Wound of Christ
(By Yanli S. Guerzon)
In 2017, I was blessed to be able to join a pilgrimage with Pater Robby Wowor OFM to the Holyland. We visited Egypt, Israel and Jordan in about 10 days trip. The overall journey was splendid and lots of graces for my spiritual experience. Today, I’d like to share with you a special spiritual enrichment. With hope the story will strengthen each other faith.
It was a beautiful winter morning, we started our day with a holy mass at a small chapel. As always, I was ready with my small camera to capture the beauty of the surrounding. The chapel was called “Scourging of the Pillar”. It was the very place where our Lord, Jesus Christ was scourged.
I started taking pictures of the stain glass behind the altar. It was depicting Jesus in pains from the scourging that He endured. Then, Pater Robby told us what had happened to Jesus inside the room 2000 years ago. The chandelier above are the pieces of the metal tools used to beat Him up. I got goosebumps and immediately put my camera away and started to pray intensely. It was intense alright. I was in tears thinking of what had happened to my beloved Jesus. In just a short moment I was transcendent to a very deep contemplation of the sorrowful mystery.
All of the sudden in my meditation, I spotted Jesus’s bloody torso. It was in red blood color. All of his skin was red and plenty of wounds in shape of holes. Then, I was brought to a specific wound of Christ. Please look at the enclosed picture. I’ve tried to illustrate what I have seen in my canvas painting. It was His fresh dry wound. All of the sudden, blood flow out from the dry wound. I cried more and more as I saw it vividly. Then, I asked Jesus. “What is happening.” He simply replied. “as you repeat your same sins, my wound would bleed again …. “ “Oh no,” I said. “Forgive me Lord, for I have sinned. I didn’t realized it hurt you more in your wounds”.
I cried and cried. Then, I was awakened from my deep contemplation, and realized it was the time to receive communion already on the holy mass. I lined up and received the Eucharist. Then, after receiving the Body of Christ, as I was chewing the Bread I was again brought to a deep meditation. This time the wound was covered with a tiny medal of St. Benedict. I heard the voice of the Lord, “…I conquered dead and live. “. The Lord advised me to share this vision to all of my friends and other Christians. I was then, try to sketch the vision using pen on my notebook. Jesus told me to paint it also in canvas. He wanted me to try my best in drawing it and shared with others.
In the nutshell, we are reminded that every time we repeat our offensive deeds, and make sin again and again. We pretty much scourge Jesus wound one more time. So, I was warned to repent repeatedly as I sin and sin again. From that experience, I trust in Jesus more and more because He had told me and shared with me his pains. I immediately went to confession and repent. Thanks God for Sacrament of Reconciliation.
I would like to invite you to meditate on this Wound of Christ image. May the Lord grant you His graces and messages for own spiritual growth.
The red portion of the painting is to illustrate the total redness of Jesus’s Torso. Deep Blood color. Then the oval circle is the Dry Wound itself. The brown spot at the lower part of the oval circle is the fresh blood coming out from dry wound.