Modern man in crisis needs triumphant resurrection

(Part II of a series on The Way of the Cross: Sharing our Lord’s Passion)

“My child, listen. Down the ages comes the echo, ‘Christ liveth.’ The Christ has never died save in man’s consciousness. Every day that you live oblivious to the Sweet Presence of My Spirit I am nailed to the cross of material things.”

Calling on His Eminence, Cardinal Tagle

Why do Catholic churches in the Philippines still keep the image of the Crucified Lord at the focus of worship? And by the entrance of the church, the thorn crowned body of the Lord lies in death, entombed in a glass case. Thus all our lives we are conditioned by the seeming defeat of Our Lord in His passion and death, rather than by His triumph as the victorious Christ who conquered death, hell and the grave.

“...Every moment that you open your heart and mind to My Inflow, the stone is rolled from your heart and the Christ ABSOLUTE in joy and beauty steps from the tomb, out into your daily life.”

Even the stations of the cross have changed

Are we keeping up with the guidance of the think-tank of the Vatican, which updated the devotions of the Way of the Cross? The prayers of penitence as one vicariously accompanies Our Lord along the historical Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem is simulated in all Catholic churches with picture frames of the 14 Stations of the Cross. Before its revision, they focused only on Our Savior’s tortures and humiliating walk to Mount Golgotha.

In the past few years, however, the faithful were somewhat confused by the changes. It would have been different if the past parish priests in the country gave the prompt, rightful doctrine of our Lord’s life. Then its greater spiritual impact would have been aroused. Allow me to review these important additions.

The major changes bring to minds of men the “protecting love of Christ,” as He institutes the Holy Eucharist for Station I and Our Lord renewing our vigor and light with His prayers at Gethsemane – Station II. Then He reminds us in Station III, Jesus before the Sanhedrin, that when condemned unjustly we must pray “This cannot touch me. I am wearing the armor of Christ’s consciousness.” The scourging and crowning with thorns in Station IV make us realize that Jesus was heavily tortured even before He carried the cross. However, He reminds us to beware more of what will harm the soul than what would injure the body.

(Below is the continuation of the intimate details of our Savior’s sufferings, crucifixion and resurrection as described by the Mother of Sorrows to St. Bridget of Sweden from the book, The Life of Mary as Seen by Mystics.)

Station IX: Jesus is nailed to the cross

“Jesus was ordered to take off His robe, and He did so. The soldiers said to one another, ‘These clothes belong to us, because He who is condemned to death will not use them again.’ Then His cruel executioners seized Him. Upon being ordered to do so, He lay down on His back on the cross and stretched out first His right arm. They attached His right hand to the beam, in which a nail hole had been prepared, and they drove the nail through His hand in the part where the bone was firmest. Then they pulled His other hand in the opposite direction with a rope, as it did not reach the other hole, and they nailed it down in the same way.

“Next they nailed His right foot, and over it the left, so that all the nerves and veins were torn apart and broken. Now the crown of thorns, which covered half of His forehead, was pressing down onto His head that His blood was running down His face and filling His eyes, hair and beard. His whole head seemed to be nothing but one stream of blood.

“His mother was close by during His passion. She did not allow herself to be separated from Him and she stood right next to His cross. The nearer something is to the heart the keener is its stab. His suffering was more painful to her than to others. His sufferings became her suffering because His heart was hers. And just as Adam and Eve sold the world for a forbidden fruit, so in a certain sense both Son and mother redeemed the world with one heart.”

Station X and XI: Jesus forgives repentant thief, entrusts Mary to John

“One of the thieves crucified with Jesus was convinced of His innocence and asked to be remembered in His kingdom. Jesus replied, ‘Truly, you will be with me today in Paradise.’

“While He was hanging on the cross bleeding and pierced with nails, He had compassion for His suffering mother as she stood near Him, sobbing. With His blood-filled eyes He looked down at John and commended her to his care.

“Seeing her and His friends now weeping inconsolably, He raised His tear-filled eyes toward heaven and from the depths of His Heart He cried out in an overpowering voice: ‘My God, My God, why hast Thou abandoned Me?’”

Station XII: Jesus dies on the cross

“His eyes appeared half dead, His cheeks sunken, and His features grief-stricken. His mouth was open and His tongue was covered with blood. His abdomen had fallen in toward His spine and seemed to have collapsed. His whole body was pale and weakened from continuous blood loss. His hands and feet were stretched out in the cruelest way, drawn and forced by the nails into the shape of the cross. His beard and hair were all clotted with blood.

“His constitution was so very excellent, now death struggled fiercely with life in His pierced body. Alternately the pain rose from His torn limbs and nerves toward His heart that was still strong and undamaged, causing Him indescribable torture. Then the pain would flow back from His heart into His limbs and thus prolong the agony of His death.

“And yet, though in the midst of such suffering, when He looked down at His weeping friends, who, rather than see Him suffer thus, would have wished to undergo the same pains themselves, the sorrow with which they suffered caused Him far greater than all the bitter pains which He had to endure in His body and His heart for He loved them tenderly.”

Mary ‘dies’ with her Son

“In the excessive anguish of His humanity He cried to His Father: ‘Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit!’ When His sorrowful mother heard these words, in her keen grief of heart, her limbs trembled – and indeed as often as she later thought of that cry, she could hear it again in her ears.

“Then His hands shrank back a little from the nail holes, and His feet bore most of the weight of His body. His fingers and arms, which had been convulsively contracted, straightened out, and His back pressed against the cross. Finally His head dropped, and His beard rested on His chest.

“Mary’s hands became numb. Darkness appeared before her eyes. Her face turned white as a corpse. Her ears could no longer hear, and she could not utter a word. Her feet gave way and she sank to the ground. She then fully understood that everything happened in accordance with His Will and that it could not have happened unless He had permitted it.

“Then a Roman soldier came up and drove a spear so forcefully into His side. As soon as he drew it out, its point was all red with blood. His heart was so violently and mercilessly pierced that the spear split it in two. When she saw her Son’s heart had been stabbed through, she felt that her own heart was likewise pierced, and it was a wonder that it did not break.”

Station XIII: Jesus is laid on the tomb

“When they lowered the body to the ground, one supported it at the head and the other at the feet. But she, who was His Mother, held Him in the middle. Thus they three carried Him to a stone, which she had covered with clean linen. It is this vision of the sorrowing mother holding the lifeless form of her beloved Son that inspired the famous Pieta sculpture in the Vatican, done by Michelangelo.

“Mary washed His wounds and His limbs. With her fingers, she closed His eyes and His mouth, which were opened when He died. She however did not need to sew up the cloth for she knew that He would not decay in the tomb. Magdalene and the other holy women came up and also there were many holy angels present, like bright sunbeams, to render honor to their Creator.”

Station XIV: The resurrection

“Early on Easter morning, at the very instant when the holy soul of Christ re-entered and revived His sacred body in the sepulcher, Mary experienced a mystical ecstasy in which her grief and sorrow were transmuted into ineffable joy and bliss. Just at that moment, after knocking, St. John stepped into her oratory, and finding her in the midst of a heavenly splendor and utterly transfigured with supernatural exultation, he understood that his Lord had just then risen from the tomb.

“Meanwhile the glorious body and soul of the Redeemer came forth from the holy sepulcher shining with all the brilliance of His divinity, and the Risen Lord immediately showed Himself to His Blessed Mother, together with all the saints and patriarchs of the Old Testament. He was clothed in a long, white robe with a mantle that waved gently in the breeze as He advanced, reflecting all the colors of the rainbow, while His large wounds sparkled brightly.

“Mary prostrated herself on the ground and humbly worshipped her Resurrected Son until He took her hand, raised her, and drew her to Himself in a marvelous mystical embrace. Then in an ecstasy of fervent joy and love she heard a voice saying, ‘My Beloved, ascend higher!’ And at the same time she was given a more profound and intimate vision of the Divinity that she never had before.”

Jesus is alive

“...I shall fill your life to such completeness that every step of the path will be of My choosing and you have only to walk in it by faith to see My Glory revealed.

“Go now, My child and know that Christ is risen indeed. Risen for you in a fuller sense than ever before and the tomb or cross shall never claim Him again in your consciousness. Make now your demonstration in the knowledge that He, Who is all Power, is with you walking by your side on the road.”

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