The Crucifixion
See
Jerusalem at the Crucifixion. Look at the crowd winding through the
dark narrow thoroughfares, pouring through the judgment gate, and congregating
in vast masses round the place of execution. The three condemned
painfully toil up the little mound outside the wall known as the place
of Calvary.
The
soldiers clear a space on the summit. The crosses are thrown on the
ground. Contemplate with love and compassion our Blessed Lord, Whom
the soldiers drag to the place of crucifixion. See the agony of Jesus
as they take off the crown of thorns. It has been so knocked about,
so roughly removed and replaced, that His Head is a mass of wounds.
See His Sacred Body as these cruel men drag off His garments, thus scourging
Him a second time, since all His gashes to which His clothes adhered are
torn apart afresh. His Sacred Body is but one wound: not the lightest
texture could touch it without causing Him awful agony. It is an
expiation of our vanity and self-indulgence that Jesus would have His vesture
during the whole of His Passion a source of torture to Him. The sweat
of blood in the Garden, which trickled down to the ground, must have first
saturated His garments. Think how hard and stiff they would have
become when dry, what agony they would cause Him after the scourging and
along the Way of the Cross, as they rubbed against the raw wounds, when
they were dragged off, and when He fell.
Watch the perfect obedience of Jesus even unto death. The executioners
order Him to lie down upon the Cross that they may take the measure for
the nails. Jesus submits at once, and does exactly as they tell Him.
This done, they thrust Him aside while they bore the holes in the wood.
All is ready-- Jesus is seized by the executioners and thrown down on the
Cross like a helpless victim. Note again His obedience; He stretches
Himself upon it voluntarily...
...How
touchingly beautiful Jesus is as he lies there in His disfigurement!
How venerable in His shame! The Eternal God upon the Cross with His
eyes upraised to Heaven! The agony of His human Soul is beyond words.
Every pain from now to the death struggle is vividly present to Him.
He does not divert His mind from it. He does not seek to repulse
the horror it produces, but allows it to assail Him with the most vehement
repugnance. Ah! Look long and with deepest love and sympathy
at our dear Jesus, as He lies there, nailed to the Cross. His whole
body is terribly distended; every nerve is twitching and quivering with
intense anguish. His face is deathly pale, and covered with blood.
Ah! How different is the live Crucifix from the white figure, unscathed
except for the wounds of the hands and feet, that we behold so often and
so heedlessly! The form of Jesus crucified on Calvary is a sight
almost too fearful to look upon.
And what does our dear Jesus think? What does He feel? His
own words tell us best: "Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do." He
begins at once His work of Mediator; begins, as men are nailing Him
to the Cross, to secure their pardon-- would not His charity prove Him
to be Divine, were all other evidence wanting? And, He asks it so
pleadingly! Supporting His petition by the most touching motives.
And now the Cross with its Sacred Burden is pushed to the place where
it is to stand, and raised by means of ropes and ladders; with many a
reel and stagger it is dropped into the hole. Oh! The intolerable
pain our dear Lord endures at every jerk and movement, especially the dreadful
shock with which the Cross falls into the hole. The whole weight of
the disjointed frame is now borne by the wounded Hands and Feet.
His Head falls forward, unable in its agony to hold itself erect.
There Jesus hangs between Heaven and earth, a picture of the most terrible
misery, abandonment and pain. Rivulets of blood flow from the wounds
of the Feet and Hands over the Arms and Feet and down the stem of the Cross.
So the Cross is erected, and overshadows the earth for the first time,
as an incontestable token of the justice and mercy of God. Jesus
sees into every soul there. He knows what He has done for each; what
He is doing now for each. He offers His torments and His death, not
only for all before Him there, but for every soul that has been created,
and that is to be created, to the end of time.
O,
mercy of the Sacred Heart! O, tender and forgiving Lord! Who
will fear Thy condemnation! Who will fear Thee as Judge even, provided
we do not refuse the pardon for which Thou pleadest so earnestly!
O, my dear Jesus, can I ever mistrust or doubt Thy most earnest desire
to save me? Help me, my God, to understand what sin is-- to hate
it, because it grieves Thee. O, Jesus, make my heart like unto Thine,
patient, kind, thinking no evil, bearing all things, enduring all things!
"Father, forgive them" --
In Thy prayer, my Jesus, is my trust. Draw me closer to Thee, my
God, by the grace of perfect love and sorrow.
O, Eternal Father, for the love of Jesus, and in the name of Jesus, receive me for Him, Who
gave Himself for me, and for His dear sake grant me pardon, absolution,
and full remission of all my sins.
O, Mother, imprint deeply in my heart the wounds of thy Crucified Son.
Jesus and Mary! May your dear and blessed Names be engraved on my
heart, and may my last words be, "Jesus and Mary! I love you and
give you my heart and my life!" Amen.
