Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Two Times in History: Effects before the cause

Reposting for Holy Thursday and for new Sky View readers:

Two Times in History: Effects before the cause
-And when the fruit existed before the tree

According to sound science and history a cause comes first and then an effect follows. The farmer plants the seed, and then the crop grows. An employee works a forty hour week and then receives a pay check. However, there are some things that are just too good to wait! Indeed, there are two historical events which benefited from a divine intervention that had yet occurred. Those two historical events are the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Last Supper’s celebration of the Eucharist.

When Mary was conceived in the womb of her mother, St. Anne, she benefited from the Incarnation, the Passion, and the Resurrection of her Son, Jesus Christ. What the Holy Trinity already possessed in eternity, the world had yet to receive; namely, the saving graces the Son of God would merit on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Nevertheless, the conception of Mary could not wait. As God said to the Ancient Serpent in Genesis 3, “I will put enmity between you and the Woman.” She was that Morning Star before the Dawn of the Messiah. From the first instant of her existence she was “full of grace” only to be “clothed with the Sun” when she was Assumed into Heaven (cf. Revelation 12). Never did the dominion of Satan, that is, his reign of darkness, touch her. This is why she was able to exclaim to her cousin Elizabeth: "My spirit rejoices in God my savior." Indeed, she was the first Christian and disciple of her own Son; even before He was conceived in her womb some fourteen to sixteen years later.

Being singularly privileged as such on earth she will be a decisive figure in the war that will be waged (and is being waged) against the Ancient Serpent, also known as the Dragon in the book of Revelation: “Then the dragon became angry with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep God's commandments and bear witness to Jesus.” (Revelation 12:17) And about this offspring, St. Louis de Monfort says, “These are the great men who are to come; but Mary is the one who, by the order of the Most High, shall fashion them for the purpose of extending His [Jesus] empire over that of the impious, the idolaters and the Muslims. But when and how shall this be? God alone knows.”

One other historical incident that we cannot fail to mention is the Last Supper. Jesus Christ, the High Priest at the First Mass, better known as the Last Supper, according to the Order of Melchizedek, celebrated the Eucharist with His Apostles. When He consecrated the bread into His body and the wine into His blood, what He did in effect was to give them- as He does with us today –His resurrected flesh; but, as most Christians know, the Resurrection was to follow some three days later. Yet, as with the the grace that was given to Mary before that grace was to be won on the Cross, the Eucharist, which contained the resurrected flesh of Christ, was given to the first priests of the New Covenant before the Resurrection. Both the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles received the fruit before the tree had emerged from the soil.