Day 104: Where is Your Sting?
13:33 Share

I'm Father Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars at the Renewal, and this is the Rosary in a Year podcast. We're 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. This is day 104. To download the prayer plan for Rosary in a Year, visit ascensionpress.com forward slash rosary in a year or text R-I-Y to 33777.

You'll get an outline of how we're going to pray each month, and it's a great way to track your progress. The best place to listen to the podcast is in the Ascension app. There are special features built just for this podcast and also recordings of the full rosary. On behalf of myself and the whole team here at Ascension, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's helped support this podcast financially. Your support is so appreciated and helps us to reach as many people as possible. And if you haven't already, please consider supporting us at ascensionpress.com forward slash support.

Today we will be meditating upon and praying with the first glorious mystery, the resurrection, with help from an Easter homily by St. John Chrysostom. The emphasis of our prayer meditation is going to be, Death, where is your sting?

Some brief background on St. John Christom. He was born in the year 347 and he died in the year 407. His name Christom is an honorific Greek title, which means golden mouth, an allusion to his great writings and preaching. St. John, as a young man, he lived a very ascetical life as a monk and

While there, he ended up picking up a stomach ailment, which would really kind of keep him sick and somewhat fragile for the rest of his life. Eventually, he would kind of leave the more separate monastic desert spirituality and he would come to the city, particularly Antioch, where he'd serve as a priest and eventually become a bishop. He would continue to live a very, very strict life, personal life. And he'd hold a very high standard of both simplicity and generosity, especially in

towards the poor, but also he would speak extremely tenderly about the mercy of God. In response to the life he lived and the way it pricked the consciences of those in leadership and his preaching, especially on what was owed to the poor, he ended up being sent into exile by the Empress. St. John Christendom is a doctor of the church. Again, he has the honorific title of Christendom, meaning golden mouth. And I've also seen him referred to as the doctor of the Eucharist.

So now let's read our Easter homily from St. John Chrysostom. Now begins our reading. "Come all and enter into the joy of your Lord. First and last receive your reward. Rich and poor dance together. The industrious and the sluggish tend to this day. Those fasting and those not fasting be joyful today. The table is set and rich with food. Enjoy the banquet. The calf is fatted and a plenty. Let no one go away hungry.

All of you together enjoy the banquet of faith. All of you indulge in the riches of His goodness. Let no one lament His poverty. For the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one mourn his sins, for forgiveness has shone from the grave. Let no one be terrified of death, for the death of our Savior has liberated us. He destroyed death by enduring it. He has despoiled hell by descending into it. He angered hell by allowing it to taste His flesh.

Where, O death, is your sting? O hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen and the demons are destroyed. Christ is risen and the angels rejoiced. Christ is risen and life is restored. Christ is risen and no dead person remains in the tomb. For Christ, in rising from the dead, became the firstborn of the dead. To him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

The end of the reading. Thanks be to God. I love this reading. You get why he's called golden mouse and John Christ. I'm here. What is he saying? Okay, let's go ahead and take a kind of a look at it. Let's sit with it. The resurrection of Jesus. It puts all things in their right place. Like that, which is passing or temporary is shown to be passing that which is internal is revealed as ever enduring. Notice the words of St. John Christ. I'm,

He goes through a series regarding these different dispositions or attitudes. First, last, rich, poor, industrious, sluggish, fasting, not fasting, those in poverty, those mourning their sins. And what's he saying? All of these are temporary. All of these are passing before the resurrection of Jesus Christ. All are called to glory.

to joy, to fullness, to confidence, to forgiveness, to life. The human condition with its various levels and experiences, its successes and failures is passing. But joy, forgiveness, fullness, life in Jesus Christ, these are all everlasting.

St. John Chrysostom, he continues by looking at the sting of death or the perceived victory of hell. Before the resurrection, Satan had this thought that he'd be victorious, that hell would swallow us up. But then Jesus wins salvation. Jesus is victorious over the grave. Jesus is victorious over hell. And he opens to us all the gates of heaven. And death has lost its sting.

and its illusion of permanence. And so what does this mean for us? I'd say there's twofold application. First of all, the invitation to keep temporary things as temporary and eternal things as eternal. Our current successes, our current status, our current financial situation, for the positive or the negative, they're all passing.

We just don't place our hope in these things, whether they be great or poor, they're going to pass away. And so the wealthy, the accomplished, the successful, et cetera, they shouldn't boast in their accomplishment and their successes and their wealth. But likewise, the poor shouldn't lament in their poverty or their lack of successes, their lack of popularity, whatever it is. Why? Because both of those are temporary. Both of those are passing.

And secondly, we are all offered a hope before death. We have Jesus before the death of Lazarus, still lamenting, still mourning. And so there is still before death, and perhaps even before our own death, a certain sense of sadness. But it is not a sadness towards despair. The fear of death, while it might be felt in some human senses as a real fear, needs also to be

Be in contact with the ultimate hope of the resurrection, that we are a people of hope and we believe that this life is temporary. We believe that death is temporary, but the hope of eternal life offered to us in Christ is eternal. And same with those we have lost. There's going to be some many ways in which we do mourn their absence.

But the hope of Jesus Christ is a deep hope, a profound hope, which speaks into these situations and say like your separation is temporary. What Christ risen from the dead offers to us is the hope, the authentic Christian hope of eternal communion and union with God, eternal reunion with all those who are saved. Wealth, poverty, death, health, these are all passing. What is eternal is

is the victory of Jesus Christ. What is eternal is our hope of salvation and life forever with God. And this is what is offered to us by Christ's victory over the grave. As we pray, let's go ahead and sort of apply these words to our situations. If we're feeling a little bit too confident, a little bit too boast-worthy in our successes,

May the resurrection of Jesus Christ humble us, remind us that these are temporary. If we're feeling a certain sadness or discouragement about some failures or some lack of successes, may the resurrection of Jesus Christ offer us hope and fullness. And for those of us who are mourning the loss of loved ones, may the resurrection of Jesus Christ come and tenderly touch those wounds and offer to us the healing, eternal hope that comes from the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And now with Mary, 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. 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.

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. 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 the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thanks all for joining me and praying with me today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. Poco a poco. All right. God bless y'all.