The Luminous Mysteries - Conclusion

CONCLUSION

Required Reading: Revelation, chapter 21 &22

Recommended Reading: St. Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on Paradise.

SHADOW, IMAGE, AND REALITY

Meditating upon the Mysterium Lucis through the vision of the Garden of Eden requires one final exegetical principle in order to confirm that the path taken through the Garden to see Christ, the new Adam, is indeed the primary interpretive paradigm for these Mysteries.  In his book, The Spirit of the Liturgy, Cardinal Ratzinger explains that “the Church Fathers described . . . various stages of fulfillment, not just as a contrast between Old and New Testament, but as the three steps of shadow, image, and reality.”  This vision of a three fold fulfillment is confirmed in the Patristic era by Methodius who explains, “The Law is the figure and the shadow of the image, that is to say, of the Gospel; the Gospel is this of the reality.”[i]  As Cardinal Danielou teaches, “The Pasch, eaten by Christ with His disciples before the Passion, is a figure of the Messianic banquet to which Christ will invite His own in the Kingdom of the Father. . . .  Between the Jewish Paschal meal and the messianic banquet, the eucharistic meal is an intermediate link.”[ii]  Thus, it is clear that the re-establishment of the Garden of Paradise, accomplished by the works of Jesus Christ, the new Adam, is yet to be revealed in full; the faithful still await the final reality of the Messianic age, when God will dwell with man in Paradise restored.  This is the vision that Saint John, in ecstasy on the island of Patmos, relates at the end of his Apocalypse.  Standing at the Holy Table, celebrating the Divine Liturgy on the Lord’s Day of covenant, the Eagle of Patmos suddenly beholds the Sacred Mysteries transfigured before him; what had been only the image he beholds as the reality.

The Luminous Mysteries - Part Six

THE INSTITUTION OF THE EUCHARIST

Required Reading: John, chapter 6; Joshua, chapter 5; Exodus, chapter 16

THE JOURNEY TO THE WEDDING FEAST

            After the Transfiguration, the Christ of God journeys from Mount Tabor to the Holy City,

toward the exodus which Moses and Elijah spoke of on the Mountain.  “As with the first exodus of Israel,” states Tim Gray, “there cannot be a new exodus without a Passover meal.”[i]  It is time for the marriage supper of the Lamb.  In the account of the Last Supper, as well as in the bread of life discourse of the Holy Evangelist John, we must maintain our original interpretive paradigm, the images of Eden.  It is here in the institution of the Holy Eucharist that the Luminous Mysteries culminate.  It is here in the breaking of the bread that we will recognize the full effects of the restoration of Adam’s robe, of the re-consecration of the Sabbath, of the recapitulation of the marriage of Adam and Eve at the wedding of Cana.  It is in the Holy Eucharist that the intended festival day of the universe will be realized.  It is here that the tree of life will come into view.  The wedding feast is prepared, and the guests are invited.  Let us put on our finest garments, light our torches, and “put out into the deep” one last time, as we find our way through the dusk of the setting sun to the great feast of God.  There, at the Eucharistic banquet, we will find the heart of Christ shining forth as a lamb to enlighten the world (Rev. 21:23); there the Luminous Christ will enlighten the darkness of sin forever.

The Luminous Mysteries - Part Five

THE TRANSFIGURATION

Required Reading: The Gospel of Luke, chapter 9

THE CONTEXT OF THE TRANSFIGURATION

            Christ the King has restored to Adam his royal robe and given him dominion once again.  Let us now make our way to Mount Tabor and begin to search the depth[i]s of the Transfiguration of the Christ, the “mystery of light par excellence.”[ii]  As in the mysteries of the previous weeks, we must place ourselves within the historical event before us.  Also, it will be helpful to recall the “images of Eden” presented in week one.  For, in the new Adam unveiled on the pinnacle of Tabor, we shall see the old Adam restored in Christ, transfigured as a son of God.

The Luminous Mysteries - Part Four

THE PROCLAMATION OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Required Reading: Gospel of Luke, chapters 1-4

ADAM’S DOMINION

Pope John Paul II explains in his Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae that each of the “mysteries of light” is “a revelation of the Kingdom now present in the very person of Jesus.”[i]  Therefore, with the divine robe restored to Adam in the Baptism of Christ, and the proper covenantal relationship between man and woman restored at the Wedding at Cana, Christ may now openly proclaim the Kingdom of God, the restoration of the dominion of Adam over all of creation.[ii] 

Adam received dominion over creation because of his robe of glory, the gift of grace which likened him to God his Father, the King of all the universe.  Thus, Adam was a king, not as a replacement of God’s kingship, but rather as an extension of God’s dominion over creation.  “Adam was a subordinate ruler, a king (prince) under God.  He was a king only because God had created him as such and ordered him to rule.  God’s plan was for His image to rule the world under His law and oversight.”[iii]  Adam thus found his royal dignity in his sonship, which in turn was confirmed in the familial covenant.  However, when Adam disobeyed, he rejected the gift of God, his royal robe.  As a natural consequence, he lost the dominion which he had exercised over creation.

The Luminous Mysteries - Part Three

THE WEDDING AT CANA

Required Reading: Gospel of Saint John, chapters 1-2

**I apologize, but we were unable to translate foreign language characters to web format.  If you're interested in the Greek texts, please contact me at director@instituteofcatholicculture.org. 

INTRODUCTION

Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.  And there I will give her her vineyards, and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.  And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.  And in that day, says the Lord, you will call me, ‘My husband,’ . . . And I will make for you a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the creeping things of the ground, . . . And I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy.  I will betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord. (Hos. 2:14-20)

The Prophet Hosea speaks these words of hope to the Jewish people that some day their God would wash away their sin and lead them into Paradise, restoring the covenant bond that Adam had broken.  Now Adam, through his burial and resurrection in the Jordan, has been reborn in Christ and has been reclothed in the “robe of Glory.” Having come forth from the Jordan wrapped in the “wedding garment” of grace, Adam stands in the bridal chamber.  Cardinal Danielou, in reference to Baptism, states, “The catechumens are on the threshold of the royal garden of Paradise, where the marriage is to take place.”[i]  Therefore, having witnessed the restoration of Adam in the Jordan River, we can now turn our gaze toward Cana and through the eyes of the Beloved Disciple see the marital day of Paradise recapitulated. 

The Luminous Mysteries - Part Two

THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST

A. THE NEW ELIJAH

And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"  He confessed, he did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ."  And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" And he answered, "No." They said to him then, "Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?"  He said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet Isaiah said."

            Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.  They asked him, "Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?"  John answered them, "I baptize with water; but among you stands one whom you do not know, even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie."  This took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. (Jn. 1:19-28)

The Catholic Church has always insisted that the Holy Scriptures must be interpreted “Christocentrically, that is to say, all Scripture must be interpreted in light of Jesus as the Christ.”[1]  This foundation, the focus upon the person of Christ, does not in any way diminish the importance of a fully developed contextual interpretation.  In fact, it is the context which often leads to the proper interpretation of the words and actions of Christ.  Saint Ambrose teaches his disciples, “Why? Do you suppose that any of these details were set down without a good reason? Of course not!  If no leaf can fall from a tree without cause and not a single sparrow fall to the ground without the heavenly Father’s knowledge, am I to think that a superfluous word could fall from the lips of the holy Evangelist—especially in recording the sacred history of the Word?  I think not.  All his words, if only they have a diligent reader (one who know[s] how to suck honey out of the rock and oil out of the hardest stone), contain supernal mysteries and are full of heavenly sweetness.”[2]  The importance of contextual interpretation and attention to detail is key to the proper understanding of the Baptism of Christ, and there is no man “born of woman” (Mt. 11:11) who is more important to a proper immediate contextual understanding of Christ than John the Baptist.  Scott Hahn teaches, “John the Baptist is indispensable to the New Covenant. . . . He is the one who testifies to Christ in the fullest possible way.”[3] 

The Luminous Mysteries - Part 1

IMAGES OF EDEN AND THE EDENIC PARADIGM

Required  reading: Genesis 1-3

**I apologize, but we were unable to translate foreign language characters to web format.  If you're interested in the Hebrew texts, please contact me at director@instituteofcatholicculture.org.

THE PROPER PERSPECTIVE

            Here, we will lay the foundational themes upon which we will build our understanding of the Luminous Mysteries.  Rather than considering the whole narrative of Genesis 1-3, we will only study those aspects relevant to our study of the active life of Christ.  This approach will take us quickly through the most important aspects of the account of the Garden of Eden, and with these images at hand we will be well equipped to begin our journey at the Jordan River.  This chapter is by far the most foundational, so please read carefully.

The Luminous Mysteries - Introduction

Recommended Reading: John Paul II. Rosarium Virginis Mariae. 16 October 2002.

This text can be accessed on the web by searching for Rosarium Virginis Mariae at www.newadvent.org

For close to a full millennium, the rosary has been for the Roman Catholic faithful a source of meditation on the mysteries of Christ through the eyes of Mary.  “Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer.”[1]  This abundant grace has drawn the faithful follower ever more deeply into the life of Christ, calling him to “put out into the deep” (duc in altum, Lk. 5:4), penetrating every aspect of the mystery of the Savior.  It is in the life Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:2-3), that “man’s path is ‘recapitulated,’[2] revealed and redeemed.”[3]  Thus, through the Rosary the Christian is able to enter into the deepest aspects of his own redemption, calling to mind the whole of salvation history as it is lived out in the mysteries of the life of Christ.[4]

            Pope John Paul II explains that “contemplating the scenes of the Rosary in unison with Mary is a means of learning from her to ‘read’ Christ, to discover His secrets and to understand His message.”[5]  Through ‘reading’ ever more deeply the events in the life of Christ through the eyes of the Immaculate Lady, the Rosary becomes a “true doorway to the depths of the Heart of Christ, ocean of joy and of light, of suffering and of glory.”[6] 

In light of the Church’s call in the third millennium to “duc in altum,” His Holiness Pope John Paul II has given to the faithful his vision into the depths of the Savior’s life.  This “new gaze” upon Christ is contained in the Mysteria Lucis, which the Pope has unveiled to his children’s eyes in his apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae.  These mysteries: the Baptism of Christ, the Wedding at Cana, the Proclamation of the Kingdom of God, the Transfiguration, and the Institution of the Holy Eucharist, are the response to the call of Christ to enter each day more fully into the mystery of His life.  Thus the Holy Father, like Peter, who was called with the words “Tend my sheep” (Jn. 21:16), instructs the children of God how they may themselves “duc in altum.”  By providing his insights on how the faithful may meditate more fully on the life of the Savior, the Holy Father leads his sheep to the “living water” that they may “drink and never thirst” (Jn. 4:10, 14). 

Pope John Paul II explains, “against the background of the words Ave Maria the principal events of the life of Jesus Christ pass before the eyes of the soul.”[7]  By “making our own the words of the Angel Gabriel and Saint Elizabeth contained in the Ave Maria, we find ourselves constantly drawn to seek afresh in Mary, in her arms and in her heart, the ‘blessed fruit of her womb.[8]’”  By bringing the life of Christ before the eyes of the faithful in the hands of the Blessed Lady we are instructed as to the proper way to approach the Son of God who walked among us.  By repeating the words of the Ave Maria the Christian who meditates upon the life of Christ stands within the story of the life of the Incarnate Word, a story revealed to man in the words of the Sacred Scriptures.  As Pope Paul VI taught in his Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus, the Rosary is primarily a “Gospel Prayer,” wherein the faithful explore the mysteries of the life of the “Son of the Virgin.”[9]  Confirming his predecessor, Pope John Paul II exhorts his children to “rediscover the Rosary in the light of Scripture.”[10]  This is the “valid method”[11] by which the successor of Peter guides the faithful “into the deep” of Christ’s life.  Thus the Holy Father calls for those who seek Christ in the Rosary to “supply a Biblical foundation” in order to reach a greater depth of meditation.[12]  This “Biblical foundation” is supplied primarily by “the proclamation of a related Biblical passage.”[13] 

“The proclamation,” however, is only the beginning; it must lead the faithful into an ever-deeper meditation on the passage proclaimed.[14]  This meditation must ultimately lead to the Old Testament, for it was in the Old Testament that God prepared His people for the revelation of His Son.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “the New Testament has to be read in light of the Old.  Early Christian catechesis made constant use of the Old Testament (cf. 1 Cor. 5:6-8; 10:1-11).  As an old saying put it, the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.”[15]  Therefore, by turning to the Old Testament man is provided with a “road map” by which he can see the ultimate plan of God revealed in Christ.  This exegetical principle, namely, that of turning to the Old Testament in order to properly interpret the New, is itself founded upon an even more fundamental principle of Biblical exegesis, the interpretive principle known as the Edenic Paradigm.[16] 

Cardinal Jean Danielou teaches: “There can be no serious theology of the Incarnation or the Redemption without referring to chapter three of Genesis.  To leave it in darkness, to be content with only a small part of the subject, is to risk jarring one’s faith in the redemption.  Where original sin is minimized, the redemption takes the same path.  And where redemption in minimized, faith is gone.”[17]    Saint Athanasius states, “The first fact that you must grasp is this: the renewal of creation has been accomplished by the Self-same Word Who made it in the beginning.  Thus, there is no inconsistency between creation and salvation: for the One Father has employed the same Agent for both works, fashioning the salvation of the world through the same Word Who made it at the first.”[18]  By making use of the “Edenic Paradigm,” the exegetical principle which designates the events of the Garden of Eden as the framework for interpreting salvation history, we will have the proper tools to interpret the life of Christ and especially the Luminous Mysteries.  This principle of Biblical exegesis, which is commonly called typology, “the science of the similitudes between the two Testaments,” is a principle founded in Scripture itself. [19]  In the case of the Old Testament, “At the time of the Captivity, the prophets announced to the people of Israel that in the future God would perform for their benefit deeds analogous to, and even greater than those He performed in the past. . . . there would be a new Paradise into which God would introduce the people He had redeemed.”[20]  “The New Testament, therefore, did not invent typology, but simply showed that it was fulfilled in the person of Jesus of Nazareth . . . He is the New Adam with whom the time of the Paradise of the future has begun.”[21]

Therefore, this study of the Mysteria Lucis will be based upon the vision of Christ as the New Adam, and the Mysteries of the life of Christ as the recapitulation of “man’s path” corrupted by the Fall of our first parents.[22]  We will see the Luminous Mysteries of the life of Christ primarily as the recapturing of the ancient Paradise where man and God dwelt in a harmony of friendship.  Following the guidance of the Holy Father Pope John Paul II and the Holy Patriarch Athanasius, in hopes of “rediscover[ing] the Rosary in the light of Scripture”[23] “we will begin with the creation of the world,” and, having properly begun our journey, we will come to understand that “the renewal of creation has been accomplished by the Self-same Word Who made it in the beginning.”[24]    

SUMMARY

1. Mediation on the mysteries of the Rosary draw the faithful into an ever-deeper union with the life of Christ.   This union with the life of the Savior is a union with and a living out of the person’s own redemption.
2. Through mediation upon the life of Christ by way of the Rosary, the Christian peers through the eyes of Mary and gains access to the secrets which she holds in her heart.  These mysteries, which lie hidden within the heart of the Mother of God, allow access to the deepest aspects of the life of her Son.
3. In light of the Church’s encouragement for the faithful to dive ever more deeply into the life of Christ, Pope John Paul II has unveiled the Luminous Mysteries to the faithful by way of the repetition of the Ave Maria.
4. In repeating the Ave Maria while meditating upon the mysteries of the Rosary, Christians are called into the story of the Gospel, making their own the words of the Angel Gabriel and Saint Elizabeth and entering into to the mystery revealed in the Sacred Text.
5. Entering into the mystery of Christ through the Rosary meditation requires more than mere recalling of the Gospel text.  In order to access the depths of the message revealed in the Gospel one must be familiar with the narrative landscape within which the Gospel was originally preached.  Thus, in order to grasp the mysteries of Christ we must turn to the Old Testament background as a foundation.
6. The Old Testament background itself is founded upon the story of the creation and fall of man revealed in Genesis 1-3.  Therefore, in order to grasp Gospel narratives such as the Baptism of Christ we must understand certain themes set out in Genesis as a foundation.
7. With a foundation in the story of the Garden of Eden we will be well equipped to understand the over-all story of the Old Testament, and thus be prepared to gain insight into the Mysteries of Light.

---

[1]John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae (16 October 2002), Vatican Translation: On the Most Holy Rosary (Boston: St. Paul Books & Media, 2002), section 1.  All further references will be sited by section number.

[2]The theme of recapitulation (Gk. anakefalaiwsij) in Christ, though almost lost in modern scholarship, was common place in the early Church Fathers.  Luigi Gambero explains that, “According to Saint Paul, the Redeemer brought together or ‘recapitulated’ in himself all the things and events that had happened since the first creation, reconciling everything to God.  In this view, the salvation of man appears as a second creation, which is essentially a kind of repetition of the first creation” [Luigi Gambero, Mary and the Fathers of the Church; trans. Thomas Buffer (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1999), 52].  This theme is found clearly in Saint Irenaeus of Lyons who writes, “When [the Son of God] took flesh and became man, he recapitulated in himself the long history of men, . . . so that in Christ Jesus we might recover what we had lost in Adam, namely, the image and likeness of God” [Irenaeus of Lyons, Adv. Haer. 3, 18; PG 7, 932; quoted in Gambero, Mary and the Fathers of the Church, 53].

[3]John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 25.

[4]“Listening to the Master in the mysteries of his public ministry, they find the light which leads them to enter the Kingdom of God.”  Ibid.

[5]Ibid., 14. 

[6]Ibid., 19. 

[7]Ibid., 2. 

[8]Ibid., 24. 

[9] Paul VI, Marialis Cultus (2 February 1974), L’Osservatore Romano translation: no vernacular title given (Hales Corners, Wisconsin: Priests of the Sacred Heart, 1974), section 44.

[10]John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 43.

[11] Ibid., 27.

[12]Ibid., 30.

[13] Ibid.

[14]Although this “deeper” meditation is required regarding every mystery of the life of Christ, it is most necessary regarding the Luminous Mysteries since many of the faithful are not habituated to regular meditation on these events.

[15]Catechism of the Catholic Church (Boston:  Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1994), 129.

[16]David Chilton, Paradise Restored (Tyler, Texas: Reconstruction Press, 1985).  The theme of the “Edenic Paradigm” is used by Chilton throughout his work Paradise Restored.

[17]Jean Daniélou, In the Beginning . . . : Genesis I-III (Baltimore, Md.: Helicon Press, 1965), 69.

[18]St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation, I.I (Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2002), 26

[19]Jean Danielou, The Bible and the Liturgy (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1956), 4.

[20]Danielou, The Bible and the Liturgy, 4-5.  C.f. Hosea 2:14, Ez. 36:35, Is. 51:3.

[21]Danielou, The Bible and the Liturgy, 5.  C.f. 1 Cor. 15:45, Rom. 5:14.

[22]John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 25.

[23]Ibid., 43.

[24]St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 1:4.

The Luminous Mysteries - Preface

In the year of our Lord 2002, His Holiness Pope John Paul II unveiled before the eyes of the faithful his instruction on a deeper mediation upon the life of Christ.  Seeing a need to enter more fully into the life of the Savior, the Pope instructed his children to meditate upon the active life of Christ.  Under the title of the Luminous Mysteries, His Holiness highlighted five mysteries of the life of the Son of God by which the faithful would gain an ever-greater vision of their own path of redemption.  Unfortunately for most Catholics, the promulgation of the Luminous Mysteries in the Apostolic Letter, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, has been little more than a passing memory.  But, for some Catholics, the Mysteries of Light have been a great source of mediation over the past few years and have resulted in an increase of grace at the hands of the Blessed Mother.  For these Catholics, dedicated disciples of Christ, led by the successor of Peter, a great desire has been engendered to enter into the active life of Christ through repetition of the Ave Maria.  This desire is increased with every passing moment as the Luminous Mysteries are again and again brought before the thirsty eyes of the soul.  It is toward these Faithful, desirous of a greater unity with the mysteries of the life of the Christ, that these next posts are aimed.  Over the next few weeks we will journey through the Gospels, from the Jordan River to the Holy City of Jerusalem, walking in the footsteps of the Savior and learning from him the revelation of the Mysteries of Light.

Great Quotation from Pope Benedict XVI

"The essential task of authentic education at every level is not simply that of passing on knowledge, essential as this is, but also of shaping hearts."

From his recent address to the American bishops during their ad limina visit.