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Woman of Faith: The Resurrection
Fr. J. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
The Glorious Mysteries not only remind us of the resplendent conquest of Jesus but even more so, actually insert us into His Triumph . . .
Woman of Faith
The Rosary, like the Gospels, ends up in Victory!
The Glorious Mysteries not only remind us of the resplendent conquest of Jesus but even more so, actually insert us into His Triumph; for the contemplation of the Victorious Mysteries of the Rosary unites us to Jesus as the Conquering Lord of All. We truly participate ever more intensely – in the Easter Mysteries as we pray our final five decades. Since the Rosary is so profoundly an integration of the Gospels in our lives, its daily recitation truly strengthens us, forms us, recreates us into the image of Jesus, the Victorious Risen Lord. What a privilege, what a source of strength, to pray the Rosary daily!
In the final episode of the Sorrowful Mysteries, we stood with Mary on Calvary and contemplated the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom executed on the gibbet of the cross. Creation had plunged to its nadir; the sin of the world had reached its culmination, for we crucified the Lord of Glory. (cf 1 Cor 2:8).
However, if the history of Jesus ended on Calvary, if the crucifixion were the final mystery, then we would of all people be the most foolish. (cf 1 Cor 15:19). Jesus would be The Great Failure. The world would still be in its sins. The final word spoken over this cosmos would be Death!.
But that is not the reality! Rather, we jubilantly cry out; “The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon “! (Lk 24:34). And we boldly proclaim with Paul; “Death is swallowed up in victory . . . Thanks be to God who has given us the victory through Our Lord Jesus Christ”. (1 Cor 15:54).
The Core of the Easter Message
What appears to be the earliest catechism lesson formulated by the followers of Christ contains the core of the Easter message; “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures . . . he was buried . . . he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and . . . he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve”. (l Cor 15:3-5). Paul himself learned this formula shortly after his conversion on the road to Damascus. It summarizes the content of the first Glorious mystery of the Rosary.
The stress of the early Christians as expressed in the inspired word of God is that Jesus, truly dead and buried, rose victorious on the third day and appeared to chosen witnesses.
Can we therefore say that Jesus returned to this life? No, that would not be in accord with the scriptures. Jesus is the New Adam, inaugurating a new creation. The resurrection is definitely not a Lazarus-event. Jesus raises the brother of Martha and Mary. This is true. However, Lazarus returned to this life with all its limitations and weaknesses and one day suffered illness and finally, death. But the risen Jesus dies no more; in the fullness of His being, body and soul, he is in the realm of His ABBA, the Father.
A New Creation
He is the first-born of this radically new creation; He is the ultimate, final Victory over sin and death. The identical Jesus who died upon the Cross, the identical Jesus buried in the tomb is now with Yahweh, victorious, triumphant forevermore. And it is from the realm of the Glory of Yahweh that Jesus makes himself to be truly seen by chosen witnesses.
Jesus does not walk out of the tomb and back into this world as Lazarus did. By no means! The power of His ABBA assumes His Incarnate Beloved into Infinite Glory. The tomb is empty, for no matter what contemporary philosophy may conjecture about the necessity of a truly bodily resurrection, the word of God as constantly proclaimed by the Church makes it eminently clear that the body lying in the tomb has become the instrument of Christ’s everlasting glory. A new age has begun, a new world where suffering, crying and death are no more. “Behold, I make all things new,” (Rev 21:5) says the Risen Lord.
However, the Resurrection not only has meaning for Jesus, constituting Him as the Victorious Lord over all, as the New Adam of the new creation, as the Conqueror of sin and death. It has such meaning for us that to deny the Resurrection of Jesus is to deny Christianity itself!
Does not Jesus summarize all creation?
As the climactic point of this universe where creation is the personal externalization of the Eternal Beloved of the Father, Jesus encapsulates the entire cosmos.
Everything Jesus Does . . . Is For Us
Everything Jesus says and does is for us, in our name. He dies for us. He is risen for us, “for our justification “. (Rom 4:25). As Paul so often states, we die with Christ, we rise with Christ. Then in Christ, we are victorious! Battles may be lost, but the war has been won in Christ Jesus Risen! We do not know the intervening chapters of history, but the final, decisive chapter has already been published; Victory! Humankind’s purpose does not come from within history; its certain, victorious goal is the Risen Lord.
As in a play, the climactic scene renders everything before and after it intelligible, so too in history, its climactic moment – the resurrection of the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom – is the fundamental insight into the meaning of this universe and its history. The goal of the cosmos is anticipated for us in the Easter event; to be one with the Risen Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, so that through the Victorious Lord we may be one with God the Father for all eternity.
Madonna and Child: Italian Painter: Sandro Botticelli: 1468
This is a portion of the painting, removing the background, and focusing on Mary and the Child Jesus. The original Queen of All Hearts’ magazine article on the inside pages features this second image. The original also applied a pink filter for a dramatic presentation. The Queen duplicates this image using the live painting, which resides in the Louvre, Paris, France.
“My Savior, Jesus Christ, we offer you our sleep in honor of and in union with your sleep, your death and your burial; and our awakening tomorrow in honor of and in union with your holy resurrection. We adore your holy dispositions in these actions, and we beg of you the grace to make them our own”.
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Meditation on This Mystery Fills Us With Hope
Meditating upon the first Glorious mystery, fills us with hope. Not that the world is always on an upward evolutionary spiral. Present events, with the possibility of war contradict such interpretation. Yet, the final outcome – without knowing precisely how it will be achieved – is joyfully proclaimed by Paul; the victory is ours through Our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything we say, everything we do, everything we suffer must always be seen only against the backdrop of the Victorious Cross. Our faith in Christ leads not to death but to eternal victorious Life; the Risen Christ Jesus, Our Lord!
Saint Louis de Montfort’s Night Prayers call upon his religious congregations, the Daughters of Wisdom and the Montfort Missionaries, to end the day with this beautiful prayer. “My Savior, Jesus Christ, we offer you our sleep in honor of and in union with your sleep, your death and your burial; and our awakening tomorrow in honor of and in union with your holy resurrection. We adore your holy dispositions in these actions, and we beg of you the grace to make them our own”.
It appears that Saint Louis de Montfort would want our first thoughts on awakening to be that Jesus is Risen, that The Cross is Victorious. We are people of hope! We are people of joy! Everything during the day is seen against the victorious horizon of the first Glorious mystery of the Rosary, the Resurrection.
