If Christ is a victim of the wild man away from God during the scourging, now in the Crowning with thorns, Jesus is a victim of the rude man away from God.

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1st) «The soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head» (Jn 19:2). That was just the beginning of an immeasurable ritual of mockery and degradation. For now, the thorns of the crown must have hurt him, since some pierced his cranium (as can be seen in the Holy Shroud). But Jesus, more than the thorns, was greatly hurt by human depravity, individual and collective ... (Read more: Eclipse of God, eclipse of sin).

Thus, they «assembled the whole cohort» (Mk 15:16), that is, about 625 soldiers. «They stripped off his clothes and threw a scarlet military cloak about him» (Mt 27:28); «And kneeling before him, they mocked him» (Mt 27:29); «They spit on him. They knelt before him in homage» (Mk 15:19). They also beat him ... All that after the scourging! We don’t know if the more than 600 soldiers acted directly, or only the officers and some more ... In any case, it shouldn’t have been a matter of a few minutes ... The "the usual Herod" (now is the grandson of Herod, the one who had sacrificed the Innocents) had also his chance: in his palace he mocked Jesus and despised him (Lk 23:11). Tough day for the Lord and for his Mother!

2nd) «And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!"» (Mt 27:29). All proclaim Christ as "king": they did it in a mocking tone, but they were revealing the true royalty of God. The insignia (crown, purple, scepter, gestures ...) are royalty; the teasing tone (thorns, dirty rag, cane, ironic praises ...) - all this patiently accepted by Jesus - acknowledges the style of HIS kingship: «My kingdom does not belong to this world» (Jn 18:36). The mocking proclamation of them is an authentic revelation of God: "By washing the feet of his creature, God reveals himself even in the most proper of his divinity and manifests his supreme glory" (H.U. von Balthasar) (Read more: The washing that purifies us is Jesus’ love that reaches to the end).

The Son of God "becomes human": not only He «became flesh» (Jn 1:14) but, moreover, he put himself under our ill skin (to such an extent that «he became sin»). He has made the experience of being a man "from within" to save man "from within". He knows us well: «He knows all the dimensions of the mundane being (to the abyss of hell)» (H.U. von Balthasar) This is our King and Judge! (Read more: «Are you the King?»).

With a Judge like this we can say we are almost saved. We say "almost" because from our side, perhaps, it would be necessary not to mock Him and accept His mediation (Read more: «You have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike»).

3rd) «Behold, the man!» (Jn 19:5). It’s the famous «Ecce homo». Until that moment we must suppose that Holy Mary had heard the roar of that grotesque party from the outside of the Praetorium. Now Pilate shows Jesus Christ ("broken") and his Mother can see him at last. Again a sword tears her Immaculate Heart.

«His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being» (Is 52:14). He can be hardly recognized! (Read more: Jesus dies with the “remainders of love” the blows have left in his body). «Where has your lover gone, most beautiful among women?» (Song 6:1). -Your Beloved Son has gone "far from God" (he has become sin!) to reach out to offer his hand to man away from God. The "Way of the Cross", the Via Crucis ... was just starting. There was still a long way to go!

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