The Five Wounds of Jesus and Personal Transformation

For more than two millennia, the five wounds of Christ crucified have elicited a profound response on the part of artists and musicians and saints the world over. As an expression of the depth of God’s love for each and every human being, they have inspired heroic deeds on the part of otherwise very ordinary persons. No one can meditate on the unspeakable suffering those five wounds represent without being emotionally moved and in some way transformed for the better. Inflicted out of misguided hatred for Goodness personified, they have become resplendent instruments for healing, energy and forgiveness. From them flow living streams of love and compassion for all who reflect upon them with faith. The author seeks in this work to enable the reader to experience the divine significance of Jesus’ suffering and death as revealed in the four gospels and the letters of St. Paul. Additionally, he shows how Mary’s role fits into the picture and how the liturgy enables us to relive the mysteries involved. From the lives of men and women who have been transformed by their devotion to the five wounds of Christ, he has drawn examples for our own lives. And finally, he presents a portrait of three saints who bore in their own flesh the same five wounds that even physically made them so like the Lord: Francis of Assisi, Catherine of Siena and Padre Pio of Pietrelcina.

Grassi teaches New Testament and Christian Origins as a professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Santa Clara University, California.