![]() ![]() As Jesus changed water to wine to bless marriage-which mirrors His relationship to the Church-so too would he change wine to His blood to perpetuate His sacrifice of redemption, drawing the members of His Church into union with Himself. This episode has been mined for centuries as a precious source for understanding the importance of both Mary and marriage, and for seeing the profound Christian links between water, wine and the blood of Christ. ![]() Mary and Jesus were both guests at the wedding, and it is significant that Jesus changed His hosts’ water into wine only at the request of His mother, who commanded the servants to “do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:5). He was thirty years old.Ĭhrist’s first recorded miracle, the first sign by which He manifested His Divine power, was performed at a wedding feast in Cana, when the wedding party ran out of wine. Jesus proceeded immediately into the wilderness to fast and pray, and when He heard that John had been arrested, He began to preach: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:115). When Our Lord emerged from the Jordan, his identity as the Son of God was manifested by the Holy Spirit descending on Him in the form of a dove, and a voice saying “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17). Accordingly, John was reluctant to baptize Jesus he consented to do so only when Jesus assured him it was necessary to “fulfill all righteousness” (Mt 3:15), that is, to do completely the will of the Father. John the Baptist was the first to recognize him as the One who was to come after him, the Lamb of God, whose sandals he was not worthy to carry. Our Lord’s public life began with his baptism, through which He immediately revealed several things. However, for those who have not yet delved into the new Luminous Mysteries, I’d like to introduce them to you here. It makes excellent spiritual reading, and it has spurred many to incorporate the Luminous Mysteries into their regular round of rosaries, generally on Thursdays as the Pope suggested. His text presents an extended meditation not only on the new mysteries, but on the Rosary as a whole, and on each of the traditional mysteries as well. It was in the document Rosarium Virginis Mariae (in English entitled On the Most Holy Rosary) that John Paul offered these new Mysteries of Light, or Luminous Mysteries. It is simply a reflection, and it led John Paul II to offer a new set of mysteries which emphasize Our Lord’s public ministry and how He revealed Himself and His Kingdom through it. Clearly, the Pope’s observation was correct: The Rosary as it traditionally evolved is curiously silent about the public ministry of Jesus Christ. The Glorious Mysteries celebrate His triumph over sin and death, including the corresponding triumph of His Blessed Mother. The Sorrowful Mysteries focus on His passion and deaththe consequences of his public ministry (though this was certainly what He came to accomplish). The Joyful Mysteries, for example, cover the conception, birth and infancy of Our Lord, along with the one episode we have from when He was twelve years old. In this sense, Our Lord’s public ministry is truly luminous. Yet it was through His public ministry that Christ primarily revealed both His own identity and His invitation to enter the Kingdom of God. The Pope pointed out that the traditional Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries, while commemorating signal events in salvation history, tended to ignore Our Lord’s public ministry. ![]() When Pope John Paul II proposed a new set of mysteries of the Rosary in 2002, he wished to make the Rosary even more into a compendium of the Gospel. ![]()
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