Let us Pray:
“We adore you O Lord and we bless you, because of your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.”
… 9 Difficulties and problems faced by all victims who were crucified, with special interest in the person of Jesus Christ.
A person tied, or nailed from his wrist, encounters the first problem of pain, lowering of resistance, general weakness besides mental anguish. The natural posture taken of the victim is, that he lets his weak body hang down.
To change the position; that is trying to pull up their weight, needs superhuman efforts, because pressure has to be exerted on the wound of the feet, not forgetting the tremendous pain caused when they try to pull up their weight.
But, they have to change their posture. Because in the hanging down position, they can breathe in, BUT in such a position, they will be exerting undue pressure on the lungs. For inhaling, it ‘s not so much of a difficulty, but for exhaling, breathing out, it causes a lot of problems. In the ‘let go’ posture, hanging down, ‘breathing in’ comes easily but to ‘breathe out’, ‘to exhale’, the person has to pull himself up so that the lungs can expand and let out air. This is seen if one refers to the Blog site where one can see it explained in graphics.
Now, I can imagine the problem, the pain suffered by Jesus on the cross, especially in the moments when HE uttered His last ‘seven statements. Air can come out, relatively easily when uttering vowels. Do try it out and see for yourself. Breathe in air, fill in your chest with air, then with open mouth let out, exhale air whilst sounding the vowels a, e, i, o, u.
Now try the same exercise; breathe in and to exhale, breathe out, try uttering a consonant, try the explosive consonants of p, b, d, t.
Do you realise how difficult to speak out with the handicap of the ‘hanging down’ of the body. I believe Jesus could only utter the vowels, in his seven last statements. Let us take the very well known: “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani (sabaqtani)?”…that is: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Most probably those gathered under the cross could only hear the exhaling of air from Christ’s mouth , sounding the vowels E.O.I (for Eloi), A.A. (lama), A.A.A.I (sabaqtani). If you remember well his words were not clearly heard, and different interpretations were given about what Jesus was saying.
To speak a single word Jesus had to force Himself up, pushing on the wound in his feet to be in a pposition that His lungs could let out air. Then speak the words.
Dear Lord, how sweet the was the sound of your voice when YOU spoke: “Talitha cumi”, “Your faith has cured you”, “Go, your sins are forgiven”, and the rest of your loving commands. Yes, that was sweet music to the ears of those being cured, to their families and relatives…and NOW, You can’t even talk to your Father, to your dear Mother, to your friends, to us all.
I,I myself, I am the cause of all this, forgive me Lord. Such a terrible crime. This was no petty crime, a crime of astronomical magnitude … killing the Son of God made man. Such a great crime can be only forgiven by an astronomical mercy and love, by ONE who is above all. It can be forgiven ONLY by GOD.
Let us meditate, and think…I should have been the one to be hanging on the cross, I should have been the one to try and ask forgivenss, to utter incomprehensible words, due to suffering, 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.”
… /10
No comments:
Post a Comment