Let us Pray:
“We adore you O Lord and we bless you, because of your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.”
… 8 The damage caused to Christ’s face is clearly seen from a NASA photo of the Turin Shroud (photo can be seen on my Blog). We see the forehead swollen and the bridge of the nose broken. As Jesus could not hold with His hands when falling, because His hands were tied, bound to the patibulum, He could never cushion His fall to lessen the damsge. Very probable, from the studies, that He fell flat on His face, besides the weight of His tired body, He had the weight of the patibulum He was carrying.
Because of the huge ‘bump’ on His forehead, the linen could not touch the sides of His face…all this comes from the Shroud. He must have suffered a very strong blow on the forhead as well as indicated by the a concaved part, clearly visible on the photo.
We seem to have learned it by heart, since the time when we were still kids at school, that Jesus fell three times on His way to Calvary. BUT, do we ever stop to think what that means ? Even if we try to fall flat, with open arms, on our bed, that would cause an unpleasant sensation. How much more being pulled along by someone in front of you, and with a strong jerk, uncontrollable pull, you find yourself flat on the ground..even if the ground was covered with carpets, or turf … much less the type of streets that existed in a rocky area like the place Golgotha.
There’s much food for thought…if one wants to really meditate on the sufferings of Jesus. Let’s not meditate on sugar-sweet pictures of the Passion. Let us close our eyes and be realistic in our meditation. No Renaissance Crucifixion painting will do justice to the reality of Christ’s suffering. We should look at a reproduction of Matthias Grunewald Crucifixion, thou a 1400 work, yet he painted in a mediaeval style to bring out all Christ’s suffering. It is called the Colmar Crucifixion.
The Turin Shroud shows the right hand eye of Jesus completely disfigured.
Let us meditate, and think…I should have been the one to be beaten, I should have been the one to fall flat to the ground, to have disfigured my face, because it is I who have committed so many sins, not Jesus. Jesus took my place. Do I ever stop to THANK the Lord Jesus for taking my place … whilst I keep on sinning.
Thank you, Jesus, help me to appreciate, not by paying lip service, BUT by stopping from sinning and offending YOU.
“We adore you O Lord and we bless you, because of your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.”
… /9
