When John Paul 2 issued his apostolic letter The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, he introduced the new Mysteries of Light—the Baptism of Jesus, the wedding at Cana, Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom, the Transfiguration, and the first Eucharist. Actually these luminous mysteries connect the traditional sequence of the Rosary’s mysteries, known as the Joyful and the Sorrowful Mysteries. To be precise, there has been the public ministry gap between the last Joyful Mystery (the finding of the 12-year-old Jesus in the Temple) and the first Sorrowful Mystery (Jesus’ agony in the garden the night before his death). And Pope John Paul 2 carefully reminds us as well, “The Rosary, though clearly Marian in character, is at heart a Christ-centered prayer. And to bring out fully the Christological depth of the Rosary, it would be suitable to include the mysteries of Christ’ public ministry between his Baptism and his Passion.” The pope points out, “The whole mystery of Christ is a mystery of light. He is the light of the world.”
So now we will walk through each luminous mystery with the scripture passages that I find it very valuable. The first luminous mystery—the baptism of Jesus: I would like to recite the scripture passage here—“This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased,” because, when Jesus was baptized like all of us, the heavens open wide and the voice of the Father declares him the beloved Son while the Spirit descends on him. It also reveals Jesus’ mission as Messiah. It helps us to know God pours new life into us at baptism through the life-giving Spirit and it is a permanent relationship that is given to us. Whenever we dip our fingers into holy water font each time we enter the church, we are reminded that God is always ready to embrace us as his beloved children through the Spirit that is a river of life and love ever flowing within us. “This is my beloved sons and daughters with whom I am well pleased.”
The second luminous mystery—the wedding at Cana: the Scripture passage is “Do whatever he tells you.” Mary the Mother of God simply observes in the wedding, “They have no wine.” Although Jesus replies to it, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come,” Mary is persistent, trusting in the Son of God: “Do whatever he tells you.” Whenever we find ourselves in trouble, we need to know we have the mother who intercedes for us always next to Jesus. What we only need to do is that “Do whatever he tells you.”
The third luminous mystery—Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God: the Scripture passage is “Repent! The Kingdom of God is at hand.” Jesus is the perfect embodiment of the Kingdom of God because he didn’t come to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He willingly divested himself of his divine glory and handed himself over totally to the service of humanity, even to the point of shedding his blood. Our response to God’s overflowing goodness is personal conversion and acceptance of God’s saving power in Jesus. And whenever we feel powerless over the world’s problems like wars and natural disasters, we need to know that we do not work alone, we just need to remember: “Repent! The Kingdom of God is at hand.”
The fourth luminous mystery—the transfiguration: the Scripture is “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, listen to him.” This is a beautiful image of the mystery of light because the glory of Jesus’ divine nature glows brilliantly through his humanity, totally transfiguring Jesus: “His face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.” However, the transfiguration is also a preparation for facing Christ’s cross. We all in some point go up the mountain where God’s presence is so evident and have to come down the mountain, facing daily reality. So our prayer becomes to see and listen to Jesus only in the lowliness of his human nature that is our nature as well. We hope to be transfigured someday like him, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, listen to him.”
The last luminous mystery—the first Eucharist: the Scripture is “Do this in memory of me.” The final mystery takes us to Jesus’ Last Supper where he shares his very self with his disciples in the form of bread and wine. It is truly an expression of God’s love for us and it unites us in love with God and one another as one body of Christ. There is no gods like our God who gave his entire self to nourish, forgive, unite and heal us. So that’s why we celebrate the Eucharist every time we gather as one faith community. We do the Eucharist; we become the Eucharist by listening to the words—“This is my body which will be given up for you…This is my blood shed for you.” In other words, we too are being asked to hand over our bodies in love and in service to the community. We can do this only through the remembrance of the Son of man who lives among us: “Do this in memory of me.”
I hope the luminous mystery help you to pray in the deeper love of Christ’s public ministry and trust in the Blessed Mother who always knows our sufferings and difficulties.