Nicole Berlucchi, Writer on a Mission

Visit Tribe of Many Arrows on Etsy. These images are used with their permission,
and I am grateful for these beautiful creations accompanying my reflections this month.

For the month of October the “That We May Imitate What They Contain and Obtain What They Promise” series will take a daily look at one mystery of the Rosary and how we have the opportunity to imitate it and rejoice in what it promises us.

Today, we look at the third Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary: The Crowning of Thorns.

Then the soldiers led him away inside the palace, that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort. They clothed him in purple and, weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him.  They began to salute him with, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him. They knelt before him in homage. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him out to crucify him. Mark 15:16-20ng to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged, handed him over to be crucified. Mark 15:15 (NABRE)

As I type, I cringe over these sufferings of Jesus. A crown of thorns on his head and being struck by a reed on top of his head over and over. The headache that must have caused him…how his skin must have throbbed…the way it must have pushed the thorns deeper into his skin on his already battered body. Lord, forgive us! I cannot deny that my sins caused this and were a part of this day, but how I wish I could…so let’s learn from this mystery and from Jesus.

1. Remember Whose you are when the world seems against you. When I read these verses, I question how Jesus bore so much unjust degradation. Jesus continues to exercise total trust in the Father through all of the sorrowful mysteries, but here we see Jesus rooted in his identity. They are taking who He is—a King—and trying to mock His identity. He knows He is the Son of God. While these acts caused Him great suffering, physically and emotionally. He is rooted in the love of His Father with the Holy Spirit. He is rooted in His Sonship. He knows that His identity remains untouched no matter how much these Roman soldiers attempt to strip Him of His worthiness, His perfection. These soldiers are not penetrating His identity or His conviction about carrying out His task. If anything, they convict Him of how necessary His task of saving us from our sins is.
2. Accept the thorns in your life recognizing they are perfecting you for glory. I recently weeded our garden where I was pulling out a thorny weed. As I grabbed, the immediate reaction I had was to let go immediately, but I had to get it out, so I adjusted my hand to a place where I could yank the weed out. The thorns still hurt a bit but it was necessary for pulling out the weed. Jesus shows us to accept the thorns on the path to glory. They are temporary. God uses the thorns for our good. Satan is really good at making it hard to weed out sin in our life. Giving up certain habits might cause people to make fun of us or remaining silent in the face of anger might cause people to retaliate more brutally. It is hard to be meek in those moments and keep our emotions in check. These are thorns, but in bearing them we grow in virtue.
3. Where you are most attacked is where God has designed you to bear the most fruit. Is it any surprise that the soldiers take a reed and smack the crown of thorns deeper and deeper into Jesus’ head, reminding Him of the crown He has chosen, King of Kings. Jesus does not refuse His crown in the midst of its mockery. He knows the Kingdom God has waiting for Him. This mockery happening before him is a pittance compared to the glory He know is coming. They bow before Him; they clothe Him in a fake royal cloak. I imagine Him in this moment feeling sorry for these soldiers how out of touch they are with His reality. We must remember when we are doing God’s work in our lives, we will face people who want to belittle or challenge what God is trying to work in our lives. God transforms the places that appear to the world most desolate so that we can witness to His glory. We must not give up in the face of opposition if we want to carry out God’s will for our lives and reach heavenly glory.
4. Don’t allow needling of others allow you to lose your moral compass. The mockery and the smacking with the reed remind me of those jabbing comments people can sometimes make, sometimes meaning in jest, but comments that can get to you nonetheless. Jesus humbly accepts these pathetic attempts of the Roman soldiers to wield power over Him knowing He is actually the one exercising His power, His strength in standing and bearing these unjust acts, these sufferings, for my sake and your sake. Similarly, if we latch on to any verbal feedback someone gives us—that we are “too much” or we are “too religious” or we are “too liberal or conservative”, we are letting their opinion have power over how we feel about ourselves or how we interact with others without letting God weigh in on who we are. It can be so easy in this world to let the judgement of others begin to define us, to let it creep into our inner dialogue. In times like that, let us cling to our identity as sons and daughters of God. Let us remember that we are beloved and that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Call on Him to remind you of who you are. Exercise your self-control in offering some sacrifice (a fast, suffering from physical ailment) for someone—maybe a person you know, but maybe also someone you do not know. You could offer this sacrifice for their healing, for their conversion, or for another special intention. You could offer this sacrifice in reparation for the sins of the world, just like Jesus did.

Jesus teaches us that in the face of mockery of our royalty as sons and daughters of God, we can choose to be steadfast, not give into taunting and exercise the true power of our identity by not allowing ourselves to be provoked and act out. Notice that where you are being most torn down is where God can bring the greatest glory and if you turn to Him rather than to the world, He will work transformation beyond your imaginings—Jesus went from a crown of thorns to THE crown of glory as King of Kings. In imitating Jesus, we are showing we will not let the world define us and tear us down, but we will stand in our God-given identity and do whatever He has designed us to do. We will grow in the fruits of contempt of the world and moral courage as we live for God’s eternal glory rather than for things of the world which will pass away.

Visit Tribe of Many Arrows on Etsy. These images are used with their permission, and I am grateful for these beautiful creations accompanying my reflections this month.

If you missed last week’s reflections, catch them here: Annunciation, Visitation, Birth of Jesus, the Presentation, and the Finding of Jesus in the Temple.