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QUEEN OF ALL
use of this word “mystery” that this Babylon is not the city on the Euphrates but a secret use of the word (explained in 17:9, 18). Since the true church is also called a mystery (Ephesians 5:32), this apostate church is a counterfeit.191
That this Babylon of Revelation 17 is a mystery, may also anticipate the mysterious characteristics of this religious system. Pope John Paul II unknowingly offered this insight: The Church perseveres in prayer with Mary. This union of the praying Church with the Mother of Christ has been part of the mystery of the Church from the beginning: we see her present in this mystery as she is present in the mystery of her Son… The Second Vatican Council prepares us for this by presenting in its teaching the Mother of God in the mystery of Christ and the Church. If it is true, as the Council itself proclaims, that “only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light,” then this principle must be applied in a very particular way to that exceptional “daughter of the human race,” that extraordinary “woman” who became the Mother of Christ. Only in the mystery of Christ is her mystery fully made clear. Thus the Church sought to interpret it from the very beginning: the mystery of the Incarnation has enabled her to penetrate and to make ever clearer the mystery of the Mother of the Incarnate Word.192
There is another great “mystery” associated with this mystery religion of the last days, and that is the mystery of the Eucharist. Many volumes have been written on the “mystery” of the Mass, which centers around the Eucharistic sacrifice. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “…[in the Eucharist] Christ is thus really and mysteriously made present…Every time this mystery is celebrated, ‘the work of our redemption is carried on…’”193 Not surprisingly, it is the “Eucharistic Christ” who the Queen says she will usher in.194