The Seventh Saturday: The Second Sorrowful Mystery – The Scourging of Jesus
Gospel Readings:
Matthew 27
Mark 15
Luke 23
MEDITATION
1. Jesus before his judges. My soul, journey along these sorrowful roads your Father travels upon, your loving Jesus, in these hours of his atrocious afflictions.
Slapped in the house of Annas, He then passed into that of Caiphas where He was mocked, declared a blasphemer, an offender deserving death. He was then shut in a prison and there, until dawn, abandoned to the scorn, spittle and blows of insolent soldiers.
At break of day He was dragged through the streets, then handed over to Pilate and Herod by his judges. By Herod He was considered mad, and as such dressed in white and exposed to the ridicule and sneers of a seduced crowd.
My soul, admire your Jesus, ever humble, ever patient; He allows himself to be led like an innocent lamb, where He is to be tormented by humanity’s malice and Satan’s fury. Consider how he remains silent before the shouts, the slander and the scorn. And Jesus remains silent to teach you how to abandon yourself to God, whenever you yourself be accused or slandered; and for love of him do not seek any other justification but silence. “He was like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb” (Is 53:7).
In this way your heart shall find peace. How many Saints, how many solitary and peaceful persons have generated this silence of Jesus!
Have mercy, O Lord, have mercy! I am full of sin, while You are innocence itself: and yet, You love those who treat you so unjustly, even unto dying for them. And shall I cling to feelings of animosity and bitterness for the smallest of offences? You allow yourself to be judged by everyone, and yet I wish to be judged by no one? When will I see my heart changed, O infinite goodness? My God, my Saviour, my Teacher, I confess before you my ungratefulness, my pride and presumption: by your grace I long to imitate you and to suffer in silence every sort of pain and injury that will be done to me. With my whole heart I forgive all those who have injured me, and who will injure me. Through your love I free them from having to restore the honour of which they have deprived me, and I wish no other honour than that of loving and serving you. Destroy in me all sentiments of bitterness and vengeance, dilate my heart with your charity that I may unreservedly love you, and in you love all those who persecute me, “rejoicing to be counted worthy to suffer dishonour for love of the name of Jesus” (Acts 5:41).
2. Jesus was taken from prison and dragged shamefully through the streets, so that He appear odious and contemptible to the people, who are accustomed to judging things by their appearance. He was treated as a cursed man, a seducer, a crazed person, and handed over to his executioners. Then, after being insulted and mocked, He was led through Jerusalem to the house of Pilate. Along the way they did him a thousand injuries, a thousand acts of violence. He heard nothing but curses. Dragged by ropes, pushed by spears, without rest, forced to walk on, worn out by the fatigue and torments of a whole night, if He fell He was loaded with blows and insults, as though the most despicable of all men. In this way the royal Prophet saw him: “I am a worm, and no man; scorned by men, and despised by the people” (Psalm 22:6).
And in this way, from the garden to Calvary, in fewer than twelve hours they caused him to make six journeys, and all the way the sweet Master left behind traces of his steadfast patience, his profound humility, his infinite charity and his incredible penance.
Awake, my soul, arouse yourself from the drowsiness and apathy in which you lie. Admire those women who rush along the streets of Jerusalem with Mary, wetting them in their tears and filling the air with their sighs. Recognize the most beautiful among creatures, the most holy among women, the most afflicted among mothers; recognize Mary, Jesus’ dear mother and yours, who goes in search of her soul’s beloved, who goes about asking if anyone has seen him.
O Mary so meek, you persevered in sorrowful prayer the whole night long, till you came to know that your Son was in the hands of sinners. Who can express the anguish of your heart, when He was seized and put into prison, and made the butt of the soldiers’ insults and injuries, and when you heard from John the news of his torments and the death sentence handed down by the Sanhedrin? Yet you, ever submissive to the will of God, did not hint your anguish to anyone in the usual manner of women in pain; and though an unspeakable pain was tormenting you from within, you showed nothing but perfect submission. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, you repeated, let it be to me according to your word. And before the sun has risen you leave your silent dwelling, to go in search of Jesus and follow him all the way to the Cross.
And behold, turning into the street which leads to Pilate’s palace, there appears what seems a wave of agitated people. It is a huge crowd which, amidst shouts of scorn and curses, is dragging a man burdened down with chains, his hands tied behind his back, his hair torn, and his face bruised and deformed with spittle and blood, so much so He cannot be recognized. However, the violent beating of your heart, O Mary, indicates your innocent Son to you, in the middle of the ferocious multitude. In the midst of the mob’s curses and his enemies’ triumph, beneath the shameful robe, the Son of God, meek amid the insults, tranquil amid the shoves, lets out neither a whisper nor a complaint.
This divine Lamb, finding himself in the company of wolves, longed to see his holy mother; for those who love, when afflicted, feel the absence of their dear friends even more vividly, and ardently yearn their presence, though it may increase their pain.
But you, blessed Virgin, could not see your Son, nor could He enjoy this one consolation. Allow me then to accompany you so that once again you may see him, and be comforted with him.
3. The scourging. My soul, consider how Pilate, declaring Jesus innocent but wanting to satisfy the crowd, condemns the innocent man to a public scourging in order to save him from death. What justice! To condemn an innocent man solely to satisfy the hatred of his accusers!
Jesus Christ was made to enter the Praetorium and stripped of all his clothes, saying not a word nor showing resistance.
So, his heart overflowing in love, to the Eternal Father he offers his innocent Flesh, which is to be torn, and his precious Blood, which He has yearned to spill for us for so long a time. They tie him to a pillar and then, paying no heed to Jewish Law which prohibited serving more than forty lashes, but following Roman Law for which there was no limit in number, they give in to satisfying their fury.
An entire cohort of soldiers surrounds the place, forming an iron circle. Two powerful executioners, followed by others stronger and even crueler, seize a bundle of rods and leather whips and knotted ropes.
My soul, look upon your meek Jesus, as though convinced of all the crimes attributed to him, standing tied to a pillar.
Who can say what confusion and pain were his in that moment?
From the very first lashes his flesh is bruised, cut and torn; and his blood spills from every part. The whip-lashes tear at his flesh, they fall upon the open wounds, they continue opening sores upon sores. What atrocity, what a bloody spectacle! They scourge him beyond measure, yet He does not complain. They whip him so cruelly that his whole body is but an open wound.
Is this, O divine Jesus, the very cruel and shameful torment You longed to undergo for us, and to which You submitted in order to expiate our sinful pleasures? How can I continue offending you still? O my God, by what right have I deserved that You suffer so greatly for me? You had foretold everything through the words of the Prophets:
“The ploughers ploughed upon my back; they made long their furrows… (Psalm 129:3)… God gives me up to the ungodly,… He breaks me with breach upon breach (Job 16:11 and 14)… From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and bleeding wounds; they are not pressed out, or bound up, or softened with oil” (Is 1:6).
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities” (Is 53:5).
O my God, all this for our sins! Why? For wretches like me have You undergone such punishment? For me, guilty of so many sins, have You suffered such excessive pain? What can I do for you, therefore, O my Saviour, what shall I do to expiate my crimes?
Behold, my soul, this model of penance, from whom all the Saints learnt how to treat their body and to subject it to the spirit. For, as long as we live in this world, our soul will have no enemy greater than our flesh.
This flesh, ever rebellious, does not wish to submit to reins or a yoke. Without restraint it follows after the worldly inclinations favoured by the senses. It aims so violently for the objects it desires that the spirit is often oppressed, and suffers more pain from the flesh than from all its enemies joined together. Here, instead, are the objects of the great austerity practiced by Christians after the coming of Christ, unknown to the preceding centuries: hair shirts, iron chains, acts of discipline, continual mortification of the senses: and all of this for fear of seeing, hearing, saying and tasting anything that might contaminate the purity of their heart.
We must prevent temptation and falling by the mortification of our body. The Apostle Paul himself said: “I pommel my body and subdue it” (1 Cor 9:27). If even all the holiness of David and wisdom of Solomon could not prevent their falling, for they allowed themselves to be allured by the pleasures of the senses, what will be the fate of those whose lives are totally dedicated to seeking what pleases their body? Precisely to expiate and check this unruliness so common to humankind did our Saviour wish his innocent flesh to be so cruelly torn.
VIRTUE – Penance.
REFLECTION – Mortify the senses of your body, the instrument of sin and the cause of Jesus’ sorrows, by depriving yourself of your favourite food, or rising from bed earlier than usual, or spending an hour in silence.
Deprive yourself of a permitted amusement. Above all practice modesty, especially of the eyes.
Do not satisfy your curiosity regarding other people’s business.
Today recite the Rosary on your knees.
EJACULATION – O Mary, the refuge of sinners, I place all my hope in you.
