The experience of suffering is common to all of us. No one goes through life without bearing the weight of the cross. As Christians we believe that the burden of the cross is shared by Jesus. During the last few days of his life Jesus came to know the pain of suffering in its many forms and with great intensity.
Throughout his trial and crucifixion Jesus endured terrible physical pain. His body was torn apart by scourging, thorns, nails and the weight of the cross. The strain on his limbs while he hung on the cross must have been immense. Hundreds of years earlier a psalmist had foretold the experience of the suffering servant when he wrote, “All my body is sick, spent and utterly crushed.” Crucifixion was indeed a cruel form of torture and death, the most shameful in the ancient world.
Then there was the emotional suffering. For those last days of his life Jesus must have felt rejected and abandoned. The very people he had come to help, those he had served tirelessly and patiently, now turned their backs on him. The same crowds who had hailed him as king on Palm Sunday now acted as if they did not know him or want anything to do with him. In the words of the Prophet Isaiah, “He was rejected and despised by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Is.53:3).
The experience of rejection brings with it the pain of loneliness. For Jesus, this loneliness was intense because even his closest friends deserted him. Yes, his own group of companions, the ones who lived with him, eat with him, travelled the roads with him, witnessed his miracles, heard his stories and shared his most intimate secrets abandoned, betrayed and denied him. On the night of his arrest Jesus was left completely alone without human support and comfort.
For Jesus, as indeed for many of the saints who came after him, the most intense form of suffering was surely darkness of spirit. It is the suffering experienced by the psalmist who prayed, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You are far from my plea and the cry of my distress.” To describe this form of suffering is difficult. It is an inner darkness which comes over the mind and heart leaving them without any sense of the presence of God or of consolation. St John of the Cross, the Carmelite mystic, called it, ‘the dark night of the spirit.’ Whatever way we attempt to describe this experience, it is certain that trust in God is all there is left to hold on to.
The ways Jesus suffered are no different to ours. Holy Week offers us an opportunity to unite our sufferings with his and to draw inspiration and strength from his example.