Today's Reflection
May 28, 2010
The Mysteries of Sorrow
The Agony in the Garden
The Scourging at the Pillar
The Crowning with Thorns
The Carrying of the Cross
The Crucifixion
RECONCILIATION
Our Lady will give us a deeper understanding of reconciliation through the five Mysteries of Sorrow.
”Blessed are those whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.”
Luke 12:37
JESUS loved to be with His Apostles and to preach to the multitudes; but He also loved to be alone with His Father. The Apostles were used to seeing Him leave their company after sunset, to spend His nights by Himself on a mountainside, praying. They talked about it among themselves and, when not too tired, wished they could accompany Him. They had their chance at last on Holy Thursday night; Jesus invited Peter, James, and John to watch and pray with Him on Mount Olivet. And they failed Him. He rose from His agony and found them asleep.
Many in our world are in agony. Many feel alone and abandoned. Can you not watch one hour with them?
II. THE SCOURGING AT THE PILLAR
”You say I am a King, for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.”
John 18:37
NOT the least of Christ’s miracles was His continual escape from physical suffering at the hands of His enemies. Divine intervention had prevented the death of the Christ Child, and He came to no harm even in the land of Egypt. His fellow townsmen, angered by His first sermon in the synagogue, dragged Him off to a high cliff to do away with Him, “but He departed from their midst.” Even when the elements seemed to conspire against Him as He crossed the storm-swept Sea of Galilee, Jesus slept unconcernedly. But it was quite otherwise on Good Friday, when Roman soldiers tied Him to a post and lashed His Body to ribbons.
It is impossible to avoid suffering for long. But we must always remember that God is present in the brokenness and emptiness of our situation.
III. THE CROWNING WITH THORNS
”Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
John 21:15
WHILE Jesus was being beaten, while the soldiers scoffed and Pharisees exulted, while the people called Christ’s blood upon their heads, one man wept and wept. In a lonely corner of the city, or perhaps in the seclusion of Olivet, broken-hearted Peter cried his heart’s blood out at the thought of what he had done to Jesus. How proud he had been that day a year ago when he said to Jesus, “Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter had been the first to confess Christ; now he was the first to deny Him. Like Judas, he might have gone out and hanged himself; instead, he went out and wept.
Judas was desperately sorry; Peter was humbly contrite. The heart of reconciliation is believing in God’s mercy.
IV. THE CARRYING OF THE CROSS
”Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Matt. 10:39
A woman followed Jesus as He made His slow way to Calvary. Her eyes betrayed her anxiety to draw near to Jesus. It was not an easy thing to do. The guards surrounding Jesus wasted no courtesy on the crowd that milled about; when a passerby delayed the procession, a soldier’s sword spun him out of the way. Still the woman followed; and her chance came. Jesus fell on His face; the soldiers busied themselves in flogging Him to His feet, and were even grudgingly grateful when Veronica ran up and wiped Jesus’ face with her veil.
Veronica’s small service was heroic because it was done for Christ. By offering my thoughts, words, and actions to God often during the day, I turn them into "Veronica’s veils” for the suffering body of Christ, His Church.
V. THE CRUCIFIXION
”In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”
John 1:1
THE mere listing of Jesus’ suffering in His Passion seems to exhaust the possibilities of human misfortune. In such agony, He sweated blood. Betrayed, denied, deserted, arrested, falsely accused, condemned unjustly, blindfolded, spat upon, beaten, ridiculed by Herod, scourged by Pilate, crowned with thorns, loaded with the cross and then nailed to it, He endured utter abandonment and even death.
Our sickness and pain may be different than His - but that does not separate us from God. There is no pain or suffering of which God is not a part. That is the meaning of the Cross.
God, sometimes I feel so alone - let me remember you are with me.