Leaving the Garden of Decision to Be Scourged
As we continue the Good News video course on How to Turn your Crosses into Resurrections, we’re going to move from the Garden of Gethsemane to the Second Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary, which is when Jesus was scourged. When have you been scourged?
Next: Part 4 >>
Video Excerpt:
Jesus was falsely accused. He was wrongly condemned. Think about the times when people have said to you, “No, no, no, that’s not the decision you should make.” As soon as we leave the Garden of Decision, we start coming under attack. Somebody is going to say to us, “No, that’s the wrong decision to make. No you don’t have a calling to the vocation that you’re thinking about.” Or, “No, you shouldn’t take that job because it’s not as secure as the one you’re leaving”, or, “No you shouldn’t do this or you shouldn’t do that.”
People think they know better than us. People think they know better than God. People think they know better than what the Catholic Church teaches about how we should live our lives. And if we choose to follow Christ, we will get persecuted for that. If we are living lives where there is no persecution, if we’re not suffering for our decisions, then we’re probably not really following Christ. We might be sitting near Him on a rock but we’re not really moving forward because if we’re really following Christ; we are picking up a cross. As He said, “Pick up your cross and follow me.”
It’s not an easy road. There are going to be people who object to what we do and what we say and what we believe. This is when we are scourged. People scourge us, whip us, beat us, browbeat us for the decisions we make when we follow Christ. We need to not listen with full open ears. We need to listen just in case God is trying to tell us something through them. But we need to listen carefully to the inner voice of the Holy Spirit saying, “Be uncomfortable with that, that’s not quite right. It’s close, maybe. But it’s not quite right, or it’s way off base. Please walk away from that; ignore that. Let it not bother you.”
More from Good News Ministries
To take the Paracletia course on the same videos but with discussion questions and music videos for meditation, go to gnm.org/paracletia-course-description-C02.
You might also like “Unite your sufferings to Jesus for healing” (a Footsteps to Heaven podcast).
Or read our WordBytes faith-building articles on Healing from Suffering.
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