Catholic Wisdom

"The crowd has gone home, and Calvary is left solitary and still, except for St. John and the holy women. Then come Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who take down from the Cross the Body of Jesus, placing it in the arms of our Lady, His Mother."

--Saint John Henry Newman, Meditations on the Stations of the Cross.

I watched Passion of the Christ again last night, as I have with my family almost every Good Friday since the movie released. I see it for the first time, every time. I see the suffering, the immense suffering our Lord endured for my sins. Truely, it was me scourging Jesus at the pillar. It was my pride that spat in his face. It was my arrogance that pressed the crown of thorns into His head. It was my need for affirmation that yelled “crucify him” even after the sight of His torcher. It was my sharp tongue that whipped him on the way to Calvary. It was the weight of the unending list of mortal and venial sins that pressed down on His shoulders. Yes, it was truely by my own hands that drove the nails through His.

And now, on this Holy Saturday, all is silent. Mortified by the spectacle we all witnessed. Contemplating the meaning of it all. Waiting for what happens next.

-B. Campbell