THE PASCHAL MYSTERY
OF OUR LORD’S PASSION
AND RESURRECTION
TRANSCENDS THE LIMITS
OF SPACE AND TIME

Our Lord suffered pains and death on the Cross two thousand years ago.  He is in His glory in Heaven now.  Then, how can we understand that Julia Kim in Naju, for example, sees the Lord suffering terrible pains on the Cross now, that His Precious Blood actually comes down and stains many rocks in Naju now, and that the Blessed Mother weeps tears and tears of blood through her statue, staining the cloth under the statue, now?

Of course, Christ’s Passion was a historical fact that was, like any other historical facts, limited to both a particular space and a particular time.  However, the historical facts of Our Lord’s Suffering, Death, Resurrection, and actually His entire life on earth can also be a reality that is present with us regardless of the space and time in which we live, because, by overcoming death through His Resurrection, He transcended the limits of space and time.  Thus, soon after His Resurrection, Our Lord could go through the locked door into the cenacle in Jerusalem where His disciples were in fear and praying after the Crucifixion.  His resurrected Body could no longer be subjected again to sufferings and death as additional historical facts.  Our bodies will also be like His after resurrection at the Last Judgment time.   

As the most noteworthy effect of His Resurrection, Our Lord can be anywhere in the world and at any time in history, not only spiritually but also physically, through the Holy Eucharist.  If Jesus did not resurrect, the Eucharist would be just lifeless body and blood of Jesus; but, because of His Resurrection, the Eucharist certainly is His living Body and Blood united with His Soul and Divinity.  Christ’s saving power, healing love, and living presence can become a true reality for us through all the seven Sacraments in the Church, the Liturgy and prayers in the Church, the teachings in the Church, the penances and other charitable activities in the Church, the pastors in the Church, and all the members of the Church.  Thus, the Church is truly the Mystical Body of Christ, living and constantly at work to accomplish the salvation of human race.  

Our Lady also resurrected very soon after her passing and was assumed into Heaven with her body and soul united again.  That is how she can manifest signs of her physical presence and work in Naju and elsewhere.  Her visits are not just “apparitions,” but actual, living, physical phenomena.  The Resurrection by Our Lord and Our Lady has brought tremendous blessings, consolations, and benefits to the human race, because, thanks to it, humans living anywhere in the world and anytime in history can experience the Lord’s and the Blessed Mother’s full presence and help.  The Church officially teaches the transcendence of the Lord’s Paschal Mystery as follows:

“. . . His Paschal mystery is a real event that occurred in our history, but it is unique:  all other historical events happen once, and then they pass away, swallowed up in the past.  The Paschal mystery of Christ, by contrast, cannot remain only in the past, because by his death he destroyed death, and all that Christ is—all that he did and suffered for all men—participates in the divine eternity, and so transcends all times while being made present in them all.  The event of the Cross and Resurrection abides and draws everything toward life.”  (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1085)