Contemplating Christ with Mary
Prelate Dr Heiner Koch
Secretary General, World Youth Day
(Pages 82-83 of The International Handbook
for the XX World Youth Day 2005 in Cologne)
In the school of Mary
Marian spirituality is particularly
significant
in the Pontificate of John Paul II.
Never
however does it become a purpose in
itself;
it is always in the service of Christological
piety for which in some sense it serves
as
a magnifying glass, by which the secret
of
Christ becomes understandable. "With
the Rosary", according to the
words
of the Pope in his Apostolic Letter
Rosarium
Virginis Mariae, "the Christian
people
sits at the school of Mary" (No.
1).
This takes place by virtue of those
who pray
simultaneously joining their gaze and
thus
finding the Savior Himself in the secrets
of the Rosary. By this view, they obtain
abundant grace "from the very
hands
of the Mother of the Redeemer"
(No.
1), so that this Marian but quite Christocentric
prayer is a "spiritual and educational
opportunity for personal contemplation,
the
formation of the People of God, and
the new
evangelization" (No. 3). The Pope
therefore
recommends praying the Rosary as a
personal
prayer, as a family prayer and as a
prayer
for peace (No.6), which ultimately
can only
feed on the one who "is our peace"
(Eph 2:14). Contemplating Him in the
Rosary
also means coming closer to peace in
the
world.
Becoming Christ-like
Christian spirituality aims at growing Christ-like.
This is only possible if the individual Christian
enters deeper into the person and the life
of Jesus Christ, lets themselves into it
and thus allows Christ to enter. The Rosary
offers the possibility for this. With Mary,
who is closer to her Son than any other person,
the person praying views the life of Jesus
from His conception through to His glorification
with the Father, and takes up the individual
secrets in their innermost, as it says of
Mary at the birth "But Mary treasured
all these words and pondered them in her
heart" (Lk 2:19).
Internalization
This stance of inner acceptance is the fundamental
meditative attitude of the Rosary. It is
not about mechanically repeating prayers,
but about meditating on the individual mysteries
of salvation served by the uniformity of
the rhythm in repetition. The individual
secret hence becomes a spiritual picture
which is built up before the inner eye and
penetrates the core of the soul. There, it
becomes a spiritual potential which forms
and shapes the person praying.
Prayed Gospel
Explicitly, the Pope stresses the significance
of the Rosary as a prayed Gospel. He
calls
it quite explicitly a "compendium
of
the Gospel" (No. 18). If we line
up
the various secrets, it becomes clear
that
we are led by the pearls of the Rosary
through
the entire life of Jesus, from the
proclamation
through to the praise of His glory,
which
is also reflected in Him bringing His
mother
who lived this whole life with Him
to Him
and crowning her as "the closest
to
the throne of Heaven" and "Regina
Angelorum".
Mysteries of Light
Pope John Paul II added the Mysteries
of
Light to the joyful, painful and glorious
mysteries. It is under the motto "I
am the light of the world" (Jn
8:12)
and meditates on the life of Jesus
in the
time of His public ministry. The individual
mysteries are:
Jesus, who was baptized by John
Jesus, who revealed Himself at the
wedding
feast in Cana
Jesus, who proclaimed to us the Kingdom
of
God
Jesus, who was transfigured on the
mountain
Jesus, who gave us the Eucharist
The five new mysteries of light are
strictly
Biblical in orientation and emphasize
the
proclamation of the Kingdom of God,
which
already became effectively present
in the
person of Jesus Christ, as the Evangelist
Luke has Jesus say: "The kingdom
of
God is among you." (Lk 17:21b).