Blessed John Newman's Meditation on the Lord's Passion

Hat tip to Richard for sending this along.

Discourse 16. Mental Sufferings of Our Lord in His Passion

EVERY passage in the history of our Lord and Saviour is of unfathomable depth, and affords inexhaustible matter of contemplation. All that concerns Him is infinite, and what we first discern is but the surface of that which begins and ends in eternity. It would be presumptuous for any one short of saints and doctors to attempt to comment on His words and deeds, except in the way of meditation; but meditation and mental prayer are so much a duty in all who wish to cherish true faith and love towards Him, that it may be allowed us, my brethren, under the guidance of holy men who have gone before us, to dwell and enlarge upon what otherwise would more fitly be adored than scrutinised. And certain times of the year, this especially, call upon us to consider, as closely and minutely as we can, even the more sacred portions of the Gospel history. I would rather be thought feeble or officious in my treatment of them, than wanting to the Season; and so I now proceed because the religious usage of the Church requires it, and though any individual preacher may well shrink from it, to direct your thoughts to a subject, especially suitable now, and about which many of us perhaps think very little, the sufferings which our Lord endured in His innocent and sinless soul.

For my grandchildren: Love Jesus who loves you so much!

Sunday's Meditation: the Passion

If there is no sin and everybody goes to heaven including those who reject God, why did Jesus become man, suffer, and die on a cross, the instrument of execution for criminals? Isn't it because he took the criminals' place, i.e., ours? Who really deserves to be on that cross?

Is there no cost to us for this great grace? Can we blithely go along on our merry way pounding in the nails with every sin thinking that God will welcome us with open arms even if we refuse and resist his graces? Or are we called to a radical conversion of life that requires us to die to our old sinful self and embrace the will of God even when it seems to mean sacrificing our happiness, i.e., our sinful pleasures?

Every Lent the Church calls us to conversion. Will we insist that "God is good and He'll understand" about our deeply sinful choices or will we choose the "narrow way" of sacrifice and dying to our old sinful self? Does God require anything at all from us or is He like the Easter Bunny just waiting to dish out the nerds and lemon heads and jelly beans on Judgment Day?

Jesus articulates the two great commands:

It's Hallowe'en; Are You Covered in Blood?

Tonight some children (mostly boys) will be knocking on doors covered with fake blood. Some will simulate victims of axe murderers; others will wear vampire teeth dripping with gore. Frankly, I think it's sick. A few years ago, a little girl (maybe 8 or 9) knocked on my son's door where we were helping with the treats. She was wearing a cap simulating an axe through her head with blood dripping down. I couldn't help asking her, "Whatever happened to fairies and gypsies?"

We live in a bloody culture, so it doesn't seem surprising that it's filtered down to the younger set who see nothing grotesque about glorifying axe murderers. But, in one sense, it's a reminder that Satan is the prince of this world. He wants all of us to die in our sin. He who was a "liar and a murderer from the beginning" glories in violent death and bloodshed.

But there is one bloody death, He abhors, one that we must glorify. We hold up that innocent Victim, remember Him, and celebrate His sacrifice. We desire to be covered in His blood because His blood overcomes the Culture of Death. He saves us from sin and washes us in His blood. And All Hallow's Eve is a good time to remember it.

 Come, Lord Jesus!

It's Palm Sunday -- and so the Passion Begins!

What a picture we saw at Mass this morning. Before the processional the priest blessed the palms and read the gospel of Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem. How soon things changed. By the end of Mass we had walked the way of the cross. We saw Judas betray Jesus with a kiss and Peter with three denials punctuated by curses. We heard the crowds (ourselves taking their places) scream "Crucify him!" and watched Pontius Pilate try to wash innocent blood from his guilty hands. We walked along the via crucis adding our own sinful abuse of Christ to the weight of His cross. And we saw the Roman soldiers wield all the tools of torture from the multi-thonged scourge studded with bone, to the crown of thorns, to the nine-inch nails used to brutally attach the precious body to the wooden beams.

And how does Jesus respond through it all? Silence and prayer. "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do."

There is an awful (and awe-full) passion meditation from Pierre Barbet's A Doctor at Calvary. Barbet was a surgeon who wrote the book in the 1950s after examining the Shroud of Turin. His analysis of Christ's suffering is told with a doctor's eye for detail and a sense of the physical pains that accompanied each stage from the sweat of blood on the Mount of Olives until Christ took his last agonized breath and whispered, "It is finished" on Calvary hill. My husband and I read the meditation every Good Friday to remind us once more of the terrible price Christ paid because of our sins.

Let me give you one paragraph to meditate on and urge you to buy the book. "The crucifixion begins. Oh, it is not very complicated; the executioners know their work. First of all He must be stripped. The lower garments are dealt with easily enough, but the coat has firmly stuck to His wounds, that is to say, to His whole body, and this stripping is a horrible business.Have you ever removed the first dressing which has been on a large bruised wound, and has dried on it? Or have you yourself ever been through this ordeal, which sometimes requires a general anaesthetic? If so, you know what it is like. Each thread has stuck to the raw surface, and when it is removed it tears away one of the innumberable nervous ends which have been laid bare by the wound. These thousands of painful shocks add up and multiply, each one increasing the sensitivity of the nervous system. Now it is not just a question of a local lesion, but of almost the whole surface of the body, and especially of that dreadful back. The executioners are in a hurry and set about their work roughly. Perhaps it is better thus, but how does this sharp, dreadful pain not bring on a fainting fit? How clear is is that from beginning to end He dominates, He directs His Passion."

May we all enter into this Holy Week of suffering and glory and exit it filled to the brim with increased faith, hope, and charity.

N.B. The picture above is the living face of Jesus reconstructed from the image of the dead face of Jesus on the Shroud of Turin. There are blessings attached to devotion to the Holy Face. Look into His eyes and know His love for you.