At the very heart of His sorrowful passion, Jesus felt some sense of joy because He knew the purpose of His suffering: "Jesus ... for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross" (Hebrews 12:2). Yet we may still find unsettling Maria's vision of Christ as He lifted the cross to carry it. More than simply enduring it, she saw Him embracing it. The lives of certain saints suggest that by imitating Our Lord, they gave themselves up to God in martyrdom. As Maria's vision reveals, any delight Jesus may have taken in the Cross was in reality something a delight in the brothers and sisters He would reconcile to God through it.

You were dead in sins and uncircumcised in the flesh. But God brought you back to life with Christ, having forgiven us all our sins. He has canceled our debt to the Law, which had been charged against us. He obliterated it by nailing it to the Cross. He disarmed the demonic principalities and powers, parading them publicly behind Him in the triumphal procession of the Cross. - Colossians 2:13-15

With excerpts from:

• The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ by Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich (https://bit.ly/3kaeP6l)
• The Mystical City of God by Ven. Mary of Agreda (https://bit.ly/3IhySaO)

GET THE BOOK - The Passion: Reflections on the Suffering and Death of Jesus Christ by Paul Thigpen (https://bit.ly/3IiSNpM)