Its the Law

Today we were reminded of the Law.

A lawyer dropped by for a pint. 

I charged him double the usual fee for an Ale. 

Plus pumpage.

He left some 'advice' for which I will no doubt get a large bill.

https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/rule-law/charts-graphs/legal-nomenclature

Disregard.

Have a pint instead.

Pax

Post-Easter in Post-Christian Oz

Easter has passed once more and the peaceful and devout celebrations in the Tavern confirm the devotion of many, but beyond the hedge all is noisy and fractious. We could hear the baying of the crowd which lacked only the name of 'Barabbas' ringing out to give it any authenticity as they smash their way through tombstones. And it was not just in Oz that the forces determined to overthrow decency showed their ugly faces. 

The bullies were paraded as heroes in the USA at the same time as fresh-faced young teachers in Oz, mainly female of course, were being taught how to spot a bully and put him in a skirt, change his gender and crush any sign of Christian ethic. 

The Australian Family Coalition remains at the ramparts, encouraging the good to repel the storm tides, and we heard from them today pointing to some baying they have noted and the responses that many may not have. One of their fine number stood and told us:

Margaret Court calls for greater religious freedom

Former tennis great turned pastor Margaret Court has warned that Australia is “forsaking foundational truths and the blessings that have made [it] great”.

Margaret, some might recall, was a feted Tennis Champion many moons back. Oz loved her. The moment she ascribed her success to God she was dropped like a hot brick by the ignorantti in the media.  Her Top spin was deemed outside the chalk lines.

In her submission to the religious freedom inquiry, she calls for the panel, led by former attorney general Phillip Ruddock, to ensure “that Christianity will not be silenced or stifled in Australia”.

Margaret Court: Australian tennis legend turned pastor

And she's not alone. A huge number of the 16,800 submissions reflect these views – with more and more Australians waking up to the fact that redefining marriage, family and gender leads directly to the loss of freedoms.

However, The 'Guardian'’s online news service didn’t quite see it that way. Reporting on the comments by Margaret Court, Guardian journalist Paul Carp was more interested in the fact that the panel had published a group of “substantially similar submissions”, and claimed these were the consequence of “a high degree of coordination by anti-marriage equality forces”.

Well of course they would be similar. They are all on the same small range of subjects. Most would have been along the lines of 'Stop it or Oz will go morally blind'. But heck, what does one expect from carping critics on the Guardian payroll. 

Considering two of these so-called “group submissions”, Group 4 and Group 6 were only authored by four and eight people respectively, this can hardly be considered highly coordinated.

Carping Paul does not mention any similarity from the queers, bi's, gays, trannies, lesbians, transgenders, headbangers, nutters, et all. They, too, would have a similar line something like "I shall poke your eyes out with a sharp stick".  And being as the motley buggers constitute just 2% or so of Oz society, one or two must have been very busy burning the midnight oil.

One can wish !!

Christianity under attack, warns Catholic Archbishop

Sydney’s Catholic Archbishop says submissions made to the Ruddock Inquiry into Protection of Religious Freedom reveal the extent of the marginalisation of Christians, reported The Australian.

“We may not always be as free as we are now to evangelise and baptise as Jesus mandated at the first Easter,” Archbishop Anthony Fisher told thousands in a packed St Marys Cathedral on Sunday.

“Powerful interests now seek to marginalise religious believers and beliefs, especially Christian ones, and exclude them from public life. They would end funding to faith-based schools, hospitals and welfare agencies, strip us of charitable status and protections, cast us as ‘Public Enemy No. 1’.”

Hmmmm. The forces ranged against us have little interest in Faiths other than Christian. They wish to eradicate Christianity and especially Catholicism. There are no calls for suppressing the 'Religion of Peace', and while a witch-hunt trial continues for Cardinal Pell, accused without any proof of sexual abuse,  there is no call to put to Trial any Muslim preacher that quite blatenly call for the rape and sadistic sexual mutilation of little girls. 

The media and Government are afraid to even criticise Islam: Christianity is the scapegoat.

Archbishop Fisher said submissions made to the Ruddock Inquiry reveal the extent of the marginalisation of Christians. He called on believers to stand strong in the face of persecution.

But it is the kiddies that are bearing the brunt. Those that make it unto the world past the abortionists - and currently 100,000 or so a year do not escape the knives, scissors and suction pumps - are faced with teachers in our cess-pit schools. 

Teaching students taught the dangerous myths of gender theory

Gender is “socially constructed, fluid and dynamic … a construct of language and discourse”, and biological sex “exists on a spectrum, with genitalia, chromosomes, gonads and hormones” merely “playing a role”.

This is some of the material from a compulsory course for first year students studying primary and secondary school teaching at the University of Technology, Sydney.

 Yes customers of the Tavern, that twisted bit of 'archtecture' to the left is a University building which reflects virtually exactly the twisted nature of the buggers who work therein.

As reported by Miranda Devine last week, in a lecture titled “Exploring Gender,” students were provided with Powerpoint notes which are “mind-boggling, unscientific propaganda straight from the academic fringes of Marxist gender theory”.

The trainee teachers were also encouraged to teach children about gender using “a wide range of resources that reflect diversity — e.g. The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch, William’s Doll by Charlotte Zolotow; units about families reflecting diversity of possibilities — two mums, single dads, etc.”

In her article, Miranda Devine cuts to the truth about the Marxist post-modernism behind gender theory.

“This radical ideology which turns science, logic and reason on its head is not about being compassionate to a tiny minority of transgender people. Quite the opposite.

“It uses them as tools to coerce the rest of us to go along with the lie that biological sex does not exist.

And it uses impressionable, coercable young women who aspire to nurture and educate children not all that younger than they themselves.

“Schoolchildren are at the frontline of this war on truth, 

as we saw with the Safe Schools program which posed as an anti-bullying program but was really about brainwashing children in gender theory.”

It’s no wonder that children are coming home from school confused about whether they are girls or boys.

Christian Principles are being replaced in our schools by the fetid excretions of cultural marxism. And the media just sucks it up and spews it out over our families. 

In Americain the past few weeks we have seen the logical progression played out before us. 

The cry against 'bullying' in schools was answered by charlatans creating 'anti-bullying' programs such a 'Safe Schools'. These were simply vehicles for attacking normal social behaviours, especially gender, and brainwashing our small kids.  After all we do not want victims of bullying to seek revenge, now do we. But now, in America, it has been captured by the anti-second-amendment mob.

Hogging the limelight is a particularly nasty pair of little liars who have been hailed by the media as heroic, following a rampage by a severely bullied boy. Hogg and Gonzalez. 

Hogg declared himself a 'survivor, 'hiding in a cupoard' while the shooter did his ghastly business. Oh, poor boy. Oh brave lad.  The interviewers were all trying to verbally hug him. But hiding in a cupboard is not a great look.

But then in another interview he became Action Man ! He'd not been at school hiding in a cupboard but heard of it while at home, so he took his camera and rode his bike three miles to see the action and catch the eye of reporters.

Has this put the media off?

Not a bit.

What a creative little chap. Even his language is not deemed 'foul' but colourful.

His little friend who does not need a hair brush for the next year or so, revels in the attention and opportunity to declare her love for Cuban political solutions, while armed guards surround her to keep her safe.

Safe schools eh.

Now it transpires that little miss butter-wouldn't-stick-to-her-hair was one of the main bullies who taunted and then ostracised the strange lad that later did the shooting.

Has she been arrested?

Good Golly Miss Molly ! Arrest a super-star? Not a chance.

Archbishop Fisher asks us to stand strong in the face of persecution. First we have to stop laughing.

The Australian Family Coalition finished up with their thanks:

Thank you for your continued support. As always, please invite your friends and family to register for our free weekly emails by sharing the following link with them:

 http://www.austfamily.com.au/sign-up

There. Now sit and drink up.

Pax

Determination

There are qualities that gravitate together, and Courage is always found with Determination. Without it, you may have foolhardiness. That one rarely finds a home in Heroes. But no quality comes to us full-formed and we need to find them, grow them, nurture and test them: generally, that last element comes with adversity.

The Lady of the Tavern, the Southern Gal brought these thoughts to mind today, having found time during her busy Eastertime to consider the making of Heroes.  She brought in a guest: an American gentleman, a soldier, with a typically tonguetwister American name: Joe Kapacziewski. She quoted a Greek chap too.

“You don't develop courage by being happy in your relationships every day. 

You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.” 

Epicurus. Philosopher of the 4th century BC.

OK, He said it in Greek and it probably translates poorly, but we get the drift.  And that is not Epicurus above. That is Joe. You will meet him in a moment.

We can never go through life without challenges or without pain.  As believers, often-times we look to the skies and ask the Almighty “Abba, come rescue me.”  We do not embrace the challenges as a test or as a way of growing for the human experience our Creator put us here for. We fail to see the forging within ourselves through the fire.  

Now, I have to remind you that TSG does not speak from a stand-off, academic perspective. She has been there and done that. 

It is often said that you really see who someone is when they go through adversity in their lives.  Most choose to sit, wallow and whine.  

Some go through their lives and blame others for everything that has gone wrong in their lives.  

Others still, choose to rise above it, and overcome.  Not all embrace life’s challenges equally.  

The tides of war have changed with the times, and few are left to bleed their lives out on the battlefield. Helicopter crews and Medical teams can get a chap to proper medical care quickly enough to save lives. But all too often those lives are changed irrevocably. Few can go back.

SFC Joe Kapacziewski is the first amputee in the Army Rangers history to return to combat, serving 9 tours in the Middle East.  He has written a book, Back in the Fight, which details his inspiring story.

Let us look at an Heroic man.  Gary Sinese, the actor who has made his off-screen mission to boost such heroes, tells us.

In October 2005, while on deployment in northern Iraq, a grenade fell through the gunner's hatch and exploded, shattering Kapacziewski's right leg below the knee, damaging his right hip, and severing a nerve and artery in his right arm.

He endured more than forty surgeries hoping to save his right leg.  But in March 2007, Kapacziewski chose to have it amputated with one goal in mind: to return to the line and serve back alongside his fellow Rangers as a platoon leader. 

One year after his surgery, Kapacziewski accomplished his goal, 

he was put back on the line, as a squad leader of his Army Ranger Regiment.

His exemplary career was yet to run its full heroic course. 

On April 19, 2010, during his ninth combat deployment (and fifth after losing his leg), Kapacziewski's patrol ran into an ambush outside a village in eastern Afghanistan.

After a fellow Ranger fell to withering enemy fire, shot through the belly, Sergeant Kapacziewski and another soldier dragged him seventy-five yards to safety and administered first aid that saved his life, all while heavy machine guns tried to kill them. 

His actions earned him an Army Commendation Medal with "V" for Valor. He had previously been awarded a Bronze Star for Valor—and a total of three Purple Hearts for combat wounds.

When I think of someone like Sergeant Kapacziewski, he embodies what personal sacrifice for a greater cause is.  

His journey was not easy; 

I am sure he spent many long days rebuilding his body.  But his human spirit was undeterred.  He is an overcomer, not a complainer.  He could have spent hours on the couch watching T.V., feeling sorry for himself, but he didn’t.  He continued to set goals and reach them.  

They say the love of comfort can cripple a nation.  Looking around at the current generation I cannot say I disagree.  Everyone wants rewards without sacrifice.  

The harsh truth is, what comes easily is usually cheap and taken for granted.  We don’t reach our true potential by living in comfort and ease.  

To achieve the fullness life has to offer requires sacrifice and work and the ability to get back up again and keep moving forward through adversity.

Honest hard work- this is something God seeks from all of us. God's words tell us that working hard, with faith in mind, can lead to the great things He has planned for us.

“Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.”

-Proverbs 12:11

Sgt Joe is not alone, apart from returning to combat. In that he is unusual.  Douglas Bader flew Spitfires while having prostheses. There are others who have lost limbs in battle. Men - yes and women - who have embraced their extra-share of adversity and found the courage and determination to persist in their growth: Heroes and Heroines who nurture their qualities with all the love that is deserved for the bearers of God's gifts. 

So, fill your tankards. Raise them up. Drink to them all.

Pax

100 years: the First and still the Best

The first dedicated Air Force established in the world, celebrates its 100th year Anniversary today, April 1st, 2018.

Congratulations to the Royal Air Force.

 And a hearty thank you to all past and present men and women who have contributed to this honourable and effective way of 
serving God, the Nation, Freedom and the Anglophile way of civilisation.

The Tavern will shout free Ale, the very best to all who wish to raise a glass, a tankard a horn or scottish dish for a wee dram. (pilots love their fine scotch).

Born out of the First World War and the use of flimsy aircraft by the British Army, the new, dedicated force was established this day 100 years ago. It is not just time that flies.

In a moment we shall pick up the bizzo of training pilots where we left off last time: putting the balls in young scrotes; but first let us look at what Britain has in store for the year. The Ministry of De Fence tells us......

COMMEMORATE, CELEBRATE, INSPIRE

On 1 April 2018, the Royal Air Force will be celebrating its 100th birthday. To mark this occasion, we want to reflect on our history and our achievements. We also want to celebrate the work the RAF is currently doing and look forward to the next 100 years.

 https://www.raf.mod.uk/raf100/about/

The centenary itself will be marked by special events, activities and other initiatives at local, regional and national levels running from April to the end of November 2018. 

The centrepiece of RAF100 will take place on 10 July, with a centenary service in Westminster Abbey, followed by a parade in The Mall and spectacular flypast over Buckingham Palace.

Key events include a Gala concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 31 March, information on buying tickets can be found here.

One of the many events will be the Centenary Baton Relay which will see a specially designed baton visit 100 sites associated with the RAF in 100 days. The relay will begin its journey at the Royal Courts of Justice on 1 April 2018 and will end 100 days later on 10 July on Horseguards Parade.

The RAF100 Aircraft Tour will be coming to a city near you this year. You will be able to get up close to a selection of aircraft in Cardiff, Horse Guards Parade in London, Newcastle in Northern Ireland, Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester.

You can also enjoy the spectacle of airshows at RAF Cosford, Portrush in Northern Ireland and the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford.

The RAF Museum will be unveiling its multi-million-pound transformation of the museum’s Hendon site which will welcome visitors to discover a new green heart of the community in Colindale, reflecting the historic RAF Hendon airfield. 

And there will be an RAF theme at this year's Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in August. 

With a full calendar of events across the country, and the globe, this will be an exciting year for the RAF. We hope you will be able to come along and celebrate with us.

And the Tavern Keeper (who once held Airship rank for ten whole minutes and a bit) disputes the scurrilous calumny that the RAF Motto means 

'Through Adversity to the Stairs',

 for whenever the hotel lift is out of action. 

Nor as he ever heard 'Defend the Imprest: Dispute the hotel bar-bill'. 

Well, rarely. 

Although many do like ice in their scotch.

The RAF has always had an affection for Hotels, since the Bigwig Airships first set up shop, back in 1918, in the Hotel Cecil.

What is good enough for the Airships, is good enough for the lads.

It has caught on. A US Marine Corps chap, John Wear, tells a tale of the USAF appreciation too.

""A man was conducting an All Service member briefing one day, and he posed the question: “What would you do if you found a scorpion in your tent?”

A Sailor said, “I’d step on it.”

A Soldier said, “I’d hit it with my boot.”

A Marine said, “I’d catch it, break the stinger off, and eat it.”

An Airman said, “I’d call room service and find out why there’s a damn tent in my room.”

While the British were not the first to make use of heavier-than-air military aircraft, the RAF is the world's oldest independent air force: that is, the first air force to become independent of army or navy control. 

The RAF was founded on 1 April 1918 by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service and was controlled by the British Government Air Ministry which had been established three months earlier. 

The Royal Flying Corps had been born out of the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers and was under the control of the British Army. The Royal Naval Air Service was its naval equivalent and was controlled by the Admiralty. The decision to merge the two services and create an independent air force was a response to the events of World War I, the first war in which air power made a significant impact. 

The creation of the new force was based on the Smuts Report prepared by Field Marshal Jan Smuts for the Imperial War Cabinet on which he served.

To emphasize the merger of both military and naval aviation in the new service, many of the titles of officers were deliberately chosen to be of a naval character, such as flight lieutenant, wing commander, group captain, and air commodore.

The newly created RAF was the most powerful air force in the world on its creation, with over 20,000 aircraft and over 300,000 personnel (including the Women's Royal Air Force). 

The squadrons of the RFC kept their numerals while those of the RNAS were renumbered from 201 onwards. At the time of the merger, the Navy's air service had 55,066 officers and men, 2,949 aircraft, 103 airships and 126 coastal stations. The remaining personnel and aircraft came from the RFC. 

A memorial to the RAF was commissioned after the war in central London. The RAF's last known surviving founder member was the World War I veteran Henry Allingham who died in 2009 aged 113.

Following the end of World War I and the accompanying British defence cuts, the newly independent (and still temporary) RAF waited nine months to see if it would be retained by the Cabinet. 6,500 officers, all holding temporary commissions or seconded from the Army and Navy, applied for permanent commissions. The Cabinet sanctioned a maximum of 1,500 and the Air Ministry offered 1,065 to the applicants, publishing the first list on 1 August 1919, 75% of them short-term (two to five years). The service as a whole had been reduced in strength to 35,500.

From such beginnings, the RAF has become the most well known and admired branch of the British Armed Forces, especially after the magnificent effort of the Battle of Britain which will always count amongst the most decisive of battles in history.

In that, and the prior and subsequent battles, the youthfulness of the front-line fighting men has been marked. The fighter and bomber pilots.

We did look at the training of young pilots last month, so today we shall look at what pilots are expected to do with their steed-riding skills.

They fight.

And to do that they have to step higher and faster, loaded with ordnance, knowing what they are doing, which means doing an OCU (Operational Conversion Unit) before being posted to the line. 

Many are called but few are chosen.

That front line is far more powerful than any before it. But with far fewer aircraft.

And the pilots and crew are far more highly trained and practiced than ever before.

So we can now look at what young men go through when they aspire to command one of those weapons of war: The 'Tonka': the Tornado Multi-Role Combat Aircraft.

Not easy. But the rewards are sky-high.

Being a Knight these days takes far more than just courage.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic from the RAF Boys in Blue, the lads and lasses of the USAF, which some might argue is more powerful than the RAF (but not in my bars !!) are starting out on their careers.

Some may be fortunate enough to do an exchange posting one day.

So drink to these lads with balls and be thankful they are defending our way of life (despite what the politicians are doing to it).

Pax.




PS and bye the way....

I know this is unusual for me to 'advertise' (and for no other reason than admiration and friendship for the person and place), but if you find yourself in France and wish a pleasant place to stay, do find your way to one of my good customers, Mark. He would be delighted to show you hospitality.

http://www.leshallais.com/

The Crucifixion

The Tavern stopped service for a few hours. It is Good Friday. Well, not closed the doors, just put the towels over the pumps. Customers gathered to do the Stations of the Cross. Some were permitted to look through the door to the Crypt. We contemplated the journey through the streets of Jerusalem to the Hill where my Supplier was ritually slaughtered. 

Believe me, you would not have liked to have been there. There are those who are ignorant of the process of crucifixion. There are those that do not even believe that Christ was crucified, let alone that He was the Son of The Almighty Father, Creator of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and invisible. I am not one of them.

Neither is David Warren who spoke up:

 “No good deed goes unpunished,” in this world, and in the extreme, it is impossible that the Man who embodies perfect goodness will not be executed.

 https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2018/03/30/god-is-dead/

When and where might be open to discussion; the pretexts will be quite flexible; but the fate of the perfect saint is sealed from the beginning. So it has been with Christ’s martyrs through the centuries; and so it began with Christ himself.

But many do believe as I and David do and even amongst them there is only a little understanding of what it means to a human body. Too many take it for granted. So a Doctor spoke to the matter. Dr. C. Truman Davis

A Physician testifies about the Crucifixion

About a decade ago, reading Jim Bishop’s The Day Christ Died, I realized that I had for years taken the Crucifixion more or less for granted — that I had grown callous to its horror by a too easy familiarity with the grim details and a too distant friendship with our Lord. It finally occurred to me that, though a physician, I didn’t even know the actual immediate cause of death.

The Gospel writers don’t help us much on this point, because crucifixion and scourging were so common during their lifetime that they apparently considered a detailed description unnecessary. So we have only the concise words of the Evangelists: 

“Pilate, having scourged Jesus, delivered Him to them to be crucified — and they crucified Him.”

I have no competence to discuss the infinite psychic and spiritual suffering of the Incarnate God atoning for the sins of fallen man. But it seemed to me that as a physician I might pursue the physiological and anatomical aspects of our Lord’s passion in some detail. What did the body of Jesus of Nazareth actually endure during those hours of torture?

This led me first to a study of the practice of crucifixion itself; that is, torture and execution by fixation to a cross. I am indebted to many who have studied this subject in the past, and especially to a contemporary colleague, Dr. Pierre Barbet, a French surgeon who has done exhaustive historical and experimental research and has written extensively on the subject.

Apparently, the first known practice of crucifixion was by the Persians. Alexander and his generals brought it back to the Mediterranean world — to Egypt and to Carthage. The Romans apparently learned the practice from the Carthaginians and (as with almost everything the Romans did) rapidly developed a very high degree of efficiency and skill at it.

A number of Roman authors (Livy, Cicer, Tacitus) comment on crucifixion, and several innovations, modifications, and variations are described in the ancient literature.

For instance, the upright portion of the cross (or stipes) could have the cross-arm (or patibulum) attached two or three feet below its top in what we commonly think of as the Latin cross. The most common form used in our Lord’s day, however, was the Tau cross, shaped like our T. In this cross the patibulum was placed in a notch at the top of the stipes. There is archeological evidence that it was on this type of cross that Jesus was crucified.

Without any historical or biblical proof, Medieval and Renaissance painters have given us our picture of Christ carrying the entire cross. But the upright post, or stipes, was generally fixed permanently in the ground at the site of execution and the condemned man was forced to carry the patibulum, weighing about 110 pounds, from the prison to the place of execution.

Many of the painters and most of the sculptors of crucifixion, also show the nails through the palms. Historical Roman accounts and experimental work have established that the nails were driven between the small bones of the wrists (radial and ulna) and not through the palms. Nails driven through the palms will strip out between the fingers when made to support the weight of the human body.

The misconception may have come about through a misunderstanding of Jesus’ words to Thomas, “Observe my hands.” Anatomists, both modern and ancient, have always considered the wrist as part of the hand.

A titulus, or small sign, stating the victim’s crime was usually placed on a staff, carried at the front of the procession from the prison, and later nailed to the cross so that it extended above the head. This sign with its staff nailed to the top of the cross would have given it somewhat the characteristic form of the Latin cross.

But, of course, the physical passion of the Christ began in Gethsemane. Of the many aspects of this initial suffering, the one of greatest physiological interest is the bloody sweat. It is interesting that St. Luke, the physician, is the only one to mention this. He says, “And being in Agony, He prayed the longer. And His sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground.”

Every ruse (trick) imaginable has been used by modern scholars to explain away this description, apparently under the mistaken impression that this just doesn’t happen. A great deal of effort could have been saved had the doubters consulted the medical literature.

Though very rare, the phenomenon of Hematidrosis, or bloody sweat, is well documented. Under great emotional stress of the kind our Lord suffered, tiny capillaries in the sweat glands can break, thus mixing blood with sweat. This process might well have produced marked weakness and possible shock.

After the arrest in the middle of the night, Jesus was next brought before the Sanhedrin and Caiphus, the High Priest; it is here that the first physical trauma was inflicted. A soldier struck Jesus across the face for remaining silent when questioned by Caiphus. The palace guards then blindfolded Him and mockingly taunted Him to identify them as they each passed by, spat upon Him, and struck Him in the face.

In the early morning, battered and bruised, dehydrated, and exhausted from a sleepless night, Jesus is taken across the Praetorium of the Fortress Antonia, the seat of government of the Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. You are, of course, familiar with Pilate’s action in attempting to pass responsibility to Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Judea. Jesus apparently suffered no physical mistreatment at the hands of Herod and was returned to Pilate. It was in response to the cries of the mob, that Pilate ordered Bar-Abbas released and condemned Jesus to scourging and crucifixion.

There is much disagreement among authorities about the unusual scourging as a prelude to crucifixion. Most Roman writers from this period do not associate the two. Many scholars believe that Pilate originally ordered Jesus scourged as his full punishment and that the death sentence by crucifixion came only in response to the taunt by the mob that the Procurator was not properly defending Caesar against this pretender who allegedly claimed to be the King of the Jews.

Preparations for the scourging were carried out when the Prisoner was stripped of His clothing and His hands tied to a post above His head. It is doubtful the Romans would have made any attempt to follow the Jewish law in this matter, but the Jews had an ancient law prohibiting more than forty lashes.

The Roman legionnaire steps forward with the flagrum (or flagellum) in his hand. This is a short whip consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near the ends of each. The heavy whip is brought down with full force again and again across Jesus’ shoulders, back, and legs. At first the thongs cut through the skin only.

Then, as the blows continue, they cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles.

The small balls of lead first produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by subsequent blows. Finally the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. When it is determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped.

The half-fainting Jesus is then untied and allowed to slump to the stone pavement, wet with His own blood. The Roman soldiers see a great joke in this provincial Jew claiming to be king. They throw a robe across His shoulders and place a stick in His hand for a scepter.

They still need a crown to make their travesty complete. Flexible branches covered with long thorns (commonly used in bundles for firewood) are plaited into the shape of a crown and this is pressed into His scalp. Again there is copious bleeding, the scalp being one of the most vascular areas of the body.

After mocking Him and striking Him across the face, the soldiers take the stick from His hand and strike Him across the head, driving the thorns deeper into His scalp. Finally, they tire of their sadistic sport and the robe is torn from His back. Already having adhered to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds, its removal causes excruciating pain just as in the careless removal of a surgical bandage, and almost as though He were again being whipped the wounds once more begin to bleed.

In deference to Jewish custom, the Romans return His garments. The heavy patibulum of the cross is tied across His shoulders, and the procession of the condemned Christ, two thieves, and the execution detail of Roman soldiers headed by a centurion begins its slow journey along the Via Dolorosa.

In spite of His efforts to walk erect, the weight of the heavy wooden beam, together with the shock produced by copious blood loss, is too much. He stumbles and falls. The rough wood of the beam gouges into the lacerated skin and muscles of the shoulders. He tries to rise, but human muscles have been pushed beyond their endurance.

It did not end with the Romans.

The centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifixion, selects a stalwart North African onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross. Jesus follows, still bleeding and sweating the cold, clammy sweat of shock, until the 650 yard journey from the fortress Antonia to Golgotha is finally completed.

Jesus is offered wine mixed with myrrh, a mild analgesic mixture. He refuses to drink. Simon is ordered to place the patibulum on the ground and Jesus quickly thrown backward with His shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood.

Quickly, he moves to the other side and repeats the action being careful not to pull the arms to tightly, but to allow some flexion and movement. The patibulum is then lifted in place at the top of the stipes and the titulus reading “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” is nailed in place.

The left foot is now pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees moderately flexed. The Victim is now crucified. As He slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists excruciating pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain — the nails in the writs are putting pressure on the median nerves. As He pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He places His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there is the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet.

At this point, as the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by his arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed and the intercostal muscles are unable to act. Air can be drawn into the lungs, but cannot be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath.

Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream and the cramps partially subside. 

Spasmodically, he is able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in the life-giving oxygen. 

It was undoubtedly during these periods that He uttered the seven short sentences recorded:

The first, looking down at the Roman soldiers throwing dice for His seamless garment, 

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

The second, to the penitent thief, 

“Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”

The third, looking down at the terrified, grief-stricken adolescent John — the beloved Apostle — he said, 

“Behold thy mother.” 

Then, looking to His mother Mary, 

“Woman behold thy son.”

The fourth cry is from the beginning of the 22nd Psalm, 

“My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?”

Hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain where tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins…A terrible crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart.

One remembers again the 22nd Psalm, the 14th verse: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.”

It is now almost over. The loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level; the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissue; the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain.

Jesus gasps His fifth cry, 

“I thirst.”

One remembers another verse from the prophetic 22nd Psalm: “My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou has brought me into the dust of death.”

A sponge soaked in posca, the cheap, sour wine which is the staple drink of the Roman legionaries, is lifted to His lips. He apparently doesn’t take any of the liquid. The body of Jesus is now in extremes, and He can feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. This realization brings out His sixth words, possibly little more than a tortured whisper, “It is finished.”

His mission of atonement has completed. Finally He can allow his body to die.

With one last surge of strength, he once again presses His torn feet against the nail, straightens His legs, takes a deeper breath, and utters His seventh and last cry, 

"Father! Into thy hands I commit my spirit.”

The rest you know. In order that the Sabbath not be profaned, the Jews asked that the condemned men be dispatched and removed from the crosses. The common method of ending a crucifixion was by crurifracture, the breaking of the bones of the legs. This prevented the victim from pushing himself upward; thus the tension could not be relieved from the muscles of the chest and rapid suffocation occurred. The legs of the two thieves were broken, but when the soldiers came to Jesus they saw that this was unnecessary.

Apparently to make doubly sure of death, the legionnaire drove his lance through the fifth interspace between the ribs, upward through the pericardium and into the heart. The 34th verse of the 19th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John reports: “And immediately there came out blood and water.”

That is, there was an escape of water fluid from the sac surrounding the heart, giving postmortem evidence that Our Lord died not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of heart failure (a broken heart) due to shock and constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium.

Thus we have had our glimpse — including the medical evidence — of that epitome of evil which man has exhibited toward Man and toward God. 

It has been a terrible sight, and more than enough to leave us despondent and depressed.

This, endured, for me: for you: for all mankind.

Drink deep.

Christ drank from a bitter, bitter cup, to bring us a far better one.

Pax