Episode 82 -- Spiritual Combat c51.2 -- Growing in Compassion for Christ’s Sufferings

How do I develop feelings of compassion for Christ’s sufferings?

The longest part of chapter 51 of the Spiritual Combat is devoted to considerations of Christ’s sufferings that will stir up in our souls feelings of compassion. Beyond the physical or exterior pains, there is the interior anguish. Why was there so much anguish or severe pain in Christ’s soul?

1. Seeing God dishonoured and desiring his Father to be loved.
2. Loving humanity and seeing it pull itself away from God.
3. Knowing all the sins we commit or would have committed.
4. Grasping all the ways human beings can be afflicted.
5. Seeing his mother’s afflictions.

At the root of His sufferings were our sins. Fr. Scupoli tells us a few things we must do in response.

If in this episode we are considering Our Lord’s interior sufferings, the previous episode focused on his exterior sufferings. In the previous episode, we saw there are two steps in the kind of meditation being proposed.

Step 1 — Ponder five moments in the Crucifixion

1. Christ’s arrival…
2. Christ being stripped of his garments…
3. Christ’s crown of thorns taken off and replaced...new wounds
4. Being nailed into the cross...dislocated shoulders...etc
5. Being RAISED UP on the cross...pain of hanging

Step 2 — On the basis of these 5 sufferings consider one the following:

1. Christ’s LOVE behind suffering...if you want to experience LOVE of Christ.
2. Christ’s PLAN in suffering...if you want to experience feelings of HOPE.
3. EFFECTS of his Sufferings...if you want to experience feelings of JOY.
4. Christ’s desire to inspire in me self-contempt...if you want to experience SORROW.

In other words, there are different ASPECTS of Christ’s crucifixion that we can ponder depending on what SENTIMENTS or FEELINGS we desire to personally experience.