First Glorious
Mystery ~ The Resurrection
“In Thy resurrection, O Lord,” sings the Church, “the
heavens and the earth rejoice.” Mary’s joy as she clasps Jesus again in her
arms is the first-fruits of the universal rejoicing of all creation in the
resurrection of God its Redeemer from the dead. “Behold, I create a new heavens
and a new earth, saith the Lord, and the former things shall not be in
remembrance” (Isa. lxv. 17).
The earth has been sprinkled with the blood of the
Just One, which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel. And Mary rejoices
to see in spirit the fulfilment of His promise, “If He shall lay down His life
for sin, He shall see a long-lived seed, and the will of the Lord shall be
prosperous in His hand” (Isa. liii. 10). In the glorified presence of her
Divine Son, she has an earnest of the fulfilment of these words, “For as the
new heavens and the new earth which I make to stand before Me,” saith the Lord,
"so shall your seed stand before Me, and your name” (Isa. lxvi. 22).
Mary’s joy as she clasps Jesus in her arms is a joy
that succeeds to an intensity of grief. A moment ago, and she was the Mother of
Sorrows, now the first-fruits of the rejoicing of all creation at its
restoration to justice are hers. Can she then fail to call to mind the words of
consolation addressed in a figure to the holy Job, “Thou shalt forget misery,
and remember it only as waters that are passed away, and brightness like that
of noonday shall arise to thee in the evening, and when thou shalt think
thyself consumed, thou shalt rise as the daystar” (Job xl. 16). “According to the multitude of the sorrows
that were in my heart,” exclaims holy David in a figure of Mary, “Thy comforts
have given joy to my soul” (Ps. xciii. 19). If only some such thoughts as these
may have passed through the mind of Mary on the morning of the resurrection,
can they fail to commend themselves to the heart of the pious Christian who
shall stop to contemplate mystery of His Faith— the Resurrection of Jesus from
the dead, the victory of creation over death!
“Death is swallowed up in victory,” each one who names
the name of Christ may now say. And he who had the power of death, to whom all
by reason of their fear of death were subject, that is the devil, is now
overcome by One stronger than himself. Can any thought be more full of
consolation for one who knows that it is appointed to him once to die? The
devil, who before this held men subject to him by the fear of death, has,
thanks be to God! had this power of the terror of death taken out of his hands.
Jesus, by submitting Himself to death, and by rising from the dead, has shown
us that death is no longer to be feared. “Glory be to God!” therefore is the
Christian’s cry: “The net is broken, and we are delivered” (Ps. cxxiii. 7).
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