“he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins”
For almost 800 years, the Church has taught the beautiful meditations of the sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary. Especially during the season of Lent we meditate on the physical suffering, the Passion of Our Lord. It is important to note that each mystery by itself would be enough punishment for any human being. When we meditate on how Jesus not only endured each of these but how each punishment, each suffering was laid upon the other and happened right after the other, we gain an even clearer understanding of the suffering He endured for our sake.
Let us consider each of the 5 Sorrowful Mysteries:
The Agony in the garden – Jesus Sweats Blood
The Scourging at the Pillar – Jesus is Whipped 40 times
The Crowning of Thorns – Jesus Loses blood by thorns pressed in His head
The Carrying of the Cross – Jesus is forced to carry a 90lb cross the equivalent of 8 football fields (800 yards)
The Crucifixion – Jesus is nailed through both hands and feet and suffocates over three long hours
The Agony in the garden
Jesus sweats blood. Sweating blood is physically possible but very rare. The clinical term is "hematohidrosis." Around the sweat glands, there are multiple blood vessels in a net-like form. Under the pressure of great stress the vessels constrict. Then, as the anxiety passes, the blood vessels dilate to the point of rupture. The blood goes into the sweat glands. As the sweat glands produce sweat, the sweat pushes the blood to the surface - coming out of the pores as droplets of blood mixed with sweat. The great stress that Jesus was under while contemplating his coming crucifixion, is consistent with the stress that causes what we know of as the “flight or fight” phenomenon. When we are under great stress or danger, hormones are released in our body which helps us to either flee or fight. If this type of stress is prolonged for long time it can lead to sweating blood.
What was Jesus stressed about? Jesus knew the agony He was about to endure. His passion had already begun even in the garden. The main pain or stress he endured was caused by the weight of our sins on Him. We know how much our individual sins can hurt us and others. Imagine the sins of the whole world, past, present and future and having all that pain pressing down on you at once. This is exactly what Jesus was feeling in the Garden.
, The garden of Gethsemane, was actually an olive press. It was in this garden that workers would take large stones and press the oil out of olives to make olive oil. The Cross which Jesus had already taken up (our sins) is the stone which pressed the very blood out of Christ.
Mediate on the destructiveness of our own sins, the sins of others and how they affect us, our family, our Church, and our world. A significant lesson for all of us from the Agony in the Garden is how to pray. It is ok to ask that trials in our lives be removed (If this cup be removed from me) but always with the caveat "but your will be done Father, not mine." This pray is at once human and divine!
The scourging at the pillar
As we discussed earlier, there are 120 wound marks on the Shroud. (see meditation on the Shroud of Turin lesson)
The scourging at the pillar ripped the flesh of Christ. Let us mediate on the sins of the flesh -sins that attack our very bodies. Sexual sins, drug and alcohol abuse and any sin that abuses or misuses our body.
The crowning of thorns
The thorns were most likely not shaped as a crown but rather as a cap, almost like pressing a bush with thorns onto your head. Based on bushes that are found in Jerusalem, the thorns were most likely between 1 to 2 inches in length.
Anyone who has ever had a wound on his head knows how much a head wound bleeds. Jesus’s head would have bled a lot and he would have probably been very dizzy due to the loss of blood. The pain of the needles pressing into His head was also physically excruciating.
Not only was Jesus physically tortured, he was also emotionally tortured as the soldiers called Him “King of the Jews” and mocked and laughed at Him. He was repeatedly beaten, hit and spat upon.
During this mystery let us ask for forgiveness for the sins of our thoughts. Impure thoughts, thoughts of anger, jealousy, hatred, violence, disobedience, etc.
The carrying of the Cross
Jesus was not the only person to be crucified. The Romans used crucifixion as a form of capital punishment for those who betrayed the government.
Archeologists have found many corpses of crucifixion victims and have even found the crosses they carried.
Crosses with both the vertical and horizontal beams weighed about 250-270 lbs. It is not humanly possible for most people to carry 270 lbs. Instead, Jesus and other crucifixion victims would have carried only the cross (horizontal) beam which was a 1/3 of the cross and weighed about 90 lbs.
The distance from Pilate’s court to the Hill of Calvary was 2500 feet, which is about ½ a mile. Jesus carried 90 lbs the distance of 8 full football fields or 800 yards. No wonder He fell three times and no wonder Saint Simon was pressed into service to help Jesus carry His Cross.
Jesus says in the Gospels, “Deny yourself, pick up your Cross and follow me.” During this decade let us think about our own crosses. Do we pick them up? Do we complain? Do we help others with the weight of their cross or do we add to that weight?
The Crucifixion of our Lord
Crucifixion victims died of suffocation. With the arms stretched out and up over head at about a 75 degree angle the diaphragm pushes up on the lungs causing air to be pushed out. The victim slowly suffocates. The only way to relieve this suffocation and to get a quick gasp of air is to push the body up with the feet and pull the body up with the hands allowing the diaphragm to lower and air to go back into the lungs. There were nails in both the wrists and the feet so to get a quick gasp of air was at the expense of feeling excruciating pain in both the wrists, arms, feet and legs. Usually the legs were eventually broken on crucifixion victims. This would cause them to no longer be able to push up and they would soon suffocate. Jesus was already dead when the guards broke the legs of the other thieves, so the guards did not break Jesus’ legs; they only pierced Him in the side.
The marks of the nail wounds on the Shroud are in the wrist between the two bones, NOT in the hand. Scientific tests have proven that nails in the hand would not support the weight of a human body. The two bones in the wrist however would have supported the weight of the body.
The nail piercing between the two bones would have severed the medial nerve. The medial nerve is one of the most important nerves in the body. When this nerve is severed, there is immense pain and the thumb locks down in place.
The marks of the nail wounds on the Shroud are on both feet in almost the same place, which indicates that one foot would have been placed over the other and one long nail drilled through both feet.
Jesus hung on the Cross from Noon to 3pm.
Jesus on the Cross shows us the great depth of His love and mercy. Let us meditate on the times when we have despaired of His Mercy, the times when we have taken all that He gives us for granted.
What was on Jesus’ mind during the three hours of His crucifixion?
What motivated Jesus?
Why did He keep going and not give up?
Why did He know it was worth suffering so much for?
YOU!!!