We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
Because by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.
Reading
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged.
And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head,
and clothed him in a purple cloak, and they came to him and said,
"Hail, King of the Jews!" And they struck him repeatedly. (John 19: 1-3)
Reflection
Sensitivities.
Many people are sensitive to certain things. We on the autism spectrum can be very sensitive to specific things: sounds, smells, textures, colors. We may be very allergic to certain foods. We may feel overwhelming anxiety if our daily routine is changed, or if something in our home is misplaced. Other people may not understand why such things affect us as they do. They may accuse us of overreacting, or of being too weak. They do not know how painful some things can feel to us. They may even mock us for reacting as we do to them.
We didn’t choose those sensitivities. We wouldn’t have chosen any of them. We do not know if there may be an undiscovered sensitivity waiting to pounce on us. The world can feel like a threatening place when we are dealing with such high sensitivities to ordinary things.
After Jesus is found guilty and condemned to death, it was not enough for the Romans to simply lead Him to the Cross. No, they scourged Him with a whip that had multiple strands, each one of them having a small piece of bone tied to the end. The whip was designed to cause as much pain as possible with every blow. Then they made a "crown" out of thornbushes and pushed it into His head, to mock Him and to increase His pain all the more.
See how Jesus willingly takes on such pain and endures it for us. See how He wants us to know that He loves us so much that He wants to experience every pain, every high sensitivity, in order to assure us that He understands our sensitivities. He is there with us, joining our pain to His, helping us bear it. He shows us how our pains can be transformed by our willingness to offer them for others. We pray that Jesus can love us through our sufferings in such a way that we know that we never bear them alone. Moreover, through our sufferings, Jesus enlarges our hearts even more. We realize that others, too, bear great pains along with us. By offering our pains to Jesus, He can somehow work through them to being healing to ourselves and to others who so need it. His power usually works best through our human weakness. As autistic people, we learn that lesson when we are very young. We need not give in to fear or despair. We want to be close to those we love, and to have them near us – even in the most difficult moments. Through our pains, Jesus invites us to be close to Him in His suffering, and thus to be closest to Him in the supreme gift of His love for us. How can we not be blessed by our trust in Him in such times?
Prayer
Father of mercy,
grant us Your strength and wisdom,
that we may follow You in all things.
Help us to endure our sensitivities and pains
and to see how Your Son is close to us
through them all.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.