The Old Testament and the Holy Rosary

Our Savior and our Holy Church teach that the Old Testament and the New Testament are the revealed Word of God and that the two Testaments are inseparable and complementary.  As the Rosary portrays the life of Christ, so we can discern the Old Testament in the Mysteries of the Rosary.

After his Resurrection, Jesus appeared to his Apostles. This episode is recorded by Saint Luke in his Gospel:  He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.”  Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.  (24:44-45) 

In his treatise On the Spirit and the Letter, Saint Augustine wrote, “This grace hid itself under a veil in the Old Testament, but it has been revealed in the New Testament according to the most perfectly ordered dispensation of the ages, forasmuch as God knew how to dispose all things” (Chapter 15).  

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:  “The unity of the two Testaments proceeds from the unity of God’s plan and his Revelation. The Old Testament prepares for the New and the New Testament fulfills the Old; the two shed light on each other; both are true Word of God (paragraph 140).”

 
We can see this unity between the Old Testament and the New Testament in several of the Rosary’s Mysteries.  

 
In the First Joyful Mystery, the Archangel St. Gabriel announces unto Mary that she will be the Mother of the Son of God, thus fulfilling the Old Testament prophecy found in Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (New International Version).

 
In the Third Joyful Mystery, Jesus’s birth is the fulfillment of several Old Testament prophecies and in particular Micah 5:1:  “But you, Bethlehem-Ephrathaha least among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; whose origin is from of old, from ancient times.”

 
We similarly can find the Old Testament within the Luminous Mysteries.  In the First Luminous Mystery, Jesus is baptized in the River Jordan by St. John the Baptist.  The Holy Spirit comes down upon him and a voice from Heaven, ie. God, says “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22).  This was foretold in the prophecies of Isaiah: “Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased.  Upon him I have put my spirit; he shall bring forth justice to the nations”  (42:1).  

 
The Third Luminous Mystery is Jesus’s Proclamation of the Kingdom of God.  Here, too, we see the prophecies of the Old Testament being fulfilled by Jesus.   In Chapter 61, Isaiah writes,  “The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; He has sent me to bring good news to the afflicted, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,  release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God; to comfort all who mourn;” (61:1-2).  

 
At the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus reads this text in the synagogue in Nazareth, then adds, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”  See Luke 4:14-28.  

 
Prophecies recorded in the Book of Isaiah and the Psalms are fulfilled in the Sorrowful Mysteries.  Chapter 53 of Isaiah foretells Jesus’s suffering and death on the Cross.  For example, Isaiah 53:5 states “But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity.  He bore the punishment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed.”  

 
Psalm 22 is a prediction of Jesus’s suffering on the Cross.  From the Cross, Jesus quotes Psalm 22:2, saying “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”  (See Mark 15:34).    

 
Three days after his Crucifixion and Death, Jesus is resurrected.  This is the First Glorious Mystery.  The tomb is empty. Death is defeated.  Sin is overcome.  Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene, the holy women and his Apostles.  “Christ’s Resurrection is the fulfillment of the promises both of the Old Testament and of Jesus himself during his earthly life,”  states The Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraph 652).

 
This First Glorious Mystery shows the interconnectedness of the Old and New Testaments.  Jesus appears to two of his disciples as they are walking to Emmaus. As St. Luke tells us:  “And he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’  Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures” (24:25-27).  

 
In the Third Glorious Mystery, Jesus ascends to Heaven.   In Psalm 110, we read, “The LORD says to my lord:  “Sit at my right hand, while I make your enemies your footstool.”  The scepter of your might: the LORD extends your strong scepter from Zion.  Have dominion over your enemies!  Yours is princely power from the day of your birth.  In holy splendor before the daystar, like dew I begot you” (110:1-3).  

 
The Old Testament and the New Testament are inseparably linked and that link is Jesus Christ, the Word made Flesh and the Savior of the World.  As the Rosary is a prayerful meditation on the life of Christ, we can find this inseparable link between the Old and New Testaments in this meditative prayer.