Healing Wounded Masculinity

"On Him lay the sins of us all."

July 10, 1989

"Felt lead by the Lord today to pray the Sorrowful Mysteries as a healing for our wounded masculinity. As this was fruitful for me, I will write it down and pass it on to other men who might be helped by it.

• "First Sorrowful Mystery: Agony in the Garden teaches us that Christ's Obedience uproots man's (esp young men's) rebelliousness and willfulness that wants to apply his own power to his own projects. I.e., "the egocentric masculine untempered by the transcendent masculine will.."
• "Second Sorrowful Mystery: Flogging at the pillar teaches us how to uproot immature masculine power that expresses itself in thrill seeking and dominating others either physically or emotionally. This False Vitality is overcome here by Jesus' True Vitality in the face of brute force. 
• "Third Sorrowful Mystery:  Jesus is crowned with thorns, mocked and ridiculed. He thereby uproots men's reliance on honor that the world bestows on us for our successes...such as money, degrees, larger homes/cars and all the trappings that only belong to this world and are, therefore, passing. By the blood He shed in this Mystery, Christ dissolves False Importance or our drive to establish our little kingdoms.
• "Fourth Sorrowful Mystery:  Jesus carries His Cross to Calvary and thereby uproots the refuge that man tends to take in his aloneness...I.e., the cold comfort he feels in self-pity, in isolation, in setting himself apart from all the 'needy' in this world. The Cross, by contrast, is a personal and a collective burden. 'Weep not for me but for yourselves and your children..', Jesus tells the women by the side of road. Similarly, Simon of Cyrene has to help Him or He wouldn't have made it. Therefore, by allowing Himself to be helped, Christ dissolves our False Independence.
• "Fifth Sorrowful Mystery:  By the Crucifixion, Jesus uproots all that remains of our false ego, of uncaring man bent on his own private projects and life-scripts; of any meaning that we derive from our philosophies, ideologies, politics or any idols erected by man's refusal to submit and give his life totally to others. This very physical act conquers our False Transcendence.