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Isaias 53:3-5:
"Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted
with infirmity: and His look was as it were hidden and despised,
whereupon we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our infirmities and
carried our sorrows: and we have thought Him as it were a leper, and as
one struck by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our iniquities,
He was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon
him, and by His bruises we are healed."
John 20:27-28: "Then He saith to Thomas: Put in thy finger hither, and
see My Hands; and bring hither thy hand, and put it into My side; and
be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered, and said to Him: My
Lord, and my God."
Because of His Wounds, because His Sacred, Precious Blood was spilt,
you have the opportunity to see the Face of God. That's Christianity in
a nutshell, something that every Christian knows, but too few truly
ponder enough. Of course, we Catholics have always meditated on
Christ's Passion -- each Mass is a re-presentation of His Sacrifice,
and, in addition, the Stations of the Cross
is a standard Lenten devotion, and the Sorrowful Mysteries of the
Rosary remind us of what He went through for us. But we also have
another devotion available to us, one that helps us meditate more
concretely on His sufferings: devotion to His Five Sacred Wounds.
Private
revelation to St. Bridget of Sweden indicated that all the
wounds Our Lord suffered added up to 5,480 1.
She began to pray 15 prayers each day in honor of each of these wounds,
their total after a year being 5,475; these "Fifteen Prayers of St. Bridget of
Sweden" are still prayed today. Likewise, in Southern Germany, it
became the practice to pray 15 Our Fathers a day in honor of Christ's
wounds so that by the end of a year, 5,475 Paters were prayed.
The five main
wounds He suffered, though -- the wound in each Foot, the
wound in each Hand, and the wound in His side caused by St. Longinus's
lance -- are symbolic of all the wounds, and special devotion to them
arose very early on. St. John is said to have appeared to
Pope Boniface II (d. A.D. 532) and revealed a special Mass -- the
"Golden Mass" -- in honor of Christ's Five Wounds, and it is the effect
of these Five Wounds that are most often produced in the bodies of the
men and women who imitate Him best -- the stigmatics. St. Francis being the first
of these, his spiritual daughter, St. Clare, developed a strong
devotion to the Five Wounds, as did the Benedictine St. Gertrude the
Great, and others.
Christ bore these Five Wounds after the Resurrection, when He allowed
St. Thomas to cure his doubts by touching the wound in His side, and He
bears these wounds even now, in Heaven. Why would Christ's body still
bear the marks of these wounds even after He was glorified? Aquinas
gives five reasons why
this is so:
In the first
place, for Christ's own glory. For Bede says on Luke 24:40 that He kept
His scars not from inability to heal them, "but to wear them as an
everlasting trophy of His victory." Hence Augustine says: "Perhaps in
that kingdom we shall see on the bodies of the Martyrs the traces of
the wounds which they bore for Christ's name: because it will not be a
deformity, but a dignity in them; and a certain kind of beauty will
shine in them, in the body, though not of the body."
Secondly, to confirm the hearts of the disciples as to "the
faith in His Resurrection."
Thirdly, "that when He pleads for us with the Father, He may
always show the manner of death He endured for us." .
Fourthly, "that He may convince those redeemed in His blood,
how mercifully they have been helped, as He exposes before them the
traces of the same death."
Lastly, "that in the Judgment day He may upbraid them with
their just condemnation." Hence, as Augustine says: "Christ knew why He
kept the scars in His body. For, as He showed them to Thomas who would
not believe except he handled and saw them, so will He show His wounds
to His enemies, so that He who is the Truth may convict them, saying:
'Behold the man whom you crucified; see the wounds you inflicted;
recognize the side you pierced, since it was opened by you and for you,
yet you would not enter.
Honor is shown
to these Sacred Wounds in many ways -- from
the 5 grains of incense inserted into the Paschal Candle,
to the custom of dedicating each Pater said in the body of the Dominican Rosary to one of the Five Wounds.
They are symbolized in art by the Jerusalem Cross, 5 circles on a
Cross, 5 roses, and the 5-pointed star. They're also depicted in art
quite
explicitly: here, for example, is one of many such medieval
illustrations of the wound
He received in
His side, from Longinus's spear:
From an early 14th c. psalter belonging to Bonne of
Luxembourg, Duchess of Burgundy
The 5 wounds are
seen as symbolized by many things in nature, too -- from the stamens of
the Passion Flower, to the Sand Dollar, to the 5 seeds
found
in the
almost perfect 5-pointed star in a cross-sectioned apple.
And there are
special prayers to honor them, too.
Prayer in Honor of the Five Wounds
Act of
Contrition
As I kneel before Thee on the cross, most loving Saviour of my soul, my
conscience reproaches me with having nailed Thee to that cross with
these hands of mine, as often as I have fallen into mortal sin,
wearying Thee with my base ingratitude. My God, my chief and perfect
good, worthy of all my love, because Thou hast loaded me with
blessings; I cannot now undo my misdeeds, as I would most willingly;
but I loathe them, grieving sincerely for having offended Thee, Who art
infinite goodness. And now, kneeling at Thy feet, I try, at least, to
compassionate Thee, to give Thee thanks, to ask Thee pardon and
contrition; wherefore with my heart and lips, I say:
To the Wound of the Left Foot
Holy wound of the left foot of my Jesus, I adore Thee; I compassionate
Thee, O Jesus, for the most bitter pain which Thou didst suffer. I
thank Thee for the love whereby Thou laboured to overtake me on the way
to ruin, and didst bleed amid the thorns and brambles of my sins. I
offer to the Eternal Father the pain and love of Thy most holy
humanity, in atonement for my sins, all of which I detest with sincere
and bitter contrition.
Recite one Our
Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be
Holy Mother, pierce me through,
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Saviour crucified.
To the Wound of the Right Foot
Holy wound of the right foot of my Jesus, I adore Thee; I compassionate
Thee, O Jesus, for the most bitter pain which Thou didst suffer. I
thank Thee for that love which pierced Thee with such torture and
shedding of blood, in order to punish my wanderings and the guilty
pleasures I have granted to my unbridled passions. I offer the Eternal
Father all the pain and love of Thy most holy humanity, and I pray Thee
for grace to weep over my sins with hot tears, and to enable me to
persevere in the good which I have begun, without ever swerving again
from my obedience to the divine commands.
Recite one Our
Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be
Holy Mother, pierce me through,
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Saviour crucified.
To the Wound of the Left Hand
Holy wound of the left hand of my Jesus, I adore Thee; I compassionate
Thee, O Jesus, for the most bitter pain which Thou didst suffer. I
thank Thee for having in Thy love spared me the scourges and eternal
damnation which my sins have merited. I offer to the Eternal Father the
pain and love of They most holy humanity: and I pray Thee to teach me
how to turn to good account my span of life, and bring forth in it
worthy fruits of penance, and to disarm the justice of God, which I
have provoked.
Recite one Our
Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be
Holy Mother, pierce me through,
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Saviour crucified.
To the Wound of the Right Hand
Holy wound of the right hand of my Jesus, I adore Thee; I compassionate
Thee, O Jesus, for the most bitter pain which Thou didst suffer. I
thank Thee for Thy graces lavished on me with such love, in spite of
all my most perverse obstinacy. I offer to the Eternal Father all the
pain and love of Thy most holy humanity; and I pray Thee to change my
heart and its affections, and make me do all my actions in accordance
with the will of God.
Recite one Our
Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be
Holy Mother, pierce me through,
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Saviour crucified.
To the Wound of the Sacred Side
Holy wound in the side of my Jesus, I adore Thee; I compassionate Thee,
O Jesus, for the cruel insult Thou didst suffer. I thank Thee, my
Jesus, for the love which suffered Thy side and Heart to be pierced, so
that the last drops of blood and water might issue forth, making my
redemption to overflow. I offer to the Eternal Father this outrage, and
the love of Thy most holy humanity, that my soul may enter once for all
into that most loving Heart, eager and ready to receive the greatest
sinners, and never more depart.
Recite one Our
Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be
Holy Mother, pierce me through,
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Saviour crucified.
See also the Chaplet of the Five Wounds.
Footnote:
1 Note that the number of
wounds was so great because the flagellum (picture at right) used by
the Romans had from three to twelve "tails," each tail embedded
repeatedly with bone, iron, or glass intended to rip flesh. With a
12-tail flagellum, 40 strokes would give one 480 wounds if each tail
only caused one wound with each stroke. In reality, though,
each "tail" would cause many, many times more wounds per stroke,
depending on how much bone or iron, etc., was embedded in each strap.
In addition to the wounds caused by the scourge, there were the wounds
caused by each thorn in the the crown of thorns. You can read about the
Wounds He suffered by studying the Shroud
of Turin.
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