Today I heard a fascinating presentation about the somewhat recent discovery of how the baby in the womb shares cells with his or her mother. It’s called microchimerism. It’s been known that mother and baby share cells through the placenta. However, recently scientists found that a woman who carried a male baby had the male Y chromosome in her bloodstream, and even residing in her brain decades later. The affect of these cells is unclear, though some think they can be beneficial to the mother’s health, or potentially cause an immune response. Although we may think we are autonomous individuals, the fact is that we are carrying cells from our mother’s and potentially even from her mother’s and previous ancestors. It boggles the mind.  To take this discovery even further into faith, the presenter noted that this meant that Mary the mother of Jesus had some of His cells in her body. The Catholic Church has believed for 2000 years that when Mary’s life came to an end on this Earth, she was Assumed bodily into Heaven. There are even manuscripts dating back to the 3rd century that taught this. The woman who shared the information said the fact of this cell sharing really strengthened her faith in the Assumption. Since Mary carried Jesus’ – God’s – actual physical cells, it makes sense that her body would not go through dying and decomposing, but be taken directly into Heaven. It was truly a compelling and beautiful presentation.

I Found God today learning about microchimerism and how it connects to faith.