SIXTH STATION: Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns

SIXTH STATION
Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns

V/. Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi.
R/. Quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum.

From the Gospel according to Luke. 22:63-65

Now the men who were holding Jesus mocked him and beat him; they also blindfolded him and asked him, "Prophesy! Who is it that struck you?" and they spoke many other words against him, reviling him.

From the Gospel according to John. 19:2-3

And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and arrayed him in a purple robe; they came up to him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and struck him with their hands.

MEDITATION

One day, walking in the valley of the Jordan not far from Jericho, Jesus halted and spoke to the Twelve with words of fire, words they found impossible to understand: "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the Gentiles, and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon; and they will scourge him and kill him, ….[14]". Now at last, the full meaning of those enigmatic words is revealed: in the courtyard of the pretorium, the residence of the Roman governor in Jerusalem, the grim ritual of torture has begun, while outside the palace the murmur of the crowd begins to swell, in expectation of the spectacle of the death march.

In that room closed to the public, things take place that will be repeated down the centuries in a thousand sadistic and perverse ways, in the darkness of countless prison cells. Jesus is not only physically struck but mocked. Indeed, the Evangelist Luke, to describe those insults, uses the word "blaspheme", as if to bring out the deepest meaning of the violent abuse which the soldiers heap on their victim. And the torments inflicted upon Christ's flesh are accompanied by a gruesome farce that is an affront to his personal dignity.

* * *

The Evangelist John recounts that insulting parody, based on the popular game of the mock king. There is a crown whose points are made of thorny twigs; the royal purple is replaced by a red mantle; there is the imperial salute: "Hail, Caesar!". And yet, behind all this mockery, we can see a glorious sign: yes, Jesus is reviled like a mock king, yet in reality he is the true Sovereign of history.

When, in the end, his kingship will be revealed -- as another Evangelist, Matthew, tells us[15] -- he will condemn every torturer and tyrant, and summon into his glory not only their victims, but all those who visited prisoners, healed the wounded and the suffering, and assisted the hungry, the thirsty and the persecuted. Now, however, the face transfigured on Tabor [16] is disfigured; the one who is "the reflection of God's glory"[17] is darkened and abased; as Isaiah had proclaimed, the messianic Servant of the Lord has his back furrowed by the lash, his beard plucked, his face covered with spittle [18]. In him, the God of glory, our suffering humanity is revealed; in him, the Lord of history, the frailty of every creature is revealed; in him, the Creator of the world, the painful cry of every living creature finds an echo.

All:

Pater noster, qui es in cælis:
sanctificetur nomen tuum;
adveniat regnum tuum;
fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cælo, et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie;
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris;
et ne nos inducas in tentationem;
sed libera nos a malo.

Pro peccatis suae gentis
vidit Iesum in tormentis
et flagellis subditum.


[14] Luke 18:31-32
[15] Cf. Matthew 25:31-46.

[16] Cf. Luke 9:29.
[17] Cf. Hebrews 1:3.
[18] Cf. Isaiah 50:6

*** Moment of Silence

PRESENTATION

OPENING PRAYER

FIRST STATION

SECOND STATION

THIRD STATION

FOURTH STATION

FIFTH STATION

SIXTH STATION

SEVENTH STATION

EIGHTH STATION

NINTH STATION

TENTH STATION

ELEVENTH STATION

TWELFTH STATION

THIRTEENTH STATION

FOURTEENTH STATION

BLESSING
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PRESENTATION

It was a late spring morning, somewhere between the years 30 and 33 of our era. In a street of Jerusalem -- which in centuries to come would be known simply as the "Via Dolorosa" -- a small procession was winding its way: escorted by a patrol of Roman soldiers, a man condemned to death advanced, carrying the patibulum, the horizontal arm of a cross whose vertical arm was already standing amid the stones of a small, rocky promontory called in Aramaic, Golgotha, and in Latin, Calvary, "the place of the skull".

This was the last chapter of a familiar story whose central figure is Jesus Christ, the man crucified and humiliated, the Lord risen and glorious. It was a story that began in the darkness and gloom of the evening before, beneath the olive branches of a field called Gethsemane, "the olive-press". A story that quickly unfolded in the strongholds of religious and political power and culminated in a sentence of death. Yet the case of that condemned man was unlike that of so many other victims of the brutal torture of crucifixion, which the Romans reserved for the punishment of revolutionaries and slaves. Not even the tomb, offered by a man of means named Joseph of Arimathea, could be the end of the story.

There would in fact be another chapter, astonishing and unexpected: the condemned man, Jesus of Nazareth, would splendidly reveal another nature hidden beneath the features of his human countenance and body: that of the Son of God. The end of the story was not the Cross and the tomb, but rather the brilliant light of his Resurrection and his glory. As the Apostle Paul, a few years later, would say: the one who renounced his glory to become powerless and weak like us, and abased himself even to accepting a shameful death by crucifixion, was exalted by the Father, who made him the Lord of earth and heaven, of history and eternity (cf. Phil 2:6-11).

For centuries Christians have retraced the steps of the Via Crucis, a path that leads to the hill of the crucifixion, with their gaze fixed on its ultimate goal, the light of Easter. They have made that journey as pilgrims along that same street in Jerusalem, but also in their cities, their churches and their homes. For centuries writers and artists, both famous and forgotten, have sought to touch the hearts of the faithful by bringing to life those steps or "stations", making them moments of meditation along the way to Golgotha. They have painted pictures ranging from the striking to the ordinary, from the sublime to the simple, from the dramatic to the plain and unaffected.

In Rome, this spiritual journey in the footsteps of Jesus sets out anew each Good Friday, led by the Pope, the Bishop of this City and the universal pastor, in union with Christians the world over. This year's reflections for each station are narrative and meditative in character, and follow the story of the Passion as recounted by the Evangelist Saint Luke. They have been written by a biblist, Monsignor Gianfranco Ravasi, prefect of the Ambrosian Library and Gallery in Milan, a cultural institution founded four centuries ago by Cardinal Federico Borromeo, Archbishop of that city and a cousin of Saint Charles Borromeo. A century ago, among its prefects, was Achille Ratti, the future Pope Pius XI.

Let us now begin together this journey of prayer, not simply for the sake of remembering past events and a tragic death, but to experience the crude realism of a story which nonetheless speaks of hope, joy and salvation. Perhaps others who are still searching, uncertain and troubled will make this journey alongside us. And as we make our way, step by step, along this path of suffering and of light, we will be able to hear an echo of the stirring words of the Apostle Paul: "Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory?… But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" (1 Cor 15:54-55, 57).

*** A moment of silence

PRESENTATION

OPENING PRAYER

FIRST STATION

SECOND STATION

THIRD STATION

FOURTH STATION

FIFTH STATION

SIXTH STATION

SEVENTH STATION

EIGHTH STATION

NINTH STATION

TENTH STATION

ELEVENTH STATION

TWELFTH STATION

THIRTEENTH STATION

FOURTEENTH STATION

BLESSING
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