“Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him.

John 19:1

Slap-slap slap go my running shoes on the footpath. Breathing in-breathing out, slap-slap slap in a jagged samba beat that I’ve hated since I was a kid.

I hate running. In primary school, I was the slow kid coming last in the races, while everyone else had to wait and watch on in anguish. In high school, I faked sprained ankles in PE class and stuck to music and debating. In my adult life, I still shy away from things I know I won’t excel in, and fear failure on and off the running track.

At the Scourging at the Pillar, we are confronted with Jesus’ vulnerable suffering. I read once about the Roman ‘nine-tails’ lash they used at the time. It was a huge mistake. Those things were no joke. When I pray this mystery, I imagine strips of flesh wrenched off the bone and launched to the ground, as a pool of Precious Blood gathers – like that gut-wrenching scene in “The Passion”.

Despite the vivid imagery, it doesn’t get real for me until I put my own body on the line. Since I’m not ready to get scourged for Jesus, last week I took up what I call ‘running for Jesus’. Slap-slap slap, breathing in-breathing out. It’s a mundane kind of suffering, but it brings me right up-close with my unwillingness to suffer, and – what’s even worse – each day, I have the complete freedom not to do it. So, I’m turning it into a training ground for love. When I take those first humiliating steps out my driveway, when I feel the burn and want to stop but instead give myself over to the pain, ​even just for a few seconds more, ​that’s when I learn about what it means to suffer for love.

Our Lord is so vulnerable in this mystery. Barely standing, He gives Himself entirely over to the sacrifice that is only just beginning. “Pilate then took Jesus and had Him scourged.” (John 19:1) To take the Lord of the Universe and have him scourged – to have Him totally at their mercy… the humility of our Lord is beyond understanding.

And yet this is what He asks of us. To partake of the glory of his Resurrection, we must join Him in His Passion. In this mystery, I see Him bloody, beaten to death, the “man of sorrows” Isaiah foretells. (Isaiah 53:3) Torn to pieces for my everyday selfishness, He looks at me and asks: ‘Will you join me?’ When I pause instead of doing what I know God is asking of me in my work life, relationships and even in picking up those running shoes, He asks: ‘Will you join me?’

So, the slap, slap of my runners mingles reluctantly with the whack, whack of each blow that My Lord suffers in His scourging. Slowly, I am learning to be weak, to be OK with failing, to be brave and say ‘yes’ anyway. Through this mystery, I pray that I might unite my daily struggles with His and – one step in front of another – I might follow Him to the Cross.

“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

~ Katherine Augimeri

Katherine  hails from Adelaide. She is a dreamer, music-maker, friend, sister and constantly-beginning disciple. She is married to Nick and has two beautiful children and one on the way!