This painting, depicting the torture of the one most innocent, compels us to ask: How often do we shift blame, accuse, and scapegoat rather than repent and take responsibility? How do we treat the weak and broken we encounter — as burdens on our lives to be discarded or as fellow beloved children of God? As we meditate on Christ’s suffering at the hands of humanity, may we recognize our own complicity in the world’s injustice and seek to restore, heal, and love.

_{^{Image Credit: Aert Mytens (Flemish, 1541 – 1602), Christ Crowned with Thorns, ca. 1590-1600, Oil on canvas. Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame. Gifts of Peter Reilly, Joseph McCrindle, Nathan Cummings, and Paul Manheim, by Exchange, 1981.013}}