Resurrection Scenes as Revealing Jewish Conversion Mystery

Prerequisite, for greater reference, see:

Why will the Jews Convert? A Profound Thesis

Summary

Christ’s Old Body and events of the Gospel before the Resurrection filled up and fulfilled all that is of the Old Covenant, the Laws, the history. At the Cross, His Body, and thereby all things Old, were put to death and abolished. BUT, through the Resurrection, rather than totally and radically different, the Old Law came to life again in the New Resurrected Body of Christ. This Body did not destroy all things old utterly but transformed them into elements of the New, elements that now truly redeem and matter. Therefore, the New Body of Christ is LIKE the Old Body in many ways, but also DIFFERENT. And THAT MEANS, it is not, at first glance, completely RECOGNIZABLE!

This perfectly images the Jewish relationship to Christ in the history of the Church. In the beginning, the Jews see hardly anything in Christ that they can recognize, since they have CLUNG so hard to the Old Law. Progressively, however, as more of the New Law comes into focus, the Jews grow closer to Christ, while yet being unable to fully recognize Him until the final phase of Church history, the Great Apostasy and Antichrist.

If all of the Old Covenant is fulfilled in Christ, then too, its history. Hence, the Gospel details, at various junctures, fulfill Old Testament history of the Jews in its entirety. But the Church is the mystical Body of Christ! Hence, too, the Church must fill up the whole Old Covenant history itself. But, then, this is surely what will convert the Jews, for if Christ filled up all things in them in Himself, and yet they have not believed, how much more will it be necessary for the Jews to see these things filled up in the Body of Christ, the Church, to believe. Hence, what is LACKING IN THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST IS FILLED UP IN CHRIST’S BODY THE CHURCH! That is, what Christ could not do with HIS Body (convert the Jews), the Church will attain with HER Body!

“Only when I have placed my hands in the nail marks and in his side, shall I believe!”

Resurrection Scenes as Revealing Jewish Conversion Mystery

The answer to all mysteries of history must lie within the already extant Deposit of Faith. That is, for example, the Fundamentalists are crazy and short-sighted when they think that the “mystery of iniquity” has to do with some secret societies or such. The mystery of iniquity should really be the mystery of all sin itself, and therefore, of all HISTORY itself, since sin is present at the outset of history, and throughout, until the end. Hence, the mystery should be nothing short of the full implications, reasons, and meaning of God’s Plan to redeem the world to its fullest potential from the beginning to the end of the world.

Consequently, the forthcoming predestined conversion of the Jews en-masse that will occur in the times of the end must also have its derivative reasons for happening somehow veiled in the self-same Scripture and Tradition, since there are no other sources of Revelation other than Scripture and Tradition, saving the Magisterium, which simply compiles and interprets them. This would force us to conclude that the mystery of Jewish conversion MUST be present in one or more ANALOGIES from the Deposit. But where?

In pondering the meaning of the ages for many years now, I believe with all my heart that the key to unlocking this mystery is none other than Resurrection scenes themselves in Scripture. Sound crazy? Come along and see.

The primary argumentation is as follows: the Old Body of Jesus is an image of the Old Law, its Covenant, and its People. Christ filled up in this Old Flesh every last jot and tittle of that Law and People.

But behold, Christ came to partially abolish and to FULFILL the Old Law. The abolishing of any aspects of the Old Law occurred precisely by the suffering and death of Christ on the cross, and WHEN He arose from the dead, His NEW Body, His RESURRECTED Body, now contains the NEW Law, the New Covenant, and is an image of the NEW People.

Here, we ask ourselves: is the New Covenant utterly disjoint and unrecognizable from the Old? NO! For, in fact, some elements of the Old remain, namely, amongst possibly other things, the base principles of the Law that Christ called out repeatedly to those who petitioned Him, what commandments are most important (Love the Lord your God with your whole being, and your neighbor as yourself). Hence, effectively, sparing certain disciplinary issues (eg, the Sabbath), the Decalogue is still in force.

Also, whereas most of the other elements are no longer binding in and of themselves (disciplinary or ceremonial aspects and laws), they all have been FULFILLED, or elevated to NEW forms that bear some resemblance to the old but have been transformed spiritually!

BUT THIS IS THE VERY THING WE SEE IN THE RESURRECTED BODY OF CHRIST! THE RESURRECTED BODY OF CHRIST IS NOT UTTERLY DISCONNECTED FROM THE OLD BODY OF CHRIST! IT IS THE SAME BODY BUT SIMPLY TRANSFIGURED AND ELEVATED! BUT PRECISELY BECAUSE IT HAS TRANSFORMED ELEMENTS AND CHARACTERISTICS, IT IS TO SOME DEGREE DIFFERENT FROM THE OLD BODY AND THEREFORE, AT LEAST INITIALLY, HARD TO RECOGNIZE!

Hence, the failure of the disciples to fully recognize the Christ in the beginning becomes a perfect metaphor for the Jewish People’s failure to recognize the Christ as Messiah, Who, as that very Messiah, has taken the Old Law and transformed it into the NEW Law, the NEW Way, which the People of Old do not understand, since they CLING to the Old Law.

Hence, in a first instance, St. Mary Magdalene’s inability to recognize Jesus at the tomb, her progressive hope in Christ, and final culmination of recognizing Him at the utterance of Jesus, “Mary!”, is an image of the Jewish relationship to the Messiah in the entire course of the history of the Church.

This would imply, since there are three exchanges, three chapters of Jewish history during the Church: early Church, intermediate Church, and final Church history.

At each junction, The Savior, the Messiah, is appealing to the weeping Woman, His Bride:

Messiah: “Woman, why do you weep?”

People of Old: “The Messiah was supposed to be here. The Messiah was supposed to have come. We had the prophecies, the times, but He is not here. He did not come. We do not where He is!”

This is the first phase of Church history, the purgative way. In this first phase, pagan Rome, the Jews knew through prophecy, especially Daniel, that the Messiah was supposed to have come, and He did not. Their situation is hopeless, and their relationship to Jesus and the Christians is one of hostility and enmity. Christ is NOT on the radar map at this time.

Messiah: ”Woman, why do you weep?”

People of Old: “Sir, we still do not recognize you as Our Savior. But perhaps you are a person [the gardener] who can help us FIND the Messiah, FIND where they have LAID HIM!”

To progress, most fully approved private revelation suggests that we are at an intermediate juncture of Church history, a certain dark night of the soul. The modern godless crisis will give way to a great renewal, even if it requires a chastisement of epic proportions. This renewal will bring the fullness of the Gentiles, a near worldwide Catholic civilization of love.

Too, the Jewish history has taken a positive turn: a great portion of the Jewish people now have repossession of the Holy Land that the people had lost centuries ago by the Divine chastisement of Temple Destruction and diaspora, which was an allowed consequence of the Jewish inability to recognize the coming of Her Savior.

Too, Jewish/Christian relations are renewed. Jews still do not recognize Christ as their Messiah; they do not fully recognize the Risen Savior who still stands before them apocalyptically, as they continue to weep that they do not know where the Savior is. BUT, many now regard Christ as a good man who can help them find the Savior, as it were (the gardener?). In fact, in the wake of the incomprehensible horrors of the Holocaust, the Church has reached out to Her elder brethren in friendship, filial affection, and respect. Technically, Her call to the Jewish People for conversion has not truly been abrogated as some well-meaning individuals with a very understandable but misguided compassion may insinuate, but neither does the Church look upon her beloved seed of God’s Covenant with condemnation, knowing that the Jewish People are not yet fully culpable HISTORICALLY for conversion to the Gospel and leaving the case of any individual Jewish person to that person and the mercy of God, knowing, first of all, that the mystery of a person’s conscience carries with it its limited, complex experiences both in positive and negative dimensions, secondly, that in the end, one can be saved by the implicit desire for Baptism—which, at the end of the day is simply, “Lord, show me the way, and help me follow the way”—and finally, remembering that the Father in the great parable does not condemn the older son in his understandable jealousy at the return of the converted, reprobate younger son (the Jewish jealously toward the Gentiles, who once spit in God’s face but now enjoy mercy from the Gospel) but only pleads with the older to come into the house and celebrate the redemption of his younger brother!

Hence, the intermediate scene between Jesus and Mary Magdalene can be our second, intermediate phase of Church history, the dark night of the soul:

Messiah: “Mary!”

People of Old: “Rabboni!”

Finally, at the end of the world, the ultimate déjà vu enters in, with New Testament Antichrist [the final history of the Church before Second Coming of Christ] fulfilling Old Testament Antichrist, Antiochus IV Epiphanies, [the final history of the Jews before First Coming of Christ], and here we must digress:

Why three phases here? Because the way of the Catholic SAINT has three phases: THE PURGATIVE, THE ILLUMINATIVE, AND THE UNITIVE! Here, I argue that if the general rule for the inner renewal and maturation in holiness for an INDIVIDUAL saint has these three intertwined phases, then why not the MACRO PEOPLE OF GOD, who are called to traverse the apocalyptic Covenant with God in maturation and holiness?

It actually works!

The Purgative Way: The flesh of Pagan Rome stung the Church, who is the Spirit coming into the World to correct it, to renew it. Hence, persecution.

The Illuminative Way: once freed by Constantine, the general history of the Church is mainly its evangelization and development of doctrine. The Councils of the Church pave this entire period from about 300 AD to modern times effectively continuously at all major junctures of controversy and crisis. So indeed, God is ILLUMINING the world with the faith. Too, just as minor desolations pave the road for the saint in this way, need we speak of the continual desolations of the Church at every teaching point, where, no matter what She promulgates, whole portions of man resist her in heresy and fight at every stage. Too, just as the saint enters the ultimate desolation of this way, the climactic one, the dark night of the soul, how can we deny this dark night is upon us as atheism and relativism and materialism, which are utterly dark beliefs and ways of life, effectively paint the cultural pictures across of most all of the lands that used to be traditionally Christian?

The Unitive Way: again, by private revelations, the most likely time ahead is not dark but a final light, where, if necessary by a terrible tribulation, the apostate world we live in will repent and come back to the Gospel, even the reunion of Christians, and a time of great spiritual peace will be inaugurated, just as in the unitive way, the saint emerges from the pain of desolation into a light filled walk with God, with every step in His Will. However, the end of the unitive way for the typical saint is his ultimate participation in the sufferings of Christ, to totally abandon himself over to the Father as Christ did on the Cross: either literal martyrdom, or martyrdom of the bed (extreme illness). Too, the Church, as we know, cannot escape the final passion, which follows the aforementioned age of peace, the great apostasy, and martyrdom under Antichrist.

Now, at this point, we know the final step:

Messiah: “Mary!”

People of God: “Rabboni! We see, this man is the ultimate Jewish TEACHER, the CHRIST!”

But why? BECAUSE IT IS THE ULTIMATE DÉJÀ VU!

How? WELL!!! If the CHURCH, as NEW People of God, journeys the WAY OF THE SAINT APOCALYPTICALLY, why not the OLD People God, the JEWS?!

Indeed, they DID! And THAT would be the key to the MYSTERY! Jesus filled up in HIS Flesh, His OLD Flesh, this whole WAY! HOW? How many steps are IN THIS WAY? THREE! And what is the most occurring number in the GOSPELS? THREE!

On the THIRD day He arose

For THREE days and THREE nights, Jonah was in the whale

THREE times Peter denied Christ, and THREE times he was reconciled (Peter, do you love Me?)

THREE times Jesus prayed in Gethsemane to do the Will of His Father

THREE times Jesus fell carrying the cross.

For THREE hours, Jesus hung on the cross

For THREE days and THREE nights, Joseph and Mary looked for Jesus

THREE times Jesus spoke to Mary Magdalene before she recognized Him.

Put simply, we can argue the examples of these threes, all of which are PROGRESSIONS, simply image the PROGRESSIONS of the Three Ways, and that, therefore, the supreme meaning of these is that EVEN THE OLD PEOPLE TRAVERSED the way of the Saint apocalyptically.

For now, the parallels are immediate:

The Purgative Way: The Church had pagan Rome, the Jews had Egypt

The Illuminative Way: The Church’s freedom from pagan Rome and doctrinal development of Magisterium, culminating with Gentile apostasy of our modern times. The Jews had the Exodus, the Old Testament Prophets, who developed the Law, and the supreme apostasy just before the Exile.

The Unitive Way: The Church is soon to have a tribulation that will convert the outer world and restore them to love of God; Catholic Christendom will be rebuilt. Too, the Jews had the chastisement of the Babylonian Exile, which converted them back to God, and they were restored to their land of refuge and rebuilt the literal House of God, the Temple. Finally, the Church will have a literal Antichrist and persecution followed by the ultimate threshold, the SECOND Coming of Christ, just as the Jews had an Antichrist in the final night of Maccabees, Antiochus, and martyrdom and persecution, followed by the threshold of the FIRST Coming of Christ.

How does this relate to our final exchange between Mary Magdalene and Jesus?

Alas, we appeal to St Thomas. St Thomas will NOT believe in the Christ until he has experienced EVERY LAST WOUND of Christ Risen before his eyes. How much more is that, though Christ fulfilled every last age of the Old People in His life and death, the OLD Body of Christ, the Jewish People will NOT believe until they have seen EVERY LAST PHASE OF THEIR HISTORY fulfilled in the NEW Body of Christ, the CHURCH.

Which is to say, WHAT IS LACKING IN THE SUFFERINGS of CHRIST shall be FILLED UP in CHRIST’S MYSTICAL BODY, the CHURCH! Meaning, THE WHOLE HISTORY OF ISRAEL, SPIRITUALLY, WILL BE FULFILLED BY THE CHURCH! Moreover, the Church’s fulfillment will bring out ONLY WHAT IS IMPORTANT, which is to say, the NEW TESTAMENT aspects of Old.

Hence, as more and more history of the Church unfolds, fulfilling the SPIRITUAL aspects of Old Testament history, more and more do the Jewish People recognize themselves and their essence in the NEW Covenant, so that, at the APEX, the final crux, NEW Testament Antichrist, fulfilling OLD Testament Antichrist Antiochus, the Jews’ eyes are opened, and they exclaim, “RABBONI!”, which means, TEACHER!

Addendum, St Thomas

So now, getting back to St Thomas: St Thomas will NOT believe in the Christ until he has experienced EVERY LAST WOUND of Christ Risen before his eyes.

What if it were possible, that in some way, Jesus’ five wounds filled up the way of the saint?

The Wounds of Christ's Body fulfill the Way of the Saint

But, you say, there are **5** wounds, not **3**.

True! But the way of the saint can be sub-divided into the 5 lesser stages! Why? Because the sub-parts of the ways are part darkness and part light (except the purgative way, which is just darkness)! As follows:

The Way of the Saint as 5 lesser stages:

1. Darkness: Purgative Way, (dark night of senses)

2. Light: Illuminative Way of light

3. Darkness: Illuminative Way, dark night of soul

4. Light: Unitive Way of light

5. Darkness: Unitive Way of darkness, Martyrdom

Of course, after martyrdom is eternal life, just as after the five wounds of Christ, Jesus rose into eternal life!

Let us probe it further:

The Five Wounds of Christ:

1. Right hand

2. Left hand

3. Right foot

4. Left foot

5. The spear piercing the side, (after death,)

6. (Resurrection)

The Correlation in more detail:

Common sense says, line up the wounds with each substage of the saint above:

1. Right Hand merits purgative way of dark night of senses

2. Left Hand merits illuminative way of light

3. Right Foot merits illuminative way of darkness, dark night of soul

4. Left Foot merits unitive way of light

5. Side Wound merits unitive way of darkness, martyrdom

6. Resurrection merits eternal life

So, the right hand merits the grace of the People to walk the dark night of the senses of the purgative way. For the Old Testament, this was Egypt, for the New, Pagan Rome's persecutions.

The left hand merits the grace of the People to walk the light of the illuminative way, the first establishment of the Kingdom. Note, for the Old, this was the Exodus and OT kingdom of Israel, for the New, Constantine's victory over Pagan Rome and Catholic Christendom.

The right foot gives strength to the People to endure the dark night of the soul. For the Old, this was the severe Jewish apostasy, so to speak, in the pre-exile days, and for the New, this is the current secular apostasy of modern times amidst the Gentiles who used to be traditionally Christian.

The left foot merits the grace to walk the light of the unitive way, in which the saint is perfect, vindicated, resting in the love of God--union with God--a will fully in tune with God and fully willing to endure whatever God might call it to do. Too, note, in this stage, sin is put to death in the saint, since he walks perfectly with God. Too, with the this selfsame left foot wound, Jesus dies, and His body comes to rest toward the earth. This is exactly what we see in the People of God in this phase: sin i surely put to the death in the respective People.

For consider how the Jews, in their unitive way, no longer sinned gravely against God after the exile when they returned to the Holy Land. They wept tears of repentance and came back to God's heart.

So also, in the coming age of peace, the unitive way for the Catholic Church, the Gentiles will weep tears of repentance and return to the Catholic Church that they started to leave some 500 years ago.

And finally, there is a wound beyond death, the piercing of the side, and this is martrydom. For the OT, this was Maccabbees, the ordeal with OT Antichrist figure, Antiochus IV Ephiphanies. For the NT, this is the great apostasy and ultimate persecutions of NT Antichrist!

And after martyrdom, there is of course, the next age: the saint goes into eternal life, even as the Christ rose from the dead after this wound to the side.

Note, this is like the scenes of the dragon in apocalypse 12. The dragon is progressively brought lower in scope, just as sin is progressively defeated in the way of the saint.

In the beginning, the dragon is in heaven with no opposition. Then he wages war in heaven, but is cast to earth. Then he causes havoc on earth at various times. Then he summons up the beasts and their deceptions, and ultimately calls out Armageddon in the sixth vial of wrath. But then, Christ "descends" from heaven and chains him in the abyss, beneath the earth! Then, after the day of rest, he comes up and seduces man a final time, after which he is cast into eternal fire forever, the final, irrevocable defeat!

Dragon: Five Stages:

In view of his, we can actually see six sub-stages of the dragon, like the wounds of Christ (including Resurrection):

1. The dragon wages war in heaven: the purgative way

2. The dragon is cast to earth and cause lesser problems for the woman, who eludes him: the illuminative way of light

3. The dragon summons up the deception of darkness in the beast and false prophet: the dark night of the soul

4. The dragon is chained in the abyss for the thousand years of rest: the unitive way of light

5. The dragon comes up from the abyss a final time to seduce man and wage war with the Holy Ones: the martyrdom

6. The dragon is seized and cast eternally into the lake of fire, and the opening of the Last books: heaven, the eternal new life and resurrection that will never end!

See similarly, how in the beginning, the Christ, the child born from the woman, reigns from heaven in apocalypse 12, as if His arms outstretched reign from above, the grace having been merited by the crucifixion of his hands.

Then, at the close of the dragon's activity, Christ's feet come down to earth, in order that His Kingdom might reign on earth. In that stage, Christ has died and therefore put to death sin and unrighteousness in the world for a "day", a thousand years of rest, even as Jesus died after the left foot wound, and his body came to rest on the cross, resting toward the earth. So also, are the beast and false prophet, the symbols of sin and lies from the dragon, cast into the lake of fire. Jesus will have brought the unitive way to man.

But a final wound comes after death, the wound from the side. This can be seen as the dragon coming up from beneath Christ's feet a final time. After this attack, there remains only "resurrection from the dead", the next and final sequence of apocalypse, when the dragon is utterly seized and cast forever into the lake of fire!

Therefore, Christ must reign until He has put all his enemies "beneath His feet"!

Similarly, the Jews, like St. Thomas, will not believe until they have “placed their hands” in all these wounds--the finger holes, the feet holes, the side--until they have experienced their entire history filled up in Christ's body the Church. They must see the spiritual stages of their history, which were filled up in the wounds of Christ, filled up in the history of the Gentiles and the Catholic Church before they believe:

They must see the first hand wounded, the purgative way, pagan Rome, fulfilling Egypt.

They must see the second hand wounded, the illuminative way of light, Catholic Christendom, fulfilling the OT kingdom of Israel after the Exodus.

They must see the first foot wounded in the dark night of the soul, our modern secular apostasy from Christendom, which fulfills the great Jewish unfaithfulness to the Mosaic Law before the exile.

They must see the second foot wounded and sin put to death, seeing Christ die and go into His rest, the restoration and vindication of Mother Church, the period of renewal, even as the Jews were renewed in spirit and body after the exile, repenting and returning home to their land of Covenant.

And finally, they will not believe in full until they have seen the wound from the side; that even after Christ put to death wickedness and sin in the age of peace, Our Lady's Triumph in history, the world will wound Christ a final time, the great apostasy and NT Antichrist, when wickedness will come up from the abyss a final time, and yet never to be healed. For Christ died once, He cannot die again. This will fulfill the wound that came after the Jewish rest, the Maccabbean ordeal, with their own tyrannical and blasphemous Antichrist figure, Antiochus IV Ephipanies.

Then, as they "look upon Him whom they have pierced," they shall weep that they had missed the time of the Coming of their Anointed One. Then, like St. Thomas, they shall exclaim, "My Lord and my God!"

Scott Pauline, February 2016, All Rights Reserved