Meditating on the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary this Friday, I had a clearer notion of Christ’s personal situation during His Passion.

Everything Christ did during His life, and especially during those awful last hours, point to His great love for us. 

But our human notion of real love is sketchy at best. Only through examining love in action through Jesus can we grasp the real essence of love.

Stopping the Pain

God in His three Persons is almighty and all powerful. At any time throughout His torture, Christ could have said, “Enough!” and halted the process.

He could also have revealed Himself as the transfigured Christ – with all wounds healed.  Can you imagine how terrified and in awe of Him the Jews and Romans would have been had He done that?

Instead he endured being whipped repeatedly with steel tips, spat upon, hit, jeered at and mocked. He was clothed in a purple cloak which was then ripped off His back after the blood from His scourging had dried on the material.

Thorns were pressed into His head and He was forced to carry His own heavy cross, when he had no energy left. When had he last eaten or drunk? At the Passover meal with the Apostles. That was hours ago.  

The cross dug into his shoulder, inflicting even more pain, well before he was nailed to it and hoisted, naked, for all to sneer at while he took three hours to die of suffocation.

And at any point during this excruciating ordeal, He could have said, “Stop!”

But He didn’t.

Doesn’t that give us pause for thought? Do any of us love even one person enough to go through such agony for them, let alone the whole of flawed humanity?

It takes unbelievable humility to act as if you have no power over your persecutors.

That’s real love.

Makes one think, doesn’t it? 

He Descended into Hell for Us

I've often wondered what the phrase in the Creed ‘He descended into Hell’ means.

Hell is separation from God. No one can enter communion with God in Heaven if he or she is not pure. We must be purged in Purgatory of our remaining impurities before we can enter Heaven.

Christ took on all the sins of the world – past, present and future – when He let Himself be crucified. He became impure. For the first, last and only time, He was separated from God.

And not because of anything He had done wrong. Completely pure, He became impure out of love for us. He’d been one with the Father from the beginning of time, and now, because He wanted to save us, He agreed to be separated from His Father.

No wonder he cried out, “My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The agony of being split from the Trinity must have been far worse than any physical pain. Even though He knew it was temporary and necessary to conquer death, it was going to be – well, Hell for Him.

And when we realize that He was fully aware that this horrible moment of separation was imminent, the Agony in the Garden takes on an added dimension, doesn’t it?

Yet Jesus did this out of love for us.

Another beautiful truth.        

Saved or Not?

He knew already in the Garden of Gethsemane just how many souls His sacrifice would save. He also knew the exact number of those who would spurn His sacrifice and descend into Hell.

Those latter souls will have refused to believe in God during their lifetime, only to discover His existence when they die. At the very moment when they believe in Him, they will be separated from Him.

Just when they desire Him above all things, it will be too late. They will never be with Him in Heaven. 

Imagine how the knowledge of these truths increased Christ’s agony! We can readily sympathize with His prayers to have the chalice removed from His lips. 

Yet He still went through His Passion out of love for us all. Even if only a few of us make it through that narrow door, Christ wanted to show us just how much He cared about every single human being, by dying a horrible death to give us all a chance to be saved.

Isn’t that another beautiful truth?  

So how are we going to show Him our appreciation of what He went through ‘for us men and for our salvation’?

Have you ever tried to do the right thing but run into unexpected and infuriating obstacles?

How did you react? Maybe by raising your fist heavenwards and complaining to God, “Why are you making this so impossible?!”

There you are, attempting to do His will ─ usually something you don’t want to ─ and He blocks your progress.

Does Being Good Have to Be So Difficult?

Why, Lord, should I bother carrying out Your will when you make it way harder than necessary?  I’m not asking for a pat on the back ─ just no impediments. Is that too much to ask?

Then an insidious thought creeps in: maybe, just maybe, this isn’t what God wants? A naughty hope begins to flicker: is this my ‘out,’ and I don’t have to do it after all? As if visiting your sick mother, or weeding your wheelchair-bound uncle’s garden or ─ name your obviously good deed ─ could possibly be against God’s wishes!

I’ve noticed that sometimes God does let me off the hook when I’ve proved wholeheartedly committed to doing His will. But His MO in those cases isn’t to make it hard to carry out the task: suddenly it doesn’t need doing any more. This is not at all the same as trying to duck out of an unpleasant task because we think sudden difficulties prove that it’s against God’s plan for us.

What Is Evil?

O.K., Miz Know-It-All, you may ask, then what’s the deal when the job clearly needs doing, but events conspire against us when we attempt to perform it?

The answer is: Beware, Satan at work! God isn’t throwing rocks in our path – the Opposer is.

I’d never looked up the word ‘Satan’ until our parish priest happened to mention it in a sermon. Previously I’d assumed it was just a name, without any specific meaning.

‘Satan’ is Hebrew for ‘the opposer,’ ─ in the sense of ‘the one who opposes God’s will.’ He is also the great deceiver, who rejoices every time he tricks us into believing it’s not God’s will, and stops us carrying it out.

This knowledge is enormously helpful. Understanding that the devil is working hard to prevent my salvation, by throwing deterrents at me every time I try to do a good deed, has completely changed my viewpoint.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a saint: my knee-jerk reaction is still to get annoyed! But now I take a few deep breaths and conclude:  “Wait a minute, if Satan making such an effort to put me off, I must be on the right path!” 

It is enormously liberating to view obstacles in this light.

Can you imagine how frustrating it is for the Devil when his attempts to take us down end up helping us do God’s will instead?

The Devil Hates the Rosary

Because the Rosary is a powerful weapon against hell, the Devil loathes it. Now that I’m praying mine regularly, he has it in for my beads.

First he had our English Bulldog chew the decades old one I had from Lourdes - and my Catechism, for good measure.
 
Then he lost my replacement Rosary when I went to drop off some things at church.

A kind friend gave me a new one, and as usual I picked it up to pray in the car on my way to Mass. But in my hand was a tangled mess. ‘Somehow’ the chain links had become stuck and the beads were forming an extra little loop. I was already driving, so couldn’t do anything about it.

I thought, ‘Aha! The Devil doesn’t want the Virgin Mary to hear my 54 day novena!”

I prayed anyway, skirting around the new loop, and untangled the links with some difficulty when I arrived at church.

This made the Devil angry.

In church I pulled the Rosary out of my purse: it had come apart. One of the chain links had opened and separated from its neighbor. Mass was just beginning, so I had to wait until afterwards to connect the links again.

Since then my Rosary has been left alone. For the time being.

Dealing With the Devil’s Head Games

Sometimes inappropriate thoughts enter my head during Mass, and I wonder where they came from.

For a moment I feel really guilty. But then I remember who put them there (another name for Satan is the ‘accuser’) and recall that the saints were often assailed by him that way. Invoking their help dispels the thoughts and the guilt.

The more we advance in our spiritual life, the more attacks we can expect from the Devil. We can take comfort in knowing that he wouldn’t bother harassing us if we weren’t on the path to salvation.

I’m sure Satan must be thrilled he’s of such use to us on our road to Heaven!

P.S. He's trying to stop me publishing this post by bringing up 'authentication errors' :)

Do you ever pray that rosary hanging from your rear view mirror?

You may recall my close shave on Christmas Eve when I got let off with a warning after allegedly driving 20 mph over the speed limit while reciting the Rosary. Well, I don’t need telling twice, and now use cruise control.

Why Pray to Mary?

So many people in my life need prayers that I’ve adopted the habit of praying continual 54 day novenas to Our Lady in an effort to help them.

There is a false perception that we Catholics idolize Mary, thereby disobeying the first commandment, which clearly states that we should adore God alone.
 
But we’re actually asking Mary for her intercession. She has the ear of her Son, Jesus, and we pray to her to plead our cause with Him.

The same goes for the saints. They intercede for us with God: they don't replace God in our adoration.

If you don’t believe they really are helping us, go to my Mother Therese of Jesus post for my own experience. She has not even been canonized yet and is already performing miracles of intercession.

To obtain a favor from Our Lady, pray five decades of the Rosary every day for 54 days. 27 of them are days of petition, the other 27 are days of thanksgiving. Go to this link for help in reciting the Rosary.

A Good Place to Pray

The novena requires serious time commitment, and the one location where I can pray the Rosary without interruption is in the car.

There are no English Bulldogs in my beaten up 1999 Expedition asking to be let out/let in/let out/let in again. I can’t answer the phone as I don’t have that clever Bluetooth connection thingy - and I can’t ride my horse there, either!
 
I'm stuck in my vehicle until I arrive at my destination, making it the perfect location for praying.

Happy For Hindrances

I’ve become grateful for every red light, every dithering driver holding me up, and every car that cuts in front of me or impedes my progress by other means - because they give me more time to pray.

My attitude to those young drivers, who weave in and out of traffic because just have to get ahead, is that I used to drive like them myself. By the same token I cope with doddery old drivers with the sobering thought that I will one day be among their number and grateful for the patience of others on the road.

This more charitable viewpoint of my fellow road users has subtly evolved through daily recitation of the Rosary in my ancient SUV.

A Humbling Exercise

I’m also slowing down, and forcing myself to tuck behind cars in the right lane. It’s not easy, and makes painfully clear to me how competitive I am. :(

I tell myself that other drivers’ agendas are more important than mine: I imagine they're late for work, or have an urgent medical appointment, or need to pick up a sick child from school – compelling reasons for being in front of me.

By the end of my day, I’ve not only completed five decades of the Rosary but have also improved my patience.

A win-win situation

How about reciting the Rosary while you drive? Not only will you help the person you’re praying for, but you’ll also have more patience on the road :)