Holy Thursday

Jesus knows the end is near. He introduces the Eucharist at the Last Supper and then goes by Himself to a garden to ponder. The thoughts and anticipation of the horrible torture that was about to happen to Him caused Him such stress that His sweat becomes blood.

Think about it. There are few things in life as painful as being hit repeatedly with a barbed whip which rips the skin. We scream with pain when we get one thorn pierce the finger, imagine the pain of having dozens of thorns pressed down on the head. After that would come the nails being driven through the hands and feet and the legs broken, being left to hang there while being stabbed with a sword.

But there was another thing more painful. (From The Pieta) St. Bernard asked Our Lord which was His greatest unrecorded suffering, and Our Lord answered: "I had on My Shoulder, while I bore My Cross on the Way of Sorrows, a grievous Wound, which was more painful than the others, and which is not recorded by men. Honor this wound with thy devotion, and I will grant thee whatsoever thou dost ask through its virtue and merit. And in regard to all those who shall venerate this Wound, I will remit to them all their venial sins, and will no longer remember their mortal sins."