The Crowning With Thorns

Fruit Of The Mystery: Courage

The following meditations are provided to assist you while praying the Holy Rosary. It is offered in a format where a question is posed to lead the meditation and then is followed by an answer below it.  It may be more helpful to grow in your meditation skills if you try to contemplate the question while praying this decade of the Rosary, and view the possible answer upon completing the prayers for the Mystery.

The meditations below offer possible answers to questions regarding these Mysteries.  Because the Wisdom of God is infinite, there are limitless insights that one may gain from meditating repeatedly upon the questions surrounding these Mysteries.  There are no wrong or right answers when praying the Holy Rosary in this way.  We are simply seeking to be inspired in our understanding of who Jesus is and how much He loves us, as the Holy Spirit gently guides us through reflective prayer.

For many reasons it may be difficult to engage our minds to enter into meditating on the Mysteries at hand.  An alternative option is to simply meditate upon the meaning of the core prayers of the Holy Rosary as you are praying them.  You may find these reflections on the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory Be prayers to be helpful during these times.

The Crown of Thorns

1.  Why does Jesus who is the King of Kings allow Himself to be mocked and crowned with thorns?  

Like every other aspect of His Passion, Jesus offers the wounds He receives in reparation for our sins.  When He is crowned with thorns, Jesus repairs for the sins which we generate in our minds.  These include evil thoughts, blasphemies, lust, jealousy, hatred, judgment of neighbor, covetousness, lies, impurity, etc.  He also offers the wounds He sustained as the thorns penetrated His Head to repair for the sins which we allow to enter our minds by indulging temptations.

2.  What is the paradox of the Crowning with Thorns?

Jesus who is the King of Kings was crowned with thorns, so that the sinners on earth could wear a Crown of Glory in Heaven.  Imagine the love of a Creator who was willing to lower Himself to such a degree for those who would rebel against His love time and time again.  The price of glory for those who choose to embrace the Crown of Glory is not cheap however.  We must follow our King in first enduring the Crown of Thorns with much humility, patience and love before we can receive our Crown of Glory.  It is through faithful and obedient participation in His Passion and suffering, which is present in each of our lives that we are given the opportunity to be formed in His virtues and likeness.  It is in this way that the servants of this King are made to reign with Him for all of eternity.

Jesus is King

1.  Is Jesus Your Lord and King?  What area of our lives do we still try to manipulate and control as king for selfish gain instead of giving Jesus full reign?

As Lord and King we need to give Jesus dominion over every area of our lives.  This means Jesus must reign with complete authority in our minds, our wills, our hearts, and the decisions we make with our physical bodies.  In order for His Kingdom to come more fully in our lives we must surrender those areas which we struggle to control and manipulate to satisfy our selfish desires.  It is only when we give these areas over to Him that we can experience the freedom and peace that He promises to give us.

Courage

1.  What gave Jesus the courage to withstand the insults and mockeries of the crowning with thorns?

Like every other aspect of Jesus’ life and death, He was fueled by His great love for us to remain silent in the face of mockery and physical attacks.  It was in this way that He could unite His perfect love and patience in these situations, with our weaknesses- to compassionate us and give us strength when we are faced with the same challenges. Jesus also used this part of His Passion to repair for all of the times that humans inflict hurt and pain upon each other through mockery and degrading insults.

2.  How do emotions help generate the courage which motivates Jesus to endure His sufferings?

In His great love for us, Jesus desires to repair for the shame, guilt, and tortures of our impure minds.  He even repairs for those who place thoughts of unworthiness, concupiscence, lies, etc. in others minds.  His willingness to suffer for this desire to make us whole is rooted in the belief that the Father would faithfully give healing to all who asked it of Him in the name of Jesus.  The physical pains of the thorns, the slaps, the spit in the face, the insults, the blood pouring out, etc. were merely physical reminders serving the purpose to elicit all the emotions during His crowning with thorns, which would:

1.   Draw forth Jesus’ compassion on the degraded state of mankind and thus inspire Him with more fervent prayers for His Father’s Mercy.

2.   Move the hearts of Jesus’ followers of all ages to understand His unspeakable love for us.

3.   Generate the power to help us to compassionate Him and His Mother and enter into the pains and sufferings of their hearts, as we meditate on the Mysteries of the Passion, such as the Crowning with Thorns.  When we do this, we share in their emotions and prayers to help save souls. 

4.   Let us know that He literally feels any pain we have, because He experienced it first and at a more intense level.  All of this was done out of love for us sinners.

3.  How do our sins form this Crowning with Thorns?

It is our selfish desires for our own worldly glory that mock the Kingship of Jesus and place the Crown of Thorns upon His Sacred Head.  It is our pride and lack of faith that marks each thorn that pierces His most humble mind.   It is our lack of trust in Jesus’ Mercy that causes His blood to pour out of His wounds to increase our hope.  It is our worries and disobedience to His Word, that form the tiny thorns that pricked and entered His ears.  It is the judgments and resentments we hold in our memories that form the reed that drove the thorns into His precious Head.  It is our refusal to accept His infinite love and forgiveness that acts like the blood and spit which ran into His eyes and made Him cry.  It is these sins and many more which formed His Crowning with Thorns.

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