Week 10: Passages 496 - 540

We are now on week 10. This week we are reading passages 496 – 540.

We continue our journey through the Creed with Roman Numeral II. Born of the Virgin Mary.
The Church confesses Mary’s perpetual virginity. Some people claim that Jesus had brothers, as mentioned in the Bible, but this term actually referred to close relatives.
There are several reasons that God chose to have his Son be born of a virgin (CCC 503-507):

• Mary’s virginity manifests God’s absolute initiative in the Incarnation, Jesus had only God as Father.




• Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit because he is the New Adam, head of the redeemed humanity. Adam was of the earth (made from dust), Jesus is from Heaven.




• Jesus ushers in the new birth of children adopted by the Holy Spirit through faith. Participation in the divine life is the gift of God to man. The spousal character of the human relation to God is fulfilled perfectly in Mary’s virginal motherhood.




• Mary’s virginity is a sign of her faith unadulterated by doubt, and her undivided gift of herself to God’s will.




• Mary is a symbol of the Church:

“the Church indeed…by receiving the word of God in faith becomes herself a
mother. By preaching and Baptism she brings forth sons, who are conceived
by the Holy Spirit and born of God, to a new and immortal life. She
herself is a virgin, who keeps in its entirety and purity the faith she pledged
to her spouse.” (CCC 507)

Paragraph 3. The Mysteries of Christ’s Life



When I first glanced through this section, to prepare to take more detailed notes, I wasn’t too excited. After all, I know about the details of Jesus’ life (he was born in a manger, died on the cross etc. etc.), so I figured these reading would be mostly review. However, when I actually read through the passages this quote jumped out at me and shed a new light on the import of what I was reading:

“We must continue to accomplish in ourselves the stages of Jesus’ life and his
mysteries and often to beg him to perfect and realize them in us and in his
whole Church…For it is the plan of the Son of God to make us and the whole
Church partake in his mysteries and to extend them to and continue them in us
and in his whole Church. This is his plan for fulfilling his mysteries in
us.” (CCC 521)

I. Christ's Whole Life is Mystery


We can see the mystery of who Jesus was in the events of his earthly life, in his deeds, words and miracles. His earthly life is a sacrament (a tangible sign) of his divinity and the salvation he brings.

“Christ’s whole earthly life – his words and deeds, his silences and sufferings,
indeed his manner of being and speaking – is Revelation of the Father.
Jesus can say: ‘Whoever has seen me has seen the Father,’ and the Father can
say: ‘This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!’” (CCC 516)

Christ’s whole life is a mystery of redemption. Not only does his death on the cross reveal this mystery, but also:
“-already in his Incarnation through which by becoming poor he enriches us with poverty;
-in his hidden life which by his submission atones for our disobedience;
-in his healing and exorcisms by which ‘he took our infirmities and bore our diseases’;
-and in his Resurrection by which he justifies us.” (CCC 517)

Christ is our model, he wants us to follow him. He wants to live in him and he in us. His riches are for everyone.

II. The Mysteries of Jesus’ Infancy and Hidden Life

The Preparations
God prepared for the coming of his Son to earth over the course of centuries.

“He makes everything converge on Christ: all the rituals and sacrifices, figures
and symbols of the ‘First Covenant.’ He announces him through the mouths
of prophets who succeeded one another in Israel. Moreover, he awakens in
the hearts of the pagans a dim expectation of this coming.” (CCC 522)

St. John the Baptist is the Lord’s forerunner, sent to prepare the way. This expectancy and preparation is made present by the Church in the Liturgy of Advent.





The Christmas Mystery
Christ was born in a stable to a humble family and visited by shepherds. We must become like children in relation to God, Christ must be born in us.

The Mysteries of Jesus’ Infancy
Jesus is circumcised on the eight day, this is a sign of his relationship to Abraham, the people of the covenant and his submission to the Law of Israel. It is a sign of the “circumcision of Christ”, Baptism.
At the Epiphany the Magi visit Jesus to show us that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel and that the good news of salvation is also for the pagans.
The presentation in the temple shows that Jesus is the firstborn Son who belongs to the Lord. Jesus is revealed by Anna and Simeon as the “light of the nations”, “glory of Israel” and “a sign that is spoken against.”
The flight into Egypt recalls the Exodus and presents him as the liberator of God’s people. It also shows the opposition of darkness to light, as Christ’s whole life was lived under persecution.

The Mysteries of Jesus’ Hidden life
Jesus spent most of his life as the majority of human beings do, a daily life without greatness full of manual labor. We know that Jesus was obedient to his parents, a perfect fulfillment of the fourth commandment and a reparation for the disobedience of Adam.

“The hidden life of Nazareth allows everyone to enter into fellowship with Jesus
by the most ordinary events of daily life.” (CCC 533)

The finding of Jesus in the temple is the only break in the silence of the hidden years. Here we get a glimpse of the mystery of Jesus’ mission.





III. The Mysteries of Jesus’ Public Life
The Baptism of Jesus
When Jesus is baptized in the Jordan he is allowing himself to be numbered among the sinners and displaying his obedience to the Father’s will. The Holy Spirit comes to rest on him and the heavens (that Adam had closed) are opened. Through Baptism we are able to participate in Jesus’ death and Resurrection.
“The Christian must enter into the mystery of humble self-abasement and repentance, go down into the water with Jesus in order to rise with him, be reborn of water and the Spirit so as to become the Father’s beloved son in the Son and ‘walk in newness of life.’” (CCC 537)

Jesus’ Temptations
After his Baptism Jesus goes into the desert for forty days, at the end of this time Satan tempts him three times, just as Adam was tempted and the Israelites were tempted in the desert. Jesus remains faithful where Adam gives in to temptation and remains obedient to the Father where the Israelites strayed. Jesus’ victory in the desert foreshadows his victory at the Passion. Jesus’ temptation reveals the way that he is the Messiah, contrary to the vision of an earthly leader that men were expecting and Satan tempts him with. Jesus conquered Satan for us, so that he could be like us in all but sin. The Church unites us to this mystery during the forty days of Lent.


Questions for Reflection:

• The readings about the mysteries of Jesus' life (CCC 512-570) can be applied to the Mysteries of the Rosary. Do you pray the Rosary daily, and reflect on the mysteries of Jesus' life? I know I am often very sloppy about this!
• CCC 521 tells us that we must beg Jesus to perfect his mysteries in us and in the whole Church. Choose one mystery (or two!) from our readings (CCC 522-540) to work on accomplishing in yourself.