The Twenty-Four Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ

The 24 Hours of the Bitter Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ by Luisa Piccarreta, the Little Daughter of the Divine Will

† Sixteenth Hour: From 8 to 9 AM †

Jesus Returned to Pilate, Set after Barrabas and Scourged

Preparation before Each Hour

My tormented Jesus! My poor heart follows You in longing and suffering. Since I see You dressed as a fool, while I know that You, the infinite Wisdom, bestow reason on all spiritual beings, I want to go mad with pain and ask: "How, Jesus a fool? Jesus a transgressor? My Jesus, whose Holiness has no equal?"

You are already standing before Pilate again. Seeing You in such a bad state, dressed as a fool and yet not condemned by Herod, the Roman governor is even more bitter against the Jews. Again and again he convinces himself of Your innocence and does not want to condemn You at all. But because he wants to give the Jews some satisfaction, quench their hatred, their anger, their thirst for revenge and quench their ardent thirst for your blood, he places you next to Barrabas with the words: “Which of the two do you want me to release?”

But the Jews cry out: “Not this one, but Barrabas!” And Pilate: “Then what shall I do with Jesus, who is called Christ?” Then they all shout, “Let him be crucified!”

O monster of human ingratitude! A people, showered by You with so many favors, now set You after a great criminal and condemn You to the cross. Pilate, not knowing what to do to appease them, condemns You to scourging.

My Jesus, You are even being set after a criminal. My heart wants to break when I see that You think only of giving life to all, while the Jews think only of letting You die. It seems to me that you are saying:

"Holy Father! See Your Son dressed as a fool, atoning for the folly of so many people when they fall into sin. Let this white robe of mockery serve as an apology for so many souls who put on the garment of guilt. Behold, Father, the hatred, the anger, the thirst for revenge which they nourish against You makes them lose the light of reason and thirst for My blood. But I will atone for all hatred, for all vengefulness, for all anger and murder, I will implore the light of reason and faith for all.

Look at Me, Father! Can there be a greater insult than that which has been bestowed upon Me? They have set Me after a notorious offender, and I want to make amends for all unjust rejections. Oh, all over the world people like to set others back! Here we are set back for a small gain, there for a position of honor, for vanity, for pleasures, dignities, feasts, even for sin. The world unanimously prefers trifles to us, but I am ready to let Myself be set after Barrabas in order to atone for the setbacks of men."

Oh, how often do souls who supposedly love Jesus put Him back! Let us always show Him that pure and strong love that makes us follow Jesus in everything and everyone, even blood and life.

My Jesus! I want to die of pain and suffering when I see your great love in the midst of so much suffering and your heroism in the face of so many insults. Your words and acts of atonement are as many arrows that wound my poor heart. In my heart I repeat Your prayers and satisfactions. Not even for a moment will I depart from You, otherwise I will miss many things that You do.

What do I see now? Ah, the soldiers are leading You to a pillar to scourge You. My dear, I follow you. But look at me with a gaze of love and give me the strength to be present at this agonizing torture.

The Scourging

My most innocent Jesus! Now You stand at the pillar. The inhuman soldiers take off Your shackles to tie You up. Not satisfied with that, they also strip You of Your clothes so that they can torture Your most holy body in the most cruel way. My love and my life, I feel close to fainting with pain when I see You undressed. You tremble from Your head to Your feet, Your most holy face is covered with virginal shame. Your shame and exhaustion are so great that You are close to sinking to the ground because You can no longer stand on Your feet. Only the soldiers who are holding You up, not to do You a service, but to tie You to the pillar, will not let You fall.

Now they grab ropes and tie Your arms so tightly that they swell immediately and blood oozes from Your fingertips. To give their cruelty free rein, the henchmen tie You so tightly to the pillar that You cannot make the slightest movement.

My Jesus, You who clothe all creatures, the sun with light, the sky with stars, the plants with leaves, the birds with feathers, You, deprived of clothes? What audacity! And my amiable Jesus speaks with His soulful gaze:

"Silence, My child! It was necessary for Me to be stripped bare in order to atone for those who, without any sense of shame or chastisement, take off the garment of innocence, virtue and grace and with it all that is good. They wrap themselves in the garment of shame and live like wild beasts. With My virginal blush I atone for so many indecencies, frivolous effeminacies and shameful lusts. Therefore be mindful of what I do, pray and atone with Me."

My Jesus! Your love goes from one excess to another. I see that the executioners take ropes and beat you mercilessly. Your whole body turns black and blue. Blood immediately begins to flow from Your most holy body in torrents. In their savagery and rage, the soldiers tear your innocent body apart. But not enough, others take their place. With iron chains with hooks at the ends, they continue the agonizing torture. Even after the first blows, the wounds widen, the flesh hangs down in shreds, the bones lie bare, the blood flows so that a pool of blood forms around the scourge column.

My Jesus, stripped and scourged for love of me! While You endure the hail of blows, I clasp Your feet to share in Your sufferings and to be reddened by Your precious blood. My Jesus, I hear Your sighs, which Your enemies do not hear because the force of their blows drowns them out. In these sighs You speak:

"All you who love Me, come and learn the heroism of true love! Come and quench with My Blood the thirst of your passions, the thirst of your ambitious and insane aspirations, the thirst for lusts and sensual pleasures. In this blood of Mine you will find the cure for all your ills. Now look at Me, Father, sore beaten under the hail of scourging blows. Alone this is not enough for Me.

I want to have countless wounds on My Body to prepare enough dwellings for My Humanity¹ in Heaven for all souls, so that they may find their salvation in Me and so that I may let them enter the Heaven of the Godhead. My Father, may every scourge expiate before You every single kind of sin. To the extent that the blows strike Me, they shall free those who incur them from guilt. May the blows also strike the hearts of men, tell them of My love and finally compel them to surrender to Me."

As You speak thus, my Jesus, Your love has reached the highest degree. But the executioners, in their blindness, do not recognize this love. Instead of being moved to compassion, diabolical rage grows in them and drives them to beat You even more cruelly. My scourged Jesus, Your love wears me out and almost drives me mad. It is not yet exhausted. But Your executioners are exhausted and can no longer continue in their horrible torture. They cut the shackles and You fall as if dead in Your own blood.

You see how Your body is savaged. Deadly pain strikes you at the thought of so many souls being lost. You are suffering so much that, lying in Your blood, You are gasping for breath. O Jesus, let me take You in my arms to refresh You a little with my love. I kiss all Your wounds and close all souls in You. No soul will ever be lost again. Now give me Your blessing.

Reflections and Practices

by St. Fr. Annibale Di Francia

From 8 to 9 Jesus is stripped naked and subjected to cruel scourging. And we—are we stripped of everything? Jesus is tied to the pillar. Do we let ourselves be bound by love? Jesus is tied to the pillar, while we add our own ropes, with our sins and attachments, and sometimes even with things that are indifferent or good in themselves, not being satisfied with the ropes with which the Jews tied Him. In the meantime, with His pitying gaze Jesus calls us to untie Him. Don’t we see that in that gaze there is also a reproach for us, since we too contributed to binding Him? In order to relieve afflicted Jesus, we must remove our chains first, to be able to arrive at removing the chains of other creatures. Many times these little chains of ours are nothing other than little attachments to our own will, to our self-love which is a little resentful; to our little vanities which, forming a braid, painfully bind Loving Jesus.

Sometimes, taken by Love for our poor soul, Jesus Himself wants to take these chains away from us, so that we may not repeat His painful binding. Ah, when we lament because we don’t want to be bound alone with Jesus, we force Him, saddened, to withdraw from us.

While He suffers, our tormented Jesus repairs all the sins against modesty. And we—are we pure in the mind, in the gaze, in the words, in the affections, so as not to add more blows on that innocent Body? Are we always bound to Jesus, so as to be ready to defend Him, when creatures strike Him with their offenses?

My chained Jesus, may Your chains be my own, so that I may always feel You in Me, and You may always feel me within You.

¹ Jesus wants to welcome all people into His humanity on earth so that they may be worthy of being welcomed into His divinity in heaven one day.

Sacrifice and Thanksgiving