The Tenth Station: Jesus is Stripped of His Garments

Station X
JESUS IS STRIPPED OF HIS GARMENTS

"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself."

See Jerusalem at the Crucifixion; about two millions of people are in and around the city. Look at the crowd winding through the dark, narrow thoroughfares, pouring through the judgment-gate, and congregating in vast masses round the place of execution. Watch the three condemned as they painfully toil up the little mound outside the walls known as "the place of Calvary".

The soldiers clear a space on the summit. The crosses are thrown on the ground. The executioners lay hands on our Lord. How tenderly we prepare for death those we love. Jesus is prepared by His executioners. He has been made to carry His Cross. All the dread preparations are made before His eyes and those of His Mother. There is no pity, no attempt to mitigate in the very least the awful sentence of crucifixion.

Contemplate with love and compassion our Blessed Lord, Whom the soldiers, as soon as the preparations were completed, drag to the place of crucifixion. See the agony of Jesus as they take off the crown of thorns. It has been so knocked about, so roughly removed and replaced, that His head is a mass of wounds. Note that Jesus will not drink the wine mixed with myrrh or gall, which it was customary to give the condemned, in order to deaden their pain. See His Sacred Body as these cruel men drag off His garments, thus scourging Him a second time, since all His gashes, to which His clothes adhered, were torn open afresh. His Sacred Body is but one wound; not the lightest texture could touch it without causing Him awful agony. It is in expiation of our vanity and self-indulgence that Jesus would have His vesture during the whole of His Passion a source of torture to Him! The sweat of Blood in the Garden, which trickled down to the ground, must have first saturated His garments. Think how hard and stiff they would become when dry, what agony they would occasion Him after the scourging and along the Way of the Cross, as they rubbed against the raw wounds when they were dragged off, and when He fell. What He suffers now as they are again torn off! Jesus our Saviour, our Lord and our God, has come to His death in a manner too horrible for description, yet not piteous enough to arouse compassion in the thousands that have come to see Him die.

How is it that we, His own chosen ones, can be so niggardly, so ungenerous in His service? That we seek so persistently all possible convenience, comfort, rest, variety in our life? How ashamed we shall be when we stand before Him in judgment----if we have not led a life of sacrifice and labour for His interests.

The Tenth Station:
Jesus is Stripped of His Garments

It seems that every step to Calvary brought You fresh humiliation, my Jesus. How Your sensitive nature recoiled at being stripped before a crowd of people. You desired to leave this life as You entered it - completely detached from all the comforts of this world. You want me to know without a doubt that you loved me with an unselfish love. Your love for me caused You nothing but pain and sorrow. You gave everything and received nothing in return. Why do I find it so hard to be detached?

In your loving mind, dear Jesus, did You look up to the Father as You stood there on that windy hill, shivering from cold and shame and trembling from fear, and ask Him to have mercy on those who would violate their purity and make love a mockery? Did you ask forgiveness for those whose greed would make them lie, cheat and steal for a few pieces of cold silver?

Forgive us all, dear Jesus. Look upon the world with pity, for mankind has lost its way and the principles of this world make lust a fun game and luxury a necessity. Detachment has become merely another hardship of the poor and obedience the fault of the weak. Have mercy on us and grant the people of this day the courage to see and know themselves and the light to change.
Amen

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