Matthew 27

Matthew 27:2

JESUS BEFORE PILATE AND HEROD

[Matthew 27. 2. Mark 13. 1. Luke 24. 1. John 19. 28]

THE great council of the Jews, called the Sanhedrim, could not pronounce the final sentence of death without the permission of the Roman governor. Therefore the chief priests and the ancients of the people led Jesus before Pontius Pilate, who then governed Judaea for the Roman emperor. Pilate went out¹ to the excited crowd, and asked: “What accusation² bring you against this Man?” They answered³: “We have found Him perverting our nation⁴, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar, saying that He is Christ the King.‘⁵

¹ Went out. The chief priests and ancients would not enter the hall of justice, for fear of being defiled; for to enter the house of the Gentile Pilate would have made them legally unclean, and excluded them from the paschal sacrifices.

² What accusation. These words showed the Jews that Pilate would not consent to confirm their sentence without further investigation as to its justice. This vexed them, and they answered impatiently: “If He were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered Him up to thee”, or, in other words: “Do not stand on ceremony, but just confirm our sentence, and let it be executed.” Pilate, therefore, answered them back: “Take Him, and judge Him according to your law.” The proud Roman meant to say: “If you will not prove the justice of your sentence before my judgment seat, He deserves no more punishment than you yourselves can inflict.” But the Jews replied: “It is not lawful for us to put any man to death.” “We cannot be satisfied with any petty punishment; and on that account we have brought Him to you, so that you may have Him put to death.”

³ They answered. They now saw that it would be necessary to bring a valid accusation against Him, if they wished to ensure His being put to death. They themselves had condemned Him on account of His presumed blasphemy, the punishment of which was, by the Jewish law, death by stoning. Our Lord’s enemies, however, did not wish Him to be stoned, but preferred His dying the death of the Cross, which was universally recognized as the most ignominious of deaths. If they could secure this, they made sure that His memory would be branded with infamy, and that every person would be ashamed to be counted as a follower of one crucified. They now, therefore, changed their accusation to that of seducing the people from their allegiance to the emperor, such an offence being, in the Roman law, punishable by death on the cross.

⁴ Perverting our nation. From their allegiance to Rome.

⁵ Christ the King. This accusation was totally false, for Jesus had said only a few days before: “Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” He had, indeed, said that He was the Christ, the Messias, but He had never declared Himself to be king of the Jews; on the contrary, He had escaped from the hands of the people when, after the miracle of the loaves, they wished to make Him their king. The Pharisees, moreover, refused to recognise Him as the Messias, for the very reason that He claimed no temporal or political power.

— LXXIII. JESUS BEFORE PILATE AND HEROD.

Hearing this, Pilate went into the hall¹ where Jesus was, and asked Him: “Art Thou the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered²: “My kingdom is not of this world.‘³ Then Pilate went out again to the Jews, and said that he found no cause⁴ for condemning the person whom they had brought before him.

But they insisted that Jesus was guilty of sedition, stirring up the people from Galilee even to Jerusalem. To this charge Jesus made no answer. Then Pilate, seeing that He remained silent, asked Him: “Answerest Thou nothing? Behold in how many things⁵ they accuse Thee!” Still Jesus was silent⁶, and His silence surprised the governor exceedingly.

But as soon as Galilee was mentioned, Pilate asked if the accused were a Galilean⁷, and being told that He was, he remembered that Herod, king of Galilee, was then in Jerusalem. Now, Pilate wished to rid himself of a case, in which he was obliged either to go against his conscience or to displease the Jews. He, therefore, sent our Saviour to Herod⁸, that Herod might set Jesus free or condemn Him.

¹ Into the hall. So as to be alone with Him, and be able to carry on his investigation quietly and undisturbed by the clamours of the Jews.

² Answered. Jesus answered. “Thou hast said it (i. e. I am a king), but My kingdom &c. &c.”

³ Of this world. It is not a political kingdom, but a kingdom of truth; and, he added, “for this cause I came into the world that I should give testimony to the truth”, i. e. that I should proclaim truth to the world.

⁴ No cause. Pilate was quite convinced both by our Lord’s words and by His calm and dignified hearing that He was absolutely innocent, and had no thought of undermining the Roman authority, and without any delay he declared to the chief priests that this was his conviction.

⁵ How many things. What grave accusations they bring against Thee.

⁶ Silent. Our Lord, by His silence, wished to imply that His innocence required no defending. This eloquent silence made such an impression on Pilate that he was seized with wonder and admiration.

⁷ A Galilean. Jesus was from Galilee, in the sense that He had lived there from His childhood.

⁸ To Herod. He said to himself “I cannot condemn Him, because He is innocent. But the chief priests are so urgent that I should condemn Him to death that it would be best for me to wash my hands of the whole affair. In fact, Herod ought to judge Him, for he is prince of Galilee.” This was the same Herod Antipas who had caused St. John the Baptist to be beheaded, and it was by the unjust and cruel murderer of His precursor that Jesus was to be judged. The road along which Jesus went from Pilate’s house to that of Herod was thronged with pilgrims, and this was painful and humiliating for Him.

KNIGHT, Commentary, 2. ed — LXXIII. JESUS BEFORE PILATE AND HEROD.

Herod was glad¹ to see Jesus, of whom he had heard many wonderful things. He hoped to witness some great miracle. When Jesus was brought before him he asked many questions, prompted by idle curiosity. But our Lord, knowing his motive, made no answer² to any of his questions. Then Herod and his court mocked Jesus, and treated Him as a fool, and, clothing Him in a white garment³, sent Him back to Pilate. And “Herod and Pilate were made friends⁴ that same day, for before they were enemies one to another.”

COMMENTARY.

The Love of Jesus. Contemplate Jesus led about from one judgment-seat to the other, from Annas to Caiphas, from Caiphas to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, and from Herod back again to Pilate; how much He suffered from false accusations, scoffs, mockery and ill-treatment, and then remember that He suffered all this for love of you, and to make satisfaction for your sins, whereby you have despised and offended God.

Jesus suffered patiently, and has taught us by His example that we too should be ready patiently to suffer scorn and persecution for His sake, for faith and for virtue.

Jesus suffered undeservedly. The traitor Judas was not the only one to affirm his Lord’s innocence. The Roman governor openly declared: “I find no cause in this Man”; neither could Herod discover any guilt in Jesus, although the chief priests and scribes “earnestly accused Him”; and not being able to condemn Him, he treated Him

¹ Glad. This pleasure-seeking, worldly-minded prince expected to be amused and distracted by his interview with Jesus, and hoped that He would work wonders before him and his court, just as any juggler might do.

² No answer. Because Herod only wished to amuse himself and satisfy his vain curiosity. He cared nothing about the truth, nor did he trouble his head about the accusations brought against our Lord by the Pharisees (Luke 23, 10). His pride, however, was nettled by the silence of Jesus, which was so complete that he did not even hear the sound of His voice. He revenged himself by treating our Blessed Lord like a fool, and his officers and retainers did the same.

³ White garment. This was done to make Jesus appear like a ridiculous, half-witted would be-king.

⁴ Friends. Pilate had offended Herod by encroaching on his rights, but his action in sending Jesus to him flattered Herod, who took it as an act of courteous attention and deference to his position. Our innocent Lord had to pay the price of this selfish friendship between His unjust judges, neither of whom cared to do justice to Him. Jesus had much to suffer on His road to Herod’s house, and still more on His return to Pilate, for it was now broad daylight, and as He passed along, dressed in His robe of mockery and surrounded by Herod’s myrmidons, a crowd of people gathered round Him, at whose hands he had to suffer countless insults and injuries.

— LXXIII. JESUS BEFORE PILATE AND HEROD.

with frivolous contempt and “set Him at nought” as a harmless fool! The Eternal Father suffered His only-begotten Son to be ill-treated and insulted, but He did not suffer even a shadow of guilt to rest on the Most Holy.

God turns even evil to His glory. The chief priests and scribes were obeying the dictates of hatred when they demanded that our Blessed Lord should be crucified. But while they thought to gratify their evil passions, they were unwillingly and unwittingly carrying out the decrees of God, and were the instruments of His compassionate and divine love. It was the eternal counsel of the Most Holy Trinity that the Incarnate Son of God should die on the Cross to work for us “a plentiful Redemption”; and not only the prophets, but our Blessed Lord Himself foretold distinctly that this was to be (see chapter XV and LV). Thus, while His enemies desired to obtain at any price that Jesus should be condemned to the ignominious death of the Cross, believing that they would thereby destroy His work for good and all, they in reality helped to complete it, and to fulfil the prophecies.

The kingdom and royal dignity of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the humbled and suffering captive, spoke truly when He said to the representative of the emperor of world-wide Rome: “I am a king!” His kingdom is a priestly kingdom, of which He is both Priest and King, and which He governs by offering Himself up, and conquering the hearts of men. He who had not where to rest His Head declared: “I have a kingdom, but it is not of this world!” This kingdom of Jesus Christ is His holy Church. She is in the world, and for the world, but not of the world; she comes from heaven, and is the kingdom of divine truth and grace. When our Lord Jesus Christ stood before Pilate this kingdom was very small, but, since then, He has conquered to Himself lands and nations over the whole face of the earth, not by force of arms, but by the power of the Cross, on which the God Man offered Himself, and which is the sceptre with which He, as King, rules over His Church. Still the Church is a kingdom not of this world, for her object is no worldly or natural one, but one entirely supernatural, namely the salvation and sanctification of souls.

The hypocrisy of the Pharisees. The chief priests and ancients pretended that it was against their conscience to enter the house of the Gentile governor, but it did not give their false consciences even a qualm to accuse Jesus wrongfully, or to demand the death of One who was innocent. They guarded against any exterior defilement, but it never occurred to them to cleanse their hearts from hatred, envy and bloodthirstiness. We see how just was our Lord’s denunciation of the Pharisees: “Woe to you… who leave judgment and mercy and faith.” Those Christians who are outwardly pious, but who nurse hatred and enmity in their hearts, are very like the Pharisees!

43 * — LXXIV. JESUS IS SCOURGED, CROWNED WITH THORNS.

APPLICATION. See how patiently your Saviour suffered! He was falsely accused, but He answered not a word! He was mocked at and scoffed, but yet He was silent! And yet you are impatient and angry the moment anything disagreeable is said or done to you! Imitate your Lord for the future, and do not return evil for evil. Whenever you feel moved to anger, or impatience, keep silence and say to yourself: “O Jesus, I will bear this for love of Thee!”

Matthew 27:11

JESUS IS SCOURGED, CROWNED WITH THORNS, AND CONDEMNED TO DEATH

[Matthew 27, 11. Mark 15, 1. Luke 23, 1. John 18, 3]

PILATE well knew that it was through envy¹ that the chief priests and the ancients had brought our Saviour before him, and therefore he wished to save² Jesus from their hands. So he went out to the people again and said: “You have a custom³ that I should release to you one of the prisoners⁴ at the Pasch. Will you, therefore, that I should release to you Jesus or Barabbas?“⁵ Now this Barabbas was a murderer, who had been taken prisoner in a sedition of the people. Immediately the people, instigated by the chief priests and the ancients, cried out: “Away⁶ with this Man, and release unto us Barabbas!”

¹ Envy. At the respect in which Jesus was held by the people.

² Wished to save. Moreover, his wife, whose name was Procla, and who, though a Gentile, was much impressed by the Jews’ faith in one God, and had an ardent longing for the truth, sent to her husband, saying: “Have thou nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of Him.” This warning, given through his wife, strengthened Pilate’s desire to set Jesus free.

³ Custom. This custom was established in memory of the deliverance of the people of Israel from the captivity in Egypt. As the choice of the prisoner to be liberated rested with the populace, Pilate hoped that the people would ask for Jesus, to whom he thought they were attached, seeing with what joy they had greeted his entry into Jerusalem only a few days before. He thought they would choose Jesus all the more eagerly because Barabbas was a dangerous assassin, and was feared and hated throughout the whole city.

⁴ Prisoners. Belonging to their own country.

⁵ Jesus or Barabbas. By putting this choice Pilate abandoned the path of rectitude, for he classed together Jesus whom he knew to be innocent, and the notorious criminal who was indeed worthy of death.

⁶ Away. “Put Him out of the way! Kill Him!” So intense was their hatred of Jesus that they would not even bring themselves to pronounce His Name. They impetuously demanded that the criminal should be pardoned, and that He who was innocent should be condemned.

— LXXIV. JESUS IS SCOURGED, CROWNED WITH THORNS.

Then Pilate said to them in amazement: “What shall I do then with Jesus who is called Christ?“¹ They² cried out with savage fury: “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Pilate, still endeavouring to save Jesus, asked again: “Why, what evil³ hath He done? I find no cause of death in Him. I will chastise⁴ Him, therefore, and let Him go.”

He then caused Jesus to be scourged⁵. Immediately the whole cohort⁶ was assembled. They stripped Jesus of His clothes, tied Him to a pillar, and scourged Him. Then, covering Him in derision with a purple garment⁷, they plaited a crown of sharp thorns, placed it on His Head, and pressed it down, so that the thorns pierced the flesh and entered into the Sacred Head.

Then, placing a reed in His right Hand, by way of sceptre, they bent the knee before Him in mockery, saying: “Hail⁸, King of the Jews!” Others spat upon Him, and took the reed that

¹ Christ. Instead of saying outright and decidedly: ‘I cannot put Him to death, because it would be unjust, seeing He has done no evil’. Pilate in the most cowardly manner left the fate of Jesus in the hands of the people.

² They. It was not only the chief priests and ancients who said this, but also the people, at their instigation.

³ What evil. At least tell me why you wish to have him crucified, for I can find no cause of death in Him.

⁴ Chastise. Have Him scourged, just to satisfy you. In order to appease the bloodthirstiness of the clamouring mob, the unjust judge ordered that a man whom he knew to be innocent should be cruelly scourged! This compliance on his part, at the expense of justice, only made our Lord’s enemies more bloodthirsty than ever.

⁵ Scourged. These few words describe a terrible amount of suffering. A man sentenced to be scourged was secured by both hands to a pillar, and then several executioners together struck blows on his naked body with rods or scourges, made of knotted leather, into which sharp spikes were fastened. This mode of chastisement was so severe that very often those on whom it was inflicted, succumbed, and died under the strokes. We may assume that the scourging of our Lord was of a most severe description, judging from the wanton tortures inflicted on Him by the rough soldiery after the scourging. Moreover, it suited Pilate’s purpose that the chastisement inflicted on Jesus should be severe, as, the more tortured and suffering He was, the better chance would there be of the Jews taking compassion on Him, and renouncing the desire to crucify Him.

⁶ Whole cohort. All the soldiers who were in the hall of justice or about the premises.

⁷ Purple garment. This old red cloak was put on His shoulders in mockery of His claim to be king, it being the custom of kings to wear a purple robe on solemn occasions.

⁸ Hail. They crowned Him with thorns and paid homage to Him in the same spirit of mockery.

— LXXIV. JESUS IS SCOURGED, CROWNED WITH THORNS.

was in His Hand, and with it they struck His Head, driving the thorns still deeper into the flesh and bone. Every torment and

every insult that malice could invent was then inflicted on His Sacred Person. At last they blindfolded Him, and then they renewed all manner of insult and injury.

By this time the Saviour was reduced to a state so pitiable that Pilate thought the sight of Him would inspire the Jews with compassion. He, therefore, took Jesus out on the balcony and showed Him to the people, saying: “Behold the Man!” (Fig. 87.)¹ But they² cried out: “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”

Pilate exclaimed: “Take you Him and crucify Him, for I find no cause in Him.” The Jews cried out. “We have a law³, and

¹ Behold the Man. “Behold, how pitiable He is! See, His Body is covered with wounds and streaming with blood, His Head is pierced with thorns, and disfigured with bruises and blood.” It was, indeed, a sight to have softened the very stones, and Pilate felt sure that the Jews must spare Him when they saw how terribly He had been punished.

² But they i. e. the chief priests and scribes. The people themselves were, doubtless, moved to compassion by the sight of the sorrowful, thorn crowned Figure, but the chief priests and their adherents cried out the more vehemently. “Crucify Him!” for they feared lest mercy should gain the day.

³ We have a law. They now dropped the accusation of disloyalty to Cesar, for Pilate had declared it to be unfounded, and returned to their first accusation of blasphemy. “He has offended against our religious law”, they said, “and in the case of such a crime you cannot be judge. We have already examined the case and sentenced Him to death; all you have to do is to confirm the sentence, and see it carried out.”

— LXXIV. JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH.

according to that law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.”

Pilate, fearing still more¹, entered the hall, and said to Jesus: “Whence² art Thou?” Jesus gave him no answer³. Then Pilate continued: “Speakest Thou not to me? Knowest Thou not that I have power⁴ to crucify Thee, and that I have power to release Thee?” Jesus answered: “Thou shouldst not have any power against Me, unless it were given thee from above.”

Now Pilate sought to release⁵ Jesus, but the high priests and ancients, seeing that Pilate was disposed to favour Him, cried out: “If thou releasest this man, thou art no friend of Cæsar.“⁶ Pilate, roused by this sickening hypocrisy of the Jews, retorted: “Behold your king; shall I crucify your king?” The maddened crowd replied: “We have no king but Cæsar.“⁷ Hearing this, Pilate was afraid lest he should lose the emperor’s favour.

But being still convinced of the innocence of Jesus, he took water in a basin and washed his hands⁸ before the whole people, saying: “I am innocent of the blood of this just Man; look you⁹

¹ Fearing still more. His wife’s message had already made Pilate uneasy, and the calm dignity and heavenly patience of Jesus had inspired him with a feeling of awe. Never before had such a prisoner been brought to his judgment-seat. When he now learnt that Jesus made Himself the Son of God, his awe increased, and he suspected that He might, indeed, be some supernatural Being.

² Whence. Are you from earth or from heaven? ³ No answer. Because He did not wish to increase the guilt of Pilate.

⁴ I have power. By these words Pilate declares his own responsibility and therefore condemns himself. Our Lord’s words: “Thou shouldst not have” &c. bring this responsibility home to him with terrible force

⁵ Sought to release. Our Lord’s words made a deep impression on Pilate, and he made a final effort to release Him, though in what this effort consisted, the Gospel does not tell us.

⁶ Friend of Cæsar. Again they return to political intimidation, accusing this time Pilate himself or disloyalty to the emperor. This idea filled Pilate with fear, for the emperor Tiberius was a cruel and capricious man.

⁷ No King but Cæsar. The Pharisees avowedly detested the Roman yoke and the emperor, but now their hatred of Jesus made them explicitly acknowledge that supremacy which they had hitherto refused to recognize. “We will have no king but Cæsar” they cried, “We will not even have the Messias as king!” With these words the representatives of God’s chosen people solemnly renounced their Messias, repudiated the “Son of David” and rejected Jesus Christ, declaring that the pagan Cæsar was their only lord, and the sole leader of their people. This was national apostasy.

⁸ Washed his hands. So as to express that none of the guilt of condemning Jesus could attach itself to him.

⁹ Look you. Reconcile your deed to your own consciences as best you can.

— LXXIV. JESUS IS SCOURGED, CROWNED WITH THORNS.

to it.” The Jews cried out: “His Blood be upon us¹, and upon our children.” Then Pilate released Barabbas, and delivered Jesus² to be crucified (Fig. 88).

COMMENTARY.

“He suffered under Pontius Pilate.” The words of the Apostles’ creed do not merely mean that our Blessed Lord suffered during the time that Pontius Pilate was governor of Judæa, but are meant to show that Pontius Pilate was guilty of our Lord’s Passion and Death by his cowardly compliance with the Pharisees’ demands.

The Innocence of Jesus was supernaturally revealed a short time before His Death; for the dream of Pilate’s wife was a supernatural dream. In it God revealed to her that Jesus was a just Man, and that Pilate would incur a heavy punishment if he condemned Him to be crucified.

The Abasement of Jesus. It was a great humiliation to our Lord Jesus not only to be named in the same breath as Barabbas, but to have this ill-famed malefactor preferred before Him. Judas had valued his Lord at the price of a slave, and now the blinded people bartered away the life of their Messias for the liberty of an utter scoundrel who had robbed the peaceful inhabitants of Jerusalem of safety, possessions and life! Could a greater insult be offered to the Most Holy? Why did Almighty God suffer His Son to be so grievously insulted? The answer is this: It was our Blessed Lord’s will to be “reputed with the wicked”, and to be treated as if He were the worst of men, because

¹ Upon us. You shall answer for nothing! We take all responsibility on ourselves. We and our children will bear the guilt and the punishment, if innocent blood (which cries to heaven for vengeance) is shed.

² Delivered Jesus. Pronouncing the sentence of death on Him. It was now “about the sixth hour”, or near the end of the second quarter of the day. The Jews divided their day of twelve hours into four quarters, each quarter being known by the name of the hour which began it (or, rather, of the last hour which preceded it). Thus the “first hour” was the quarter from 6 to 9 o’clock a. m. of our time; the third hour was from 9 to 12 o’clock; the sixth hour from 12 to 3 p. m.; the ninth hour from 3 to 6 o’clock. Pilate’s first examination of Jesus, which was followed by his sending Him to Herod, began about six o’clock in the morning. When Herod sent our Lord back, and the second examination began, it must have been about nine o’clock. He was scourged, crowned with thorns, and presented to the people between nine and half-past ten, and the sentence of death must have been pronounced a short time before eleven o’clock. During the whole night, and up to that hour, Jesus was being ill treated, dragged about from one judgment-seat to another, loaded with ignominy, scorned, mocked, and tortured with scourges and thorns! Not for one moment had He been allowed to rest; no one had given Him even a drop of water to revive Him. If all this took place before He was condemned to death, we can imagine what sort of treatment He was likely to receive after Pilate had pronounced sentence.

— LXXIV. JESUS IS SCOURGED, CROWNED WITH THORNS.

He had taken the sins of all men upon Him, in order to make satisfaction for them to the divine justice. He took upon Himself the curse which rested on mankind, in order to bring to all men that blessing which Almighty God promised to Abraham, when He said: “In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Old Test. IX).

The vicarious Satisfaction of Jesus Christ. The divine plan of salvation is visibly presented to our understanding by the rejection of our Lord in favour of Barabbas, whereby the Innocent suffered for the guilty. We sinful men are so many Barabbasses, for we have robbed God of His honour, and have deserved death. But the Incarnate Son of God has taken our sins upon Himself, and has made satisfaction for

them to the divine justice as our representative, in order that we might be freed from guilt, and delivered from everlasting death.

Our Blessed Lord was scourged for us. The scourging was a terrible torture to our Lord Jesus. The very fact of being stripped of His clothes and exposed to the gaze and laughter of the rough soldiers was an untold shame and pain to the Most Pure. Then followed the countless blows of the cruel scourges. Our Divine Lord’s tender Body was covered with wounds and bruises, and the Precious Blood flowed on to the ground. But He uttered no complaint; no cry of pain crossed His lips. He was silent, He endured and prayed, offering each stroke to His Heavenly Father in satisfaction for our sins. Our Lord suffered this chastisement especially to make satisfaction for all our sins against purity and chastity. How grievous and shameful must sins against the sixth Commandment be, if Jesus had to expiate them so terribly!

— LXXIV. JESUS IS SCOURGED, CROWNED WITH THORNS.

He was crowned with thorns for us. In order to prove to us the greatness of His love and the grievousness of our sins, our Blessed Lord allowed tortures, unthought of till then, to be invented on His account. Such a torment, contrived with devilish cruelty, was the crowning with thorns, by means of which tortures were inflicted on the noblest part of His Body, His Sacred Head. Being accused of making Himself king, He was thus crowned in mockery and subjected to the malicious homage of His tormentors, who drove the thorns into His Head, striking Him with the reed which fell from His Hands, spitting in His Divine Face, and adding the sting of their scoffing words to this cruel treatment. Truly no son of Adam had ever endured such pain as Christ, the second Adam, endured, when He suffered the sharp cruel thorns to pierce His Sacred Head, in order to save us from the eternal ruin which the pride and disobedience of the first Adam had brought on us. Jesus, the King of everlasting glory, bore this for us, and carried the crown of thorns even unto death, to make satisfaction to the divine justice for our pride and all the sins which spring from it.

The following prophecies were fulfilled by those sufferings of Jesus about which you have just heard: 1. David’s prophecy: “I am a worm (i. e. despised and trodden under foot like a worm) and no man: the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people” (Ps. 21, 7). 2. The prophecy of Isaías: “There is no beauty in Him, nor comeliness. Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows. He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His bruises we are healed” (Is. 53, 2 &c.). 3. The prophecy of our Lord Himself (Mat. 20, 18): “The Son of Man shall be betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes (as was done by Judas), and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles (Pilate and his soldiers) to be mocked, and scourged and crucified.”

Mortal sin in its true aspect. Nothing is so calculated to show us the fearful evil of mortal sin as that horrible cry of the Jews: “Away with this Man! Give unto us Barabbas!” Any Christian who commits a mortal sin thinks, speaks and acts just as did those blinded Jews. Whenever there is a question between observing or transgressing God’s commandments in any important matter, then, we may say, Almighty God with His promises and Satan with his allurements are placed face to face, and man has to choose between them. The choice is put to you. Will you choose God, the most gracious, the most holy God, the source of true joy and of all noble happiness, His grace, His friendship, and His heaven so full of inconceivable bliss; or will you choose the prince of darkness, the liar and the murderer from the beginning, and the sinful pleasures which are all that he holds out to you? Whenever a man consents to sin, he, as it were, says to God: “I have compared together Thy service and that of the devil, and I find that Satan is a better master than Thou art, and that I can gain more from him than

— LXXIV. JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH.

from Thee; and that the sinful pleasures by which he allures me are dearer to me than Thy friendship and promises.” Thus the sinner insults his Lord and God in exactly the same way as did the Jews, when they cried out: “Not this Man, but Barabbas!” Nay, more; the Christian who commits a mortal sin offers a much greater insult to our Lord than did the Jews when they preferred Barabbas to Him; for 1. he sins against greater knowledge, and therefore with greater malice. He believes and knows that Jesus Christ is His God and Saviour, and has, moreover, pledged both faith and obedience to Him. Nevertheless he despises His Commandments, and prefers the service of His enemy, Satan. 2. The Jews despised our Lord at the time of His abasement, but the Christian sinner despises Him now that He is sitting at the right hand of the Father. 3. Barabbas, whom the Jews preferred to our Lord, was, at least, a man, made to the image of God; but the Christian who sins prefers to the Author of all good the most despicable things, the works of darkness, base lusts and passions. Mortal sin on the part of a Christian is, therefore, a horrible offence, an undervaluing of God, and a shameful want of gratitude towards Him.

Resistance to grace. The divine warning by means of Procla’s dream was a grace which Pilate, indeed, wasted; but by corresponding with it his noble wife obtained the gift of faith in our Lord Jesus, and as most ancient fathers tell us, the grace to die a happy death. Pilate, on the other hand, was degraded by the emperor, and was banished to Vienne, where he ended his guilty life by suicide.

Ingratitude and fickleness of the people. They one and all voted in favour of Barabbas: not one raised his voice for Jesus. Ingratitude is the world’s recompense for benefits!

“Behold the Man!” These words were spoken to us as well as to the Jews, and demand that we should contemplate the sufferings of our Divine Lord, admire His gentleness and patience, and take to heart the infinite love which made Him suffer so much for us. The contemplation of the sufferings of Jesus Christ is one of the chief devotions we can practise, and is calculated to fill us with a hatred of sin and love of Jesus, and to comfort and strengthen us in all our sufferings and trials.

The Innocence of Jesus. Pilate said repeatedly: “I find no fault in Him”, and spoke of Him as “this just Man”. When he could find no more words to express his belief in the innocence of Jesus, he affirmed it anew by the solemn action of washing his hands, by which he meant to say: “He whom I am condemning against my will is guiltless of any fault.” In other cases where a man, though innocent, has been condemned, the judge has always based his sentence on, at least, some appearance of guilt; but in this case the judge solemnly and publicly declared that He who was accused was innocent on every charge. Jesus was condemned to a disgraceful death, avowedly, in spite of His innocence: no breath tarnished the fair fame of His holiness. No act

— LXXIV. JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH.

of justice or law condemned Him to death; He was the Victim of those who hated Him, and who savagely and imperiously demanded His death.

Who was guilty of our Lord’s Sufferings and Death? — 1 Pilate bore a guilt which the washing of his hands could not wash away. He knew and testified that Jesus was innocent, and was not worthy of death—and yet he condemned Him to be crucified. By doing this he abused his power and violated the laws of justice. He sinned against the fifth commandment by condemning Jesus unjustly, and thereby causing His death. 2. The Jews, and especially the chief priests and ancients, were even more guilty than Pilate. They delivered their Messias to death, and killed Him with their sharp tongues, by means of false accusations. It is true that they did not quite know that Jesus was the Son of God, as St. Peter testified in his discourse after he had healed the man born lame: “Brethren, I know that you did it through ignorance” (Act. 3, 17). But their ignorance and unbelief were both wilful, because they let themselves be blinded by pride and envy, and shut their eyes to the light of faith which streamed on them from the life, words, and wonderful works of Jesus. 3. However, neither the malice of the Jews nor the weak compliance of Pilate could have caused our Lord’s death, had not the eternal counsel of God decreed that His Incarnate Son was to die to redeem us from sin and eternal punishment. It is, therefore, our sins which bear the real burden and guilt of our Blessed Lord’s sufferings and death, and cry out louder than His bitterest enemies: “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Let us, then, beat our breasts and say with S. Alphonsus: “Mercy and pardon, O eternal God, for by our sins we have nailed Thee to the Cross!”

Temporal authority is from God. “Thou shouldst not have any power against Me, unless it were given thee from above”, said our Lord to Pilate. God is the Lord of heaven and earth, and from Him comes all authority and power; so that all those whose duty it is to command others ought to exercise their authority in the name of God, and according to His will.

Fear of man led Pilate to condemn our Blessed Lord against his convictions, for he feared the displeasure of Cæsar more than the displeasure and vengeance of heaven. It was fear of man which also caused St. Peter’s fall, and which is, every day, the cause of countless sins. The true fear of God drives out human fear, and bestows fortitude; and he who cares for the praise or blame of men more than for the praise or blame of God, acts in a cowardly manner and has no living faith. Our Lord warns us against human respect in the strongest terms: “Fear not them that kill the body and are not able to kill the soul”, He says (Mat. 10, 28), “but rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell”, i. e. the infinitely Holy and Just God.

Israel is no longer the people of God. With wilful blindness God’s chosen and highly-favoured people disowned and rejected the Anointed

— LXXIV. JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH.

of the Lord, the Messias, for whom their fathers, the patriarchs and prophets, had yearned. Ever since that accursed cry “Crucify Him” was uttered, Israel has ceased to be the chosen people of God and of the Messias; for it proved itself unfaithful to its God, its calling, its history, and its past. The fate of Israel has been a very marvellous and striking one. God prepared this people during two thousand long years for the coming of the Messias. Every type and prophecy pointed to Him, and each day the Israelites prayed that He who was promised might speedily come. And yet when He came, full of grace and truth, to fulfil the law and the prophets, His people disowned, rejected, persecuted and killed Him! However, the delusion and passions of men could not frustrate the loving plans of divine wisdom; on the contrary, under the guidance of Providence, they served to carry them out. The chosen people killed the Messias and would not believe in Him, but Almighty God reserved to Himself a sufficient number of “true Israelites”, that through them, that is, through the apostles, salvation might be proclaimed to the whole world. Salvation came out of Israel, and through her gave life to the nations of the world, even though, by their own fault, it turned to the destruction of the unbelieving Jews themselves. The vengeance which they desired and called down, fell upon them.

The Blood of our Blessed Lord has indeed been on the Jews and their children. In the year 70 A. D. the judgment of God which they challenged overtook them, as has been described in chapter LX. The Jews had rejected their Messias and killed Him “by the hands of wicked men”, acknowledging the Gentile Cæsar as their sole lord; and now this Cæsar, by sending his army against Jerusalem, became the instrument of the divine vengeance. Many of those very men who had cried out: “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” were alive at the time of the siege and taking of Jerusalem, and themselves experienced its bloody horrors. Many thousand Jews died on the cross under Titus; a million perished partly by the sword, partly by famine and disease; about 92,000 were sold as slaves for a nominal price (thirty being sold for one piece of silver); and the remaining few were scattered over the face of the earth. Israel might have been the first among the nations if it had believed in Christ; but, as it is, it has simply ceased to exist as a nation. The Jews are dispersed, and are without home and country and temple, and for more than eighteen hundred years have been vainly waiting for another Messias. Every nation has its own prince or king, but the Jews, since the rejection of their true king, have had no king of their own; scattered about among all nations, they have as many rulers as there are rulers upon earth, but not one whom they can call their own! Thus was accomplished the fate of Israel, prefigured by that of Cain, affording to all the world a most clear proof that Jesus Christ, whom Israel rejected, is the true Messias and Redeemer.

— LXXV. JESUS CARRIES HIS CROSS TO MOUNT CALVARY.

APPLICATION. Fear and detest sin, for it is a terrible evil! If you are ever tempted to commit a mortal sin, put to yourself this question: “Whom shall I choose, Jesus or Barabbas?” Make a firm resolution never to commit a grievous sin for any price which the world could offer you, never to prefer anything to Jesus, but to serve Him lovingly, who for love of you suffered such shame and torments.

When Pilate asked the Jews: “Why, what evil hath He done?” they knew not what to answer. Let us ask our Divine Saviour: “What evil hast Thou done to be so inhumanly treated, and to die such a cruel death?” And His answer would be: “I loved you, therefore did I suffer these things. Behold the greatness of My sufferings, and you shall behold the greatness of My love. Will you not respond to this love, by loving Me in return?”

“I am a king”, said Jesus, though He knew that His royal dignity would procure Him no other crown but a crown of thorns, and no throne but the Cross. Look at Him earnestly, and with deep compassion. Look at this king crowned with thorns! See how He suffers, how He is ill-treated, scoffed at and mocked! See what majesty is His! Behold, the eternal King wears a crown of thorns for love of us, that He may kindle in us love in return. He suffered nameless torments to merit everlasting joy for us. He endured endless indignities to win for us eternal honour. He wore the robe of scorn to clothe us with imprishable glory. His royal dignity is one of love, for He desires to be king of our hearts. Shall He not, then, be our king? Cast yourself at His Feet, and promise Him that you will love Him ever more; and that you will follow His steps in humility and patience.

Think what a cowardly and disgraceful thing human respect is, and examine your conscience whether you have ever done evil or omitted what is right for fear of the wicked of unholy people. Fear God, and be afraid of no man.

Matthew 27:31

JESUS CARRIES HIS CROSS TO MOUNT CALVARY

[Matthew 27, 31. Mark 15, 20. Luke 23, 29. John 19, 17]

HE IS CRUCIFIED.

THEN the soldiers of the governor, tearing¹ from the Body of Jesus His purple robe, clothed Him again in His own garments, and laid the Cross, whereon He was to be crucified, upon

¹ Tearing. They tore off his purple robe, but not his crown of thorns. We may imagine what pain the process involved for His wounded Body.

— LXXV. JESUS CARRIES HIS CROSS TO MOUNT CALVARY.

His bruised and mangled shoulders. Bearing this heavy burden, He advanced¹ through the streets² of Jerusalem towards the place of punishment, which was called Golgotha, or Calvary³. Two robbers⁴ were also led out to be crucified with Him.

But Jesus, exhausted by long fasting and loss of blood, fell under the weight of the Cross (Fig. 89). Then the Jews, fearing that Jesus might die on the

way, forced a certain man, named Simon of Cyrene⁵, who was passing by, to help Him to carry the Cross to the place of execution.

¹ Advanced. Although He was completely exhausted, first from the effects of His agony and bloody sweat in the garden, and then by His scourging, crowning with thorns, and all the other ill-usage which He had received.

² The streets. The procession was a long one. Four soldiers had to undertake and see to the execution of our Lord, and besides these there was a troop of soldiers to serve as an escort. This troop was headed by a Roman centurion on horseback, while two soldiers marched on each side of Jesus. Behind Him came the two robbers who were to be crucified with Him, and who are commonly known as the two thieves.

³ Calvary. Golgotha is the Hebrew, and Calvary the Latin word for “the place of a skull”. The spot on which our Lord was crucified was called thus on account of the likeness which its shape bore to a human skull. It lay to the west of the city, near the walls, and was of no great height. It served as the place of execution of criminals, and it took about a quarter of an hour to get there from Pilate’s house. Jesus carried the Cross unaided until He broke down under its weight.

⁴ Two robbers. As if Jesus were a common malefactor like these men.

⁵ Simon of Cyrene. Cyrene was a commercial town of considerable importance on the north coast of Africa, where there resided a number of Jews. He was

— LXXV. JESUS CARRIES HIS CROSS TO MOUNT CALVARY.

Among the vast crowd¹ that followed Jesus there were some pious women², who shed tears³ of compassion on seeing Him reduced to such a state. But Jesus, turning towards them, said: “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For, behold, the days⁴ shall come when they shall say to the mountains: ‘Fall on us’, and to the hills: ‘Cover us’. For if in the green wood⁵ they do these things⁶, what shall be done in the dry?“⁷

When⁸ Jesus reached the top of the hill of Calvary, the soldiers offered Him wine mingled with myrrh⁹, but He refused¹⁰ to drink. They then tore the clothes from His already mangled

returning to Jerusalem from the country, and when he met the procession he wished to pass on, but the soldiers stopped him, and compelled him to carry the Cross, for they feared that Jesus would not reach Calvary alive, if He carried the heavy burden any longer. None of those accompanying the procession would touch it, for to carry a cross was the very type of ignominy. Even the rude soldiers, who would do almost anything for money, considered themselves above such a task. They, therefore, unjustly compelled Simon, a casual passer-by, to take the Cross on his shoulders, and, after that, he and our Lord carried it together, though, according to tradition, Jesus fell to the ground twice more before He reached Calvary.

¹ Crowd. The common people knew Jesus, and had hitherto venerated Him on account of His miracles, some even believing Him to be the Messias. But now that they were told He was proved to be a deceiver, and that He was condemned to death on this account, their love turned to hatred, their veneration to contempt, and they hastened to see Him put to death, accompanying Him with scuffs, derision and curses.

² Women. From Jerusalem, for our Lord addressed them as ‘Daughters of Jerusalem’. Among them was Veronica, who handed the sudarium (cloth) to Jesus. Mary also, the sorrowful Mother of God, was on her road to Golgotha, accompanied by St. John, to share the shame and suffering of her Divine Son. The meeting of Jesus with His Mother filled both their hearts with grief.

³ Tears. These tears of theirs reveal to us how horrible must have been the spectacle which they saw. In spite of the furious crowd, these pious women could not restrain their tears, for the torments and humiliation of Jesus deeply affected them.

⁴ The days. Days so full of terror that men will welcome a violent and sudden death as a boon.

⁵ The green wood. To Me who am just and innocent. ⁶ These things. These sufferings of Mine which you behold.

⁷ The dry. To the guilty and godless. Our Lord was thinking of the terrible judgment which would fall upon Jerusalem and the people of Israel.

⁸ When. It was then about noon.

⁹ With myrrh. It was the custom to offer this bitter drink to the condemned, so that their senses might be deadened, and they might not feel the pain of their crucifixion so acutely. The myrrh mixed with the wine gave to it a stupefying strength.

¹⁰ He refused. He would not have His senses dulled, for He willed to feel the tortures of crucifixion to their full extent.

— LXXV. JESUS IS CRUCIFIED

Body, and nailed¹ His Hands and His Feet to the Cross. They crucified Him with two thieves², one on the right, the other on the left. Naked and bleeding He hung upon the Cross, raised aloft³ between heaven and earth. Pilate wrote a title⁴ in Hebrew,

Greek, and Latin, and put it on the Cross. The writing was: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (Fig. 90). Many of the Jews were dissatisfied; they came to Pilate

and said: “Write not⁵: ‘The King of the Jews’, but that He said: ‘I am the King of the Jews’.” But Pilate answered: “What I have written, I have written.“⁶ And the soldiers cast lots for His garments⁷, even as the prophets had foretold.

¹ Nailed. Our Lord was crucified in the following way: He was first stripped of all His clothing, with the exception of a cloth round His loins. The tearing of His clothes from His Body re-opened His smarting wounds and renewed the pain of His scourging; but His greatest torment was in having His Sacred Body stripped and exposed to the gaze of the multitude. Then our Blessed Lord was extended on the Cross as it lay on the ground, and His Arms were stretched and fastened to the Cross by nails, driven through His Hands with a heavy hammer. Both His Feet were secured, one over the other, with one long nail, driven through both, into the Cross. The torture of this piercing and nailing of His Hands and Feet was indescribably great; the bones and nerves cracked, the blood streamed out. The whole Body was racked with pain. Then the Cross on which the Lamb of God was nailed was raised up, and fastened in the ground.

² Two thieves. Our Lord being in the middle, as if He were the greatest criminal of the three.

³ Raised aloft. There He hung, covered with wounds and blood, and His Head crowned with thorns, the nails through His Hands and Feet being His only support, while His Precious Blood slowly trickled down on this earth of ours, to cleanse it from sin.

⁴ A title. It was the custom to fix over the head of each one crucified an inscription telling the cause of the sentence. Hebrew was the language of the Jews, while Greek and Latin were the most widely spread languages of those days. The four letters INRI which are placed over our Lord’s Head on crucifixes are the first letters of the four words of the Latin inscription “Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudæorum”.

⁵ Write not. The wording of the inscription vexed the chief priests, for it was an outrage on the Jews to call a crucified man their king, such an one being considered dishonoured and accursed. I have written, i. e. it shall remain written.

⁷ His garments. Namely, His linen under-garment, His cloak, and His girdle, Jesus hung on the Cross in utter poverty and abasement. He was robbed even of His clothes, and had to witness how His tormentors divided them among themselves.

KNECHT, Commentary. 3. ed. — LXXV. JESUS IS CRUCIFIED. COMMENTARY.

The reason why our Lord chose the death of the Cross. 1. Because He thereby offered the most complete satisfaction for our sins. Man had offended God by a disobedience which sprang from pride, when he desired to “be like unto God”. The Divine Redeemer atoned for this pride by choosing the most painful and ignominious of deaths. Under the Old Law, the body of an executed criminal was hung upon a cross as a token that such a man was cursed of God and rejected by the people; and yet Jesus suffered Himself to be hung on the Cross when alive! For this reason St. Paul writes thus (Gal. 3, 13): “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law (i. e. from sin), being made a curse for us: for it is written (Deut. 21, 23): ‘Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree’.” By thus dying on the Cross, our Divine Saviour abased Himself as far as He could, so as to offer satisfaction for our pride. In like manner He atoned for our disobedience, for He became “obedient unto death, even to the death of the Cross” (Phil. 2, 8). 2. Our Lord chose to die on the Cross to show His unbounded love for us in a way which we could not mistake, and to move our hearts to love Him in return. When on the Cross, our Blessed Lord suffered the severest torments of Soul and Body, pouring out His Blood for our sakes, slowly, and drop by drop. “He hath loved us,” writes St. John, “and washed us from our sins in His Blood” (Apoc. 1, 5). “See”, says St. Augustine, “see the wounds of the Crucified, the Blood of the dying, the ransom paid by the Redeemer; His Head is bowed down to kiss us; His Heart is opened to love us; His Arms are spread to embrace us; His whole Body is given to save us!”

The Cross the Sign of Redemption. It stands upon the earth and raises itself towards heaven, to signify that our Lord, when lifted up and hanging on the Cross between heaven and earth, purified this sinful earth and reconciled it to heaven. The four arms of the Cross signify the universality of Redemption, all men being saved by Christ crucified. They are symbols of the four parts of the world, pointing, when the Cross is laid down, to the north and south and east and west, and signifying that all men, all over the face of the globe, have a share in the fruits of Redemption. In the Cross alone is salvation, and from it flow all graces and blessings. Thus it is that in all her benedictions the Church makes use of the sign of the Cross; and whenever a Catholic makes the sign of the Cross, he confesses his faith in the crucified Son of God.

Prophecies fulfilled by the Death of Jesus on the Cross:

1. That of David (Ps. 21, 17 19): “They have dug My Hands and My Feet. . . . They parted My garments amongst them, and upon My vesture they cast lots.”

— LXXV. JESUS CARRIES HIS CROSS TO MOUNT CALVARY.

2. That of Isaias (Is. 53, 7): “He was offered because it was His own will, and He opened not His mouth. He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be as dumb as a lamb before his shearer.”

3. That of our Lord Himself (Mat. 20, 19): “They (the Gentiles) shall crucify Him.”

Types fulfilled by our Lord crucified: 1. The tree of knowledge of good and evil (Old Test. III). 2. Isaac, who himself, going up the hill, carried the wood on which his father bound him, to sacrifice him (Old Test. XIII). 3. The paschal lamb (Old Test. XXXII). 4. The brazen serpent (Old Test. XLII).

The Compassion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Even as it was with our Lord, when He made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, so was it with Him in the midst of His sufferings, when He was being led out to death; He did not think of Himself, but of the dreadful judgment which would ere long overtake Jerusalem and all its people. On the former occasion, He wept over the blindness and inevitable overthrow of the holy city; and now again He thinks with sorrow and compassion of the misery of the people. “Weep not for Me,” He exclaimed to the weeping women of Jerusalem, “but weep for yourselves and for your children.” Having on the first occasion warned ungrateful Jerusalem in vain, He now, in the midst of His Passion, strove to save His very tormentors from the coming judgments. He bore no rancour in His Heart at the ingratitude of His people, who had loaded Him with injuries and were dragging Him to a shameful death, but mourned over the temporal and eternal woe of those who were so blinded by their passions. There could be no heart so noble and loving as the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

God’s judgments on impenitent sinners. Our Blessed Lord’s words: “If in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry?” have a deep meaning. If God thus punished His beloved Son for the sins of others, how will He punish men for their own sins! What will those suffer who are rejected by God, if He whom He loves suffered so much! The bitter Passion of our Lord Jesus is a practical warning of the terrible judgments which will overtake sinners.

The two mysteries of the holy Rosary, the Carrying of the Cross and the Crucifixion, serve to remind us of the indescribable agony of Soul and Body which our Blessed Lord suffered on His way to Calvary.

The compassion and courage of the pious women. The vast crowd which was following Jesus was chiefly composed of His enemies, who were hooting, scoffing at Him and blaspheming, as He passed along. There were, however, among them some few pious women, who, in their great compassion for Him, pressed through the yelling crowd, so as to be near Him. They paid no heed to the abusive words of the furious crowd, they did not fear the violence of the soldiers, but let nothing keep them back from showing their compassion for their

44* — 692 LXXV. JESUS CARRIES HIS CROSS TO MOUNT CALVARY.

suffering Saviour. According to a reliable tradition, Veronica, who handed to our Lord a cloth wherewith to wipe the sweat from His brow, was one of these weeping women. When she received back the cloth from Him, the Sacred Face of Jesus was wonderfully imprinted on it.

Carrying the Cross is both necessary and meritorious. It was to all men that our Lord said (Mat. 16, 24): “If any man will come after Me, let him deny Himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” Whoever, therefore, wishes to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ must take up his cross daily and follow our Lord, or, in other words, he must patiently bear all labours, burdens, and sufferings. The story of Simon of Cyrene shows us what a blessed and meritorious thing it is to carry the cross after Jesus. At first he strove against the honour imposed on him, considering it to be an indignity. Soon, however, he was seized with compassion for the Divine Sufferer, and from that moment he carried the Cross with joy. By the labour of love which he performed for our Lord, he obtained the gift of faith, and was consecrated bishop by St. Peter.

The devotion of the Way of the Cross places before us for our devout contemplation the sufferings of our Lord divided into fourteen stations, from His condemnation to death to His being laid in the sepulchre. The Church recommends this devotion very much, and he who devoutly practises it in a state of grace may obtain the same indulgences that are granted to the faithful who visit in person the sacred places in Jerusalem. The fourteen stations are as follows: 1. Jesus is condemned to death by Pilate; 2. The Cross is laid on the shoulders of Jesus; 3. Jesus falls under His Cross the first time; 4. Jesus meets His Mother; 5. Simon of Cyrene is compelled to help Jesus to carry the Cross; 6. St. Veronica wipes the Face of Jesus with a cloth; 7. Christ falls under His Cross the second time; 8. The women of Jerusalem mourn for our Lord; 9. Jesus falls the third time under the weight of the Cross; 10. Jesus is stripped of His garments; 11. Jesus is nailed to the Cross; 12. Jesus dies upon the Cross; 13. Jesus is laid in the arms of His most afflicted Mother; 14. Jesus is laid in the tomb.

APPLICATION. Contemplate the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ very often and very devoutly, that you, like the pious women, may be moved to tears. Do not, however, be content with a merely natural compassion for your Saviour so cruelly nailed to the Cross, but let it call forth within you a deep love for the Son of God, who offered up His sufferings for you. Let it awaken in your heart a great horror of sin, which brought all this suffering on your sinless Saviour. Weep for yourself and for your sins which caused our Lord’s bitter Passion, and pray

— LXXVI. THE SEVEN LAST WORDS ON THE CROSS.

to your crucified God that His Precious Blood may not have been shed for you in vain. Never miss the opportunity of doing the Stations of the Cross, especially during Lent.

Matthew 27:46

THE SEVEN LAST WORDS ON THE CROSS AND THE DEATH OF OUR LORD

[Matthew 27, 46. Mark 15, 34. Luke 23, 34 46. John 19, 26 30]

1. The First word.

MANY of those who passed that way, and saw Jesus hanging on the Cross (Fig. 91, p. 694), blasphemed Him¹ and said: “Thou that destroyest the Temple of God, and in three days buildest it up again, save Thyself. If Thou be the Son of God², come down from the Cross.” The chief priests also, and the scribes and the ancients mocked Him, saying: “He saved others³, Himself He cannot save.” But Jesus prayed⁴: “Father, forgive them, for they know not⁵ what they do” (Luke).

¹ Blasphemed Him. Jesus was hanging on the Cross, with His Arms unnaturally extended, His Hands and Feet pierced, His Body covered with wounds and bruises, and His Face pale and streaming with Blood. A burning pain ran through all His limbs, each slightest movement caused Him unspeakable anguish, and each breath that He drew was a labour. His Precious Blood trickled slowly down to the ground, His very life flowing out drop by drop. It was a long, weary death-struggle, and our Blessed Lord retained His consciousness to the very moment when He drew His last breath. Truly it was a sight to move the very stones “O all ye who pass by the way, attend and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow!” (Lam. 1, 12.) Those, however, who did pass by had no compassion, but blasphemed the crucified Son of God, scoffing at His Divinity, and wagging their heads as an expression of their scorn and unholy joy.

² Son of God. Thus assuming to Thyself divine power.

³ Saved others. They knew, therefore, and could not deny, that Jesus had saved many in a wonderful way, but their only gratitude was scorn: “Himself He cannot save!” said they, and blasphemed Him on account of His good works. How this ingratitude and malicious raillery must have pained the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and increased His sufferings!

⁴ Prayed. He neither threatened nor upbraided them, but prayed for them.

⁵ They knew not. How grievously they are sinning. Our Divine Saviour pleaded the cause of His tormentors with His heavenly Father, and excused their sin on the score of ignorance. They did not know that they were blaspheming against the Son of God, because they did not believe in Him. “With the bulk of the people it was the blindness of indifference, with the Pharisees and ancients it was the blindness of selfishness and pride which kept them from believing in

— LXXVI. THE SEVEN LAST WORDS ON THE CROSS. COMMENTARY.

Even as a dying father’s last words are indelibly imprinted on his children’s memory as a precious legacy, so ought we to observe and take to hear the words which our Lord spoke on the Cross. His first word thus uttered was one of intercession for His deadly enemies. Robbed of His liberty of action, and nailed to the Cross, it might have

Phot. Bruno Henschel Leipzig.

been thought that He was powerless to do anything more for His people. His Hands, which had distributed benefits, are made fast to the Cross; His Feet, which went about so untiringly in search of sinners, can move no more; His Head is incapable of further movement, being bowed

Jesus, and led them on step by step, until, literally, they did not know what they did. Their ignorance was, indeed, their own fault, but, such as it was, love used it as a plea for mercy” (Schegg). It was at any rate an excuse for the common people, that they were misguided by their authorized leaders.

— LXXVI. THE SEVEN LAST WORDS ON THE CROSS.

down under His crown of thorns. But His bleeding Heart is till unconquered, still beats with love for His tormentors; His Eyes, too, are free, and are raised pleadingly to His Father; His Tongue is unfettered, and with that He prays aloud for His enemies. In the midst of the turmoil of mockery and blasphemy, Jesus prays that His murderers may be forgiven. His Blood, innocently shed, cries to heaven for vengeance, but His loving Heart cries out for pardon. He does not remember that it is through His murderers that He is suffering, He only remembers that He is suffering and dying for them, and prays that even for them His Precious Blood may not be shed in vain. This first utterance of our Lord on the Cross shows us, then, 1. that He is the Redeemer of all men, and that He suffered and died as our Advocate and Mediator with the Father; 2. that Jesus is the Son of God, for even on the Cross He speaks as a Son to His Father, and the consciousness of His divine dignity never left Him even when He was brought most low. He suffered and died as the Son of God. It shows us 3. the infinite love of Jesus for His enemies. By forgiving His enemies and praying that they might be forgiven, He proved Himself to be the Son of God, more than if He had come down from the Cross; for love such as this had never been seen on earth, and did not spring from earth but from heaven, from the bosom of the Eternal Father. Our Blessed Lord thus teaches us not only by His words, but also by His example, that we should “love our enemies, do good to them that hate us, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate us”.

The fruit of our Lord’s prayer was that the Jews were given a long reprieve (till the year 70), in which interval many thousands were converted to the Christian faith, and were saved. Only a few weeks later, on the Feast of Pentecost, three thousand were baptized, among whom were, no doubt, many of those who scoffed at Jesus on the Cross, and for whom He had therefore especially prayed.

Blasphemy. The scoffers spoke contemptuously of the power of Jesus, of His Divinity, and of His royal dignity as the Messias or king of the Jews.

Unbelief. Now, would the chief priests and scribes have believed if Jesus had come down alive from the Cross? No! They saw the wonders which accompanied His death, and were convinced of the truth of the most wonderful of all miracles, namely His Resurrection from the dead, but in spite of all, they hardened their hearts and would not believe.

2. The Second Word.

And one of the thieves who were crucified with Him, blasphemed Him like the others, saying: “If Thou be Christ, save

— LXXVI. THE SEVEN LAST WORDS ON THE CROSS.

Thyself and us!“¹ But the other rebuked him, saying: “Neither dost thou fear God, seeing thou art under the same condemnation. We, indeed, justly², for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man hath done no evil.” Then he said to Jesus: “Lord³; remember me when Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom!” Jesus replied: “Amen. I say to thee, this day⁴ thou shalt be with Me in paradise"⁵ (Luke).

COMMENTARY.

The Conversion of the penitent thief was a miracle of grace won by the merits of Jesus Christ. When this great criminal saw the patience and gentleness with which Jesus suffered, and how He repaid injuries with love, and when he heard Him address God as His Father, he opened his heart to grace and believed that Jesus was the Messias and the Son of God. With this faith there was awakened in him hope and confidence in the power of the Redeemer to pardon him, and he prayed Him to have mercy on him. He had committed very great crimes in his past life, and had done no penance for them; but now, though he was on the point of dying, he hoped to receive pardon and eternal life from Jesus. Love for Jesus also entered his heart, and impelled him to do what he could to protect Him from the insults of the other thief, whom he upbraided for his blasphemies. From a robber and murderer he suddenly became zealous for God’s glory and the welfare of his companion’s soul. From his love for Jesus proceeded a deep contrition, which he made known by a sincere confession of his great guilt, whereby he had deserved the punishment of death. He accepted his punishment and suffering willingly and resignedly, in satisfaction for his sins. He did not ask to be delivered from his temporal punishment, but acknowledged that his sufferings were no more than his due. His

¹ Save Thyself and us. This wretched man only thought of saving the life of his body, caring nothing for judgment or eternity. As Jesus did not use His power to save either Himself or His companions, this robber turned against Him, and joined in the blasphemies of the bystanders.

² Justly. “Companions in misery ought to comfort each other, not to torment each other. Add to this that you and I have deserved our punishment, but this Man is innocent. Do you not fear to scoff, in the very face of death, at this innocent Man?”

³ Lord. The Jews addressed God alone by this Name. This thief (at the right hand of Jesus) believed therefore that our Blessed Lord was God, and would reign in His kingdom. His faithful and contrite prayer was heard, as the next words of Jesus show.

⁴ This day. Therefore, immediately after his death. ⁵ In paradise. With the souls of the just in Limbo. — LXXVI THE SEVEN LAST WORDS ON THE CROSS.

conversion therefore was very real and perfect, and our Lord remitted all his sins, and promised him the immediate possession of paradise. The fervour of his penance shortened its duration.

The Divinity of our Lord. This wonderful conversion of the thief crucified at His right hand is a further proof of our Lord’s Divinity. His enemies purposely crucified Him between two thieves, so as to increase the ignominy of His Death; but their intentional insult turned to His honour and glory, and Jesus, while still hanging on the Cross, drew the hearts of men to acknowledge Him as their Lord and King. “This thief”, says St. Chrysostom, “saw our Saviour in torments, but prayed to Him as if He were in glory. He saw Him stretched on His Cross, and prayed to Him as if He were seated on His throne in heaven. He saw One condemned, and called Him Lord. He saw One crucified, and confessed Him to be a King. O wonderful conversion!” All in a moment Jesus turned the sinner, whose crimes had merited death, into a Saint! This conversion shows, indeed, the might of the divine grace of our Lord Jesus Christ! And how, moreover, could He have promised paradise to the penitent thief, had He not been God?

To convert sinners is a spiritual work of mercy.

He who corresponds with grace will be saved, while he who resists grace will be lost. This important truth is illustrated by the conduct of the two thieves, in the same way that it is illustrated by the conversion of St. Peter and the despair of Judas. The thief on the left hand received quite as much grace as did the other, for Jesus prayed for both, and shed His Precious Blood for both. He saw the patience and love of Jesus as well as the other, but he resisted grace, hardened his heart, and thus died in his sins, and was eternally lost. On the contrary, the thief on the right hand corresponded with grace and was thereby saved. He left the cross for paradise, whereas the other left it for hell.

3. The Third Word.

Near the Cross stood Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and John, His beloved disciple¹, and Mary Magdalen. Looking upon them with tender affection, He said to His Mother: “Woman, behold thy son!‘² Then, addressing John, He said: Behold thy Mother!‘³ (John.)

¹ Beloved disciple. He was especially dear to Jesus on account of his virginal purity.

² Thy son. This man, John, shall from henceforth be to you as a son; for I am going to leave you, and depart from this world.

³ Thy Mother. Mary will be to you a mother, and, as such, you shall honour and cherish her. John fulfilled with joy this last testament of his beloved Master, and “from that hour took her to his own”.

— LXXVI. THE SEVEN LAST WORDS ON THE CROSS. COMMENTARY.

The Mother of sorrows. Words cannot describe what Mary suffered when she heard of the scourging and condemnation of her Divine Son; when she saw Him dragging the Cross along and heard the strokes of the hammer which were driving the nails through His Hands and Feet; and when, finally, she stood beneath the Cross, watching His Precious Blood trickling down to the ground, and heard the words of blasphemy which were hurled at Him. No mother’s heart has ever suffered so much as did Mary’s, for never did mother love her son with such a holy love as that with which Mary loved her Son, who was at the same time her God. To see His sufferings, and to be separated from Him, gave her unspeakable pain. Truly Simeon’s prophecy was now fulfilled: “Thine own soul a sword shall pierce” (see chapter VII).

Mary’s fortitude. In spite of the furious crowd, raging with hatred and envy, Mary fearlessly avowed herself to be the Mother of the Crucified One, and was eager to share His shame. She did not sink down, fainting and helpless, but “stood by the Cross”, and with a perfect resignation offered up her Son to the heavenly Father. It was as if she said to God: “Take Him, even if my heart break! Only let the world be saved, and Thine honour restored!” Under the Cross Mary won the title of Queen of Martyrs.

The love for parents. Peter and John were the two Apostles singled out and most confided in by Jesus. To the former He committed the charge of His Church, and to the care of the latter He consigned her who was to Him the dearest on earth, His Mother. To the last moment of His life Jesus observed the fourth commandment, and left an example to all children how they are to love their parents even unto death, and do for them all they can.

Mary our Mother. In the person of John, who at the foot of the Cross represented the apostles and the whole Church, Jesus gave Mary to be the spiritual mother of all Christians, of the whole Church and of all its members. In a far higher sense than Eve she is the mother of all the living, for she is the mother of all those who by the Blood of Christ are born again to eternal life. We ought therefore to love and honour Mary and turn with confidence to her as our mother.

— LXXVI. THE SEVEN LAST WORDS ON THE CROSS.

4. The Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Words.—The Death of Jesus, and the Wonders which accompanied His Death.

Now from the sixth hour¹ there was darkness² over the whole earth until the ninth hour³, while Jesus was in His agony. That He might drink the chalice of sorrow even to the dregs, our Divine Lord was abandoned at that awful moment by His Eternal Father. This was the crowning point of His terrible agony; for He exclaimed: “Eli, Eli⁴, laumma sabacthani”, that is “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew, Mark.)

After a few moments’ silence, He said: “I thirst.“⁵ (John.) Then one of the soldiers took a sponge, and steeping it in vinegar

¹ The sixth hour. i. e. from noon.

² Darkness. This was not a natural eclipse of the sun, for the Jewish Pasch was kept at the time of full moon, when a natural eclipse is an impossibility. This wonderful darkening of the sun lasted three hours. It began soon after our Lord was crucified, and only ended when He died. Darkness in the middle of the day is a very terrible thing. Men feel very uneasy, and even the wild beasts creep into their dens.*

³ The ninth hour. Till three o’clock in the afternoon.

⁴ Eli, Eli. Jesus had borne all His torments and insults without uttering a word. The impression might have been thereby given that though, as was the case with so many of the holy martyrs, He was outwardly tormented, He was inwardly full of joy and consolation. This opinion would be quite wrong. The terrible darkness that covered the whole earth was but a weak picture of the more terrible darkness and absence of all comfort which reigned in the Heart of Jesus. As His bodily sufferings increased, so did His Soul become more and more oppressed by the burden of sin which He had taken on Himself, and by the ingratitude of His people. His divine nature left it to His human nature to endure all this pain of soul and body, until, deprived of all help and consolation, His Soul sank into the feeling of being abandoned by God—the greatest of all sufferings for any soul which loves God. In order to make known this full measure of His interior and invisible pain, and with it the greatness of His love for us, He cried aloud to His heavenly Father: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me!”

⁵ I thirst. The loss of Blood suffered by Jesus, first on the Mount of Olives, then when He was scourged, and finally on the Cross, must have produced the most violent thirst. The first cry of a soldier lying wounded on the battle-field is, not to have his wounds dressed, but for some cooling drink. Moreover, the wounds of Jesus, being exposed to the open air, were inflamed, and caused a burning pain. He cried aloud: “I thirst”, to show us that He was not spared even this suffering. Even as the sense of abandonment by God was the greatest pain to His Soul, so was this raging internal fire the climax of His corporal sufferings.

• The darkness was observed beyond the confines of Palestine. The pagan Phlegomenions in his Annals that the greatest eclipse of the sun ever known occurred in the year of our Lord’s Death, and that at the sixth hour of the day it became so dark that the stars could be seen in the heavens. The Christian writer, Tertullian, who lived in the second century of our era, referred the pagans to the archives of the Roman State, wherein this extraordinary darkness was described as an “event which had astonished the whole world”. (Schuster-Holzhammer, Handbuch zur Bibl. Gesch.) II 549.

— LXXVI. THE DEATH OF OUR LORD.

and gall, put it on the end of a reed and presented it to His lips¹. But when He had tasted the vinegar, He said: “It is consummated!“² (John.) Then He cried out with a loud voice³: “Father, into Thy Hands I commend My spirit!” (Luke.) And bowing down⁴ His Sacred Head, He expired.

And behold⁵ the veil⁶ of the Temple was rent in two from the top even to the bottom, and the earth quaked, and the rocks⁷ were rent. And the graves⁸ were opened, and many bodies of the Saints⁹ that had slept arose. Now the centurion and they that were with him, watching Jesus, were sore afraid¹⁰, saying:

¹ His lips. That He might at least moisten His parched lips. ² Consummated. i. e. the work of Redemption.

³ A loud voice. This loud cry was miraculous, as was everything which surrounded and accompanied the death of Jesus. We who are of the earth die speechless, but He who came to this earth from heaven died, crying with a loud voice, to show that He had triumphed over death. In a general way men lose their strength before they die, and the tongue usually refuses its service, for those who are dying can either not speak at all, or else very feebly. But Jesus cried out His last words with a loud, far-sounding voice. It was as if death did not dare to lay hold of the Author of life, until He Himself bade it come. This loud cry was something so surprising that the bystanders, and especially the centurion, were deeply struck by it. In fact, He who had the strength to cry out so loudly, had the strength to go on living, and when He died, it was only because He willed to die.

⁴ Bowing down. When the soul leaves the body, the head sinks down on the breast, because the muscles have no more power to hold it up; but Jesus, before He died, voluntarily bowed His Head in token of obedience and resignation to His Father’s will.

⁵ Behold. This word implies that the following wonders occurred at the very moment when Jesus died.

⁶ The veil. Which separated the Sanctuary from the Holy of Holies. The hand of God tore the veil in two, and the Holy of Holies, into which even the High Priest was only allowed to enter once a year, was exposed to the gaze of everyone.

⁷ The rocks. Especially on Mount Calvary*. ⁸ The graves. Which were hewn in the rocks.

⁹ The Saints. The souls of the departed just rose and appeared to many at the time of the Resurrection of Christ.

¹⁰ Afraid. All the marvels that accompanied our Lord’s Death, and especially His loud cry as He gave up the ghost, made a deep impression on the Roman

• There exists to this day on Mount Calvary a deep cleft twenty feet broad, about which a Protestant explorer, after having examined, it writes thus, “I am convinced that this cleft was the result of an ordinary or natural earthquake, the shock of which might have rent the strata on which the mass of rock rests. Such a fissure would have shown the line of stratum, the rent would have occurred at the weakest part, but here, on the contrary, the rock is rent obliquely, and the fissure crosses the line of stratum in a wonderful and unnatural manner. It is evident that the rent is the effect of a miracle, such as neither nature nor art could produce. I thank God, therefore, who brought me here to behold this witness to His miraculous power, which so clearly reveals the Divinity of Jesus Christ” (Schuster-Holzhammer, Handbuch zur Bild. Gesch. H. 552).

— LXXVI. THE DEATH OF OUR LORD.

“Indeed this was the Son of God.” And all the multitude of them that were come together to that sight¹ returned to Jerusalem striking their breasts².

COMMENTARY.

The vicarious Sacrifice and Death of Jesus. The great work entrusted by the Eternal Father to His Son is consummated! That which the types foreshadowed, which the just longed for, and the prophets foretold, is accomplished! Jesus Christ was born in poverty and humility, lived a life of toil and hardship, poverty and persecution for thirty-three years, and at the end of it died a painful and disgraceful death. Those Eyes which beamed with gentleness and kindness are shut; that Mouth which spoke comfort to the afflicted and peace to all men is closed; those Hands which bestowed benefits all around are powerless; those Feet which left traces of blessings wherever they went are stiff; that Heart which beat with love for all men is cold and dead! The Good Shepherd has given His life for His sheep; the true Paschal Lamb has been slain, and has delivered us from the slavery of sin and of Satan, and opened to us the way into the Promised Land of heaven. He gave Himself over to a violent death in the very prime of His Manhood and in the height of health and strength, to redeem us from sin and eternal death, and to win for us grace and eternal life. The guiltless died for the guilty; and the Most Holy for the sinner. We have indeed been “bought with a great price” (1 Con. 6, 20).

The Divinity of our Lord was made manifest at His Death by His words and His deeds. a) Jesus, when dying, addressed God as His Father, and thus, with His last words, testified to His Divinity. b) Inanimate nature bore witness that the most terrible of crimes, even the murder of God, had taken place on Calvary. The sun hid itself so as not to witness the death agony of the “Sun of justice”; the earth heaved and the rocks rent themselves asunder, for He who laid the foundations of the earth and built the mountains was dying! Even the kingdom of the dead (by the opening of the graves) testified that the Lord of life had conquered death by His Death.

The abandonment by God was suffered by our Lord in satisfaction for our sins, whereby we have forsaken God and deserved to be eternally

centurion and soldiers, who were keeping watch over Him. The soldiers had seen many people die, but never had they witnessed such a Death as this. They confessed that Jesus was “a just man” (and therefore innocent) and “the Son of God”, and they were “seized with fear”, because they knew they had crucified an innocent Man, and hence they dreaded the punishment of God.

¹ Sight. The people who had flocked to see the Crucifixion of Jesus, and who had scoffed at Him

² Striking their breasts. As a sign of compunction for having crucified and insulted Jesus.

— LXXVI. THE DEATH OF OUR LORD.

separated from, and rejected by Him. By this suffering He merited precious graces for us, by means of which we can overcome temptations to faint-heartedness or despair.

The thirst of Jesus. The cry: “I thirst”, revealed not only the torturing bodily thirst which our Blessed Lord was suffering, but also His burning desire for our salvation and our love. The desire for our salvation was the cause of all our Lord’s pain. It is our business not that of His executioners to quench His burning thirst by appreciating and responding to His infinite love, and by caring for the salvation of our own souls.

The wonderful rending of the veil of the Temple showed 1. that Jesus by His Death had opened to all men the way into the real Holy of Holies, even heaven; 2. that the Temple of the Old Covenant, with its typical laws and sacrifices, had lost its meaning, and that from henceforth substance and fulfilment would take the place of shadows and types.

The rending of the rocks gives us an idea of the effect which the contemplation of our Lord’s sufferings and death ought to produce on us. At the sight of our crucified Saviour, our hearts ought to “quake” with terror at the evil of sin, and “heave” with pain at the thought of His sufferings; and they ought to be “rent” with contrition, even if they be as hard as stone. They ought to open and cast off their dead works and sins by a good confession, and rise to a new life with Jesus Christ (St. Bernard).

Holy week. Good Friday is a day of mourning and penance, for on that day sin caused the death of the Incarnate Son of God. On the sixth day of Creation God made man; and on the sixth day of the week, God Incarnate redeemed fallen man.

A summary of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sufferings of our Blessed Lord were caused by men, Jews, Gentiles and even His own apostles (Peter and Judas); by the light which revealed His nakedness; and by the air which inflamed His wounds. He suffered in His honour, by false accusations, insults, and unjust judgment; in His liberty, by being seized, bound and fastened with nails. His Soul suffered from fear, sadness and complete desolation, and from the scorn, mockery and ignominy that were heaped upon Him; His whole Body was tortured by the innumerable bruises and wounds of the scourging; His Head by the crown of thorns; His Face by the blows and spittle; His Hands and Feet by being pierced with nails; His Knees by being wounded and torn by His falls; and His Neck by the halter laid round it. His Eyes were wounded by the looks of His enemies who hated Him, as well as by the sight of His sorrowful Mother; His Ears were lacerated by the curses, cries of execration and blasphemy of His tormentors. Truly “from the sole of His Foot unto the top of His Head, there is no soundness therein” (Is. 1, 6). Added to all these sufferings

— LXXVII. JESUS IS LAID IN THE SEPULCHRE.

we must remember this, that the Body of our Blessed Lord, conceived by the Holy Ghost in a wonderful and perfect manner, was much more sensitive to pain than our bodies; and that the more innocent, holy and noble a person is, the more intolerable to him is ingratitude, injustice, and malice. The sufferings of Jesus were, therefore, inconceivably great. All this ought to serve to fill us with a horror of sin, on account of which our dear and Blessed Lord suffered so much, and impress us with the greatness of His love, which made Him endure all this for us!

To die a good death, we must do as our Lord Jesus did, i. e. resign ourselves entirely to the will of God, and commend our souls to the care of our heavenly Father, with a childlike love and confidence.

APPLICATION Just think what it cost your Saviour to redeem you! Will you not, therefore, make some effort to save your own soul? Jesus accomplished His work; He gave His Blood and His Life to save you. Do your part now: watch and pray; avoid and resist sin.

Our Lord suffered all this for you individually, as much as if you were the only human being on earth. You can, therefore, say with St. Paul (Gal. 2, 20): “He (my Saviour) hath loved me (a sinful, ungrateful creature), and delivered Himself for me.” But how have you hitherto loved Him? “If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ”, says St. Paul, let him be anathema or accursed (1 Cor. 16, 22). And if you picture to yourself all that your Saviour has done and suffered for you, you will understand the meaning of the Apostle’s words. In order that this curse may not fall on you, try (especially when you are looking at a crucifix) to awaken in your heart a deep love for your crucified Lord.