[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-151586-en":3,"doc-seo-151586-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":90},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":4,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":11,"language":21,"language_code":22,"site_id":23,"html_lang":22,"table_of_contents":24,"faqs":25,"seo_title":26,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},151586,687207024643,"Rhys","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2",9,"Religion & Spirituality","The Awesome Meaning Behind ‘Blessed Are You Among Women’","Explores the biblical phrase “Blessed are you among women” and argues it carries a striking, non-obvious meaning beneath modern readings. Connects the three scriptural women greeted with this title—Jael, Judith, and the Blessed Virgin Mary—to a devil-haunted thread in salvation history. Develops the theme through Aquinas and Pascal on beatific vision, then explains how Satan’s lack of that vision shapes his temptations and apparent confusion about the Messiah.","The Awesome Meaning Behind ‘Blessed Are You Among Women’  \nEvery time a strong woman appeared in Jewish history, Satan had cause to worry  \nJ O E H E S C H M EY E R • 3 / 3 0 / 2 0 1 9  \nBlessed are you among women. It’s a strange blessing: why “among women”? It might strike our modern ears as either an odd bit of feminist agitprop or, alternatively, as a suggestion that women are second-rate: something like,“You’re pretty good . . . for a girl.” But, in fact, there seems to be a shocking meaning lying just beneath the surface.  \nWho are the only three women in Scripture who were greeted in this way, and what do they have in common? The three women are Jael, Judith, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. What they have in common is something that none of us had ever noticed, but which the devil couldn’t have missed.  \nWhat the devil does and doesn’t know  \nThe first thing to know about the devil is that he never experienced the beatific vision. There are two ways that we can know this. First, because, as Aquinas notes,“to see God in his essence, wherein the ultimate beatitude of the rational creature consists, is beyond the nature of every created intellect”(Summa Theologiae I, 62, 2) . The angels are created in the highest state of natural beatitude, contemplating God as fully as their created natures permit.  \nBut to know and love God in his essence requires grace. And some of the angels—namely, Lucifer and the fallen angels—clearly don’t cooperate with this grace.  \nThis is tied to the second way we can know that Lucifer never experienced the beatific vision. Angels, like humans, are rational creatures with intellects and wills. This means that the words of Blaise Pascal apply to the wills of angels as much as to human beings:  \nAll men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.  \nWe don’t sin because we decide we don’t want the good. We sin because we choose false goods over real ones, or lower goods over higher ones. So, what did that look like for the rebel angels? John Milton seems to have the right idea in Book I of Paradise Lost, when he imagines Satan saying,“Here we may reign secure; and, in my choice, to reign is worth ambition, though in hell: better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.”  \nThat lines up nicely with the picture we get from the prophet Isaiah: “You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high. . . . I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High’”(Isa. 14:13-14) .  \nBut why does this mean Satan didn’t have the beatific vision? Because, if he had, he wouldn’t have been hungry for more. His intellect and will would be totally satisfied by the infinite truth and goodness of God. That’s why it’s impossible for the saints and angels in heaven to sin: not because God takes away their free will but because their wills finally have the infinite good for which they (and we) have always hungered.  \nSatan confused  \nThere’s an important consequence to the fact that Satan never saw God in his essence. It means he seems to have been unaware of God’s Triune nature and unaware that the Messiah would be fully divine. In the New Testament, Satan seems as confused as the first-century Jews about the cryptic expression “Son of God.”  \nAt Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, God the Father proclaims,“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased”(Matt. 3:17) . Almost immediately, the devil sets to work poking and prodding, saying: “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread,” and “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down”(Matt. 4:3, 6, emphasis added) . Had he any humility, he might ha","cbCaiqz0hcDiW6Hz","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqz0hcDiW6Hz","pdf",335880,1,"English","en",105,"# The strange blessing\n# Who the three women are\n# What the devil does and doesn’t know\n## Beatific vision and angelic will\n# Satan confused about the Messiah\n# The role of “the woman”\n# Jael","[{\"question\":\"Why does the blessing specify “among women” rather than simply “blessed”?\",\"answer\":\"The text argues the phrase signals a deeper scriptural meaning that modern readers might miss, linked to the identity of “the woman” foretold in Genesis 3:15.\"},{\"question\":\"Which three women in Scripture are described with the same greeting, and what do they share?\",\"answer\":\"Jael, Judith, and the Blessed Virgin Mary are each honored as “blessed among women.” The shared theme is tied to God’s “woman” prophecy and what the devil likely sought to find.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the document explain Satan’s lack of the beatific vision?\",\"answer\":\"It claims Satan never experienced the beatific vision, using Aquinas’s points about created intellects and grace, and Pascal’s description of rational wills seeking happiness as a framework for angelic rebellion.\"}]","The Awesome Meaning Behind ‘Blessed Are You Among Women’ | 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does the blessing specify “among women” rather than simply “blessed”?","Question",{"text":74,"@type":75},"The text argues the phrase signals a deeper scriptural meaning that modern readers might miss, linked to the identity of “the woman” foretold in Genesis 3:15.","Answer",{"name":77,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":78},"Which three women in Scripture are described with the same greeting, and what do they share?",{"text":79,"@type":75},"Jael, Judith, and the Blessed Virgin Mary are each honored as “blessed among women.” The shared theme is tied to God’s “woman” prophecy and what the devil likely sought to find.",{"name":81,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":82},"How does the document explain Satan’s lack of the beatific vision?",{"text":83,"@type":75},"It claims Satan never experienced the beatific vision, using Aquinas’s points about created intellects and grace, and Pascal’s description of rational wills seeking happiness as a framework for angelic 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