The Scourging at the Pillar

Catholic presentation

The second sorrowful mystery

Turn on the TV news these days, and more often than not you'll hear about man's inhumanity to man.  Exploitation of workers, harm to the envirnoment and its consequences for vulnerable people, terrorism, stabbings, cruelty to children, the list goes on.  Yet here in the stained glass, we have an image of man's inhumanity both to man and to God.  Can you spot the difference?

Well I can't, and I don't think there is a difference.  Jesus said, that whenever we fail to feed the hungry, or shun the stranger, we as good as do that to Him personally.  So likewise when we wound others, whether directly or indirectly, we wound Him.  Here we can see Jesus receiving our lack of care, our lack of compassion, our lack of honesty, our uncontrolled or unjustified anger, our seflish pride, our infidelities, name your sins.

Of course, being God, He could stop the assault on Himself at any moment.  But if He does that, then who will pay the penalty that justice demands for your sins and mine?  It doesn't help to say that our sins are less than those of some other 'bigger sinner'.  Any imperfection means we're not fit for heaven.  When we go to confession to be washed clean - who does the washing, and at what cost?  Here you can see some of that price being paid!

This picture should depict something personal between you and Christ.  If it doesn't then you haven't understood.

For my part, I don't mind telling you, I still haven't fully understood this scene.  It's an unpleasant subject, but burying our heads in the sand doesn't make us safe.  Only Jesus can do that, and He needs our co-operation to help us.  We need to look at this honestly.  You might not have committed a major capital offence, or even beaten someone, but be honest, might not your failures amount to at least one of the barbs on one lash of this whip?  And then, having admitted your failures, what of your shortcomings?  Do you live like Christ, act like Christ, put others first like Christ? Sacrifice like Christ?  Let me answer that: no - we don't nor could we, for we are not God.  Only by co-operating with His help can we start to be Christ-like, to fill the void that existis between how we are, and what we would want to become, if we are to be 'as one' with God forever.

If we don't take enough care in this life, then some change may have to take place after our deaths.  I'm talking about that heavenly yet agonising place called purgatory.  A place which is only open to those who die in the friendship of God.  A place very close to God, which is why I say it's heavenly yet agonising.  Because in purgatory you are at once 'so near', and yet 'so far' from God.  The distance is down to our unrediness to enter into a full embrace with the most perfect and overwhelming, overflowing Love.  God is like the brilliant sun, too bright to behold yet too wonderful to ignore.  Again, God's love is like a fast flowing torrent, you just can't dive in - yet!  This is because although He forgives our repented sins, it doesn't necessarily mean all the damage we did in our earthly lives has been fixed, let alone that we have become enough like Him to be comfortable being 'as one'.

The grace that makes it possible for us to fit in around heaven, begins here in this scene, and in our honest examination of conscience.

So let's not forget that while we still live, we can both turn away from sin, and grow in goodness.  It's said that those in purgatory envy our capacity to improve ourselves, albeit with the grace of God!