biblical meditation on the third mystery of the luminous rosary (part 1)
P. Vojtěch Brož
Jesus, the proclaimer of the gospel: The evangelist Mark, after introducing his gospel with the account of John the Baptist, Jesus' baptism, and his time in the wilderness, describes the beginning of Jesus' public ministry: “After John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’” (Mk 1:14–15). Thus, Jesus' public ministry begins with the proclaiming of the gospel. This proclamation of Jesus is a specific historical event. It has its precise coordinates in time and space: in Galilee, after the arrest of John the Baptist. The time of Jesus' proclamation is a new kairos, a favorable time, a time of salvation; a time delineated by approximately three years of his public ministry. Not everyone had the fortune to participate in this blessed time. Therefore, Jesus blesses the ears that were allowed to hear his words, which many prophets, righteous ones, and kings longed to hear, yet they did not hear (cf. Mt 13:16–17; Lk 10:23).
Jesus proclaims the gospel, the good news. In his words, there is also correction and warnings; there will be incomprehensible and unacceptable words about his cross and a call to follow – to the cross. Nevertheless, it remains a good news, a divine offer of salvation and life.
The content of Jesus' joyful message is the fullness of time and the nearness of God's kingdom, and the resulting requirement for repentance and faith. The fullness of time occurs when the kingdom of God, which Jesus proclaims, draws near. Jesus comes from eternity, from the realm of God. He carries eternity within himself. Coming from eternity into time, he fulfills time. Coming as the Son of God, eternally and freely devoted to the Father, he brings the kingdom of God to earth, where the "ruler of this world" reigns. The kingdom of God is neither a territorial nor a political category. The kingdom of God is God's governance. In a certain sense, it is already established everywhere because God is sovereign. However, the created world has attempted to escape from his grasp, to emancipate itself, thereby falling into the slavery of the one who led it astray, succumbing to the dominion of Satan. God respects human freedom, and therefore God's governance, in the fullest sense, is only where human beings freely submit to their Creator. Jesus comes into the world in obedience to the Father (cf. Heb 10:5–9), and thus he carries God's governance within himself. He establishes it everywhere he goes. The entirety of his life's work is tasked with breaking the rule of the Prince of this world and establishing the governance of God the Father, founding God's kingdom in the world. Now, at the beginning of this mission, he proclaims that God's kingdom is coming, and thus the time that sin had emptied is fulfilled.
Jesus proclaims the coming of God's kingdom. God's kingdom comes precisely through this proclamation. It does not spread by sword, fire, revolution, but by the proclamation of the word. The instrument of God's kingdom is the word: a non-demagogic, simple word, which even uneducated and illiterate people can understand. God uses something as weak as a word to establish his governance, relying on no other power but itself, on its truth, a word that is an appeal to human freedom, which he wants to gain as such, namely as freedom, freely obedient freedom, without coercion. How can it possibly assert itself in a world full of demagogic ideologies, linked with deceptive promises and intimidating threats, and persecution for truth and justice? God asserts his governance through the weakness of human words. However, this word is his word, the word of God, almighty, which indeed hides behind the weakness of human words. It does not force, it asks for free acceptance from humans. However, for this, a person must change their mindset, their mentality. Therefore, Jesus associates the requirement of repentance and faith in his gospel with the proclamation of God's kingdom: “Repent, and believe in the gospel!”
The Czech “to turn” means to change the body's orientation, and thus the direction of sight or movement. Jesus' call recorded in the Greek text is: metanoeite; it literally means: “Change your mind!” Many understand repentance only morally, as a change of behavior. However, that is insufficient. Repentance means a change of thinking and perspective on reality. It involves a complete reshuffling, reordering of one's inner structure, a reassessment of all values, perhaps even a substitution of some of the most fundamental assumptions of our judgments. We may wonder if such a thing is even possible. In his conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus compares such a transformation to being born again. Moreover, it may be a greater miracle to be born again as an old person than to be born at all (cf. John 3:3–9). It follows that such repentance is not in human strength, just as the unborn person cannot give themselves life. Thus, the call to repentance, to a change of mentality, to abandon the mentality of this world from which we came and in which we have so settled, and to accept the mentality of God's kingdom, the logic of God, is only possible in relation to the assertion: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near!” If on one hand, repentance is necessary for the acceptance of God's kingdom, as a condition and a prerequisite, then this repentance is again only possible in light of the nearness of God's kingdom, as a consequence. In no way is God's kingdom built through our repentance, through our moral and spiritual efforts. God's kingdom is brought by Jesus within himself, he proclaims it through his word, which at the same time invites us to repentance. And just as powerful is his word, carrying God's kingdom into this world, so it is also powerful in calling us to repentance.
We are imbued with the mentality of this world. Before repentance, there is so much of the logic of the ruler of this world in us. Accepting the gospel as our life path, i.e., believing in the gospel, seems so challenging: a person feels like they are entering a completely different, unknown world, where everything seems so foreign and improbable. Yet it is precisely then that a person truly becomes themselves, finds their true identity, returns to their rightful place. Interestingly, the Hebrew term for repentance, conversion, is teshuvah, which literally means “return.” A person reaches their goal by returning to their original starting point, that is, to God. However, since they have distanced themselves, they have also distanced themselves from themselves, and they will find themselves through repentance, because they have been turned away or overturned. They will find their place and path only by changing course, for they have been on the wrong path or on the road to destruction.
From his first appearance until the last day before his arrest, Jesus constantly proclaimed or taught. He considered this to be a cornerstone of his mission: he was anointed by the Spirit of the Lord and sent to proclaim the good news to the poor (Lk 4:18). When they wanted to restrain him in one place, he said to his disciples: “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim there also; for that is what I came out to do” (Mk 1:38). Therefore, Jesus considers proclamation to be the first point of his mission. From this perspective, we can better understand his healing miracles of the deaf-mute: through that he primarily gave them the opportunity to hear his word. He devoted most of his time to preaching and teaching. He taught in the temple courts, in synagogues throughout Palestine, by the lakeshore, on a mountain, along the way, and in homes. He taught everyone: his disciples, individuals, and crowds. Although he did not seek publicity, people flocked to him from all sides. His teaching caused amazement, because he taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes (Mk 1:22; cf. Mt 7:28–29), raising the question: “What is this? A new teaching – with authority!” (Mk 1:27).
Jesus' word manifested itself as powerful in two ways: in strength and authority. Jesus' word has superhuman power. When Jesus speaks, something happens: the blind see, the deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, the lame walk, the dead rise, sinners are forgiven, demons flee, the wind ceases, the raging sea calms... Jesus' word also has a captivating power, which wins over his listeners. The servants of the council, who were to arrest him, return empty-handed, and as a reason for why they did not seize Jesus, they state: “No one ever spoke like this!” (John 7:46). Jesus teaches with an unheard-of authority, relying on neither other human authorities nor Moses, nor even God. He speaks as one who is aware of his absolute authority: “You have heard that it was said to those of old... But I say to you...” (Mt 5:21–22, etc.). Jesus dares to correct the highest authority of his people, the Law given by the Lord to Moses. He places himself above Moses, speaks from his own authority, thus claiming for his word divine authority. Towards his disciples, he saw himself as their only Master, who – unlike the rabbis – has the right to choose his disciples, the right to demand from them to follow not just his interpretation, but to follow him, to love not just his wisdom, but to love him, and that more than father, mother, wife, children, yes, even themselves.
Jesus, the Word of God: By regarding proclamation of the word as the fundamental content of his mission, Jesus aligns himself with the prophets. His mission is primarily prophetic: not in the sense of predicting the future, but in the sense of proclaiming the living Word of God and testifying about the state of affairs before God. He was regarded by people as a prophet (cf. Mt 21:11; Lk 7:16; John 4:19). The letter to the Hebrews, however, places him not in the same row as the prophets, but rather behind this row, as its fulfillment and transcendence: Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son (1:1–2). What is the difference between the earlier prophets and Jesus? The prophets introduced their statements with words: “Thus says the Lord...”, or: “The Lord says...” Jesus instead says: “Amen, amen, I say to you...” Here, like with regard to Moses' law, we can observe Jesus' boldness, because he does not rely on higher authority, neither the Law, nor any earlier prophet, not even God, but speaks for himself and from himself, with a binding authority that can only be claimed by God. His word is eternal like God himself: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away!” (Mt 24:35).
Despite his absolute independence and sovereignty in his speech and demeanor, he also reveals his complete dependence and submission to the Father. Jesus does not derive his word from himself and of himself, but from the Father. In the Gospel of John, he speaks about this on almost every page. “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me” (7:16). “He who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him... I speak just as the Father taught me” (8:26,28). “I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has given me a commandment: what to say and what to proclaim... So whatever I say, I say just as the Father told me” (12:49–50), etc. Jesus embodies openness towards the Father's word, such openness that he himself is the Word of God: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). Not only are my words of eternal life (6:68), but he himself is this Word! As the Father's Word, he receives his entire being from the one who articulates it, and thus he can also share it fully. In the humility of spirit, he allows himself to be expressed by the Father, and thus he becomes his Word. Jesus is the Word. This explains both his absolute dependence on the Father and his independence from Moses. Jesus himself is the Word, and thus he can speak from himself, from his own content and on the basis of his own authority, yet does not speak from himself, but from the Father, who has given him everything. For if Jesus is the Word of God, then the word of God does not come to him from outside, as it was the case for the prophets, but he expresses it from his own essence. In him, there is a perfect identification of the person with the mission, which could not be expected from the prophets. From the fact that Jesus is the Word of God, a perfect unity arises between his message and his life, an identity between the proclamation and the person of the proclaimer. Jesus brings God's kingdom with his word and his person because he himself is the Word and the perfect realization of God's Kingdom. In this sense, the beginning of Mark's gospel should be understood not only as “the gospel of Jesus Christ,” but also as “the gospel Jesus Christ” (Mk 1:1), thus understood as the good news, whose content and proclaimer is Jesus Christ himself. And if the central content of his gospel is God's kingdom, then we can say along with Origen that Jesus himself is this kingdom, Jesus is autobasileia.
Jesus himself is the Gospel, of which he is also the first proclaimer, Jesus himself is “the Word of God” (Rev 19:13). If there is a perfect identification between the proclaimer and the message in Jesus, then Jesus truly gives of himself in his mission, gives himself. But in this way, he is also the Word of the Father. God communicates himself through him, and this definitively in these last days, eschatologically (Heb 1:2). The Father communicates everything in him. He gives it all to him. “God never gives less than himself,” wrote Augustine.1 God gives all in his Word, because his Word is his only begotten Son, to whom he gives everything completely. The Almighty Father demonstrates his omnipotence precisely in that, unlike human fathers, he is able to communicate his entire essence to his Son undividedly, and he is capable of giving himself without reserve. Human fathers, if potent, can give new life, but they are not “omnipotent” like God: partly because to conceive offspring, they need a woman, while the Father is “Father” and “Mother” to the Son; furthermore, because earthly fathers never utilize all their generative capabilities; and finally, even if they could create offspring from all their generative potential, they would always give life to another and their own life would remain with them, preserved and undivided. God expresses himself in eternity so perfectly and exhaustively that he grants his Son his entire being. He is his consubstantial Son, his exhaustive Word, the Word by which the Father addresses his divine “You” to the Son, granting him life through that address.
When the Son became man, when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), God said and gave us everything in him. The exhaustive Word, by which God speaks to himself, addressing his consubstantial divine You, now turns to us. “Once God spoke and articulated this one eternal Word,” writes St. Bernard.2 And St. John of the Cross explains why in the New Testament it is not allowed to question God supernaturally as follows:3
Since in this time of grace faith is established in Christ and the law of the gospel is evident, there is no reason to question in that manner, nor why he should still speak and respond as before. Because when he has given us his Son, who is his Word, and he has no other, he has told us everything once and for all in this one Word and has nothing more to say...
In this sense, we can also understand the fact that at the end of his public life, filled with proclamation and teaching, Jesus falls silent. In this, one can see the fulfillment of the prophetic words about the Lord's Servant. His mission was prophetic; for this, he received the Spirit of the Lord and a tongue as a sword. He called the islands to listen to him (cf. Isa 42:1–4; 49:1–2; 50:4). All this lasts only up to a certain point. As a result of the rejection of his message by those to whom it was intended, the mission of the Servant fails. He cannot communicate the entrusted salvific truth. Therefore, his mission changes course: it ultimately leads to suffering, which the Servant accepts unreservedly and silently. He did not open his mouth like a lamb led to the slaughter. Like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, he did not open his mouth (Isa 53:7). The Church has seen from the beginning the fulfillment of what was prophetically hinted in the figure of the Lord's Servant in Jesus (cf. Acts 8:26–40). Jesus also proclaimed – and after initial admiration ultimately reaped only complete rejection. During the interrogation by the high priest, Jesus summarizes his entire mission with the words: “I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple...” The reaction? As soon as he had said this, one of the officers... struck Jesus on the face... (John 18:20-22). Jesus receives a slap in the face as a symbolic response to his lifelong proclamation activity.
Thus, for Jesus, the mission of the proclaimer and teacher ends, and the mission of the suffering Servant, the Lamb of God, takes over (cf. John 1:29). Similar to the Servant, Jesus at the end of his prophetic mission also closes his mouth and submits to suffering. Several times in the Passion, Jesus' silence is documented: Jesus, however, was silent (Mt 26:63; cf. 27:12–14). But he was silent and made no answer (Mk 14:61; cf. 15:5; Lk 23:9; John 19:9). “The Son, who is the Word, became Silence.”4 His final expression is no longer a word, but a painful, inarticulate cry, a mighty voice (Mk 15:37), which follows immediately after he attempted in vain to call out to the Father: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mk 15:34). There is no calling out. The Father is not here; thus there is no possibility for dialogue. Where there is no dialogue, there is also no Word! The Father turned away from the Son, who became sin for us (2 Cor 5:21), and therefore Jesus dies. He dies as a man, he dies as the Word of God. God dies. The last remnants of his being are expressed in a cry into the void. The Word fell silent. Because it was fully articulated, to the utmost. And this Word, which became Silence, is the most profound revelation of God's essence, God's eternal life! The hour of darkness is also an explosion of light, the outpouring of God's glory into this world. Christ's death reveals God's life; his silence on the cross is the word that will never cease to echo. The word that was communicated by being sounded and became dumb, that surrendered itself, that gave itself. Only this is the truly realized Word of God. Not just the word of the Son to his disciples, but the word of God to the world. “The most powerful word that the Father spoke in Jesus is his silence in death.”5 And this is the gospel that will be proclaimed until the end of the world.
Jesus-Word fulfills the words of Scripture: Jesus is the Word of God, the perfect expression of God the Father, the radiance of his glory and the exact imprint of his nature (Heb 1:3). Because he is the almighty Word of God himself, his word has the power with which he can command the wind, the storm, and demons, call the dead from the grave, etc. Jesus with his word can also fulfill all human words, which without his Word are just empty chaff. Jesus, as the incarnate, crucified, and resurrected Word, also fulfills all the words of Scripture, which without him would remain unfulfilled promises. Even during his public ministry, the words of Scripture that Jesus spoke were receiving their fullness. When he read the passage from the prophet Isaiah about the anointing and sending of the Messiah (61:1–2) in the synagogue of Nazareth, he could close the book and say: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing!” (Lk 4:21). Jesus fulfills the dead letter by himself, through his life, through his Spirit. Until the risen Lord appears, who completed and fulfilled everything with his death (John 19:28,30), the disciples still cannot understand the Scripture (John 20:9), because a veil remains when Moses is read and it is not revealed that it comes to an end in Christ (2 Cor 3:14). The risen Jesus fulfills the entire Scripture and thus removes the veil that rested on the Law. To the disciples on the road to Emmaus, he explained what referred to him in all parts of Scripture (Lk 24:27), and they could later reflect: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the Scriptures?” (Lk 24:32). And when, later in the evening, he appears to the disciples in Jerusalem and convinces them that he is no spirit, but a man of flesh and bone who can eat (cf. Lk 24:36), Luke can finally note: At that moment he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures (24:45). Christ allows the understanding of Scripture because he is its living fulfillment. Christ is the goal of the Law (Rom 10:4). In him, all of God’s promises have found their “yes” (2 Cor 1:20).
