Day 157: We Have Authority
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I'm Fr. Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and this is the Rosary in Your 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 the Year is brought to you by Ascension. This is Day 157.

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 with myself and other friars. No matter what app you're listening in, remember to tap follow or subscribe for your daily notifications. Today we will be meditating upon and praying with the fourth rosary.

Luminous Mystery, The Transfiguration with help from the painting entitled The Transfiguration by the great artist Raphael. All right, brief introduction to our artist and artwork today. Raphael was born in the year 1483. He died in the year 1520. And along with Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, he's considered one of the three great painters of the Italian Renaissance.

His father was an artist and Raphael learned from him from an early age, eventually running his father's workshop after his death. He then traveled to Florence and finally to Rome where he created many famous works before his death at the young age of 37. This painting was done in the early 16th century between the years 1516 and 1520.

As a particular note about this painting, it's Raphael's final work and his final masterpiece. And it was one of the most famous paintings in the whole world and has been seen as one of the finest examples of painting ever. Now a description of our painting of the Transfiguration by Raphael. In the upper part of the painting, before puffy white clouds that break up the blue sky, Jesus radiantly floats feet off the ground.

In a plain white tunic, bare feet, arms extended open, Jesus raised up above a short, flat-topped mountain where three of his disciples fall to the ground and shield their eyes from the light. To his right and left are two prophets, Moses and Elijah, who hover towards him in the sky with flowing drapery and expressive, reverent gestures. Above them, a heavenly aura emanates.

The landscape below is a darker, more tumultuous environment. The disciples clustered around a possessed boy appear in varying poses of anguish and confusion. The boy, wide-eyed, writhes in pain, his body convulsing as he is restrained by others. The figures surrounding him are tightly packed and appear to debate the futile attempts to help.

They are clothed in a range of rich, saturated hues. At some point, their arms in different directions. Some raise their arms in exasperation. At one point, towards the boy. And others gesture to Jesus. Now, let's go ahead and do a little Bible study to make sense of what Raphael is doing here. So, in chapter 17 of St. Matthew's Gospel, we have his account of the transfiguration, the mystery of light.

par excellence, at which, as we've already stated, Jesus momentarily gives Peter, James, and John like a peek behind the veil of his humanity to see his glory. And Jesus manifested as the fulfillment of the law and prophets by the presence there of Elijah and Moses.

And Jesus reveals to them in an experiential way, his Lordship, his light, his glory, but also his authority and his power. Why? Because he is the Lord. And then the next verse is in Matthew 17, a father comes to Jesus and says, "Have mercy on my son." The son was being tormented by a demon. The father took his son to Jesus' disciples to cast out the demon, but they couldn't.

And so after hearing this, what Jesus does is he rebukes and he rebukes quite strongly his disciples for their lack of faith. And he knows that it is their lack of faith that did not give them the power to drive out the demon. Then Jesus goes on to deliver this man's son and he casts out the demon. So let's go ahead and make sense of these two accounts like in the gospel and then included here in Raphael's masterpiece.

And at first, I guess the question that comes to mind is what did the disciples trying to cast out the demon, but with a weak faith look like? Raphael has like an external rendering here. And I'm imagining though, like that there could be a multitude of answers of what's going on interiorly. Perhaps there's a doubt of Jesus as Lord and doubt of his power. Perhaps there was maybe even a fear of trying and failing, or there could be like a conviction of,

of personal incapacity or sinfulness that caused the disciples to hold back in some way that undercut their faith. Whatever it looks like, I imagine it to be in direct contrast to what we have seen in the faith of Mary and John the Baptist, particularly at the Annunciation and the baptism.

As we talked about, like they both experienced and were keenly aware of their littleness and their poverty, but they placed their confidence in God. And when they acted, they acted with profound faith and boldness and confidence and therefore power. Jesus spends his time teaching his apostles,

Two things, right? That both that he is the Lord, that Jesus himself has divine authority and divine power because he is God, right? And faith requires us to believe this wholeheartedly. And this is not only confirmed by his many miracles, including his rising from the dead, but here today, right? In a particular way during his transfiguration, he basically shouts like, believe in me and my power, right?

But also what he communicates to his disciples is that his power and his authority want to work through them as well, through us as well. And that we are called to share in his divine life, including his power at work in us.

And Jesus gave them the authority, right? Like when he sent them out, he sent them out to cast out demons and to give them not only like a testimony to him and who he is, but how he can and wants to work through them.

And Jesus says like explicitly that we, that his disciples will do even greater works than he did after his ascension through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us. Jesus, who is the Lord, gives us a share in his power and his authority. And this is why it makes sense that Raphael combined these two parts of Matthew's gospel in this painting. They touch on a common thread, a common theme, namely the power of Jesus.

And Jesus transfigured is contrasted with the lack of power of disciples, not because they don't have access to it, but because they don't have faith. And we're invited, if you will, to look at the painting and to follow the hand of that one disciple who points up the mountain, to move our eyes to Jesus and away from ourselves as Mary did and does, as John the Baptist did and does. And it's as if he's saying, "Hey, look at Jesus.

Look to him. He is the Lord and the Lord wants to act through you with power. Believe, have faith and act. Now, as we pray today, like let's look at those places in our lives where we're not living with faith and the power and the authority of Jesus that we, in fact, by our baptism have access to.

I don't know that a lot of us are being called to cast out demons. I don't know that that's like a broad daily occurrence. So I'm not gonna spend too much time there, but how about like discouragement or temptations to despair even before personal sinfulness and like this feeling of like, just give up. Like I'm never gonna leave this behind. I'm never gonna get it better or discouragement, despair in Jesus's mercy.

Have faith in His mercy that you can return whenever you need to, but also have faith in His power to transform you and to deliver you and to free you. Call on the power of God with confidence. Or perhaps we're encountering another suffering. It's really attacking our faith. And perhaps we just don't know that we can keep going forward with this with the Lord. Today, let's look at the transfigured Lord and call on Him and call on His power.

And we can apply this in a lot of different places on those we're praying for, those we're being called to forgive, called to share the gospel with, to evangelize. Brothers and sisters, today, as we contemplate the Lord and his power and his authority that he has in himself and that he desires to communicate to us, let us before this, like not be hesitant or unbelieving, but let us believe and act in the power and the authority of

of our Lord Jesus Christ. And asking for this grace and this increase of faith, my brothers and sisters, 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 of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right, thanks so much for joining me and praying with me again today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. Poco a poco, friends. All right, God bless y'all.