"...AND THEY CRUCIFIED HIM."

As Catholic Christians we walk into Church or pray the rosary and bless ourselves either with a crucifix on the rosary, or the crucifix in the center of the Church behind the altar.  At this time of Lent as we near Good Friday, let us remember what that crucifix represents, through the pain and suffering that Jesus went through, redeeming all mankind, and the personal freedom to seek that Cross for their eternal life.

What did Jesus really endure during those hours culminating in his death?  Christians recall Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane to the point where his sweat became drops of blood.  This is a real phenomenon where the capillaries within the sweat glands can break, under extreme stress and emit blood with sweat.  After Jesus’ arrest, and without any sleep, he was blind-folded, spit on, beaten, all while in custody.  Jesus was then ordered to be scourged, which the Romans were masters at, with the ability to take what they called a flagellum, (scourge) an instrument consisting of heavy leather thongs, or bands that had lead or bone parts affixed on the end of them.  These heavy whips were then brought down on the shoulders the back and the legs of Jesus all the while having his hands, and his wrists tied together to a post above his head.  This brutal scourging would cut through the skin, and repeated blows would open the deeper tissues, the capillaries, veins causing blood loss.  The Romans knew exactly how and where to contact the body with these whips, causing the most damage without killing the recipient of these 39 blows.  Jesus by this time his face already beaten, and bloodied beyond recognition, now faced nerve damage, extreme pain and loss of blood,    dehydration, and extreme weakness as they weaved and then placed a crown of long sharp thorns, not just placed, but forced down on his head again causing copious blood to stream down his face, as he stood with a purple robe on his body, hearing the crowd yell for his crucifixion.

That slow walk to Calvary with Jesus carrying his Cross across his already brutalized shoulders, fell many times due to his loss of blood, his dehydration, until they reached their destination.  They ripped off that robe, tearing those open wounds, and threw him down on that wooden cross and proceeded to nail his hands and feet through the part of the wrist and feet not to break bones but to inflict pain and allow the hands and feet some ability to move in order to prolong the suffering.  Crucifixion brutalizes the nerves and the  crucified endures inhuman pain and suffering.  Jesus would have to push up on his nailed feet with nearly paralyzed muscles in order to breath in.  All the while enduring three hours of endless pain.  Though a young healthy young man, he would be beginning to feel the chest pain from the filling, by fluid, of the pericardium, the sack around the heart, and now compressing the heart.

With his lungs now filling with fluid Jesus struggled to speak those final seven words from the Cross, each time having to deal with the extreme pain of just trying to lift  himself up to breath, and yet speaking out forgiveness from that Cross.   After a grueling three hours of agony, Jesus’ heart beating even faster and no longer able to carry the load, it would begin fluttering and Jesus feeling death   coming over him, and with all he had left he said,               “IT IS FINISHED.”