Genesis 3:15, depending on how it's translated, says, "He will crush your head." It's my favorite scripture verse. I've seen it translated as, "He will crush your head." I've also seen it translated, "She will crush your head." And I've also even just recently seen it translated, "They will crush your head." And I think, looking at the Hebrew, you could make scholarly arguments for all three translations.
So I would say, why not just accept all three and say that, for one, "He will crush your head" means Jesus, that's a prophecy. "She will crush your head," a prophecy of Our Lady. "They will crush your head," both of them together, talking about the man and the woman in the Old Testament, Adam and Eve who are both present, it could be referring to either of them. And then, of course, their New Testament-type fulfillments, Jesus and Mary.
Now, I want to tell you about a dream I had one time, and you'll see how this dream is related to the idea of He or she will crush your head. First, just kind of a word about dreams in general, I'm pretty convinced that God can and sometimes does kind of send messages through dreams. I mean, this is very biblical. Lots of biblical characters have had meaningful dreams, not just good guys, but also bad guys who had dreams. Dreams that meant not-so-good things.
And some saints as well have had pretty dreams that seem to apparently be spiritually meaningful. Like, I especially think of St. John Bosco. Out of all the biblical dreaming characters, the one I probably most relate with is one of Joseph's inmates when he was in the dungeon when he was in Egypt. Joseph had, of course, mysterious dreams. And then the two prisoners he was with also had dreams that had meanings. And for one of them, it meant something not-so-good.
For another, even though it meant something good, that he was going to return to his position in the court of Pharaoh, Genesis 40 tells us he forgot about Joseph. He had this dream for a reason. It was so that when he was restored to favor in the court of Pharaoh, he would put in a good word for Joseph. But he forgot about the dream and failed to fulfill his mission. 
And sometimes for me, I forget about this dream that I had. But I know that it's something, you know, it depends on how you interpret it, but maybe it was actually, even though it was just a normal, natural dream, maybe you could take it as having a spiritual message that I'm supposed to remember, that we're all supposed to remember. 
But anyway, I had this dream when I was, I forget exactly how old, maybe 10 years old. Me and my siblings went outside to play, which we love to do. But we kept getting disturbed and distracted from our games by all these snakes that we were seeing. Everywhere we'd turn, in the grass, under the bush, we'd turn around another snake, another one, just everywhere, everywhere. 
And then all of a sudden, one of the snakes started chasing me. And I was trying to run away. But as sometimes happens in my dreams, I try to run, and I, like, can't move my legs. They just feel like they weigh a thousand pounds. Then the scene just kind of closed. And then kind of the curtain drew back.
And me and the snake were standing off in the backyard, facing each other. And this is the most vivid dream I've ever had. I can remember incredibly, ridiculously distinct details. I can remember to this day the outfit I was wearing, which was an outfit I actually owned. And in one hand I had a sword, and the other a baseball bat. And I knew that the snake and I were about to have a duel.
And we charged each other. And first I tried to smash him with the baseball bat, but he was too quick. And every time I would miss, and it would just leave a big dent in the earth. So then I tried to stab him with the sword, but when I pressed it on him, it just bent, like it couldn't penetrate. 
Finally, in the end, I remember the pair of boots I had on. It was a pair of rubber mud boots my parents had bought me from Walmart. And I just raised up my foot and struck him on the head and just started grinding and twisting and then pounding and pounding and grinding until the snake was dead. And that was the end of the dream. 
So I woke up and ran out of my room just thinking, "Wow, that was kind of a crazy dream." I kind of liked snakes, was fascinated by them, thought it was cool. I had a dream where I killed one and went and told my parents and my siblings like immediately right after I got out of bed, "You've got to hear this dream. I want to tell you all about it."
And then my mom just kind of looked gradually more and more surprised and astonished. And I was like, "What? I mean, it was just a weird dream about snakes." And she was like, "Isaac, don't you know what today is?" I was like, "Yeah, it's Sunday. We're going to Mass at the farm." "Yeah, yeah, but more than that." I'm like, "Well, yeah, duh, I'm making my total consecration to Mary today. So what?"
And then I stopped and thought about it. So I was like, "Oh, huh, I don't know. Maybe it did have some meaning." In any case, whatever you would choose to make out of this dream, which I think was just a dream, not a vision or anything of the sort, if nothing else, if it does have some sort of a meaning, it's not something that you need a special dream to figure out.
Hopefully you kind of already know and are aware of this, that in our spiritual battle against the principalities and powers, the rulers of the world of darkness, our number one recourse should always be Mary. And if you haven't made your consecration to her, I highly recommend it. I'm sure most, if not all of you have. And, you know, maybe this was a reminder to me of that.
And then sometimes I tend to forget about that. But then I realized, you know, Mary's always giving me little reminders in my life to remind me of how important and necessary her motherly protection is. This dream was a one-time event. I've never had anything like that before, and it was a long time ago. But then there's other things. Just one example.
Last night, I was sitting on the couch just thinking about the homily I'm going to give today and et cetera, and this vestment that I'm wearing, which some of you in this room helped to pay for, and I thank you for it, it was hanging there in front of me, and I was just staring at it. And all of a sudden I realized I hadn't even noticed this when I picked it out myself, that the floral design on it is meant to kind of match the floral design on Our Lady of Guadalupe's mantle and even the stars, like the stars on her mantle.
And I was like, "Oh, I hadn't noticed that." So I think it's the style is trying to kind of send a message or, as young folks would say these days, give off the vibe that this is sort of symbolically Mary's mantle. And by wearing it, I am under her mantle. And I think it's just amazing how Mary keeps giving me these little reminders as many times as I tend to forget about her, forget about how necessary she is in my life, in my vocation, in everything.
And so I share that with you just in hopes that it will help to serve as a reminder for all of us to keep loving Our Lady, never forget that she is our mother and that she is the one chosen by God to crush the serpent's head and then through our cooperation with her and with Her Son, we will all partake of the crushing of the serpent's head.