This is the movement of the Holy Family.

Welcome to our daily Rosary meditation.

Let's begin in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Let's call to mind all those we've promised to pray for.

We are in Jerusalem. We are at the place of the Antonio Fortress. We are in the courtyard where Pilate condemned Jesus to death,

where he was scourged, crowned with thorns, and began the way of the cross.

Pilot, perhaps the most horrendous coward who ever lived didn't want to kill Jesus. He was

somehow afraid to kill this obviously innocent, just, and righteous man, but Pilot was more afraid of the mob who was demanding

Jesus' blood.

So Pilot tried to do what all cowards do. He tried to make an utterly inconsistent compromise by having Jesus scourged and then declaring him innocent. Of course, if Jesus was guilty of insurrection and blasphemy,

then no one would be satisfied with scourging him.

And if Jesus was innocent, then having him scourged

was a gross injustice. But it takes courage and integrity to be consistent and pilot had neither.

After Jesus was scourged and spat upon and crowned with thorns, Pilate showed him to the mob and said,

Behold the man.

And then a few verses later he said,

behold your king.

He was trying to be sarcastic,

but what Pilate was actually doing was showing the fulfillment of all the prophecies about the Savior.

He was showing that God had indeed become man. Our Father

who art in heaven,

...