In this column for the Lenten season I continue my reflections on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary.

I do so because they are a way to reflect upon the love of Jesus for us and to motivate ourselves to repent of our sins for which He suffered and died.

 

After reflection on the Agony in the Garden, the Scourging at the Pillar and the Crowning with Thorns, we come this week to the fourth Sorrowful Mystery, the Carrying of the Cross.

 

At this point on Good Friday, Jesus had already undergone profound emotional and physical suffering. His loss of blood from the whipping was enough to incapacitate and kill others sentenced to crucifixion. Now He had to take the horrible walk of the Via Dolorosa, the Sorrowful Way, through the streets of Jerusalem.

 

Most likely, Jesus carried the cross beam of the cross on which He was to be crucified. If we had been in the crowd watching, we would have seen a disfigured and staggering man. We would likely have heard jeering and insulting comments of an overly curious rabble of people who were indifferent to the suffering of a fellow man. 

 

But we might have heard as well comments of pity and remorse from those who recognized the innocence of Jesus, especially compared to our own sinful guilt.

 

St. Bernard of Clairvaux is said to have asked Jesus in a mystical experience which of His wounds had been the most painful. Jesus is said to have replied that it was not the wounds of His hands or of His side which had caused the most agony. Rather it was the shoulder wound where He carried the cross. 

 

Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, who was given the gift of the stigmata, was reported to have said the same thing to Father Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope St. John Paul II.

 

This insight is important because the faithful have long seen the weight of the cross as a symbol of the weight of the sin of the world born by Jesus. Once more it reminds us that each one of our sins, both large and small, are associated with the suffering of Christ.

 

Additionally, the carrying of the cross is a spiritual model for us. We can only imagine how Jesus endured, going forward step by step as He carried His cross. For a time He carried it alone, and then with the help of Simon of Cyrene. 

 

Like us, Jesus must have felt the human temptation to give up, and even more to despair of the Father’s love and maybe even His very existence. But Jesus kept going. In this He trusted God.

 

C.S. Lewis comments that one of the great challenges for us is perseverance in living our faith when things get hard. In particular when undergoing suffering or temptation, Lewis states that people “ ...  usually feel that a strain could have been endured no longer at the very moment when it is ending ... .” 

 

He argues also that Satan’s device is “… to make the man yield just when (had he but known it) relief was almost in sight.” (The Screwtape Letters, chapter 30).

 

Like Jesus carrying His cross, throughout life we too need to call up our courage and ask for the grace of God so that we do not give up in the face of trial or temptation.

 

Once again, please make Lent a time to seek the forgiveness of sins in the sacrament of reconciliation. 

 

At this writing, we have found it necessary to cancel our call to confession during Be Reconciled Day on April 1 to help to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. 

 

Even so, please find a time to make a good confession this Lenten season if possible. Jesus carried His cross so that our sins could be forgiven. Making a good confession will make that happen.