A Sign of Contradiction, Part Ten

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.

This is the final post (first of ten posted on May 9th) of 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 more recent and 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.)

The final excerpt from Sign of Contradiction.

“The woman of Revelation, “a great sign appeared in the heavens” (Revelation 12:1). Within the dimensions of the universe the Son of God, the eternal Word, the Lord of the ages to come is her son and she is his mother. Therefore all that goes to make up what he bequeathed—the work of salvation, the Mystical Body of Christ, the People of God, the Church—is taken care of, and always will be taken care of, by her—with the same fidelity and strength that she showed in taking care of her son: from the stable in Bethlehem, to Calvary and to the upper room on the day of Pentecost when the Church was born. Mary is present in all the vicissitudes of this Church. She is very close indeed to the wonderful mystery expressed by the proto-evangelium. She: a weak woman. “God chose the weak of this world to confound the powerful” (I Corinthians 1:27).

“Our times are marked by a great expectation. All who believe in Christ and worship the true God are seeking ways of coming closer to one another. They are seeking paths leading to unity, and their cry is: “Christ sets us free and unites us”. The Church, the People of God, senses ever more profoundly that she is being called to this unity. The Church, the People of God, is at the same time the Mystical Body of Christ. St. Paul likened the Church to the human body in order to describe more clearly its life and its unity. The human body is given its life and its unity by the mother. Mary, by the working of the Holy Spirit, gave unity to the human body of Christ. And that is why our hope today turns in a special way towards her, in these times of ours when the Mystical Body of Christ is being more fully reconstituted in unity.

“By the end of the 1975 Holy Year we had already entered the last quarter-century of the two thousand years since the birth of Christ, a new Advent for the Church and for humanity. A time of expectation and also of one crucial temptation—in a way still the same temptation that we know of from the third chapter of Genesis, though in one sense more deep-rooted than ever. A time of great trial but also of great hope. For just such a time as this we have been given the sign: Christ, “sign of contradiction” (Luke 2:34). And the woman clothed with the sun: “A great sign in the heavens” (Revelation 12:1). (pp.205-206)