The ResurrectionThe Resurrection
And when it begun to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary, bringing sweet spices to the sepulchre that they might anoint Jesus. And behold an Angel of the Lord descended from Heaven and rolled back the stone from the mouth of the sepulchre and was sitting on the right side. And his countenance was as lightning, and his raiment as snow. And he said: 'Fear not; ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen. He is not here. But go, tell His Disciples and Peter that He goeth before you go into Galilee; there you shall see Him as He told you.' (Matthew 18:1,2,3,5; Mark 16:6,7)
The Resurrection symbolizes the new life in Christ. The numbing, paralyzing and unproductive winter period has passed. Now there is only surging energizing, responsive spring time at hand. The winter of Christ's sufferings is over. The glorious, joyous spiritual spring-time is at hand.
The Might of the Resurrection
The power of God is made manifest in the Resurrection. Man's seeming might in the military front of the Romans, in the religious and prevailing fanaticism of the Jews, in the fury of the rabble, in the sweep of human respect that undid Pilate, has now crumbled before the might of God. "Who is like unto God?" All opposition is feeble and futile.
The Resurrection is like a colorful re-investure of Christ with those qualities which were always co-natural to His nature: might, power, vigor, dominion. Life that is surging and effulgent. In Christ's Resurrection I see mirrored my own resurrection.
Christ's Resurrection
So over-powering to Saint Paul was the connection of Christ's Resurrection with his own. that he boldly affirms: "If Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain; and your faith is also vain." (1 Corinthians 15:14). Reflect that the Resurrection of Christ is the facsimile of your own resurrection.
The Identical Body
Christ rose in the same body that submitted to seeming defeat and ignominy on Good Friday. Recall the scene. On Good Friday what a sickening sight! See Christ's body battered and bruised and torn. How fearfully it is gashed! Wounds, blood, lacerations, spittle, dirt, dust, scars disfigure it. Truly the words of Isaias are fearfully fulfilled "a worm, and no man." Mary's Heart is crushed at the sight of it. Her memory is cruelly tortured: Bethlehem and Nazareth. Now her soul is seared by the keen-edged blade of sorrow.
Easter Morning
On Easter morning, behold the change! Christ's body leaps forth triumphantly from the jaws of the grave. It is gloriously transformed! Like a blinding sun it emits lustrous rays. His holy Head is encircled with a shining nimbus. His sacred wounds flash forth golden lancelets of brilliance. His whole body is bathed in glowing splendor. This is Christ the Victor who exults like a giant to run His course. All hail to Thee, O Risen Christ, as pattern of our own resurrection.
Christ Our Model
In parallel glory to Christ's, will the body of the just be clothed on the glorious morning of the general resurrection. For this, our life must parallel Christ's. As was Christ's resurrection, so will be ours. How grateful we should be to Christ for His glorious resurrection.
Reflection
Let us finally rejoice in knowing that the very body that we now keep in subjection, that we mortify, that we use as the instrument of the soul, will one day rise in glory.
Truly we should often say, in the face of the doctrine of the resurrection: Remember dust that thou art splendor.
The measure of the body's glory will be in proportion to the measure of its sharing in the sufferings of Christ.
"If we suffer with Christ, we will likewise be glorified with Him." - Romans 8:17
Immaculate Heart of Mary, confirm our faith in Christ's Resurrection.
The Ascension
Now whilst they were speaking these things, Jesus stood in the midst of them and said to them: 'Peace be to you; it is I, fear not.' And He showed them His hands and His feet. . . . And He led them out as far as Bethania and lifting up His hands He blessed them. And it came to pass whilst He blessed them He was carried up to Heaven; and sitteth on the right hand of God. (Luke 24:35,50; Mark 16:19)
The mystery of the Ascension invites us to ponder upon three thoughts:
1. Heaven in the other world.
2. Its acquisition in this world.
3. The cycle of the Redemption closes with the Ascension.
Heaven in the Other World
If Christ is our head, and we His members, then one day we too must go back to Heaven with Him. Where the head is, there the members must likewise be. The Church encourages us to ponder on Heaven. The pity is that we do not utilize this pleasing doctrine of Heaven more often to stimulate us to saintly ways. In fact the Church has condemned the proposition which stated that it is wrong to propose Heaven to ourselves as the reward of a virtuous life. If this has been declared reprobate, and it has, then the correct doctrine is that we may, and should, ponder upon Heaven as the legitimate reward for faithful service here below.
The Joys of Heaven
The doctrine of Heaven intrigues us to rest calmly in its consolations and joys. Heaven will fully satisfy our every longing. In Heaven there will be exquisite joys, says Saint Paul. "Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the joy, God has in store for those who love Him." (Corinthians 2:9)
In Heaven we will enjoy the noble companionship of Christ and of Mary, His Mother, of Saint Joseph, the martyrs, the confessors, the virgins, the doctors; in a word of good people in abundance "gathered from every tribe and tongue, and people."
In Heaven there will be beauty untellable, satiety most refreshing. We will drink from the torrents of God's joys. We will be filled with good things from the rich larder of God's Treasure-trove. We will be regaled by the effulgence of the Beatific Vision of God. Nothing will cloy us. And, remember, O devout soul, all this not for a day, not for a year, not for a century or millennium, but forever. Ponder this and revolve in holy reverie these stimulating truths of our holy faith. The word is Heaven.
Its Acquisition is in This World
Wrapped in ecstasy the Apostles stood gazing, as if in a daze, at the clouds that had enveloped the ascending Christ in their soft, billowy whiteness. They are startled in their trance by two men in white garments who also said: "Ye men of Galilee why stand ye looking up to Heaven? This Jesus who is taken up from you unto Heaven shall so come as you have seen Him going into Heaven!" (Acts 1:10-11). As much as to say: rouse yourselves now to action. Go now and interest the world in the things that are Christ's. "Go ye into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature." Traffic while it is day and lay up for yourselves rich treasures in Christ's eternal bank that when He returns to judgment at the end of all time you may come carrying, with joy and exultation, your abundant sheaves of merits, of good works. Work now, exert yourselves in His cause. Become expendable now. In other words, let each of you become a missionary in the cause of Christ.
Christ's Ascension and the Divine Cycle
Christ's Ascension closes the divine cycle. It climaxes as with a gesture of finality the decree of the Incarnation. This mystery of the Word-being-made.
In this stupendous Fact of the Word-being-made-Flesh, the Ascension closes the earthly cycle of the Incarnation. He, the mighty Eagle, with talons of love has swooped down to earth. Those who espouse His cause, who by a devout life enter upon this mystery which has been hidden from ages and generations" (Colossians 1:26) He has seized upon us as His precious prey. He has carried them aloft to the crags of the eternal hills to be His forever. There in unalloyed contemplation on the lofty mount, we will spend our blessed eternity. Thither Christ in His Ascension has gone to prepare a throne for us for "in My Father's House are many mansions." Ours now the blessed and sacred duty to apply ourselves to our sancitification "while it is yet day" and before the encircling gloom of night and barren activity descends to paralyze our powers for good.
Let us prepare each day for this thrilling moment by devout meditation upon the mystery of the Ascension.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, focus our thoughts more often on Heaven.
The Descent of the Holy Ghost
And when the days of Pentecost were ended they were all together in one 'place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with divers tongues according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak. (Acts 2:1-4)
The Mission World and the Upper Room
Christ's Life on earth laid the foundation for His celebrated command to the Apostles: "Going therefore teach ye all nations." How comprehensive in its sweep was such a command! It was world-embracing. Every continent, every island, every city and hamlet, the very inhabitants of the bleak northland, the dwellers of the torrid southland, were to hearken to the reverberations of the missionary's words. Well could he, the missionary, stagger under the impact of such a world-revolutionizing mandate. On whom could he rely for sustenance and support? From whom could he expect encouragement and impelling power? From whose arsenal could he look for a martyr's spiritual ammunition? The answer comes from Our Savior's words: "Stay ye in the city until ye be endued with power from on high." In other words, Our Lord bids them to await the coming of the promised Paraclete, and by Him and from Him and in Him the mission work in its magnificence and magnitude would be auspiciously inaugurated.
The Holy Ghost and the Incarnation
In sending the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles to compensate, as it were, for His bodily presence, Our Lord, we may delicately say, was rendering back to the same Holy Spirit a personal debt of gratitude. To understand this more clearly, let us here recall the beautiful mystery of the Incarnation. When the Archangel Gabriel came to Mary with his message of hope for mankind seeking the Motherhood of Mary, he was full of deepest reverence and awe as he said: "Hail, full of grace." Mary was startled. The Archangel then unfolds before her, like a gorgeous rose opening up in its full efflorescence, the mystery hidden for ages in the depths of the Godhead. He communicated to Mary God's wish that she assume the Motherhood of God. When this is all clear to her, she bows to the wish of the Most High, having been assured that the mystery of the Divine Conception would not impair her vowed virginity. The Archangel banishes this apprehension in the words: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; and therefore the Holy One to be born shall be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35) Mary acquiesces which means that thereby Our Saviour owes His Humanity to the power of the Holy Spirit. In this sense Our Lord contracts a debt, as it were, to the Third Person of the Adorable Trinity. Being ever grateful, Our Saviour, in establishing His Church and in giving her the mandate to spread throughout the world, will likewise include in a special manner, the cult of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, He will automatically, thereby, further the devotion to the Holy Spirit in His newly established earthly Kingdom. On Pentecost this promised Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles in tongues of fire. He sat on each one of them and took complete possession of them. He actually, not merely figuratively, "fired" them with the spiritual ambition to sally forth and to set the world on fire by beginning the conquest of the world for Christ and His Church.
Pentecost the Church's Birthday
Pentecost, is, therefore, the official birthday of the Church. It is the inauguration day of Christ's spiritual invasion of the mission fields. The Holy Ghost will be the heartbeat of that spiritual conquest. The Holy Ghost will be the driving power back of the missionary movement. The Holy Ghost will be the expression of Christianity. Where His Spirit blows, there will be life, and activity, and fruitfulness and expansion. Even as in the beginning, "the earth was void and empty and darkness was upon the face of the earth" until "the Holy Spirit moved over the waters", so today in the mission fields there is the starkness of death, there is the domination of evil and unproductiveness, until the advent of the Holy Spirit through Christ's workers.
Under His divine plan, and relying on His heavenly power, and impelled by His gracious inspirations, mission work today is encircling the globe.
Only when all are united to the Central Current, the Divine Spirit, will the day dawn when Christ, the Light of the world, and Mary the lesser Light, under Christ, will illuminate the pagan world. When such a happy day dawns, then will be fulfilled, thanks to the Holy Spirit, the ardent missionary prayer of the Venerable Arnold Janssen, Founder of the Divine Word Missionaries, that the darkness of sin and the night of paganism may vanish before the Light of the World and the Spirit of grace so that the Heart of Jesus may live in the hearts of men.
We can all, active and potential missionaries, foreign as well as enforced "stay-at-homes", help push forward the hands of the clock to the joyous hour by praying daily to the Holy Spirit for His abundant blessings upon the mission fields, missionary projects, for more missionary vocations, and for more missionary zeal and interest, that our lives may daily become more Christ-centered and thereby more Catholic and more missionary.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, and Spouse of the Holy Ghost, increase our devotion to the Holy Spirit.
The Assumption
Who is this that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved? Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array? (Canticles 8:6; 6:9)
In the introit for the Assumption we read: "Let us all rejoice in the Lord, celebrating a feast in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, over whose Assumption the angels rejoice and praise the Son of God."
Mary, the Different Woman
Mary is proudly proclaimed in the Catholic world as the different woman.
She is different in her Conception: "Thou art all fair, O Mary, and the stain of original guilt is not in thee."
She is different in her beautiful life of virtue. No stain of actual sin ever sullied her pure soul. Even the Protestant poet pays beautiful tribute to her Immaculateness: "Our tainted nature's solitary boast."
She is different in her sorrows. A seven-fold sorrow lanced her sinless soul. She is different in her death. The Fathers of the Church, especially of the Eastern Church, speak reluctantly of the close of her earthly exile. They avoid the use of the word death. They seek to soften the sting of death in her regard to which she was in no wise subject as far as death is a punishment for sin.
They refer gently to her passing as a "Dormition" or "Sleeping Away."
Mary is especially and uniquely different in her Assumption which is an anticipated resurrection.
The Tradition
Recall here the honored tradition which says that Mary died out of sheer love of God, and was duly buried. Later Saint Thomas, who was absent for the interment, returned and asked to see her holy body. At the opening of the tomb it was found emptied of its treasure. Sweet fragrance filled the air. God had not allowed that sacred body, the tabernacle of the Most High, and Christ's first ciborium upon earth, to suffer the dank corruption of the grave. With a reverend becomingness that holy body, from whose unsullied blood Christ had taken His own earthly humanity, was assumed bodily into Heaven. Christ, for His Mother, anticipated in her person, the resurrection. We know, further, that no one has been so bold as to claim the possession of a relic of Mary's holy body. And, now, as we go to press, we are happy to note that the Holy Father has made the announcement that on All Saints Day (1950) he will officially declare the Assumption of Mary's body into heaven an article of faith.
A Parallel
As the Ascension closed the divine cycle of Christ's earthly career, so the Assumption is the counterpart for Mary.
Mary's series of wonders began in eternity when the Blessed Trinity focused their gaze upon this fairest child of earth. They vie with each other in honoring her.
God the Father elects her as His daughter.
God the Son chooses her as His Mother.
God the Holy Ghost enriches her soul with exquisite adornments and selects her as His Immaculate Spouse.
These wonders, and all that they imply, as far as earth and time are concerned, have their climax in the mystery of the bodily Assumption of Mary into Heaven.
The Assumption a Full Life
In the Assumption Mary enters fully upon that life which is life indeed.
Through the Incarnation Mary had supplied the human elements for the formation of Christ's physical body. She was responsible for His earthly career, through the Divine agency of the Holy Spirit. We profess this doctrine when we affirm in the Apostles Creed: "Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary." She was truly the Mother of God.
In the Assumption Christ beautifully reciprocates this gift of life to Mary but in a different way. In dowering Mary with the life of Heaven through the Assumption, we behold Christ's unique way of rendering back to His Mother a life that is at once eternal, heavenly, and unmixed with any limiting earthly alloy. As Mary's advent prayers and yearnings for the Redeemer may be said to have hastened the coming to earth of Christ, so once more her yearnings and hungering for Christ after His Ascension merited beforehand the resurrection which, in Mary's case, we call her Assumption. May Mary's Assumption, which we contemplate in this mystery, help us to treat our bodies in such holiness as to merit for them a like assumption into Heaven with Mary in God's good time.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, keep our bodies pure like yours.
The Coronation
And the Temple of God was open in Heaven, and the ark of His testament was seen in His Temple. And a great sign appeared in Heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. (Apocalypse 11:19, 12:1)
To John on lonely Patmos came the enchanting vision of "A Woman clothed with the sun, and the moon was under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." (Apocalypse 12:1). It was a glorious picture vouchsafed Saint John of Mary's role as crowned Queen even of the visible material universe. Tradition cannot furnish us a background for the mystery of the Coronation. We rely solely upon the constant practice of Holy Mother the Church in incorporating this mystery into the recitation of the Rosary so thoroughly in accord with the sentiments and feelings of every Christian heart. This mystery was commonly recited in the Rosary from the 13th century. It is also the subject matter of one of the frescoes painted by the delicate hand of Fra Angelico. We readily accept the fact that her Assumption into Heaven and her subsequent coronation occasioned a threnody of joy and jubilation quite in keeping with that land of happiness and bliss. It is easy to see, likewise, how the present day descendants of Saint Thomas's preaching in India hail Mary in their liturgy and religious life with the beautiful title of "the Second Heaven."
In Holy Reverie
In this meditation imagine the scene of grandeur called Mary's Coronation. We mentioned before, in the meditation on the Assumption, of the Trinity's emulation in vesting Mary with every supernatural adornment. Fully completely, and to the utmost satisfaction of the Triune God had Mary responded by perfect compliance to Their every wish. In proof now of the Heavenly Father's complacency let us see Him signalizing His pleasure by crowning Mary as expressive of her dutifulness in the role of loving daughter. See in spirit the beaming countenance of Jesus whose features He received from Mary as He bestows on her through the coronation the corresponding Queenship in His heavenly Kingdom. Hear Him saying: "Mother dear, what is mine is wholly thine." See the joyous eagerness of the Holy Spirit as He again hovers over Mary and crowns her in Heaven as His eternal spouse.
The Heavenly Court
May we now in spirit see the whole heavenly court filing by Mary at the behest of the Holy Trinity. They pay their deference to Mary their crowned Queen. Recall here, from the Litany of Loretto, the beautiful titles of her Queenship:
Queen of Angels
Queen of Patriarchs
Queen of Prophets
Queen of Apostles
Queen of Martyrs
Queen of Confessors
Queen of Virgins
Queen of all Saints
As crowned Queen, Mary has now focused on her the heavenly gaze and attention and rapture of the whole heavenly court which will continue through all eternity. May we one day be among that happy group!
The Coronation God's Gesture
The coronation is God's unique way of honoring the humility, the virginity, the obedience, the loyalty, the sacrifices and the prayers of the Blessed Virgin. For Mary's beautiful service of Christ in time, Mary has won for herself the eternal gratitude of Christ in heaven.
As She on earth denied Him nothing, so in Heaven He can refuse her nothing. In a special way Christ shares with Mary, His Mother, the role of advocate and distributor of His graces. Mary we fondly hail as the mediatrix of all Graces. She is the spiritual channel of all Graces that descend from the throne of Heaven and cascade like a mighty torrent upon mankind. Each grace, and all graces, come to us perfumed by the hand of Mary. Such is God's will.
The Holy Spirit and Mary
The Holy Spirit, too, extends to Mary, by her coronation some of the might of His power over the demon-world. As He, the Heavenly Fire, came upon the Apostles (and Mary) in the form of fiery tongues and sent them forth to set the world on fire, so, too, today and every day He gathers His elect around Mary and by devotion to her, "fires" all souls with the ambition of sainthood.
Enkindled by such fire they will never fall into the fiery dungeon of hell. They will meet fire with fire.
Extension of her Queenship
We can say that Mary's Queenship is co-extensive with Christ's Kingship. To Christ has been given dominion over all people. His Kingdom extends from shore to shore. It embraces every age and generation. His Kingdom will endure eternally. His Kingdom is aptly described in the Preface for Christ the King as a Kingdom eternal and universal; a Kingdom of truth and life; a Kingdom of holiness and grace; a Kingdom of justice, love and peace. Mary, as Christ's Mother and crowned Queen, must have a parallel Kingdom as to time and extent and power and durability. Exultingly, for instance, we chant in the Nicene Creed at Holy Mass, "And of His Kingdom there will be no end." Of such also will Mary's Queenship be.
A Summing up
Rejoice exceedingly in the contemplation of this mystery of the Holy Rosary wherein Mary comes truly into her own. Unstintingly Mary had dowered Christ with all He possessed as to His perfect humanity. In the Incarnation it is Mary, a creature imprinting her features upon her God. In the Coronation it is the Creator reciprocating the plentitude of His gifts upon a creature, Mary. To the extent of that creature's capabilities of reception, Christ dowers Mary with a shared fullness of His power, beauty and glory.
Since Mary is Christ's and Christ is ours, let us be unsparing in our efforts to appropriate every grace as it comes along in our own life.
This fidelity will assure us of partaking eternally in the glory of that Heavenly Kingdom over which Christ reigns supreme as King and Mary as His crowned Queen, and Mother.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, crown our efforts to serve you well.
- text taken from Rosary Meditations for Fatima Saturday, by Father Lester Martin Dooley, S.V.D.