While we don’t like to look at suffering and wounds and pain and send people to hospitals, therapists and confessionals to deal with it and await their ‘best self’ to come out when fixed and ‘put back together’, because who wants to see ‘the ugly’, Jesus displayed His naked Body on the cross for all to see.

I even heard that it is ‘unhealthy’ to meditate too much on Jesus crucified because it taints the positive outlook on His resurrection and we should look forward to better days.

In this age, the therapeutic religion that everyone needs might just discount the most healing aspect of it: the Source of all healing.

Nothing new under the sun: The disciples all left, hiding from fear of what might happen to them if they would stick to the One who was pierced, tortured, naked, shamed, vulnerable, rejected, although just few days prior they heard songs being sang to Him and His name being pronounced thousand times. That part was promising. But they ran away as soon as the unfathomable started to happen, hiding from being associated with the King crowned with thorns, mocked, spat on, penalized, disfigured. That sight was not in their plans to follow. It disrupted their dreams and their self-esteem because suddenly, from being associated with a miracle making prophet, they could be accused of being a part of heretical and dangerous, disturbing and claiming special powers sect. To turn the face away was their choice of avoiding to look at the Truth which they previously loved.

The women and John by the cross did not care about the consequences. Their love was strong enough to allow their senses to look at traumatized Son of Man and to stand there and witness the depths of abandonment.

Isn’t that telling that all Apostles disciples except John were later martyred? They had to go to the edge of comprehensible to embrace the Love which knows no bounds. They had to grow into maturity of their calling and die with joy after making their way through what they couldn’t bare to do by the cross.

And John and Mary and the women standing by the cross, were spared martyrdom because their martyrdom happened in real time on Golgotha.

I woke up and this came to me. Also, Teresa of Avila said that we need to meditate on the Passion of Christ often.