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Catholic Bible Study
Luminous Mysteries: Proclamation of the Kingdom
00:18:17
Do you desire to grow in your understanding and devotion to the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary? Join Dr. Ben Akers and Dr. James Prothro as they walk through these biblical mysteries and seek to grow in love for Christ through them. This episode on the Proclamation of the Kingdom of God is the third episode of a five-part series on the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary.
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- [00:00]
A
Hello and welcome to Formed. Now we're in part three of a five part Bible study on the luminous Mysteries. My name is Ben Akers and I'm the executive director of Formed. And joining me today is Dr. Jim Prothero who is a professor at our graduate school here at the Augustine Institute. And we're part of a five part series. We're going to go through each of the luminous mysteries. And the luminous mysteries were given to us by Pope St. John Paul II in 2002. He wrote an apostolic letter on the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And, and in that letter he has such a great devotion to Mary and to the rosary. And he said, you know, we have mysteries of our faith that are, we pray on the rosary that are related to the infancy of Christ, called the Joyful Mysteries. We have mysteries that are related to the passion of Christ, the sorrowful Mysteries, and then the glorification and resurrection of Christ and his Mother in the, in the glorious mysteries. But we don't have any mysteries related to the life of Christ in his public ministry. And to remedy that, he said, let's look at these mysteries of light because Christ is the light of the world. And of course, every part of Christ's life is a mystery. And he zeroes on, on five significant events. The first is the baptism. We talked about that in episode one, the baptism of Christ in the Jordan river by his cousin John the Baptist. We talked about the wedding of Cana. In the second episode in John chapter two, when we get to the third luminous mystery, what John Paul II says is the proclamation of the kingdom of God with his call to conversion. So I listen to that. I'm like, wait, wait, how do I do that? What does that mean? That's three years of public ministry. I have to kind of cram into 10 Hail Marys. What do I do with that, Jim?
- [01:32]
B
Well, honestly, it's one of my absolute favorite mysteries to pray and one of my least favorite at the same time because it makes me think, because just to think, Jesus proclaims the kingdom of heaven and calls us to conversion. On the one hand, if I don't have anything in my mind, I can pray that quite simply and just say, God, convert the sinners, especially me. Right? And, and can meditate on that through all of the 10 Hail Marys. On the other hand, right. Jesus preaches so much to give specifics, right. About how our life ought to be converted and says a lot of things that, that I don't like to normally think about or that I, you know, sort of conveniently forget about in my daily conversion if I'm not paying attention. And so this is a mystery that prays really well along with your reading of Scripture or recollecting the readings from the past week where Jesus usually has been teaching something. Because when Jesus teaches right and teaches us the way in which we live in God's kingdom, it relates to everything from the way we act toward each other, toward the way we treat our money, toward the way that we pray, toward all of these different kinds of things. And these are all great things to pull into and just kind of meditate on for a moment. And sometimes when I'm praying the luminous mysteries, I sort of wait and think and I just sort of, you know, I kind of pause in silence. And then oftentimes something in my prayer will come to me where I'll think like, oh, yeah, that. That thing that's been on my heart or that person that I, you know, I'm having trouble with or whatever. And I just approach. Because it's about the preaching of the kingdom and conversion. I approach it with penitence. And then suddenly I go, I need to think about what Jesus says about forgiveness because I'm really irritated at so and so. Right. Or I'm holding on to this thing that I shouldn't be holding on to. Or I was really stressed this morning about, you know, losing some possession. Right. Or it got damaged. Because my children are wonderful gifts from God.
- [03:35]
A
I have the jacket I wear, like, when, you know, to Sunday mass, so they can get it all dirty, and I just hang it up for every Sunday mass. Yeah, it's always getting things dirty.
- [03:42]
B
Exactly. And. But it's a mystery where you can go on autopilot. But as with all of them, you're much better served by kind of approaching with a penitent heart and kind of searching around. And that also means that you need to know some of the things that Jesus has said in your brain so that you can reach out for him. Or, of course, you can pray it with scripture.
- [04:08]
A
Scripture as well. One of the things, as you mentioned, that. That just St. John Paul II links it with this call to conversion. And I love that he brings that forward. As you know, this is the ministry of mercy that begins with Jesus's very first words and continues today. So Jesus ministry doesn't just stop when he ascends into heaven and sends the Holy Spirit at Pentecost until he comes in glory again, but he is still offering us mercy today. And we get that sense when we. The very first words of Jesus in his public ministry in Matthew is repent and believe, you know, believe in the gospel or repent and for the kingdom of God is at hand. That's what it's so. And then we also have those other themes in Mark as well, Mark and Luke, that this kingdom of God, this seems to be something that's important to Jesus, is preaching this kingdom.
- [04:53]
B
Yeah, that's right. It's. You were sharing with me just a minute ago and I forgot the numbers. Yeah, about that.
- [04:59]
A
How many times?
- [05:00]
B
Sixteen talks about how many times Jesus says this.
- [05:03]
A
Yeah. And Jesus of Nazareth in his wonderful work reflecting on the life of Christ in the Gospels, he says that 122 times in the New Testament, that word, that phrase, kingdom of God is used 122 times. So it's, it shows up a lot. 99 of those 122 times are in the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. In 90 of those 99 times, Jesus is saying the kingdom of God. So it's very important to Jesus. He talks about this kingdom of God. He says lots of different things about it.
- [05:32]
B
Yeah. So out of 122 times that it's mentioned in the Bible at all in the New Testament, it comes right off the mouth, off the tongue of our Lord.
- [05:40]
A
Yes.
- [05:41]
B
Which is.
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A
Which is a major theme of his preaching.
- [05:43]
B
That's right. That's right.
- [05:45]
A
So what does he mean by the kingdom of God then? I guess he just says it. But when I'm from a first century, we're doing a Bible study, if I'm hearing Jesus preach, what's that going to trigger for me? Is it out of context or is it going to recall something to my memory?
- [05:58]
B
Well, so it's going to pull back for you a lot from the Old Testament. So the first time that God is mentioned as being a king in the Old Testament is actually in Exodus 15 when they're singing the song of triumph after they cross the Red Sea. God has delivered his people from slavery. He has drowned Pharaoh's army and brought them through. And it says that our God reigns, our God is king. So God's being king has to do with his being Lord over his people to save them, but also that. That they've become his own possession. Right. That he's their Lord, not anybody else. Right. And that they are under him and that they're following him and they're going to live as a whole community of people that live under him, that live in his way, that follow his laws and that receive his goods and graces.
- [06:43]
A
So it's called theocracy if God is.
- [06:45]
B
King, Something like that. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of the ways that I find a lot of people approach kingdom of God in the New Testament is a lot of times they think of a kingdom and they think of, like a plot of land, right?
- [06:57]
A
You got the castle, got the moat, the dragon.
- [06:59]
B
Exactly, yeah. Like, once you get past the moat, you're out of the kingdom, right? And then you're in somebody else's kingdom kind of thing. And that's really. On the. On the one hand, that's. That's kind of true. And the Bible will talk about, like, getting into the kingdom of heaven. It imagines it kind of like a place, right? You want to be under God's care, you want to be under his rule. On the other hand, it's not actually a place, right? I can be in Timbuktu. I can be in India. I can be in a prison cell. I can be, you know, up on the top of a mountain. I can be with my soul separated from my body and being just simply in the presence of God and still be in his kingdom because he's king over me.
- [07:35]
A
Me.
- [07:35]
B
And that's the big thing that I think we need to think about with kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven when we read it in the New Testament, is that it's not just about a place. It's not just about, well, this is how it works in heaven. Because most of Jesus, when he talks about the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, he's talking about how you're supposed to live, like on Tuesday in Galilee or in Denver or Berlin or wherever, right? So it has to do. Mostly, we need to think about God being king over me and what we owe to God in terms of our praise, in terms of our life, in terms of our love, and in terms of obediently and joyfully receiving his gifts and his protection as our king.
- [08:18]
A
One of the things that St. John Paul II says in this work is he says that the kingdom of God is present in the very person of Jesus. What does that mean? Help me to understand that.
- [08:30]
B
Oh, I. Well, I mean, there's a lot of ways. I mean, every, Every everything. Everything that's. That we just said, right, is mediated to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. So God's salvation of us, his deliverance of us. Well, in whom do we have salvation? Christ. Right? All of the graces and gifts are in Christ and his gift of the Spirit. We have them in God because we are Together in Christ baptized into his name. We're his people, the sheep of his flock. Also, Jesus tells us the commands of God, right? And his apostles repeat those and apply those to the lives of Christians and teach us how to follow in his ways. But Jesus himself, in his own living, his own example, and also out of his mouth, teaches the way in which we should live when God is king over us. One of the things I was just reading today that I thought about when I were going to talk about the luminous mysteries and the preaching of the kingdom is Matthew, chapter five. So these are the Beatitudes, we call them. Right?
- [09:38]
A
From the Sermon on the Mount.
- [09:39]
B
From the Sermon on the Mount, yeah. So this is our. This is our reading for All Saints Day, Right? Because it describes the saints and God's holy and perfect people. He taught them, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. And blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So you get kingdom of heaven language here. You get blessing, right? And then you also get this sort of like picture, this command about how God's holy people, people ought to live. And all of it's ours in Christ, Number one, because through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we can actually begin to live this way in truth. Number two is who best fits all of those descriptions. Our Lord, who is the peacemaker, who's called the Son of God. Jesus, who's persecuted for the sake of righteousness most perfectly. He really didn't ever do anything wrong to be persecuted for it. Jesus Christ, who hungers and thirsts for righteousness and actually brings it to us.
- [10:53]
A
Right.
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B
Jesus.
- [10:55]
A
I love that one of those writers has said that, the spiritual writers has said that Jesus himself, this is a biography of his soul. Kind of the interior life of Christ's soul is present here in the Beatitudes, that he is the man of the Beatitudes. But it's also describing the call to everyone who lives in Christ that it's also their life as a follower of Christ is to mirror the Beatitudes.
- [11:18]
B
That's right. And the way that Pope St. John Paul II talks about all of the mysteries of the kingdom being in him. Right. So we can think about the mysteries like the Eucharist and everything. But even also the sort of commands for our own life. Right. Are in him because he's done them first, because he does them perfectly. One of the ones that I think about very often. So Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount, commands people to be forgiving and to be peacemakers and not to judge. Right. And he says, for if you do this, you will be children of your Father in heaven, because your Father in heaven lets rainfall on the righteous and the unrighteous alike. And sometimes I think we disconnect who our Lord is from what he tells us to do. Right?
- [12:15]
A
Yeah.
- [12:16]
B
But he doesn't just give arbitrary commands to us about like, well, just do this. Well, just do this.
- [12:21]
A
Right.
- [12:21]
B
Certainly not in the New Covenant.
- [12:23]
A
Right.
- [12:23]
B
Because we have the gift of the Spirit. The commands are to make us more like him. And so when we think about Jesus teaching about forgiveness, we're thinking about what we must do, but we're also thinking about what he has done and what he still does for us. Right. We ought to think about, you know, his command to forgive other people. And then we ought to think, man, I'm so glad for reconciliation. And you know what? I should go. Right, right.
- [12:46]
A
No, I love that. I love that distinction that you made. Is not. Jesus is not just walking around proclaiming, kingdom of God's coming. You know, everyone come in or do this or that, and, you know, you should be forgiving. He's not just issuing commands, he is doing that. But more than that, he's actually enacting the kingdom in his life that he shows us. This is how the kingdom is going to be brought about. This is what the kingdom's going to look like. It is going to be a of movement of mercy and forgiveness. So he's often, you know, accused by other groups, religious groups at the time of, you're too friendly with those people, that they're ostracized. They're not meant to be part of our group, our kingdom. This can't be part of God's plan. But he not only says it, but he actually shows us.
- [13:29]
B
That's right.
- [13:29]
A
It's like to be. One of the things that also that I wanted to ask you is, is anyone excluded from this kingdom? Because he says, it seems like that there are people that in our own day today that want to exclude certain groups from the kingdom. Does Jesus do that?
- [13:47]
B
No, Jesus doesn't do that. He says in Matthew 23, he says that the scribes and Pharisees lock the kingdom of heaven. They lock the door so that other People can't get in. Of course he's given the keys to Peter, who is to open the kingdom to the penitent. There is a day when Jesus will say, I don't know you, so you can't come in, right? But that's at the final day, right? Now his call to repentance, his call to conversion is a call for everybody, right? A call for everybody, no matter who they are, no matter how they failed, no matter how they've run away. It's a call to all people, right? Because Jesus is the one inviting people to the kingdom of heaven, no matter who they are. He's the sower scattering seed absolutely everywhere instead of just finding the places where he thinks it'll probably work, right? He scatters his seed. He sows the seed of his gospel and His Word and His love everywhere that he can.
- [14:43]
A
That's a good examine. As you, as we were just talking about, not only is Jesus, you know, talking the talk, he's walking the walk. And then by us watching that and listening, we realize I need to do the same thing. So am I proclaiming the kingdom. So very mission oriented mystery of the rosary for us is to not only think about Jesus, but how am I imitating Jesus in my own life.
- [15:02]
B
That's right. And I think also it's just getting back to like actually praying these. I'd love to know how, how you go about praying these. One of the things for, for me when, when I think about these mysteries, so Jesus in Luke 6, when he's preaching about the kingdom there says, why do you call me Lord, Lord and not do what I say? Because the Lord is somebody who know is in charge and you know, there's a, there's an overly kind of harsh way to take that, right? But, but, but, but Jesus is being very serious. And when I think about him as my King or as my Lord in these mysteries, one of the things that, that I have to remember to do is in the same way that you were mentioning, other people misunderstood Jesus in his own day because they didn't like Him. People today misunderstand Jesus because they, because they do like him and they want him to say what they think already instead of actually listen to what he says. And so at least for, for me, I like to, I like to meditate on the most recent gospel homily that I've heard or reading they've heard or, or some personal Bible reading when I think about these mysteries so that I just, I have a whole bunch of them in my head that that, that my soul can kind of bounce off of. Yeah. But when you, when you go about praying these, how do you, how do you, how do you pray the, the, the third mystery without just going, well, kingdom, that sounds nice.
- [16:27]
A
Jesus is just walking around. And I just think about Jesus walking around the desert for three years. Yeah, no, that's a good question. It's evolved, if you will, like over, over time. Because at first it's like I don't know what to talk about. And then the more. Then when I actually think about when I read this document, the epistolic letter from John Paul ii. And what really honed in for me is the, in this call to conversion is called a conversion. And so for me, it is a great pause in the midst of the rosary of the five mysteries, you know, the baptism, to recall my own baptism, the wedding of Cana. You know, we talked about this last time about all the wonderful things it evokes, but especially being married. And kind of is Jesus in the center of my marriage and then thinking in my own life, then what do I need conversion kind of in the middle of these mystery, the path of the rosary of where in my own life do I need to be converted? And usually has something to do with my relationships. And that's what Jesus is doing. He, as Paul says, he's reconciling us to the Father. That this recycling, reconciling the world to himself and bringing that reconciliation to the Father. And for me, that's what I think about, is often shedding the light on the parts of luminous mysteries, the light on my own life of where I need to hear Jesus say, repent and believe in the Gospel.
- [17:39]
B
Yeah.
- [17:39]
A
And for you, you share. There was the scripture readings that really came come to mind.
- [17:44]
B
Yeah, yeah. And then kind of penitently thinking about them and myself and where I need to convert. Because sometimes something that I haven't heard in a while will come to me and I go, oh, I need to think about.
- [17:53]
A
I need to be with that word.
- [17:54]
B
Yeah, I need to walk with that. Yeah.
- [17:55]
A
Well, thank you, Jim, for joining me and our discussion. Thank you for joining us on our Bible study on the luminous mysteries. We talked about the third luminous mystery today and the proclamation of the kingdom of God and the call to conversion. And it's an invitation for us to re. To ask ourselves and is Jesus king of my life? Is Jesus the Lord of all aspects of my life? So thank you for joining us and God bless.