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A blog for Catholic men that seeks to encourage virtue, the pursuit of holiness and the art of true masculinity.
Why the Devil Hates the Blessed Virgin So Much (And Why You Should Love Her)
January 23, 2015
Satan hates the Blessed Virgin Mary. In fact, he has been doing everything in his power to discourage devotion to her and instill hatred for her for two millennia. Have you ever noticed that it is Marian dogmas and devotions that stir the strongest reactions in those who reject the Church? Even some good Catholics are embarrassed by devotion to our Lady, and they feel we should not be too extreme in our veneration of her.
Perhaps you, too, have wondered why the Church holds the Immaculate Virgin in such high regard. Perhaps you have wonder why God has chosen to use her in the work of redemption. Today, I’d like to take a look at why the devil hates the Blessed Mother so much, and why we should be her devoted knights.
She will crush your head
The scene is the garden of Eden. The characters are God, the serpent, Adam, and Eve. The devil is smirking in triumph. He has just deceived Eve, and through her, Adam. Oh, he is proud of himself. You can almost feel the demonic pride in destruction, for he has successfully marred God’s handiwork of creation, and dragged human beings—for whom God has a special love—into death and misery.
God has appeared on the scene to clean up the mess, declaring the tragic curse that has arisen from sin, but also to proclaim the protoevangelium, the first hint at the Gospel and the devil’s doom.
God starts by addressing Satan, telling him he is going to eat dirt for the rest of his days. Then he reveals something that makes Satan cringe in horror—his ultimate defeat will come at the hands of a woman.
And I will establish a feud between thee and the woman, between thy offspring and hers; she is to crush thy head, while thou dost lie in ambush at her heels (Genesis 3:15, Knox)
Now, scholars argue about whether or not the pronoun is masculine or feminine in the sentence, “She is to crush thy head”—that is, whether it refers to the Virgin Mary or Jesus Christ. But I’m going to let you in on a little secret: it doesn’t matter. You see, Jesus is going to crush Satan through Mary. She is the instrument Jesus is going to wield when he destroys his ancient enemy.
With that in mind, it is just as legitimate to say, “he will crush your head” as it is to say, “she will crush your head.” It’s kind of like telling an armed assailant, “One more step and I will shoot you” and “One more step and my .44 magnum will blow you away.” They are both true statements.
So why does being defeated by Mary pain the devil so much? Why does God want to use Mary to defeat Satan? I’ll explain.
“He has put down the mighty from their seat…”
The devil hates, I mean he loathes the fact that his ultimate defeat will come at the hands of a lowly handmaiden. In a way, his proud heart could handle being defeated by God himself because he’s almighty and omnipotent. But being crushed by a little Lady from Nazareth? The thought is absolutely humiliating. It drives him crazy. For if there is one thing the most proud creature in all of creation hates, it is being humiliated.
Satan finds his defeat by the Virgin Mary humiliating because she is a woman, and women are the weaker sex (1 Peter 3:7), and he despises weakness. He loves nothing more than to see women abused, degraded, and objectified. Not to mention that our Blessed Lady is a human, and Satan hates humans because we have bodies, and he is a pure spirit that thinks bodies are disgusting. But there’s another, more profound reason Satan hates being defeated by Mary: She is his replacement in heaven.
You see, Lucifer was originally God’s finest achievement. He was more beautiful, more powerful than all the other creatures that God has made. And as we all know, it went to his head. He was so gorgeous, so mighty that he really thought he could be better than God. The defining marks of Satan are pride and envy of the Almighty.
And what are the defining characteristics of our Lady? First and foremost, she is supremely humble. In fact, she is the most humble creature that has ever existed. For every ounce of pride the devil has, Mary has twice as much humility. For every drop of hate-filled and bitter envy in Satan’s black heart, Mary’s heart is filled with twice as much praise, worship, and love. For every bit of warped and destructive depravity in the devil’s soul, Mary’s heart is filled with more purity and fruitfulness. And by grace, God has made her the most exquisite and most glorious creature in all the universe—the title the devil used to claim.
In every way, the Immaculate is Satan’s polar opposite. In every way, she is his replacement, and he knows it. This Divine exchange of Mary for Satan is revealed in our Lady’s hymn of praise, the Magnificat.
My soul magnifies the Lord;
my spirit has found joy in God, who is my Saviour,
because he has looked graciously upon the lowliness of his handmaid.
Behold, from this day forward all generations will count me blessed;
because he who is mighty, he whose name is holy, has wrought for me his wonders.
He has mercy upon those who fear him, from generation to generation;
he has done valiantly with the strength of his arm,
driving the proud astray in the conceit of their hearts;
he has put down the mighty from their seat, and exalted the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty-handed.
He has protected his servant Israel,
keeping his merciful design in remembrance,
according to the promise which he made to our forefathers,
Abraham and his posterity for evermore.
In the Magnificat, we see the role of Mary in salvation summarized beautifully:
- Mary’s humility- “he has looked graciously on the lowliness of his handmaid”
- God’s marvelous work of grace in her: “Because he who is mighty, he who name is holy, has wrought for me his wonders”
- God’s casting out of Satan: “Driving the proud astray in the conceit of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their seat”
- His exalting of Mary in Satan’s place: “He has…exalted the lowly.”
Worst of all for Satan, his replacement in heaven is none other than the mother of the Eternal Word, Jesus Christ, whose passion and death redeemed the very humanity he has worked so hard to destroy. Her Yes to God undid the disobedience of Eve, paving the way for the saving work of the New Adam. The very weakness of Eve that Satan so scorned was replaced by the humble obedience of Mary, an obedience to the will of God that has made her powerful beyond limits.
This is the Divine plan for the defeat of his enemy. This is Satan’s humiliation and his doom.
Hasta la vista, Satan
In case you didn’t realize it, Satan hates you. His bitter envy inspires him to destroy God’s creation, to drag it down into the abyss of hell. He would love nothing more for you—image bearer of God—to join in him in the eternal flames of the lake of fire, for misery loves company.
But fear not. The ancient serpent is powerless against the Immaculate Virgin, for in God’s plan, she is the instrument that Jesus will use to humiliate and demolish him. Do you want to crush the head of the devil in your life? Do you want to make it safely through trials, temptations, and storms to our eternal Home? The answer is simple: Call on Mary. Love her, be her devoted servant. Be her knight, her defender, her apostle. Consecrate yourself to her totally and completely—for nothing that belongs to her will be lost. As St. John Damascene said so beautifully, “To be devoted to thee, O holy Virgin, is an arm of salvation which God gives to those whom He wishes to save.”
Satan is on a rampage, wreaking as much havoc as he possibly can—because he knows his time is running out. He is afraid and he is angry, for he knows that one day very soon, he will be crushed by the Woman who makes his heart quake, the woman who “looks forth like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army with banners” (Song of Solomon 6:10).
—
Prayer
Majestic Queen of Heaven and Mistress of the Angels,
thou didst receive from God the power and commission to crush the head of Satan;
wherefore we humbly beseech thee, send forth the legions of heaven, that, under thy command,
they may seek out all evil spirits, engage them everywhere in battle, curb their insolence,
and hurl them back into the pit of hell. “Who is like unto God?”
O good and tender Mother, thou shalt ever be our hope and the object of our love.
O Mother of God, send forth the holy Angels to defend me and drive far from me the cruel foe.
Holy Angels and Archangels, defend us and keep us.
This piece is so majestic and on point!
Brilliantly explained. Makes me think, I spend more time on Facebook than talking to Mary.
Exactly..the devil loves technology because it distracts us from the interior life of prayer..the way the world is at this very moment and time in history we should all be on our knees pleading for our lords mercy day and night.
While I agree with your overall point in this article, I do need to point out for the sake of sound exegesis that in both the Hebrew text and the Greek Septuagint text of Genesis 3:15 there is no gender ambiguity as to who stamps on the Serpent’s head – it is the woman’s Offspring. The masculine pronoun (ה֚וּא in Hebrew; αὐτός in Greek) is explicitly present in both texts. However, in the Latin (Clementine) Vulgate, the feminine pronoun “ipsa” is used, which would indicate the woman rather than her Offspring. English translations following the Vulgate such as Knox or the Douay-Rheims would be translating the Latin correctly, whereas a translations such as the RSV Catholic Edition is in agreement with the Greek in the Hebrew. I am rather curious as to how the Latin translation with the feminine pronoun came about given the agreement of the Greek and Hebrew on the use of the masculine.
Noah,
Thanks for your thoughts. However, ה֚וּא is ambiguous and can mean he or she (see http://biblehub.com/hebrew/1931.htm%20http://biblehub.com/hebrew/1931.htm). The ambiguity of the original Hebrew, which leads to the different translations in the Septuagint and Vulgate, is what has generated the debates about whether or not the verse refers to Christ or Mary. These debates are primarily theological, but again, the best understanding is that it refers to both Jesus and Mary.
Like your site. I have noticed that since I converted to Catholicism in 1982, that every single verse pertaining to Mary in newer bibles has been changed, thus changing the meaning of those verses. ie: the Annunciation, her response to St. Gabriel, the Magnificat, the verses in Genesis where the ‘woman’ will crush the head. Even though these ‘bibles’ are supposedly ‘authorized’, they are more like the King James version. These versions, in my opinion, are very much lacking in substance and taking away our Blessed Mother’s role in our salvation. There’s many people within the walls of the Church who hate Mary and what she stands for. Many prayers are needed these days. Thank you for letting me vent. Get a good Bible to learn from.
John, I agree. That is why I love my Knox translation. Very readable and accurate.
Thank you! I just had a discussion on the Angel Gabriel’s greeting to Mary with a fellow Catholic, who thinks the new version is so accurate. He has not read books such as AA1025 about the infiltration of communists in the church since the 1930’s,to destroy the church by changing the doctrines, which seems to follow exactly what you just mentioned. I studied briefly with a woman who studied the bible in the three original languages of Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic (spelling?). One of the passages we discussed was the Angel Gabriel’s greeting, which, in the Douay version, was translated to “Hail, Full of Grace”. It was a title he gave her, speaking to a Jewish woman when Jesus had not been conceived and born, yet alone sanctified sin for the sacraments such as Baptism. Everyone had original sin, so the title (at the time descriptive of an important job or position) was the Immaculate Conception, or no Original Sin. Today’s version is the one the protestants use.
I hardly agree that so many people ‘hate’ Mary. I think rather they are opposed Catholics setting up a Mediatrix between themselves and Jesus, who clearly stated that no man comes to the Father but by Him. This is not hatred toward Mary, it is anger posed toward false doctrine.
U r displaying the 20th century cultish Born again symptoms and plus anger is the byproduct of hatred , what r u talking about
Really “Cowpissdrinker”? There is no anger or hatred in anything that I’ve said. If you choose to distort God’s holy word, it is your choice to do so. The problem is, if you teach others to sin, you will be held accountable for it when your life is over. Jesus said it would be better for a millstone to be tied around your neck and you be thrown into the sea, than to perpetuate sin.
As a Christian, first and foremost, it is my duty to reveal and uproot false doctrine wherever I find it. It does not make me angry to do so. I do not hate anyone. The vast majority of people who point out that worshiping Mary is wrong, neither hate her nor the people who are doing so. We point it out because God does not wish that even one person should miss out on salvation. Praising Mary, praying to her and worshiping her are acts that our Lord despises. Read the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, and you will find no less than 50 instances where He says so. He is a jealous God, and will not share his glory with anyone.
Again that blasphemous born again cultish accusation been thrown at the RC faith result of throwing ur hands in the air and Groving to satanic guitarist .getting people out of the 20 CENTURY born AGAINST cult is not sinning and I know I will b judged by that great judge for greater sins in my past and so will u for being in a cult and dwelling in your ignorance praising & praying is not what God despises but your born again cult does because your congreation is run by Satan masquerading as a angel .when u say read the bible what Bible are u reffering to coz the bible I know clearly states mother Mary is no ordinary women like u guys like to put it she is a powerful creature above all angels . may god open your eyes to wisdom .not trying to sound cocky.
U even said ” the vast majority of people who point out that worshiping Mary is wrong neither hate her nor the people doing so ” I can tell u with confidence that u don’t know what your talking about .well for the most part I think nothing can be done about you, u r on the road to perdition and your getting others with you.plz don’t take any duty upon yourself, just b aroung the stove and humble yourself practise humility rather than exposing something your definitely not qualified to do so . pray to The most high host sprit ask for WISDOM And UNDERSTANDING. Peace sister .
Something is wrong with you. Your heart is full of hatred, anger and misguided attacking. I am no ‘sister’ of yours. You are a thing of satan. I rebuke you in the name of Jesus, demon. Slink back to where you came from.
Miss sola scriptura !!!!! U have no idea how false and fabricated that sounds . sola scrptura lol is the invention of a 15century fat monk who twisted the bible to his own destrution , ommited chapters diluted verses that did not suit his theology and reasoning and guess what the” born against” cult stemed from that false man made doctrine which u and million other lost souls adhere to this day. What a disaster.
Cowpissdrinker, if attacking my character is the best you can do, you’ll have to dig deeper because I have a pretty thick skin in that regard. I’ll stand by the truth of God’s word. Nothing I have said goes against it. Maybe you should read it sometime. You’ll be enlightened!
I agree ,u do have a pretty thick skin and a heart hard as a rock typical of all born against .that freakin freeloading cheapskate Lucifer always hated our mother Mary so he will do anything in his power to get u away from the truth .pray for Rome rather than calling us the devil because the devil like to carry out his filty works in the real place of god not in man made ministries .u said u will stand by the truth of gods word then how can u sideline Mary ? That classsic example how u oblivious to ur own lies .u still have time, repent and come back to the catholic chruch which JESUS AWESOME CHRIST has established over 2 thousand years ago.peace.:))
This Caravaggio illustrates the he/she shall crush thy head imagery well. http://cityside.org.nz/images/Caravaggio%20Madonna%20and%20Serpent.jpg
I have a question, if satan is also a creation of God, is there a chance that Satan will repent eventually? :)) ahehehehe