Consider this post as a continuation of the previous essay on the physical and spiritual sufferings of Jesus during the paschal mystery. We have looked at the three distinct dimensions of Christ’s agony in that essay. In this post, we will talk about the climax of the Lord’s agony: the crucifixion of Christ. The Contradiction of the Cross           Let’s state the obvious. To say that the salvation of man was accomplished by God by means of Him suffering a form of public torture and death is arguably the most ironic statement ever. It’s easy to imagine God saving us as He reveals Himself from the clouds, sitting on a majestic throne, with His angelic warriors surrounding Him, while proclaiming “I wipe out the sins of mankind now!”. For a Jew, it might also be easier to imagine Christ, the Messiah, riding a big horse, with his disciples and a big multitude of followers, carrying swords and spears, marching and advancing towards the roman soldiers and Caesar, engaging against them

            The Lord Jesus is, as the Church affirms, the eternal Son of God, one in being with the Father and therefore shares the one, unique, and utterly transcendent divine nature with the Father and the Holy Spirit. At the same time, this same God the Son took upon Himself a human nature as an integral part of his mission as Divine Savior. [i] In becoming man and in accomplishing His work of redemption and manifesting His true identity through it, we shouldn’t just neglect the reality of His humanity and what followed from his human life and history. It is to this reality which I aim to focus on in this essay. Specifically, given its fittingness to be discussed at this time (the Holy Week), I would like to give a reflection on the pains and agony that our Blessed Lord experienced in His passion, the aches He suffered in His body and mind.           The fact that Jesus Himself is able to suffer in His body during his earthly life is not a concept alien to the Sacred Pages, but i