We have before us today, what one man did for our salvation, what God did so that we could be saved. And, it is powerful, it is heart-wrenching, and, sometimes, it is difficult to hear, but this is what happened, this is what we did, this is what all of us did, and it is why we remember this week, because, today, we see better than any other day the true depth of Christ’s mercy, the unfathomable forgiveness of our sins, and the power of His very blood, His very life to cover them all.

In fact, it is said, that St. Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary, with St. Matilda and St. Bridget wanted to know more about the Passion of Jesus Christ and so they offered many fervent and special prayers to this effect.

As a result, it is believed Jesus appeared to them and told them the following: “Be it known that the number of armed soldiers were 150; those who trailed me while I was bound were 23. The number of executioners of justice were 83; the blows received on my head were 150; those on my stomach, 108; kicks on my shoulders, 80.

I was led, bound with cords by the hair, 24 times; spits in the face were 180; I was beaten on the body 6666 times; beaten on the head, 110 times. I was roughly pushed, and at 12 o'clock was lifted up by the hair; pricked with thorns and pulled by the beard 23 times; received 20 wounds on the head…pricks of thorns in the head, 110; mortal thorns in the forehead, 3.

I was afterwards flogged and dressed as a mocked king; wounds in the body, 1000. The soldiers who led me to the Calvary were 608; those who watched me were 3, and those who mocked me were 1008; the drops of blood which I lost were 28,430.

That is why this week, this Holy Week, in a very real way, we enter into the very heart of these mysteries, the very essence of the Passion and Cross, the very essence of what happens upon that altar, every single day, and the identity of what we believe, why we believe it and why, even in the midst of such tremendous pain, sorrow and death, we are still able to find hope.

Because, though Christ endured extraordinary suffering, more than any one of us could possibly imagine, and though each wound, each gash, each bruise, was our sins, it was not in vain, because the Gospel does not end where we stopped today, it does not end on the Cross, it does not end in the tomb, in fact, there really was no end, only the introduction of something new and that which we will steadily move towards in the week ahead, when everything will culminate on Easter Sunday, marking, indeed, not an end, but a beginning, the beginning of something new, new hope and new life, which finds its ultimate fulfillment in the Resurrection.