The Glorious Mysteries - Meditations by Abp. Fulton Sheen
The Resurrection
Our Lord compared Himself to a seed, saying that unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it will not bring forth new life. Now, by the power of God, along with the spring flowers, He rises to new life, inflicting upon the world the only serious wound it has ever received-the unhealing wound of the empty tomb.
The birth of the Son of God in human form was announced to a Virgin; the first announcement of His Resurrection was proclaimed to a converted sinner-Magdalene-so that none of us would lose hope. Thomas the Apostle could not believe until he put his hand into His side and until he touched the hands of our Lord with his fingers. Hence we know that Christ retained not His wounds, but His scars as proof of His love. “Thus I was wounded in the house of my friends” (Zech 13:6).
The Resurrection begins to affect our lives on the day of Holy Baptism. During this rite, we are immersed in the waters as if we were buried in a tomb to sin and death; emerging from the water, clothed in grace-the foundation of Divine love-we are like Christ rising from the grave in the glory of the Resurrection.
Although we rise in spirit with Christ and “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20), our bodies will not share in this glory until our final resurrection. In the meantime, our body must be crucified with the Body of Christ, so that we may rise with Him.
On the way to Emmaus on Easter Sunday, our Lord said to His disciples: “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Lk 24:26). But if such is to be the law of Innocence, how could we, the guilty, hope to escape suffering?
The Ascension
Our Lord did not ascend into heaven immediately after the Resurrection, but remained on earth for forty days, speaking to the Apostles about the Kingdom of God. It was during these days that He outlined the details of His Church, which, as Christ foretold, was to manifest itself visibly on the day of Pentecost.
“So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God” (Mk 16:19). The word “sat” is a metaphorical expression of the eternal rest that Christ merited by His victory over sin. The phrase “at the right hand” is a symbol of His power of eternal intercession for us with the Heavenly Father.
The Ascension of Christ is a guarantee of our own ascension after the Day of Judgment. Although we have not yet ascended into heaven in the body, we enjoy the assumption of our souls into heaven, uniting with Him. We find our true home in heaven. It is toward heaven that we look, awaiting the saving coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ; He will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious Body-so effective is His power that all things become subject to Him.
O heavenly Magnet, in every Communion draw our body and blood to Your Body and Your Blood, so that-already imitating You in our heart-we may later ascend into heaven with You in the body!
The Descent of the Holy Spirit
Many wished that our Savior would remain on earth, so that we could hear His voice, see His compassionate gaze, and bring children to receive the blessing given by His hand. But Christ said: “Look, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (Jn 16:7).
If our Lord had remained on earth, He would have been merely an example for us to copy-He would not be the life for us to live. By returning to His heavenly Father, He could send from Him and from Himself the Holy Spirit, through whom He was henceforth to live on earth in His new body-the Church.
The human body is composed of millions of cells, yet it is one organism animated by one soul; it is presided over by a visible head and governed by an invisible mind. Likewise, on the day of Pentecost, the Apostles, who were like the cells of a body, became the Mystical Body of Christ because they were animated by His Holy Spirit, presided over by a visible head, Peter, and governed by an invisible head, Christ in heaven. Our glorious Church is not an organization, but an organism. Just as our Lord once taught, governed, and sanctified through the human Body He took from the womb of His Blessed Mother, so now He teaches, governs, and sanctifies through His Mystical Body, which He took from the womb of humanity overshadowed by the Holy Spirit.
Christ was infallible when He spoke through His human Body; He is still infallible when He teaches through the Mystical Body. Christ sanctified when He uttered words of forgiveness of sins with human lips. He still sanctifies when He forgives sins through the power of His priests. Christ governed through His human Body and still governs. “The one who hears you hears me” (Lk 10:16).
Just as a drop of blood can live in the body but cannot live outside it, so none of us can live the fullness of Christ's Life outside His Mystical Body, the Church.
The Assumption of Mary
What the Ascension was to our Lord, the Assumption is to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Undeniably She, the new Garden of Paradise in which grew the lily of Divine sinlessness and the red rose of the Church, could not be abandoned and forgotten by the heavenly Gardener. She, in whose womb the marriage of time and eternity took place, belongs more to eternity than to time. If husband and wife in marriage become two in one flesh, should not She, who is the new Eve of the new Adam, become with Him two in one spirit?
Just as Christ ascended into heaven in union with the Divine nature, so Mary is assumed into Heaven in union with the human nature of Christ. Her mystical flight toward heaven is an event that stirs our entire generation.
Our age of carnality, which loves ”beautiful bodies,” is lifted from despair by the Assumption, which honors a body that is beautiful because it is the temple of God, the gate through which the heavenly Word came to earth, the Ivory Tower up which Divine Love climbed to place a kiss upon the lips of His Mother, the Mystical Rose.
The Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth
Into a strange country Mary went-
And they crowned Her for a Queen,
For it sufficed that they saw Her.
They did not have to ask questions,
And they bowed beneath the immensity of Her beauty,
Just as we once did.
But She went further, to the highest places,
And a great light shone from above the pillars of the throne whereon sat the King of that country.
And She wept aloud, as she did then, beneath the place of execution,
Because She saw Her Son.
Yes, in this strange country Mary reigns,
In the crown He placed upon Her.
But She has not forgotten Her own.
She calls them to cry to Her in their longing, until at last She calls them-and they shall stand in the radiance
Beyond the doors of their tombs.
(Gilbert Keith Chesterton, “Regina Caelorum”)