A Sign of Contradiction, Part Seven

The deep aspect of the Church—called forth by Simeon during the presentation of the infant Christ in the Temple (Luke 2:34)—that so often becomes lost in the modern world, with its comfort, ease, tendency to go along to get along, and lack of easily perceived martyrs—though are not the millions of aborted babies such—yet as Pope John Paul II reminds us, the Church is surely a sign of contradiction in the world.

Over the next four days (first of ten posted on May 9th) I will continue to post excerpts from the final chapter of the first book published in English by John Paul—in 1979—Sign of Contradiction, which is a collection of talks then Cardinal Karol Wojtyla preached during the annual Lenten Retreat in March 1976 to his predecessor, Pope Paul VI.

A related series of reflections by Dr. John C. Rao, is available online at the Roman Forum, The War of the Words Against the Word, which examines in depth the ongoing war against the Church, as noted by Dr. Rao: “What, exactly, is the nature of this war? As various nineteenth century Catholic apologists were perhaps the first clearly to note, it is a conflict waged by those who fully accept the Way, the Truth and the Life brought into the world through the Incarnation against others who furiously reject it. That clash is rendered inevitable and permanent primarily due to the existence of the Mystical Body of Christ---the Church---as an organized, active agent of the Incarnation and its message. For the Church is a force which has proven to be a powerful, effective, rage-provoking “sign of contradiction” to all the many opponents of Christ.” (2nd para., 1st p.)

Excerpt from Sign of Contradiction.

"These words sum up the whole of tradition, the testimony of the Fathers and the living faith of the Church. Guided by chapter VIII of the Constitution on the Church let us enter the second dimension of the truth about Mary. This humble servant of the Lord, the virgin-mother of Nazareth, hidden in the mystery of her Son, seems to move in God’s plan beyond the humble bounds of her historical existence. The truth about her reaches right back to the origins of mankind, because it was then that certain words were spoken—words concerning the woman, mother of the Son who will crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15); and the teaching of Vatican II refers to those words (Lumen gentium, n. 55) Mary is part of salvation history from the beginning, and she will remain part of it until the end. Indeed, the picture of the woman in the third chapter of Genesis is to be focused again in the book of Revelation, in the context of the eschatological travail that will fall to the Church’s lot until the end of time.

“Then a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars: and being pregnant and in labour she cried aloud in the pains of childbirth. Meanwhile another sign appeared in heaven: a great dragon of the colour of fire, with seven heads, and twelve horns: and seven diadems on its heads. Its tail dragged a third of the stars from the sky and swept them down to earth. Then the dragon stopped in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so as to devour the child as soon as it was born. And she gave birth to a male child, destined to guide and pasture all nations with a staff of iron, and her son was taken straight up to God and his throne.” (Revelation 12:1-5) This is fully in line with the book of Genesis: “I will place enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed…”. And here is what we read in Revelation: “Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they could not win and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was hurled down, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world was hurled down, and his angels were hurled down with him” (Revelation 12:7-10).” (pp. 202-203)