Saturday, October 17, 2020 –
The Second Sorrowful Mystery: The Scourging at the Pillar
Pontius Pilate has Christ whipped
SEVEN CENTURIES BEFORE, it had been foretold that our Lord would be so wounded for our sins that we would have “thought Him, as it were, a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted.” The time has come for the fulfilment of that prophecy. Omnipotence is bound to a pillar in the hour oh His death, as He was bound in swaddling clothes in the very hour of His birth.
The scourging at the pillar must have been terrible, because whenever our Lord foretold His passion, He always made particular reference to His scourging, as if to emphasise the outrage of His suffering. St. Peter, after the Resurrection, recalling how he stood in the outer court listening to the fall of thongs upon His flesh, and yet heard our Lord not complain, wrote: “Who when He was reviled, did not revile; when He suffered, did not threaten.”
The scourging is an act of reparation for the excessive cult of the body. “The body is for the Lord.” In expiation for self-indulgence, His body, as the second Ark of the Covenant, is disclosed to profane eyes, as the Spouse of souls now becomes the plaything of mockers. How many strokes He received, no one knows. The prophet foretold that He would be so scourged that the bones of His body would be numbered. We are saved by other stars and stripes than those on the flag; namely, by the stars and stripes of Christ, by whose stars we are illumined – by whose stripes we are healed.
For each bead (1-10) in the decade, meditate (think) on the list below:
- Jesus is taken before the High Priest where He is falsely accused, buffeted and insulted.
- The Jewish leaders take Jesus before Pilate, for only he can impose the death penalty.
- The robber, Barabbas, is preferred to Jesus.
- Pilate can “find no cause in Him”, yet to appease the Jews, he orders Jesus to be scourged.
- The scourge is made of leather thongs to which are attached small sharp bones.
- Jesus is bound to a pillar and cruelly scourged until His whole body is covered with deep wounds.
- The Lamb of God offers His suffering for the sins of mankind.
- Jesus suffers so much in His sacred flesh to satisfy, especially, for sins of the flesh.
- The prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: “He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins.”
- Father, by the merits of Jesus in this painful scourging, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
Spiritual Fruit of the Mystery: Purity
Queen of angels, pray for us!
NOTE: These meditations are a compilation of several different sources that I have found helpful over the years:
- Meditations on the Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary by Fulton Sheen
- Praying the Rosary without Distractions from The Rosary Center and Confraternity
- Pray the Rosary Daily from Marian Press
- Quick Meditations on Every Mystery of the Rosary by Ascension Press
