Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.
Matthew 27:27-31
Consider:
Who was in the cohort around Jesus? People like you and me who were patriotic, doing their duty and living according to the laws of Rome. They carry out justice according to the law of the land, well-meaning, yet tragically misled. Jesus had come to show a new law that wasn’t violent, a law where mercy and justice meet. Imagine what thoughts invaded Jesus’ mind while they were torturing him and mocking his deity; we can’t, can we? But we do know that he didn’t call down justice on them at that moment; revenge was not on his agenda. He offered himself as a willing sacrifice for the sins committed against him!
We have all been wounded at some time or another—ganged up on, ridiculed for our beliefs, mocked, and humiliated—no easy recovery from these wounds. Perhaps you are struggling to release yourself into the healing hands of Jesus. In a post-WWI novel, “The Light Between Oceans,” a conversation between a wife and her German husband speaks right to the heart of our struggle. Rachel, the wife, asks her husband, “How can you just get over these things … you’ve had so much strife, but you’re always happy; how do you do it?” Frank replied, “I can choose to spend my time rotting on things in the past and hating people for what happens … or I can forgive and forget … Oh, but it is so much less exhausting; you only have to forgive once; to resent, you have to do it all day. Every day, you have to keep remembering all the bad things—a very long list to make sure you keep remembering all the bad things to make sure that I hated the people on it the right amount and that I did a very proper job with hating too. No, we always have a choice, all of us.”
Pray:
Jesus, Suffering Servant of humanity, teach me how to forgive! You suffered my sins on your Cross so that I wouldn’t have to suffer, yet I choose to suffer when I hold tightly to the offenses toward me. Revenge creeps into my soul like a slow cancer, destroying my spirit. Oh, Jesus, forgive me! –Amen
Act:
Prayerfully examine your spirit and allow yourself permission to record the suffering you carry with you from past injustices. If possible, take the list with you to Adoration. Tell our Suffering Servant each injustice you are holding onto. Allow your imagination to take you into the governor’s headquarters, and look at Jesus’ eyes as he silently receives the crown of thorns and the strikes to his Sacred Head. He sees your pain; he KNOWS your pain. Allow the Blood that is pouring from his head wounds to flow over your mind and memory; as soon as you can, light a match to your list, surrendering it to the Lover of your soul.
The Maiden Warrior 