars every one of john's jewish christian readers would say wait a second stop rewind You saw the ark of the covenant. Where is it? What condition is it in? How do we fetch it? And john never says a word to address those questions that would have been on the minds of all of his jewish christian readers Instead he seems to change the subject I saw the ark of the covenant in the temple of god And I saw a woman clothed with the sun the moon under her feet crowned with 12 stars great Tell us more about the woman after you've told us where to find the ark But he wasn't talking about the ark of the old covenant bill He's talking about the ark of the new covenant not in the earthly jesuslam But in the heavenly not in a man-made temple, but in the temple of god So when he describes the woman he's not describing something other than the ark He is showing us the ark of the new covenant and what is she contained the word made flesh the bread of life But what else does he describe her as the woman? Clothed with the sun the moon under her feet crowned with 12 stars and who knows and attacks that woman the ancient serpent Because back in genesis 3 verse 15. What was the first promise of the gospel? That a woman will crush the head of the serpent through her seed And so the ancient serpent is attacking the new eve as she's giving birth to the new atom because He knows that this new creation is going to mark his defeat And sure enough by the end of that vision the devil is defeated So not only is he the new atom and she's the new eve But we have a new exodus A kind of new moses and the ark of the new covenant But look at the woman because she's clothed with the sun the moon is under her feet and she's crowned with what? 12 stars What is the crown of 12 stars the zodiac? I don't think so. It's the 12 tribes of israel She is the queen mother giving birth to the son of david the son of god the messiah the christ All three converge here in one image in one vision You have the new eve you have the ark of the new covenant You have the queen mother of the son of david in the heavenly jerusalem in the temple of god And so you have her queenship You have her assumption. You have her immaculate conception All three rolled into one And he's like you are getting really loud And I realized I was shouting And there were a rumble of steps one floor above the jig was up They had found us I could hear my sister. They're in his office They come down the stairs and like two referees trying to pull apart two price fighters right before I Deliver the knockout punch Kimberly said you promised and I said he started it Barb said you promised he I didn't start it Like two little kids separated by their moms, you know, it was really kind of awkward So we went upstairs Chaston chasing and you know sort of Quiet and we just kind of sat there and talked about you know the things that moms and dads talk about diapers and you know all kinds of things And I kept eye on him like oh, I came so close We went to bed. We got up the next morning. I'm halfway through breakfast and I noticed the calendar on the wall It reads august 15th I'm a new catholic, but I know what that means I'm like barb. I don't mean to make this awkward But today's a holiday of obligation the feast of the assumption of Mary. I have to get the mass And she's like, okay. Well, there's only one parish here in state college and that's our lady of victory Music to my ears, you know, okay Whatever And I said, how can I find it and she said well, that's tricky And so she began to kind of describe all the roads that I have to go on to to find it Because there was a noon mass bill walks in And says you expect him to find our lady of victory. He's gonna get good and lost And I said, okay, I'm not sure what to do. We didn't have GPS at that point. He said, well, I'll drive you I'll drop you off I'm like, okay Barb's like no debating No, of course not And I said, I don't know how the how long the liturgy will last it might be a half hour It might be an hour you might be sitting out in the parking lot a long time And he said, okay. Well, I suppose I can come in And I'm like if I had invited him to do that, I would have been in hot water Yeah, you can come in sure. Yeah for for certain And so we got there right before noon we walked in And I tried to explain how the mass would unfold and he said no Barb asked me not to really engage you on these matters. I'm like, that's fine, you know And so we all stood up at the beginning Except for bill The Baptist just kind of sat there with his arms folded just like I would have a few years earlier And after the opening right And then the penitential right and then the assurance of pardon by the priest We all sat down the letter got up and opened the bible the lectionary reading the first of them was from second Samuel 6 where David found the ark of the covenant Leaping for joy Who am I that the ark of my lord should come to me where it was for three months and all the rest The second reading was a responsorial song 132 Now there are 150 Psalms to choose from but only one out of the 150 deals precisely with that event In second Samuel 6 where David found the ark of the covenant And brought it up into Jerusalem and guess what song that was 132 and i'm sitting there thinking what a coincidence And then the third reading was from the book of revelation beginning in chapter 11 verse 19 Where suddenly John sees the ark of the covenant in the temple of god The woman clothed with the sun the moon under her feet the ancient serpent attacking the devils defeated The new eve the ark of the new covenant the queen mother And then we all stand for the gospel except for my brother-in-law Sitting there listening paying attention Because the gospel reading was guess what the visitation From luke one i am standing there listening to it feeling like i had just won the lectionary lottery I mean like a grand slam four for four i mean you couldn't align them up any better When i sat down to hear the homily i feel this elbow digging into my side. What is it? He said did you select those readings? They were the exact same ones we had been looking at the night before You know i'm half tempted to say yeah the pope called me two weeks ago and you know It's sort of like a privilege for new converts. I said bill I have never been to the feast of the assumption before i had no idea what their readings would be He rolled his eyes. He said yeah sure I didn't even know the night before that the next day was the feast of the assumption And i sit there listening to a homily that was over and done in about four minutes feeling slightly underwhelmed But overjoyed at the fact that mother church had lined up all these readings And this is where the early church fathers had found it how the new is concealed in the old and the old is revealed and fulfilled in the new And it was such a glorious time When we got out to the parking lot. I said do you have any questions? He said i'm not allowed to ask So be it And our friendship is flourished, but we never did get back to that He's honored my sister's request. So please pray for those two They love the lord and they love the scripture and they are really faithful to all that they have found But i'll be honest that was an unforgettable event and made my first year feel almost like a honeymoon But you know when someone converts it's like an extended honeymoon because three or four months later I found myself in another city this time it was boston I was attending a conference the fellowship of catholic scholars for the first time as a first time catholic And the conference is over on sunday morning My hotel reservations are up on sunday morning check out time is noon And when I check out and I go down to the lobby to get a cab back to the logan airport I look at my boarding pass And it's monday afternoon I have no place to stay. I booked the flight for the wrong day Where am I gonna stay? So I borrowed a phone and I called an old friend a professor up in the north shore Whom I had served as a teaching assistant And like dr. D. You know a funny thing has just happened. I'm in boston. I've been here for three days I have no place to stay tonight any chance I could come and visit I knew his generosity and his wife's hospitality. He said short thing take the train I'll meet you at the salem station spend the night. It'll be great to see you We hung up and i'm thinking he obviously didn't hear the news Of what had happened to his former teaching assistant And so I thought when I spring it it's going to get tense Because his last book he had dedicated to scott and kimberley So we meet at the station there in salem. I get in the car and he looks at me So is it true? And i'm like is what true? You know I'm like, yeah, it's true. You got some questions. Yeah, but I promised robin not to ask until we got back So we get back and robin has this table spread with crackers and cheese and fruit and vegetables and it's a lovely spread It's about two in the afternoon. Little did I know that was dinner She didn't want to miss anything by being out in the kitchen And so for the next three four five hours We are at it and just like kimberley robin had her master's degree And she was really close to kimberley and really sympathizing with what she must be going through Now that her husband has poked as she put it And so we're arguing about the pope we're arguing about the yukers the baptist and i'll be honest I mean for the first three or four hours It was like batting practice for me because all of their questions and objections had been mine And all of the answers and responses they'd never heard And so i'm showing from the bible with the help of the church fathers How the news concealed in the old and the old is revealed in the new And you can see it when you read the whole bible in its context And it was really exciting by six p.m. I was getting hungry. So I just had more veggies By seven we were to the yukers by eight baptism By nine we finally got around to the blessed virgin mary and i'll be honest i was fighting fatigue But we start talking about the immaculate conception, but he's intent upon bringing up the bodily assumption Like okay go forward i'll i'll talk to you about the ark of the covenant how it's no no no not the typology I want historical documentation From you as a scholar from the first three centuries as to where you find the assumption of mary And i'm feeling the fatigue, but i'm also Realizing i can't think of anything i'm like well the first three centuries a period of persecution You're not building great seminaries like ours with big libraries You know but in the fourth and fifth centuries the assumption of mary is sort of like Implied in the in the hymns and in the prayers and the homilies and in the you know, it's not being debated It's being celebrated and he said that's not the same as documentation Where are your sources in the first three or even three and a half centuries? I'm like, huh, i'll be honest. I'm really getting exhausted and i can't think of a single book He said well, can you think of an author or a scholar that you could recommend? blank stare You were my teaching assistant. You were always so good with bibliographies. Can you recommend an article that i can read? crickets chirping I'm sorry He said well The assumption of mary is a dogma defined back in 1950 And you can't give me any real historical evidence for an infallible dogma And he stands up and kind of like wait a minute. I mean I was like batting 10 for 10 I had scored on all the other things It was like returning a kickoff for a touchdown and fumbling on the one. I'm like wait No, he said that's all right. You know, you've got to get ready for bed And I had been so proud of my argument so puffed up You know, I don't think I would have fit through the doorway My head was so swollen and then with one question a pinprick and suddenly my pride was burst So when she took me up to the guest room She gave me the towel she You know took care of me closed the door. I fell to my knees And I said I thank you lord for this time for this hospitality, but I'm sorry. I really blew it on that last one I was exhausted. I went to bed fell fast asleep. They let me sleep in until almost nine I came downstairs breakfast was ready. I'm halfway through breakfast and I look at the calendar December 8th Deja vu I'm like, okay. This is awkward. I got a four o'clock flight. How am I going to squeeze in mass for the feasts of the immaculate conception? I'm like robin. Is there a catholic parish nearby? Look through the kitchen window. There's st. Paul's Oh, what are their masses? How would I know? She was gracious enough to call The last one for the day was nine and was almost over She called about a half a dozen other parishes nearby and they were all done for the day And she's like this is a holy day of obligation. Yeah, I've got to get to mass before I leave She pulls out the yellow pages. She finds a caramelite chapel in Peabody mass about 13 miles away calls them They've got a noon mass schedule She said I could loan you the car you can get down there. You can come back just in time for me to drive you to Logan All right We'll do that and so I got down there and I saw all these Christmas shoppers walking down these stairs to a basement chapel Where the caramelites were going to celebrate a noon mass. It was packed. I was in the back pew I was just kind of watching everybody look at their clocks when this old priest came out when the bell rang Standing behind the altar. We begin in the name Of your father and of the son of the holy spirit, you know, we're like, come on father get over and I move and everything proceeded at snail pace and everybody's like seriously And by the time he got up to read the gospel it was like Lectionary lottery time again. Oh my goodness. And by the time he got to the homily I'm thinking this will be over and done in less than three minutes But it wasn't He got up and there was a twinkle in his eye and a big smile on his aging face And he said today we're celebrating the immaculate conception of the blessed virgin mary as catholic christians and a lot of non-catholics Still ask us. Why do you believe in that? So why do you? I'm like, that's a good way to go. You know And he said will you ask them if you could have created your mother and preserved her from the stain and corruption of original sin What do you think you'd have done? Well, you didn't because you couldn't jesus did because he could And that's why we celebrate the immaculate conception because she is the masterpiece of jesus her son Who is also her creator? I'm like, wow And this guy went on for 15 minutes But it felt like three because he made the scriptures come alive. He connected the old of the new Even quoted the fathers And by the time he was done with the mass everybody was out in a blink Except for me and I see him in the sacristy and i'm thinking i've got like three or four minutes So I knock on the door. What do you want? Do you have a minute? No, I don't Do you have a second? Okay, fine. What is it? And I said well, I graduated from gordon conwell a few years ago top of my class of protestant anti-catholic But just earlier this year I became a catholic. He said wait a second gordon conwell like yeah up in south hamilton Oh, I know where it is. I used to teach there I'm like father. You don't understand. It's an evangelical protestant seminary. No young man You don't understand it was a carmelite seminary and I taught there for years before we sold it to you Like okay, I stand corrected. He said I like this we give them the seminary and they give us the graduates Fair deal great exchange. You know like very funny father, you know And he said so what is your question? I'm like well, you were so good on the immaculate conception last night I really fumbled on the assumption to marry. I couldn't come up with documentation I even couldn't come up with a single book or article to recommend And he said well, there's a good reason for that. There's only one book in english on the assumption of marry Like wow, you really stay on top of your mariological bibliography. He said well, I should I wrote it And I feel like I just stepped into the twilight zone. I'm like you wrote it He said yeah, and I just went out of print last week michael glazier called me up to say They ran out of copies and they're not going to reprint it anytime soon I'm like you wouldn't happen to have like an extra copy for my professor He's like darn. I've got two copies He opens this cover. He goes. What's this guy's name? Okay to dr. D and robin To jesus through mary. I'll leave in latin and let them figure it out And he signed his name father killian heli order of the carmelites And he said okay. What is your name to scott and kimberley? I'll leave it in english You have much latin. I said one year to jesus through mary father killing here my last two copies Whoa, thank you. I get back to the house Dr. D is leaving to go give a final exam remember last night you were asking for a book Well, a funny thing happened to me in pee buddy Here is the last copy of the book the only book in english written by Father killing heli who just celebrated the mass. He's like So please be sure to look it over And he drives off and robin is like seriously that didn't really just happen like yeah His last copy the only book in english on the assumption of mary Okay, let's get in the car And she drove me down to logan and i'll tell you i didn't need an airplane that day to fly home I was flying so high I'll be honest Pray for this couple they are very close friends and just a few months ago Guess where I was for the overnight stay and we were talking and he drove me back And I just really feel the bond of our friendship renewed and their openness deepened But i'll tell you this We've got a mother a queen mother who is the new eve who is the ark of the new covenant Who is the queen mother of the son of david? We have one because we need one Even though we don't want to admit it Sometimes we're like spiritual adolescents who don't want to be seen with their mother But you know what we're called to be children And I am convinced that the more we listen to our mother and hear the voice Of mother church and pay close attention when it comes to the liturgies and electionary You know a funny thing happened to me a few years ago I wrote a book called hail holy queen the mother of god and the word of god And random house published it but before they did they said can you get someone to write a forward? I invited a dear friend of mine. He wrote two sentences. He said here's your blurb. Oh, it was supposed to be a forward Oh, sorry. I don't have time So my editor said you've got like three days to come up with a forward So i'm thinking okay. It's been years, but maybe he's still alive. So I call boston Directory information. I get the number of the carmelite chapel. It rings once. May I speak to father killian healy? Yarr I did the math. He was 92 You won't remember me. My name is scott course. I remember you took my last two copies And I don't have anymore Like no, I'm just wondering if you'd write a forward to this book that I wrote. It's not scholarly like your book It's for ordinary catholics. It's called hail holy queen. How much time do I have? Three days Can you fed exit? I sure can and I did he got it. He read it. He loved it He wrote the most beautiful forward just a few months before god called him home And i'll be honest it was like Deserved it was like the last grace that I never saw coming I want to encourage all of you to look at the purpose of the cross Not just to forgive sins, but adoption Not just as individuals but as sons and daughters as brothers and sisters God as our father the blessed virgin is his mother and ours This is good news. This is the gospel on steroids And it's high time we as catholics lay hold of it and don't just defend the faith But enjoy it in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit Hail mary full of grace the lord is with thee Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb jesus Holy mary mother of god Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death Amen saint joseph In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen. Thank you so much. God bless you