The Luminous Mysteries
Through the Luminous Mysteries God revealed the path to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus is the Kingdom - and the path that leads to him is
Baptism, Mary, Conversion, the Cross and the Eucharist
The First Luminous Mystery: The Baptism of Jesus
Why was Jesus baptized? Even John the Baptist wanted to prevent him saying, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so for now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
It wasn’t Jesus who needed Baptism, but us. God’s plan was to bring about a great exchange:
God would become man
so that man might become God, sharers that is, in the divine nature.
But something stood in the way of this exchange – sin – my sin and your sin – the consequences of which are death.
To make the exchange work – God must not only take on our human life, but also take on that which stood between us, our sin and death.
When does Jesus take on our sin and death? At his Baptism.
By stepping into the place of sinners, on the banks of the Jordan River
· He loaded the burden of all mankind’s guilt upon his shoulders
· He bore it down into the depths of the water
By His Baptism
· Jesus takes on the consequences of our sin - Death
In our Baptism we take on His life
· This is the Great Exchange!
· Col 1:13 By our Baptism God has taken us out of the power of darkness and created a place for us in the kingdom of the Son
The Second Luminous Mystery: The Wedding at Cana
Mary sees the need of the wedding couple; she turns to her Son and intercedes for them; then she directs the servants in what to do. This is how Mary acts as our Spiritual Mother:
1. She intercedes on our behalf with Jesus
2. She disposes (influences) us through her prayer
a. to know the will of God and do it
b. that we may become like Jesus
What should we do in return? The Church recommends that we:
1. Consecrate oneself to Mary as Jesus did in the Incarnation
2. Live in union with Mary as a little child with his mother
3. Sit at the school of Mary each day in the Rosary
JPII Rosarium 15
The Rosary mystically transports us to Mary's side as she is busy watching over the human growth of Christ in the home of Nazareth. This enables her to train us and to mold us with the same care, until Christ is “fully formed” in us (cf. Gal 4:19).
The Third Luminous Mystery: The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God
545 Jesus invites sinners to the table of the kingdom
· He invites them to that conversion without which one cannot enter the kingdom
At the same time Jesus shows them
· the boundless Mercy of the Father
· and the vast joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.
· The supreme proof of his love will be the sacrifice of his own life for the forgiveness of sins.
546 Jesus invites all people into the kingdom
· But he also asks for a radical choice:
· to gain the kingdom, one must give everything. (Mt 13:44-45; 22: 1-14)
o Detachment is required
226 Faith in God…leads us to use everything that is not God only insofar as it brings us closer to him, and to detach ourselves from it insofar as it turns us away from him. St. Nicholas of Flue prays:
My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances me from you.
My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you.
My Lord and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to you.
The Fourth Luminous Mystery: The Transfiguration
Jesus is Transfigured on Mt Tabor where He lets his divinity shine through His humanity - to show the Apostles - he is truly God.
He does this to strengthen them to stick with Him during His suffering and death.
The Transfiguration teaches us two things:
1. It shows us what we will be like in our Resurrection:
· When Jesus changes our lowly body to be like his glorious body (Phil 3:1)
2. Just as the suffering and death of Jesus brought about the salvation of souls and His Resurrection; so too, if we unite our pain, suffering and death, to the Cross of Jesus we can help him save souls
St. Augustine writes:
Peter did not yet understand this when he wanted to remain with Christ on the mountain. It has been reserved for you, Peter, but for after death. For now, Jesus says: "Go down to toil on earth, to serve on earth, to be scorned and crucified on earth. Life goes down to be killed; Bread goes down to suffer hunger; the Way goes down to be exhausted on his journey; the Spring goes down to suffer thirst; and you refuse to suffer?"
The Fifth Luminous Mystery: The Institution of the Eucharist
At the Last Supper Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." And likewise, the cup after supper, saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood."
With these words Jesus instituted the Eucharist – He changed bread and wine into Himself; Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity.
Jesus said: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the Last Day. For my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed…, so he who eats me will live because of me…he who eats this bread will live forever.
Jesus is the Kingdom and the path that lead to him is Baptism, Mary, Conversion, the Cross and the Eucharist