"Why do you seek the living one among the dead?"

-- The Holy Gospel According to St. Luke 24:5

Quick question, who is the living person who has had the greatest impact on you life? Your mother, your father, sibling, or best friend? How about Jesus? If you don't think He qualifies then I pose to you the same question as above.

This is just a quick little tid bit to ponder, especially now that we have crossed from the season of Lent, to the season of Easter.

Lord, help us to see You in everyone that we encounter, and to be a mirrior to Your love so that others may see You in us, Amen.

Christ our Lord is risen, Alleluiah.

The Crucifixion

It is finished. Jesus, finally reaches His destination, His work is complete, He is humiliated, mortified, beaten, broken, and now is on display for all passers by to see. The Lord of the universe, who came into the world and glorified the dust by entering into human nature, is hung on the cross and breathes His last. The Deicide is completed, and our hands are red with His blood.

When Jesus died on the cross the sun refused to shine and the veil in the temple was torn. By His perfect act of Love God's relationship with us changes and with it the entire universe.

Lord, You suffered and died for us, it is our sin that is the weight of the cross, yet You embrace us and carry us with You. Only in You is our salvation complete. Help us to enter into Your Passion and Death, that we made be made new in You, my Lord, and my God.
We were at the foot of the cross, and looking up at You, with flowing tears, we exclaim, "Why Lord? You needn't do this for me" and You look down from Your cross and say, "Yes, I do. Don't you see now, how much I Love you. Fear not for 'It is finished'".

God Love You, I know He does, for He has proved it beyond all doubt.

The Carrying of the Cross

Jesus takes up His cross and marches towards His death. He carries the instrument of His death and humiliation on His back, and even though He falls three times, He gets back up to finish His Most Holy Work.

Even while carrying His cross, Jesus offers hope to all of us. He glorifies suffering into something more than pain and death. Unlike other religions where there is a claim to end suffering, Christ enters into suffering and death, even a death on a cross for us, to make ammends, to offer Himself as the Worthy Lamb of God. It is here where Jesus says "Behold, I make all things new", He transforms suffering into salvation, and death into life.

Loving Jesus, You carried Your cross to the end, in order to complete Your Most Holy Work of Salvation. You, Lord, who are the Way, the Truth, and the Life, help us to carry our crosses and when we fall help us to persevere as You did, with loving endurance, on the road to Calvary.
Lord, You carried Your cross to Calvary, but the weight of the cross was not the only weight that You carried, You carried all of our transgressions with You. We recognize this and we know that we are to blame, we come to You, each time that You fall and say to You, "Put down the cross, You don't have to do this, You've already done enough!!!" And again You look at us knowing what You are going to go through and You reply, "No, I must partake of this cup, because I love you, and you are worth it."

God Love You

The Crowning of Thorns

It wasn't enough for us to merely beat Jesus past a bloody pulp, that would have been too easy, so we add insult to injuy. The Lord of the universe, the Word by which all is in existence is mocked by those whom He came to save. The thorns pressed into His skull and that wasn't all, a royal cloak, and to top it off absolute mockery; the devil couldn't have done a better job.

How many times have we gone to mass and not really paid propper respect to what was going on. How many times have we not focused on the one thing, nay, Person that is right in front of us, giving Himself to us. We still mock Christ and His work, and I think that we are more guilty than the Roman soldiers that crowned Him with thorns. For they mocked Him not know who He was, we know who He is, or atleast we say we do, and we still mock Him.

Lord, help us to recognize Your Holy presence in our lives, especially in the celebration of mass. Reveal Yourself to us and help us to give into Your Revelation, to surrender to ourselves so that we may except the gift of Your Love and Grace wholly, in complete selflessness.
Again, we come to You Lord and tell You that Your work is finished and we don't deserve the gift of Yourself, at least at this cost. And You turn to us with loving and affectionate eyes and say, "No, I must go on, my work is not finished, I will pay every price, because I Love you and you are worth it."

God Love You

The Scourging at the Pillar

This is a most unsettling scene. Jesus, the God-man, the second person of the Holy Trinity, being physically mutilated, His flesh beaten and torn, His body broken and mangled. He is beaten far past a bloody pulp, if one were to see Him that person may not even recognize that He is human. But even in His most destroyed body, He is still more perfectly human than we can ever hope to be here on the world.

The devil tempted Jesus verbally in the desert, with each temptation he tries to trick Jesus into undoing the Incarnation, but Jesus withstands, and sends Satan away. Since the devil failed in out-smarting Jesus, he is desperate and tries to undo the Incarnation his own way, by beating Jesus's humanity out of Him, and who better to help than the very people that Jesus came to save, and we do it gladly. Even though Satan succeeds in destroying Jesus's body and even though he gets us to do the dirty work, Jesus does what He did in the desert, He withstands and sends Satan away.

Lord, Jesus, we held the whip, yes Lord, the very people You came to save beat and mangled Your body, until it was not able to be recognized as human, yet You still looked upon us with love and compassion and completed Your Most Holy Work.
Again, Lord Jesus, we look at Your mangled body and we see the suffering that You have endured for us, and we, again come to You, pleading with You to stop, telling You that what You have done is enough. You look back at us and say, "No, I must go on, because you are worth it"

God Love You

Not too long ago, I received a comment asking how we can motivate ourselves to think of Calvary during the season of Lent. The comment goes on to talk about all the things that get in our way in not only thinking about the scene at Calvary, but God in general. Work, school, and all sorts of things get in our way and it's difficult to focus.

This is what I am doing to help re-focus on the saving work of our Lord. This week, being Holy Week, I will go through each of the five sorrowful mysteries with comments and prayers to not only help those of you who read my posts but to help re-focus myself. I would also like to add that most of what I will post is not original, but I will simply tell the truth the way that I see it without giving two-pence what anyone thinks about it (thank you C.S. Lewis).

The Agony in the Garden

This is quite possibly the most overlooked step in the Passion of our Lord. Jesus goes away with His best buds to pray and He is freaked out about what He has to do, and His friends fall asleep and He gets mad and then it happens. No, I would disagree whole-heatedly. I would say that this was most painful for Jesus.

Jesus goes away with the most trusted of His disciples, His inner-circle, His best friends, and when He needs them the most, they fall asleep on Him. He is in so much anguish about what He must do, that His sweat was like drops of blood. Think about this, Jesus is perfect in every way, for He is fully God and fully man. He's fully man and He has fear and sorrow, but He is also fully God and is omniscient. He KNEW what was going to happen to Him. He KNEW the pain and the hurt. He could feel the whips, the thorns, the weight of the cross, the nails, and the spear thrust right there in the garden. Yet, knowing all this He was still obedient to death, even a death on a cross.

Lord, You felt so much sorrow in the Garden of Gethsemane and Your friends could not even stay awake to be with You. Help us to stay awake and pray as You asked, to not be put to the test.
Lord, Your suffering in the garden was most intense and when we look at You there and come to You, and tell You that what You have done is enough, You look right back at us and tell us "No, I must go on, because you are worth it."

God Love You