VII. The Scourging of Our Lord - The Tears of Mary

It is a pious tradition that, during the days of our Lord's Passion, Mary felt an invincible attraction to the places in which He suffered. When She heard that He had fallen into the hands of His enemies She desired to verify with Her own eyes the events, a foreknowledge of which She had obtained from Her reading of the Sacred Scriptures and through the confidential revelations of Her beloved Son.

Thus was She in the near vicinity of the pretorium, supported by the arms of holy women, during the scourging of Jesus. She saw the sinister yet unmistakable preparations for the execution of that cruel sentence. She heard the strokes of the thongs and lashes which fell by the thousand on the sacred body of the Saviour. She heard the executioners, robust soldiers, encourage one another in their cruel work. She heard their cynical and barbarous jests, and the deep, sweet groans of their Victim. It was flesh of Her flesh that was thus torn; it was blood of Her blood that ran upon the ground. True, Her virginal body was not reached by these cruel strokes, but Her mother's heart was torn to pieces, so great was Her sympathy In Her Son's suffering. It was by tears Her heart-breaking anguish was expressed. Tears as well as blood wear away the life. Death results from too great a loss of blood and from too much weeping as well. Mary is bathed in tears, and they run down to the ground to be mingled in Her Son's blood.

What an object of pity, O Christian soul! You cannot turn your eyes from Jesus, all covered with blood, without turning them on Mary bathed in tears. Let your soul, penetrated with shame and sorrow, carry you blushing and humbled to the feet of Christ in His scourging and to His Mother in tears.

It is the sin of the flesh they together expiate in this flagellation. In the beginning of the world's history we know that its impurities were washed out by a deluge; another was required to wash away the impurities of pagan nations - yea, even of Christian nations, too.

Sanctified by the grace of God, incorporated in Christ, we do not seem to know how to respect the flesh in which a purified soul should dwell as in a tabernacle; and too often, in contempt of the sacrament by which we receive a new life, we carry our contingent of infection to the collected mass of shameful sins that dishonor the world.

Thus it is that another deluge is required to wash away these crimes. We see it in the mystery of our Lord's scourging. It is the deluge of blood shed by our Saviour; it is the deluge of tears that flow from the eyes of Mary. These saving floods have called forth others. The saints understood them well, and, not content with purifying themselves in the blood of Jesus or in the tears of Mary, they made executioners of themselves in regard to their own flesh, chastising it without pity, imprisoning it in their instruments of torture, and opening wounds through which flowed their generous blood. They have been prodigal in blood and tears, and have exhausted their lives therein to prevent or to expiate the disorders of the flesh.

Read their history and you will tremble at the recital of the punishments they inflicted on themselves. Worldlings of easy life and fond of pleasure affect to be scandalized; they cry out: Barbarism, extravagance, folly! Let us rather admire their heroism; let us beg of Jesus and Mary the grace to chastise the sins of the flesh by its voluntary martyrdom.

But no; we are afraid. "We are told that our flesh is something sacred. The pleasures which the world offers may indeed be cast off, but we fortify ourselves with wise precautions; care is taken that nothing hurts our health. Weakness and inabilities of various kinds are brought forward to excuse us from the penances imposed by the Church. The hard stones would injure our knees if we knelt on them. In a word, the evil forces of the body seem to be carefully preserved, as if it was determined to drag down the soul into unhappy faults.

Again, how well it would be if you knew how to weep! if you knew how to save your tears for the mysterious baptism of penance! You weep over the affections which Providence has broken - just in time, perhaps, to prevent them from becoming disastrous; you weep on account of your conflicting caprices, over broken fortune, over fallen ambition, over lying reports and imaginary evils.

There are tears of tenderness ill-regulated, tears of vexation, tears of wrath, tears of discouragement and of despair, tears of ridiculous sensibility; but tears of shame and repentance for sin, tears that strengthen and purify the soul - I seldom see them in your eyes.

Christians, I conjure you, shake off this cowardice, correct this folly. If, in the presence of Christ torn with scourges, you have not strength to punish on the flesh the sins of the flesh; say at least with the prophet in presence of the sorrowing Mother: "Who will give water to my head and a fountain of tears to my eyes, that 1 may mourn night and day for those whom the flesh has destroyed in the house of my God?"