Flower of Devotion

On one occasion the Lord Jesus appeared to St. Gertrude in the form in which He was scourged. Namely, He was tied to a pole between two executioner’s servants, one of whom wounded His Body with thorn thorns and the other with ropes tied together. Both of them struck the Lord on the face, which was so defiled that the saint, moved with pity and compassion, could not refrain from tears all that day when the Face of the Saviour appeared to her in spirit. For it seemed to her that there was no face in all the world that was more defiled than the Lord’s face, and that it should be in a more wretched condition. For the part of the Face of the Lord Jesus, wounded by thorns, was torn to such an extent that the eyes were wounded, and all the tender parts of them were swollen and the Blood oozed from them.
The Lord Jesus seemed to turn His face away, but when He turned it away from one of the executioner’s servants, the other struck it even more mercilessly.
Then the Lord Jesus turned to St. Gertrude and said, “Have you not read what is written about me, ‘We saw him as a leper’” (Isaiah 53). To which the saint replied: “Ah, Lord, what remedy can be found to alleviate the stinging sufferings of Your Divine Face?” And the Lord Jesus answered: “The sweetest and most appropriate means of this is to meditate fully on my sufferings and to pray devoutly for the salvation of all sinners. These two executioner servants represent laymen who publicly insult God and wound Him with insults; and also some religious who beat Him with ropes, and like these two servants smite Him in the face, by insulting and offending the supreme Lord of Heaven.”
Thus St. Gertrude knew that this is why the Holy Church gives the Passion of Jesus in the Gospel, so that the special friends of God may meditate on it with devotion, both for the honor of God and for the satisfaction of all the members of His holy Church. She also learned that by meditating on the Lord’s Passion we should train ourselves in the love of God and neighbor, and that we should suffer with God all the offenses inflicted on the Lord Jesus. We should pity the terrible misery of our neighbor to which such insults lead him and arouse the wrath of the terrible Judge. Finally, St. Gertrude learned that the Lord Jesus enjoins us to meditate on His Passion especially in order to satisfy Divine Justice for all human transgressions, and to thank the Lord Jesus for the sufferings He endured, and to ask His goodness to have mercy on all sinners.