Day 61: You Are Beloved

I'm Father Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and this is the Rosary in a Year podcast, where through prayer and meditation, the Rosary brings us deeper into relationship with Jesus and Mary and becomes a source of grace for the whole world. The Rosary in a Year is brought to you by Ascension.
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The third sorrowful mystery is our Lord is crowned with thorns.

Matthew chapter 27 verses 27 through 31. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the praetorium, and they gathered the whole battalion before him.
And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe upon him. And plaiting a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand.
And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. And they spat upon him and took the reed and struck him on the head.
And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him. Now before, you know, looking directly at what's happening to our Lord as he is mocked and crowned with thorns, let's return to the parable of the prodigal son and the journey of the sinner.
This is going to be Luke chapter 15, starting at verse 17. But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare? But I perish here with hunger.
I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
Treat me as one of your hired servants. This is going to be the pattern of Satan and of sin in our lives.
He's going to first allure us. And then when we fall into the trap, he's going to accuse us and condemn us and what we call mock us particularly attack our identity and our dignity by beginning to define us by our sin and the result of our sin and what's the great mystery and the great dignity of unconditional love is even here, even at his lowest, to the Father,

he remains beloved son. But how does the son see himself? How does he identify himself? How does he judge himself? He starts to identify and to judge himself as the result of his sin.
Like I am no longer son. And this can be the self-accusation that comes from within.
This can be the accuser himself, Satan himself saying, you are no longer son. You are sinner.
And the most you can ever be again is hired servant, but you will never again be son. This is Satan, right? He's going to lure us and he's going to lead us into sin.
And this sin is going to bear sort of negative results on our, on our body, on our mental health. We're going to be filled with shame and loneliness, et cetera.
And then he's going to come in for something like this killing blow here of our identity. Like, look at yourself.
You are no longer son. You are sinner.
And we'll see this parallel playing out now in the life of Jesus and the passion of Jesus. It's going to look a little bit different, again, because he is innocent and he never forgets who he is.
Jesus is always going to know and he's going to be rooted in his identity. Like I am beloved son of the best of fathers, but Satan and the sinners, they start to lash out and they mock him.
They call him mockingly a king. And what's being manifested here is this movement of sin and of Satan.
Now that we have you delivered over to us, we're going to come after your dignity and identity. Even yet, Jesus takes this.
Jesus does not deserve to be spat upon he does not deserve to be mocked he remains king he remains beloved son and Jesus he experiences all of this mockery from the ones he has come to save.

But he remains true and he remains rooted and he remains faithful. Like, I am king and this is how I conquer.
I am beloved son and my father lives and my father will deliver me. Okay, so my brothers and sisters, this is the invitation.
This is the reflection. Let's look at Jesus.
Particularly, okay, let's be moved by, again, the innocent victim who freely takes upon the mockery that is the result of sin and the manifestation of satan and the true nature of who satan is but also like let's let's learn from jesus how to respond when perhaps by our own choices,

we end up in a place similar to that of the prodigal son

where our dignity and our identity is in question.

Satan is going to try and mock us.

He's going to try and bring up all this evidence

about how we're no longer beloved sons.

We're no longer beloved daughters.

We need to echo and make our own what's happening in Jesus' heart. This sin does not define me.
I am daughter. I am son.
And the Father, he sees me. He loves me.
He will deliver me. He will restore me.
The mockery is trying to keep us from returning to the Father, but I will return to him. So my brothers and sisters, moved by the great love of our Lord, may our praying of this third sorrowful mystery protect us from any attacks against our identity and any mockery of the evil one.
And keep us rooted in our identity as beloved sons and daughters, in the Son, in our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen all right thank you for joining me and praying with me today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow.

All right, poco poco, friends.

Bye now.