My father was not one to demonstrate affection to us kids either physically or verbally. However, while he was in the hospital dying, one day he held up his hands and said to my mom and me, “I showed my love by these hands.” Dad always worked night shift in a factory and came home at three in the morning. His hands were calloused. Sometimes a fingernail was black, damaged in the shop.
Jesus’s Wounds
I thought of my father’s hands when I read this past Sunday’s Gospel. The risen Lord appears to his apostles and proves that it is really he by showing his hands and feet still marked with the wounds of his love. You would think that a new, glorified body would be perfect—but, no, the body of Jesus bore scars. He may be marked like that for all eternity so that we too will see his scars.
“Christ is risen!”
His body was a mess of wounds from the whippings on his back to the crown of thorns that pierced his head. We focus though on the wounds endured on the wooden cross: the two nails in his hands, the two in his feet, and the one caused by a lance thrust into his side.
Jesus proved that he wasn’t a ghost by inviting the apostles to touch him, by explaining the Scripture passages that referred to his death and resurrection, and by eating. (Ghosts don’t eat.) But the most convincing sign of Jesus’s identity was those five wounds. He used them to convince Thomas that he was risen from the dead, inviting him to touch those wounds. The Gospels don’t say if Thomas did.
The wounds of Jesus were five red badges of his love for us. He will bear those scars for all eternity.
Chaplet of the Five Wounds
A chaplet is a string of beads for praying, for example, the rosary. People pray various chaplets prayed in honor of the five wounds of Jesus. Click here for one along with an explanation of the devotion.
The Stigmata
Several saints received the physical phenomenon of the wounds of Jesus appearing in their body. St. Francis of Assisi was the first known stigmatist. St. Catherine of Siena, my patron saint, is another. St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcino is a modern one.
Our Wounds
Loving service takes a toll on us too. Parents bear scars of burns from cooking meals for their families and ironing clothes. Teachers and nurses often develop varicose veins from standing for long hours. Members of the armed forces come home maimed. Police officers get shot or hit or dragged by cars. Some people sacrifice a kidney so that another person can live longer.
Reflecting on Our Wounds of Love
This week we might reflect on people who have been wounded in the course of loving us. We might also ask how we have followed the example of Jesus by offering ourselves for others in some form. What kind of scars do we bear? Blisters from building a Habitat for Humanity house? A knife cut on a finger from preparing a meal for someone at home or in a hunger center?
Keep in mind that some scars are not visible, for example, a bruised heart from being rebuffed after attempting to reconcile with someone.
As we celebrate the fifty days of the Easter season, let’s not forget that the triumph over sin and death was only possible because God endured Good Friday’s pain for love of us.
A Prayer
BEHOLD, O good and sweetest Jesus,
I cast myself upon my knees in Thy sight,
and with the most fervent desire of my soul
I pray and beseech Thee
to impress upon my heart
lively sentiments of faith,
hope and charity,
with true repentance for my sins
and a most firm desire of amendment:
whilst with deep affection and grief of soul
I consider within myself
and mentally contemplate Thy five most precious Wounds,
having before mine eyes that which David, the prophet,
long ago spoke in Thine Own person concerning Thee,
my Jesus: They have pierced My hands and My feet,
they have numbered all My bones [Psalm 21, 17, 18]
Jesus’s Wounds Celebrated in a Hymn
Click on this link to see and hear this hymn:
https://youtu.be/nLo3NJgqaQc?si=XvtbMuFGgYintMyR
• Who has suffered wounds for you?
