CONTEMPLATE THE LIST OF SUFFERINGS
THAT JESUS UNDERWENT!!!!
Jesus willingly, totally and lovingly
underwent all of these excruciating pains for love of you and me. Still more Jesus would willingly repeat these
sufferings if you were the only one in the whole universe. How precious you and
the salvation of your immortal soul is in the eyes of Almighty God. Spends some
time in silence to contemplate these many manners of the suffering of Jesus!
1.
Jesus sweating of Blood in the Garden
of Gethsemane- all for your soul! Big drops of His Precious Blood trickled to
the ground!
2.
ABANDONMENT. The defection of His best Friends; He
suffered this for your immortal soul. Friends leaving us and abandoning us when
we most need their presence and friendship is bitter indeed!
3.
SCOURGING AT THE PILLAR. Jesus was brutally bound, stripped, and mercilessly
whipped to the point that His Sacred Body was reduced to an open wound. All of
this for love, pure love! Pools of His Precious Blood bathed the dirty ground!
4.
CROWNING WITH THORNS. They pressed sharp and piercing thorns that
penetrated His brow, skull, even to His brain. This was the price of our
immortal redemption! Lord, have mercy on me for my immoral and sinful thoughts!
5.
THE CROSS. The cross He carried was loaded with all of
the sins of the world, your sins and mine. So heavy was the cross that Jesus fell
more than once under the heavy weight.
6.
OPEN WOUND IN THE SHOULDER. St. Bernard and other saints have meditated
on a very painful wound—the bloody wound in Jesus’ shoulder that was opened and
reopened as He fell under the heavy weight of the cross. Jesus shouldered your
sins and allowed His shoulder to be splintered and bleed, shouldering all of
our moral misery. How much His love for us!
7.
BLOODY SWEAT. The weight of the
cross, the sun and the heat of the day caused Jesus to sweat immensely.
Contemplate the sweat of the Body of Jesus, all done for your salvation and
mine. What a costly price that of the salvation of your immortal soul!
8.
STRIPPING OF HIS GARMENTS. As Jesus reaches close to the top of Mount
Calvary where crucifixion awaits Him the soldiers brutally grab on to Him and
rip His garments off. By doing so the wounds are opened once again and blood
comes running like a stream. This Jesus suffered for the sins against the virtue
of modesty and the sins against the virtue of chastity! O Lord grant us pure
minds, bodies and souls!
9.
CRUCIFIXION. Finally Jesus arrives at
His destiny—the top of the hill called Calvary. Awaiting Jesus is still more intense
suffering—that of the crucifixion. His sacred Hands are nailed to the cross;
Blood comes gushing forth. His feet are nailed to the cross and once again the
Blood comes gushing forth—all of this to repair for the many times that we have
used our hands and feet and members to offend God in one or many different
ways. Lord, have mercy on us and forgive us! Now O Lord I gave you my hands and
feet to serve you.
10. INSULTS. As Jesus hangs
between heaven and earth, suffering the last hours of His life in bitter agony
still more sufferings descend upon Him. There are those close to the cross who blurt
out bitters words and insults. Not only does Jesus suffer physical abuse but still
more verbal abuse. These angry and bitter words cut into His very heart and
soul. However, Jesus does not become bitter. Rather He responds with these
words: “Father, forgive them for they
know not what they are doing.”
11. APPARENT TOTAL
ABANDONMENT. One of the worse sufferings imaginable is to think that even God
has abandoned or forsaken you! Saint John of the Cross explains this in his
mystical writings called “The Dark Night of the Soul”. Jesus experienced in
this dark night the apparent absence of the Face of His eternal Father—at least
in His human nature when He cried out: “My
God, My God why have you abandoned me.” Jesus suffered this willingly for those
who have abandoned God by rejecting God or by giving in to serious sin—another way
that we can reject the Presence of God!
12. UNREPENTANT
THIEF. Until the end Jesus worked to
save, but one of the thieves despite the over-flowing mercy of Jesus hardened
his heart all the more. Indeed one of the greatest sufferings of Jesus was to
endure His infinite love rejected.
13. LOSS OF BLOOD, SLOW
SUFFOCATION, UTTER EXHAUSTION.
Physically Jesus loss much of His Sacred Blood, His breathing became all
the more labored and His exhaustion became extreme. Up to the very end Jesus
was giving all He had to save souls. How great the love of Jesus for you and
for me!
14.
RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE. There underneath the
cross the soldiers shot dice to see who could win the garments of Jesus—total indifference
to the Person and mission of Jesus. How much Jesus suffers this very day due to
religious indifference, apathy and a non-chalant “who-cares” (“whatever”)
attitude of life. Jesus came to cast fire in a world cloaked in a dense cloud
of indifference! May God have mercy on us for taking Him for granted!!! Lord
Jesus set my heart on fire for love of you and the salvation of immortal souls.
15.
LOVE NOT LOVED. Possibly the greatest interior agony of Jesus
was the hard and cruel fact of His mission of love being rejected. Jesus gives freedom
to every individual on earth. Therefore, He forces Himself on nobody. His love
not being accepted, especially His love manifested by His suffering, caused
Jesus mortal anguish.
In conclusion, meditate slowly and
fervently upon all of the different ways or manners that Jesus willingly
suffered for you and the eternal salvation of your immortal soul. Then meditate
upon the words of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and act on these words: “What have I done for Jesus Christ? What am I
doing for Jesus Christ? What will I do for Jesus Christ?” My past, present and future! May Our Lady who
suffered and offered herself to Jesus for salvation of countless souls help us
to appreciate more and more the infinite love that God has for your soul and
for mine. We have been redeemed not by gold or silver nor the blood of animals,
but by the Precious Blood of Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of
the world!
