The Crucifixion is an event which is eternally and personally relevant to each one of us, and that is why it is a good thing for us to make our self-examination and acts of penitence with the Crucifixion in our mind’s eye.

That will help us to have a true sorrow for our sins, induced not by a fear of Hell but by a contemplation of his surpassing love for us.  Without that element of love our self-examination produces merely a list of offences against God’s law; and our penitence and purpose to amend become a superficial formality, rather than a deep and decisive move towards God.