The Young Prophet

Today Catholics celebrate the Immaculate Conception: contrary to a popular misconception, this has nothing to do with the idea of Jesus Christ being born from a Virgin. It’s about the Virgin Mary receiving a special Grace from the moment of her conception (inside the womb of her mother, Saint Anne): being preserved free from the stain of original sin.

If you don’t subscribe to popery you may find this concept odd and incomprehensible, but it’s actually profound and liberating, in a way.

I’ve planned to further discuss it on December 8th, 2017. :-P

But for now let’s focus on a different topic.

Who’s the greatest prophet ever? And what was his first act of prophecy?

Think about your answer. Then click below for the solution.

The Greatest Prophet and his debut.

1- The greatest prophet of all is John the Baptist: Jesus himself says so.

Matthew 11,11:

In truth I tell you, of all the children born to women, there has never been anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.

2- The first prophetic act performed by John the Baptist: jumping in the uterus of his mommy, for the sole reason of the presence of Jesus Christ Conceived, when Mary came to their house.

Luke 1, 41-45:

Now it happened that as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? Look, the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy.

Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’

That’s a beautiful message. It implies also the intrinsic value of human beings since their conception.
Think of all those who waited modern medicine achievements to come to terms with the fact that a baby begins to interact with the external world way before birth, not just through nutrients and hormones in the bloodstream: they sense movements, sounds, emotions and mood swings from the mother…

La visitación, Museo del Prado, Madrid

Funny: initially I was proud of this article, expressing a quite unique and original idea … turns out others already popularized similar content before!

Well, it wasn’t that hard to come up with this kind of observation.

But in a society that considers abortion a human right (!), these are thoughts that people avoid entertaining, like some annoying gnat that you’d prefer to zap.

We lost perspective on one of the most significant joys in life. The loving wonder of contemplating a teeny-tiny human being in the early stages of formation, when there’s just a lump of cells. And yet that blob is a human like you.

Amazing!