Hi, I'm Edward Sree, and welcome to all things Catholic Catholic where real faith meets real life.

Hi and welcome back. Have you ever wondered about that station of the cross that's all about Simon of Cyrene I remember as a kid going to stations the cross at my Catholic school

They had him every Friday during Lent and there was always that little reflection about Simon of

siren carrying the cross of Jesus and he's a model of compassion and we should go

help other people and carry their crosses help them with their burdens in life.

And even as a little kid in grade school, I remember wondering,

why is this guy the model for compassion?

It wasn't like he volunteered.

He didn't say, hey, I want to go help Jesus choose me no no he was

just forced to do it he didn't do this out of compassion he did it out of compulsion

i want to take a look at that. We're going to look at Simon of

Serene and we'll see he's a wonderful model for embracing crosses. But first I

want to take it back to what happened just before Jesus had to carry the

cross. That'll help give you a little context for that powerful scene when Simon meets Jesus, but let's talk about the scourging. Now for those of you who may have seen Mel Gibson's famous film The Passion of the Christ, I bet you

would agree with me that one of the hardest scenes to watch was the scourging

at the pillar. Now don't get me wrong, seeing the crucifixion and Jesus dying on the

cross that was really hard as well, but that scourging, oh my, those Roman soldiers beating Jesus over and over and over again.

And we're seeing Jesus' skin being ripped open and all the blood poured out and

it just was relentless. They just kept going on and on. It seemed like it was going to go on forever.

Now, as hard as that scene was to watch, I have to tell you, from what I know about 1st century Roman scourgings, what Mel Gibson

portrayed was pretty accurate.

You see you may have heard of a Jewish tradition about whippings.

...