The Sorrowful Mysteries - Meditations of Bl. Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko
The Agony in the Garden
Life must be lived with dignity, because there is only one… To preserve dignity in order to be able to increase good and overcome evil is to remain inwardly free even in conditions of external enslavement, to remain oneself in every life situation. As sons we cannot be slaves, because divine sonship carries with it the heritage of freedom; freedom is given to man as a dimension of his greatness.
The Scourging at the Pillar
To preserve dignity in order to be able to increase good and overcome evil is to be guided in life by justice. Justice flows from truth. The more truth and love there is in a person, the more justice there is. Justice must go hand in hand with love. For without love one cannot be fully just. Where love and goodness are lacking, hatred and violence enter in their place… Everyone without exception has the duty to practice justice and to call for justice.
The Crowning with Thorns
We must learn to distinguish lies from the truth. It is not easy in the times in which we live, it is not easy in the times about which a modern poet said that ”never before have our backs been so cruelly whipped with the lash of lies and hypocrisy”… It is not easy today, when a Catholic is not only forbidden to fight the views of an opponent or polemicize in any other way, but is simply not allowed to defend his own convictions or universal human convictions… Only for chaff does one not pay. For the wheat grain of truth one sometimes has to pay.
The Carrying of the Cross
To overcome with good, one must care for the virtue of fortitude. The virtue of fortitude is the overcoming of human weakness, especially fear and dread. A Christian must remember that… ”one should fear only the betrayal of Christ for a few silver coins of sterile peace.” For a Christian, the mere condemnation of evil, lies, cowardice, enslavement, hatred, and violence cannot suffice, but he himself must be a true witness, advocate, and defender of justice, goodness, truth, freedom, and love. He must courageously demand these values for himself and for others.
The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus
In order to overcome evil with good and preserve human dignity, one must not fight with violence… Whoever has failed to conquer with heart and mind attempts to conquer with violence. Every manifestation of violence proves moral inferiority… An idea that is capable of life conquers by itself, millions follow it spontaneously. ”Solidarity” astonished the world so quickly precisely because it did not fight with violence, but on its knees, with the rosary in hand, at field altars, it demanded dignity for human labor, and dignity and respect for man.