Detail: Caravaggio, The Flagellation of Christ (1607)
Sorrowful Mystery 2 of 5.
Scripture
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged.
John 19:1; Matthew 27:26
Meditation
Pilate has Jesus scourged in the hope, perhaps, that this will satisfy the crowd. Roman scourging was a brutal tearing of the body. The Gospels do not describe it in detail; they only say it happened. In this mystery the body of Christ is given over to the world’s violence. We meditate on the cost of redemption, and on what our own bodies are for.
Fruit of the mystery
Purity