Episode Transcript  

One

The Resurrection: A New Life 

The glorious mysteries are an introduction to a new world, a new creation, a new order of everything. God made a first cosmic order once when He called all things into existence. But soon that order was broken by sin and death. So God came to this world broken by sin and death, and then allowed Himself to be broken by sin and death by a cross. He was broken by a broken world, but then when He arose from the dead, He made a new Order, a new kind of creation. He opened up a new order that we could pass into, by passing through Him, from the old order.  

Christ’s death, which we enter through baptism, as Paul says, is a gateway to a new kind of life. And we see that life when the Lord rises. It’s a glorious life, a life that can no longer be hurt, or threatened, or tempted, or plagued with doubt. A life that lives in the confidence of God’s victory. 

That’s how Christians are supposed to be living now. Confident, unafraid, unthreatened, undoubting, at peace in this world where there is good food and warm fire and loving friends and family, but not at home in this world. Knowing that we will depart soon, but being happy to be here for the time being. That is the life Christ showed us after His Resurrection. That is the life He has won for us by His resurrection. That is the life we should be living now. 

Two

The Ascension: A New Afterlife 

The pagans disagreed among themselves about whether there would be an afterlife. Some said there wouldn’t be, some said there would. Some thought an afterlife would be a fine thing. Others thought it would be a cheap, ghostly, impoverished existence. Even among the Jews, the only afterlife on offer was a shadowy existence in Sheol, the place of waiting.  

No one knew clearly what Christ has revealed to us: that the afterlife will include the body. That the afterlife will include all the best things this life has to offer, plus intimacy with God. This is the good news of the Ascension. That Christ hasn’t just won for us a new kind of life on earth, a confident, peaceful, joyful, virtuous way of being, but Christ has won for us a new kind of life in the next world. 

Christ goes up to Heaven, body and soul, “to prepare a place” for us, He says. Not to prepare a state, some kind of phantasmal mode of being. To prepare a place, a home for our bodies as well as our souls. A place, a mansion, a wedding banquet, a new heaven, and a new earth. That’s what we have to look forward to in this new afterlife, in this new order that Christ has established. 

Three

A New Community 

But this new order of creation isn’t just an order for individuals trying to live a different life on their own, trying to make it to Heaven on their own. By His death and resurrection, Christ has established not only new individual life, but new communal life. Christ has established the Church. Human communities rely on physical force, on communal agreement, on the more or less hazy understanding of what’s good for people. Christ has established the Church through the infinite power of the Holy Spirit, who rules not by force but by love and by truth. 

The Catholic Church is a new kind of community. It is the largest community, the largest empire in history. But not an empire of one place against other places, on race against other races. Yes, it conquers all men and women, all tongues and cultures, all genius and all ingenuity, but by conquering all these, the Church ennobles and perfects them instead of debasing and enslaving them, as human empires do.  

The world has never seen anything as magnificent as the Catholic Church, and the world never will. It is the perpetual miracle that began at Pentecost and will continue for eternity. It is the community that Christ founded, and the Holy Spirit sustains. It is the enduring witness that we are living in a new order of being human. It is the glorious community of those who have been made new creations in Jesus Our Lord. 

Four

The Assumption: A New Relationship 

Individual life is changed after the resurrection. Community life is changed after the resurrection. And particular human relationships are changed after the resurrection. And the supreme example, the loftiest height of the relationship between any two people, is the relationship between Jesus and Mary. 

They relate to each other as the perfect man and woman. They relate to each other as the perfect parent and child. They relate to each other as the perfect partners in the work of redemption. And they relate to each other as the best of friends. Personal, one-on-one relationships are the greatest source of natural happiness in this world. But apart from Christ, these relationships would all be damaged by sin and selfishness, and ultimately destroyed by death. 

But Christ has established a new order. When these relationships between men and women, parents and children, friends and colleagues, when these relationships are made holy through mutual devotion to God’s will, then these friendships are made glorious and imperishable. Mary ascends to Heaven. She will be with Jesus. Forever.  

Make friends for yourselves in Christ. Put God’s will at the center of every relationship.  It will be not only a source of joy and strength to you on earth but a source of everlasting joy to you in Heaven. As it is with Jesus and Mary. 

Five

The Coronation: New Glory 

The last aspect of Heaven revealed by the glorious mysteries is the glory we will each receive. It is one of the deepest human urges to receive praise from others, to get positive feedback, validation. This urge is one of the most dangerous urges, because it so often pushes us into vanity, it subjects us to peer pressure, it makes us act on other people’s opinions instead of what we know to be right. 

Of course, we know that the only opinion that really matters is God’s, but God doesn’t tell us what He thinks of us in this life. But Christ has established a new order of praise. His praise, and the praise of His Father. But just as Our Lady was crowned in glory, so we too will be given the ultimate honor in Heaven. In Heaven, we will be praised, and it will be God Himself who praises. And there can be no greater validation than that, than to hear God say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” 

Without Christ, none of us can know, for sure, whether our life has been worth it. Whether we’ve done an okay job. But Christ has promised us that we will reign with Him. We will receive a share in His honor and glory and kingship. And the climax of all the joys of heaven, the gift for which, paradoxically, we will be most grateful, will be when Almighty God Himself thanks us for the good work we have done.  

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