Up to the point of actual crucifixion, Jesus bore the weight of many physical pains including an unfair and severe scourging, crowning with thorns, mockery, embarrassment, and much more. He endured greater physical suffering than most anybody will ever have the chance to suffer. Not only the physical, but the spiritual.
The following will be used to illustrate the spiritual pain out Lord endured and cannot be found in the book: Fulton Sheen once told a story of his attempt to convert a man on his deathbed. This man had grown bitter toward the Church and refused to see any priests or reconcile himself with God. Fulton Sheen was asked to go and see him, and so he did. He visited that man 40 times. The first times for only a few seconds, and further and further, he stayed longer and longer. Sheen even made a promise to God that if the man would be converted that he would donate $6,000 to build a chapel in an African mission. Finally, on the 40th day, it was clear that the man was going to die. He went in this last time and finally asked:
"Will you make your peace with God tonight?"
The man replied, "NO! Get out!"
Fulton Sheen answered, "I'm not alone."
"Who's with you?!"
"I brought our Lord, Jesus in the Eucharist."
The man was silent and so Fulton Sheen prayed beside him for 30 minutes. Then he asked again, "Will you make your peace with God?"
"NO! Get out!"
"Do you want both of us to leave?"
"YES, Both of you, GET OUT!"
Then Fulton Sheen, out of desperation said: "Before you die, please... please say this, 'My Lord Jesus, Mercy! Forgive me my sins!' Please, say it!"
Bishop Sheen received a call that night saying that he had died. When he has asked how the man died, the nurse replied that a few minutes after he left, the man began saying, "My Lord Jesus, Mercy! Forgive me my sins!" over and over and over again until he died.
That conversion cost Fulton Sheen prayer, a $6,000 chapel, 40 visits to this man, and a lot of pain and anguish. Now imagine that pain multiplied by the number all the souls that have ever existed on earth and you have a pretty good idea of what it cost our Lord.
If this were not enough, at the final scene, our Lord denied Himself one final thing. "He directs his consciousness into his own sacred humanity and, in a word at which heaven and earth tremble together," the "supreme outrage takes place." Our Lord had the Beatific Vision all His Life: a light that shone down on Him for guidance and comfort. "Behold, My Son with Whom I am well pleased." Beginning at Gethsamene, the Heavens were shut and when Jesus mounted the cross, his eyes were blinded of the one light that makes life worth living. He darkened the Beatific Vision from his eyes because he could not completely separate himself from it, yet his human soul became completely blinded from its precious consolation. As the soul, so the sky. A great darkness, which had not been known since the time of Moses, covered the earth. In order for us to depend on our Friend, he chose to show us how much he loves us by obscuring all that made life sweet and tolerable. He would endure pains of the soul similar to the pains of Hell so that we might know even his love when all around us is dark and we can't help but cry out heavenward: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" This, was the darkest moment the earth ever saw, when the dogs devoured their owner. And from this pit of darkness was born the greatest Friendship ever known, the likes of which no old testament covenant or revelation could ever match.
All this so that He may call us friends.
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