The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames) - Day 40: Suffering Servant

Episode Date: February 9, 2025

Fr. Mark-Mary explains the historical context behind the mystery of the Scourging at the Pillar, and reveals how this mystery fulfills prophecies within the Old Testament book of Isaiah. Today’s focus is the mystery of the Scourging at the Pillar, and we will be praying one Our Father, three Hail Marys, and one Glory Be. For the complete prayer plan, visit https://ascensionpress.com/riy.

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. This is Day 40. 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 preach month. It's a great way to track your progress.

The best place to listen to podcasts in the Ascension app. There's 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. The second sorrowful mystery, the scourging at the pillar. Matthew 27 verse 26. Then he released for them Barabbas and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified. To begin, let us go ahead and set some context and make the transition from Jesus' agony in the garden to hear his trial before Pilate and then his being handed over to be scourged.

So in the garden, Jesus is arrested by Jewish authorities and he goes before the Sanhedrin, which is this group of Jewish priests, elders, scribes, and they're looking for a reason to condemn Jesus. And in a sense, they even have a conversation about whether or not they condemn him and what that looks like. And so what they're ultimately going to condemn him for is blasphemy, for making himself equal to God.

And the sentence for blasphemy is death. But Jewish authorities don't have the authority to carry out a death sentence. So they hand him over to Pilate. Pilate is the Roman governor. He was the governor of Judea from about the year 26 AD to year 36. And he is not a good guy. As we read in one of the Catholic commentary in sacred scripture, he stole from the temple treasury. He had vote of shields with emperor's name placed

in the city. He massacred Galilean pilgrims because he feared a riot. So Pilate has this trial and it becomes very clear that there's no reason for the Roman governor to condemn Jesus to death. He hasn't tried to instigate some sort of uprising. He's clearly talking about his kingdom as something other, as something different than a kingdom here. So he's no threat to the Roman power, the Roman governance, the Roman authority as Pilate reads it. So Pilate has this conversation and kind of trying to give the people something, trying

to kind of, in a sense, maybe even get out of it. And so it's in this context of Pilate having this conversation, if you will, his own trial of Jesus, finding him not guilty of anything worthy of being condemned to death by Roman authorities. He begins the conversation of what can be called like the Passover amnesty. And it was a Roman practice to gain favor with the Jewish people of granting amnesty to one criminal. And instead of the Jewish authorities choosing for Jesus to be the recipient of this Passover amnesty, they call for Barabbas to be released. Barabbas, the name means son of the father. There's this great irony and this great sadness that they choose this worldly son of the father

instead of the son of the father, who actually is the one who comes to grant all of us the amnesty, like freedom from our guilt by his own Passover. And it's clear Pilate should have acquitted Jesus, should have let him go. But out of fear and to appease the people, the Jewish people, he condemns Jesus to death from a place of self-preservation.

Pilate is willing to condemn an innocent man to the most horrendous of deaths. And part of the condemnation, part of the penalty that Pilate imposes on the innocent lamb, the innocent son of God, is to have him scourged. There's two types of scourging. There's the Jewish scourging, which they were allowed to do, which is 40 lashes.

But here Jesus is condemned to a Roman scourging. In this scourging, it's done with leather whips, with sharp pieces of bone, and there were metal spikes, and there's no limit to it and part of the reason for the Roman scourging it's used as a punishment as a form of torture is often used to preclude like to go before crucifixion as punishment and also to hasten death and What we'll mention again on the fourth star off a issue, when we look at Jesus carrying his cross, part of the reason we can understand Simon being called to help Jesus carry his cross

because the beating he received was so severe at his scourging that he was too weak to carry his own cross. And in a certain sense, as we look at the great tragedy of Jesus' escourging, we see him enduring physically what he already experienced and continues to experience interiorly, beginning with his agony in the garden, In the garden where Jesus takes upon himself the guilt of sin, the consequences of sin, and the just punishment of sin, St. Paul in a second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 21 says, for our sake God made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God in a certain sense. And in Jesus' agony in the garden, interiorly, in Jesus' being scourged at the pillar externally,

in Jesus' being ultimately crucified, we see the just condemnation for sin being endured by the sinless one. And in the entirety of Jesus' passion. But with particular horror here at Jesus' scourging, we see him being the suffering servant prophesied by the prophet Isaiah. Let's go ahead and read this, starting with Isaiah 53. Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry grounds. He had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and is one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not.

Surely he is born our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, upon Him was the chastisement that made us whole. And with his stripes, we are healed. And we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

My brothers and sisters, by His stripes we are healed. As we pray today, behold the Son of God, behold the suffering servant, servant, behold the innocent one who takes upon himself our iniquities for our salvation. 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. 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 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 again today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. Poco Poco, friends. God bless y'all.