Chapter 39: The stripping naked, the binding to the pillar, and the scourging of the Lord Jesus

I BLESS You, and give thanks to You, O Lord Jesus Christ, most kind Protector of all who hope in You, for the shame You did endure in being stripped naked, in the sight of those who mocked You, when, by the cruel order of the wicked Governor, You were ordered to be stripped by the Roman soldiers of Your clothing, and to be hung upon the Cross quite naked, to be bound with hard cords, to be beaten with sharp-cutting rods, and to be scourged as if You had been a wicked seducer of the people, and the vilest of malefactors — all which was done to conciliate the wrath of the priests, who sought to glut themselves with Your Blood, and to bring You down with sorrow to the grave.

I laud and magnify, and humbly praise You, especially for the fast binding to the stony pillar, which You did endure, that so You might loose us from the bonds of our sins, and might restore to us that freedom which knows no end.

I praise and glorify You with thanksgivings which shall never cease, for Your most cruel scourging; and for each of the hard stripes, and most sharply cutting wounds, inflicted on Your most sacred and tender Body by those fierce soldiers who mercilessly struck Your virgin Flesh, and rent it deeply, adding blow to blow, bruise upon bruise, that so there might remain no sound part in You, and that at each stroke numberless streams of Your Precious Blood might gush forth like those of a crimson river-all which You did endure that You might purge us from the deep-rooted pollutions of our sins, and might cleanse our souls from every guilty stain by Your own most Precious Blood.

Alas, alas, O Lord my God, how great was the fury of those most wicked Jews, what hearts of stone were those of the men who struck You, who shrank not from scourging You, the fairest of men, all sinless as You were; but reared themselves like giants over You, and did their very worst against You!

O You Holy and Well-Beloved Son of my Lord, You Who are Innocence itself, what had You done to deserve such bitter pains? Nothing, nothing. Why then was all this? It is I — I a man lost and undone — who am the cause of all Your misery and distress. Woe be to you, you mighty burden of my sins, to rid me of which it was needful that the Son of God should endure such torments!

Keep therefore ever in remembrance, O faithful soul, redeemed by the Precious Blood of Christ, the Scourging of your Lord; and, suffering so far as you may with Him, give to Him in return the obedience of a heart filled with a lively sense of gratitude.

And you, humble servant of God in religion, who live under the strict rule of monastic life, fail not hither to turn the eye of your mind in meditation. For if you have anything hard, anything contrary to the flesh, to endure; if only you will meditate on the scourging of Jesus, it will be to you light and easy to be borne. When, therefore, you are reproved for your faults, or are even to be scourged for your transgressions, call to mind at once the thought of the all-sinless Jesus stripped, for your sake, of His clothes, and for your sake grievously scourged; and willingly get yourself ready to receive discipline in memory of the Passion of your Lord, and to expiate your sins. Fall humbly upon your knees, lay by your scapular, take off your habit, bow your neck, offer your whole body to the discipline which has been ordered you, and between the strokes, as they fall upon you, meditate devoutly thus: " I gave my back to the smiters, and my affliction is ever in my sight: wash me yet more, O Lord, from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin: against You only have I sinned, and done evil in Your sight: therefore have I justly deserved to receive discipline." It is better for you now with good will to receive temporal punishment, than hereafter to be condemned to everlasting torments. For those who shrink now from being scourged as Jesus was, will, in the life which is to come, be shut out from the Kingdom of Christ, as children who are unworthy of it.

O altogether sweet Jesus, Who for me, the chief of sinners, were most cruelly scourged, grant that I may gaze with a heart full of sorrow upon each wound made upon Your sacred Body by the scourge, and that I may kiss it with heartfelt fervent love; and so may feel the savour of life, and the medicine of eternal salvation, flowing forth from thence upon me. Set me aflame with the fire of that boundless love, with which You did prove that You loved me, when You did vouchsafe most patiently to endure so many blows of the cruel scourge for me, Your servant lying under condemnation. When tribulation of any kind comes upon me, grant, I pray You, to my weakness the help of Your grace; that so I may not be cast down under its burden, nor be too much distressed by it; but, remembering Your undeserved scourging, may be found meek and submissive under what I have to bear, no matter how heavy it maybe. Make me a partner in Your sufferings, and stir me up to amendment of life by the chastening of sons, that so, by bearing punishment with due meekness and humility, I may in this life present become more pleasing to You, and in the life to come may rejoice with You more gloriously, in that Place, where all Your Saints, no longer in fear of sin, rejoice for ever in the victory which Your sufferings have won for them.