My dear parishioners,
Peace! The Catechism of the Catholic Church highlights the “prayer of the rosary” as a popular substitute for the Liturgy of the Hours in the Western Church (§ 2678). In praying the rosary we “meditate on the mysteries of Christ” engaging our “thought, imagination, emotion, and desire” leading not only to “knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus” but “union with Him” (§ 2708). In fact the rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary is an “epitome of the whole Gospel” and is also an expression of “devotion to the Virgin Mary” (§ 971). Here we consider the Fifth Sorrowful Mystery, the Crucifixion.
Saint Thomas Aquias, OP (+1274) addresses the passion and death of Jesus Christ in his Summa Theologiae III Q. 46-52. He reminds us that it was fitting that Jesus Christ should suffer the death of the cross by citing Philippians 2:8: “He became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.” Saint Thomas gives seven reasons why Christ’s death on the Cross, the Crucifixion, was fitting: as an example of virtue, to atone for the sin of our first parents, in order to purify both the air in which the Cross was raised and the Earth which absorbed the blood flowing from His side, to prepare for us an ascent to Heaven – drawing all things to Himself (cf. John 12:32), because the Cross points four ways – like a compass – the grace of the Cross is the source of universal salvation, to denote the breadth – height – length – and depth of the virtues of Christ our Master, and to fulfill so many figures found in Sacred Scripture, like the Noah’s wooden ark and the wooden rod of Moses which divided the sea and overthrew Pharaoh and the wooden Ark of the Covenant. Some depictions of the Crucifixion include a skull and bones at the foot of the Cross as an allusion to Adam through whose sin death entered the world, Jesus Christ being the new Adam (cf. Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:21,45).
In Sacred Scripture we read about the Crucifixion in Matthew 27:32-56; Mark 15:21-32; Luke 23:26-43; John 19:23. These passages are publicly and solemnly read on Palm Sunday and Good Friday in the Sacred Liturgy. The Crucifixion took place on Calvary which is also called Golgotha, meaning because its form apparently resembled a skull. Roman soldiers drove the nails and the crowd jeered.
The fruit of the mystery of the Crucifixion is final perseverance. Jesus Christ was faithful to His last breath, to His last drop of blood. We pray that by His grace at work in us we too will be faithful to our last breath and our last drop of blood. The martyr saints before us, following Christ’s example, are interceding for us. Whenever we sin we give force to the blows which drove the nails and we join the jeering crowd. May the holiness of our lives be a consolation to Christ crucified (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:2).
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr