Fear Not 220

Brethren, gathered here in this humble stone church, where the echoes of our voices mingle with the whispers of the saints, let us turn our hearts to the words of the Psalmist: 'Then my soul shall rejoice in the LORD, exulting in his deliverance.' (Psalm 35:9) Oh, how these words resonate through the ages, spoken not in the clamor of modern halls, but in the quiet sanctity of places like this, where the Early Fathers pondered the depths of Scripture. As we stand before the flickering light of oil lamps, imagine the voice of Saint Augustine, that great Doctor of the Church, expounding upon this very Psalm in his Enarrationes in Psalmos. He teaches us that this verse is no mere poetic flourish, but a profound prophecy of the soul's liberation through Christ. The Psalmist, David, cries out amidst persecution, yet foresees the joy of deliverance—not by human might, but by the hand of the Almighty. Augustine reminds us: 'The soul rejoices in the Lord, not in itself, for in itself it finds only frailty and sin. But in the Lord, it discovers the wellspring of true exultation, the deliverance from the bonds of death and the tyranny of the evil one.' Draw near, my friends, and let us delve deeper with the wisdom of Saint John Chrysostom, whose golden mouth illuminated the Catena Aurea with insights that pierce the heart. In his homilies, Chrysostom speaks of this rejoicing as the fruit of divine grace, a foretaste of the eternal banquet. 'Exulting in his deliverance,' he says, is the soul's triumphant song after the battle, when the Lord has scattered the foes—be they the passions within us or the tempters without. For just as the Israelites rejoiced after crossing the Red Sea, their deliverance from Pharaoh a shadow of our salvation in Christ, so too does the Christian soul exult when freed from the slavery of sin. The Fathers, in their catena of commentaries, weave a tapestry showing how this Psalm echoes the Paschal mystery: Christ's own suffering in the face of enemies, His deliverance through resurrection, and our sharing in that victory. Saint Jerome, too, in his reflections, urges us to see this verse as a call to spiritual warfare. 'The soul that rejoices,' he writes, 'is one that has been tried in the fire of affliction and emerged purified, exulting not in worldly success, but in the Lord's saving power.' And Basil the Great adds that such joy is communal, binding the Church together in praise, as we do here in this simple assembly, without the distractions of the age, unplugged from the noise, attuned only to the voice of God. But let us not leave these truths in the realm of antiquity. In our daily lives, amidst the trials of this world—the persecutions of doubt, the arrows of misfortune, the snares of temptation—how often do we feel ensnared? Yet, the Psalm invites us to anticipate deliverance. Think of the early martyrs, like those in the catacombs, who faced lions and flames, their souls already rejoicing in the Lord's promise. Today, when illness strikes, when relationships fracture, when the weight of the world presses down, remember: our deliverance is not distant. It is in Christ, who has overcome the world. As Gregory of Nyssa teaches, this exultation is the ascent of the soul toward God, leaving behind the shadows for the light of His presence. In this unplugged moment, stripped of artifice, let the Fathers' wisdom stir your hearts. Your soul, too, can rejoice—not in fleeting pleasures, but in the eternal deliverance wrought by the Cross. Trust in Him who turns mourning into dancing, who lifts the lowly and confounds the proud. So, my beloved, let us pray: Lord, grant us souls that rejoice in You alone, exulting in Your deliverance. Amen. Fear not, for He is our joy and our salvation. #FearNot220 #FearNotUNPLUGGED #195of220 #Catholic