Father, we need you. Grant us contrite hearts that rely on your Goodness, Power and Majesty to touch our aching hearts. Jesus shepherd us into the endless Light of your Sacred Heart, and beautiful Holy Spirit guide me as I write this week’s reflection. We are overwhelmed by Jesus’ pain and suffering. It is beyond our understanding and exceeds our experience no matter how much pain we have felt in our lives. Grant us the grace to enter its mysteries in new ways; in a deep, personal way tailored by your Sacred Imagination for each person. Oh, God, we thank you for moving through the imperfect agency of this medium. We make this prayer invoking the Mercy of Jesus’ precious Blood. AMEN

If you want to read Part 1 of this reflection, click here.

Pain #4: Crown of Thorns

Can you hear the jeers, “Hail King of the Jews.” The echoes of royal Hosannas are yesterday’s forgotten hymn. Words belie the insidious, thinly veiled darkness of calumnious hearts possessed by recalcitrant ignorance. Jesus is crowned with hate. We go from the previsaging thorns of our “Christmas Rose” (the King of King) exalted with Glorias, to embittered piercing thorns fashioning a crown for our “Savior, God and King” reverenced with reviling mockery.

Drunk soldiers imbibing demonic spirits enact the blasphemy Jesus is accused of committing. Jesus is ravaged by forty blows. He awaits crucifixion.

“I cannot think. I’m draped in ridicule; covered in spittle. My crown’s thorns are like sharp talons of a preying bird bloodletting my Goodness. I sob tears of hope. How can people reject my Father’s Love? How is this possible? The physical pain I endure is nothing compared to the pain of experiencing every person past, present, and future who will reject my Love.”

Divine dignity cannot be eradicated by ignoble infantile shenaniganed bullying. Jesus suffuses His pain with His longing for all of creation to know, love, and serve His Father. Jesus alternates back and forth between His pain in the moment, and His eternal pain of experiencing all the souls that will be lost. Who are these souls? They are disfigured and shriveled. These souls insist on exercising their free will in opposition to God’s Divine Will. Jesus is broken hearted.

When you are ridiculed… when you are assaulted by negative thoughts… when you face hurting people or toxic situations that are unlikely to change…

Pain #5: Carrying the Cross

Jesus begins the march to Golgotha. His body is beaten to a pulp. His crown of thorns keeps digging into his skull. Tunics have been repeatedly ripped off His bloodied body; adhering to His hemorrhaging wounds. Jesus’ exertion defies human limitations. Have you ever wondered if Jesus uses His supernatural power – his divinity – to prolong this marathon of pain?

Consider the weight that Jesus is carrying. A wooden beam is a mirage of sin’s dense gravity. Sin is recklessly converging its brutal campaign on a single point: JESUS CHRIST. Every step Jesus takes unravels the missteps of every person across all time.

Jesus is not only ensconced in sin, but He is incarcerated by the compassionating experience of every pained and limiting thought. These are the intransigent thoughts that enslave us in cycles of shame, guilt, and self-destruction. Each beat of Jesus’ heart that fuels His lurching, wobbling struggle forward, drains His body of human life as it sanctifies Jesus’ embodied Love for His Father, and for us.

“The noise is deafening. I’m haunted by a sea of unrecognizable familiar faces. My feet are dizzy. My knees buckle but my heart works stronger. The timeless weight of my lost sheep’s crushing life circumstance – their pain – their sacrifices, dance before my eyes. I am not alone. I am walking with every person struggling to inch forward against intractable obstacles. I push forward for them.”

Jesus eviscerates His pain’s hold on Him by transmuting it into the pain of every person. He is enjoined to our physical, spiritual, and emotional pain; not as some divine abstraction but in all our pains’ ugly deleterious machinations. Jesus’ compassionate heart reflects the Glory of God.

When you are a hostage of intractable pain… when you feel like you can’t keep going… when you fall and see no hand to help you…

Pain #6: Nailed to the Cross

Jesus reaches His destination. The cross with all its grotesque horrors represents the fulfillment of Jesus’ True longing. Picture Jesus hugging the cross. After obeying every spiritual constraint placed on His divine power, from just making things right, Jesus lies on the ground next to the threshold of redeeming Grace. His pain up until this point is a faint shadow of what He is about to undertake. Jesus wants to mount His throne, and nothing will stop Him.

There were likely delays in Jesus satisfying His longing for the cross. Maybe Jesus had to be patient while the soldiers finished preparing for the crucifixion.  Was Jesus tempted while He waited to be nailed to the cross? Did the devil goad Jesus to call the whole thing off, end His suffering, and derail salvation’s plan?

Jesus treats the cross like a long-lost friend He has been waiting to embrace His whole life. When the moment arrives, the soldiers are befuddled. Jesus willingly uses every ounce of His energy to outstretch His arms to be nailed to the cross.

“The nails rip through my wineskin and my cup overflows. My exulting cries of pain are tearing the veil between heaven and earth. The narrow door to my kingdom is unhinging. The nails are staking my claim to every soul. Take refuge with me on the cross. Come my adopted brothers and sisters our Father is calling us home.”

The Lamb of God is skewered. On the cross He will roast above logs of sin stoked in the fiery pits of hell. Christ’s enduring pain and deepest suffering is just beginning. How do we pick up our crosses and follow Jesus?

When you feel nailed to painful situations… when you are pierced by life’s blows… when pain is the only way forward…

Pain #7: Breathing on the Cross

The cross is lifted high. It’s an eternal triumph of Good over evil. The restoration of man’s communion with God and with each other reaches a climax. Three hours of earthly agony runs on a celestial clock we can neither see nor fathom. Jesus and the Father are one on the cross. The Father cannot abandon His Son. Though it may appear that way, and feel that way to Jesus because He has taken on sin, nothing could be further from the Truth.

Barring the walk with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden this is God’s Holiest and most intimate moment with humankind. Jesus’ supreme act of obedience unites Him in Love with the Father and through the Father to all of creation. 

Breath is life. And Jesus doesn’t waste a single breath. Each breath requires herculean effort. Jesus pushes with His pierced feet against the footstep of the cross to extend His body and to let His burning lungs gasp for air. We don’t have to be a physiologist to understand how the nerves of every muscle, tendon and joint of Jesus’ body were screaming with pain.

“I live to die. Father, I want to give everything to you. Grant me another breath. Oh Father, please do not take my life yet. Let me bring you more souls. Drain my body of every drop of blood. Father, why have you abandoned me. The “roar of the prowling lion”[1] is drowning out your voice. I see the jowls of hell. Save me…”

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[1] 1 Peter 5: 8

The lust of evil rips at Jesus. Ravenous demonic scavengers gnash the Body of Christ. Evil deceives itself. It believes its lie that it can destroy God and rule creation. Well, be assured that Holy Saturday will denounce that myth, and right that fallacy!

When you cannot catch your spiritual breath… when you feel abandoned… when you feel evil assaulting you…

May we be granted a renewal of faith and trust in the saving power of Jesus Christ. May every knee bend and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Thank you, Lord for suffering for us and for your perfect atoning gift of Love.