Mama Mary’s assumption and snakes
With many others throughout the world, we happily commemorated Mama Mary’s Assumption last Wednesday, August 15.
Despite her fear, Mama Mary said yes to God’s plan for the redemption of all humankind. In full obedience and love, she humbly said: “behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38)
According to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Mama “Mary’s greatness consists in the fact that she wants to magnify God, not herself.”
Remember her canticle? “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior.” (Luke 1:46-47)
“Let us not imagine that we obscure the glory of the Son by the great praise we lavish on the Mother; for the more she is honored, the greater is the glory of her Son...whatever we say in praise of the Mother gives equal praise to the Son,” St. Bernard of Clairvaux clarified.
For the Feast of the Assumption, this reading from Revelation 12:1 was included: “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of stars.” This has become of the more popular images of our Mama Mary. You may also have seen an image of Mama Mary stepping on the head of a snake.
This brings back Genesis 3:14-15 when the Lord God said to the serpent: “because you have done this (tempting Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit), you shall be banned from all animals and from all the wild creatures; on your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head while you strike at his heel.”
Last Tuesday, on the eve of Mama Mary’s Assumption, while walking leisurely near our home and gazing up the night sky with the wish to see the reported meteor shower, I suddenly felt like I stepped on something coiled and just as quickly, I experienced being bitten in my left foot! I immediately ran away from the spot and cried out to my husband that I had been bitten by a snake, at my inner left ankle, not my heel!
He immediately squeezed the blood out from the bite marks. Gratefully, the snake was found and photographed for identification. Then we rushed to the ER of Chong Hua Mandaue.
Thank God, a church friend of our daughter, a snake expert, identified the snake as the non-poisonous reticulated python!
For precaution, toxicologist Dr. Ma. Fidelis Quiza and surgeon, Dr. Robert James Gacayan advised overnight observation.
For surviving a snakebite, you can all imagine the relief and joy I felt the morning after, on Mama Mary’s Assumption feast day! I will always remember this year’s Assumption, thanks to that snakebite!
So much praise and thanksgiving to God and Mama Mary for their protection and care. So much heartfelt gratitude too to God for sharing with me the care of doctors, nurses, staff, and the love and care of family, relatives, and friends.
That experience made me wish we had a public database about snakes containing emergency measures to immediate take after being bitten, especially by poisonous types, and made available in every hospital.
Meanwhile, please stay safe, everyone, from snakebites! Please remember that when bitten, best to rush immediately to a reliable hospital’s emergency room.
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