For there can be no compromise between God and sin, however unimportant we may choose to regard our own particular sins.  God’s nature and character is one of dazzling, blinding holiness: there is no gradual shading off so as to merge imperceptibly with the bad in us.  As Our Blessed Lord declared, it is the pure in heart who shall see God; and only he can purify the heart which has been soiled by sin and make it clean, and that was what he came to do.

And the cost of his mission is seen most vividly in its last 24 hours.  Our Lord’s Passion – or Sufferings – is generally reckoned as beginning with the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, but a new phase was reached when he was scourged – flogged that is, with a whip composed of several leather strips to which were attached sharp objects, such as glass, nails and rocks.  Scourging resulted in severe wounds to the skin and underlying flesh. (1) This was the normal preliminary to crucifixion.