These reflections invite you to prayerfully contemplate the suffering of Jesus during the Crucifixion, drawing your heart into the depth of His sacrifice and love. Each meditation focuses on a moment of His Passion, helping you to remain present with Him in His agony, to recognize the mercy poured out for every soul, and to respond with gratitude, trust, and a renewed desire to live according to His commandments.
The First Nails Driven
As the executioner drives a long nail through Jesus’ hand, He cries out, and His Mother’s cry echoes His own. Jesus stifles His cries so as to spare His Mother further pain. As the hammering continues, only small, mewing sounds escape from our Savior’s lips.
Bearing the Weight of the Cross
For three long hours, Jesus’ weight is borne by the nails through His mangled wrists and His bloodied feet. Muscles, tendons, and nerves are mashed into a bloody pulp. Jesus later said through one of the saints that He would undergo the entire Passion again to save one soul. One soul. You or me. God’s ways are so far above our own that we cannot begin to comprehend them.
Love That Endures the Nails
A large, muscled brute forces Jesus’ feet together so the executioner can pound the long nail through Jesus’ feet, yet Jesus continues to muffle His cries to spare His Mother any pain. I can scarcely comprehend how He could do so while in such agony, but His love for His Mother, and for us, made it possible. His love is incredible and eternal.
The Struggle to Breathe
As the hours wear on, Jesus’ chest is thrust forward so His diaphragm is pressed against His lungs, and He cannot breathe. Jesus is forced to push Himself up, using His mangled, bleeding feet to lift His tortured body, magnifying His already excruciating pain, all just to take a breath. Finally, Jesus cries out, “It is fulfilled!”
The soldiers see that the two thieves are nearly dead, so they break their legs. Unable to lift themselves up to breathe, they die. But when the soldiers come to Jesus, they see He has already died; so the centurion pierces Jesus’ heart, shedding the last of His life-giving Blood for us, while we are still in sin.
The Sacrifice Completed
As earthquakes rumble and an eclipse darkens the sky, the centurion whispers, “Surely this was the Son of God.”
It is difficult to grasp what immense love the Son of God has for us mere mortals, that He would undergo such incredible suffering. Dear Jesus, how can we ever thank You? Scripture tells us that God has simply said, “Obey My Commandments.”