3rd Sorrowful Mystery: The Crowning With Thorns

By: Ivonne Hernandez

St Peter Julian Eymard's Words:

“The honor paid to a friend in disguise, or to a king without his royal insignia, is greater than any other, because it is really the person who is then honored and not his trappings. So it goes with Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament; to honor Him, to believe in His Divinity in spite of the veil of weakness thrown over Him is to honor His Divine Person and to respect the mystery which envelops Him.” [1]

"In union with the four and twenty ancients who cast their crowns in homage at the feet of the Lamb, lay your whole being, your faculties, and all your works in homage at the foot of the Eucharistic throne and say to our Lord: "To Thee alone be love and glory! … Holy Church entrusts this God to you that you may be her representative at His feet; offer Him her adoration." [2]


MEDITATION:

The mystery of the crowning with thorns speaks to us of courage. “He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, knowing pain.” (Isaiah 53:3) When we look at Jesus crowned with thorns, we see a contradiction: we see the “man of sorrows”, not a King. That contradiction is still present today in the Most Blessed Sacrament. The “veil of weakness thrown over Him” makes us not recognize His face. If we had been in that room when Our Lord was being mocked and spat upon, would we have had the courage to honor Him as our King? Do we have the courage to honor Him today in the Eucharist?

​One of the effects of the Sacrament of Confirmation is that “it gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross.” (CCC, 1304) In the contradiction of the Blessed Sacrament, we are presented with a challenge. Either He is Who He says He is, or He is not. If we believe He is our King, then we must give Him homage. We must never be ashamed of the Cross.

One time during Eucharistic Adoration, I was sitting in the back of the dimly lit church. Incense filled the room as it rose up in the glow of the Altar candles. As I moved my eyes down from the monstrance I saw a figure on the floor. It was the priest, prostrated before the Lamb, like He had been during his priestly ordination. This sight touched me deeply. The reality before me became clear, as he boldly proclaimed the name of Jesus with his actions. I wanted to lay myself at the feet of Jesus too, but I was afraid. What would people think? Would I be able to get up gracefully from the floor? Would I make a fool of myself? While I struggled with all these questions in my heart, the time for Adoration ended, and I left a little sad. The desire to prostrate myself in front of the Most Blessed Sacrament did not leave me, and eventually, months later, God gave me the courage to follow through on that desire and it was truly a moment of grace. We don’t have to physically lay ourselves down before the Eucharist to cast our crowns in homage, but we can ask for the courage to proclaim with our whole being, "To Thee alone be love and glory!”.
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SEND:

When you meditate on the Crowning with Thorns, ask Jesus, present in the Most Blessed Sacrament, to tell you how to lay your crowns at His feet, and ask Our Lady for the grace of having the courage to follow through with His inspirations.


[1] Eymard, The Real Presence, p.62
[2] Eymard, The Real Presence, p.19