Angelus News | April 21, 2023 | Vol. 8 No

The Mary
factor
If the term ‘Paschal
Mystery’ seems
like too much to
understand this
Easter, start by
looking at Jesus’
mother.
BY FATHER SLAWOMIR SZKREDKA
Around this time of year, we
Catholics begin to hear the
term “Paschal Mystery” —
meaning the mystery of Jesus’ death
and resurrection — a lot more. But
what does it really mean for you and
me?
It means Jesus’ death, remembered
on Good Friday, and his new life,
celebrated and experienced at Easter,
are ours, too.
For St. Paul, this experience happens
through baptism: “We were indeed
buried with him through baptism into
death, so that, just as Christ was raised
from the dead by the glory of the
Father, we too might live in newness
of life” (Romans 6:4). In another
place, he asserts, “For you have died,
and your life is hidden with Christ in
God” (Colossians 3:3).
Still, the terms may come off as a bit
metaphorical.
But on Good Friday, when we read
the Lord’s passion according to the
Gospel of John, we hear that right
before his death, in the final act of his
agony on the cross, Jesus entrusts us to
his own mother — and her to us.
He turns to Mary and says, “Woman,
behold, your son.” Then he says
to John (and through him to each
of us), “Behold, your mother” (John
19:26–27).
If we look at the entirety of Jesus’
life and ministry as recorded in the
Gospels, we see how Jesus spent it
preparing his disciples to experience
the Paschal Mystery — and drawing
“The Crucifixion,” about
1420-1430, by Master of
the Kremnitz Stadtbuch.
| J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM
his own mother into it, too.
Jesus’ passion and resurrection only
appear at the end of his earthly journey,
but they are not some unfortunate
addition or epilogue to it. Rather,
everything was oriented toward it from
the start.
In the first chapter of the Gospel of
Mark, Jesus, who has no sin, lowers
himself to receive “a baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins”
(Mark 1:4). In solidarity with sinners,
Jesus goes down into the waters of the
Jordan, foreshadowing his descent
24 • ANGELUS • April 21, 2023