Let Us Embrace Our Crosses
- Administrator
- Jul 9
- 6 min read
July 2, 2025
Hello Family, this is my Journal on my 6th Day in my solitude with Jesus.
This evening, after we had united ourselves with Jesus by consuming His body and blood, the Lord led us to read Isaiah 53. I love the passage. In the past, I meditated upon it during Adoration. The Lord put it on my heart to reflect upon it during my Night Vigil in Adoration.
After my prayers before the Blessed SACRAMENT, I started reading Isaiah 53 as instructed. When I got to verse 3, I could not move anymore. I prayerfully reflected on every word in this verse. Isaiah 53, as you know, was a prophesy on the ministry of Jesus our Lord.
This is what the verse says;
Isaiah 53:3
He was despised and rejected—
a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.
My first thought, yes, He was despised and rejected. We despised Him and rejected Him
Lord, have mercy on the human race. Our Creator appeared on Earth, and we despised and rejected Him. I reject and despise my heavenly Spouse (Lord, have mercy on my poor soul) in my deeds, relationships, thoughts, desires, words—how often I despise and reject the one I confess is my savior and Lord. What a misery. But, on the other side of the coin, we are to be imitators of Jesus. How do we handle being rejected and despised?
Hebrews 12:2
"…looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
This verse describes Jesus as [Isaiah 53:3] "A man of sorrows acquainted with grief"
In Africa, raw suffering is very evident. and how it has always brought grief to my heart. Especially when I see souls lost in sin, hopelessness, and addictions of every sort. It always leaves me with deep sadness.
However, the sorrow of Jesus and His grief were deep. By His divinity, He could see the misery in every soul and community, and it crushed his heart, especially the sorrow and grief he experienced because of his kinsmen, the nation of Israel.
Luke 19:42-44 describes this very well
"As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace. But now, they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed, the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up ramparts around you, surrounding you and hem you on every side. They will crush you to the ground; you and your children within you. And they will not leave within you, one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.
This passage was fulfilled in AD 70, I think.
And in Matthew 23:37, Jesus says
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me."
Guys, this still happens today with the spiritual Israel, with the bride. How often do we reject the love and the compassion of Jesus Christ?
So this morning, in my reading this day from the Diary of Faustina, this same issue came up, and Jesus revealed to Faustina how much sorrow and grief He suffers today.
I quote what Faustina experienced,
Faustina begins,
When I came for adoration, an inner recollection took hold of me immediately, and I saw the Lord Jesus tied to a pillar, stripped of His clothes, and the scourging began immediately. I saw four men who took turns at striking the Lord with scourges. My heart almost stopped at the sight of these tortures. The Lord said to me, I suffer even greater pain than that which you see. And Jesus gave me to know for what sins He subjected himself to the scourging: these are sins of impurity.
Oh, how dreadful was Jesus' moral suffering during the scourging! Then Jesus said to me, Look and see the human race in its present condition. In an instant, I saw horrible things: the executioners left Jesus, and other people started scourging Him; they seized the scourges and struck the Lord mercilessly. These were priests, religious men and women; and high dignitaries of the Church, which surprised me greatly. There were lay people of all ages and walks of life. All vented their malice on the innocent Jesus. Seeing this, my heart fell as if into a mortal agony. And while the executioners had been scourging Him, Jesus had been silent and looking into the distance; but when those other souls I mentioned scourged Him, Jesus closed His eyes, and a soft, but most painful moan escaped from His Heart. And Jesus gave me to know in detail the gravity of the malice of these ungrateful souls: You see, this is a torture greater than My death. Then my lips too fell silent, and I began to experience the agony of death, and I felt that no one would comfort me or snatch me from that state but the One who had put me into it. Then the Lord said to me, I see the sincere pain of your heart which brought great solace to My Heart. See and take comfort.
That’s what Faustina experienced. How sad this is, to know that those who belong to Jesus, The Bride, how we bring Jesus the greatest agony. Jesus was telling Sister Faustina that the scourging suffered, was because of our sins of impurity.
Faustina Continues
Then I saw the Lord Jesus nailed to the cross. When He had hung on it for a while, I saw a multitude of souls crucified like Him. Then I saw a second multitude of souls, and a third. The second multitude were not nailed to [their] crosses, but were holding them firmly in their hands. The third were neither nailed to [their] crosses nor holding them firmly in their hands, but were dragging [their] crosses behind them and were discontent. Jesus then said to me, Do you see these souls? Those who are like Me in the pain and contempt they suffer will be like Me also in glory. And those who resemble Me less in pain and contempt will also bear less resemblance to Me in glory.
End of Faustina’s experience
Guys, reading this, I just looked at the way I have mishandled the crosses given to me by the holy hands of Jesus in the past.
Jesus, I willingly offer myself to be nailed on the cross with You.
Mr Spurgeon is one of my favorite preachers, and I looked at his thoughts on this verse. I quote what he said on this verse;
Spurgeon states;
A MAN OF SORROWS. The expression is intended to be very emphatic. It is not “a sorrowful man,” but “a man of sorrows,” as if he were made up of sorrows, and they were constituent elements of his being. Some are men of pleasure, others men of wealth, but he was “a man of sorrows.” He and sorrow might have changed names. He who saw him, saw sorrow, and he who would see, sorrow must look on him. see,” saith he, “if there was ever sorrow like unto my sorrow “Behold, which, and was done unto me.”
Our Lord is called the man of sorrows for peculiarity, for this was his peculiar token and special mark. We might well call him “a man of holiness;” for there was no fault in him: or a man of labours, for he did his Father’s business earnestly; or “a man of eloquence,” for never man spake like this man. We might right fittingly call him in the language of our hymn, “The man of love,” for never was there greater love than glowed in his heart. Still conspicuous as all these and many other excellencies were, yet had we gazed upon Christ and been asked afterwards what was the most striking peculiarity in him, we should have said his sorrows."
End of quote.
Family, Jesus lives in our hearts. Are we a source of Sorrow and grief to him? Let us not be a source of sorrows to Jesus. Let our hearts be a place for him to find consolation from all the wickedness in the world crushing his heart.
Jesus, help us overcome the sin of impurity in our lives and grant us the courage to embrace the crosses you allow in our lives.
Revelation 21:22-27
[22] But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
[23] The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.
[24] And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.
[25] Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there).
[26] And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.
[27] But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Thank you for listening. Until next time, may we abide in Christ.
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