Should you wish to climb
up a tree with its lower branches it will provide steps before your feet, eager
to make you recline in its bosom above, on the couch of its upper
branches. So arranged is the surface of
these branches, bent low and cupped—while yet dense with flowers—that they
serve as a protective womb for whoever rests there.
Who has ever beheld such
a banquet in the bosom of a tree, with fruit of every savor ranged for the hand
to pluck? Each type of fruit in due
sequence approaches, each awaiting its turn: fruit to eat, and fruit to quench
the thirst; to rinse the hands there is dew, and leaves to dry them with
after—a treasure store which lacks nothing, whose Lord is rich in all things.
Around the trees the
air is limpid as the saints recline; below them are blossoms, above them fruit;
fruits serve as their sky, flowers as their earth. Who has ever heard of or seen a cloud of
fruit providing shade for the head, or a garment of flowers spread out beneath
the feet?[iii]
In meditating upon the Mysterium
Lucis, we have applied the “valid method” proposed by the Holy Father, John
Paul II, and followed his instruction to “put out into the deep” into the
greatest mysteries of the life of the Savior.
Applying the advice of Saint Athanasius, we have begun in the beginning,
with the creation of the world, and we have seen for ourselves that “the
renewal of creation has been accomplished by the Self-same Word Who made it in
the beginning.”
Standing with Moses on Sinai, let
us see the Creator form Adam from the dust of the ground, filling his nostrils
with the breath of the Holy Spirit. Let
us see the serpent whisper the seed of deceit into the ear of Eve, and let us
see Mary become Eve’s advocate at the wedding at Cana. Let us be baptized with Jesus in the Jordan, and see
the Holy Spirit descend upon Adam once again.
Let us experience the saving words of the King’s proclamation of release
from sin, and let us ascend Tabor to behold the Transfigured One, like Adam in Paradise. Let us
lean upon the breast of Christ at the banquet table of God, and let us reach
forth our hands to the Cross and pluck the saving fruit of the Tree of
Life. Let us hear Jesus whisper into our
ears “Behold, your mother,” and to our mother, “Behold your son” (Jn. 19:27),
restoring the woman as the “mother of all the living,” and granting to her
children the right to be called “sons of God” once more. And singing the laudations of the Virgin with
the words of the Ave Maria, let us enter into Christ and be resurrected
from the sin of death, walking once again in the Paradise of God.
“You banished us
from Paradise, and you recalled us; you
stripped off the fig leaves, an unseemly covering, and put upon us a costly
garment. . . . No longer shall Adam be confounded when you call, nor hide
himself, convicted by his conscience, cowering in a thicket of Paradise. Nor
shall the flaming sword encircle Paradise
around and make the entrance inaccessible to those who draw near; but all is
turned to joy for us who were heirs of sin.
Paradise, yes heaven itself may be
trodden by man.”[iv]
[i]
Danielou, The Bible and the Liturgy, 341.
[ii] Ibid.,
168.
[iii]
Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on Paradise,
137-138.
[iv] St.
Gregory of Nyssa, Homily on the Baptism of Christ, 46:600, as quoted in
Danielou, The Bible and the Liturgy, 40. (note to self – this is a different
translation than Danielou).
