The dogwoods are in full bloom on Holy Souls Mountain. I took this picture a few hours ago. Note the blooms are in the shape of a cross, and each petal has, as it were, a drop of blood on it. Here’s the full moon, just after sunset, from the window of Holy Souls Hermitage chapel. This is the moon that gave us this dating of Easter this year. The chapel is terribly stripped down until the Easter Vigil… All is very quiet as the dark descends…
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Please God, more Scriptural and Patristic sources will be added to the present “rant style” meditations when circumstances at Holy Souls Hermitage aren’t quite so utterly barbaric.
The purpose of this first run through these mysteries is to note especially the goodness and kindness of Jesus amidst the violence and chaos back in the day… and today. Hang on, it might be a bit of a rough ride, as rough and tumble as we focus on, in this post, Jesus carrying His Cross. Let’s take a look at Mark 15,20-23 from the old NAB:
Mark 15,20 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him out to crucify him. 21 They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. 22 They brought him to the place of Golgotha (which is translated Place of the Skull). 23 They gave him wine drugged with myrrh, but he did not take it.
Just to say, purple was the color of royalty, for only they could afford this color, made from the dye of a particular kind of murex off the coast of Tyre, up North. The Phoenicians were famous for this. The only reason that the mockery of putting a roal cloak on Jesus works is because He Himself did not wear such a thing. Instead, they changed Him back to His own clothes before making Him carry the Cross.
If one is in solidarity with Jesus, one might think of the wounds bleeding from the scourging. Within just a minute or two, those wounds would be congealed to whatever garment was put on Him, and would be ripped open entirely when the garment would be removed, or, in this case, pretty ferociously torn away from the wounds. They would have to do this again when they stripped Him yet again to be crucified. It was surely like being scourged again and again.
Since Father Gordon MacRae has done such a magnificent commentary on Simon the Cyrenian at TheseStoneWalls, HERE (where you’ll find other likes to previous articles he’s written on Simon), I encourage you to go there and read those articles (and become acquainted with Father Gordon, a kind of modern Simon, and much more, if you don’t already know him).
Father Gordon makes an interesting point about why Simon was pressed into service, whether it was to make sure Jesus made it to the crucifixion (a worry for the soldiers) or to continue to mock Jesus as King of the Jews, forcing slavery upon a passerby to this end (a passtime for the soldiers).
Anyway, I would just add here that when we are in solidarity with Jesus, as Simon eventually was, we are no longer analogous to just Simon or just the good thief (readBenjamin,a novel by the great Father John O’Neill, pastor of Saint John Vianney Parish in Doonside, Australia), or any of those who stood under the cross. Instead, all of those and then us as well become the members of the very Body of Christ, so that we find ourselves being crucified to the world in Him, who is our salvation.
I have much to say about the place of the skull, but we’ll leave that for the 5th sorrowful mystery. I’ll just add this one point here, that the place was called The Skull since that a small mount of rubbishy rock left in the quarry had the appearance of a skull. Tradition also has it that Adam’s skull was buried there. Yikes! Old crucifixes often sport a skull and crossbones below the feet of Jesus, this also being a reference to Adam and the death that Jesus freely took on to have the right to raise us to life with Himself.
The bit about wine drugged with myrrh refers to a pain relieving drug that the Romans gave to those who were being crucified. Jesus’ refusal of this kindness speaks much about His eagerness to stay the course on our behalf.
Speaking of staying on course, let’s bring in a few verses from Luke’s Gospel on the women of Jerusalem which Jesus meets on His Way of the Cross:
Luke 23,27 A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. 28 Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, 29 for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.’ 30 At that time people will say to the mountains, ‘Fall upon us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ 31 for if these things are done when the wood is green what will happen when it is dry?” [NAB]
As I’ve written elsewhere, if their tears were about repentance for sins, for how much harm they caused Jesus by their sins and are sorry for this out of love for Him, well, that would be great. But this is not what they are up to. They are merely lamenting a change in the status quo of the way things were, thinking it was better to have Jesus around for themselves than not. Not good. Can that be redirected? Only if we get over lamenting catastrophic persecution and grow up, not “feeling sorry” for Jesus or ourselves, but rather being in solidarity with His great work of redemption and salvation, which requires… what?… if not enthusiasm, joy and a good sense of humor? Sorrow, in the sense of grief, which comes from love, also admits of putting oneself forward with all solidarity in all enthusiasm, joy and a good sense of humor. The humor comes with the irony of our Lord having the likes of us for His friends.
Lastly, perhaps during the ten Hail Marys of this decade of the rosary, you might want to watch this tour of the Stations of the Cross on Mount Carmel which I filmed back in the Spring of 2009. These are very sorrowful stations, as you will see. The chant, being sung just then in the cave of Elijah, is a magnificent musical backdrop:
Filed under Rosary Rants
Please God, more Scriptural and Patristic sources will be added to the present “rant style” meditations when circumstances at Holy Souls Hermitage aren’t quite so utterly barbaric.
The purpose of this first run through these mysteries is to note especially the goodness and kindness of Jesus amidst the violence and chaos back in the day… and today. Hang on, it might be a bit of a rough ride, as rough and tumble as we focus on, in this post, Jesus being crowned with thorns. Let’s take a look at Matthew 27,27-31 from the old NAB:
Matthew 27,27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus inside the praetorium and gathered the whole cohort around him. 28 They stripped off his clothes and threw a scarlet military cloak about him. 29 Weaving a crown out of thorns, they placed it on his head, and a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 They spat upon him and took the reed and kept striking him on the head. 31 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him off to crucify him.
The soldiers, in mocking Jesus as King of the Jews accept that He is, in fact, the King of the Jews. They despise all Jews in the Person of Jesus, their King. If I were Jewish, and I may be (as I remember my mother speaking a bit of Yiddish when I was a kid), I would take Jesus as my all time Hero, taking all that abuse for me as He did… being able to stop it though He didn’t.
Perhaps one of the most common sins is to put others down so as to lift oneself up, though one doesn’t succeed in putting another down truly, only oneself, and much lower than what wished for the other. That’s how it works. Just think, all our sins of arrogant pride and self-promotion. Jesus takes it all, having the right in justice, then, to have mercy on us. And He does, precisely as King of the Jews, the Jews who were entrusted with the revelation of God as a Light to the Nations, that Lumen Gentium that Jesus is, that the Church now is as the Israel of God (which last phrase reminds me of Pope Benedict XVI’s brilliant new Good Friday prayer for the Jews for the Extraordinary Form of the “Mass of the Pre-Sanctified.”
Would I, as a Roman soldier, spit on Jesus and took my turn striking Him on the head, mashing around that crown of thorns, speaking words of derision? You bet. I have. We all have by our sins. I never tire of saying that this patient suffering is how Jesus gained the right in justice to have mercy on us. Why? Because there is such majesty in recognizing that the foundation of mercy is justice. Saint Thomas has it that mercy is a potential part of the virtue of justice. Well, O.K. Jesus took that potential by taking all the just condemnation of our own sin on Himself and exploited that potential to its fullest in this way. One cannot find any greater mercy than with Jesus. In Him, justice and mercy are but one and the same manifestation of Truth in Charity.
It makes me want to go to confession again, to celebrate the goodness and kindness of Jesus, but I just went! So, what to do? Ten Hail Marys for this decade are in order. Hail Mary…
“Behold! The Man!” — Pontius Pilate (John 19,2)
Filed under Rosary Rants
The temps are supposed to nose-dive below freezing for the next few days, and I’ve now just run out of all the wood I had stacked up for the winter. So, I went out this morning to cut some totally dead trees into managable sizes, say, about the size of a cross. Shouldering those, I forged my way back to the hermitage and dumped them on the steps. They’re a bit waterlogged, so to speak, after all the rains this past week. Later, I hope to cut these up a bit more, then perhaps chop them up and stack them inside. As you can see, I’ve not bothered to make much progress on the hermitage “door”. I have to do something to be in solidarity with the priests who are most marginalized. This is at least one small thing. I hear, though, that there may be a pack of seminarians invading the hermitage so as to put up some real wall and doors during the summer. IF that were to happen, O.K. That’ll do them good, so I’m all for it!
Hauling wood on Good Friday reminds me, of course, of Jesus. Also of little Isaac, who carried the wood on which he himself was to be burned. You remember the story, how the angel stopped Abraham’s arm just as the knife was to be plunged into his little son. Isaac, being guilty of original sin, wasn’t worthy of being the sacrifice that would take away the sins of the world. That would have to be a lamb that God would provide. And He did. As John said: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”
Writing about that is one of my future projects, please God. For the longest time, I’ve wanted to write about this story in Genesis, the Gospels, and then how the Qur’an totally rejected this passage, making the reversal of it the very centerpiece of Islam, so that when they bow down to pray, they are Abraham’s son bowing to get his head cut off. The difference between Judaeo-Catholic interpretation and Islamic interpretation is the difference between absolute day and absolute night, between looking to the immediate resurrection of the dead and, well, I won’t say, lest I be arrested. This has to be fleshed out in an entire volume. So, I have something to look forward to writing.
Filed under progress
Please God, more Scriptural and Patristic sources will be added to the present “rant style” meditations when circumstances at Holy Souls Hermitage aren’t quite so utterly barbaric.
The purpose of this first run through these mysteries is to note especially the goodness and kindness of Jesus amidst the violence and chaos back in the day… and today. Hang on, it might be a bit of a rough ride, as rough and tumble as we focus on, in this post, Jesus being scourged. Let’s take a look at Luke 23,13-25 from the old NAB plus my own translation of 23,17 from the Vulgate:
Luke 23,13 Pilate then summoned the chief priests, the rulers, and the people 14 and said to them, “You brought this man to me and accused him of inciting the people to revolt. I have conducted my investigation in your presence and have not found this man guilty of the charges you have brought against him, 15 nor did Herod, for he sent him back to us. So no capital crime has been committed by him. 16 Therefore I shall have him flogged and then release him.” 17 But he had the custom to release one [prisoner] unto them on a feast day. 18 But all together they shouted out, “Away with this man! Release Barabbas to us.” 19 (Now Barabbas had been imprisoned for a rebellion that had taken place in the city and for murder.) 20 Again Pilate addressed them, still wishing to release Jesus, 21 but they continued their shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” 22 Pilate addressed them a third time, “What evil has this man done? I found him guilty of no capital crime. Therefore I shall have him flogged and then release him.” 23 With loud shouts, however, they persisted in calling for his crucifixion, and their voices prevailed. 24 The verdict of Pilate was that their demand should be granted. 25 So he released the man who had been imprisoned for rebellion and murder, for whom they asked, and he handed Jesus over to them to deal with as they wished.
cute, nice, bloodthirsty
Typical weasel politician: “No capital crime has been committed by him. Therefore I shall have him flogged and then release him.” In other words: “Although he’s innocent, I’ll still have him beaten nearly to death (and surely the wounds will be deadly over some days), just to appease your bloodthirstiness, ’cause I’m bloodthirsty just like you. I mean, even though I truly do want to realease Him, ’cause I want to think of myself as being ‘nice’, I’ll do this anyway, ’cause I’m a coward in the face of such very loud voices like yours. Oh! O.K. O.K. I’ll just go ahead then, and not only have Him scourged, but I’ll also have Him crucified, ’cause I want to be nice! Aren’t I nice?”
Just to say, if someone is treated as somehow being a little bit guilty even though they are known to be entirely innocent, that innocent person will not be treated with just a little bit of marginalization, for that will not appease anyone. A little injustice necessarily brings totalitarian injustice in its wake as a kind of rationalization: “If we did that, it must have been necessary, right? Right?“ You can read more about that HERE.
People asked Mel Gibson why it was that he depicted the scourging of Jesus with such ferocity, when, actually, if we look at the shroud of Turin, the film seems to have portrayed quite an exact rendering of what happened (with wonderful cuts over to Mary, His Mother). I don’t remember Mel giving a very exact answer to that question. I think it was something along the lines of society needing to take a look at itself. I, for one, think that if Jesus was so good and kind as to suffer for us, we should go ahead and recognize what He did for us. My thanksgiving goes to Mel for this.
The scourging of Jesus takes people out of their comfort zone, making them nervous before the reality of how the redemption works: Jesus taking on what we deserve so as to have the right in all justice to have mercy on us. Various parts of the passion and death of our Lord seem to deal with the redemption not only of original sin, but also of personal sins committed throughout the ages. Perhaps the scourging vicariously takes on the punishment we deserve for sins of the flesh, particularly sexual sins, particularly pornography, you know, all that nicely presented “skin.” Jesus’ skin is litteraly ripped right off of Him.
Sins of the flesh, however private, cause havoc in society, turning people into selfish, egotistic monsters of self-congratulations and niceness, always more abusive of self and others, always edging more to violence. Pornography is a runaway, epidemic problem. I’ll have to write a post about pornography one of these days…
The One who is not like the rest of society — Jesus – has to be beaten down in such as way as to let all see sins of the flesh in their ultimate conclusion: when sex is not for life it is aimed at death. Lord, have mercy on us. So, for this decade of the rosary, ten Hail Marys… Hail Mary…
[ Pet peeve: "scourge" is not pronounced like "cower"[!] or “scour” as in “scourwerged” or some such thing, but like “courage” — “cur!” So, scourge (one syllable!)]
Filed under Rosary Rants
I made this set of videos (about 20 minutes all told) during my time living just over the cave of Elijah on Mount Carmel, Israel. The O.C.D.s had invited me to stay there for an entire month during the years that I was a chaplain at Lourdes. I must say that these videos are very emotional for me to watch to this day. What a fright! But… Jesus, Mary’s Son, is just that good and kind! Even though in watching these you don’t move from station to station yourself, I’m sure your heart will be transported to be right next to Jesus, to be with Him in solidarity, and to be right next to His dear mother as she accompanies our Lord, again in all solidarity.
Please God, I’ll be able to watch these heart rending videos frequently during this Lent…
Filed under Way of the Cross
Accompany me, Father George David Byers, S.S.L., S.T.D., as I begin life as a Catholic Priest-Hermit by choice. Holy Souls Hermitage is dedicated to the sanctification of my fellow priests, bishops, deacons & seminarians going through the purgatory of this life or the next. Prayer and sacrifice go up, of course, for both Benedict XVI and the next Successor of Saint Peter.
All told, Masses offered for Benedict XVI came to 918.
י ב ר כ ך י ה ו ה ב ה ת א ם ל ת פ י ל ת מ ר י ם ה ק ד ו ש ה
May the Lord continue to bless you
according to the intercession of Mary Most Holy
