By Cordelia Fitzgerald (G)
“And [Jacob] dreamed that there was a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it” (Genesis 28:12).
Thus is described Jacob’s Ladder, which is, after all, not his. It acts, rather, as a highway for the angels to travel in their duties, for it is still the Old Covenant, and the world is still fallen into isolation, like some long-lost Atlantis. The story of its awakening and rescue are told elsewhere, but it is well summarized in the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary.
The First Glorious Mystery: The Resurrection
Christus Resurrexit! And He has demolished the coldly prisoning chains of Limbo and death, that “undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns” (Hamlet, Act III, Scene I). Christ breaks the constraints of travel between the spheres; from death to life He rises, from the netherworld to the world: the scene of God’s salvation. Lazarus, we remember, was raised (by Jesus, of course), but he lived a mortal life and still returned in the end to the dust from which he came. In The Greatest Story Ever Told, some unfortunate makeup choices present us with a rather cadaverous Lazarus as a reminder of his retained mortal body. Christ’s body, on the other hand, is resurrected, perfect and glorified and transcending physics. Unlike Lazarus, He does not die again.
The Second Glorious Mystery: The Ascension
Instead, He was “taken up, and a cloud hid Him from their sight” (Acts 1:9). Having traveled from the netherworld to earth, He next opens the way from earth to Heaven. Jacob’s Ladder has been replaced; not only immaterial spirits pass now, but a fully human, real, round, physical body has crossed the threshold into Heaven. Even in this, however, Christ is not gone; He stays through every consubstantiation in the breaking of the bread, and, moreover, sends the Spirit along that new highway to us.
The Third Glorious Mystery: The Descent of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit comes as “tongues of flame” (Acts 2:3) and freely rains down His gifts on His long-impoverished people. Wisdom, understanding, fear of the Lord: these rightly ordered bits of Heaven the Holy Spirit scatters and bestows on a people newly aware of their inheritance. Now in Heaven in His full humanity, Christ doesn’t lounge in Trinitarian security, but rather reveals God in His fullness to His people. We are not forgotten. We are included.
The Fourth Glorious Mystery: The Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven
And He has taken with Him the flesh that bore Him: Mary, our Mother by His gift, was assumed into Heaven. She, among all generations blessed, joined her Son, and the traffic on Jacob’s Ladder increased yet again. Man is brought up to commune with God, and the earthly Mother and Son are reunited in Heaven, heading a long stream (as we hope) of the faithful. The path broadens.
The Fifth Glorious Mystery: The Coronation of Our Lady as Queen of Heaven and Earth
Her assumption was the means, but here in the Fifth Glorious Mystery is the definitive act to unite the spheres. Christ crowns no angel, but rather declares a lowly human maiden Queen. Her realm? Heaven and earth, “the moon beneath her feet, and on her head, a crown of twelve stars” (Revelation 12:1). So far from Eve’s failed earthly reign, Mary’s exalted place as the crusher of serpents signifies the glorious unification God brought about from that wretched betrayal in the garden.
Jacob’s Ladder has new pedestrians now, and new oversight. The spheres have lost their strict delineation, death its sting, the grave its victory, and we our excuses. God has opened the way and placed Our Mother at His side to greet us. He has brought Heaven into communication with earth and freed Limbo, and suffered, and died, and risen, and sent His Spirit, and wept for us. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and it is glorious. All we need do is accept it, and follow Him. The rest is unlocked before us.
LogoSophia Magazine 