Day 181: Grace Amid Thorns
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Hi, I'm Fr. 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. This is Day 181.

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Today we will be meditating upon and praying with a third sorrowful mystery, the crowning of thorns, with help from a painting entitled The Crowning with Thorns by the artist Anthony Van Dyck. Now brief introduction to our artist and artwork. Our artist, Sir Anthony Van Dyck, was born in the year 1599 and he died in the year 1641.

He was a Flemish Baroque master and the foremost portraitist of the 17th century. He was an art prodigy who eventually became a protege of Peter Paul Rubens. He traveled a bit, eventually ended up in England where he became the court painter to Charles I. His legacy lies in revolutionizing aristocratic portraiture and religious drama with psychological depth and fluid brushwork.

The time period of the painting we're looking at today, the crowning with thorns, is between the years 1618 and 1620, which if you're doing the math puts Van Dyck between the ages of like 19 and 21. So we see his prodigy certainly on display here. The style we see here is a Baroque dynamism. And we note the Rubensian influence in his early works like the crowning of thorns

with the dramatic chiaroscuro and muscular figures. But van Eyck has a lighter, more agile touch. And also particular to this painting is the theatrical composition. We note the diagonal thrusts and clustered figures and emotional intensity, which typify Baroque storytelling. Now a description of our painting. Men crowd a dark jail cell. Jesus sits bloodied at the center.

His eyes are half open in exhaustion, his arms are bound with a cord, and blood drips down his feet and onto the cell floor. Patches of his skin are red from abrasion. A guard wielding an axe stands over him. As an angry man yanks his brown hair from behind, a knight in armor lowers a crown of thorns towards Jesus. The crown of thorns is made of twisted vines with dozens of points that resemble nails that glisten in the dim light.

So today at least the introduction is going to be a little bit more on the graphic side, but we're not going to stay there for too long. So if that's not for you,

Just maybe skip ahead for 30 seconds or plug yours for 30 seconds, but we're not gonna spend a lot of time there. To begin, I just want us to take a moment to get the image in our mind with help from our painting today by Van Dyck of Jesus scourged and crowned with thorns, like his entire body in open sore, his face painted, not just by trickles, but streams of blood flowing from his thorn punctured crown. And he's brought back like this,

before Pilate, right after his scourging and his crowning with thorns. And he's led back to Pilate. He leaves behind him a trail of crimson red footprints. I think for a moment of our call to follow the footprints of Jesus. And it's here with Jesus in this state that the following conversation with Pontius Pilate happens in the gospel of John. Pilate therefore said to him, you will not speak to me. Do you not know that I have power to release you?

and power to crucify you?" Jesus answered him, "You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above." We're going to stay here with this theme, the theme of authentic power, the power of Jesus and the power of the Christian. Here, like, "Ecce homo," behold the man, behold Jesus, about whom St. Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians, "Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God."

"For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, "and the weakness of God is stronger than man." How starkly is this on display by Jesus before Pilate and Jesus before those who crown and mock him in today's painting. And in some ways I see this like poignantly symbolized in Van Dyck's painting where the soldier placing the crown of thorns, he's armor clad from head to toe, right? Including his hands.

which are protected against the crown. This worldly power, this Roman Goliath-esque figure with dainty hands. But then there's Jesus, bare skinned, radically vulnerable, like David who went to slay the giant free of worldly armor. But it's Jesus who is in control. It is Jesus who has the power to be freely crowned with thorns. Jesus now already sits on a throne

And these soldiers unwittingly and unwisely are doing his bidding. In the same letter in chapter St. Paul writes, "The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God." Today here before this painting, before this mystery, behold the power of God.

On the theme, a couple of quotes I'm going to pull from the apostolic letter of Pope John Paul II called Salvifici Doloris, which is on the Christian meaning of human suffering. Firstly, like what we see in Jesus, we begin with Jesus. You can look at him, right? Being crowned with thorns in our painting. And this is a quote from John Paul II. Suffering more than anything else makes present in the history of humanity, the force of the redemption. And my brothers and sisters, behold the suffering servant crowned with thorns.

behold the redemptive power of God in Jesus. And now secondly for us, what in some ways is a tough word and a word that has no place in worldly wisdom. This is a quote. It is suffering more than anything else, which clears the way for the grace, which transforms human souls. And again, he says in suffering, there's concealed a particular power,

that draws a person interiorly close to God. In suffering, there is a concealed power. And what does that power do? It draws a person interiorly close to Christ. In our sharing in the powerlessness of Jesus, crowned with thorns, may we be open to the draw of grace. The draw of grace which brings hope to our situation. And the draw of grace which brings us interiorly close

to Jesus. May our suffering of powerlessness become a place of encounter with the power of God, more specifically with Christ. Asking for the grace to find that invitation in our suffering, in our powerlessness, asking for the grace to allow it to draw us close to Christ and asking for the grace to experience the power of God in our own suffering and powerlessness.

With Mary, let us now 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, friends, thanks again for joining me and praying with me today. I look forward to continuing our journey with you again tomorrow. Poco a poco, friends. God bless y'all.