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Fr. Sandquist 03-27-20 Page 1 of 7 I. The first sorrowful mystery is The Agony in the Garden when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before his crucifixion. a. The aspect of this mystery I’d like to invite us all to reflect on is the silence… b. It is now nighttime, and Jesus is alone, i. His disciples aren’t too far, but he’s gone away about a stone’s throw from them to pray. c. The only sound to be heard is the distant chatter of the crowds coming from Jerusalem as the people prepare for the feast of Passover. i. But other than that, the garden is still. d. What strikes me most about this silence is the weight of what is happening within it. i. Normally, we associate activity with noise. 1. We tend to think, the louder and busier, the more that is happening. ii. But this is not the way things work at the spiritual level. In the spiritual realm, the greatest things tend to happen in the quiet. 1. Remember the story of Elijah on the mountain, a. A wind so strong came that rocks were torn asunder from the mountain, but, scripture says, the lord was not in the wind, b. Then after the wind, came an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, c. then came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. Fr. Sandquist 03-27-20 Page 2 of 7 i. Then after the fire there was a still small voice- It was this that was the Lord’s voice. iii. Silence does not mean nothing is happening. In the case of the agony in the garden, something is happening that is too deep to be heard. 1. Though Jesus is not on the cross yet, this mystery marks the beginning of his passion. a. His sweating of blood makes this clear enough. 2. What this means is that the work of our redemption is already taking place, even in silence. iv. The disciples don’t realize this, though. They’ve already fallen asleep. v. So let’s pray during this decade that we may not be asleep to the work that Jesus wants to do in our hearts, especially in the silence. II. The second sorrowful mystery is the Scourging at the Pillar when Pontius Pilate delivers Jesus to be whipped and beaten by the Roman Soldiers. a. Pontius Pilate has a dilemma. i. He knows that Jesus is an innocent man – He even says so himself. ii. But the crowds are crying out for his death and if an uprising breaks out, Caesar will hold him accountable for it. 1. So what is he to do? Fr. Sandquist 03-27-20 Page 3 of 7 a. Well, since he doesn’t want to kill Jesus and nor refuse the crowd, he tries for a halfway-between solution. b. He sends Jesus away to be scourged. 2. He seems to think that, while the crowd might not be fully satisfied, this would at least satisfy them enough to prevent them from rioting. 3. But his plan fails. a. When Jesus is brought back before the people, bruised and bloodied, it just incites all the more them to cry out, “Crucify him!” b. And so, Pilate yields and delivers him to be crucified. iii. In this, we see one example of the fact that there really is no middle ground between good and evil. 1. If we try to make a halfway compromise, it will only lead to us sliding back into evil anyway. b. One reason for this is that the human heart was not made for “half- way.” i. As the greatest commandment says, a. “You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” b. This “all” is what we were made for. Fr. Sandquist 03-27-20 Page 4 of 7 c. And so, during this decade of the rosary, let’s pray for the grace to set our whole hearts on God. III. The third sorrowful mystery is the Crowning of Thorns when the soldiers placed a crown weaved of thorns on the head of Jesus and mocked him. a. What Satan wants to do more than anything else is to turn God’s plan and kingdom upside-down. i. He labors to make good appear evil and evil appear good, and to make the true appear false and the false appear true. b. In this mystery, we see this very work underway. c. Jesus is truly the King of Kings, and yet, at this moment, his kingship is made to look like a joke. i. He’s been given thorns for a crown, ii. A reed for a staff, iii. And his bloody flesh is clothed in a robe of purple, the color of royalty because it was the most expensive color to die at the time. d. These soldiers did this to say, “How could this weak and pathetic looking man be the king he is proclaimed to be?” i. And yet, it is in this very mockery, that we do recognize the majesty of this king. 1. He is a king so great that he is willing to stoop down even to the depths of humiliation out of love for us. ii. So let’s ponder the majesty of our King as we pray this next decade. IV. The forth sorrowful mystery is the Carrying of the Cross. Fr. Sandquist 03-27-20 Page 5 of 7 i. Whose cross is it really that Jesus is carrying? 1. Obviously if he’s the one soon to be crucified on it we would say it is his cross right? ii. But remember, we’re the ones guilty of sin, while Jesus is perfectly innocent. And so, isn’t it rather our cross he is carrying? He’s just carrying it for us. b. For this we are deeply grateful. i. But just because Jesus is carrying our cross doesn’t mean that we no longer have a part in it. 1. This is because, in the mystery of his great self- emptying, Jesus now looks to us -in a way- for our help. a. He desires us to lift the crushing burden from his shoulders even just a little bit. c. We see this embodied in this 4th sorrowful mystery of the rosary. i. At this point in his passion, it seems that Jesus has become too weak to carry the cross. 1. The soldiers certainly aren’t going to carry it for him and they don’t want him to die before he’s crucified, so they force Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross the rest of the way. ii. While this doesn’t do away with his suffering, Simon’s sharing of the cross does make it a little bit lighter for Jesus. iii. During this decade of the rosary, let’s pray for a greater love for Jesus that we may be willing to lighten his cross by willingly picking up ours. Fr. Sandquist 03-27-20 Page 6 of 7 V. The fifth sorrowful mystery is The Crucifixion. a. In a mysterious passage in the Old Testament the Prophet Ezekiel sees a vision of the temple. i. In this vision, a stream of water flows from side of the temple. 1. That stream gradually becomes a river and Ezekiel is told that along this river every kind of tree will grow with leaves that will never wither. When the water of this river flows into the polluted sea, it even makes the sea fresh and pure (instead of the reverse). b. In the gospel of John, however, we learn that the true temple is Jesus’ body. i. When Jesus says, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up,” John makes the comment, “but he was speaking of the temple of his body.” c. When we put these two things together (Ezekiel’s vision of the stream flowing from the temple and the knowledge that Jesus’ body is the true temple) i. We can see that Ezekiel’s vision was really a symbolic foreshadowing of Jesus’ crucifixion. 1. When the solder pierces the body of Jesus with a lance, out of his side, St. John says, flowed blood and water. a. This water here, mingled with the blood of Jesus is the true life-giving water flowing from the side of the true temple. d. So what exactly is this water? (literally speaking) Fr. Sandquist 03-27-20 Page 7 of 7 i. Well, St. John, again, makes this clear for us in chapter 7 of his gospel. 1. Here Jesus says, “If any one thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” John then adds, “This he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive.” ii. And so, when Jesus’ side was pierced with a lance, it was at this moment that the fountain of the Holy Spirit was opened for us to be poured out upon us, to purify us and give us life. e. If this is the case, then let’s come to Jesus now as he’s invited us to, to drink of the Holy Spirit, that our weary souls may refreshed. .

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