Vincent P.
Miceli, a conservative Jesuit priest (rare breed these days!) and author of The Gods of Atheism and other works,
wrote the following about Mary and the fall of Satan, showing again why Mariology
matters, and if you get one doctrine wrong (here, Mary), it leads to all types
of other theological errors (“no doctrine is an island,” to rework an old
saying):
Mary, the Woman whom Satan attacks but can never
conquer, was always well-known to the world of demons. Indeed they came to know
her from the beginning of time. After their seduction of Adam and Eve, Lucifer
and his demons were sentenced by God to grovel in fear in the dust, awaiting the
Woman’s heel that would crush their heads. Some Catholic theologians speculate
that Lucifer and his angels, together with all the angels, were given a special
trial so that they could prove their love of preference for God, even as God
had demonstrated His own love of preference for them by freely creating them
all from nothing. According to this theory, the vision of the Holy Virgin with
her Child was presented to all the angels who were then invited to adore the
Child as their God and to accept the Mother as their Queen. It was revealed to
them that both mother and Child would figure mightily in the redemption,
sanctification and glorification of a race of rational beings a little less in
dignity than the angels themselves, namely men. But Lucifer and his rebel
angels refused to trust God, to adore His Incarnate Son, to venerate the Holy
Mother of God. They rejected the loving Providence of God for mankind. And in
an envious rage they declared war on the Woman, her Son and on their children
found in the Church as the communion of saints. But they waged war on all men
because the Woman and her Son, Who died to save all men, were working to bring
all men to salvation. (Vincent P. Miceli, The
Antichrist: Has he launched his final campaign against the Savior? [West
Hanover, Mass.: The Christopher Publishing House, 1981], 269-70)
On
Mariology, be sure to see my book:
