Tuesday, November 27, 2012

34th Week, Ordinary Time, Wednesday, 28-11-12

Apocalypse 15:1-4 / Luke 21:12-19

When we read about the Passion (the sufferings) of Jesus in the gospel, we can see that He underwent three types of tortures.

The first was the scourging and that is to whip the convicted person 39 times (which was seldom needed) with leather straps that has lead balls at the ends.

The purpose was to whip the person till within an inch of his death and then stop so that the other forms of torture can continue.

The third was the crucifixion - make Jesus carry the cross, march Him to Calvary and then execute His slowly.

Those were the soldiers' orders and they carried it out precisely.

What was difficult to understand was the in-between torture, the second torture.

The soldiers wanted to mock and make fun of a half-dead Jesus. So they put a purple robe on Him, put a crown of thorns on His head, put a stick in His hand, and hailed Him "King of the Jews".

And then they spat Him. Spittle is not intended to hurt the body; it can't. Spitting at a person is meant to degrade, to insult, to humiliate.

As disciples of Jesus, we can be assured that we will never be spared of the spittle of humiliation.

It comes in the form of gossips, slandering, accusations and all those tribulations that we heard Jesus talked about in the gospel.

We have had our share and in retaliation, we also have given others our share.

But let us remember what Jesus told us - Our endurance will win us our lives.

Others may spit at us but we don't have to spit back. Jesus didn't. In fact He endured the spittle and the pain all the way to the cross and there He won life for us.