First Sorrowful Mystery: The Agony in the Garden
Luke 22:42-44.
Kneeling down, He began to pray, "Father if it be
your will, take this cup from me, yet not my
will but yours be done"...In His anguish he prayed even
more intensely, and his sweat became like drops of blood
falling to the ground.
Catechism of the Catholic Church: #612
Reflection: Christ’s
“hour” had finally arrived. As the new Adam, Christ was
reversing Adam’s first no to God, as well as the
many great and little “no’s” we say to God with
our personal sins. At the same time, he was also
making an act of expiation for the nucleus of our
every sin: our lack of trust in God’s goodness. Jesus’
act of self-surrender in the garden was a big “I
trust” to the Father. It was an act of self-abandonment
to God’s plan, no matter how ugly and foreboding that
plan looked. Sometimes in our lives too, we can be
surprised by how our lives unfold. Children dream of a
fairy-tale life where everything will unfold in a magical and
beautiful way—or at least in a way that measures up
to our basic recipe for happiness. When our life turns
out to have its dark patches, the temptation can be
to turn away from God, blaming him for the crosses
we have to carry: sickness, financial difficulties, a strained relationship,
failure at work or in school… In this mystery, Mary
can help us to find the strength to trust God
under the weight of our cross. She can teach us
to create a more beautiful story with the way we
respond to the cards we were dealt.
Second Sorrowful Mystery:
The Scourging at the Pillar
Matthew 27:26. Pilate released Barabbas to
them. Jesus, however, he first had scourged; then he handed
Him over to be crucified.
Catechism of the Catholic Church: #602
Reflection:
In the scourging, Mary’s heart was flayed to pieces alongside
Jesus’ body. Yet both of them were not just victims
of their suffering. They were taking it and offering it,
lash by lash, in reparation for our sins. Without special
assistance from God, most people would simply be crushed in
body and spirit, broken under a load too heavy to
carry. Others would find their souls burned by a desire
for revenge and an all-consuming hatred of the oppressors. But
Mary and Jesus received the grace to forgive. And this
was no easy forgiveness. The soldiers and the Pharisees were
not sorry for what they were doing. How does one
forgive an evil person who is not sorry for torturing
the one you love most? Only God can do this,
and only a heart sustained by his grace could ever
have the strength to rise above and forgive in the
moment. Mary understands why sometimes we want to keep grudges
or block certain people out of our lives. Forgiveness is
costly, and it can offend our innate sense of justice.
But it is the way of God. Without forgiveness, we
nourish a cancer in our own hearts, and this cancer
eats away at us a little more each day. In
this mystery, Mary can help us to begin walking the
road of pardon and peace, which is the way of
our own healing.
Third Sorrowful Mystery: The Crowning with Thorns
Matthew
27:29-30. Weaving a crown of thorns they fixed it on
his head, and placed a reed in His right hand.
To make fun of Him they knelt before Him saying:
"Hail, King of the Jews." They spat on Him, and
took the reed and kept striking Him on the head.
Catechism
of the Catholic Church: #615
Reflection: Mockery is an attack on
the dignity of another person, and Jesus suffered it in
silent solidarity with all of those who have borne it
throughout all of time. In this case, the mockery was
joined with torture suffered in a hidden place where no
one except his tormentors could find him. In our times,
too, there are thousands, perhaps millions of people, who live
hidden away in captivity – in jails, in slavery, in
war zones, in places of torture, or even in homes
– and whose cries for help go unheard by the
rest of the world. They find themselves completely at the
mercy of their captors, who attack them in soul and
body with mockery and torture. Why does man do this
to man? What is it inside him that drives him
to pour out such hatred and venom on a defenseless
victim? It is like an accumulation of evil inside, and
evil flourishes where love is lacking. Then, all too often,
the tortured and abused become the next generation of torturers.
But Jesus puts the vicious cycle to an end: he
takes the worst, most hideous and demonic acts of aggression
and extinguishes the evil in his merciful heart. He becomes
a fountain of healing for both the tortured and the
torturers. In this mystery, we can pray especially for people
who suffer abuse, and also for those who inflict it
on them.
Fourth Sorrowful Mystery: The Carrying of the Cross
Matthew
27:31, Luke 23:26. When the soldiers had finished mocking Him,
... they led him away to crucify Him. On the
way they laid hold of a certain Simon of Cyrene,
coming from the country, and upon him they laid the
cross to bear it after Jesus.
Catechism of the Catholic Church:
#618
Reflection: In our churches, we mark fourteen stations in sequence
along the way of the cross. Each station has its
own particular story, with specific people who were destined from
all eternity to encounter Christ along that dusty road, in
the midst of the confusion, noise, and heat of a
Jerusalem day. Mary, Veronica, Simon, the Roman soldiers, the rubberneckers
among the crowds… they were all given a privileged glimpse
into the Savior’s great work of redemption. Some saw nothing
more than a surface appearance: here was just another unfortunate
criminal getting what he deserved. But some, like Simon of
Cyrene, grew into a deeper understanding of this man because
they were enlisted to walk beside him and help him.
This story plays itself out in our times too. Christ
lives in other people, and different versions of the fourteen
stations unfold in the lives of the people around us—even
in our own lives. At times, we have the experience
of observing from the outside, making a snap judgment, and
moving on – like the indifferent observers in the crowds
who had other, more important things to do that day.
But sometimes life brings us closer to a suffering person
because we are asked to listen and help. And only
when we listen do we find a new sympathy and
understanding growing in our own hearts. Today’s Simons of Cyrene
are the people who stop to listen. In this mystery,
we can ask for the grace not to miss the
chance to help the Christ “in disguise” who is walking
his fourteen stations right by our door or on the
other end of the phone.
Fifth Sorrowful Mystery: The Crucifixion
Luke
23:33-34,44,46. When they came to the place called the Skull,
they crucified Him ...Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they
do not know what they are doing"...There was darkness over
the whole land until the ninth hour...and Jesus cried out
with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commend
my spirit.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church: #607, 616
Reflection: The place
of the Skull, also called Golgotha, was just a garbage
heap outside the gates of the sacred city of Jerusalem.
So, when Jesus was led outside the walls to die
in the city dump, the Jewish leaders were exiling him
not only from their city, but also from his unique
heritage as a son of Israel. He was being cut
off from his own people and from a place deeply
associated with his cultural identity. At the same time, Jesus
experienced a profound interior darkness on the cross, a descent
into the experience of total abandonment by his Father. Because
God is holy and Jesus was the Lamb burdened with
all of human sin from the start of human history
to the end, his punishment was to be exiled from
the presence of the Father, and to die in that
darkness, buried under the trash of all our sins. He
was cut off from both his people and his God.
What tremendous, aching solitude he must have experienced! And what
a sense of being rejected, unwanted, and stripped of everything
that was most sacred and beloved to him.
As human
beings, we need relationships in order to be whole and
complete. We need others, and most of all, we need
God; these relationships make us whole, human, and happy. Some
people inflict a terrible isolation on themselves by turning away
from God or by making themselves inaccessible to other people.
At times, this can be the result of sin—inflicted or
received—or it could be a way of guarding one’s own
wounds, punishing oneself or others, or acting out a twisted
self-concept of unworthiness. But self-imposed isolation has the unfortunate consequence
of shielding people from the experience of being loved and
understood by others, of belonging, and even of being redeemed.
We discover our own value not by self-appraisal, but by
experiencing how we are loved and valued by God and
by others; our identity is illuminated by our relationships. A
life lived without God and others is a kind of
living death. In this mystery, we can pray for all
those who live their days in the darkness and loneliness
of a personal Calvary.
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