The Science Behind the #Assumption of Mary

As a Catholic Christian, I am familiar with some of the Marian traditions passed down through the centuries, such as: The Immaculate Conception, The Assumption of Mary/ Dormition of the Mother of God,  Mary’s Perpetual Virginity….

Many of my non-Catholic Christians have a problem with these Church Teachings.

However, the recent discovery of fetal microchimerism not only scientifically supports the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception teaching, but it supports the ideology of Mary’s Perpetual Virginity and the Assumption, as well.

I’ve already discussed the science behind Mary’s Perpetual Virginity.  So today, on the Feast of the Assumption, let’s now look at the assumption of Mary into Heaven.

According to Catholic beliefs, the Assumption, and also known as Dormition of the Theotokos or the Falling Asleep of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Eastern Orthodox Church, was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her earthly life.

The Catholic Church teaches as dogma — which means you have to believe — that the Virgin Mary “having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory”.

This doctrine was dogmatically defined by Pope Pius XII on 1 November 1950, in the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus.

Now, it wasn’t until the 1990s, where scientists found the first clues that cells from both sons and daughters can escape from the uterus and spread through a mother’s body. They called the phenomenon fetal microchimerism, the NY Times reports, after the chimera, a monster from Greek mythology that was part lion, goat and dragon. [1]

But fetal cells don’t just drift passively, Carl Zimmer writes in The Times.  Studies of female mice show that fetal cells that end up in their hearts develop into cardiac tissue.

“They’re becoming beating heart cells,” said Dr. J. Lee Nelson, an expert on microchimerism at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. [2]

A 2015 report in the Oxford University Press Molecular Human Reproduction, a peer-reviewed periodical, shows that researchers, who performed autopsies on 26 women who died while pregnant or within 1 month after delivery of a son, found Y-chromosome cells in every tissue cells of the host mother.

Every cell!

Source: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Then, suddenly it hit me: That means that Jesus’ stem cells crossed over into his mother, Mary.

That means that Mary’s body was literally embedded with Christ’s cells!  This scientifically supports the theological case for that the corporeal assumption of Mary.  Since Mary, the Theotokos, was now biologically consubstantial with Our Lord, her body was rightfully taken up to Heaven just as her Son’s Body was taken up to Heaven.

Now I know what you’re thinking.  Didn’t Jesus ever cut His hair or cut His nails?  And what about all the blood that poured from His body during the Passion and the Crucifixion?

I’m sure Christ had his nails and hair cut throughout His 30-plus earthly ministry.

However, these cells are dead — as are the skin cells that fall off our body by the thousands each day.  However, only your follicles carry your DNA.  Hair and nails are keratinized meaning: The parts that you cut off are mostly keratin protein with only fragments of your DNA.  (I guess CSI was wrong all these years!)

In regards to Jesus’ Blood, much of it would’ve been sopped up and laid in the tomb with Him, as was the custom, since Jews believed blood was part of the body. However, to increase their surface area to hold more oxygen, blood cells lose their nuclei and contain no DNA.

The white blood cells, that would exist — much less in number — in the body along side red blood cells, do contain human DNA.  White blood cells, however, can’t divide and do not reproduce on their own.  Instead, WBCs are produced in the bone marrow.  So, WBC would NOT grow in number outside the human host as do stem cells inside the mother who receives these cells by fetal microchimerism. (If it did, your DNA would change every time you received a blood donation.)

Simply put: If Our Lord’s living and reproducing cells dwelled in His Mother’s body, she, like her Son, would have to be lifted into Heaven!

Why?

Because the living cells of The Living God can not return to dust — since Christ, God Incarnate, being the Only-begotten Son, never came from dust!    But don’t take my word on this.

The Apostle, St. Paul, tells us in his First Letter to the Church in Corinth, “The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.” (1 Corinthians 15:45-49).

The science is clear, and because it’s clear, my Faith is sealed.

UP NEXT:

Science Behind the Immaculate Conception

ALSO READ

The Science Behind Mary’s Perpetual Virginity

The Theology of Jesus’ Blood Type

James Henry is the author of Corporation YOU: A Business Plan for the Soul, ‘Twas, and the new book series Hail Mary. For six years, James taught At-Risk kids in Los Angeles. Today, he lives in New York where he continues to write — and teach. To contact James or book an interview, please contact Mark of Goldman & McCormick PR at (516) 639-0988 or Mark@goldmanmccormick.com.

FIGURE SOURCE:

Boddy, A. M., Fortunato, A., Wilson Sayres, M. and Aktipis, A. (2015), Fetal microchimerism and maternal health: A review and evolutionary analysis of cooperation and conflict beyond the womb. BioEssays, 37: 1106–1118. doi:10.1002/bies.201500059

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bies.201500059/full

 

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The Science Behind Mary’s Perpetual Virginity

 
It often becomes awkward when people discover that I teach science.

First, when someone discovers I teach secondary school, they assume, because I’m a writer, that I teach English.  Next, when they discover that I’m a science teacher, they tilt their head and say something like, “How can you teach science and be religious?” — as if one excludes they other.

They do not.

Recently, while preparing to teach my AP Biology class, I read a paper on Fetal microchimerism. It’s a phenomenon involving fetal development that has lead to more questions than answers, but it is still fascinating.

Here’s my layperson interpretation: Though we know that blood cells of the mother and the fetus do not cross the placenta, stem cells of the fetus do. These stem cells can last, circulating in the mother’s system, for almost four decades.

Even more interesting, these stem cells can cross back across the placenta into a future child. So, simply put, unless you are the first born in your family, you have stem cells of your older siblings inside of you.

Wow! Being the youngest Dobkowski, I have my brother’s cells inside of me. That’s cool and creepy, at the same time.

Then, suddenly it hit me: That means Jesus’ stem cells crossed over into his mother, Mary.

As a Catholic Christian, I am familiar with some of the Marian traditions passed down through the centuries, such as: The Immaculate Conception, The Assumption of Mary/ Dormition of the Mother of God, Mary’s Perpetual Virginity….

Many of my non-Catholic Christians friends have a problem with these Church Teachings that have been passed down to the Faithful, through the ages, by Tradition.

However, the recent scientific discovery of fetal microchimerism not only scientifically supports the doctrine of these three Church Apostolic teachings, it confirms them.

In a three-part series, I will be showing you how science proves what the Church has been teaching — by faith alone — for nearly 2,000 years.

With today being the 100th Anniversary of the Apparition of Our Lady of Fatima, I would like to discuss how the recent scientific discovery of fetal microchimerism strongly confirms the Church teaching of Mary’s perpetual virginity.

I know this is a hot-bed of contention for many non-Catholic Christians because the Bible clearly states that James was the Brother of Our Lord and that Jesus had siblings … Or does it?

There are plenty of Catholic Christian sources that defend the perpetual virginity of our Blessed Mother, so I decided not to use the words of Catholic theologians, on this matter, but the writings of the Reformers themselves.

Regarding the common argument from Matthew 1.24-25 that Christ had siblings, the famous Reformer, John Calvin thought “that no just and well-grounded inference can be drawn from these words of the Evangelist, as to what took place after the birth of Christ.”

Calvin was not alone among the Protestant Reformers in defending the perpetual virginity of our Blessed Mother. Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli and John Wesley all believed that the Mother of God remained Ever Virgin.  But don’t take my word for it.  Read what all three  wrote about the “blessed Virgin Mary” and Her perpetual virginity.

Regardless of what these Reformers believed, if Jesus was not an only child, then He, a devout Jew, would have broke Jewish Law by handing his mother over to St. John at the foot of the Cross. Something a devout Jew with brothers, would not — and could not — do.

So, Christ had to be an only child, biologically.  And I’ll prove it — using science.

Source: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com

In 2013, Miranda P. Dierselhuis and Els Goulmy wrote:

The presence of circulating fetal cells in mothers (microchimerism) during and after pregnancy is well established.^1,2 Yet, nulliparous women carry male microchimeric cells as well.^3–5 Vanished male twins,⁶ (un)known miscarriages of male fetuses,⁷ male leukocytes present in semen entering the female’s circulation,^8,9 and transmaternal passage of cells derived from elder brothers¹⁰ have been suggested as possible sources of male microchimerism [Read more here.]

When read in the light of Scripture, the excerpt above becomes even more fascinating.

Since scripture teaches us that Mary was a virgin, none of the possibilities of microchimerism would apply to the Mother of God — except the “transmateral passage of cells derived from elder brothers.”

However, Dr. C. I. Scofield tells us why Mary had no brothers — period.

The editor of the Scofield Study Bible concluded that because of a blood curse on the Davidic royal line (Jer. 22:30), the Lord’s claim to the Throne of David could only have come through Mary, a descendant of David’s, and then only if she had no brothers. [1]

Why is this important?

Jesus was God Incarnate and without sin.  So, He could not have anyone else’s cells in Him — cells bearing the inheritable stain of mortal sin.

So, Mary scientifically not only had to be a virgin, but a non-microchimeric virgin at the time of the Incarnation, as well.

For that very same reasoning, Mary also had to stay Ever-Virgin.

You see, science reveals that by 7-weeks, the fetus’s stem cell begin to cross-over into the mother.

As stated above, these fetal stem cells don’t just cross over and dwell inside of Mom as the nourished baby develops and grows, but they also return to the womb and nest inside future siblings.  That’s why  Dierselhuis and  Goulmy came to the conclusion that  “all humans are born as microchimeras.”

Since all of Mary’s biological off-spring — if she had any — would have followed in lineage after her first-born, who was Jesus Christ, all of Jesus’ brothers and sisters,  according to Dierselhuis and Goulmy’s findings, would have been “born as microchimeras” — more specifically, microchimeras with Christ.

Science calls the phenomenon fetal microchimerism, after the chimera, a monster from Greek mythology that was part lion, goat and dragon. However, if your are a chimera with Christ, micro or not, you are technically part God.

That would make any brothers and sisters of Jesus biologically consubstantial with Our Lord and, therefore, according to our Creed, make these siblings, ispo facto, of one and the same substance to the Father — in short, part of the Holy Trinity.

Based on what we now know on fetal microchimerism, to say that Jesus had brothers and sisters, sounds a bit blasphemous — biologically speaking.

All this becomes clearer when shared in the light of Isaiah 59:2:

But your iniquities have separated you from your God….

Remember, at the time of the Incarnation, the Holy Spirit — which dwells in us — was not yet been given to the Church.  Pentecost hadn’t happened and the Resurrection was 30-plus years away.

The world, as a whole, was still in a sinful condition and the debt of this sin had not yet been paid.

So,  Jesus could not be within His brothers and sisters  — who have not yet had the stain of original sin wiped clean or been saved by the Sanctify Grace given to us through Christ’s Death and Resurrection — AND ALSO be separated from them at the same time.

That’s a major contradiction — and God can’t contradict Himself.

Now, if you’re Catholic, I know what you’re thinking: What about Holy Communion? Doesn’t Christ enter our body when we receive his Body and Blood, you ask.

Theologically, no!

When we go partake in Holy Communion, we enter into the Body of Christ. 

More specifically, we unite ourselves to Christ, who makes us sharers in his Body and [in his] Blood to form a single body” (Cathecism 1331).  This communion is why we are not suppose to receive Eucharist unworthily and/or with the knowledge of committing a mortal sin.

That’s why St. Paul tell us, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor 11-27).

(You can read more about this in the Theology of Jesus’ Blood Type … next week.)

Venial sins, if you are wondering, are washed away by the water we bless ourselves with when we enter the Church and, again and again, by the nine prayers said during Mass that forgive us of our venial sins.  

Science and Scripture both teach us that Light does not exist in Darkness. 

So, therefore, Jesus, the Light of the World, could never dwell in any body where there is the absolute darkness of sin.  Not as a single-cell.  Nor in any multicellular form.

The science is clear, and because it’s clear, my Faith is sealed.

 

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

 

COMING UP:

Part II:  The Science Behind the Assumption of Mary (August 15, 2017)
Part III: The Science Behind the Immaculate Conception (December 8, 2017)

 

James Henry is the author of Corporation YOU: A Business Plan for the Soul, ‘Twas, and the new book series Hail Mary. For six years, James taught At-Risk kids in Los Angeles. Today, he lives in New York where he continues to write — and teach. To contact James or book an interview, please contact Mark of Goldman & McCormick PR at (516) 639-0988 or Mark@goldmanmccormick.com.

 

FIGURE SOURCE:

Boddy, A. M., Fortunato, A., Wilson Sayres, M. and Aktipis, A. (2015), Fetal microchimerism and maternal health: A review and evolutionary analysis of cooperation and conflict beyond the womb. BioEssays, 37: 1106–1118. doi:10.1002/bies.201500059

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bies.201500059/full

 

Read Full Post »