The Sorrowful Mysteries

After the Last Supper, Jesus goes with his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. There he prays in such anguish that his sweat falls like drops of blood, begging the Father to let this cup pass — yet submitting entirely to the Father’s will. An angel appears to strengthen him. The disciples sleep. Jesus is betrayed by Judas’s kiss and arrested. The fruit of this mystery is contrition: the sorrow for sin that turns the soul back to God.

Pontius Pilate, seeking to satisfy the crowd without condemning Jesus to death, orders him to be scourged. Jesus is bound to a pillar and beaten severely by the Roman soldiers. The prophet Isaiah had written: “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities” (Is 53:5). This mystery invites contemplation of the physical suffering Christ endured for the sins of humanity. Its fruit is mortification — the disciplining of the flesh in service of the spirit.

The Roman soldiers weave a crown of thorns, press it onto Jesus’s head, place a scarlet robe on him, put a reed in his right hand, and mock him: “Hail, King of the Jews!” They strike him and spit on him. The King of Kings endures mockery and humiliation without retaliating. When Pilate presents him to the crowd saying “Ecce homo” — Behold the man — Jesus has already given the definitive answer to the question of authority and truth. The fruit of this mystery is moral courage: willingness to endure contempt for the sake of truth.

Jesus is sentenced to crucifixion and made to carry his own cross through the streets of Jerusalem to Golgotha. Weakened by his scourging and the crown of thorns, he falls under its weight. Simon of Cyrene is pressed into service to help carry the cross. Along the way, women weep for him; he tells them to weep not for him but for themselves and their children. He carries the cross — the instrument of our redemption — with unwavering purpose. The fruit of this mystery is patience in suffering, borne with the redemptive love of Christ.

At Golgotha, Jesus is crucified between two criminals. From the cross he forgives those who crucify him, promises paradise to the repentant thief, entrusts his mother to the beloved disciple, cries out his abandonment in the words of Psalm 22, and at last commends his spirit to the Father. The sky darkens; the Temple veil is torn. He dies at the ninth hour. His side is pierced and blood and water flow out, signifying the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. The fruit of this mystery is salvation — the redemption of humanity through the sacrifice of the Son of God.