UCSB LIBRARY '^f;
a
MEDITATIONS
ON THE
SACKED PASSION
OF OUR LORD
BY
CARDINAL WISEMAN
THIRD EDITION
LONDON: BURNS & GATES, LIMITED
NEW YOHK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO : BENZIGER BROTHERS
1909
PKEFACE
THE Passion of our Lord is the School of
Saints. To have understood His Passion,
to have lived in it, is to become absorbed
and mastered by a great love. Nothing is
difficult or impossible to love. He who
loves not cannot realise the power of love.
The Passion is the patent proof of God's
love for men. That proof must be exa-
mined in detail, if it is to be brought
home to our heart. The Passion is summed
up in the Crucifix. When the Crucifix
stands out before our eyes we contemplate
the greatest manifestation of God's love
for man. But to understand the Crucifix
aright we must have travelled through the
stages of the Passion. Neither shall we
understand the living mystery of God's
love for us in the Eucharist unless we have
understood the mystery of the Passion.
The Passion and the Eucharist are the two
great proofs of Divine love for man, and
VI PREFACE
the third is made up of His personal deal-
ings with our own soul.
The publication of Cardinal Wiseman's
Meditations on the Passion, now that the
history of his life has been given to the
world, is most opportune. Many will be
glad to take him as their guide and com-
panion during the six weeks of Lent, and
to be taught by him how to contemplate
the Sufferings of our Blessed Lord, and
how to make them their own.
While he was Rector of the English
College in Rome he used to rise very
early, and write out each morning a medi-
tation, which he then read to the students
when they came down to the Chapel. I
remember well his often speaking to me
in London of the interest he had taken
in providing the mind of his young levites
with suitable material on which to medi-
tate and form their spiritual life. He was
naturally inclined to build up a system ;
he was an intellectual architect ; he loved,
too, to decorate and embellish all that he
took in hand. Thus, his plan was to build
up the Spiritual life of the students upon
PREFACE Vll
a somewhat elaborate method which he
drew up with great care. Each week was
to impress upon the mind one of the great
eternal truths, one of the moral or ecclesias-
tical virtues, an incident from the hidden or
the public Life of our Lord, a mystery from
the Passion, and a characteristic in the life of
the Blessed Virgin or a motive for devotion
to her. In this way he thought that all of
these great verities, virtues, and mysteries
would become equally imbedded in the soul
during the forty weeks or so, for which
he had drawn out a series of medita-
tions upon each of them. The system was
perhaps a little more fanciful and specula-
tive than practical and real. It is hardly
in this methodical, I had almost said
arbitrary, way, that the soul loves to
drink in and absorb the doctrines and
devotions that are to become its nourish-
ment and its very life. We prefer longer
draughts, we like to drink in the touching
and pathetic truths of the Passion, not on
one day in the week, but for consecutive
weeks together. We like to follow our
Blessed Lord's hidden and public life with-
Vlll PREFACE
out break or interruption. We take our
Blessed Lady and we do not wish to leave
her until we have possessed ourselves of
her as a whole, or in her full relationship
to us. So of the great eternal truths, so
of other homogeneous subjects. I well
remember hearing many years ago, in a
great French Seminary, that one of the
directors had spent the morning's medita-
tion during the whole of Lent not on a
round of topics, nor even on the mysteries
of the Passion, but upon these three words,
" Jesus autem tacebat." It is not, however,
necessary to condemn one system, because
we may personally prefer another. " Omnis
spiritus laudet Dominum."
Shortly after the Cardinal's death, the
first volume of the series of " Meditations "
alluded to was given to the public. The
second volume still remains in manuscript.
I think that the publishers have been
well advised to put together a handy book
made up of the Cardinal's Meditations on
the Passion, and to offer it to the public
for service during the forty days of Lent.
About half of these meditations were pub-
PREFACE IX
lished, as I have said, some thirty years
ago, and are to-day out of print ; the others
are published now for the first time. The
characteristic of these meditations, as indeed
of most of Cardinal Wiseman's writings, is
that you will nearly always find in them a
"hidden gem." The beauty and richness
of his mind seemed to illustrate and justify
every topic he treated by suddenly striking
some vein of thought or some point of
feeling which, if not new, is at least pre-
sented in a new light or reference. Thus,
even where there is much that is trite and
familiar, you will suddenly come upon a
gem which will more than compensate for
any sense of labour or defect in style.
HERBERT CARDINAL VAUGHAN,
Archbishop of Westminster.
Feast of the Conversion of
St. Paul, 1898.
CONTENTS
MEDITATION PAGE
I. ON DEVOTION TO OUR SAVIOUR'S PASSION . I
II. ON LOVE TOWARDS JESUS IN HIS PASSION . 8
III. ON THE LESSONS OF THE PASSION . . 1 6
IV. ON THE LAST SUPPER 23.
V. JESUS IN THE GARDEN OF OLIVES . . 33
VI. THE SADNESS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN . 38
VII. THE FEARS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN . . 44
VIII. THE PRAYER OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN . 50
IX. JESUS FINDS HIS APOSTLES ASLEEP . . 57
x. OUR SAVIOUR'S SWEAT OF BLOOD ... 64
XI. JESUS IS COMFORTED BY AN ANGEL . . Jl
xii. OUR SAVIOUR'S RESIGNATION ... 80
XIII. THE KISS OF JUDAS 87
XIV. JESUS BEFORE ANNAS AND CAIPHAS . . 95-
XV. THE TESTIMONY AGAINST JESUS . . . IOI
XVI. JESUS IS ACCUSED OF BLASPHEMY . .107
xvii. PETER'S DENIAI 113
XVIII. JESUS IS DECLARED GUILTY OF DEATH . 1 19
XIX. JESUS IS BROUGHT BEFORE PILATE . .127
XX. THE RETRACTATION OF JUDAS AND HIS DEATH 135.
xxi. OUR SAVIOUR'S SILENCE .... 142
XXII. JESUS IS SENT TO HEROD . . , . 149"
Xll CONTENTS
MKDITATION
XXIII. JESUS IS SCOURGED ..... 157
xxiv. JESUS is SCOURGED (continued) . .164
XXV. JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS . .170
xxvi. JESUS is CROWNED WITH THORNS (continued) 177
XXVII. JESUS IS MOCKED BY THE SOLDIERS . .184
. XXVIII. JESUS IS PRESENTED BY PILATE TO THE
PEOPLE . . . . . 192
XXIX. PILATE WASHES HIS HANDS . . 2OO
xxx. THE PEOPLE'S ANSWER TO PILATE . . 208
XXXI. JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO THE CROSS . .215
XXXII. JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS . . 223
XXXIII. THE SUFFERINGS OF OUR LORD ON THE
CROSS ....... 230
XXXIV. JESUS ADDRESSES HIS MOTHER . . . 236
XXXV. THE PENITENT THIEF .... 243
XXXVI. JESUS THIRSTS ..... .251
XXXVII. JESUS SEEMS TO BE FORSAKEN BY HIS
FATHER ....... 259
XXXVIII. JESUS EXPIRES ...... 268
XXXIX. ON THE CONDUCT OF THOSE WHO WERE
PRESENT AT THE CRUCIFIXION . . 278
XL. OUR SAVIOUR'S SIDE is PIERCED . . 284
MEDITATIONS
ON THE SACRED PASSION
JFtrst fflrtitatton
ON DEVOTION TO OUR SAVIOUR'S
PASSION
i. Reflect that the Christian can have no
true devotion at all, if he have it not for
the sufferings and death of Christ. For we
can have no true devotion without love, its
only true foundation. And can we love
God without loving in a most special
manner our Divine Redeemer, bleeding and
suffering for the love of us ? Is there any
other consideration that will move us to a
deep and ardent affection when this has
failed ? Whoever therefore loves his God,
considered in the amiable character of his
Redeemer, who saved him at so much cost,
must often turn his heart and affection
A
2 FIRST MEDITATION
towards the spectacle which this purchase
presents him, and love to dwell upon it
with overflowing gratitude and melting
affection. The Passion of his dear Jesus
will be the daintiest though the daily food
of his best feelings, and he will feast upon
it at all times and in all places. The Cross
will be to him what the Law was to the
Jew, his meditation sitting down in his
house or going on his journey, coming in
and going out ; it will be more and more
before and between his eyes, not merely
by being mechanically imprinted on his
forehead by his hand, but by being the
scope and aim of all his actions, the ten-
dency of his desires, the object of his love.
His crucified Redeemer will ever appear
before him, giving him the standard of
his affections, the rule of his actions, the
measure of his words. Every one of these
will be found of just tally and weight, if
estimated by the Cross. His actions will
be all performed at its foot and under the
eyes of his dear crucified Lord. He will
not strain his mind or weary his imagina-
tion, by vainly striving after some concep-
DEVOTION TO OUR SAVIOURS PASSION 3
tion of God's infinite majesty ever present
and witnessing his actions ; lie will rather
see Him as He was on Calvary, visible to
the outward sense, benign, meek, afflicted,
and suffering cruelly for his sins. Oh, when
we contemplate Him thus, how powerless
will all temptation be ! how shall we de-
spise all its attempts to make us commit
anything displeasing to Him, who is dis-
playing for us such an excess of love ? Oh,
how trifling will our affections be when
endured in company of Him who, mocked,
scourged, and crowned with thorns, has
been hanging for three hours in torment
upon a cross for love of us, and asks us
to bear with our passing and light affliction
for His dear sake ! And then, how humble
shall we be in such a Presence ! When we
see the Lord of Glory, the King of Heaven,
the eternal son of the Father, thus debased
into the form of a servant, thus degraded
into a worm and no man, thus trampled
upon and humbled even unto the death of
the Cross, how will the highest honours or
the loudest praise, or the most widely
spread glory be able to elate us or to
4 FIRST MEDITATION
seduce our heart ? No ; he who loves the
Passion of His Saviour, he who makes it
the recurring subject of his meditations
and the unceasing object of his love, will
be ever fixed in the service of his God,
through good report and evil report, through
prosperity and adversity, through life and
in death. And at this last extremity in
particular, his devotion to his crucified
Jesus shall return with comfortable hope,
to cheer the gloom of his last hour, and to
bring him before the face of Him he loveth.
2. Reflect how it is good for us, at stated
seasons, to concentrate these sentiments and
give ourselves up exclusively to the contem-
plation of this scene. Throughout the year
we may wander with our affections from
place to place, and, like the patriarchs,
pitch our tents first on one then on another
of our sacred mountains. Sometimes we
will pause at Horeb and consider its mir-
acles and mysteries, when God sent Moses
on his mighty commission to save His
people; at others, we will stay on Sinai and
meditate on the terms of its Law ; we will
remain a while with Elias upon Carmel,
DEVOTION TO OUR SAVIOURS PASSION 5
P
and then ascend Thabor, to contemplate
its glorious visions. But every year it is
good for us to dwell for a time on those
three " mountains of myrrh," of bitterness
and sorrow, Olivet, Sion, and Calvary.
There may we make three tabernacles for
our souls, and spend a few days in the
study of their varied but affecting spec-
tacles. The Jews were obliged more than
once a year to go up to Jerusalem, there
to commemorate the blessings bestowed
upon them by God in their deliverance ;
and shall we, who have been redeemed by
Him with so strong a hand as was required
to wrestle with death and hell, forget once
in the year to put aside all other thoughts
and go thither where our Blessed Saviour
is engaged in the awful struggle, the issue
whereof is to be our salvation ? Shall we,
like His timid and faint-hearted apostles,
sleep while He fights and prays in mortal
agony, and hear from His lips His re-
proachful words, " Non potestis una hora
vigilare mecum ? " Or not rather demean
ourselves during those solemn hours, as to
be addressed by Him in those flattering
6 FIRST MEDITATION
^
expressions, " Vos estis qui permansistis
mecum in tentationibus meis " ? Surely
we should be confounded at our unfeeling
ingratitude, were we to allow such neglect
and coldness to come upon us. How wise
and provident, then, it has been on the
part of Christ's Church thus to put aside
this time for the dedication of our thoughts
and our feelings to the contemplation of
Jesus, her Divine Spouse, in His bitter
Passion. This holy season serves thus to
revive our faith and our devotion, so as
to give us a new stock of fervour for the
rest of the year. We meet it like a
watered spot in the midst of the wilder-
ness through which we yearly travel, as
an Elim in which are "twelve fountains
and seventy palm trees" (Exod. xv. 27),
where we may halt for a longer and fuller
refreshment. There we may draw waters
with joy from the fountains of our Saviour,
from His sacred wounds, whence life ever
flows. There we may dwell in deep devo-
tion upon His infinite mercies, His unspeak-
able goodness, His unlimited self-devotion
to our God. And surely we, in return, shall
DEVOTION TO OUR SAVIOURS PASSION ?
endeavour to our utmost to meet it with a
corresponding return.
3. Affections. " I will sit at the foot of
Thy Cross, Blessed Jesus, during these
days, as Respha did opposite those of her
children, and feed my heart with the spec-
tacle, though cruel it be, of love. I will
nourish myself in earnest and deep devo-
tion towards Thee, who hast not spared
Thy soul, but hast given Thyself up to
death for my good. From head to foot
Thou art all mine, Thy gift is written in
letters of blood, yea deeply engraved upon
every part of Thy sacred body ; Thou hast
written us upon Thy hands, that our
memorial may be ever before Thee. Then
be Thou, crucified, ever before us, not in
visible representations, but by being sculp-
tured in our hearts. Take to Thyself our
thoughts, which we here consecrate to Thee
in Thy Passion. Take all our desires,
which we wish to unite with Thee in the
Garden, our model of resignation and con-
formity. Take our affections and inclina-
tions, mortified and scourged with Thee at
the pillar. Take our abilities and natural
8 SECOND MEDITATION
gifts, that their pride, with Thy sacred Head,
may be ever hedged round with thorns to
check its aspiring ideas. Take our bodies,
that they may with Thee bear the Cross,
which they have deserved. Crucify in fine
with Thee all our affections, our entire selves,
that nothing more may remain to us, but
all be devoted exclusively and eternally to
Thee, our love, our hope, our Saviour."
3econtt JHetutatiott
ON LOVE TOWARDS JESUS IN HIS
PASSION
i. Reflect how unbounded should be our
love of our dear Saviour in His Passion.
For surely the love which He bears and
displays for us there knows no limits.
" Greater love than this no man hath, than
that a man should lay down his life for his
friends." His love admitted of no cold
reasonings, or calculations of our deserts,
or how we should requite Him ; but rather
foreseeing how wretched our return would
ON LOVE TOWARDS JESUS 9
be, He still loved us, and loved us to the
excess of dying for us. Our love cannot
have that infinite intensity which His had,
but at least, so far as our weakness allows,
let us seek to break down the barriers and
limitations which earthly affections put to
our feelings towards Him, and love Him
to the possible extent of all our powers.
This is loving Him with all our strength.
Further, our love, to be anything like His,
should be unreserved in its devotion. For
He kept back nothing from us. He gave
His body to stripes and bruises, and His
soul to afflictions and sorrow. He allowed
His head to be crowned with thorns, and
His thoughts to be racked with bitter grief.
He permitted His hands and feet to be
pierced with nails, and His affections to
be cruelly outraged. He surrendered His
property to His very garments up to the
spoiler, and His reputation to the calum-
niator. He gave Himself, in short, entire,
a holocaust for us, keeping nothing for
Himself, so that when He died He was the
poorest, the abjectest, the most defamed,
the most suffering, and the most abandoned
10 SECOND MEDITATION
of men ! And all this for love of us, of me !
And how can we, for very shame, reserve
from Him so many affections, so many
desires, such a large portion of our hearts ?
How can we retain an attachment for our
worldly goods, for honours, for men's praise,
or any other such miserable and perishable
objects, not an insignificant but a princi-
pal share of our desires and attachments ?
More still, His love was most practical and
active. Here, indeed, He did not content
Himself, as we do, with sounding protesta-
tions of affection, by repeating to us that
He loved us ; but He showed it in facts, in
deed. And here, indeed, He proved to us
that the best demonstration of the activity
of love is given by suffering. Other men
show it by exertion for their friends, He
by endurance. Others travel far, or toil
much, to serve them ; He suffered Himself
to be torn in pieces, and at length to be
put to a cruel death to redeem them. And
shall we be so unwilling to undergo the
O O
smallest trouble for His sake, or to serve
and love Him, if thereby we are brought
into the slightest affliction ? Oh let us
ON LOVE TOWARDS JESUS I I
learn to love as we have been loved ; if not
in measure, at least in kind !
2. Reflect how well we may all learn in
the Passion of our dear Saviour in what
manner we may love Him if we will only,
by simple meditation, enter into the feel-
ings of those who then stood near him with
an affectionate heart. The first and dearest
of all is the Mother of Love, Mary, whose
feelings of compassionate love it would be
impossible for human intelligence to attempt
to fathom. For who can imagine the addi-
tion to even maternal affection which the
sight of One so beloved, and so worthy of
it, enduring extreme suffering must have
made? For if the heart of this blessed
Virgin was pierced by a sword on this oc-
casion, it was indeed by a double-edged
sword, sharpened on one side by grief and
on the other by love ; and the sharpness of
each was in proportion to the other's. No:
she did not love Him as much, when He
was a smiling babe at Bethlehem, all fair
and unstained by blood or tears, as she
does now this Man of griefs, covered with
wounds and disfigured by His own blood.
12 SECOND MEDITATION
She who had suffered no maternal throes in
bringing Him into the world, who had no
pains to forget in the joy of birth because
a Man was born (John xvi. 21) has the
bitterer pangs to endure of seeing Him
most cruelly taken from her sight, and
learns the motherhood of pain in the death,
not in the birth, of her first-born. Here
is the model for us of pure sympathetic
love towards Jesus in His sufferings, the
O *
strongest, the perfectest which could pos-
sibly be felt by human heart. Next to her
we see John, the well-beloved, the friend
w T ho had leaned only the night before upon
that Bosom, over which so many streams of
blood are tracking their course, and which
so many cruel stripes have furrowed. How
must he have looked back upon that happy
hour, and wept to see Him w r hom his soul
so loved reduced to so wretched a plight,
so sadly altered, so frightfully mangled, so
cruelly slain ! Oh how did this Boanerges,
this son of thunder, feel his breast rent
between the contending claims of tender-
ness and zeal, melting now into a maiden's
grief, and then bursting forth into those
ON LOVE TOWARDS JESUS 13
more ardent thoughts, which once wished
fire to be called from heaven to consume
those who merely were unbelieving towards
his Master ! His was a love of zeal, of
earnest yet most tender friendship. But
alas ! it is but too probable that we must
seek the patterns of our love in another
class, among the repenting sinners. Look,
then, at that woman who weeps fearlessly
after Jesus as He carries His cross, who, in
the face of a licentious soldiery and of a
brutal rabble, takes her stand at the foot
of the cross, and keeps her ground there ;
though she has no claim of relationship, as
other pious women have, for its Blessed
Sufferer. See how she clings to the igno-
minious tree, and sobs aloud, and proclaims
her love and her adoration of Him whom
a crowd of priests and scribes are insulting.
This is Magdalen, the much-forgiven, and
consequently the much-loving. She shows
us how we who have sinned and have ob-
tained pardon, ought to assist at the Passion
of Jesus, when seeing that blood, and those
wounds which purchased for us our for-
giveness and redemption. But if yet un-
14 SECOND MEDITATION
certain whether we have obtained grace,
yet struck with consciousness of guilt,
remorse, and shame, we draw nigh to our
Saviour's Passion, let us think how Peter
felt towards his Master ; how, although he
had not yet from His mouth assurance of
pardon, he blessed Him for that first look
of mercy which had awakened remorse and
brought him to himself. Oh, how did he
abhor himself for the additional pang he
had given his loving Friend in his Passion,
by his conduct the night before ! How
did he sigh and weep, to remember how
he had treated that God, who from the
midst of so many outrages looked upon
him with such a mild yet piercing eye of
mercy ! Never had he felt for Him such
love as now.
3. Affections. " And so, dear Jesus,
make me ever love Thee, suffering and
dying, with a love of grateful contrition, a
compound of thankfulness for what Thou
hast forgiven me, and of hearty grief for all
I have committed. Ah ! too deeply have I
offended Thee, too barbarously have I taken
part in making Thee suffer, for me ever to
ON LOVE TOWARDS JESUS IS
love Thee without some bitterness of sorrow
and remorse mingling with my love. The
days are past for me in which I could stand
at the foot of Thy Cross in the company,
and with the unreproachful feelings of Mary
and John, but I must needs be content to
remain among those who, at sight of Thee
dying, struck their breasts in compunction.
Still in that sorrow let there be much love ;
let there be that deep shame which Peter
felt when he remembered not so much his
own baseness as thy lovingness and merci-
fulness towards him, and wept bitterly, not
that he had been a traitor, but that he had
been one to Thee. Let my sorrow be like
Magdalen's, all love, burning love, such as
heeds no reproach of men, no scorn, no
ridicule. Let me ever feel how heavy
the debt I owe Thee for so much forgive-
ness, and how I never can in return love
to excess."
1 6 THIRD MEDITATION
Hesitation
ON THE LESSONS OP THE PASSION
i. Reflect how in the Passion of our
Blessed Saviour are concentrated all the
difficult virtues which He practised during
His life, those in which we most decidedly
wanted an instructor and a model. For to
begin with the very virtues of childhood
and youth, the first and principal of these
was necessarily docility and obedience, such
as is recorded in the Gospel, when we are
told that He went to Nazareth with His
blessed parents, and was. subject to them.
Now in His Passion He may truly be said
to have pushed those amiable virtues to
their furthest imaginable extent. When
do we most admire the obedience of Isaac ?
Is it not when we see him bearing the
wood on his shoulders, whereon he was to
be immolated ? And still more when he
allowed himself, without a murmur, to be
thereon bound ? What, then, shall we say
of the obedience of this our Isaac of the
Law, who now humbles himself, being
ON THE LESSONS OF THE PASSION \7
made obedient unto death, even the death
of the cross ? that is, in pursuance to the
commands of His eternal Father, submitting
himself to the cruellest, most ignominious
death that could be then inflicted ? But in
order to accomplish this act of obedience
dear to Him from His reverence for the
authority that enjoined it, He was obliged
to submit to many others of so degrading,
so revolting a nature, that none but the
most perfect virtue could have undergone
without a loathing repugnance. Isaac went
up the mountain by his father's side,
cheered and encouraged by him. The ser-
vants were left below ; no profane hand
was laid upon him. It was his own dear
father's voice that urged him to lie down
on the funeral pile. But Jesus was made
obedient to all the wicked ministers of
Satan, that had a part in the infliction of
His sufferings, to Pilate and to Herod, to
Caiphas and to Annas, to the Jewish mob,
and to the Roman soldiery. To the com-
mands of each, though they were only to
His infamy and pain, He subjected Him-
self, like a lamb before his shearer, without
B
1 8 THIRD MEDITATION
opening His mouth. In like manner did
He display all the virtues that had distin-
guished His public life. His disinterested
readiness to do good was clearly manifested
in His healing of Malchus ; His readiness to
receive all repentant sinners in His treat-
ment of the penitent thief; His desire to
instruct men in His address to the pious
women, in His conduct when among the
Jews he boldly acknowledged Himself upon
the adjuration of the High Priest. In like
manner did He exhibit Himself perfect in
all those virtues which seemed to belong to
times of peace, and to suppose the rever-
ence and docility of men. They are not
those which we might expect to find amidst
desolation and abandonment, amidst bonds
and scourges, at the pillar or on the cross.
How are we here taught ? That under no
variety of circumstances, under no pressure
of misfortune, sorrow, or pain, are we to
think ourselves dispensed from the faithful
practice of every virtue which the Chris-
tian profession, or the ecclesiastical state,
requires from us. But there are other traits
of virtue which go even beyond these, and
19
show how even to the end of life He could
go on increasing in the manifestation of
wisdom and grace before God and men.
Where in His whole life shall we find so
beautiful an instance of kindness, and will-
ingness to reclaim those that had gone
astray, as in His treatment of Peter ? Where
did He display filial affection to His dear
mother equal to that which He demon-
strated upon the cross ? Where did He
show such charity and willingness to for-
give His enemies as in His last prayer for
those that crucified Him ? Who shall ever
sufficiently study or adequately learn these
beautiful lessons ?
2. Reflect, if our Blessed Redeemer taught
us so much of those virtues which belonged
to all His life, in His death and Passion,
how much more must He have given us an
example of such as belong more exclusively
to a state of affliction, of trial, and of
suffering ? Indeed it may be justly said
that if, throughout His life, He wanted
not occasion of exercising resignation,
patience, meekness, and forgivingness, yet
He reserved the full manifestation of these
2O THIRD MEDITATION
singular virtues for its close, to form the last
grand triumph of the Divine power over the
feebleness of humanity. Men had suffered
before His time with extraordinary patience.
Jeremiah had been persecuted by the un-
grateful people whom he endeavoured to
save. Yet could he not refrain from pour-
ing out his complaints to God against their
unjust treatment, and even praying that
He would repay them according to their
deserts. Job was a still more perfect ex-
ample of patience, proposed to us by St.
James, even in the New Law, as a model
every way worthy of our imitation. Still,
Job, when taxed by his friends with having
merited his sufferings, entered upon his
defence and, with some warmth, repelled
the charge. The Son of God, on the con-
trary, gave the first example of true perfect
patience, of suffering every excess of inflic-
tion in body and mind, in reputation and
soul, without opening His mouth to com-
plain, or to obtain the slightest mitigation
of what He had to endure. See Him from
head to foot one unbroken wound ! See
Hun in spirit desolate, disconsolate ! in
ON THE LESSONS OF THE PASSION 21
property more truly stripped to nakedness
than Job ! not seated indeed upon a dung-
hill, but stretched upon a hard cross ! not
soothing the smart of a leprous sore with
a potsherd, but enduring the unalleviated
torture of a frame gashed and gored in
every part, inflamed into additional anguish
by the air and heat ! Hear Him provoked
by a clamorous rabble, by taunting priests,
by apostate followers, by blaspheming sol-
diers, by doubting friends, to clear His
character, and remove the imputations that
seem naturally to attach to Him ! See Him
more powerfully tempted, not only by the
interrogatories of Pilate, but by the afflic-
tions and tears of those whom He loves, of
John particularly and Mary, whose char-
acter appears involved in His, as much as
her afflictions depend upon His own. Yet
not a word escapes His lips of vindication
or complaint. Meek and silent to the end,
He bears the entire load placed upon Him
by His Father's hand, and bears it to the
end. If He speaks it is to comfort, to
pray, to forgive. What a school is this for
us to learn in ! how deep, yet how consoling
22 THIRD MEDITATION
its lessons ! how should we draw nigh to it
in all our afflictions, in our inward trials, in
our desolation of spirit, in our disappoint-
ments or bereavements ! Christ then died
truly leaving us an example how we too
should suffer. He has taught us that perfect
patience which seeks no relief in complaint
or self- vindication, but throws itself entirely
into the arms of God, humbling us beneath
His powerfuliHand, and acknowledging the
justice of His sentence.
3. Affections. " How shall I sufficiently
thank Thee, my dearest Lord, for this kind
remembrance of my welfare, that led Thee
thus to teach me by word and deed lessons
which must cost Thee so dear ? For any
diminution of Thy sufferings would have
appeared, in some sort, to diminish in like
proportion the immensity of Thy meekness
and patience. It is recorded of an ancient
artist that he made model or canon of
perfection in the human frame, drawing
all the proportions of exact symmetry and
grace from all that he could discover fairest
in nature, that so he might have before
him a type of perfect beauty, by which his
ON THE LAST StTPPER 5 3
works might be ever regulated. And if in
this vale of tears there be one state rather
than another that requires the guidance of
some blessed examples, it is that most com-
mon yet most difficult one of affliction and
trial. And here hast Thou, thrice Blessed
Jesus, put together all the beautiful virtues
which display perfection in that terrible
season, and having formed them into an
exquisite model in Thyself, hast elevated it
above us, and placed it before our eyes, that
we may ever study it, and transfer to our-
selves, so far as our frailty will allow us, its
exact image. Let me daily apply myself
to this study, and let me ever improve by
the contemplation of Thee upon Thy cross."
jFourtjj
ON THE LAST SUPPER
I. Keflect how the Church of God, having
for the whole of Passiontide turned the
attention of her children to the contem-
plation of her Lord's sufferingvS and death,
24 FOURTH MEDITATION
in general ; throughout the three last days
of Holy Week passes historically through all
their parts, and as in a sacred drama sets
before our thoughts and hearts the minute
details of the mighty work of our Redemp-
tion. But Maundy Thursday seems as a
day marked with white in the calendar of
mourning days. The Church for a few
hours resumes her bridal garments, she
sounds forth unwonted hymns of joy,
gives utterance to her musical harmonies,
and even dresses in white the ensign of
Redemption upon her altars. Why this
brief but pathetic burst of gladness ? Is it
that she wishes to produce a more moving
contrast with the plunge into deeper sorrow
that shall immediately follow, the stripping
of her altars of even their plainest and
most necessary furniture, the extinguishing
of her lamps even before the shrines of her
dearest martyrs, the removal of her bread
of life, the object of her perpetual adora-
tion, from her tabernacles ? No, surely ;
for although such a transient gleam of joy
must greatly deepen the gloom of sorrow
that will anon succeed it, yet would not
ON THE LAST SUPPER 2$
the Church of the Lamb disguise her feel-
ings for any such artificial effects. It is
that she hath amidst the melancholy re-
collections of the Passion, one that cannot
be commemorated save in gratitude and
with praise. This is the institution of
those adorable mysteries wherein He per-
petuated the Commemoration, and applied
the fruits of His Eedemption to our souls.
Let us then dwell with tenderness upon
this His parting scene. Behold Him in
the chamber of the Pasch, reclining at
table, amidst His Apostles, yet uncon-
scious of the sorrowful scenes about to
ensue. They are as the youthful olives
about the table of their Lord, all except
one on whom a premature blight hath
descended, and who seems blasted and
withered by the curse of Heaven. Yet
only to the instructed eye of faith and
to the piercing glance of Jesus is this
"spot in their banquet" (Jude 12) visible,
so that it interrupts not their joy. Look
on the scene through the heart of John,
who reclines upon the bosom of his Lord.
Long had they, as well as Jesus, desired
26 FOtJRTH MEDITATION
with anxious desire to eat this Passover,
wherein they had to receive the promised
Bread of Life. The moment is come : the
breast of the world's Redeemer seems to
heave with the expansion of love, about
to manifest itself with new magnificence !
Into His spotless Hands He takes the
bread, and as He blesses it, how glows
His heavenly Countenance turned towards
heaven, what mild yet glowing rays of
love dart from His eyes ! How strangely
mingled do awe and affection fill the hearts
of the silent Apostles ! How do they hold
their breath, overpowered by the contend-
ing affections that so intensely absorb
every other faculty ! With what deep
astonishment they hear the solemn words,
" This is My Body." How reverently they
take the proffered morsel, and feel them-
selves incorporated with their Lord ! What
unwonted sweetness pervades their souls !
What a new life and spirit seems to have been
infused into their entire beinor ! Then when
O
He takes the cup, and in like manner blesses
it and distributes it, with those wonder-
working words, " This is My Blood," oh !
ON THE LAST SUPPER 27
how is all their ecstacy renewed, how the
sacred draught seems to penetrate in glow-
ing streams through all their veins, fraught
with peace, with tenderness, and love ! Oh,
who would not have given the world to have
been a partaker of that first Communion in
the Church of God, to have received the
Food of Life and the Cup of Salvation from
the Blessed Hands of Jesus, consecrated by
His own lips ?
2. Reflect how our Blessed Lord pro-
ceeded, after this testimony of His love,
to give us all a novel example of humility,
such as the world had never seen. For
rising from table, taking off His upper gar-
ments, and girding Himself with a towel,
He washed the feet of His disciples, one
by one. Imagine therefore to yourself the
utter astonishment of these men upon
seeing their Lord, whom they believed to
be the true Messiah, the Son of God, con-
descending to an act usually performed by
menial servants. How their hearts must
have melted, each in his turn, when they
saw Him kneeling before them, respect-
fully taking hold of their feet, and humbly
28 FOURTH MEDITATION
washing and wiping them ! So overcome
were they, that not one of them had
courage to express his feelings, but pas-
sively submitted to the display of His
humility. But when He came to Peter it
was not so. He knew his own demerits;
once before, when Jesus had favoured him
by the miraculous draught of fishes, he
had reverently come before Him, and said
in the fulness of His heart, "Depart from
me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." If
he did not think himself worthy to be in
the company of his Lord, what must he
have thought of having his feet washed
by Him ! His heart could not stand it.
" Domine, tu lavas mihi pedes ? " he asks
in amazement. Thou, so great, so power-
ful, so pure and holy, wash the feet of so
lowly, so mean, so sinful a creature as I
am ? And even when Jesus insisted, he
still held out, exclaiming ; " Non lavabis
mihi pedes in seternum." So that it re-
quired all the authority of his Divine
Master to enforce his submission. But
when this warm-hearted disciple spoke thus,
he was at least free from sin. " He that is
ON THE LAST SUPPER 2 9
washed," says our Blessed Lord to him,
" needeth not but to wash his feet, but is
clean throughout. And you are clean, but
not all" (John xiii. 10). If therefore so
strong were the feelings of the clean at
seeing themselves so treated by Jesus, what
must we suppose his to have been, who
forms the exception here implied ? Surely
Judas, conscious of the black guilt which
he harboured in his bosom-, aware that
the penetrating eye of Jesus had fully dis-
covered it, must have sat uneasy in his
place, as he saw his turn approach. It
would not be from fear that the meek
Lamb of God would betray him to the
indignation of his companions; it was not
that he feared lest Jesus should pass him by,
and thus show him to be the exception He
meant, but rather he dreaded the contact
of those Blessed Hands, he recoiled from
the idea of being affectionately, nay, reve-
rently served by one whom he was about
to use so foully. He thinks of Magdalen,
whom he had churlishly reproved for doing
towards Jesus much the same as Jesus is
about to do for him ; he feels how the
30 FOURTH MEDITATION
sinner's place is at the feet of the offended
Lord, and not as now the very reverse.
Surely humanity must have abandoned the
heart of Judas, and gone to nestle in the
rocks that rent at our Lord's crucifixion,
that he did not start from his seat, and
casting himself on the ground, insist not
merely as Peter had done on declining the
honour intended him, but on washing the
feet of Christ, as Mary had done, with
tears. But turn away from him and look
rather at your Blessed Lord. Oh, unparal-
leled humility of the Son of God ! Oh,
unheard - of abasement of the King of
Heaven ! " Formam servi accipiens " in
truth almost more than elsewhere, " Seme-
tipsum exinanivit," He debased, He lowered
Himself below conception. Oh, contem-
plate Him in silence kneeling at the feet
of Judas, His own betrayer, who even at
that moment was plotting His destruction.
Did not an involuntary shudder pass over
His frame, as He took into His hands those
accursed feet, so swift to shed His blood,
and which in a few hours will bear their
Master to the halter and the precipice ?
ON THE LAST SUPPER 31
No; with the same meekness, with the
same affectionate look and manner, as He
had washed the feet of John the beloved,
He washes those of the execrable traitor !
3. Affections. " blessed festival, dear
to the Christian's loving thoughts ! so full
of moving recollections, so rich in mysteries
of graciousness and kindness to us poor
sinners ! holy-banquet day, when for
the first time the Table of God was spread
with the delicacies of kings, and wisdom
called aloud to the poor and the simple to
come and eat ! We hasten to it with joy
and alacrity. We come, Lord Jesus, faint
and weary, to be refreshed by Thee. Our
communion this day shall be in gratitude
for all that Thou hast suffered for us, and
in reparation to Thee for the scandals and
injuries committed against Thy adorable
body, by Christians, parallel only to those
committed against it by the Jews, on this
night of Thy Passion. We will transport
ourselves to the supper-room of Jerusalem,
and try to copy the feelings of Thy adoring
disciples : we will receive Thee with reve-
rential love, if possible greater than theirs,
32 FOURTH MEDITATION
for we know the full mystery of Thy death
and redemption, as yet concealed from
them. But how shall I presume to sit
at Thy Table, unworthy sinner that I am ?
Behold, Thou hast condescended to wash
my soul, not in water, not in tears, but in
Thine own blood, warm from the loving
furnace of Thine own heart ! Behold, Thou
hast wiped away my uncleanness, not with
a napkin girt around Thee, not with Thy
hair, but with Thy very Body, the garment
of Thy humanity all rent and torn for this
purpose. May my tongue never cease to
bless and praise Thee for so much conde-
scension ; and let me ever seek occasion
to imitate Thy kindness, copying the ex-
ample of Thy abasement ; where I can to
the letter ; where this is not in my power,
in its spirit by charity and humility."
JESUS IN THE GARDEN OF OLIVES 33
JHetJitatton
Preparation. Contemplate your Blessed
Redeemer prostrate on the ground which
He waters with His tears and blood, in
the Garden of Olives, while His Apostles
sleep at a distance.
i. Reflect that this is the first scene of
our Saviour's bitter Passion, or rather its
prelude or preparation. He had passed the
day in an occupation pleasant to His loving
heart. " Desiderio desideravi hoc pascha
manducare vobiscum." He had consoled
His afflicted disciples, saying, " Non tur-
betur cor vestrum neque formidet." He
had given them the last legacy of His love
by instituting the adorable Eucharist ; and
thus He had been employed on some of
the most consoling offices of His ministry.
It was therefore meet that between this
occupation and His dolorous Passion, there
should be an interval of separation, during
which He should in a manner be cut off
from all commerce with men, and should
C
34 FIFTH MEDITATION
prepare His soul in silence and meditation
for the awful and terrible tragedy which
was to ensue. Further reflect how it was
just that the first blow should be struck
in a manner by His Eternal Father, whose
justice He had undertaken to propitiate.
Now this could only be done by the
abandonment of soul and utter desolation
of spirit into which He was allowed to
fall. For God was to strike Him by with-
drawing from Him the comforts and in-
terior happiness which often recompense a
soul in grace. Again, as the contemplation
of His Passion naturally fixes our thoughts
and sympathies upon His corporal suffer-
ings, and, indeed, divides them between
His sorrows and the detestable inhumanity
and injustice of His persecutors, we are
thereby apt to overlook the deeper suffer-
ings of the spirit ; therefore it was fitting
that there should be one portion of His
Passion wherein these griefs might be con-
templated alone, before bodily pain was
added to them, and wherein He should
appear without other persons, much more
wicked ones, to divide and diminish the in-
JESUS IN THE GARDEN OF OLIVES 35
terest we ought to feel exclusively in His
Divine Self. Lastly, before being made to
endure the penalty of sin, it was proper
that, as far as He could, He should reduce
Himself to the condition of a sinner, by
placing before and upon Himself the entire
burden of human transgressions, and being
bent down by them to the earth, before
He felt the weight of that Cross upon His
shoulders, which might, under other cir-
cumstances, have appeared unjust.
2. Reflect how completely all this takes
place in the Garden of Olivet. There He
lies upon the ground in solitude, the crowd
far removed from Him, His chosen three
Apostles overwhelmed in deep slumber, and
deaf to His remonstrances and heedless of
His danger. He looks on His right hand
and on His left, and there is none to com-
fort Him. He is cut off completely from
all human sympathy. His Heavenly Father
seemeth to have withdrawn from Him the
light of His countenance, and His candle
no longer shineth on His head. When He
prays He seems not to be heeded, and
though He repeats His prayer again and
36 FIFTH MEDITATION
again, a deaf ear seems to be turned to
all His supplications. Here He is alone,
with neither friend nor enemy near, aban-
doned to Himself, yet overwhelmed with
mortal anguish and agony, such as no
man else ever endured, and suffering more
in His soul during that brief hour than
He did in body during the remainder of
His Passion. There, in a word, He took
upon Himself the burden of our iniquities.
" Dominus posuit super eum iniquitates
omnium nostrum," and their weight not
only bowed Him down, but forced from
His pores an unprecedented sweat of blood,
the first-fruits of what He was about so
plentifully to shed. So overwhelmed is
He with grief, that one of His own angels
receives a mission to come and strengthen
Him!
3. Affections. Join company with this
blessed and chosen spirit who has come
down from heaven on so solemn and
sorrowful an errand, and say, " Oh my
good and gracious Jesus, drink, drink, I
humbly pray Thee, of this bitter cup, that
so I may be saved. It is true I have
JESUS IN THE GAfcDEtf Of OLIVES 37
mingled it for Thee with bitter gall and
the foul ingredients of my hateful sins ;
but I know that Thou lovest me to that
degree that Thou wilt willingly drink it
all rather than that I should be lost as I
deserve. But, oh, let me add to it one
more ingredient which will make it sweet
to Thee, the tears of a sincere and loving
repentance. Be comforted some little with
the reflection that of those who have helped
to prepare for Thee this bitter portion, one
at least shall not be ungrateful for the
boundless love which has prompted Thee
to drink it. I at least will never forget
Thee upon this Thy holy mount, this mount
of unction and of light. I will never cease
to love Thee for all Thou wert pleased to
endure in the earliest stage of Thy Passion.
Often will I meditate on the grievous sor-
rows of Thy meek and gentle spirit, Thy
sinless soul, Thy loving heart, all of them
accepted and embraced that I might be
spared ; and as often will I repeat the
offering which now I make Thee of un-
divided affections and an eternal love."
38 SIXTH MEDITATION
Sixtfj
THE SADNESS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN
Preparation. Imagine Jesus prostrate
in prayer in the Garden.
i. Reflect how our Divine Redeemer
Himself described the inward sorrow and
anguish which He felt when He said,
" Tristis est anima mea usque ad mortem."
Men sometimes are struck down by a
sudden blow of wretchedness, as by the
unexpected death of some one most dear or
most necessary to them. But here there was
nothing of this sort. A short time before
Jesus had been entertaining Himself with
His Apostles, calmly and perhaps cheerfully.
Nothing since that had occurred which,
humanly speaking, might account for such
a change. It is an anguish, then, which
has sprung up as of itself in His heart ; it
is an inward sorrow, which has its root and
cause entirely within. Now, however we
may be able to conceive an unlooked-for
affliction, as the loss of all we possess, or of
some one we tenderly love, plunging us into
SADNESS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 39
a frantic grief, we can hardly apprehend or
properly understand an inward grief pro-
ducing such mortal anguish as to be com-
parable, nay, far superior to those others,
in magnitude and intensity. What a weight
of inward sorrow must that of Jesus have
been which could warrant such a phrase,
"Tristis usque ad mortem." Moreover,
remember who it is that speaks thus.
Jesus was the Lord, not only of His own
life, but of all life. When therefore He
said that His Soul was sorrowful unto death,
it would seem as though He intimated that
His grief was sufficient to cause death even
in Him. At any rate, His words imply that
it was such as would have proved fatal to
any other person, not supported as He was
by the presence of the Divinity. But this
dreadful anguish appears most remarkable
when compared with the calm majesty of
His conduct during the remainder of His
Passion, His dignified silence and perfect
self-possession. This must have been there-
fore a truly overwhelming sorrow, a suffer-
ing more severe than any which followed it.
It was a sorrow of His Soul, and one which
40 SIXTH MEDITATION
was more able to bring Him to His end,
had He not interposed His power, than the
violence of His executioners.
2. Eeflect how this state of sorrow is
described by the sacred writer, when he
says, " et factus in agonia prolixius orabat."
He calls it an agony. Jesus intended, at
the moment of His death, to reveal all His
greatness, and give, in yielding to the lot
of weak humanity, a strong proof of His
Divinity. It would have been an unworthy
spectacle to have seen Him writhing and
convulsed upon the cross. He breathed
His last there with power and majesty, so
that the very heathen centurion, upon see-
ing the manner of His death, was heard to
exclaim, " Truly this was the Son of God."
But then, as He was to be " a man acquainted
with sorrow," He would not leave one un-
tasted which we are exposed to, lest ia
anything we might want His example, and
say, " This is something more than Jesus
suffered ; here I am without His guidance."
As we must one day undergo, in all pro-
bability, this last death-struggle, He anti-
cipated it, as we may say, and underwent
SADNESS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 4!
it, that we might see in what manner we
should endure it when our turn comes. But
what an agony must His have been ! In
others it takes place when nature is already
exhausted ; when the body can make but
little resistance to the hand of death ; when
the spirits are dull, the sensations blunted,
and the mind enfeebled almost to the verge
of unconsciousness. Yet even so it is a
fearful conflict, and painful to behold.
What, then, must it have been in Jesus ? A
real strength of death in life, an attempt
at usurpation by a strong and armed hand,
on the side of the destroyer, against the
wakeful and resisting powers of vitality.
In the vigour of youth, in the strength of
health, in the energy of a vigorous mind,
to feel an inward sorrow capable of causing
death, and to have to grapple with it, en-
during it so as not to let it effect its fatal
purpose, wrestling with it as Jacob with the
angel, through the dark hours of night alone,
uncomforted, unaided ! What a conflict !
What a victory ! But, good God ! what a
sorrow that must have been which could
have produced such tremendous effects ;
42 SIXTH MEDITATION
which could deserve to be so styled ; which
could, in truth, be considered the agony of
Jesus ! And what a violent and most
execrable cause there must have been to
raise in Him such grief ! And such truly it
was ; for it was sin. It was here, in truth,
that He took upon Himself the burden
which He was to bear of our iniquities.
This was the heavy wood, the fuel for His
sacrifice which was laid here upon the
shoulders of our Isaac, much heavier to
Him, and much more calculated to crush
Him to the ground than the material cross
which afterwards He could not carry. Yes,
now truly hath His dear but most righteous
Father laid upon Him the iniquities of us
all. What a frightful load ! What a debt
of more than ten thousand talents ? Here
He put on the person of the sinner, yea, of
all the sinners whom He came to redeem.
He felt Himself invested with their detest-
able offences, as Jacob was with the hairy
skins, to personate his evil brother, Esau ;
but then it was not for the purpose of steal-
ing a blessing, but of assuming a curse to
another due. Can I wonder now at His
SADNESS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 43
soul being flooded with a deluge of new,
inexpressible grief, a sorrow unto death, an
overpowering agony? "With His hatred,
abhorrence for sin, to see Himself covered
and buried under the accumulated iniqui-
ties which man had committed, or should
commit, during the world's entire duration !
3. Affections. " Yes, my dear Jesus, and
among them all mine, I am sure, must have
been most prominent ; for none has ever
offended Thee with greater ingratitude and
fouler baseness than I Lave. Cruel, cruel,
indeed have I been towards Thee ! When
I think that by sacrificing the gratification
of my worthless desires, I should have caused
a sensible diminution in that mountain of
iniquity which pressed upon Thee, and con-
sequently in the anguish which it caused in
Thy Blessed Soul, to think that it might have
been in my power to make Thee suffer less
than Thou actually didst suffer: and I would
not! Oh, what a bitter, what a cruel
thought ! Whenever, then, I am tempted
to sin and offend Thee, let me say to my-
self, ' There would be another of the stings
which went through the heart of Jesus in
44 SEVENTH MEDITATION
the Garden ; there would be another of the
many bitter drops which I have poured into
His chalice of sorrows ; there would be one
more of the causes of His agony, of His
death-struggle in the Garden.' And if,
through Thy grace, I resist, let me be con-
soled by the thought that I have prevented
at least one additional pang in that sorrow-
ful night. And if I think of sin in this
manner, if I consider it ever in reference to
the effects it produced upon Thy most sacred
Heart on that Thy last night, surely I shall
be in no danger of yielding to the hateful
tempter who urges me to send another arrow
through it, and aggravate Thy already too
bitter sorrows."
.Sebentfj
THE FEARS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN
Preparation. As in the previous medi-
tations, imagine Jesus in the Garden.
i. Reflect well upon those words of the
Gospel, " Coepit pavere et tsedere, et moestus
esse." The anguish of our Blessed Saviour
FEARS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 45
was in no small measure made up of fear.
Of what could He be afraid, He who was
omnipotent, the Word of the Father, by
whom all things were made? Yet true it
is that He feared, and that vehemently, the
torments and death which then hung over
Him. He had, it is true, not only deter-
mined to endure them, but He had chosen
them, and voluntarily taken them upon
Himself for our redemption. He had kept
them before His eyes, without intermission,
during the thirty-three years of His life,
as the very object of His existence in His
humanity. But now that the time for en-
during them drew nigh, He for a while, if
so we may speak, allowed the feebleness of
His human nature to prevail over the power
of His Divine Nature, and (in a sense) balance
that resolute determination with which He
had till now looked forward to the day of
trial. And as the ordinary weaknesses of
the flesh, which lead to sin, could not assail
Him, He permits its shrinking dread of
pain to afflict Him with a terrible trial.
Grounds, indeed, there were in abundance
for such shrinking. For now the various
46 SEVENTH MEDITATION
torments which He was separately to suffer
on the following day were presented to Him
all together, so that He could sum them up
and speak of them as the ingredients of one
chalice, presented to Him by His Heavenly
Father to be drunk off at a draught. We
all know from experience that the prospect
of some pain to be endured is often a severer
torture than the pain itself. But here was
more than a vague conception and imagina-
tion of what was almost immediately to
be endured ; more than a clear, vivid, and
perfect human anticipation of it, making
the suffering in mind equal to what the
reality would prove. It was with the light
of God, and the perfect knowledge of His
eternal wisdom, that this dismal and har-
rowing prospect was viewed. No wonder,
then, that the terror produced by this sight
should have been so extreme.
2. Reflect how it was not so much the
bodily sufferings He was about to undergo
that shook with such terror the Heart of the
Son of Man, but far more the cause for which
He was about to suffer them. It was the
burden of our sins which He chiefly dreaded.
FEARS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 47
He was to assume the character of repre-
sentative, in its entire fulness, of our fallen
race, whose flesh and sinless infirmities He
had already taken. His abhorrence of sin,
as an offence against His Father, and conse-
quently against Himself, was a detestation
far beyond what it is in our power to ima-
gine. He could not have taken on Himself
our nature, if the step had involved the
condition of sinfulness, even that of the
smallest conceivable venial offence against
the Divine Law. Yet now He is to be over-
powered with the accumulated transgres-
sions of the entire race, from the sin of
Adam to the treachery of Judas, yea, to the
sacrilege of His own executioners. Can we,
then, wonder at His shrinking in horror and
dread from the idea of thus laying upon
Himself, with His own hands, so fearful a
load ? It is not a fear of being immolated,
as the lamb to take away sin, that oppresses
His Heart ; but a dread of being sent forth
as the emissary goat with the frightful crimes
of all the world upon His Head. But this
is not all. As the bearer of this load, He
necessarily becomes an object of the wrath of
48 SEVENTH MEDITATION
His own Eternal and clear beloved Father !
He, the dutiful, the most loving of sons,
who had but one Will with the Father,
who, throughout His mortal life, had been
the perfect pattern of all obedience and
docility, He who actually, at that moment,
was going to suffer that He might give
the first example of an obedience even unto
death, is under the wrath, to say no more,
of that tenderest of Fathers ! Oh, what
abundant cause of fear ! Who can wonder
that He dreaded so dark a state, and recoiled
before such a change ! But to those great
leading motives of fear to advance further in
His work, we may add others great in them-
selves, though smaller by comparison. He
finds Himself alone, to struggle against the
machinations of conspired enemies, against
the cruelties of enraged multitudes, single-
handed, without a friend to console Him, or
to sympathise with His numerous distresses.
He looks on His right hand and on His left,
and there is no one to comfort Him. It
would appear as though Divine Providence
had from this stage of His Passion until
Calvary itself, excluded His Blessed Mother,
FEARS OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 49
and the pious women, who would have given
Him some comfort, that so His abandon-
ment might be the more complete.
3. Affections. Endeavour in spirit to
supply the place of these His dear friends,
by sympathising with your afflicted Saviour;
and say, " My blessed and dear Saviour,
what an excess of love is this in Thee, to
stoop even to this lowest abyss of fear for
my redemption ; that nothing might seem
too bitter, nothing too lowly for Thy love
of me to undergo. When the terrors of
death shall compass me, let me think of
Thy sinless fears, and be comforted. Let
me not be thrown into despair at the
prospect of its sufferings, when I think how
Thy Divine self, to encourage Thy poor
servants, wert pleased to share their fears,
and give them an example of bearing them.
Let me in that hour call upon Thee, who
didst tremble in the Garden of Olives, and
let me find succour. And even now, let
this especial suffering of Thine be a comfort
to my heart, amidst the fears and anxieties
of my inward life, in the terrors of temp-
tation, in the fear of the world's censures,
r>
5O EIGHTH MEDITATION
and in every other species of fear that can
oppress me. Let us, then, dear Lord, sym-
pathise together. Behold, many fears shake
me in my daily thoughts, especially when
I reflect on my manifold offences. Let us,
then, put our respective fears together, and
Thine shall prove a balm and a comfort to
mine. Mine are felt for sins that require
cure : Thine were felt as a remedy for sin.
Let Thine heal mine, and let me ever find
comfort and refreshment in the merciful
sufferings of that dread hour of Thy mortal
life."
THE PRAYER OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN
Preparation. Represent to yourself your
Blessed Saviour prostrate on the ground,
earnestly repeating His prayer.
i. Reflect how every meditation, device,
or expression of man on the anguish and
fears of our dear Redeemer in the Garden
of Olives, falls far short of the idea of them
conveyed in the short prayer which He then
repeated. " Pater, si fieri potest, transeat
PRAYER OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 51
a me calix iste." Alas, alas, my dear Jesus !
art Thou reduced so low as this, to seem
to flinch before the bitter cup of suffering
which Thou hast proposed to drink for our
sakes ? Thou dost exhibit Thyself to Thy
angels, as though all but ready to abandon
the great work of our salvation, to retrace
the many steps Thou hast already taken,
rather than go through with the cruel
tragedy of which the prologue is already
so bitter ! How the cause of us poor crea-
tures seems to tremble for a moment in the
scale, while on one side weighed Thy re-
verence to the Eternal Father, for which all
Thy petitions merited to be heard, and on
the other Thy love for man and for each of
us in particular. How must Heaven have
stood for an instant in awful suspense to
see which should prevail ! But no ! Blessed
be Thou, my loving Jesus, for that clause
in Thy supplication, which decided its re-
sult in our favour. " Si fieri potest." Yes,
I well understand the meaning and immense
force of these words, pregnant as they are
with our eternal salvation. " If," it seems
to say, " this is compatible with Thy decrees
52 EIGHTH MEDITATION
and promises that man shall be redeemed,
if it be reconcilable with My fixed deter-
mination to pay the entire price of his
ransom, and accomplish the work of his
salvation at any cost ; if this can be done
without My drinking of this chalice of
agony, then, and only then, remove it from
before Me. ' Pater, si fieri potest, transeat
a me calix iste.' " Oh, excess of love, which
would not take advantage of the authority
of the Divine power vested in Him ; while
it yielded His human nature to a struggle
so severe, to a suffering so acute, as made
it draw back in horror from the draught,
and entreat its removal, attaching to it
such a condition as presented no obstacle
to our salvation. For well did Jesus know
that He had recorded a previous caution
against the acceptance of His prayer thus
wrung from His soul by the agony of His
sufferings ; and that to the record in the
book of His Father's decrees, He had pre-
fixed those irrevocable words, "Behold, I
come." But do I wonder that He should
have recoiled from the cup offered to His
lips, or that He should have secured His
PRAYER OF JESUS IN THE GARDEN 53
obligation to drink it at all ? He recoiled
from it ; for what was in that cup ? Our
sins. He drank it nevertheless ; for what
was to be gained by drinking it ? Their
pardon and our salvation. Is not the whole
mystery at once solved ; the seeming con-
tradiction of desires completely explained ?
For if I cannot look back upon my sins,
even though (I trust) forgiven, without
confusion and horror, can I wonder that
the innocent Lamb of God should contem-
plate them with an infinite hatred and
abhorrence ? He saw that they would be
committed against Himself, in spite of all
He was suffering, and about to suffer, for
my sake. Still more, He had to take them
all upon Himself, to make Himself respon-
sible for them. Yet, w T hen I think how He
loved me, even more than His life, I cease
to be astonished to see how, notwithstand-
ing all repugnance, He quaffed the chalice
of my sins to its very dregs ! Oh, dear
Jesus, how shall I ever love Thee as I
ought ?
2. Reflect upon the goodness of your
loving Saviour, who was pleased, in the
54 EIGHTH MEDITATION
midst of His dreadful agony, to bear you
ever in mind, by so ordering this brief
prayer as to make it a perfect model for
your imitation. As man, He prayed for
the removal of a temporal, though most
grievous calamity ; one which no mere
human strength could bear. He therefore
prayed with deep earnestness, repeating
again and again the same words, which
contained the object of His request. He
prayed with most profound devotion, pros-
trate upon the bare hard ground, bathed in
tears, filled with anguish and sorrow. He
prayed with untiring perseverance, return-
ing thrice to the same supplication, after
finding His disciples asleep and insensible
to His agony. What a model for us is
here ; that, instead of hurrying, with our
lips, through prayers formal and cold, and
being discouraged if we are not at once
heard, we should be truly in earnest in
every prayer, whatever its object, if we
really desire to receive what we ask. But
then, how truly did He resign the issue to
the will of God, as not being a thing of its
own nature necessary, " Verumtamen, non
PRAYER OF JESTJS IN THE GARDEN 55
mea voluntas, sed tua fiat." This is the
true essential condition of all such en-
treaties ; that we seek not our own wills,
but the will of God. He knoweth what is
best for us, and will give it to us ; though
often He will accomplish His blessed will,
and our good, by refusing us our present
petition to give us something better. But
let us never cease to admire this most affec-
tionate token of our dear Redeemer's love,
who, even while undergoing such fearful
sufferings, would not allow an opportunity
to pass by that might instruct us, and make
us wise unto salvation.
3. Affections. " If I, my dear Lord, have
so much helped to mix for Thee this bitter
cup of pain and suffering, let me at least
share it with Thee. When the sons of
Zebedee had given way to a momentary
impulse of ambitious desire, Thou didst
bring them back to right feeling . by that
gentle question, 'Are you able to drink
of the cup whereof I shall drink ? ' Oh,
who could resist such a question ? Who
could refuse most cheerfully to answer,
' Yes ' ? Who would decline to drink from
56 EIGHTH MEDITATION
the same chalice, however bitter and nau-
seous the potion, which Thy blessed lips
have consecrated and sweetened ? Welcome,
then, my dear Saviour, any portion of Thy
chalice. I will drink of it willingly in all
afflictions, trials, and persecutions that I
may endure for Thy sake. So far from
shrinking from my duty in promoting Thy
glory and Thine own work of saving souls,
from any apprehension, I will glory in
afflictions, studying to bear them in the
spirit of Olivet, in the feeling that I am
paying back to Thee in kind, some small
portion of that generous love and tender
kindness which made Thee suffer so much
for me. I will drink of that chalice with
compunction, in the bitterness of my grief
for sin, in detestation of my offences against
Thee, my loving Saviour. Often will I
weep over them in the garden of affliction,
in company with Thee ; and thus atone
for the suffering with which I there over-
whelmed Thy tender Heart. I will drink
lovingly from Thy own blessed chalice upon
Thine altar, that calix meus inebrians et
prceclarus, wherein I will daily commemo-
JESUS FINDS HIS APOSTLES ASLEEP 57
rate Thy Passion and death, receiving the
awful yet most sweet draught of Thy ador-
able Blood, which Thou didst shed for me
in Thy prayer. And in the end, grant me,
dear Jesus, that I may drink it with Thee
new, in the kingdom of Thy Father, when
face to face I may thank Thee for all Thou
hast done and endured on my behalf."
$tnrtj Hesitation
JESUS FINDS HIS APOSTLES ASLEEP
Preparation. Represent to yourself your
Saviour thrice returning to the three Apostles
whom He had left at a short distance, and
each time finding them fast asleep.
i. Reflect how our dear Redeemer in the
Garden seemed doomed to every species of
abandonment, and to be shut out from all
comfort. For He had singled out from the
rest of His Apostles the three who had most
reason to be attached to His person, and
who had shown themselves the most zealous
on various occasions. And though He re-
tired a short distance from them to pray
58 NINTH MEDITATION
alone, yet He seemed to wish to have them
still near Himself. Judge, then, of His
bitter disappointment, when, on returning
to them, He finds them sunk on the ground
in deep slumber. Was this the fruit of His
pathetic discourse but a few hours before?
Is this the only result of the confident
promises made by His disciples ? Is this
James, one of the two who had once de-
sired fire to come down from heaven to
consume those who would not receive his
Master? Is this John, who so shortly
before had leaned his head upon His bosom?
Is this Peter, who had expressed himself
ready to die with Him, and protested that
he would never abandon so good a Lord?
Are these the three who were chosen to be
the sole spectators of the glorious vision on
Mount Thabor ; and was there not sufficient
evidence and encouragement in that scene
to support them through the gloomier hour
which now awaits them ? But Divine Pro-
vidence so disposed it, that, abandoned for
a time to the weakness of their own nature,
they should be overcome by heaviness, and
so unable to give their suffering Master the
JESUS FINDS HIS APOSTLES ASLEEP 59
mite of consolation which their sympathy
might have afforded Him. But if the first
time He came to them, it was afflicting to
Him to find them sleeping, how much more
grievous was it on His second return ! For
just before, on His first, He had lovingly
reproved them for their unseasonable rest
and drowsiness, saying, "What, could ye
not watch one hour with Me ? Watch ye
and pray, that ye enter not into tempta-
tion. The spirit indeed is willing, but the
flesh is weak " (Matt. xxvi. 40, 4 1 ). What
mild and gentle words on so trying an
occasion ! After having remonstrated with
them for their supineness, He seeks Him-
self to excuse it, so as to save their love
for Him from all blame. He casts all the
fault on their natural infirmity, not on
any personal negligence. Oh, how gentle
should we be in reproving others, and in
excusing their seeming neglects, or their
inattention to our wishes ! Three times
did the meek Jesus suffer the same dis-
appointment, and each time with the same
forgiving spirit. The second time He re-
turned He said nothing to them ; the first
60 NINTH MEDITATION
reproach ought to have aroused them from
their lethargy, but failing this, He retired
in silence to prayer. And the third time,
seeing their exceeding weariness, He would
urge them no longer, but bade them sleep
on. It is thus that He pardons our daily
relapses, when He sees that we offend
through frailty. In this manner He visits
us again and again, in the hope of inciting
us by His forgiving and patient conduct to
greater watchfulness and care. But alas !
we sleep and slumber on, and forget our
dangers ; till at last the hour of trial comes
and takes us unawares.
2. Reflect upon the practical lessons we
may learn from this afflicting and humbling
scene. The Garden was to Christ and to
His Apostles a preparation for the respec-
tive parts they were to bear in the ensuing
Passion. To Jesus, it was to be one of
unmitigated suffering that would need an
unshaken resignation. He prayed there-
fore earnestly for it ; He meditated on the
fruits and consequences which were to ensue
from His patient endurance ; and He ob-
tained it, and went forth to His task armed
JESUS FINDS HIS APOSTLES ASLEEP 6 1
and strengthened for every extreme, and
ready to drink to its dregs the cup prepared
for Him by His Father. The part of the
Apostles was one of trial and danger; the
Shepherd was to be struck, and the natural
consequence was that the sheep would be
dispersed ; they were to see their Master
subject to every ignominy, and it was
likely they would be scandalised in Him.
Satan had desired to have them, that he
might sift them as wheat ; and against
all these dangers they had been shown
the safeguard watchfulness and prayer.
" Vigilate et orate, ne intretis in tenta-
tionem." The Apostles neglected this pre-
paration for the hour of trial ; Peter above
all, whose boasting had been the loudest,
and whose professions the strongest, and
whose dangers had been pronounced the
greatest, neglected the admonitions of his
Master ; and when the hour of trial came,
of course he failed, and that in a twofold
manner. First, aroused on a sudden from
his sleep by the tumultuous assault of
Judas' band, unprepared as to what he
ought to do, unacquainted through his
62 NINTH MEDITATION
neglect with the spirit in which his Divine
Lord willed to meet His sufferings, he un-
sheathes his weapon, rushes inconsiderately
upon a much larger force, and strikes and
grievously wounds one of the High Priest's
servants. No doubt, such a deed of in-
effectual violence was amply revenged by
the ruffians upon the person of our dear
Saviour, by an aggravation of their blows
and insults ; so that the imprudence of the
disciple seemed to add to the injury of his
Master. Secondly, after having made him-
self notorious and obnoxious by so active a
partisanship, he proceeds to expose himself
to the danger of a contest with men most
interested in his disgrace. We are here in
our state of preparation ; told now to
watch and pray that we may pass safely
through the trials that await us, in co-
operating, in some sort, with Jesus in
the work of saving mankind. And if we
now neglect these duties, if we study not
to imbibe the true spirit of our vocation,
what can we expect but that, by our rash-
ness, and want of meek and charitable
bearing, we shall injure the cause of our
JESUS FINDS HIS APOSTLES ASLEEP 63
Master, or by our ignorance and impru-
dence betray it ?
3. Affections. " adorable Jesus ! ever
meek and kind, how wert Thou abandoned
by all in Thine hour of trouble and dark-
ness, without even the sympathy of a
friend ? And yet, while at this moment I
compassionate Thy distress, how often canst
Thou address me in the same reproving
words as Thou didst Thy sleeping disciples,
' Could you not watch one hour with Me ? '
Alas ! to my shame and confusion I own it,
often has an hour of prayer, an hour spent
in Thy blessed company, seemed to me long
and irksome ! How often have I shor-
tened the already too short time allotted
to this holy exercise ! Again and again,
too, I have found it burdensome to fix my
thoughts, for half that time, upon the medi-
tation of Thy sufferings ; yea, of these very
sufferings of Thine in the Garden of Olives.
Oh ! give me strength and grace often and
often to spend a much longer space of time
in this holy contemplation, and in watching
beside Thee in Thy Passion. And let me,
I pray Thee, ever be alive to the conse-
64 TENTH MEDITATION
quences of neglecting those duties during
the season of preparation ; that so when
the day of trial comes, I may be found
ready, and not suffered to fall away."
Eentfj jHetittatton
OUR SAVIOUR'S SWEAT OF BLOOD
Preparation. Represent to yourself your
Saviour stretched on the ground in His
prayer in the Garden.
i. Reflect upon the wonderful evidence
here given us of the severity of our dear
Redeemer's sufferings in this His agony ;
of which the holy Evangelist tells us, " Et
factus est sudor ejus sicut guttse sanguinis
decurrentis in terram." The inward agony
of Jesus's soul could not but outwardly
manifest itself; the Blood which first drew
back round His heart, in the chill of His
first desolation and fear, burst forth with
new and terrible energy into its course, and
breaking through its channels, overflowed,
oozing out through the pores. It gathered
first as a dew upon His skin, and then
OUE SAVIOUR'S SWEAT OF BLOOD 65
trickled down His blessed limbs, till it
flowed upon the ground. What a fever of
agony must have first burnt through His
veins ; what a throb of mortal pain must
have beat at His temples ; what a deadly
suffocation must have oppressed His heart,
before nature or the Hand of His Heavenly
Father brought that relief! Relief! how
truly in character with the rest of His
Passion ; where, when He is -worn-out by
His scourging, He is seated on a throne of
ignominy to be crowned with thorns ; when
He is faint with thirst, refreshed with gall
and vinegar. So here, when He is fevered
with anguish, He is relieved by a sweat of
Blood ! Merciful God ! is this the only
species of compassion which Thy beloved
Son Jesus is destined to experience through
the sufferings that await Him ? But if
there was in this outbreak of inward, pent-
up sorrow some measure of relief, we may
also imagine what a cause of exhaustion it
must have been to the delicate frame of our
beloved Saviour. For if a slight fever, re-
solving itself into a natural and refreshing
heat, does yet so exhaust us, that for many
E
66 TENTH MEDITATION
hours we are unfit to attend to our ordi-
nary and comparatively easy occupations,
we may judge how little qualified He must
have been, after so unusual and so trying
a drain upon His fevered body, to begin
a career of bodily inflictions, sufficient to
have overcome one strong and previously
unexhausted.
He was already stretched upon the
ground, unable to support His own weight ;
judge, then, if He was in a condition to be
bound with cords, beaten, and dragged into
Jerusalem. It seems, indeed, as though it
had pleased Him and His Eternal Father
to increase at once the intensity of Plis
sufferings, and the miracle of His patience,
by reducing Him at the outset to this most
pitiable condition.
2. Reflect how here, almost for the first
time, appears the price of our redemption,
and under circumstances peculiarly touch-
ing, containing an appeal to our hearts.
Hail, then, with all affection these bright
drops of His most Precious Blood, these
ruby jewels, that form one large instalment
of the payment of thy ransom ! Greet with
OUR SAVIOUR'S SWEAT OF BLOOD 67
all love and reverence this earnest pledge
which thy Lord gives thee beforehand, that
even His life, and the warm stream that
circulates through His frame, shall be lav-
ished upon thee. Draw nigh, as the young
ones of the pelican do, when the mother
pierces her own breast, and gives them her
own heart's blood for nourishment. For
here is no lash, no thorn, no nail, no spear
to wound the flesh of your dear Saviour;
but He Himself seems to have opened the
fountains of life, and bid them flow before
their time, that so we, His dear ones, might
partake of them, before His wicked enemies
come to disturb, and in a manner to pro-
fane them, by their barbarous and sacrile-
gious treatment. This is the juice of that
precious Vine, flowing spontaneously forth,
before the wine -press hath crushed, and
bruised, and disfigured it. This is the
virgin-balm that exudes from this sacred
plant, before men have cut its stem, and
violently and irreverently caused it to
flow. It is unmixed with that mysterious
water which denoteth death ; every drop is
brilliant, pure, and untempered, filling for
68 TENTH MEDITATION
Us a chalice of salvation, in return for the
cup of bitterness which He has just re-
ceived at our hands ! But hold ! Is there
then no executioner near, that causes such
clear marks of severe suffering ? Must
there not be some adequate agency, inward
at least, to produce so awful a result ?
Alas, alas ! too truly there is ; and this
Blood is in truth every drop of it ours ; as
being shed immediately and entirely by
our sins. As surely as Moses struck the
rock, and caused the refreshing waters to
flow, so certainly has the cruel blow of our
manifold sins opened the Heart of Jesus,
and unlocked the waters of salvation there.
While then we love with peculiar tender-
ness this great step in the bloody sacrifice,
let a deep and feeling sorrow mingle with
our affection ; and let us repay this spon-
taneous flow of Blood, by a no less sponta-
neous and ample flow of tears. Oh, that
they could be tears of blood ! Surely none
but martyrs have ever repaid in any sense
as they ought this charity of their Saviour,
by washing their garments in blood, and so
being worthy to follow in His train. But
OUR SAVIOUR'S SWEAT OF BLOOD 69
let us at least honour and love Him in our
hearts the more, so far as our weakness
will allow us. The robe in which He now
appears, this delicate veil of His own sacred
Blood which covers His body, is fairer and
brighter to our mind than the dazzling
whiteness of His raiment on Thabor. Truly
may we say of Him, " Quis est hie, qui
venit de Edom, tinctis vestibus de Bosra?
iste formosus in stola sua " (Isa. Ixiii.).
Yes, this is the robe which best becomes
Him in our eyes who have sinned against
Him, and have been redeemed by His ador-
able Blood. Let us then never be wearied
with meditating upon this stage of our
dear Saviour's Passion, on which some of
the most contemplative saints have dwelt
the most frequently, and with the greatest
fruit. For Jesus, wounded and brutally
mangled, is a spectacle beyond the ordi-
nary lot of humanity, and not likely to be
ever, in the strictest sense, a model for our
imitation. But Jesus afflicted under the
strong hand of God is an example for each
of us, in those dark hours which Divine
Providence may justly or mercifully send
70 TENTH MEDITATION
us. Oh, let the Bloody Sweat of the Son
of God be then our comfort and support !
3. Affections. " Blessed and most ami-
able Jesus, the more Thou art cast down
and afflicted upon earth, the higher Thou
art exalted in my heart and affections.
The nearer Thou seemest to approach the
most afflicted condition of humanity, the
more I recognise and venerate in Thee the
splendour of Thy Divinity. A mere man
sent on an errand from God, the noblest
of the prophets, could not have afforded
to sink so low in the scale of humanity,
without risking the reverence of his office
But Thou becomest greater in proportion
as Thou dost make Thyself less, and the
more sublime as Thou appearest to sink
the more. But one thing Thou must cer-
tainly become, unless I be a monster of
unfeeling ingratitude ; dearer and dearer
to me, in the same measure as Thou art
more afflicted and abased. In the centre
then of my heart I embrace Thee, and
at the same time adore Thee. By that
precious Blood which consecrated Olivet,
purer and richer than the dew of Hermon,
JESUS IS COMFORTED BY AN ANGEL 7 1
I entreat Thee to wash my corrupt heart
clean from every stain of sin. Let but one
of those precious drops fall upon it, and it
shall be thoroughly cleansed, and perfectly
sanctified, and, like that hill of unction, a
place of prayer and of resignation, of ex-
piation and of comfort, of sorrow and of
love. Tears of contrition shall repay Thy
sweat of Blood, and the joy of a repenting
sinner shall compensate Thine agony of
grief."
Jftefcitation
i. Reflect how the Gospel informs us
that while Jesus was in His agony in the
Garden, " there appeared to Him an Angel
from heaven, strengthening Him." What
an idea does not this circumstance give us
of our Saviour's (Luke xxii. 43) distress !
It would appear as though pity were at
length wrung from Heaven, as though the
agony were too severe to be any longer
witnessed, without some relief being sent
to Him. His disciples are asleep, and
72 ELEVENTH MEDITATION
need rather His support, every other friend
is at a distance ; earth consequently can
do nothing for Him, and Heaven must
therefore minister all the comfort He can
be allowed. Will not the heavens then
open with a bright and glorious splendour,
and the Holy Spirit descend upon His
head, as He did on the bank of Jordan ?
Or will a bright cloud overshadow Him,
and the same voice of adoption and com-
placency be heard as was repeated on
Thabor ? Or will merely a voice be heard,
like thunder, saying that the Father hath
glorified Him and will glorify Him again ?
But if this comfort has on this occasion
to be committed to inferior ministry, a
multitude surely of the heavenly host,
such as sung " Glory to God" at His birth,
will be sent in a brightness that shall
dispel, as it then did, the darkness of night.
How eagerly will the legions of angels
press forward to be sent on such an errand
of comfort to Him whom they so love !
Alas ! the time for glory is riot ; it is
both past and to come. It is now the
season of humiliation ; and it is so ordered
JESUS IS COMFORTED BY AN ANGEL 73
that even the comfort administered, be-
cause become as it were necessary, should
be accompanied with this feeling. One
solitary angel glides down unperceived
from heaven, and appears at His side !
One of His own creatures, one of His
own servants offering Him relief! One of
His own host encouraging and support-
ing Him ! Nay, more ; even strengthen-
ing Him ! As though He were become
powerless and could no longer support
Himself, but needed the strength which
an angel could lend Him. Oh ! what an
afflicting spectacle to that blessed spirit,
who probably as yet knew not the full
extent of the mystery of Redemption !
How distressing to him, if he under-
stood not wherefore was all this suffering
endured, to see his Lord and Master re-
duced to such a sad condition, lying on
the ground bedewed with His own blood
that trickled down during His agony ! Or,
if the counsel of God had been revealed
to him, and he was aware that it was for
the ransom of guilty man, and if we may
imagine feelings akin to ours to have
74 ELEVENTH MEDITATION
passed through his mind, must not a sort
of indignation have been aroused in him,
at thinking how little our race was worthy
of such a Victim, and of such immolation !
What a specimen he might be supposed
to think he had before his eyes of the
value which men would set upon this
painful work of Redemption, in the sound
slumber of the three chosen Apostles, who
had been wakened and begged to watch
and pray, because the soul of Jesus was
sorrowful even unto death, yet still slept
on ! If hardy soldiers on the field of
battle will weep like women, when they
see their general lying mortally wounded,
and are called to take him apart, how
must that loving minister have sorrowed,
when he witnessed his Lord in such a
condition, and had to undertake the task
of comforting Him ! But still most
happy of all the celestial choirs to have
been selected for such a task, and to have
been the sole witness of the sorrows and
agony of that night ! How wilt thou
remember for eternity that solemn and
awful spectacle, so full of love for us ?
JESUS IS COMFORTED BY AN ANGEL 75
Surely some badge of brighter glory must
distinguish thee, that we, when we are
admitted to the company of the blessed
spirits, may be able to single thee out,
and thank thee lovingly for the part thou
dischargedst that night towards our dear
Jesus.
2. Reflect how would this happy angel
proceed to discharge his task of consol-
ing and strengthening our Blessed Savi-
our. Would he endeavour to show Him
that the pains He was about to endure
were not so grievous as He had imagined,
that the stripes and buffets, the insults
and scoffs were more severe and painful
in anticipation than in reality, that the
thorns and the nails would oijly produce
one temporary pang, and all would be
over? Would he in other words try to
disguise what He had to undergo, or to
abate its extremity, as physicians are wont
to do to one on whom is about to be
inflicted a painful and dangerous opera-
tion ? Or would he comfort Him as the
minister of God does one who is con-
demned to death, and has to undergo
7 6 ELEVENTH MEDITATION
the extreme sentence of the law, by
inculcating resignation to a fate that
has been merited ? Or would he address
himself to the assuaging of the deeper
sorrow endured for sin, and represent to
Him that the load of guilt which He had
taken, and which pressed so heavily upon
Him, was exaggerated in fancy, and that
there was no reason for such excessive
grief? Alas! all these ordinary modes
of consolation were shut out, founded as
they are either upon deceit or real com-
mission of guilt, neither of which could
have place, the one in the messenger of
heaven, or the other in Him to whom
he was sent. There could be no comfort
admitted which in aught should pretend to
mitigate the rigour of the coming Passion,
or to temper the unqualified bitterness of
the cup now before him. Could we then
imagine that blessed spirit addressing Him
thus: "Refuse not, Blessed Lord, the
chalice which Thy Father offers Thee, and
which Thou hast long since accepted. It
is indeed nauseous and disgusting to Thee,
but love presents it, and love will requite
JESUS IS COMFORTED BY AN ANGEL 77
it. It is true that to-night and to-morrow
Thou shalt suffer much, Thy body shall
be racked and rent, Thy honour shall be
blighted, Thy affections wounded, Thy
head more crowned with ignominy than
with thorns, Thy hands more transfixed
by public disgrace than by the nails, Thy
heart more deeply pierced by sorrow and
anguish than by the lance. But still
remember what gratitude and love await
Thee in return : think how the millions,
whom Thou shalt to-morrow purchase, will
strive with one another who shall best
display his ardent affection, and shall most
adequately requite by deeds this Thy ex-
cessive kindness. It is for a feeling race
that Thou art about to die ; it is against
unfailing and boundless love from all man-
kind that Thou art about to exchange a
few hours of suffering and one moment
of death. No more shalt Thou be out-
raged by those on whose behalf Thou art
so profuse of blood and life. Earth from
henceforth, watered by the streams that
are now flowing on it, shall bud salvation,
and put forth fruits of holiness ! " Ah !
78 ELEVENTH MEDITATION
would not such consolation, if attempted,
have been so much gall, so much poison
added to the cup which Jesus already
loathed ? Would not such promises, how-
ever natural and rational, have stung Him
to the heart, conscious as He was how
exactly the reverse the consequence of
His Passion would be ? Nothing then
remained for this angel to do, but in the
words of the sacred text to strengthen
Jesus that is to say, to encourage Him
to the complete and unqualified draining
of His cup. He can only place before
Him the will of His Heavenly Father, and
His own voluntary acceptance ; and urge
Him on to the fulfilment of His work,
in spite of its pains and toils, in spite,
moreover, of the base ingratitude that
would requite it ; and of the infamous
return of sin and vice that would be made
Him!
3. Affections. " Divine Saviour of
our souls, far from Thy servants be this
unfeeling conduct ! Far from us be the
meanness of heart which it supposes, but
let our hearts glow with gratitude for so
JESUS IS COMFOKTED BY AN ANGEL 79
much unmerited love, such self-devotion
as Thou showedst to our welfare ! Even
beyond an angel's power to comfort is
Thy sorrow ; Thy grief is without cure,
and Thou hast none to bear it with Thee.
Every arm that would rise in Thy behalf
is tied down ; and the blessed spirit that
stands before Thee must be content to
be a sorrowful spectator of Thy enemies'
approach must see Judas sacrilegiously
kiss Thee without striking him to the
ground, and behold Thee bound and borne
away without power to help Thee. Oh !
let it not be so with us at our last
moments. Let Thy guardian angel stand
beside our bed of sickness, not merely
to comfort, but to defend us. Let him,
during our silent agony, whisper to us
topics of Divine consolation, reminding
us of the boundless mercies of our God,
and of the merits of this Thy agony,
strengthening us to bear the sorrows of
death, and encouraging us to look for-
ward to the price of our redemption ;
but, at the same time, breaking through
the toils of perdition, chasing away the
8o TWELFTH MEDITATION
terrors of hell, and bringing to nought
the machinations of the enemy of our
salvation. Let us in that hour find com-
fort and peace in the remembrance of Thy
agony and sweat of blood in the Garden
of Olives, and let us in that hour receive
the fruit of our frequent and loving medi-
tation upon this stage of Thy Passion.
Hesitation
OUR SAVIOUR'S RESIGNATION
Preparation. -- Represent to yourself
Jesus, as in former meditations, stretched
upon the ground in prayer.
i . Reflect how, during His blessed agony,
our Divine Redeemer never ceased to pos-
sess His soul in patience, and never under
His most dreadful anguish of mind forgot
the duty of thorough resignation to the
will of His Eternal Father. It is true that
during this anxious trial His soul revolted
from the chalice prepared for Him, and the
feelings of humanity shrunk from facing
the course of suffering that awaited Him,
OUR SAVIOUR'S RESIGNATION 81
but still the complete conformity of His
human with His Divine will, never allowed
the smallest opposition between the two,
or the rebellion of the one against the
O
other. Hence, if He prayed that the cup
presented to Him might pass away, He
was careful to add " non mea voluntas, sed
tua fiat." If Jesus had not inserted in His
prayer this saving clause, what would have
become of us ? His prayer could not but
be heard, " exauditus est pro sua reve-
rentia ; " had He unconditionally prayed
that the hateful draught should be removed
from His presence, His petition must have
been granted. But blessed be His name,
He resigned Himself for our sakes, and so
became the willing Victim for our sins.
But to estimate the fulness of this volun-
tary sacrifice, we must consider that it was
made with full knowledge of its extent.
When we make an act of resignation, we
seldom do it with a clear perception of
what we are about to suffer. If illness
surprise us, we perhaps throw ourselves
into the arms of Divine Providence, and
resign ourselves to God's will ; but we have
82 TWELFTH MEDITATION
no idea whether we shall suffer much or
little, for a long or for a short period, and
hope, that never abandons our bedside,
flatters us into the belief that our suffer-
ings shall be light and brief. Nay, we are
not a little encouraged to the practice of
such resignation, by the idea that it will
alleviate our pain. But the resignation of
Jesus in the Garden of Olives was a yield-
ing up of Himself to a series of cruel in-
flictions, all clearly and distinctly visible
to His mind, yea, as completely so as if
they were at that moment actually made.
There was here no room, even supposing
there had been the will, to practise any
self-deceit ; the duration, the nature, and
the intensity of the pains and griefs about
to be endured, were known in all their
exactness of detail. Nor was this all. For
when we resign ourselves, we know before-
hand that we can only suffer at each
moment its proper share of pain ; whereas
Jesus, in the very instant wherein He re-
signed Himself, endured them all cumu-
latively in mind and heart. For the sense
of them was so lively that He might be
OUR SAVIOUR'S RESIGNATION 83
said actually to feel rather than to con-
template them. And to them thus pre-
sented to Him, He yielded Himself up.
Oh ! truly wonderful excess of virtue such
as became Thee, most Blessed Lamb of God,
such as we can never have an opportunity
of copying, for never can we have such a
perception of suffering, nor take in at once
into the grasp of a single act of this virtue
such a weight of tribulation and sorrow, so
accurately foreseen and so sensibly fore-
tasted ! Only to Thy suffering was Thy
resignation commensurate ; only to Thy
light and knowledge was Thy acceptance
of sorrow proportioned.
2. Keflect how this resignation of our
Blessed Redeemer was not as with us a
mere passive virtue, but a great courageous
act. For, contrast His language and con-
duct before and after He had made His
final resolution. " Pater, si fieri potest.
transeat a me calix iste ; " such was His first
prayer, and so He repeatedly expressed
Himself during the dark hour of His deso-
lation. But now mark the contrast. When
the traitor had drawn nigh with his sacri-
84 TWELFTH MEDITATION
legious troop, and had pointed Him out,
and they attempted to seize His sacred
person, Peter drew his sword and wounded
the High Priest's servant. How did Jesus
now speak ? He forbade the attempt to
rescue Him, and thus addressed his over-
zealous Apostle : " Calicem quern dedit mihi
pater, nonne bibam ilium ? " What a tran-
sition is here from loathing and terror to
willingness and cheerfulness ! That very
cup which a few moments before He had
entreated His Heavenly Father to remove,
He is now most anxious to drink ; and
He rebukes His disciple for interposing to
prevent Him. Instead of an angel being
required to strengthen Him, He takes the
chalice with both His hands, and quaffs it
joyfully, because it is the cup of our salva-
tion ! His Father's will hath been made
known to Him, " non sicut ego volo, sed
sicut tu vis ; " and that is enough. It is
that He should drink it, and it is now too
sweet for Him to allow any one to remove
it from His lips. Again compare the dif-
ference of His language in addressing His
Apostles. At first it was timid, the speech
OUR SAVIOUR'S RESIGNATION 85
of one who needed counsel and encourage-
ment. He was anxious that they should
pray with Him, and He returned to them
again and again to know if they were ready
to assist Him. But when His prayer of
resignation has been once pronounced, how
confident and courageous is His speech and
tone. " Surgite eamus." Rouse yourselves
and let us go together, not into a place of
safety, not to some obscure recess of the
Garden, not to summon the rest of the
eleven, or to collect 'our friends, but to
meet the traitor and his rabble, and to do
their bidding. " Surgite eamus." Arise
and let us go to welcome ignominy and
insult, tyranny and cruelty. As the host
arises from the midst of his house, when
some long-expected guest is ushered in, to
whom he wishes to make particular demon-
strations of honour, so let us arise and go
forward some steps to greet the long-de-
sired harbingers of man's redemption, and
show the value we set upon the work by
our cheerfulness in meeting its promoters.
<c Surgite eamus." As the bridegroom rises
up so soon as the bridal procession ap-
86 TWELFTH MEDITATION
preaches his threshold, that he may greet
his spouse and lead her into the house, so
let us rise up and meet at the Garden gate
the bridal procession which is come to wed
Me completely to humanity through its
sufferings. Not more gladly doth the
bidden guest enter the banqueting-room,
not more joyfully doth the bride step over
the door-stone than Jesus now bounds for-
ward to His sufferings. From this instant
all is courage and immovable desire to
suffer, and so redeem lost man.
3. Affections. "Most Blessed Lord, how
shall I ever thank Thee as I ought for this
Thy generous resolution, and this heroic
resignation to the will of God Thy Father?
And after such an example, shall I refuse
to practise this excellent virtue ? Having
comparatively so little to endure, having
so richly deserved that little and much
more, being sure to find in it so much com-
fort and relief, 'what excuse can I make if
I study not, however faintly, to copy the
beautiful model Thou hast here given me
in it? In all tribulation, therefore, under
the pressure of all trials, let me turn to
THE KISS OF JtJDAS 87
Thee upon Mount Olivet, and comparing
the little I feel with the grievous desolation
of Thy innocent Heart, find it easy to re-
sign myself to the dispensations of a just
God, when my resignation shall be united
to Thine. Let us go hand in hand in suffer-
ing, Thou innocent, I guilty ; Thou suffer-
ing for me, and I willing to suffer for Thee ;
both resigned, Thou in noble and courageous
virtue, I by humble but cheerful imitation.
Thus shall I consecrate my pains by unity
and conformity with Thine ; and thus shall
I be found worthy to drink of the chalice
whereof Thou drinkest."
Ejjtrtcent!) fHctittation
THE KISS OF JUDAS
Preparation. Represent to yourself our
Blessed Lord advancing to meet Judas and
his armed rabble, and saluted by him.
i. Reflect how in the entire history of
our Divine Saviour's Passion there is no-
thing so revolting, or likely to cause more
indignation, than the conduct of Judas.
88 THIRTEENTH MEDITATION
The very act of selling his Master and
Friend for thirty pieces of silver is un-
rivalled in baseness through the pages of
history. But now that he comes to give
Him up to the satellites of the High Priests,
his detestable manners, ingratitude, and un-
feelingness go beyond all estimate. What
would have been easier than for him to
have pointed out our Saviour with his
hand, and so let the others seize Him ?
But, in fact, it would seem as though his
own heart recoiled from facing the infamy
of having been such a traitor. He who had
so much experience of his Master's power
to read the thoughts of men ; he who had
resisted the many clear hints from Jesus
that He was aware of his purpose, yet
seems to imagine that he can deceive Him
into a belief that his coming to Him had
no connection with that of the armed band
that closely followed him, but that he had
simply returned to Him after a casual ab-
sence. It seems probable that it was the
custom of the Apostles respectfully but
affectionately to salute their Master when
they approached Him, and Judas took
THE KISS OF JUDAS 89
advantage of this usage for the double pur-
pose, first of saving his own character by
deceiving his infallible Master, and then of
complying with the conditions of his im-
pious bargain, and delivering Him up to
His enemies. He probably meant them
not to be so near him, but they could
not trust a traitor, and followed close at his
heels. Oh ! if ever there be a circumstance
recorded which may rightly excite our
wrath, it is surely this. If there be a man
in history upon whose head the virtuous
heart may fling a curse, when it might be
allowed to hate and sin not, surely it is
this false, this base, this execrable villain.
Why did not the earth open, as it did for
Core and Dathan, and swallow him alive
into hell ? Why did not fire come down
from heaven, as it did upon the captain and
his fifty men who came to seize Eliseus on
the mountain, and consume this monster
and his impious herd ? Why was not the
sword of Peter better directed, and instead
of striking the ear of Malcheos, did it not
pierce the heart of Judas ? No, this was
their hour, and the power of darkness, and
9O THIRTEENTH MEDITATION
Jesus was given up into the hands of
sinners. And had the just indignation of
Heaven burst upon those wretches, He would
have interposed to ward it off ; and if such
a wound had been inflicted by the over-
zealous Peter, the right hand of Jesus
would have been stretched out to heal it.
But ah ! what a kiss was that to the cheek
of Jesus ! An aspic's renowned bite would
not have felt near so stinging and hot. It
is as a seal of fire branded upon His flesh,
an infectious plague-spot pressed upon him.
Not half so galling to His sacred shoulders
were afterwards the scourges that tore them,
as was this impression of the lips of Judas.
Yes, of those sacrilegious lips that had but
a short time before partaken of the Body of
his Lord, and had drunk His sacred Blood !
And, as if the foul act of treachery were
not even so complete, he adds words to the
act of insult, saying, " Hail, Rabbi." How
revolting to the heart of Jesus must the
title have sounded from such a wretch on
such an occasion. Many men have been
betrayed by those whom they thought their
friends, but few with such aggravating, un-
THE KISS OF JUDAS 9!
necessary circumstances of treachery. Some
regard will be paid to feelings of former
respect and friendship, here all seems
studied to wound the tender heart of Jesus,
in the very smallest manner. Truly He
must be the despised of men and the out-
cast of the people, when He is thus aban-
doned to the embrace of such a wretch as
Judas.
2. Keflect now how our Blessed Redeemer
received the proposed salutation. Does He
shrink back instinctively as a man would
who had come in contact with some foul,
hateful thing ? or as one would from the
touch of a person infected with a loathsome
leprosy ? Oh no, he receives and returns
the kiss ! Judas, if thy heart hath re-
sisted up to the present moment, surely it
must now give way ! Surely the exquisite
sweetness of those lips, fragrant as Heaven's
choicest Saviour can make them, must cool
the burning fever of thy avaricious soul,
and diffuse some of its own sense through
O
thy frame, and into thy very heart ! Surely
those scatterers of Divine Wisdom cannot
have come into such close contact with thee,
92 THIRTEENTH MEDITATION
without dispelling the darkness of invete-
rate ignorance that overclouded thy soul !
Couldst thou resist this incomparable meek-
ness, this sublimity of charity towards
enemies, or what is more difficult, towards
false friends ? But Jesus could not forget
that most important duty of this virtue,
fraternal correction ; He could not permit
one of His own disciples and apostles to
be lost without the last effort made of
snatching him from destruction. He mildly
addresses him in those most pathetic words,
"Friend, whereunto art thou come? Judas,
dost thou betray the Son of Man with a
kiss ? " Could it have been possible to
expose to him in fewer words or more im-
pressively the exact nature and enormity
of his crime than is here done ? " Friend ! "
what a tender word ! what a mild intro-
duction to a reproof! "dost thou betray
the Son of Man, Him who has conversed
with thee so familiarly, so humanly, as
though He were but one of yourselves, and
dost thou betray Him by an act of friend-
ship, a token of love ? " Blessed Jesus,
how like Thyself, but like no one else, is
THE KISS OF JUDAS 93
this Thy conduct and speech ! But how
often may our Divine Redeemer reproach-
fully address us in similar language. When
we draw nigh unto Him in time of prayer,
as though about to address Him in quality
of our friend, and all around us suppose
from our attitude or words that we are inly
and deeply worshipping Him, while in reality
we are distracted with vain or even evil
thoughts, may He not very justly address
us in those same severe words : " Dost thou
betray the Son of Man with a kiss ? "
When we approach His altar, whereon He
is really present, with a lukewarm heart,
and introduce His adorable Body into a
breast occupied by evil propensities or vain
desires, when thus we may be said to de-
liver Him over to enemies whom He really
hates, by an act that bears the semblance
of closest intimacy and is a pledge of love,
may He not justly turn round as He enters
that profaned sanctuary, " Friend, where-
unto art thou come hither ? Dost thou
betray the Son of Man with a kiss ? " And
so may He address us too often, when we
speak of and to Him as though we loved
94 THIRTEENTH MEDITATION
Him, and outwardly before men seem to
give Him honour, while in reality we are
displeasing Him by habitual transgressions
of His law. In fact, though, thank God's
infinite mercies, we have not been guilty of
such a crime as that of Judas, for whom it
would have been better not to have been
born ; yet as we have copied the guilt of
the others engaged in that cruel tragedy,
as we have, by our sins, too often crucified
over again our Blessed Redeemer, as we
have too often, like Peter, denied Him, so
have we been, perhaps, unfortunate enough
in some sort to betray Him. Let us be-
wail as we ought this detestable offence.
3. Affections. " Meek Victim of our sal-
vation, Jesus, Eedeemer of our souls, didst
Thou not feel, in that moment when Judas
kissed Thee, as though all our fallen nature
was through him saluting Thee ? What
hath man been from the beginning to Thee
but a prevaricator and a traitor, thinking
to satisfy Thee with fine words and fervid
protestations, while in his heart Thou hast
found but little part? If then, dear Lord,
I have till now often kissed Thee treacher-
JESUS BEFORE ANNAS AND CAIPHAS 95
ously with Judas, let me from henceforth
kiss Thee lovingly with Magdalen. Thy
feet shall receive my homage in compen-
sation for the insult offered to Thy sacred
countenance. As Thou w r ast willing to
take the kisses which that glorious penitent
impressed on them in compensation for the
embrace of welcome which the Pharisee had
omitted, so accept the ardent impressions
of our lips upon Thy blessed feet, amidst
the tears and sobs of true repentance, in
expiation of that cursed act of treachery
which, in the person of Judas, disgraces all
our nature. And do Thou, dear Jesus, re-
turn them to us again, not in reproachful
meekness, but in satisfied affection, in kind
encouragement, and in most blessed reward."
jFourterntfj jfletutatton
JESUS BEFORE ANNAS AND CATPHAS
Preparation. Represent to yourself your
Saviour, with His hands bound, and placed
as a criminal successively before these two
haughty and wicked men, surrounded by
96 FOURTEENTH MEDITATION
their brutal satellites, ready to obey them
in every cruelty.
i. Eeflect upon this intermediate stage
of our Blessed Eedeemer's Passion, and first
of all consider what befell Him in its first
scene during the night of His capture. He
is dragged as a criminal before the two
priests, the most implacable of His enemies.
There He is interrogated by them ; false
witnesses are suborned to swear away His
life. Upon failure of their testimony, the
High Priest draws Him into a declaration
of His Divinity, and then pronounces Him
guilty of blasphemy. After this, He is
abandoned the whole night long to the
fury of a merciless rabble, who subject His
sacred person to every indignity and out-
rage within the power of their unchecked
barbarity. In this and the after scenes
before Pilate and Herod, we have the com-
pletion of what had been begun in Olivet,
His desolation and abandonment carried to
their highest pitch. For there His disciples
did fight for Him, and, before that, were at
least near Him, and, as it were, within call.
But now they are fled. He is completely
JESUS BEFOEE ANNAS AND CAIPHAS 97
alone, and the only one that does for a time
approach, only comes to disown and for-
swear Him. At the same time, however,
that the sufferings of the first stage of His
Passion here receive their fulness and per-
fection, He begins to prepare for the third
that of actual bodily suffering, by the
treatment He receives at the hands of
the Jewish mob. Thus were His sufferings
ever growing and displaying new character
till their consummation. In all this, how
admirably is the course and method of God's
ordinary providence pointed out, who, if
He wish to try us by tribulation, seldom
overthrows us by one sudden calamity, but
gradually inures us to suffering by a course
of graduated visitations. But in drawing
such comfortable lessons from my Divine
Redeemer's situation, let me never forget
that those pains, small and great, were
undergone for my sake, and that He stood
before this unjust tribunal that He might
liberate me before His own dread judg-
ment-seat, when I shall there justly appear.
I have been " guilty of more than the
council," and might have perhaps been
G
98 FOURTEENTH MEDITATION
righteously condemned had I stood before
it. But He, the spotless Lamb of God,
who had done no sin, never could have
been even brought before it, if He had not
of His boundless goodness chosen to stand
in my place.
2. Eeflect who were these that presumed
to try and pretended to condemn Him.
The priests, yea, His own priests ! They
who should have hailed Him with trumpets
of jubilee, and borne Him in triumph with
canticles of joy. They who had no dignity,
no power, no worth before God or men,
save as His shadows and representatives.
They who ministered daily to Him in the
temple by sacrifice and oblation, yet knew
it not. They who alone once a year had
the privilege of entering within the Holy
of Holies, as a type of Him who was to
enter the sanctuary of heaven, bearing not
the blood of oxen or of goats, but His own
most precious blood, wherewith He ran-
somed the world, and broke down the
partition-wall between earth and heaven !
Great God ! and it is these men who pre-
sume to sit in judgment over Thee. The
JESUS BEFORE ANNAS AND CAIPHAS 99
figure over the reality, the slave over his
Lord, the vessel of clay over Him who
fashioned it into a vessel of honour. And
couldst Thou submit to this ? Didst Thou
actually bear this ? Didst Thou stand be-
fore such a tribunal ? Oh, my heart, answer
thou these questions, for thou knowest that
He did, solely for my sake, to teach me
what my sins must have been which de-
graded Him so low, and what His love
must have been to induce Him to endure
such degradation.
3. Affections. Stand thou between thy
Saviour and the tribunal of these iniquitous
judges, and exclaim, " Oh, ye senseless and
most wicked men, on what madness are ye
bent ? Can ye call yourselves the ministers,
the priests of God, versed in the oracles of
His law and His prophets, and not be con-
vinced that He who, through them, hath
given you your name and power, now stands
bound before you ? Down, miscreants, from
your guilty thrones, and prostrate your-
selves at His feet, and crave forgiveness, if
haply He will hear you ; for He is a gracious
Master, and now intent to save. And Thou,
100 FOURTEENTH MEDITATION
meek and innocent Lamb of God, can I not
loose the bands which gall Thy tender arms,
and kissing those feet which have brought
Thee thus far on such an errand of love,
lead Thee back to Thy disconsolate mother
and Thy desolate disciples ? But, hold, I
too am Thy priest, and yet, alas ! has my
conduct been a whit the better towards
Thee than that of Annas and Caiphas ?
Have I not again and again presumed to
summon Thee to judgment before me, when
I have transgressed Thy law ? Have I not
repeatedly treated Thee coritumeliously by
rejecting Thy graces and entertaining in
their place my wicked inclinations ? But,
oh, worse than all, have I not by my
negligence and irreverent handling of Thy
adorable Body in the Blessed Eucharist, laid
violent hands upon Thee, and personally
outraged Thee truly present ? Forgive, dear
Lord, forgive me. In consideration of what
Thou sufferedst in this portion of Thy
Passion, pardon my past ingratitude ; and
I, on my part, promise Thee faithfully never
again to repeat them. And blessed for ever
be Thy holy Name."
THE TESTIMONY AGAINST JESUS IOI
jfifteentij Jflclittatton
THE TESTIMONY AGAINST JESUS
i. Keflect how these sons of Belial, the
priests and elders, determined as they were
to destroy our Saviour at any rate, had
yet the craftiness to aim at saving their
character by pretending to do it with some
show of reason. They accordingly set
about procuring witnesses to appear and
depose against Him. They have had
plenty of time to make their preparations.
Long have they plotted His ruin ; long
have they resolved to arrest Him and put
Him on His trial. It is some days, too,
since the immediate execution of this pro-
ject has been resolved on. Our Blessed
Eedeemer had not lived in secret, but had
been for three years constantly before the
public ; and it was on His conduct during
that period that they intended to base
their accusation. Often had the Pharisees,
Herodians, and doctors themselves, put
perplexing questions to Him, in hopes of
detecting Him in some dangerous opinions.
102 FIFTEENTH MEDITATION
They, it seems, had collected nothing to
bring forward. Thousands had listened to
His teaching or had witnessed His cures
and other miracles ; and of these many,
as appeared by the proceedings of the
next morning, must have been in the
interests of the authorities. Yet of these
but a small proportion came forward, with
what success we shall immediately see.
The poor women who had followed Him
from Galilee were in the neighbourhood,
and could easily have been brought forward.
If He were indeed the guilty culprit they
desired to prove Him, these women must
know it, having been His followers. Why
not examine them ? The Apostles were,
some of them, in the very house. Peter
had given sufficient proof of his pusil-
lanimity that very evening ; he surely
would show even more weakness when
interrogated by the chief priests than he
had betrayed on the question of a simple
maid. Yet these men never thought of
employing such means of discovering the
truth. Truth was not their object : they
aimed at the destruction of our Saviour.
THE TESTIMONY AGAINST JESUS 103
Well, then, they bring forth their own
prepared testimonies. No doubt, their
part had been well rehearsed, they had
been taught what to say. When, however,
they stepped forward, " their testimony did
not agree." The labour of preparation had
been thrown away. Falsehood ever be-
trays itself by its contradictions ; and on
this occasion they were so palpable that
the very suborners, for very shame, aban-
doned their witnesses, and refused to admit
them as evidence. Honest judges would
thereupon have rejected the accusation,
and have acquitted the accused. And what
could more clearly establish the gross in-
justice of this tribunal than the contrary
course it followed ? How can we suffi-
ciently abhor and detest the cruel injustice
here exercised towards the Son of God ?
2. Reflect how at length two false wit-
nesses were found to say that they had heard
Jesus declare, how He could in three days
build up a temple, not made with hands,
in place of the splendid and costly edifice
then existing, should this be destroyed.
Had any one else said this much, it might
104 FIFTEENTH MEDITATION
have been treated as an idle boast, be-
neath the notice of a grave tribunal of
such high dignity. For there was no
threat or disrespect towards the temple
expressed, but only a readiness and power
to rebuild it, if others should destroy it.
But when spoken by Jesus, who had given
such irrefragable proofs of mighty power,
they were words to be received with awe
and fear. They never could be made
matter of accusation against Him. Not
to say that the words, if they had been
disposed to understand them rightly, were
not to be taken in their literal import,
but in a figurative signification. Here,
then, was the sum of the charges which
a long and minute investigation had pro-
duced ! Here was the body of evidence,
to condemn the Son of Man to death, which
the many sittings of the Supreme Council
had been able to collect ! Good God !
What a life must He have led upon earth,
to escape the snares laid for Him, so as
to furnish no more matter than this to
support an accusation in the hands of the
most ingrained and inveterate adversaries.
THE TESTIMONY AGAINST JESUS 105
Who else but He, of all the children of
Adam, could have passed so unscathed
through such a scrutiny ? In truth, His
very persecutors, as appears from their
subsequent conduct, saw how futile and
how absurd the charge was, and aban-
doned this, their only specious accusation,
in their later proceedings against Him. So
aware was He of their folly, that He was
in vain urged by the High Priest to make
any reply. " Dost Thou answer nothing
to these things which are alleged against
Thee?" Jesus was content to say that
He had taught nothing in private, and
appealed to the testimony of those who
had heard Him. And so confounded and
enraged were they at their disgraceful
failure in establishing anything like an
imputation against him, that one of the
bystanders struck Him on the face, saying,
" Sic respondes pontifici ? "
3. Affections. Admire, as thou con-
template this vile rabble, the wonderful
conduct of this your Saviour, who, by His
silence, more completely baffles these wily
plotters, and confounds their falsehoods,
106 FIFTEENTH MEDITATION
than could have been done by the most
elaborate and eloquent defence. Then say
to Him, " sinless Lamb of God ! pure
and holy beyond the angels, how meekly
Thou standest amidst the raging wolves
that thirst for Thy blood ! In vain have
they sought to find cause against Thee.
How could they have possibly discovered
the smallest blot in Thy perfect, Divine
life ? Oh, I love to see Thee thus, without
abandoning one particle of Thy dearest
virtues, meek and dumb as the lamb before
its shearer, yet confounding the counsels
of the rulers who have conspired against
the Lord, and against Thee, His Christ.
Thou dost triumph and put them to shame,
without an effort, without a word, by the
sole efficacy of Thy irreproachable life, which
defies their censures. But while they blas-
phemously accuse Thee, let me bless and exalt
Thee. Let me with Thy angels praise Thee,
for the humiliation to which Thou didst
stoop in this stage of Thy blessed Passion.
"Blessed, my dear Saviour, be Thy holy
Name, and ever in our grateful hearts be
the recollection of Thy ignominy suffered
JESUS IS ACCUSED OF BLASPHEMY 1 07
for us. And teach me to profit by the
blessed example Thou hast here given me.
If ever accused falsely and undeservedly,
let me think of Thee before the council.
Let me remember how Thou, the innocent
and guiltless, sufferedst in silence and
meekness, and thence conclude how I, the
guilty sinner, the wretch who have so often
offended Thee, ought to suffer."
Jftetutation
Preparation. Represent to yourself
your Saviour standing in meek silence
before the wicked High Priest and the
assembly of His enemies.
i. Reflect how the High Priest, finding it
impossible to ground any reasonable charge
against Jesus upon the false testimony which
he and his council had been able to suborn,
took advantage of the candour and simple
truthfulness which he well knew to be our
Saviour's character, to convict Him, if pos-
sible, out of His own mouth. He therefore
108 SIXTEENTH MEDITATION
stands up and adjures Him by the living
God, to say if He be the Christ, the Son
of the living God. Jesus hesitates not a
moment to declare Himself such as He was ;
and the High Priest replies, saying, " Hie
blasphemat, quid opus est adhuc testibus ? "
Now, look at the monstrous nature of this
proceeding. Jesus had all along proclaimed
Himself the Christ, the Son of God and
had they thought this sufficient to convict
Him, it would have cost them but little
trouble or ingenuity to collect evidence of
it, instead of charging their souls with per-
jury by procuring false and lying witnesses.
But the evidence of His miracles was so
strong that they had* not ventured to attack
Him directly on this head : they rather
hoped to throw discredit on His claims by
adducing such charges against Him as would
appear incompatible with the character of
the Messias. For this purpose they had
framed the charge of His having threatened
the destruction of the temple, which the
Messias was expected to restore to its former
glory. Now, foiled in all these attempts,
they are reduced to convict Him on the
JESUS IS ACCUSED OF BLASPHEMY 109
direct charge of asserting Himself to be the
Messias ; an assertion which they charge
with blasphemy. Impious and most foul
charge ! Against whom was it possible for
Jesus, divine and consubstantial to the
Father, to blaspheme ? But, on the other
hand, observe the horrible blasphemy which
the impious priest himself commits in making
such a charge against our Lord. Perhaps in
all the Passion there is not a more outrageous
insult upon Him than this charge of the
wicked pontiff. Imagine, for a moment,
one of the ancient prophets ; David, who
had placed all his hopes and centred all his
happiness in the coming of this his son,
Isaias ; w r ho had so lovingly described Him,
and w r ritteri his ardent aspirations after
Him ; or Daniel, who had so much prayed
and longed for Him ; and who had been
so able to discover the false testimony
of the two elders : imagine these saints of
the ancient law standing beside the council
of their nation, and seeing its chief priest
solemnly pronounce their desired One,
their loved One, their hope and joy a
blasphemer ! Would they not have seized
I I O SIXTEENTH MEDITATION
the sword of Phinees, and transfixed him
on the spot ?
2. Reflect what lessons we may learn
from this event in our dear Redeemer's
Passion. It is more than likely that, if I
defend the truth of our holy religion with-
out disguise or reserve, if I push home any
arguments to its adversaries, they will call
me a blasphemer. If I say that Jesus, who
could in three 'days build up the Temple
not made with hands, has given us His
Body and Blood in the Blessed Eucharist,
in which bread is changed into His Body,
I shall be told that I blaspheme. If I boldly
assert that Mary is to be reverenced, in-
voked, and worshipped, I shall be told that
I am a blasphemer. If I say that I or any
minister of God has power to forgive sins,
I shall hear it said, " Hie blasphemat."
What then ? Shall I wonder at this ? Is
the disciple greater than the Master? If
the world have said this of Him, shall they
not say it of us ? If Jesus was called a
blasphemer for openly declaring the truth,
shall I not rejoice if, for the same reason,
I, like Him, am so styled? Shall it not
JESUS IS ACCUSED OF BLASPHEMY I I I
encourage me to proclaim still louder the
doctrine He lias committed to my charge ?
But, further, what do we owe Jesus for this
portion of His sufferings ? What, but a
tribute of our most fervent praise ! What,
but a compensation of honour a"nd reverence
most publicly given Him ! Who can doubt
but that the angels in heaven redoubled
their hosannas, and raised their voices to a
more jubilant strain, when these horrible
words were uttered, to compensate and
repair the outrage done to Him on earth ?
And we, for whom He submitted to the in-
dignity, for whose encouragement He was
pleased to undergo so shameful a reproach,
shall not we also redouble our praise and
thanksgiving for so much mercy and so
much love ? Shall we not cry out with
His Apostle, every time we hear the insult
offered, " My Lord and my God " ?
3. Affections. " my good and suffer-
ing Jesus, can I ever forget what Thou hast
been pleased to suffer for my sake ? Can I
ever cease to bless and praise Thee, to love
and serve Thee, in return for so much kind-
ness ? I desire now specially to commemo-
I 1 2 SIXTEENTH MEDITATION
rate what Thou sufferedst for my sake from
so many foul reproaches and blasphemies
during Thy blessed Passion. Thou wert
called a blasphemer for the love of me !
Yet stay ; how often has my incorrigible
tongue injured and offended Thee by its
unjust or light discourses perhaps, as much
as that of the wicked High Priest ? Now,
therefore, I consecrate and dedicate this
unruly member to Thee, and bind it down
in a perpetual compact to bless and praise
Thee, to proclaim Thy glories to all men,
to defend Thy Divinity, and make known
Thy mercies with all its power ! It shall
love to own itself Thy servant and unworthy
instrument ; it shall delight to descant upon
Thy attributes, and Thy loving-kindness : it
shall never be weary in uttering, with all
fondness, Thy sweet and tender Name ; even
in its last utterances, when death comes to
still it, it shall falter forth Thy most holy
and most blessed Name. My heart, too,
shall accompany it in giving Thee glory :
ever studying to gain Thee praises from
those that know Thee not, and praise
Thee not."
PETER S DENIAL I 1 3
Sebenteentfj JHetittatton
PETER'S DENIAL
Preparation. Kepresent to yourself your
clear Redeemer standing as a lamb in the
midst of wolves, meek and unresisting,
though surrounded by a brutal rabble ; and
Peter standing among the servants of the
High Priest.
i. Reflect what a cruel blow to the Heart
of our dear Saviour was given by the denial
of Peter. He had been abandoned, indeed,
by all His Apostles. Even John, the be-
loved, who was to display singular courage
at the foot of the cross, and thereby to win
the guardianship of Mary, was now at a
distance ; and it was evidently a part of
the sufferings of Jesus in this stage of His
blessed Passion to be utterly abandoned by
all. Still Peter, the most courageous of the
number, as he had shown himself in the
Garden, draws nigh, and ventures into the
crowd. Surely it must be to bring his
loving Master some comfort ; to give Him
an assurance that his heart and those of
H
114 SEVENTEENTH MEDITATION
his companions remain faithful to Him in
spite of His present ignominy. He is come,
surely, to die with Him, if need be. Alas !
he is come to disown and to deny Him ! to
forswear himself by a dreadful and a treach-
erous untruth, saying that he knew not the
man. Such is the errand on which Peter
is come ; to do his kind Master no better
service than publicly to disavow T all con-
nection with Him ! Such is the only com-
fort brought to Jesus, on that last night,
by the most courageous and the most zeal-
ous of His chosen followers. But then,
what a wreck of the labours, lessons, and
examples of three years ! In vain has He-
been toiling to convince His Apostle that
the Son of Man must suffer, and thus enter
into His glory ; that He must be delivered
into the hands of sinners, mocked, and spit
upon, and put to death. All these lessons
have been thrown away. Peter does not
know the man ! There are all the protes-
tations of the courageous Apostle, that even
if all were to be scandalised in Jesus, he
would not evaporated at the sound of a
foolish servant's voice. Yes, and there is
PETER'S DENIAL 115
the solid foundation of Christ's Church, the
rock on which He willed to build it, melted,
like wax, before that fire of the High Priest's
hall ! Oh, what a cruel sight for our Blessed
Lord ! what an aggravation of His suffer-
ings ! How much more poignant an inflic-
tion than the strokes upon His cheek ! How
much deeper an insult than the spitting
upon His face ! Truly, He looked on His
right hand and on His left, and not only
were there none to know Him, but there
were some to abjure Him ! Ah, how often
have I done the same, or worse ! How
often have I denied Jesus by my conduct !
But what a lesson is here for me not to run
any risks, or expose myself to danger as
Peter did. He certainly loved Jesus much
beyond what I can pretend to do ; he had
been instructed much better than I in the
law of his Saviour, he had been provided
with richer graces ; yet he basely gave way
before the first slight temptation and fell
into the blackest of treasons ! What secu-
rity have I that I shall not do worse, if
not always on my guard, and assiduous in
prayer ?
I 1 6 SEVENTEENTH MEDITATION
2. Reflect upon the conduct of your dear
Redeemer on this painful and trying occa-
sion. Peter was no longer worthy of His
notice, much less of His affection. He had
treated Him most ungratefully and most
unkindly. Our Lord could in justice have
abandoned him to his fate. At any rate,
He might have left him till after His own
sufferings were ended, and visited him with
forgiveness after His resurrection. But no.
He would not delay a moment to touch his
heart ; He would not die unreconciled with
His former friend. He put aside His own
sad feelings, He turned upon Peter, from
the midst of them, one glance of loving
reproach and remonstrance, which pene-
trated to the centre of his soul, dissolved
the spell which had bound him, reawakened
those feelings which fear had frozen and
O
benumbed, and brought out, through the
flood of tears which he shed, the anguish
of his repenting soul. Oh, what a look that
must have been ! a look never, as long as he
lived, to be effaced from Peter's memory !
What a mild yet steady and penetrating
glance ! how truly Divine ! His features
PETER S DENIAL I I 7
are scarcely discernible under the disfigur-
ing influence of the outrageous treatment
He had received ; but His eye, unclouded
in its majesty, darts a beam, which passes
beyond the crowd to the outer hall, and
breathes into the very recesses of the re-
creant Apostle's heart, and enlightens its
darkness with a ray of repentance ! But
what ineffable goodness, condescension, and
mercy are here displayed. Surely this alone
was sufficient to satisfy us how high was
the virtue of the Soul of our dear Jesus,
above all mere human excellence ! After
this fall, Peter disappears entirely from the
scene of the Passion. He was cured of his
rashness ; and though no doubt he would
have wished to repair his fault by attend-
ance on his kind and forgiving Master,
during its last stages, yet he had now too
well discovered his frailty to venture again
into danger. To weep at a distance and
alone was now his only comfort and occu-
pation. Here again is a lesson for us, to
be warned by our faults to carefulness and
vigilance.
3. Affections. Imagine to yourself that
Il8 SEVENTEENTH MEDITATION
look of your Saviour as cast upon you, and
say : " Yes, my good and merciful Jesus,
I well know and understand that reproving
glance, which not once, but again and again,
Thou hast cast upon me from the midst of
Thy sufferings when I have offended and
denied Thee. Often has Thy silent look
touched my heart, and moved it to repent-
ance, when I remembered what Thou hast
endured for love of me, and how miserably
I have requited it ! How long have I been
Thy scholar, Thy disciple, admitted to free
consort with Thee, seated at Thy table ;
nay, Thy minister, Thy chosen servant, ad-
mitted to share with Thy Apostles ; and yet
I have foully denied Thee, in the face of
Heaven, forgetting Thy love, and joining
with Thy cruel enemies in persecuting and
tormenting Thee ! Oh, look then often
upon me as Thou then didst upon Peter ;
one such loving and pitiful glance shall do
more to reclaim me, when wandering, than
the flash of Thy lightnings. Yes ; ' Thou
hast wounded me with one of Thine eyes,'
my Beloved ; Thou hast pierced my soul,
and melted all its hardness. And when, by
Thy grace, I overcome temptation, or do or
suffer something for Thy sake ; let me look
into that calm, loving eye, for Thy bright
approval, my only reward. In it I shall
read my sentence with joy, and receive an
earnest of what it will one day express to
me in Thy eternal bliss."
dBigijtcemf)
JESUS IS DECLARED GUILTY OF DEATH
Preparation. Imagine to yourself your
Divine Redeemer standing meekly amidst
the priests and their servants, exposed to
their insults.
i. Reflect upon the solemn adjuration in
the Name of the living God, which the
wicked High Priest addressed to our Blessed
Lord ; for it bespeaks his unwilling testi-
mony to the character of Jesus. Had he
believed Him to be such as he affected to
consider Him, he would have known that
such an address would have been quite use-
less. For had the meek silence of Jesus
proceeded from fear, or had He been the
I2O EIGHTEENTH MEDITATION
culprit they affected to suppose, He would
not, they well knew, be entrapped by this
question, proceeding probably from hypoc-
risy and pretended zeal, and tending to
ensnare the life of the accused. But the
High Priest knew well that Jesus feared not
to avow who He declared Himself to be ;
he knew, too, that the Name of God would
have a power with Him which all the artful
questions and lying witness of His enemies
never would. Therefore, baffled in every
attempt through these, yet determined to
find Him guilty even by means of such
noble and holy feelings, he put to Him the
solemn question : " Adjuro te per Deum
vivum, die nobis si tu es Christus, films Dei
vivi ? " Jesus would not deny His true
character in the face of danger, and avowed
Himself, answering : " Thou hast said it."
Whereupon they all exclaimed, " Reus est
mortis." Reflect deeply upon the meaning
of these words, which imply nothing less
than the condemnation to death of the
Lord of life. The very breath which spoke
so impious a decree was simply His gift ;
and all who uttered that sentence depended
JESUS DECLARED GUILTY OF DEATH 121
upon His goodwill for their very existence.
But in truth this parricidal sentence was
a condemnation of death to themselves.
They pronounced thereby the warrant of
their own destruction, and the extermina-
tion of their own people. Blind, impious,
and yet most impotent men ! Tools of
your own wicked passions, yet unconscious
instruments in the hands of a gracious and
saving Providence, which, from the bitter
root of your perversity and malice, would
cause to spring forth the sweet fruit of sal-
vation. So did the Blessed Jesus overlook
your impotent malignity, and in that hour
raise up His eyes to the throne of His
Father in heaven, and view the cause of
mankind canvassed in His eternal councils,
the sins of men numbered and weighed in
His balances, and found beyond number or
reckoning. He sees expiation demanded
from Himself, who had offered to be the
Victim for them ; and He heard the same
sentence which is now blasphemously pro-
nounced upon earth, most righteously
uttered in heaven. And the meek Lamb
of God bowed down His head in humble
122 EIGHTEENTH MEDITATION
resignation, saying, "Thou art just,
Father ! and all Thy ways are right." But
now contemplate the scene which ensues.
For upon the sentence being pronounced,
His Passion of outward suffering may he
said to have begun. For the fury of the
enraged multitude is now let loose upon
Him uncontrolled ; encouraged by the ap-
plause, the laughter, and the jeers of their
superiors, who show their approval of each
new insult and outrage upon His sacred
person. Behold, then, your Saviour, whom
your soul tenderly loves, not only blas-
phemed and grossly insulted by impious
language, but actually struck with the hand,
plucked by the hair and beard, and His
sacred countenance spit upon ! These are
indignities which, if we saw committed
against the vilest criminal, we should re-
sent as brutal and most inhuman. Nor is
there a man who would, in worldly lan-
guage, be able to hold up his head, if once
publicly assailed by any one of them. Yet
the Blessed Jesus not only descended from
the royal line, but by true right King
of Israel, yea, God of Israel submits in
JESUS DECLARED GUILTY OF DEATH 123
silence and imperturbable patience to this
accumulated outrage ! Ob, wbat a lesson
for me, whose pride boils under the slightest
insult, whose resentment is roused by the
smallest affront ! Shame to me to call my-
self a follower of Jesus, and to be so little
like Him !
2. Reflect now upon this distressing
scene under a new light. Imagine all its
actors changed except one, and that one
the Person of your Blessed Redeemer. In
place of the others, imagine that you see
those real causers of His sufferings, your
own passions and sins. Yes ; it was not
so much the High Priest of the Jews that
sat upon the seat of judgment whence the
sentence issued ; it was the proud corrup-
tion of my heart. Dressed out, indeed, in
sacerdotal robes ; assuming the title of a
dedication to God, yet full of pride, hypoc-
risy, and deceit, it has presumptuously
dared to question and canvass the titles
which Jesus has to my love and service.
It has rejected His claim to be sole King
of my soul and heart, Lord of all my
powers, Master of my every act ; and has
124 EIGHTEENTH MEDITATION
listened to the many false witnesses which
its corruption has again and again suborned
to put aside His claims. And when, in
fact, I have on some dreadful occasion con-
demned Him within myself, it was with
the unanimous consent of every bad pas-
sion, echoing back the sentence to put
Jesus aside to crucify Him again by sin.
Yes, such were the real assessors of this in-
famous Sanhedrin : these were the haughty
Pharisees, the vain scribes, the unbelieving
Sadducees, that broke forth into that hor-
rible sentence against Jesus, and, as far as
their malice could go, sentenced Him to
death. Then it was that the fury of my
evil inclinations, freed from all check, broke
forth upon Him, insulted and impiously
outraged Him. Oh ! how did my presump-
tuous folly suppose it could hoodwink those
eyes that are brighter than the sun, to
offend Him with impunity? How did
those repeated transgressions of His law,
in word, and thought, and deed, strike
Him on the face ! How did those uncharit-
able words against my neighbours, mem-
bers of His mystical Body, pluck His
JESUS DECLARED GUILTY OF DEATH 125
venerable hair ! How did that disrespect
for His sanctuary, my cold indifference to
His sacraments, my contempt or abuse of
His graces, spit in His very face, and insult
Him most outrageously ! How did my
vanity and levity, my lusts and evil
desires, buffet and contemn Him ! Ah !
such is the true account of this fearful
scene ; and the real executioner of my dear
Jesus was this self of mine ! Thus have I
treated H im every time I have sinned ; and
it was the accumulation of such treatments,
by myself and others, that caused, and out-
wardly rehearsed, the afflicting spectacle of
that His last night in mortal state !
3. Affections. " I know not, my loving
Redeemer, with what feelings I best can
contemplate this portion of Thy most
sorrowful Passion. Shall it be with in-
dignation against those who were guilty
of such barbarity ? Or with admiration
of Thy Divine conduct, Thy patience and
meekness ? Shall I contemplate Thy good-
ness towards me, or my unworthy conduct
towards Thee ? Rather will I adore in
silence this marvellous mystery of Thee,
126 EIGHTEENTH MEDITATION
my incarnate God, suffering for my sake.
I will try to blend my other feelings into
one of unqualified, grateful love. I will
love Thee, my God, all the more because
Thou didst submit to be condemned for
my sake to an ignominious death. The
more Thou art defaced by blows or spittle,
the comelier art Thou to me, and the more
desired by my heart. And forasmuch as
my sins have been the cause of such atroci-
ties committed on Thy sacred Person, I
will love Thee still the more ; that my
affection may be as some drops of balm
in the grievous wounds I have inflicted
upon Thee. In opposition to the impious
sentence pronounced upon Thee, I will cry
out, with all the loving ones who have,
thus gained their sentence of pardon :
' Live, dear Jesus, live ! and that in my
heart.' "
JESUS IS BROUGHT BEFORE PILATE 127
$metecntl) jfte&ttatton
JESUS IS BROUGHT BEFORE PILATE
Preparation. Represent to yourself your
Divine Saviour, His hands tied behind Him
like a criminal, pushed forward by the
Jewish crowd to the tribunal of the Roman
governor.
i. Reflect upon the refined malice of the
Jewish priests and elders, which would not
allow their passion so far to blind them
as to make them take summary vengeance
upon our Lord ; but prompted them to
proceed through all the forms of Roman
law ; that so, on the one hand, the punish-
ment might be more severe and cruel, being
that of crucifixion, and on the other, the
public might be deceived into a belief of
the justice of a sentence pronounced by
a foreign tribunal, and acquit them of
all animosity and resentment in their pro-
ceedings. Having, therefore, satiated their
cruelty by wreaking on Him all they ven-
tured, short of murder, during the preced-
ing night ; they rise early, and, followed
128 NINETEENTH MEDITATION
by the mob of their satellites, and such a
crowd as the occasion was sure to collect,
they drag Jesus as a criminal to the
governor's house. At the first aspect of
such accusers, and such an accused, the
cause ought to be decided. They, scarcely
recovered from the cruel revels of the pre-
vious night, but bearing all the traces of
its infamous passions in their inflamed
countenances ; He, already bruised and ill-
treated in a barbarous manner : they, having
violated all law and principles of justice,
by inflicting such cruelty upon one uncon-
demned and unheard ; He, having rather
a right to charge them for the injuries
inflicted, than cause to defend Himself
against such aggressors ! Such a case as
this, presented before any tribunal pos-
sessed of the slightest principles of justice,
should have instantly been dismissed ; or
plaintiff and defendant made to change
places. Nor is it possible to suppose that
the Koman president, watchful, of course,
over the interests of his nation, and atten-
tive to the smallest movement in a people
so prone to rebellion as the Jews, cognisant
JESUS IS BROUGHT BEFORE PILATE 129
of their growing expectations of a deliverer
from foreign bondage, should have been
ignorant of the enthusiasm which the
wonderful powers exercised by Jesus had
excited. He must, or ought, to have made
inquiries, and satisfied himself that from
Him the state and civil authority had
nothing to fear. Indeed, when our Divine
Saviour is presented before him, we do
not see him evince the slightest eagerness
to investigate the case, or to take it up
with that warmth which governors of dis-
tant and lately acquired countries generally
display upon grave accusations of treason.
He therefore probably knows, that had it
been any real treason, the accusers on this
occasion, who display so cordial a zeal,
would most probably have been engaged
in it. There seems, however, to be a deep
design of heavenly Providence in allowing
these wily rulers to be outwitted by their
own devices. Not only, by presenting the
Son of God to the heathen governor, are
they securing the fulfilment of His repeated
declaration that He should die the death
of the cross, but they are unintentionally
I
130 NINETEENTH MEDITATION
bringing about the accomplishment of
another and more ancient prediction. The
sceptre was not to be taken away from
Juda till the Messias had come. And
perhaps we may say that this delivery of
Jesus over to the Eoman power was the
first great national acknowledgment of the
departure of native authority, and of sub-
mission to foreign rule. Now for the first
time did they exclaim, " Non habemus
regem nisi Csesarem." " Si huuc dimittis,
non es amicus Csesaris." Never before,
perhaps, did the priests and highest autho-
rities in the country make so decisive a
declaration of homage and servitude as now,
when their rage prompted them to make
this sacrifice of the authority to which they
had hitherto clung. They owned the sceptre
to have passed from Juda, and on that day
the true Silo came ; He to whom it of right
belonged, as the Saviour of His people.
2. Eeflect now upon the indictment they
prefer against Jesus, at this iniquitous tri-
bunal which they have chosen. We have
already considered the disgraceful subter-
fuges to which the priests were put to fix
JESUS IS BROUGHT BEFORE PILATE 131
on some palpable or plausible charge against
Jesus. We saw how, after hearing and
rejecting many testimonies, they at last
fixed upon that which attested Him to
have said, that if the temple were to be
destroyed, He could build it up again. We
naturally expect this supposed blasphemy
to be the great and leading head of accusa-
tion against Him. But now the iniquitous
wretches have again changed their ground,
and have chosen another more palpably
untenable. " We have found this man,"
they say, " perverting our nation, and for-
bidding to give tribute to Csesar, and say-
ing that He is Christ the King" (Luke
xxiii. 2). Upon the first of these points
our Blessed Saviour had been most artfully
tempted, and had displayed His wonderful
wisckma, in defeating the attempts to en-
snare Him. He had clearly said, " Render
to Csesar the things that are Caesar's."
But the latter part of their accusation goes
beyond all the rest in wickedness, ingrati-
tude, and blasphemous impiety. These
they more unreservedly displayed later,
when they exclaimed, " Whoever maketh
132 NINETEENTH MEDITATION
himself a king, speaketh against Caesar ; "
and " We have a law, and according to
the law He ought to die, because He made
Himself the Son of God " (John xix. 12, 7).
Is it possible that such a charge should be
made against Blessed Jesus, by men who
were looking out for the Christ of God, as
one who should drive Caesar not only from
the promised land, but from his very im-
perial throne, and wrest from his hands
the sceptre of the universe ? Would it
have appeared credible, if not recorded in
God's unerring Word, that men could have
been so blinded by passion, as that to carry
an unjust and cruel charge they should
belie their dearest inclinations before all
their countrymen, and blaspheme, in the
face of heaven, what they considered the
most splendid mercy which the God of
Israel had in store for their nation ?
"Whoever makes himself a king must be
put to death, as a rebel to Caesar; the
law justly condemns to the same penalty
one who assumes the character of the Son
of God." In these propositions sentence of
death is passed by the Jewish senate upon
jEStTS IS BROUGHT BEFORE 1'lLATti 133
the Mcssias whenever He might appear
after their own hearts, such as they desired
Him ! Is there any mystery of iniquity
false and lying, too complicated or too
deep for us to expect in the heart of man,
after such evidence as this ? What villainy
and unredeemable perversity was needed,
before men could frame a charge against
the sinless, spotless Lamb of God !
3. Affections. Sympathise with your
Kedeemer thus unjustly persecuted by the
raging malice of His enemies, and say :
" How shall I repress my indignation
against the villains who thus abandon every
sentiment of patriotism and consistency, as
well as every principle of righteousness and
gratitude, to deliver Thee, the benefactor
as well as the Saviour of Thy people, into
the hands of the Gentiles, that Thou mayest
by them be cruelly tortured and put to
death ? But it is not with such feelings
that Thou wouldst have Thy blessed Passion
to be meditated on, especially by us. For
how often have we ourselves brought Thee
before the iniquitous tribunal of this world,
to be by it condemned ! Even whenever,
i34 NINETEENTH MEDITATION
by our behaviour, or through our indiscreet
speeches, we have caused Thy truths or Thy
injunctions to be lightly discussed or easily
put aside ! Let us therefore take to our-
selves some portion of the shame which we
cast upon those who treated Thee with such
indignity ; and try to compensate our guilt
by thankfulness to Thee for having suffered
even this for love of us, and by a loving
determination ever to stand up as Thine
advocates and vindicators before the false
arraignments and foolish cavils of unbe-
lieving or thoughtless men. We will ever
arise for Thy cause ; and if the world cries
down Thy supreme law, we will exclaim
the louder, ' Non habemus regem nisi
Jesum.' We will acknowledge Thee in
the face of men for our sovereign and
rightful Lord ; w r e will not allow the
smallest prerogatives of Thy state to be
touched, and we will strain every nerve
to exalt and spread Thy kingdom over the
world that knows Thee not."
THE RETKACTATION OF JUDAS 135
ftfoentietfj JMetiitatton
THE RETRACTATION OF JUDAS AND
HIS DEATH
i. Reflect upon the feelings which must
have agitated the traitor Judas after he had
delivered up his good Master. At first he
gloated upon his thirty pieces of silver, and
counted them over again and again, and
imagined he had made an excellent bargain.
Still he would not easily forget the price,
and the infamy attached to his act. Per-
haps he flattered himself with the idea that
Jesus would never allow Himself to be ill-
treated by His enemies ; but as He had
overthrown them in the Garden, so He
would foil and utterly vanquish them in
their own Council Chamber. Or is it pos-
sible that at the same time he may have
reckoned on the leniency and forgiveness
of Jesus, and fully calculated upon pardon ?
However this may be, it would not be long
before unhappy feelings would begin to
creep into his soul, and trouble him with
vague apprehensions. The evil spirit which
136 TWENTIETH MEDITATION
had at first concealed all the dark aspects
of his crime, when it was his purpose to
tempt him, would now begin gradually to
unfold them to urge him to destruction.
Like our first parents, he had been tempted
by the fruits of his treachery ; his thirty
pieces of silver had appeared fair to his
eye, and worth any sacrifice of duty ; now
that he has them, he discovers that he is
naked and deserted. While the rest of the
disciples consult together in secret, or, like
Peter and John, even approach the scene
of their Master's trial, Judas does not draw
nigh to either. He skulks about during
the long dreary night, shunning every
former acquaintance, trembling at the pos-
sibility of meeting Mary, who may ask if
he knows what has become of her Son ; or
Peter, who may in his indignation seize
him by the throat, and avenge on him his
Master's cruel betrayal ; and while he thus
ventures not near the dwellings of any of
his former friends, who were necessarily
the friends of Jesus, he knows too well the
scorn and detestation in which he is held
by those who have used him as their tool
THE RETRACTATION OF JUDAS 137
in the most disgraceful part of their conduct
to thrust himself amongst them. Like all
traitors, he feels himself equally odious to
his old and new friends. He prowls like a
wolf about the precincts of the High Priest's
palace, afraid to accost any one, yet borne
on by a tormenting eagerness to inquire
concerning the probable fate of Jesus ; and
perhaps, concealing his anxiety under a
studied indifference, he asks of such as he
thinks cannot recognise him what appear
to be the intentions of the priests. Too
soon he begins to fear the worst, for all
tell him that they have pronounced Him
worthy of death, have determined to give
Him up in the morning to the Roman pre-
sident, and are in the meantime venting
their rage and impiety, in insults and blows,
upon His sacred Person. Now does the
vileness and cruelty of his treason begin to
open upon him ; now does he begin to see
the abyss of wretchedness that yawns before
him, the barbarous treatment he has brought
upon his kind, generous Master and Friend,
the murder that will probably be committed
on Him on the morrow through his crime,
138 TWENTIETH MEDITATION
the infamy that awaits him, the universal
execration of all posterity, the worse than
hellish torments which conscience is prepar-
ing for him, and which he already begins
to feel ! And in the morning when he rises
early, and sees the sorrowful procession
moving towards Pilate's house ; when he
hears the yells of the mob, " Crucify Him,"
and sees in the countenances of the priests
ample evidence of their fixed determination
to proceed to extremities, how does he curse
the silver that allured him to a deed of such
black iniquity, and the ill-fated hour when
he listened to its temptation. Hence, over-
come at length with remorse, that purse of
ill-gotten wealth, which is at his girdle, is
truly heavier to his neck than that mill-
stone with which it would have been better
for him to have been cast into the sea ; and
anxious to be rid of its load at any risk,
he hurries to the members of the priestly
council, who were yet sitting, flings it at
their feet with these solemn words, " I have
sinned in betraying innocent blood."
2. Eeflect now on the terrible answer
given him by these hardened partners of
THE RETRACTATION OP JUDAS 139
his crime : " Quid ad nos ? Tu videris."
This is the answer which we must ever
expect from all companions in iniquity
when its punishment overtakes us. They
will laugh at our complaints ; they will
scoff at our repentance ; they will turn
their backs on our entreaties for succour.
When we tell them that it was following
their advice, that it was to please them,
that we committed sin ; and that now we
are suffering in consequence, this will be
their hard-hearted reply : "What is all this
to us ? Look thou to it." And on the
last day such will be the only sympathy
we may expect from those who have been
our patrons or encouragers in evil ; all will
abandon us on that occasion, and leave us
to our solitary liability. But mark withal
the abominable hypocrisy of these hoary
sinners, who affect a scruple at touching or
applying to sacred purposes the price of
blood which they had not hesitated to pay.
And was there not a providential, and in a
manner a prophetical, application of this
sum in the purchase of a field for the burial
of strangers ? as if to show that the price
140 TWENTIETH MEDITATION
of Jesus' blood, rejected by the synagogue,
was to be for the benefit of the Gentiles ;
and Calvary, the Christian Haceldama, was
their exclusive inheritance. But turn once
more to Judas. See the red-hot sword of
despair which this cold answer plunges into
his heart ; how he scowls with knitted brows
upon the priests as he sees the contemp-
tuous sneer upon their lips. Before he was
their dear and faithful friend, welcome and
warmly received whenever he stole from
his Master's side on Gethsemane to join
their midnight councils. Now he is a
Galilean in their eyes, an importunate man
who has had his due, and is no more wanted.
His sight is loathsome to them ; had he not
foreseen this ? They do not offer him any
consolation, or attempt to convince him
that Jesus has deserved His fate, and that
he has no reproach to make himself for
having delivered Him up to justice. No ;
" Quid ad nos ? Tu videris." He rushes
from their presence, gnawing his heart
with rage. wretched Judas ! whither
art thou hastening ? That is not the direc-
tion that leads to thy Lord ; He is now in
THE RETRACTATION OF JUDAS 141
the house of Pilate, where they are scourg-
ing Him. Break through the crowd ; push
aside the soldiers ; cast thyself at His feet,
and, kissing them in repentance, efface that
other murderous kiss, and He will forgive
thee ; let His blood be sprinkled on thee,
and though thy sin be red as scarlet, thou
shalt become white as snow. Give to the
world this glorious spectacle of repentance.
But no ; the demon of despair, clinging at
his breast, whispers in his ear that for him
alone on earth there is no hope of forgive-
ness, that he alone is excepted from redemp-
tion. Life is no longer supportable, and he
hangs himself, and, falling, is rent to pieces !
3. Affections. "Wretched man! no pity
pursues thy fate, no compassion softens the
meditation upon thine end ! Thou an
Apostle, a friend of the Bridegroom, an
individual companion of Jesus ! Thy fel-
lows, too, were hung upon gibbets, or their
bodies were racked and rent, and all the
world has honoured and loved them for it,
and their burial-places are glorious, and
their relics kissed and deemed holy. Thou
sufferedst as cruel a death as they, and hast
142 TWENTY-FIRST MEDITATION
upon thy hanging corpse the execration of
the world ! It costs them as much to be a
traitor to Thee, dear Jesus ! as it does to
be Thy faithful follower and Apostle. And
shall I ever place thirty pieces of silver,
much less worthless pleasure, honour, or
fame against fidelity to Thy cause, to Thy
truth, and to Thy law ? Never, dear Lord !
and if unhappily I sometimes, like Peter,
forget myself and Thee, never let me,
Judas-like, betray Thee."
Efoentg-fxrst Hesitation
OUR SAVIOUR'S SILENCE
Preparation. Represent to yourself our
Blessed Lord, bound like a criminal, and
standing before Pilate's tribunal.
i. Reflect how particularly the Evange-
lists notice the peculiar character of our
Saviour's defence when standing before the
different tribunals at which He was so
iniquitously arraigned. First when brought
before the High Priest Caiphas, and asked
if He answered nothing to the depositions
against Him, The Gospel adds, " Jesus
OUR SAVIOURS SILENCE 143
autem tacebat" (Matt. xxvi. 63). Again,
when placed before Pilate and interrogated
by him, "He answered him not to any
word" (xxvii. 14). A third time He is
closely questioned by Herod, who would
easily be induced to effect His liberation ;
but here, in like manner, " He answered him
nothing " (Luke xxiii. 9). This conduct in
any other might have been suspected of
proceeding from a fear of committing him-
self by an unguarded expression, or giving
his enemies a hold on him, by any heat
or passion. But in Jesus this could not
possibly be imagined. Or in others we
might suppose that they were overawed
by the terror incident to persons put upon
trial for their lives, or by the great dignity
of the presence wherein they stood, or by a
consciousness of shame or guilt. But who,
without blasphemy, would even surmise the
possibility of such motives in the Son of
God ? No ; when the Eternal Word of God,
that came into the world to enlighten it
with heavenly wisdom, is silent, there must
be a deep mystery in the silence. And first
it was necessary, to complete that character
144 TWENTY-FIRST MEDITATION
of meekness which the prophet had given
Him, that He should be like a lamb before
His shearer, not opening His mouth. What
an idea does it give us of the serenity of
His soul, of His elevation above earthly
things, of His power of abstracting Him-
self from the tumult and passion that sur-
rounded Him, and living in the pure and
radiant sphere of His own celestial thoughts.
For it was no sullen or obstinate refusal to
speak, but a calm and meek silence repre-
sentative of His inward serenity ; so that if
the Centurion at His death, upon hearing
the loud cry wherewith He yielded His
spirit, was justified in exclaiming, " Truly
this was the Son of God," any one who
properly apprehended His silence at the
tribunals, should from it have come to the
same conclusion. And, in fact, it is evident
that in His case was reversed that ordinary
principle that silence in one accused is equi-
valent to an admission of guilt. For the
Jews, with their High Priest, were utterly
confounded by His silence, and baffled in
their further proceedings against Him, and
Pilate repeated, after noticing it, his con-
OUR SAVIOURS SILENCE 145
viction of His innocence ; and even Herod,
though he brutally insulted Him, drew
thence, as Pilate inferred, no evidence of
His being guilty. What a new and what a
wonderful species of defence ! What a truly
Divine eloquence, far more pathetic and far
more efficacious than the most laboured dis-
play of words would have been ! It was a
species of pleading, which none before had
ever tried, and which none even of His own
martyrs ever perfectly imitated.
2. Reflect upon the lesson which Jesus
hereby gave us, and the example which He
set before us. Silence at all times is, if not
a virtue, a preservative from much sin, and
it becomes the duty of a Christian to learn
when it ought to be observed, and when it
may be broken. It is certain that we shall
generally be safest by remaining silent, when
under provocation, and scarcely ever allow-
ing ourselves to attempt a defence, however
temperate. " Adolescens loquere in tua causa
vix," says the wise man. For, too easily
will self-love lead us to some transgression
of the limits of truth or the duty of respect
or we shall, in our anxiety to repel accusa-
K
146 TWENTY-FIRST MEDITATION
tion, become ourselves accusers, and commit
a breach of charity ; or we may lose our
temper and injure our cause instead of help-
ing it, by violence or imprudence. But if
we remain silent, we certainly escape all
these dangers; we put our defence in the.
hands of God, and we acquire additional
merit of patience. When King Ezechias was
insulted grossly by the letter of Senacherib,
he did not reply to its bitter taunts, nor
call his councillors together to see how he
might best retort them upon him, but he
went into the temple, and spread the letter
before the face of God, and with tears placed
his cause in His hands ; and his prayer was
heard, and God that very night avenged
him by the destruction of 185,000 of his
enemies (4 Reg. xix. 35). And this silence
will be the more appropriate in all cases
where, like his, the insult, though personally
directed to us, is indirectly aimed at our
ministry or at His truth. If for instance we
are insulted in religious discussion, whether
by word of mouth or in writing, how much
more will our cause triumph, if we overlook
whatever is directed against us, or at most
OUR SAVIOURS SILENCE 14?
meekly put it aside, and confine ourselves to
rebutting the arguments of our opponent ?
If a heathen could so far have subdued his
passions as to say to his adversary, that
raised his staff over him in anger, " Strike,
but listen," how much more should we,
ministers of Christ, be ready to suffer any
personal injury, if through its patient en-
durance we can induce men to hearken to
the truths we defend. In fact a contrary
course will only serve to irritate our feelings,
and disturb the clearness of our ideas and
diminish the force of our words. But more-
over, when we revenge ourselves by replying
to personalities, or false imputations (where
the cause we defend does not require it), we
deprive ourselves of the fruit of patience,
which is incompatible with all idea of re-
venge. And further, we hereby disturb
that perpetual calm which the Christian
should ever study to keep, in imitation of
his Blessed Saviour during His Passion. It
is not difficult for us to decide when and
how to speak, but it requires much virtue,
and a close study of our Lord's example, to
learn how to keep silence.
148 TWENTY-FIRST MEDITATION
3. Affections. "Blessed Jesus, eternal
uncreated Wisdom ! no less instructing us
when Thou closest Thy lips and refusest to
unseal them, in obedience to the threats of
Thine enemies, than when Thou openest
them in reply to the questions of Thy
disciples ! What a sublime display of the
most heavenly eloquence would not Thy
Gospel have contained, hadst Thou conde-
scended to plead Thy cause before Caiphas,
or Pilate, or Herod ! Yet what have we
lost ? Those few simple words, 'Jesus autem
tacebat/ give me far greater cause of
admiration, inspire me with a profounder
conviction of Thy innocence, propose to me
sublimer lessons, and show me Thy enemies
more completely baffled than the most tri-
umphant defence of words could have done.
But if Thou art thus silent in Thine own
defence, let me never be so ; but whenever
Thy law or Thy goodness is assailed by the
ignorance or the malice of men, let me be ever
ready to rise in their defence, and to raise
my voice powerfully in their behalf. Let
me never allow the smallest charge against
what Thou hast revealed to pass unnoticed,
JESUS IS SENT TO HEROD 149
and unconfuted. But in thus defending
Thy cause I will be careful never to mix
up with it mine own, but will carefully
copy Thee, when engaged in self-defence,
by opposing a meek and modest silence to
the clamours or calumnies of all personal
assaults."
Erjoentg-sccontJ
JESUS IS SENT TO HEROD
Preparation. Represent to yourself our
Blessed Lord standing before the tribunal
of this wicked and irreverent king.
i. Reflect how Pilate, hearing that Jesus
was from Galilee, determined to take ad-
vantage of this circumstance for the purpose
of shaking off the responsibility laid upon
him by the Jews, and to deliver up Jesus
to the Jewish king, as one subject to his
jurisdiction. Once more the Son of God
is paraded through the streets of Jerusalem,
followed by a mob furious for His blood,
and by those who set them on the priests
and scribes. They reach the palace of
Herod, and there commence a repetition of
150 TWENTY- SECOND MEDITATION
their charges. Now probably they will
press different accusations from what were
calculated for a heathenish tribunal. Herod
will care little for treasons against Caesar,
his tyrant, but he must pretend great zeal
for the temple and the law, and great
indignation at any pretended prophet.
Those men therefore " stood by, earnestly
accusing Him" (Luke xxiii. 10). But in
the meantime Herod and his court had
been greatly interested at the very first
coming of Jesus. They had heard much
concerning Him from public fame, and their
pride or station had prevented them from
mingling in the multitude, to witness His
marvellous works. They imagine, how-
ever, as Simon Magus afterwards did of
the Apostles, that interest would, at any
time, be a sufficient inducement to Jesus
to exercise His power before them. Blessed
Jesus ! is such the fruit of Thy three years'
heavenly life before all Thy people, Thy
divine discourses, Thy sublime doctrines,
Thy pure disinterested conduct ? That so
conscious were these men of their own
baseness, so diffident of all virtue in the
JESUS IS SENT TO HEROD 151
human form, as that they should have
looked even upon Thee, as men would
upon a juggler or trickster, who would now
give Herod and his court a private exhibi-
tion of His skill to save his life ! Nay,
and so reasonable does this appear to them,
that when Thou refusest, they deem Thee
a fool, making light of Thee, and mocking
at Thee. They dress Thee in a white
garment, and send Thee thus, publicly dis-
graced, through the streets to Pilate ! See
now the gibes and jeers of the fickle mob,
who now enjoy this spectacle, as though
they had not the day before stood around
Thee in mute astonishment at the wisdom
which flowed from Thy lips ? Are men
changed in so short a time ? Are their
understandings lost in one night so com-
pletely that they should not see that they
were the fools to be so easily turned from
reverence to scoffs, from admiration to
hatred "? Surely there was no part of our
dear Saviour's Passion so rudely igno-
minious as this. For to be struck on the
cheek and spit upon was the brutal, un-
premeditated treatment of a coarse rabble ;
152 TWENTY-SECOND MEDITATION
but to be thus clothed in a fool's attire
was the deliberate act of a king with all
his court, who thus seem to sanction the
conduct of the mob. And Pilate, too, could
not mistake the obvious import of Herod's
decision. For seeing Jesus return to him
so arrayed, and at the same time acquitted
of crime (as he himself afterwards pro-
claimed), he could not but consider it equi-
valent to the impious declaration, that the
Son of God showed too little wisdom to be
capable of the great attempts with which
the priests and elders charged Him ! For
thus evidently did Herod acquit Jesus, at
the expense of His understanding ! Oh
speak to them but one word, dear Lord,
as Thou didst to the Herodians once before,
when they showed Thee the coin, and
utterly confound their machinations, and
turn their intended ridicule upon them-
selves ! Preach, in this fool's garment,
some of Thy sublime doctrines, and put
them to scorn, and show them in act how
the folly of this world is the wisdom of
God ! But no : Thou art silent, wishing
to check my presumption and pride when
JESUS IS SENT TO HEROD 153
men insult my judgment : Thou art silent
too because Thou art willing to suffer all
things for my sake.
2. Eeflect upon what the Gospel says
was the issue of this sending of Jesus to
Herod. " And Herod and Pilate were
made friends that same day ; for before
they were enemies to one another" (v. 12).
From the connection intimated between
our Lord's being sent, and this reconcilia-
tion, as well as from the early hour from
which Pilate had been engaged with Him,
which precluded its having taken place
before, we may justly conclude that this
attention on the governor's part brought
it about. He cared not what the issue
might be to Jesus, though he believed Him
innocent. Herod was welcome to deal
with Him as he listed, so as He was a
peace-offering between them ! We cannot
but be struck at seeing how cheap, so to
speak, our Blessed Saviour was held in His
Passion, by all who thought that any profit
was to be made out of His sacrifice. The
High Priest pronounced it better that He
should die, however undeserving, than that
154 TWENTY-SECOND MEDITATION
the nation should run any risk of being
harassed by the Eomans. Judas scrupled
not to betray Him, when thirty pieces of
silver were to be made by it. Peter hesi-
tated not to renounce Him, the moment
he could thereby escape the scorn of the
priests' menials ; and now Pilate throws
away His life, as a lure to Herod's favour !
Truly, O Blessed Jesus, Thou didst here
become the reproach of men, and the out-
cast of the people ! But do we stand in
no danger of acting as these perverse men
did towards Jesus ? Do we not occasion-
ally even now, may we not in our future
lives, run the risk of compromising at His
expense with some of His enemies ? When
out of deference to prejudices existing in
those who know Him not, we give up any
institution of His Church, what do we else
but surrender Him to the will of those
who are in opposition to Him ? If we
refrain, for instance, from public homage
of the adorable Eucharist, from false shame
lest we should be considered fond and
superstitious, do we otherwise than Pilate
did that is, make a sacrifice of Him to
JESUS IS SENT TO HEROD 155
peace with affections and ideas which do
Him wrong ? If we abstain from cele-
brating at the altar as often as our own
hearts would desire, in compliance with
practice which we know the Church would
not willingly approve, do we not send
Jesus away from us, in the hope of thereby
purchasing peace with men frail and evil
as ourselves ? If, from a desire of living
in harmony with those who know not the
wisdom of faith which Jesus hath revealed
to us, we suppress the public declaration
of some doctrines unpalatable to flesh and
blood, or preach them coldly and feebly,
or shrink from defending them in conversa-
tion, do we not reject the Divine Word,
the uncreated Truth, and deliver it into
the hands of scoffers, who dress Him up
as in a fool's garment, turning to ridicule
and making nought of these sublime and
beautiful dogmas which we thus tacitly
abandon ? Oh ! let such a foul treachery
never be laid to our charge ! Let us, re-
vering the Eternal Wisdom of God, mani-
fested to us in His holy revelations, to
their fullest extent, honour publicly, and
156 TWENTY- SECOND MEDITATION
without shame, even those forms that it
assumes, in the practices sanctioned by the
Church, His spouse, which to the miserable
wisdom of this world seem folly. If Jesus
was mocked by Herod and his army, what
wonder if His doctrines receive the same
treatment from the world and its followers.
3. Affections. "0 Jesus, uncreated
Wisdom, I adore Thee, turned to foolish-
ness for my sake ! Who would wear the
philosopher's cloak, the badge of vain,
presumptuous learning, when Thou art dis-
guised in the garb of folly ? Who will not
put it on after Thee ? To be meek and
forgiving, to be silent under provocations,
to turn the cheek to him that smiteth it,
all this is folly in the eyes of thy enemies
let me put on these qualities. To be
humble and lowly in our own estimation,
to fly the praise of men, and do good in
obscurity, are all to the world characteristics
of a weak and foolish mind, incapable of
great public virtue let me be distinguished
by this accounted poverty of spirit. To be
chaste and pure, a hater of pleasure, and
a despiser of dissipation and amusement,
JESUS IS SCOURGED 157
is considered the habit of a weak-minded
bigot make me ever cognisable by it for
Thy disciple. Teach me that folly which
consists in having the simplicity and
docility of a child, the guilelessness of the
dove. Teach me that wise foolishness
which will make me all to all, that I may
gain all, by stooping to the ideas and con-
ceptions of the ignorant, and speaking
their own language, that I may instil into
their hearts Thy faith and Thy law. And
in fine choose in us the foolish things of
this world, that Thou mayest therewith
confound the wise, that no flesh may glory
in Thy sight."
JHefcttatton
JESUS IS SCOURGED
Preparation. Imagine to yourself your
Blessed Redeemer tied to a column, and
cruelly scourged by the Roman soldiery.
i. Reflect upon the impious conduct of
Pilate, when he declared to the Jews that
he would correct Jesus and let Him go.
158 TWENTY-THIRD MEDITATION
Impious and blasphemous idea ! To cor-
rect Him who is the wisdom of the Eternal
Father, the light and splendour of Heaven,
the teacher and inspirer of prophets, the
joy of the angels, purity, holiness, perfec-
tion itself! And who is this that under-
takes to correct Him ? One of the lewdest,
unjustest, most tyrannical, most odious of
heathens ! He undertakes to teach mor-
ality and virtue to the spotless Son of God ;
he proposes to chastise Him for impiously
imputed crimes, and to send Him into the
world again, an amended man ! And how
was this correction to be effected ? By the
scourge ! By the punishment of slaves, of
the vilest of mankind ! Good God ! Is it
possible that the worst malice of the devil
can have imagined the possibility of such
thoughts being entertained by wicked men,
and can have suggested them to their
minds ? Is it conceivable that the blind-
ness of passion could have led any one into
such an excess of madness as is implied in
entertaining such an idea ? But besides
this mockery of all virtue, how insane was
the hope of slaking the thirst of blood
JESUS IS SCOURGED 159
displayed by the furious mob, by causing
some to flow. As well might he have
hoped to stay the thirst-worn traveller in
the desert from hastening on, by showing
him at a short distance a pool of water. It
was but exciting still further their savage
cry for His blood ; it was encouraging them
to press on eagerly till they should procure
His death.
2. Reflect how Pilate actually proceeds
to the execution of his infamous offer,
which he even fancies is a kindness and
a favour to Jesus ! He delivers Him up
to his Roman soldiers to be scourged.
Now contemplate at leisure the scene that
follows. He is placed in the hands of
probably the most hardened race of men
on earth ; men inured to carnage ; every
one of them ready, when commanded, to
be an executioner, the office reserved in
later times for one who is deemed an out-
cast ; men who hate the stranger and the
conquered, and who ever bore a particular
antipathy to the Jewish nation. Now to
the absolute power of these men Jesus is
abandoned ; they see given up to them,
l6o TWENTY-THIRD MEDITATION
not a hardened, rough criminal, one like
themselves, whom they would probably
have sympathised with, or whom they
would have thought it but an everyday
occupation to torture, but one whose very
appearance proves Him to be of the noblest
descent, and of the tenderest frame one
whose modesty and bashfulness is keenly
sensitive to the disgraceful exposure to
nakedness and ignominious punishment-
one whose meek and calm demeanour, so
at variance with their brutality, stimulates
their savage cruelty still more, one whose
alleged crime is the desire and attempt
to drive them and their whole race out
of Palestine, and overthrow their empire,
which gives them, for their bread, the
plunder of the world. What wonder that
the scourging inflicted by these hardened
wretches should have even been repre-
sented as one of the cruellest parts of
our Blessed Redeemer's Passion ? What
wonder that He Himself should have
almost always alluded to it when He spoke
of His crucifixion ? For if to any man it
was so disgraceful an infliction, that St.
JESUS IS SCOURGED l6l
Paul himself pleaded his right as a Roman
citizen in bar of its execution, what must
it have been in this instance? Well, now
see the innocent Lamb of God, surrounded
by this ruffianly mob, the subject of their
coarse jests and gross ribaldry ; such men
as St. Ignatius Martyr afterwards charac-
terised by the name of leopards. See
how they strip Him with rude hands ; how
tightly they bind His wrists, and tie Him
to the pillar. Gracious God ! Is it pos-
sible that Thou wilt allow His virginal
flesh to be touched by a scourge ; is it
possible that Thou wilt permit the igno-
minious lash to tear and disfigure that most
comely and holy of bodies, formed by
Thine own immediate agency in the pure
womb of Mary, the most precious work of
Thy hands since the creation of the world ?
Angels of God ! can you withhold your
indignation ? Can ye refrain from rushing
on this mad soldiery, and overthrowing (as
ye did Heliodorus) those who are about
to treat your Master, your happiness and
joy, as a vile malefactor, as the lowest of
slaves ; those who will proceed to tear and
L
1 62 TWENTY-THIRD MEDITATION
bruise His adorable body, and sprinkle His
blood over that profane floor ? But no :
there seems to be no mercy, no pity for
Jesus either on earth or in heaven : He is
abandoned to the anger of God and the
fury of man. The executioners surround
Him with savage delight, and shower on
Him their cruel blows, till He is covered
with blood, and gashed and swollen over
all His body.
3. Affections. Pause for some time in
the contemplation of this atrocious spec-
tacle, which will be the subject of the
following meditation, and abstracting from
the motive of your Saviour's sufferings, ex-
cite yourself to a feeling of pure sympathy
for Him, as one whom you love, and say :
" my most meek and loving Jesus ! is it
possible that men can have been found
so barbarous, so dead to every feeling of
humanity, as thus brutally to treat Thee ?
Can any one have endured for a moment
the spectacle of Thy sacred body mangled,
Thy limbs, which had never failed Thee in
doing good, rent and bruised, Thy precious
blood, every drop of which was a world's
JESUS IS SCOURGED 163
ransom, poured out in streams and trodden
on by the vile wretches who are tormenting
Thee ? Oh, this was really too much to
submit to ; this portion of Thy sufferings
ought surely to have been spared Thee !
Had it been any ordinary friend that was
so treated, had it been a brother, or one
most dear to me in the flesh, I might at
least have acknowledged that some sin or
frailty had made him deserve it in the eyes
of God. But Thou, the Holy One, the un-
stained, the perfect image of God, nay His
Consubstantial Son, treated thus infam-
ously, thus barbarously, art a sight beyond
endurance ! How shall I ever love Thee
as I ought, after witnessing all this ? How
much dearer oughtest Thou to be to me,
bruised and torn, than if I had only known
Thee comely and beautiful among the sons
of men. Let me, however unworthy, sym-
pathise in these Thy sufferings ; let me feel
all their indignity, all their pain, and let
me never be one of those whose hearts re-
main unmoved in the contemplation of Thy
cruel treatment."
164 TWENTY -FOURTH MEDITATION
Etoentg-fourtfj JHetittation
JESUS IS SCOURGED (continued)
Preparation. Represent to yourself your
Blessed Redeemer tied to a pillar and cruelly
scourged by the Roman soldiery.
i. Reflect how the brutal executioners
proceed to the task of inflicting cruel tor-
ments upon our Lord. Having bound Him
to the pillar, they deal their furious blows
upon His sacred shoulders, l)ack, chest, and
arms. First His tender flesh swells and
inflames, then the skin becomes torn, and
the blood oozes through gashes that begin
to be formed ; then more copious streams
pour down on the pavement. At length
every part is covered by one continuous
bruise, and the flesh is torn in flakes from
the bones. One wretch succeeds another
in the cruel work, till they are wearied out,
and their sinewy frames exhausted, though
the patience of their Divine Victim remains
unmoved. What a piteous spectacle does our
dear Jesus now present ! What a contrast
to what He was but the evening before,
JESUS IS SCOURGED 165
when seated at His banquet of love with
His twelve, and John, the beloved disciple,
leaning on His bosom ! If that disciple
saw Him during this cruel flagellation,
what a tender sorrow must he not have
felt, and how bitterly deplored the sad
change of His aspect ! And ought I not
to feel even as that beloved disciple felt
for my dear Saviour's sufferings ? Was He
not as much my Saviour as his ? When
this sorrowful act in the sacred tragedy
was ended, our Lord is untied from the
column, and left faint and bleeding, and
deserted. There is no friend near to aid
Him. His disciples are away, and the
brutal executioners are the last to render
Him any assistance. Exhausted with loss
of blood, His soul only retained in His
body by the Divinity, that He may accom-
plish His sufferings on Calvary, He puts
again the rough woollen clothes upon His
mangled limbs, and thus increases His ex-
cruciating pains.
Consider, too, the change which has
taken place in His position, with regard to
the people. He is now a disgraced, de-
1 66 TWENTY-FOURTH MEDITATION
graded character. The lash has touched
Him, has cruelly torn Him. He is now
before them as a tried and condemned
criminal, as a public malefactor. They will
not believe that their priests could have
gone to such extremities as to deliver
a descendant of David to the heathen's
scourge without sufficient cause. But,
however innocent, He cannot again hold
up His head among the children of His
people. One who has been scourged can
hope for no further influence among them.
He must give up all pretensions to be
their Messias. Who will now own Him as
such ? Oh, how many, upon seeing Him
thus treated, denied Him like Peter ! How
many not only swore that they never had
known the man, but regretted that they
ever had followed or known Him ! How
many were ashamed at this first step in the
scandal of the Cross !
2. Reflect upon the motives which im-
pelled our adorable Jesus to submit to a
suffering as disgraceful as it was cruel.
His prophet had before declared it, saying,
" Cujus livore sanati sumus ; " " Attritus
JESUS IS SCOURGED 167
est propter scelera nostra." It was for our
sake ; and this in a twofold sense. First,
that He might redeem us. For it seems
evident that He deemed the work of our
redemption incomplete, unless it purchased
our hearts to Him as well as our souls. He
suffered, therefore, for our sins, to save us
from their slavery, and from their eternal
consequences ; but He chose to perform
this work in such a way as might best
secure our affections besides, by testifying
to us what He was ready and most willing
to suffer for us. Hence this almost super-
fluous suffering of so many and such cruel
preliminary torments, which form perhaps
the bitterest portion of His Passion ; but
what hardened, what obdurate hearts ours
must be, which required such means to
bring them to His love ! What a miser-
able, ungrateful being am I, if, after all
this, I resist His calls and claims to my
affections, and surrender not nay entire
undivided heart to His divine love !
Besides this motive for so much suffer-
ing, Jesus had likewise in view my im-
provement. He wished to give me an
I 68 TWENTY- FOURTH MEDITATION
example of patience and silent endurance,
not only under the severest infliction which
may visit me from the hand of God, but
under such unmerited sufferings as may
come from the injustice and malice of men.
Oh, who will repine at being reproached
and disgraced before men, when he sees
his dear Saviour scourged publicly at the
pillar ? Who will be tender about his good
name, when he thus contemplates the Lord
of glory humbled before all His people, His
chosen disciples, His beloved mother, as a
public criminal, and treated as the basest of
men ? Nay, rather welcome the ignominy
of the Cross, and let it be our glory. Let
humiliation and disesteem from men be our
preference and our portion on earth, since
earth could so debase and outrage the Son
of God. Who would yearn for fame and
honour, when He is covered with reproach
and shame ?
3. Affections. Present yourself to your
beloved Saviour, after this suffering, and
devoutly address Him, saying, "My dearest
and ever merciful Jesus, who shall recog-
nise Thee, the Lord of Heaven, in this
JESUS IS SCOURGED 169
cruel plight, covered from head to foot
with Thy sacred blood, gashed and rent in
this frightful manner ? Who, dear Jesus,
hath treated Thee thus ? Who hath had
the barbarity to mangle Thy tender flesh in
this sort ? Oh, if Thy meek silence would
allow Thee to speak, if at this moment Thou
couldst utter a reproach, Thou wouldst
surely answer me in the words of Nathan,
' Thou art the man ! ' Yes, too well I
know it. My sins and foul transgressions
have been Thine executioners : they were
armed with lashes for Thy blessed body,
and heavily and cruelly they laid them
on Thee. Wretch that I have been, un-
grateful, unnatural, unfeeling! 'Upon Thy
back sinners have ploughed' (Ps. cxxviii. ;
Heb.); but not merely those representatives
of ours who wielded the whips and the rods,
but we, we who live ; I who now address
Thee, in shame and contrition. Oh, this
was too much for Thee to endure on behalf
of such a wretch ! It was too much good-
ness, too great affection to submit to such
ignominies and such brutal treatment. It
is a spectacle too distressing even for my
170 TWENTY-FIFTH MEDITATION
flinty heart to bear. Oh, that it could
have been spared Thee ! But Thy love
knows not the word ' too much.' It is in-
satiable : it will devour every reproach and
shame and torment for us, to save us and
to gain us. Blessed be Thou by us all for
ever : grant us grace never to think we can
requite Thee with too much love. ' Ego in
flagella paratus sum,' I arn ready, my dear
Jesus, to suffer with Thee, whatever Thy
Eternal Father shall be pleased to appoint ;
I will be resigned and patient after Thy
blessed example, under whatever suffering
shall be appointed for me."
JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS
Preparation. Imagine to yourself your
Saviour in the midst of the soldiers, an'd
crowned with thorns.
i. Reflect, that after our Blessed Re-
deemer had been so cruelly scourged, one
might have supposed that the smallest
remains of humanity in the Roman soldiery
JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS I? I
would have led them to compassion ; or
that mere weariness, at least, would make
them cease from torturing Him. Instead
of this, having exhausted all the means
which the law and the sentence of the
judge afforded them for exercising cruelty,
they had recourse to their own ingenuity,
and followed the suggestions of their own
savage thirst for His blood. They knew
that Jesus stood accused of calling Himself
King of the Jews : they hated the very
title, and they determined to make it a
source of cruel merriment at the expense of
Him who so justly bore it. Wherefore they
prepared for Him a new, unheard-of kind
of mockery, a crown woven of long, hard,
and sharp thorns ; this they place upon His
sacred head. Then they press it down hard,
until its points pierce his sacred skin and
flesh. Now see your dear Saviour ; how
disfigured He appears, how wounded He is,
how His brows and cheeks are moistened
with His own blood ! His hair is all en-
tangled in the knotty wreath, and clotted
with the sacred streams that issue from the
many wounds which that cruel crown tears
172 TWENTY-FIFTH MEDITATION
open in His divine head. His fair temples
and noble forehead are pressed round by
this instrument of torture, which shoots its
points into them, and opens in them so
many fountains of life, so many sources of
salvation that flow from His heart. See
how the Blood of God trickles down, first
slowly, then in faster and thicker streams,
till His blessed face and neck are streaked
with it ; then it runs down over all His
body, mingling with that which wells forth
from the gashes inflicted by the scourges.
Think what a new additional agony to the
smart of His former wounds ! His body
had, indeed, been lacerated ; but the rods
and lashes were not raised so high as to
His sacred head and face. But now this
Divine head also was assailed by a more
brutal infliction than had ever been before
devised, and suffered its full proportion of
racking pain. For, not content with the
first planting upon His sacred head this cruel
instrument of pain, they from time to time
strike it down with a reed, thus changing
the direction of its points, or forcing them
in still deeper. Oh, which shall most excite
JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS 173
our wonder? the hard and unfeeling bar-
barity of these wretches, or the patience
and meekness of the Lamb of God ? See
them all around Him, like so many wolves
or tigers, mocking Him, taking delight in
His sufferings, renewing them every moment
by their blows, and shouting in savage
exultation at every new device and in-
genuity of torment. Then see Him, gentle
and unresisting, not casting one angry
glance at the most forward or barbarous
of His tormentors, not uttering a word
of complaint, not even expostulating with
them, but bearing all their inflictions with
a mildness and sweetness which should
have melted and won hearts of stone to
compassion and to love. What a pattern,
what an example for us to follow ! What a
lesson for us to learn ! What virtue for us
to admire and put in practice !
2. Reflect upon the cruel mockery in-
tended and perpetrated in this bloody
tragedy. It was intended to ridicule and
put to shame the claims which our dear
Redeemer had to the title of king, not only
over the Jews, but over the entire world.
1/4 TWENTY- FIFTH MEDITATION
Could scorn or cruelty go further than this,
to crown Him with anything so mean, yet
so torturing, as a wreath of thorns ? It
was as though they told Him that such
was the only badge to represent His pre-
tensions, the only fit crown for such a king
as He. Suppose the heavens opened at
that moment to the eyes of His base and
savage tormentors ; what astonishment and
awe would have seized them, to behold
Him seated upon a throne of brightness,
outshining the noonday sun ; crowned with
a diadem, whose splendour surpassed every
light that illuminates this lower world ;
surrounded by legions of bright angels, the
least of them invested with a splendour
and glory more dazzling than anything
earth can show, who are each and all
adoring Him, bending before Him as their
true King, their Lord, their God ! How
would these soldiers and executioners, who
now seemed to have it all their own way,
have cowered down in terror at the sight !
Or if their eyes had been opened to see the
future, and they had beheld His coming
upon the clouds of heaven, in great power
JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS 175
and majesty, attended by a countless host
of those same blessed spirits, with that
very crown of thorns upon His head, now
shining with incomparable brightness, how
would they have sunk upon the earth, and
called upon its caverns to hide them ; or
cast themselves at the feet of their Victim,
and cried to Him for mercy. We, then,
enabled by faith to contemplate these
scenes united, we who behold our suffering
Lord thus barbarously treated, and who
know that our sins did so abuse Him, and
yet view Him all the while in glory adored
by angels, and crowned with glory, what
shall we do ?
3. Affections. " What, my blessed and
beloved Saviour, but fall down at Thy
adorable feet and worship Thee sorrowing ?
What, but acknowledge Thee before men
and angels, as King of the world, and
absolute Lord of my heart ? What, but in
every way within my power, proclaim Thy
might, Thy majesty, and Thy glory, and
seek every means whereby due homage
shall be rendered Thee by men, in repara-
tion and atonement for the cruel ignominy
176 TWENTY-FIFTH MEDITATION
which men have made Thee suffer? But
principally, and with deepest feeling, I will
bewail my iniquities, and the many offences
against Thy goodness which I know were
the real thorns that galled Thee, and tore
Thy sacred Head, and imbrued Thee thus
with Thy most precious Blood ! So long
as I can venerate Thy sufferings, and love
Thee for having undergone them for my
sake, so long will I detest those instruments
of their infliction. Yes, do Thou in return,
dear Jesus, crown my head as with a wreath
of thorns, in sorrowful and sincere com-
punction, that it may never have rest from
grieving before Thee, and remembering
what it has cost Thee to save and to gain
it. Let the thorns which pierced Thy brow,
be ever so many points and goads to my
earnest love, constantly to promote Thy
honour and that work of salvation for which
Thy sacred brows were thus agonised ; and
may I ever strive to advance Thy claims to
be King of all the earth, and to reign in
the hearts of all men."
JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS 177
JHetittation
JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS
(continued)
Preparation. Represent to yourself your
Blessed Redeemer, after being crowned with
thorns, presented by Pilate to the people.
i. Reflect what a woeful spectacle your
dear Saviour now presents, gored and rent
by the thorny crown which encircles and
covers His Head, and draws forth His sacred
Blood on every side. But turning your
thoughts, for a moment, from the pain He
suffers, and that so willingly, for our sake,
consider how ungratefully earth made good
its curse in His instance. The first Adam
was condemned to till and cultivate it, and
be rewarded for the sweat of his brow spent
in the task by briers and thorns. And so
the second Adam, having come down for
the true cultivation of this world, by plant-
ing in it holiness and truth, and scattering
O 7 O
over it the precious seed of His word, was
repaid, as might have been expected from
its ungrateful soil, by receiving from it, not
M
178 TWENTY- SIXTH MEDITATION
in the sweat, but in the Blood of His brow,
its natural growth, a harvest of thorns.
earth, earth ! object of our love, and of our
desires, our idol, our enthralling mistress,
even thus dost thou requite those that
labour for thee even unto loss of ease, of
health, of life. Even thus didst thou repay
thy Lord and Master, Him who watered
thee and gave the increase. And can I
hope for better treatment, if I am faithful
and devoted to His ministry? Welcome
this, and all else that comes to me from
the world, while in such blessed company.
But our Divine Lord had in some sort
prepared us for such a requital, when, in
the parable of the seed, He spoke of the
riches and solicitudes of this world as thorns
which choke the good seed and destroy it.
If, then, He desired to receive from the
earth a diadem most expressive of all that
it can give, the crown of its universal
dominion, He could not better have sym-
bolised it than by this crown of thorns.
Yes, when earth has bestowed upon us all
the desires of our corrupt hearts, all its
perishable goods, its honours, its fame, and
JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS 179
its wealth, it has done no more for us than
gird our heads with a circle of thorns, that
bear their racking torments even to our
pillows, and will keep the weary head from
finding repose. Such an emblem, then, did
Jesus rightly choose for all that earth could
bestow upon Him. But it is not merely
the diadem of all the world which He bore
upon His head on this His coronation day.
He comes not so much to the world at
large as to each of our souls. Suppose,
then, He had come to win our love, decked
out in the splendid array of empire, what
could it have added to His dignity ? What
could a golden and jewelled crown have
added of grace and majesty to that brow?
What could the rich diadem that David
made from the spoils of Melchom (i Paral.
xx. 2) have contributed to the dignity and
authority of His sovereignty ? Or what
additional radiance would a glory of light
have bestowed upon the essential splendour
of His Divine Person ? But when He comes
to each of us with a wreath of thorns,
assumed through love of us, every jewel
of which is a drop of His own most precious
180 TWENTY-SIXTH MEDITATION
Blood, worth a world's ransom, and more-
over a pledge of forgiveness and of blessing
bestowed upon us, who will not consider
this as the bridal crown of this Sponsus
sanguinum, this Spouse of Blood, who
comes thus to woo our souls, and espouse
them to Himself in a contract of unalterable
affection ? Yes, it is indeed that very
crown whereof it is said in the Canticles,
" Go forth, ye daughters of Sion, and see
King Solomon in the diadem wherewith
his mother crowned him in the day of his
espousals, and in the day of the joy in his
heart" (iii. n). Oh, who will resist such
a claim to his affections as this, such a
winning plea to his heart ? Arid if His
mother Jerusalem showed her cruelty and
unfeelingness to this first and best of her
children, let us whom He thus willed to
espouse to Himself, compensate her wicked-
ness by the ardour of our affection.
2. Reflect how we, who are the disciples
of Jesus, are the followers of a King bearing
a thorny crown ; while they are the enemies
alike of His Cross and of His law, who say,
with the libertines of old, " Coronemus nos
JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS l8l
rosis " (Wisd. ii. 8). Such are the costumes
or liveries of the two contending sides ; and
by them we may as clearly distinguish one
from the other, as by their shields and
helmets men of old could distinguish a
Greek from a barbarian army. When the
tempter appeared to S. Martin, wearing a
gorgeous diadem, and professed to be Jesus
Christ, the Saint detected the cheat, and
put the deceiver to flight, by the simple
remark that Jesus had His Head crowned
with thorns, not with a golden crown. So
identified, in the mind of the Saints, was
this badge with His blessed appearance.
If, then, we follow Him, it will not be
when we would add earthly honours to
our heads, and crown ourselves with mere
human greatness, that we shall be acknow-
ledged as one of His suite ; but when with
our heads bowed down, and humbled before
Him, acknowledging our sins, we have spread
upon them the ashes of a sincere repent-
ance. When, girt with ignominy or sorrow,
we rejoice to be like Him, abased and
despised, then indeed we walk after Him
as He wishes to see us, and we are con-
I 82 TWENTY-SIXTH MEDITATION
fessed before His Father as among His true
disciples. When Heraclius was carrying the
blessed Cross, recovered from the infidel,
into the Holy City, he found himself un-
able to proceed, till, reminded by the patri-
arch that his Saviour, u.,der the same load,
was not clad in an imperial robe, nor crowned
with gold, but with thorns, he threw off his
splendid apparel, and so was able to go
forward. And can we hope to pass the
gate of the true and heavenly Jerusalem
in the character the only one in which we
can hope to be saved of bearers of the
Cross, and followers of Jesus, without a like
renunciation, and a like imitation ? After
such an example, what can be difficult or
bitter? Who, if Jesus appeared to him,
and offered him on one side a splendid
diadem, and on the other a crown like His
own, would hesitate a moment between the
two ? Who would not eagerly stretch out
his hand to seize this one, and place it on
his head ? Who would not willingly re-
semble Jesus, his Lord, rather than the most
magnificent monarch of earth ?
3. Affections. " Jesus, King and Lord
JESUS IS CROWNED WITH THORNS 183
of my heart and soul, what crown shall I
give Thee to acknowledge Thee as such ?
Alas ! gold and silver in my poverty I
have none ; my gold hath been long since
turned into dross, and my silver been
alloyed. I have no roses, like Thy martyrs,
who returned Thee blood for Blood ; nor
lilies, like Thy virgins, who loved Thee
with an unsullied heart. My soul is barren,
my heart is unfruitful, and I have placed
Thee to reign, as the Jewish kings of old,
over a heap of ruins. Long since despoiled
and ravaged by the enemy, every flower
hath been ploughed up, and every green
plant burnt with fire, and thorns alone and
brambles spring up there. Of these, then,
alone can I make Thee a crown, my dear
and sovereign Jesus. Wilt Thou accept
it? I will pluck up my unruly affections,
that they may no more have roots, and
weaving them together into a wreath will
lay them as a sacrifice at Thy feet. I will
gather the thorns of sincere repentance
which there each day arise, and prick my
heart with a sharp but wholesome smart ;
and with these will I make a crown for Thy
1 84 TWENTY-SEVENTH MEDITATION
head, if Thou vouchsafe to wear it. Or
rather, Thou shalt take it from my hand,
only to place it with Thine around my heart,
that it may be daily and hourly pricked to
compunction. And may the thorns of Thy
crown be to my soul so many goads of love
to hasten it forward in its career towards
Thee."
fft Citation
JESUS IS MOCKED BY THE SOLDIERS
Preparation. Represent to yourself
Jesus, after having been crowned with
thorns, placed upon a mock throne, and
saluted in scorn by the soldiery.
i. Reflect how the crowning of Jesus
with thorns was only intended as a pre-
paration for grievous insult, and was part
of the scheme of outrages devised by the
brutal soldiers. Having thus placed on His
head a mockery of a crown, they proceeded
to invest Him with other mock insignia of
royalty. Over His shoulders, stripped and
lacerated, they threw a purple garment, or
JESUS IS MOCKED BY THE SOLDIERS 185
something bearing such proportion to the
imperial purple as did His thorny crown to
an imperial diadem. In a like spirit they
placed in His hands a reed for a sceptre, to
mock the weakness which they attributed
to His rule. Having thus attired Him,
they made Him sit down on some mock
throne, and then insulted Him by a pre-
tended homage on bended knee ; saying to
Him, " Hail, King of the Jews ! " (Matt.
xxvii. 29). Before proceeding further to
meditate upon these outrages, let us pros-
trate ourselves in spirit before our dear
Saviour seated upon this seat of scorn
where His enemies have placed Him. Let
us say with true and earnest feeling, " All
hail ! King, not only of the Jews, but of
the Gentiles also ; Lord of the whole world ;
above all, King and undisputed Master of
our souls. Yes ; what they did in scoffs
and insults, we do in truth and sincerity
of heart. We salute Thee, we bless Thee,
we give Thee glory, we offer Thee homage,
as willing and devoted servants." Having
thus, to the utmost of our power, compen-
sated to our Blessed Saviour the insults He
1 86 TWENTY-SEVENTH MEDITATION
suffered for our sakes, let us reflect upon
ourselves in connection with this treatment.
The words which these base wretches uttered
were in themselves true : for Jesus claimed,
most righteously, the title of King of His
nation. He was the son of David, the pro-
mised ruler over Israel. The attitude in
which the words were pronounced was the
only one in which their homage should be
tendered ; for at His Name every knee shall
bow. Yet was there in the whole ceremony
an impious mockery and most outrageous
insult ; since it was not the homage of the
heart, but was tendered in mocking unbelief.
And what else will be our words of homage,
if not inward and deeply sincere if spoken
only through form and usage, and with n
divided heart when we kneel before God
in prayer, and profess to worship Him as
our King and sovereign Lord, yet with
thoughts at the very moment wandering
back to His enemy the world employed
on some scheme to obtain its favour, or
paying it our court ? Will not our pro-
fessions of fidelity be a mockery and insult ?
Shall we be accepted before Him as faithful
JESUS IS MOCKED BY THE SOLDIERS 187
vassals, and not rather rejected as insulting
rebels? When before the altar, on the
Body of Jesus being elevated before our
eyes, we bow down profoundly, and per-
haps address Him with our lips in these
words, " Ave verum corpus natum ex Maria
Virgine ; " while we feel no deep interior
faith in what is presented to us, nor that
reverence and awe, nor that ardent love,
which the near presence of the God who
redeemed us should inspire, but rise again,
distracted and cold as before : shall we
flatter ourselves that our Ave. or Hail shall
be better received than that of the soldiers ?
Shall we be acknowledged as sincere adorers,
and not as insulters of Him, when, robed in
the purple of His own most precious Blood,
and crowned with ineffable glory, the angels,
whom He redeemed not, are worshipping
and adoring with their faces on the earth ?
If the conduct of this Roman soldiery ap-
pears to us so ruffianly, may it not be easier
for us than we are inclined to imagine, to
fall into their very crime, and imitate their
insults ?
2. Reflect how those wretches did not
1 88 TWENTY-SEVENTH MEDITATION
confine their mockery to words, but pro-
ceeded to further outrage. For, " spitting
upon Him, they took the reed and struck
His Head " (v. 30). At the commencement
of this tragical scene, we are told that " the
soldiers" (who had scourged Him) "gathered
together unto Him the whole band " (v. 27)
to take part in this new device of cruelty.
Jesus therefore was given up to the un-
bridled licence of these malignant men ; and
had to receive not merely the mock- worship
already meditated on, but the indignities
and painful wrongs here described. Alas,
the meanest of us would not allow His face
to be spit upon by the noblest of the land,
without reprisal and revenge, which all the
world and the laws themselves would ap-
prove. Yet the son of David, nay, the Son
of God, is impiously spit upon by an entire
company of vile soldiers, the refuse of the
slave-market or the dungeon : and He mur-
murs not ; He turns not away His face !
Oh, the meekness of this Lamb of God !
Oh, the greatness of His patience and long-
suffering ! The least of us, perhaps the
humblest of us, would not bear to have a
JESUS IS MOCKED BY THE SOLDIERS 189
stick so much as shaken in a menacing atti-
tude over his head, but would wrench it with
violence from the hand that presumed so to
hold it ; and if actually struck, he would
think himself justified before God and man
if he returned blow for blow. Nay, rather ;
before the latter, at least, he would hold
himself for ever disgraced did he not resent
so gross an insult. Yet the Consubstantial
of the Eternal Father is not only menaced,
but struck on the Head ; and upon a Head
surrounded and covered by sharp thorns !
He complains not ; He shows no sign of
answer ! Oh, incredible love of this dear
O *
Saviour towards us ! Oh, the intense de-
sire He must have felt for our salvation, to
have been willing to compass it even thus !
Imagine what an hour of agony this must
have been to your dear Jesus ! Helpless
and abandoned by all, He is the laughing-
stock of a troop of brutal soldiers, the butt
of all their rude jests and ruder treatment,
of their buffets and blows ! Never, through-
out His Passion, does He so completely
appear as the sheep before the slayer, or as
the lamb silent before the shearer. Rather.
1 90 TWENTY-SEVENTH MEDITATION
He is a lamb surrounded by ravening wolves,
that already with their eyes devour Him,
and open their mouths upon Him, and
sharpen their teeth to tear Him in pieces.
But He, with hands meekly crossed upon
His breast, as though pressing us, the ob-
jects of His love, into His heart, with eyes
modestly cast down, or raised up in loving
resignation towards heaven, turns not away
His face from them that spit upon Him, but
gives His cheeks to them that pluck them !
3. Affections. "Divine model of every
perfection, but here beyond all others of
patience and mildness, of gentleness and
resignation, I adore Thee ! Filled with
shame and confusion, I confess before
Thee the too great share I have had in
these Thy sufferings. Too often, indeed,
have I not only crucified Thee, but emu-
lated the mockery which preceded Thy
crucifixion, by my outrages against Thee.
By my lukewarmness and coldness, when
1 came before Thee to serve and worship
Thee, especially in Thy adorable Sacra-
ment, I have bid Thee Hail more in scorn
than in faith. When Thy graces have been
JESUS IS MOCKED BY THE SOLDIERS
most liberally bestowed upon me, I have
despised and neglected them ; and thus
have insulted Thee to Thy face. When
my fickle affections, shaken as a reed by
every breath, have wavered to and fro, how
often have they struck Thee, beating back
the words of Thy mouth, as though of no
authority with me ! But, from henceforth,
be it my study and glory not merely to
refrain from such conduct, but to procure
Thee honour and homage from the lips and
hearts of many : to bring many to bend
their knees before Thee, and greet Thee
their King in truth and sincerity. Espe-
cially in the Blessed Sacrament, where that
very Body is adored which was so cruelly
insulted and maltreated by the impious
guards. There will I daily adore Thee,
and glorify and exalt Thee, in reparation
of all the debasement and pain Thou didst
mercifully endure for love of me in this
stage of Thy bitter Passion. And Thy
angels shall join me with that glorious
strain which no doubt they then sang forth
to bless and adore Thee."
I 92 TWENTY-EIGHTH MEDITATION
JESUS IS PRESENTED BY PILATE TO
THE PEOPLE
Preparation. Imagine to yourself your
Saviour brought forth by the governor upon
an elevated place, and shown to the people
with the words, " Behold the Man."
i. Reflect upon the afflicting spectacle
which this public exhibition of Jesus pre-
sents to a soul that loves Him. The cruelty
and sufferings which He had just under-
gone had been inflicted publicly enough to
make them disgraceful in the extreme, hav-
ing been inflicted before the whole troop
of rude and brutal soldiers ; yet they had
been endured within the house of Pilate,
into which the hypocritical Jews had not
entered, for fear of defiling themselves before
the Passover. The crowning with thorns
and the mock homage which followed it
had been unexpected inventions of the
brutal soldiery, so that Pilate himself knew
nothing of them. When, however, he saw
our Blessed Redeemer reduced to so piti-
JESUS PRESENTED TO THE PEOPLE 193
able a condition, he was himself so struck
with the lamentable appearance which He
presented, that he determined to try its
effect upon the mob ; thinking that if pity
yet held the smallest place in their hearts,
it must possess them at such a sight as this.
Instead, therefore, of severely rebuking and
chastising the insolent guard for their un-
warrantable cruelty, he rather approves, or
at least takes advantage of it, to soften, if
possible, the flinty breasts of the Jewish
crowd. But oh ! what an unfeeling expe-
dient is this, and what a degradation to the
Son of God does it require ! " Behold," he
says, " I bring Him forth unto you, that
you may know that I find no cause in
Him " (John xix. 4). Who, on hearing this
announcement, would not have supposed
that Jesus would have been brought for-
ward, if not with such marks of honour as
would attest His acknowledged innocence,
at least untouched by ignominy and punish-
ment ? Instead of this, " Jesus came forth,
bearing the crown of thorns and the purple
garment." Here He stood, as on a pillory,
to feast the eyes of the unfeeling multitude,
N
194 TWENTY-EIGHTH MEDITATION
who DOW understood the long delay which
had excited their impatience. How they
applaud the cruel ingenuity of the soldiers,
who had so well known how to gratify their
desires ! How they now add their insults
to those which the Gentiles have heaped
upon H is adorable Head ! How their appe-
tite for blood, far from being satiated, ia
whetted by this first taste ! Like a few
drops of water thrown upon fire, the Blood
He has shed inflames their rage to a perfect
fury ; and when Pilate points Him out to
their compassion by those emphatic words,
"Behold the Man!" their passion bursts
forth in tumultuous cries of " Crucify Him,
crucify Him!" (ver. 6). Nothing will satisfy
them but that the work of unrighteousness
be completed, and the base compliance of
the judge carried to the extremity of put-
ting their innocent Victim to a cruel death !
Oh, let us who love Him now step in, and
for so much dishonour and injustice, offer
Him glory and grateful love. Let us see
in that crown which He bears, the diadem
of our hearts, and in the purple robes,
which hide not the wounds and gashes.
JESUS PRESENTED TO THE PEOPLE IQ5
that dye it once more with a richer purple,
the royal mantle beneath which we are
protected and hid from our enemies. Let
us cast ourselves on our faces before Him,
and adore Him for so much sorrow endured
for our sakes. Let us acknowledge Him
for our dear Master and Saviour, as loudly
as those perfidious Jews denounced Him to
the judge.
2. Reflect what mysteries, unknown to
Pilate, were contained in those two words
with which he showed Jesus to the crowd
" Ecce Homo." He meant to imply no
more than that, while he believed Jesus to
be innocent, he had so far sacrificed his
principles to their unjust desires as to bring
Him to that pitiable condition. But in an-
other sense how true for us are these words,
" Behold the Man ! " Till now, it has been
the God that you have witnessed in Him
miracles, prophecies, voices from heaven,
wonderful wisdom, sublime perfection. See
now the man deep affliction, ignominy,
pain, bruises, and blood. Thus does He
love to show you that He is in all things
like unto yourselves, only without sin. If
196 TWENTY-EIGHTH MEDITATION
before you reverenced and feared Him as
all-powerful, here you may have Him as a
brother in the flesh, become such for love of
you, and to prove to you how entirely He
loved your human nature, that He would
needs take it upon Himself, with all its
dowry of sorrows and suffering. Or, Pilate
perhaps only meant to say, "You do not
recognise this person, so sadly altered from
what you saw Him a few hours ago. Though
even then disfigured with His previous ill-
treatment, at least He was recognisable as
the teacher so well known in the streets of
Jerusalem. Yet I assure you that this is
that very man, though His hair be now
clotted and dyed with blood and entangled
in that thorny crown, and His brow and
temples are gored through, and His cheeks
begrimed with blood, and His gashed body
hardly covered with that purple rag, the
mockery of a royal robe. Yes, this is
the same person, however changed ! " But
do not we imagine we rather hear Him (or
rather the Eternal Father through Him)
say, " This is the Man of Sorrows, and ac-
quainted with infirmity. Hitherto you have
JESUS PRESENTED TO THE PEOPLE 1 97
seen Him and known Him as a master and
instructor, calm and mild, yet filled with
dignity and majesty, teaching as one having
authority, in the temple, the synagogue, or
the public thoroughfares. Till now you
have called Him Rabbi, Master, Lord. From
henceforth know Him by the name of Savi-
our, by His adorable name of Jesus. For
now He hath assumed this sacred character.
This is He of whom it is written, that by
His stripes ye should be healed. This is
He upon whom God hath laid the iniquities
of all. Love Him, then, and honour and
bless Him eternally for so much mercy and
so much charity, which has moved Him to
give Himself up to such sorrow and igno-
miny for you." It would seem as though
the Divine goodness had willed that there
should be certain pauses or resting-places in
the Passion of our clear Redeemer, wherein
we might have leisure to look at what He
has suffered, and contemplate Him (as it
were) without distraction. Such was that
long space of three hours during which He
hung upon the cross, giving us time to
meditate and dwell upon the entire work
198 TWENTY-EIGHTH MEDITATION
of our salvation. Such also is this briefer
moment, when Jesus, separated from His
cruel tormentors, stands, as in a picture
before us, respited for a moment from tor-
ture, though not from degradation or pain,
that we may take a view of what His pre-
liminary sufferings have been, and to what
condition they have reduced Him. Here
we may take in at once all that the pre-
ceding night and this morning together
have done to disfigure and to bruise Him.
And as, when a monarch is crowned, He
presents Himself to His people to be ac-
cepted by them, to be greeted with their
plaudits and receive their homage, so Jesus,
now crowned, and invested with His im-
perial mantle, before ascending His royal
throne the cross (regnavit a ligno Deus),
comes forward, in the face of His people, to
be hailed by them as their true and ever-
lasting King.
3. Affections. " We, Divine Saviour,
who are Thy people and the sheep of Thy
pasture, greet and acknowledge Thee as our
only and sovereign Lord. Live Thou for
ever ! Live, dear Jesus, in our hearts, and
JESUS PRESENTED TO THE PEOPLE 199
reign therein, triumphant over all other
affections. Live and reign in Thy Church,
and in the souls of all men ! Thy kingdom
come to all ! And now permit me to show
myself to Thee, with those very same words,
' Behold the man,' that is, the weak, offend-
ing, helpless creature for whose redemption
Thou hast suffered so much ! As such, dis-
dain not to look down upon me, and help
me, and raise me up, and strengthen me.
And again, turning myself to Thy Father,
allow me to show Thee to Him in the same
terms. Whenever His wrath is kindled
against me, when I find myself offending
Him by sin, when the recollection of my
grievous and manifold iniquities oppresses
me with fear and anxiety, I will endeavour
to divert the angry eye of my God from
myself, by pointing out to Him Thee, His
beloved Son, bearing Thy purple garment
and thorny crown. I will say to Him,
' Behold the Man, Jesus, who hath made
propitiation for me. Look upon the face of
Thy Christ, and for the sake of His dear
and adorable Blood, which hath been shed
for us, spare Thy people, and me Thy ser-
200 TWENTY-NINTH MEDITATION
vant, for whose sake He suffered, and who
bless and love Him for so great and exceed-
ing charity/ '
ileUttatton
PILATE WASHES HIS HANDS
i. Reflect how Pilate, a weak as well as
wicked man, sought how he could satisfy
all parties, and therefore, instead of at once
acquitting Jesus, whom he had recognised
as innocent, and dismissing the turbulent
assembly, temporised and sought by vari-
ous excuses to make them withdraw their
charge. It was evident that something in
the conduct and character of Jesus had
so far overcome* his indifference towards
the justice or injustice of the case as to
make him desirous of procuring His dis-
charge, provided this could be done with-
out any risk to himself. In this wavering
state he is perhaps still more kept by the
extraordinary message which he received
from his wife. For she sent to him, saying,
" Nihil tibi et justo illi. Multa enim passa
PILATE WASHES HIS HANDS 2O1
sum hodie per visum propter cum " (v. xix.).
What was precisely conveyed by these
words we do not know. But if during
her sleep the wife of Pilate had suffered
much on account of Jesus, and that in
such sort as to pronounce Him in conse-
quence of it an innocent and just man,
this must have preceded the trial, or must
have occurred before she had been aware
of its taking place. It must have there-
fore been some supernatural communication,
probably concerning the disasters which im-
pended over her house should her husband
presume to condemn Him. For the earnest
entreaty imported her deep anxiety that
her husband should go no further in the
case before him, while from her declaring
that her vision had been to her one of
great suffering, it is evident that not mere
love of justice but some painful result was
expected by her, if her desire were not
complied with. Perhaps she was one of
those who, like Cornelius and the Centu-
rion, worshipped God secretly in the midst
of an unbelieving generation : at any rate
she appears to have been commissioned to
202 TWENTY-NINTH MEDITATION
Pilate as Samuel was to Heli, to .announce
to him the destruction of his house, if he
persevered in his iniquitous career. But
all was in vain ; he had not courage to
follow the dictates of common justice, how
was he likely to be moved to it by the
voice of a woman ? He determined there-
fore to take a middle course, and while he
freed himself from the tumultuary accusa-
tions of the Jews, and of the importunate
threats of their priests to denounce him
to Caesar as no friend of his, he sought to
give evidence that he yielded to violence,
and rather gave up, than condemned Jesus
to death. He does not even pause to
reflect that by such conduct he must
lower himself in the estimation of all
men, and would dangerously weaken his
authority and that of his tribunal. But
he calls for water, and washes his hands
in the presence of the multitude. " Videns
autem Pilatus quia nihil proficeret, sed
magis tumultus fieret, accepta aqua lavit
manus coram populo dicens ; innocens ego
sum a sanguine justi hujus ; vos videritis "
(v. 24). Foolish and impious man ! to
PILATE WASHES HIS HANDS 203
think that by such an empty ceremony
the cravings of palpable justice could be
satisfied ! to imagine that the retributions
of an all-seeing God could be averted by
this mock purification ! to flatter thyself
that the blood of a just man no matter
who (though this was much more), could
be washed from thy hands, like a stain
of dust, by so profane a baptism ! Oh !
how easily do we deceive and with our
own hands blind ourselves, when our pas-
sions take the lead, and still more when
we want to make a compromise between a
timid and weak disposition and a trouble-
some or difficult duty. By this want of
boldness in Pilate, he is hurried on to final
and fatal destruction.
2. Reflect upon the words used by Pilate
upon this occasion. In the first place, he
applies to Jesus the very expression used
by his wife in her message, " this just
man" as though to show us that this was
the cause of such a desire to clear himself
of all guilt, having fully comprehended
its import. Pilate thus acknowledges Him
whom he has condemned to be innocent,
204 TWENTY-NINTH MEDITATION
and undeserving of the cruel punishment
to which he was dooming Him. What a
wretched, what a frightful excess of in-
justice ! In the second place, the close of
his address is precisely the same as the
priests' to Judas, when he gave back the
thirty pieces of silver. " Quid ad nos ? "
they say to him. " Tu videris." It is
therefore a phrase intended to throw the
blame upon others, while he who uses it
hopes thereby to exonerate himself! But
alas ! in vain do they thus try to throw
the guilt upon one another's shoulders,
which their united strength would not be
able to bear ! Not one among them acts
the part of a man conscientiously deceived,
or carried away by an honest, though mis-
taken zeal. In the third place, the entire
expression and action bears a strong re-
semblance to the formulary prescribed in
the law, when the body of one slain was
found in a district. For the elders of the
nearest city were commanded to slay a
victim, and wash their hands over it, say-
ing, " Our hands did not shed his blood,
neither did our eyes see it" (Deut. xxi. 7).
PILATE WASHES HIS HANDS 205
And by such a declaration that territory
was purged of all imputation of the hidden
guilt. But far otherwise would it have
been, had the words uttered contained a
palpable untruth, or had been employed
in the very act of delivering into the
hands of murderers, the victim after whose
blood they thirsted. Such was the case
with Pilate : it was by the very words
declaratory of his innocence that he author-
ised the crime of murder upon the very
person whom in those words he pronounced
virtuous ! But let us look well to our-
selves, that we allow not within us a
similar deceit. We too may be sometimes
weak enough to connive at faults or even
sins, which we ourselves would hesitate
to commit. By our timidity in reproving
powerful offenders, by our fear of collision
with popular desires or popular opinions,
by a sort of weak compromising deference
to the errors of others, even by the blind-
ness which advantage to ourselves resulting
from the commission of a fault, by some
one less cautious than ourselves, may cause,
we are often in danger of falling, as Pilate
206 TWENTY-NINTH MEDITATION
did, into some sin which it was our duty
to prevent, and which we flattered our-
selves we should escape because its actual
commission was by others' hands. Let
us nerve ourselves up to the strength re-
quired for the observance of our Master's
commands, whatever worldly interests we
may have to sacrifice, and whatever oppo-
sition we may have to face.
3. Affections and Resolutions. " Be-
loved Saviour of my soul, whom even
the sentence of a wicked judge pronounces
innocent, I rejoice to see how iniquity
must be against itself to secure Thy con-
demnation. I abhor and detest the brutal
injustice of that wicked man, who in one
and the same breath could pronounce such
opposite sentiments. But still more do I
admire Thy humility and eagerness for
my salvation, which could prompt Thee
to appear before such a wretch, whose
sentence was necessary for the accomplish-
ment of Thy design of love ; that, to wit,
of expiring upon the cross to redeem me.
And as Thou wilt one day be my most
righteous Judge, even as now Thou art
PILATE WASHES HIS HANDS 2O/
my most loving Saviour, so do I now
entreat Thee when that day shall come to
recall to mind that other day of mercy,
and with its merits qualify the rigours
of Thy justice. Thou who wast judged
unrighteously, judge me, I pray Thee, mer-
cifully ; Thou, who experiencedst no com-
passion, abundantly display it in my regard.
And for the better obtaining of this future
kindness, open my heart now to the deceits
of self-love ; never let me be drawn to
destruction by weakness any more than
by rashness, but let me ever discharge
my duty without regard of good or evil
report from men, without care for the
favour of Caesar, or terror for the clamours
of the multitude. If men misjudge me
for acting sternly in the line of duty, I
will console myself with the thought that
they misjudged Thee."
208 THIRTIETH MEDITATION
JWetJttatton
THE PEOPLE'S ANSWER TO PILATE
Preparation. Represent to yourself your
Blessed Saviour before Pilate, and the
furious mob in the public place below.
i. Reflect how when Pilate made that
declaration on which we meditated yester-
day, "I am innocent of the blood of
this just man ; look ye to it," he little
imagined that the Jews would have the
courage to take the guilt which he dis-
claimed upon themselves. When two
wicked elders had caused the chaste Sus-
anna to be condemned to death, and she
was already on her way to execution, the
youth Daniel called out with a loud voice,
before the multitude, in the very same
words as Pilate used, " Mundus ego sum
a sanguine hujus mulieris" (Dan. xiii. 43).
He who spoke was only a boy, and they
who had borne witness were hoary men,
held in great reverence, for they were
judges in the people. Yet so strong did
this determined protest sound even in his
THE PEOPLES ANSWER TO PILATE 2OQ
mouth, so solemn a disclaimer of the ini-
quity about to be committed, and so clear
a casting of its load upon others, that the
multitude were checked, they paused and
asked him, " What meaneth this word that
thou hast spoken ? " Their rage was calmed,
they listened to reason, they discovered the
falsehood and malignity of the accusations
of their own elders, against one whose
superior virtue had been her only crime.
What a parallel case was here in the Pas-
sion of Christ ; but, alas, how different the
result ! The elders, out of envy of the
divine virtues of Jesus, have accused Him
of foul crimes, and the people, believing
their testimony, have pronounced Him
guilty of death. He is about to be led to
execution, when a solemn pause takes place
in the proceedings. It is not a boy that
stops them with his outcries, it is the judge
himself to whom they have referred the
case ; who in the face of the accused, of
His accusers, and of the incensed multitude,
cries aloud, "Mundus sum a sanguine justi
hujus ! " Does not the multitude of Israel
falter at hearing the solemn protestation ?
o
210 THIRTIETH MEDITATION
Is not their determination to pursue this
just man to the cross staggered ? Do they
not call out, " What meanest thou by this
word which thou hast spoken ? " No ; their
blind fury still impels them forward, it
overleaps this last obstacle to their impious
desires. They clearly understand the im-
port of the solemn phrase, they have no
need of asking explanations, they are will-
ing to face all its consequences ; and, lest
Pilate's scruples on this head should stand
the least in their way, they relieve him at
once of all his solicitude, they take the
entire, frightful burden on themselves and
theirs, and cry out with unanimous enthu-
siasm, as though one only fiend had ani-
mated them all : " Sanguis ejus super nos
et super filios nostros ! " Good God ! what
a terrible exclamation ! Who would make
it regarding the most atrocious culprit ever
led to execution ? Who would not depre-
cate the stain of blood from being placed
upon him, even of one killed by accident,
or in self-defence, or in lawful war ? And
this is now invoked of the blood of that
man of whom five days before the same
THE PEOPLES ANSWER TO PILATE 211
multitude had said, " Hosanna to the Son
of David ! blessed is he that cometh in the
name of the Lord ! "
2. Reflect how this thundering appeal
was admitted in heaven, and the retribu-
tion demanded in it fully granted. While
the Blood of Jesus fell upon each individual
as a dew of grace, expiatory for the sins of
that crowd as completely as for those of
His loving disciples, yea, for that very sin ;
yet did it fall as flakes of fire upon the
nation and its institutions, blighting them
all, and utterly rooting up. The Romans,
indeed, came and took their place and
nation, and left them an outcast, miserable
race. From the moment of our Saviour's
death, they knew not peace. The progress
of Christianity, in the very midst of the
capital Jerusalem ; the conversion to it of
some of their most influential or respect-
able members, as Nicodemus and Gamaliel ;
the constancy of Stephen ; the defection of
Saul, who became their most formidable
antagonist ; the miracles of the Apostles ;
the unanimity and exemplariness of the
disciples ; the contempt shown for their
212 THIRTIETH MEDITATION
menaces and their chastisements ; the de-
cline of their own power and influence ; the
manifest departure of their rule, and the
gradual vanishing of their hopes these
were all so many whips and goads to that
bitter remorse, which an act of such pal-
pable, but such fruitless injustice, must
have caused to the priests and elders.
Hence their irritable minds were lashed on
from sordid fear of Roman spoliation to
reckless rebellion and all the expedients of
despair, which brought down on the very
generation that had crucified Christ the
fearful evils of the siege and destruction
of Jerusalem. See their entire country
laid waste, and its most flourishing towns
reduced to ashes by the hands of their own
citizens, in their popular tumults ; see their
armies and bands one after another cut to
pieces, or hunted into the clefts of the
rock ; see in every part, opposite even the
very walls of the wretched city, long lines
of captives nailed upon crosses, as if to
expiate their sacrilegious deed, even as God
had the seven children of Saul crucified by
the Gabaanites, for his cruelty towards
THE PEOPLES ANSWER TO PILATE 213
them (2 Reg. xxi.). Behold then the un-
grateful Jerusalem herself straitened by the
besieging army on every side, ruined by
its repeated assaults, while within, the city
itself is more like an abode of demons than
men, faction and civil discord driving the
inhabitants to tear one another in pieces,
and by the sword and the torch to destroy
the very bowels of their state. Look how
distress increases to hunger, and hunger to
raging famine, till every loathsome thing is
greedily devoured, and mothers kill their
own infants for food. And then comes, at
last, the final catastrophe, when the pro-
phecy of Jesus is fulfilled, and the city
being taken, is delivered to utter destruc-
tion, and the people perish in the confla-
gration of their own houses, and warriors
are crushed under their own defences, and
the priests are buried beneath the ruins of
their temple. The destruction is final, is
utter, is irrevocable ! Jerusalem, Jeru-
salem ! which heretofore didst kill the pro-
phets, and wast pardoned, curse now the
day, when with a thousand tongues thou
didst call down vengeance on thyself I
214 THIRTIETH MEDITATION
Better had it been for thee to have brought
down the fire of Sodom and Gomorrah
upon thyself than placed the blood of thy
God upon thy head ! And that second
part of the sentence, how has it been ful-
filled ! Not only on themselves, but upon
their children too, did these wretched men
call down God's vengeance, and it has
come. See them a dispersed, an alien race,
without a country, without a priesthood,
without an altar, deprived of the sym-
pathies of those among whom they live ;
given up entirely to sordid gain, without
noble ambitions or views of public interest !
Never, truly, did a cry to Heaven so com-
pletely wrench from thence a curse, as did
this appeal of blood !
3. Affections. "Terrible, Lord, are Thy
judgments, but they are righteous and holy.
Well was the punishment deserved by that
hard-necked and hard-hearted race, which,
not content to crucify Thy child Jesus, the
Lord of Glory, thus in the face of Heaven
boasted of its crime. But have we nothing
similar to fear ? When we have sinned,
when, especially with open eyes, we have
JESUS IS CONDEMNED 21$
transgressed Thy law, have we not called
down vengeance upon our souls, and pro-
voked Thee to visit on us the blood of our
redemption, which we thus in some sort
trampled under our feet ? Oh let us take
warning then from Thy people. Let us
indeed take up their words and apply them
to ourselves, but in a very different sense
and spirit. The blood of Thy Beloved Son
be ever upon us and ours ; upon our bodies
to chasten them ; upon our hearts to in-
flame them ; upon our affections to purify
them ; upon our souls to save them ! Be
it our refreshment in life ; our inebriating
draught in death ; our hope and our sal-
vation."
fflrtittation
JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO THE CROSS
Preparation. Represent to yourself your
Divine Redeemer standing before Pilate
while he pronounces sentence of death.
i. Reflect how the Roman governor,
wearied out with the importunities of the
2l6 THIRTY-FIRST MEDITATION
Jews, terrified at their threats of accusing
him as no friend of Caesar, having satisfied
his conscience, as he thought, and dis-
charged from it the weighty responsibility
by washing his hands, and by the accept-
ance of the guilt by the Jews, hesitates no
longer to comply with their wishes, and
delivers their Messiah to the doom they
had demanded. He passes sentence upon
Him in judicial form. In that sentence
must have been embodied the accusations
as proved, which he himself had pronounced
unfounded ; and as tradition has actually
handed it down, it must have pronounced
Jesus convicted of sedition and blasphemy,
of having plotted against the sovereignty
of Csesar and the religion of His country.
Can anything be more iniquitous, more re-
voltingly unjust ? Oh wretched Pilate ! till
now thou hast been weak and irresolute,
deficient in moral courage, and in that
bolder uprightness, which at once does jus-
tice even in the face of an incensed multi-
tude ; thou hast sought to steer between
thy duty and thy interests, and hast failed ;
behold thee now daring enough, in thy very
JESUS IS CONDEMNED 217
cowardice, to be unjust in the face of God
and man, and of thine own conscience!
But to what is it that Jesus is now con-
demned ? For with horror and indignation
we before heard Him proclaimed by the
Jewish Council worthy of death. But He
is now specifically adjudged to that death
which the Jews desired to inflict upon Him,
when in their fury they cried out, " Crucify
Him, crucify Him ! " Jesus is now con-
demned to the cross, to the gibbet of those
times, the most ignominious as well as the
most painful of deaths. It is the punish-
ment of slaves and of the vilest of men.
Who remembers not how the great Roman
orator aroused the indignation of the people
against Verres, because he had during his
government crucified a Roman citizen ? It
was considered more than a mere crime, an
absolute sacrilege, to have inflicted such a
disgraceful punishment. And, in fact, were
it not that crucifixion is now sanctified to
our eyes, by the person always represented
in it being the revered and beloved of our
souls ; were it not that we are accustomed
to look on all representations of it with
2l8 THIRTY-FIUST MEDITATION
tender emotions, there would be something
revoltingly ignominious to our sense in the
spectacle of a human being, placed high
above and opposite the gazing multitude,
to die in their sight ; not as one executed
by a blow, or at once strangled or con-
sumed by fire, but writhing in public
through all the agonies of a slow and
gradual death, with his arms stretched out
so that the convulsions and quiverings of
every muscle of the exposed body may be
manifested, while his hands, secured not
by bands, but by the rude fastenings of
iron nails, are unable to give alleviation.
It is horrible thus to contemplate him,
without one mortal wound, pining and
fainting away with hunger, distress, shame,
and weariness; to hear him moaning and
crying in vain for pity and relief, and be-
hold him, after hours and often days of
lingering agony, expire as one would do
upon a bed, uplifted in helpless exposure
upon that wooden frame ! Oh, there is
indeed something sickening in this sight
of a man, not slain but dying, in the
presence of thousands, not one of whom
JESUS IS CONDEMNED 219
approaches or discharges towards him an
ordinary office of humanity !
2. Reflect, if this be so ignominious, so
revolting a punishment, who this is to
whom it is now awarded. After all, Jesus
must have been considered by the Jews as
one who moved in the highest rank of their
society, who was admitted to familiar in-
tercourse with their most respectable people,
was often at table with the wealthy Phari-
sees, and taught in the synagogues with
learning and effect. He certainly was not
of the class on whom such a punishment
might be ordinarily inflicted, and we might
have supposed that pride and self-interest
would have prevented the priests from
setting so dangerous an example of thus
punishing one of the better ranks. More-
over, Jesus was well known to be of the
race of David, of the royal stock ; for
otherwise the Jews would never for a
moment have admitted the hope or pos-
sibility of His being their Messiah. Could
we have thought it possible that they should
have permitted such an indignity to be
committed against their kingly family, from
220 THIRTY- FIRST MEDITATION
which alone their future fortunes were to
spring ? Jesus had, at least to all appear-
ance, discharged a great public office of
preaching, teaching, and even prophesying.
There was a sacredness attached to this
character, which might have been rationally
expected to extend protection to Him who
bore it against such an ignominious doom.
But no consideration weighed with these
men, whose manifest purpose was to heap
infamy on the name of Jesus, and thus ruin
the cause and religion which He came to
proclaim. Putting Him simply to death
was not sufficient in their estimation to
blot His memory from the thoughts of
men ; it would endear Him to many. But
crucifying Him, attaching to His name the
epithet of the. crucified, was, they calculated,
sufficient to crush His character, and pluck
Him from the hearts of His most devoted
followers. Who would dare to tell His
history, or to whom ? To Romans, propose
as an object of respect one whom the magis-
trate of His own nation had condemned to
the most infamous end ? To Jews, one
whom their own priests had judged de-
JESUS IS CONDEMNED 221
serving of so hateful a punishment ? Yes,
angels shall be the first to adopt the title
when speaking to Him, "Jesum quaeritis
crucifixum, surrexit non est hie." Apostles
shall glory of it before Gentiles and Jews.
" We preach Christ crucified " was their
watchword, and the entire world is brought
to acknowledge it. From this moment the
Cross is ennobled, sanctified ; it becomes
the ardent object of Peter's hopes, the fond
desire of Andrew's life, the glory and honour
of Paul's preaching. From henceforward
the Cross shall lose all infamy ; it shall be
courted by the most virtuous of men as
a throne is by the ambitious ; it shall be
placed on sceptres and crowns, as men
heretofore have placed a jewel ; it shall be
the banner of hope, the beacon of light,
the token of salvation, the key of heaven.
Oh senseless Jews ! short-witted fools ! who
thus, in the blindness of your fury, give
additional lustre to the triumphs of Chris-
tianity by making them be over the strongest
of human prejudices, those against dishonour
and public disgrace.
3. Affections. "And Thou, blessed
222 THIRTY-FIRST MEDITATION
Lamb of God ! how dost Thou welcome
the sentence pronounced on Thee as that
which puts in immediate prospect the con-
summation of Thine ardent desires ! At
once Thou enterest upon that last though
painful stage, which secures to Thee, and
still more to us, the attainment of the great
object of Thy coming hither. Thou art
condemned to be lifted up, even as the
brazen serpent was above the heads of
the people, that we, whom the fangs of the
infernal dragon have sore wounded, may, by
looking up to Thee, be healed. Thou art
condemned to be exalted over all, that so
Thou mightest draw all things to Thyself.
And shall we not rejoice with Thee that
Thine hour is come, yea, our hour too,
wherein we shall be brought to salvation
and to brotherhood with Thee ? Ah ! I
see by the heavenly smile that shines
through the indignities heaped upon Thy
blessed countenance how dear to Thee is
this cruel sentence ; how Thy heart leaps
with joy at the announcement it contains.
Three hours more, dear Jesus, and we are
for ever rescued ! Glory and gratitude
JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS 223
and love eternal be to Thee, Victim of our
sins, as we join in the song of jubilee and
praise with which the celestial choirs above
compensated the unjust sentence of men
on earth. We adore Thee, we bless Thee,
we devote ourselves to Thee with eternal
love ! "
JHetritation
JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS
Preparation. Imagine that you see
your Saviour arrive at Calvary, bearing
His Cross.
i. Reflect upon the spectacle you have
just represented to your imagination. You
see first a mob insulting and furiously de-
nouncing as the worst of men Him upon
whose execution they are now about to
glut their eyes. Then, as they pass off,
you see the bristling array of spears, a
troop of Roman soldiers comes into view,
and amidst them arrives your dear Re-
deemer, covered with blood, stiff with His
scourging, disfigured with spittle and livid
224 THIRTY-SECOND MEDITATION
swellings, torn and mangled by the ill-
treatment He has undergone, tottering
under the weight of the cross, which He
is aided to carry by the favoured Simon
of Cyrene. At this spectacle you will
surely exclaim, " Truly, now that the
Victim is come unto the mountain, the
bloody tragedy will end. If the malice
of man be not yet satiated, if humanity
can have so much of the brute as that
these men will not melt into compassion,
the Eternal Father at least will surely
relent, and provide for Himself another
victim, as He did for Abraham in the
place of Isaac." But no ! the justice of
the One is as inexorable as the injustice
of the other is obdurate, and nothing can
bar the final accomplishment of the stern
decree. Follow then diligently this bar-
barous scene. See this innocent Lamb of
God rudely stripped of His clothes before
the assembled rabble, and all His wounds
opened and rent afresh by the violent
manner in which it is done. See how in
silence He places Himself, as directed, upon
the hard wood of the cross, and stretches
JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS 225
forth His hands. Look, if thou canst bear
the spectacle, how one of the unfeeling
soldiery places the point of a coarse, large
nail upon the palm of thy Beloved, and,
by repeated blows, drives its dull point into
the wood. What torture, what anguish !
The tender flesh is lacerated, the bones
crushed, the nerves exquisitely tortured,
the tendons cut asunder ! The tender
frame of our dear Lord quivers in agony
at the piercing smart, and draws up con-
vulsively towards the wounded limb. Three
more such cruel outrages must be com-
mitted against the Blessed Person, three
more such murderous wounds inflicted,
before the cruel work is done ! And
were there found men with hearts savage
enough to perpetrate this ? But hark !
hear that shout of savage triumph and
brutal delight. It is the people, who, in-
stigated by the infamous priests and elders,
are hailing the appearance of our Blessed
Saviour above the heads of the crowd, and
consider their joy complete. The very
fiends seem to join in it ; for though they
know not fully what will be the conse-
P
226 THIRTY-SECOND MEDITATION
cjuences to them of this mystery which is
accomplishing, they know at least that this
is One who has curtailed their power and
cast them out of men, and they think they
have now succeeded in destroying Him.
Oh ! what a spectacle is this to one that
believes that He, whom that shout greets,
is the Son of God.
2. Keflect upon this frightful idea, that
Jesus is here before you, executed as a
malefactor ! The Lord of the angels, and
their joy ; the Creator of the world, the
Eternal Son of the Eternal God ; yes, God
Himself, He that shall judge the living and
the dead, is here upon a gibbet as a culprit !
Is not this too dreadful an idea to con-
template ? Yet it is the very truth. Has
He not now at length reached the lowest
pitch of degradation and wretchedness ?
Has He not drunk the cup of humanity
to the dregs ? Has He not reached the
last verge and limit of our miseries ? In
His birth He was poor, yea, poor to ab-
jection. Through life He was persecuted
even to the seeking of His death. In the
previous stages of His Passion, Pie had
JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS 22/
been ill-treated with indignity, and wounded
to cruelty ; but only now does He appear
as infamous ! " Cursed is every one that
hangeth upon a tree." On a tree is He
now hanging. What must the stranger
who saw Him thus have thought Him !
Not only a criminal, but one of the most
desperate character. He is not executed
alone. Oh no ! So eminent is He con-
sidered by those that condemned Him, in
the ways of crime, that two thieves, men
guilty of great offences, are crucified, one
at each side, as if not merely the more
to degrade Him, but to show that He was
chief among such wretches far more in-
famous than they. A passer might say,
" What a notorious and dangerous male-
factor this must be, that his execution
should be insisted on by the rulers of the
nation without delay during a time of
mercy, such as the Paschal solemnity-
nay, even to the profanation of the fes-
tival ! " And, in fact, even the cruel
Herod, when he wished to gratify the
Jews by the death of Peter, " videns quia
placeret Judseis," kept him in prison " ut
228 THIRTY-SECOND MEDITATION
post Pascha produceret eum populo." Not
so in our Saviour's case. His execution
seemed to admit of no delay, but must
take place instantly, even on the day of
the Pasch. Moreover, it would be re-
marked, when ordinary culprits are put
to death, a certain feeling of sympathy
and commiseration is excited in the hearts
of beholders, and at least a respectful
silence is observed during the awful scene.
But not so here ; on the contrary, a uni-
versal feeling of exultation and triumph
pervades the multitude, and breaks forth
from their lips. And yet this is the Son
of God, executed as a malefactor !
3. Affections. Run in to the foot of
your Saviour's Cross, and, embracing His
feet, say, " my dear, my ever dear
Jesus, this is too cruel and distressing a
scene for my poor heart to dwell upon.
To see Thy sinless, spotless hands pierced
and torn by those cruel nails ; to see Thy
blessed feet, that never moved but on
errands of love, fixed to the hard wood
by the torturing iron ; to see Thee thus
raised up to the scorn of a hateful mob,
JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS 229
is a spectacle too dire for even a savage
to contemplate. What, then, must it be
for one that loves Thee, even as inade-
quately as I do ? Still it is good for me
to kneel under the shadow of that atoning
tree, and contemplate Thy sufferings. It
is good for me to look upon Thy wounds,
and reflect why they were inflicted. Yes,
this torture was suffered for me, to teach
me how I should curse my sins, which
brought Thee to it, my Beloved. I detest
the brutality of the Jews, and yet forget
that I have been as brutal as they, when
I committed those offences which caused
Thy sufferings. What were those bar-
barous soldiers in hard-heartedness, com-
pared with me ? Is this possible, my God?
Can it be true ? Oh, then receive the only
reparation a penitent heart can make : a
loving determination rather to die than to
sin again. But this is too little. I will the
rather love Thee the more, in consideration
of what I have made Thee suffer. For-
give me, dearest Saviour, and I will ever
love Thee with nay entire heart and soul."
230 THIRTY-THIRD MEDITATION
Hesitation
THE SUFFERINGS OF OUR LORD ON
THE CROSS
Preparation. Represent to yourself
your dear Redeemer hanging on the cross
between two thieves.
i. Reflect upon the cruel torments which
our dear Jesus must have endured during
the three hours He hung on the cross.
His body was stretched out upon this hard
knotty trunk, for certainly they who pre-
pared it studied little how to make it soft
or easy to His limbs. Every sinew and
muscle of His sacred body must have been
in dreadful tension, both from His position
there, and from the effort which nature
would make to diminish the pressure upon
the wounds of the nails. We find it weary
enough to lie for a few hours in one posi-
tion upon a soft bed ; and we cannot bear
to remain long without turning, upon a
hard board. What, then, must it have
THE SUFFERINGS OF OUR LORD 231
been to hang extended upon this rough
tree, especially in the state of our Blessed
Saviour's body. From head to foot is
one wound ; His head, if it press against
the cross, is gored by the points of the
thorns which are thus driven deeper into
it. His shoulders and back, which are
pressed necessarily against it, are flayed
and torn with the inhuman stripes which
have been inflicted upon Him. Against
these open wounds presses this cruel bed,
so that any change of position, so far from
relieving Him, does but increase His suffer-
ing by grating upon and rending wider the
gashes with which He is covered. But let
us not lose sight of those four terrible
but most precious wounds, whereby He is
fastened on the cross. Each hand, each
foot, is transfixed by a long nail, driven
into it with violence, and every moment
tearing wider and wider the rent it has
made. Oh, what a torturing pain, what
incessant suffering during the three hours
of crucifixion ! Who, dear Jesus, shall be
able to recount all that Thou didst endure
for us in that space of time ? But, beyond
232 THIRTY-THIRD MEDITATION
these sufferings, immediately inflicted by
the act of crucifixion, there were others no
less severe, which resulted from it. The
uneasy and unnatural position it produced
caused a disturbance in all the nobler
functions of life. The lungs, surcharged
with blood, panted with labour and anxiety,
in consequence of the compression of the
chest. The heart, from the same cause,
beat heavily and painfully, clogged in its
motion by the impeded circulation. The
blood, unable to return from the head by
reason of the veins being compressed, must
have caused a painful apoplectic pain. These
same causes would produce a distressing
heat and irritation all over the surface of
the face, neck, and chest, which He had no
hand to relieve, and which must conse-
quently have been torturing in the ex-
treme. To these sufferings we must add
exposure to heat and air, with a body
already wounded in every part, and covered
with sores, inflicted by the torments of the
preceding night and that very morning.
So that not only those parts of the body
which pressed upon the cross, but every
THE SUFFERINGS OF OUR LORD 233
other, must have been painfully sensitive,
and subject to grievous sufferings. Truly,
rny Jesus was the King of Martyrs, the
severest sufferer the world ever saw, for the
sake of men.
2. Eeflect upon the many other acces-
sories to the tortures of crucifixion, which
our beloved Saviour endured for you. He,
the most modest and purest of beings, is
exposed before the multitude. He is an
object, not of their compassion, but of their
absolute derision. He sees before Him an
immense crowd, all animated, or rather
possessed, by an evil spirit of hatred and
scorn to Him. Every word that reaches
Him is a word of bitter insult and mockery.
Nearer Him, indeed, is a small group of
faithful and sympathising followers ; but
so far from receiving comfort from them,
they stand in need of it from Him, and
cheerfully He gives it. He commends His
Blessed Mother to the care of His beloved
disciple John. Peter and His other com-
panions and disciples, the many who fol-
lowed Him from place to place, have
disappeared and hidden themselves from
234 THIRTY-THIRD MEDITATION
sight. All that He possesses on earth,
His few clothes, even to His seamless gar-
ment, are unfeelingly divided or diced for
among the soldiers who had executed Him.
He is thus alone in the world, without one
smallest link with it save His love for man,
and His earnest desire to accomplish our
salvation. Lastly, He suffers a racking
thirst ; His parched lips can no longer
endure the dryness which afflicts them, and
call out for relief. And the cruel men who
surround Him present Him with gall and
vinegar to drink ! Can outrage go beyond
this ? Could brutality be carried to a
greater excess ? Now, surely, we may say
that all is accomplished ; that the anger of
the just God has no more dregs left in the
chalice of suffering which He had mingled
for His Son as the world's Redeemer. Now,
be His Name praised for ever, nothing more
remains but that death come and put an
end to so much suffering.
3. Affections. "0 most dear and most
merciful Saviour, every meditation upon
Thy blessed Passion presents fresh motives
of love and gratitude to my poor soul. I
THE SUFFERINGS OF OUR LORD 235
am the culprit, and Thou the Sufferer !
I am the sinner, and Thou the Victim !
I am the accursed, and Thou bearest my
curse ! I have been proud, my head has
been lifted up in presumptuous thoughts
and Thy Head is therefore crowned with
thorns ! I have stretched forth my hands
to iniquity, and have not restrained them
from that which was unlawful ; and Thy
Hands are therefore fastened with rude
nails to the hard cross ! My feet have
run after vanity, and walked in the paths
of wickedness ; and therefore Thy Feet are
held by the same cruel fastenings, upon the
same hard wood ! My body has been the
rebellious enemy of Thy law, pampered and
indulged ; and for this Thy sacred Body
is gored and gashed with innumerable
wounds ! My heart hath loved this world,
and refused to beat, as it ever ought, for
Thee ; and Thy sacred Heart was racked
with unutterable grief and anguish ! Is not
this too much ? Is it not indeed a rigour
of Divine justice? Oh, depart from me,
Lord, for I am a sinful man ! But no !
Rather let me draw closer to Thee, and to
236 THIRTY-FOURTH MEDITATION
Thy blessed Cross, dearer to my heart than
the golden thrones of earth. There let me
ever remain, nor ever lose sight of Thy
adorable wounds and bitter tortures ; ever
to read legibly written upon Thy adorable
flesh the deserts of my sins, and still more
the declarations and claims of Thy love !
Yes, every wound is a mouth that pleads
for me to Thy Eternal Father, and contains
a powerful plea to win my affections to
Thee. I will love Thee, Lord, my
strength. I will love Thee, dear Jesus,
my hope, my joy, my salvation ; I will
love Thee above all things ; I will love
Thee alone ! "
JHefcttattcm
JESUS ADDRESSES HIS MOTHER
i. Reflect on the completeness of that
abandonment which was determined by
the inexorable justice of God for His own
well-beloved Son. How filled to the brim
was the chalice of His bitter sorrows, when
JESUS ADDRESSES HIS MOTHER 237
even His dear and blessed mother, instead
of being to Him, as she had hitherto been,
a source of comfort and happiness, was
destined to increase the sufferings and
abandonment of His last hour. If there
could be a tie between Him and earth
which His heart might continue to cherish,
it was His love for her who had borne
Him, and had loved Him ever since with
a love exceeding that of any other created
being. If all the world had abandoned
Him, she had remained ; if the greater
part of the bystanders sympathised little,
or even rejoiced in His sufferings, she
partook of them with a mother's heart
of compassion ; she alone endured more
than all on earth, Himself alone excepted.
If few would feel His loss, to her it would
be irreparable. That mother, then, He
sees at the foot of His cross, overwhelmed
with anguish and woe unspeakable. He
who reads the interior of His blessed
mother's soul, knows what is to her the
utter worthlessness of all on earth when
He shall be withdrawn from it. What
an additional pang to His sacred Heart
238 THIRTY-FOURTH MEDITATION
to witness her inconsolable grief, and that
incomparable distress which made her
sorrow great and bitter as the salt sea :
" Magna est ut mare contritio tua." What
an accumulation of grief to His over-
whelmed soul, to leave her thus alone,
in fulfilment of the Eternal Father's will !
How did their looks and their hearts meet
at that hour ! How was all the affection
of both, if possible, renewed ; and how
did they melt into one loving thought
in the fierce furnace of their common
sufferings ! How did Mary remember
the happy days when He was an infant
in her bosom, and when she heard His
Divine words, sitting at their homely
meal and amid the daily occupations of
Nazareth ! and how did Jesus remember
the cherishing love with which this ten-
derest of mothers had nursed and caressed
Him! Here was, indeed, depth calling
upon depth, one surpassing, superhuman
grief upon another. Still Jesus cannot
leave this earth without making some
provision for the future welfare of the
loving mother who had taken care of
JESUS ADDRESSES HIS MOTHER 239
Him for thirty years. Gladly would He
take her with Him into His glory, and
bear her as the first present of earth to
heaven. But this consolation shall not
be ; for He would then have expired with
one pang less than was compatible with
the stern decrees of justice. No ; He
must have the pain of knowing, as He
expires, that He is leaving her whom
He loves beyond all to loneliness and
straitness, and to the care of others.
And though the support of her lonely
life be His own beloved disciple, yet it
is indeed a sad exchange for her to have
the disciple in place of the Master, the
creature for the Creator, the son of Zebedee
instead of the Son of God.
2. Consider the blessed words which
Jesus spoke, for thou hast a deep interest
therein. First, looking down from His
cross on the mother who stood beneath
it, He said, referring to John, " Woman,
behold thy son;" then to John, "Behold
thy mother." Here was a new relation-
ship established, wherein it was intended
that we should all have a part. For, as
240 THIRTY-FOURTH MEDITATION
the Church of God has always believed,
in John we were all represented ; and so
Mary was made our mother, and we were
made her children. But as this relation-
ship will form, in due season, matter for
its own meditation, let us keep our atten-
tion to what Jesus here did. Keenly then
did He feel the distress and desolation of
the exchange He was making, while He
indicated to the already crushed heart of
Mary, John for Himself! But if to her
heart the words necessarily brought such
desolation, see, on the other hand, how
lovingly they were addressed to us the
while. Now, even in the depth of His
afflictions, did He devise new blessings for
us, and appointed new aids to our salva-
tion. He bestowed on us this mother, this
tender, loving mother, this compassionate
and merciful mother, even while He was
suffering the most excruciating torments
for our sins and ingratitudes ! His death
was drawing near ; He had given us
Himself, He was just about to seal the
donation by expiring ; another bequest
still remained for Him to leave us, better,
JESUS ADDRESSES HIS MOTHER 241
nobler, more valuable than anything else,
after the gift of Himself. He had adopted
us as His brethren in regard of His Eternal
Father ; He had made us co-heirs with
Himself of the Kingdom of Heaven ; yet
He would have our relationship to be
even closer still, and willed us to be His
brethren in respect to His dear mother,
one family with Him, where our feelings
can most easily be engaged in favour of
our kindred. At the same time, who can
refrain from admiring the steadfastness
and fortitude of the heart of Jesus, thus
discharging His duty as a Son, amidst
the most agonising torments of body, ex-
hausted by His wounds, and oppressed
in spirit by an unspeakable weight of
woes. How amiable, how perfect is every
line in the character of this our dear
Master and Saviour, whether in life or
death !
3. Affections. " And how shall we ever
sufficiently thank Thee, dear Jesus, for
having thus made Thine own sacrifice, no
less than Thy loving mother's loss, our
gain ? What a motive for gratitude to
Q
242 THIRTY-FOURTH MEDITATION
Thee and to her, to have found a place
at such a moment in both those hearts,
to have been considered worthy of mention
upon Calvary, amidst the mutual sorrows
of Son and Mother ! And here, surely,
all the gain was mine. For she did but
acquire in me a froward and undutiful
and often rebellious child, whereas I ob-
tained a tender and most watchful parent,
who through life has been my patroness
and kindest friend, ever making inter-
cession for me most effectually with Thee.
But let me never forget what this adoption
cost Thyself. Never let me forget that to
establish it Thou wert pleased to bring
Mary to the foot of Thy cross, piercing
her soul with the sharp sword of grief,
which recoiled on Thine own, wounding
deeply Thy filial heart ; that for three
hours Thou didst allow Thy cruel tor-
ments to be aggravated by the sight of
her inexpressible dolour, that so she might
conceive us in sorrow and pain, and might
thus have a stronger maternal interest in
our salvation. Blessed be Jesus and Mary
for so much love. Blessed above all, Thou,
THE PENITENT THIEF 243
my dear Jesus, for whom no suffering
seemed too much, which could give us
any further blessing ! "
Hesitation
THE PENITENT THIEF
Preparation. Represent to yourself your
Saviour upon the cross between two thieves,
one of whom reviles Him, while the other
defends and pleads for Him.
i. Consider the indignity meant to be
heaped upon the Blessed Jesus, by crucify-
ing Him between two thieves, as though
such were the fittest company for Him, and
as though He had well earned the post of
infamy assigned Him between them. But
He, in His mercy, well knew how to turn
this intended dishonour to His own glory ;
first, by the fulfilment of prophecy, which
had foretold that He should be reckoned
and associated with the wicked, "et cum
iniquis reputatus est : " and next, in the
salvation of one of those who were joined
with Him in punishment. And oh ! what
244 THIRTY-FIFTH MEDITATION
an honour, what an opportunity of grace
was here given to these infamous male-
factors in their last hour ; as much as Jesus
was abased by being joined with them, so
much were they exalted by thus suffering
with Him. The two sons of Zebedee asked
to sit one at His right hand, and the other
at His left, in His kingdom, and were re-
fused ; those two wretches were admitted
to the honour, even now, when on His
throne of grace, His mercy-seat as King,
and King not only of the Jews, but of all
mankind, purchasing and making them His
inheritance. Who would not have bought
this distinction (without their crimes) at
the price of their sufferings ? But what
an awful lesson we have here in the differ-
ence of the fate which befell the two. For
it pleased God to show forth, in the very
hour of salvation, how all men were neces-
sarily to belong to one or other of two
different classes, the chosen and the repro-
bate ; and while He exhibited the first-
fruits of life, plucked from the very tree of
the cross, He gave the very first example
of final reprobation upon that very instru-
THE PENITENT THIEF 245
ment of salvation. It should have appeared
impossible for any one, in that terrible
moment, to have had room in his heart for
cruel or inhuman feelings, especially towards
the companion of his sufferings. The same
fate involved all three ; death was certain
to all ; there was no ground to hope that
the sentence of a Koman judge, especially
so justly pronounced against two of them,
would be reversed, and the delinquent
taken down from the cross, in reward for
pandering to the passions of the Jewish
rabble, and joining in their reproaches
to the One unjustly condemned. What
motive, then, could have impelled one of
the two malefactors to blaspheme and taunt
Jesus in that dreadful state, with the
miraculous appearances around them of a
darkened sky and nature in mourning ?
What but the deepest perversity of nature,
the most hardened impiety, the most ob-
durate malice ? What a proof have we
here of the frightful length to which a
corrupt heart may go in wickedness and
impious presumption !
2. But let us turn from this more painful
246 THIRTY-FIFTH MEDITATION
contemplation, and dwell rather on the
consoling spectacle which the other side
presents us, in the conduct of the penitent
thief. He, touched by grace, and feeling
this to be an hour of mercy, first publicly
rebuked his fellow for his blasphemy, ac-
knowledged his own guilt and demerits, and
proclaimed the innocence of Jesus before
His enemies, at a time when even His
Apostles had abandoned Him. Then he
turned to his Saviour, and, making the
strongest act of faith imaginable, thus ad-
dressed Him : " Domine, memento mei,
ciim veneris in regnum tuum." To have
acknowledged a hope in Christ's kingdom,
while He was held in public estimation and
honour, and while He was working signs
and wonders, was considered an act of
strong belief and trust. What was it then,
when Jesus was stretched upon an infamous
cross, publicly blasphemed and taunted for
weakness in not being able to rescue Him-
self from destruction, and now just about
to expire ? What a lively and strong faith
was needed, to ask Him now to remember
any one in His kingdom ? When Joseph
THE PENITENT THIEF 247
entreated the chief butler, who was the
companion of his punishment, to remember
him " when it should be well with him,"
because " innocent he had been cast into
the dungeon " (Gen. xl. 14, 15), he only pre-
pared for himself a bitter disappointment ;
for he put his trust in deceitful man.
But this good thief, acknowledging himself
most justly punished ("nam nos digna factis
recipimus"), and still making a similar re-
quest, is sure of its not being neglected ;
he knoweth in Whom he hath trusted, and
that He was both able and willing to grant
him his request. How foolish, truly, must
it have appeared to those who overheard it,
for one sufferer nailed to a cross of shame
and agony to ask another " in the same
condemnation " to remember him in His
kingdom ! But how wise, how sublime the
petition to the ears of faith ! For mark the
answer which, in the midst of our Saviour's
agony, it drew from Him : " Amen, dico
tibi quia hodie mecum eris in paradiso.'
He does not say, in My kingdom ; but in
paradise in immediate happiness, in the
possession of all that bliss whereof souls
248 THIRTY-FIFTH MEDITATION
were capable, till the gates of heaven should
be opened after forty-three days. Judge
what must have been that poor thief's joy
and happiness upon hearing these blessed
words ! how his heart must have beat with
delight at the tidings ; " in domum Domini
ibimus ! " He, a few hours since a culprit
before God as before man, an abandoned
wretch, became in one moment a vessel of
election, the first-fruits of redemption, the
first saint of the new Covenant ! How
light do all his torments now appear! How
he blesses his cross, which in the bitterness
of his agony he had cursed when his im-
pending execution was announced to him !
How he studies to copy, for the few mo-
ments of life that remain to him, the Divine
Model placed before him ! How meek is
he become, how resigned, how patient, how
forgiving ! The sculptor could not copy
more accurately the cast before him than
he does the blessed Type at his side ; each
upon his cross, as brethren now, as loving
friends! How he welcomes the cruel strokes
that break his limbs in order to despatch
him ; having seen Jesus expire, he longs to
THE PENITENT THIEF 249
hurry after Him, that there may be 110
delay in the fulfilment of His promise !
Never, surely, was repentance more com-
plete, or its fruits more blessed than here.
And why should I not hope for as much,
if I make mine as sincere, as courageous,
and as entire ?
3. Affections. " I will draw nigh, then,
to Thee, adorable Jesus, upon Calvary, and
there, at Thy side, will I crucify all my
evil desires and inordinate affections. The
appetites of the flesh, the irregular attach-
ments of my heart, the dangerous curiosity
of my senses, the pride and ambition of my
spirit, my whole self, the old man, trans-
gressor of Thy law, and evildoer, shall be
nailed to the cross. Then, with hands
stretched out, I will cry to Thee for pardon,
and for a place in Thy kingdom, among
those who, headed by the good thief, have
entered through the gate of repentance,
and have been allowed to mingle songs of
gratitude for forgiveness with the notes of
praise which angels and saints unblemished
ought alone to sing. One day, I know, we
must all appear on Thy right hand, or on
250 THIRTY-FIFTH MEDITATION
Thy left, as the two thieves were placed ;
but let my choice have first been made
beside Thee expiring to redeem me. Into
the arms of Thy clemency I cast myself
at that hour ; to those Hands that were
pierced for me I commit my lot ; to those
lips which even gall could not embitter, I
trust my sentence. I have sinned ; inflict
on me what punishment Thou wilt, it will
be less than I deserve ; but I will call upon
Thee aloud, I will entreat Thee with all my
heart, and Thou wilt not refuse to receive
me to mercy : I may wait long, if such be
Thy good pleasure, before I have my answer
such as the good thief had ; but the hour
will come when Thou wilt give me a benign
assurance that the tears of a long life have
been heeded, and the prayer of years heard.
And when the voice of men is no longer
audible, and the sleep of death creeps over
my senses, and the recollection of a sinful
life, and the terrors of hell affright me, I
shall hear Thy sweet and gentle Voice say
to me from the cross I have loved, ' Amen,
I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with
Me in paradise.' '
JESUS THIRSTS 25 I
JESUS THIRSTS
Preparation. Represent to yourself the
Son of God extended upon His cross, and
suffering all His divine and redeeming
agony.
i. Reflect how Jesus, "knowing that all
things were now accomplished, that the
Scripture might be fulfilled, said : I thirst "
(John xix. 28). Many mysteries were con-
tained in this exclamation. First, it is an
evidence that Jesus suffered in all truth
and reality the torments of crucifixion, and
did not by the strength of His divine
power prevent or even diminish them. For,
seeing how through the rest of His Passion
no expression of suffering escapes Him,
men might have been tempted, as some
ancient heretics were, to deny the extent
of His sufferings. But we know that
among the grievous torments of crucifixion
this of thirst was one of the most severe ;
and we have evidence that He felt what
252 THIRTY-SIXTH MEDITATION
others, in the same situation, usually did
feel. But if others cried out from the
agony of thirst that it might be satisfied,
not so did our Divine Lord ; but rather
that thereby He might endure another
infliction from the malice of His enemies.
For by way of mocking His thirst, as it
would seem, they had prepared, instead
of the usual beverage afforded on such
occasions, a vessel filled with vinegar and
some bitter ingredient. This they present
to His lips, only to embitter and disgust
the palate of the Divine Sufferer.
Blessed Jesus ! when will the malice of
these brutal enemies be satisfied, and when
shall the ordinary feelings of humanity
vindicate their ascendency over cruelty
and wanton hatred ? Who would refuse a
draught of water, or of wine, to one that
was enduring so severe a pain, and asks
for it ? If to him who gives it to the least
of Thy disciples a reward is promised, are
they indeed men who, having here an
opportunity of doing as much for the
Master, passed it by ? What an honour-
able name in the Church of God, and what
JESUS THIRSTS 253
a glorious place in His kingdom, would
the man have obtained who should have
given Jesus to drink when He thirsted
upon the cross ! Heaven might have been
purchased in that hour for a cup of water !
But it was necessary that the Scriptures
should be fulfilled. For the royal prophet
had long before written of Him : " De-
derunt in escam meam fel, et in siti mea
potaverunt me aceto" (Ps. Ixviii. 22).
Every other part of prophecy regarding
His life and Passion had been accom-
plished : His hands and feet had been
pierced, His bones numbered, His garments
divided ; His friends had abandoned Him ;
He had been reckoned with the wicked.
This alone now remained, to fulfil all
things ; and therefore, when He had tasted
the proffered potion, He exclaimed : " Con-
summatum est ; " for nothing remained but
to expire. How careful, then, was our
Lord to inculcate in practice what He
before had taught ; " Iota unum aut unus
apex non prseteribit a lege donee omnia
fiant . . . non veni legem solvere sed ad-
implere" (Matt. v. 18, 17). Small as that
254 THIRTY-SIXTH MEDITATION
portion of His sufferings might seem to
be, insignificant as was a drop of gall in
the ocean of bitterness which overspread
His soul, yet would He delay the termi-
nation of His sufferings till it had been
poured into His cup. It was indeed that
last drop which made it overflow : after it
there was no room for more. But though,
to fulfil the prophecy, it was necessary that
this loathsome beverage should be offered,
and though He allowed its taste to affect
His mouth, yet was it not necessary that
He should partake of earthly food, as
though He needed it to strengthen Him
through His sufferings. Thus did He re-
main, through every extremity of pain and
torment, even to the moment of death,
steady and true to every principle of recti-
tude and to every point of duty.
2. Reflect on the more mysterious im-
port of this word the last spoken by
Jesus upon the cross, before He commended
His spirit to the Eternal Father. " Sitio."
After what did He thirst ? Not after the
water which when one has drunk he soon
thirsts again, but after the living and im-
JESUS THIRSTS 255
perishable waters which spring up into life
everlasting. He thirsts after justice ; that
is, after the justification of the entire world.
In this word was summed up the long
series of desires and efforts during thirty
years of silent aspirations, and three years
of marvellous actions, and a day worth all
the years since the creation of the world.
It was the epilogue of His labours for man.
It was the expression of what He had most
at heart for our good. By it He desired
that sin and vice might be extirpated
among men ; that the long reign of hell
and darkness might be destroyed ; that the
whole earth might bring forth fruits of
holiness ; that the reign of God might tri-
umphantly be established, and His blessed
Will everywhere accomplished. Alas ! and
in this His last dying wish for man, was
He doomed to disappointment ? When
He uttered it, did He know that the malice
of man, for whose redemption He was
dying, would frustrate all His desires, and
bring His earnest wishes to nought ? Oh !
was not this disappointment a feeling to
which we generally attach the epithet of
256 THIRTY-SIXTH MEDITATION
bitter more truly so than the gall which
that sponge placed to His lips? But not
only for the salvation of men in general
did Jesus thirst, but for mine in particu-
lar ; as He did for that of each among us.
He had now done all to accomplish my
redemption. He had offered for it the
Victim of infinite price : it was laid upon
the altar ; the stroke of death, which could
be delayed but a few moments, was alone
wanting to complete the oblation. But
much, He knew, was to depend upon my-
self; and for this much He thirsted and
longed. How have I repaid Him ? how
have I hitherto pretended to slake this His
thirst ? Ah ! have I offered Him the sweet
satisfaction of a good and virtuous life from
my infancy ? have I been a solace and a
joy to Him ? Have I not rather offered
to Him, again and again, a sour and bitter
return, setting His very teeth on edge by
my ingratitude, and being most distasteful
to His palate by my relapses into trans-
gression ? Have I not been as cruel and
unfeeling to Him as ever were the Jews,
or the Roman soldiers, who so unworthily
JESUS THIRSTS 257
replied to His complaint of thirst ? But,
oh, let this never be again. Let me never
repeat what this day gives me so much
pain to remember ; but strive to be a
comfort to the Heart of my suffering Jesus.
By my contrition and love, by my devotion
and zeal, I will repair the past, and not only
accomplish in myself that after which in
me He thirsteth, but strive to assist like-
wise in advancing that salvation of others,
that sanctification of the world which He
longed for on the cross. But there was
still another object after which the sacred
humanity of Jesus thirsted, and in this,
blessed be God, He was satisfied. " Quem-
admodum desiderat cervus ad fontes aqua-
rum, ita desiderat anima mea ad Te Deus.
Sitivit anima mea ad Deum fontem vivum ;
quando veniam et apparebo ante faciem
Dei?" (Ps. xli. 2). He was now leaving
this ungrateful world : His Heart yearned
to be delivered from its evils ; and He
longed to bear this our human nature to
the right hand of the Eternal Father,
to be " glorified with the glory which He
had with the Father before the world was."
R
258 THIRTY-SIXTH MEDITATION
In this at least, Blessed Saviour, Thou
wilt not be disappointed ; this Thy thirst
shall not be slaked with gall and vinegar,
but with the torrent of delights, with the
excellent inebriating chalice of Thy Father's
house. There shalt Thou at length be as
Thou ever oughtest to be, honoured and
glorified, blessed and praised, by all Thy
servants.
3. Affections. " Let us, then, Divine
and beloved Redeemer, begin from this
moment to prepare for that our future
occupation. No more disappointment from
us, no more bitterness, no more cruel out-
rage ! Thou hast already suffered too
much, for us to go on adding to Thy
sufferings. But if Thou hast thirsted for
us, make us in return thirst also for Thee.
Parch and dry up in us all the corrupted
sap and nutriment of the old man, and
make us burn with thirst after the refresh-
ment of the new. Consume in us all sell-
love and self-seeking, and torment our
inmost hearts with an ardent thirst for the
conversion and salvation of others' souls.
Wither down within us the world which
JESUS SEEMS TO BE FORSAKEN 259
hath flourished there so long ; and let our
souls be as thirsty earth without water to
Thee. Dry up in us all the concupiscences
of the flesh, and let it languish after no
joys but those pure ones that are to be
found in Thee. ' Sitivit in te anima mea,
quam multipliciter tibi caro mea.' Let us
ever thirst after the fountain of living
waters, after that stream, clear as crystal,
which flows through the heavenly Jeru-
salem, and which Thy blessed martyr
Clement saw issuing from beneath the foot
of the Lamb, that is of Thyself, who alone
canst satisfy the craving appetite of our
hearts."
JHrtutatton
JESUS SEEMS TO BE FORSAKEN BY
HIS FATHER
Preparation. Kepreseut to yourself our
Blessed Saviour hanging upon the cross and
crying out in a loud voice.
i. Keflect how Jesus had, with few ex-
ceptions, been abandoned by men from the
260 THIRTY-SEVENTH MEDITATION
very commencement of His sufferings. But
the comfort which they could give Him was
but small compared with that which He
derived from the love of His Father. It is
indeed impossible for us to form any ade-
quate idea of the happiness and brightness
which, throughout His life, beamed upon
His soul from the consciousness He pos-
sessed that His Heavenly Father loved Him,
and regarded Him as His well-beloved Son,
in whom He was well pleased. The per-
secutions of men had been cheerfully en-
dured, under the supporting feeling that all
their calumnies and ill-usage were counter-
balanced, and much more, by the appro-
bation which His conduct under them, and
at all other times, drew upon Him from
Heaven. He lived in a close, uninterrupted
communication of affection with the Eternal
Father ; far purer and sublimer than those
of the most exalted heavenly intelligences.
It was reserved, therefore, for the last
finishing stroke of His torments, for the
seal of the great work of sorrow and of salva-
tion, that this His last source of happiness
should seem to be dried up, that His only
JESUS SEEMS TO BE FORSAKEN 261
remaining joy should be withdrawn, and
His day be turned to night, His sweetness
to wormwood, His music to mourning. Even
as a dark cloud overspreads the heavens, so
that to the eyes of the beholders the sun
becomes darkened, though in itself the light
is not diminished, so did a gloom ten times
more impenetrable come between the Sun
of righteousness and the Soul of Jesus, and
overcast, as it were, the serene heaven of
His divine mind. And of what is this dark
and dismal mist composed ? Of the sins of
the whole world : those myriads of destruc-
tive locusts which consume all the greenness
of the earth ; of the murky and pestilential
exhalations of this ocean of iniquities which
reeks up to the eye of Heaven ; of the count-
less enormities of the entire world, which
He has taken upon Himself, and which now
truly seem to rise above His head, so that
He cannot behold the face of Heaven. And
though, in truth, the brightness of the com-
placency of the Eternal Father still shines
upon Him as serenely as ever, yet the cheer-
ing view of it is interrupted by this worse
than Egyptian darkness which hangs over
262 THIRTY-SEVENTH MEDITATION
His most blessed Soul. Hence He seems to
Himself as one no longer pitied by Heaven,
any more than by earth ; and all the por-
tents of nature appear to Him the signals
of a Divine resentment against one charged
with the iniquities of the entire human race,
rather than mourning for the innocent Lamb
who taketh away the sins of the world.
Why is the sun darkened ? It seems as
though it could not brook to shine upon
such an accumulation of guilt ? Why does
the earth at His feet reel and stagger ? It is
as though it can no longer bear the burden
of iniquity which presses on it from the
stem of His cross, and writhes in impatience
to be rid of the load ! most merciful
Jesus, what a blank appears Thine own
Heart to Thee, what a barren wilderness
Thy Soul ! Well mayest Thou say to Thy
Eternal Father, " Anima mea sicut terra
sine aqua tibi ! " Not a drop of the dew of
Thy mercifulness comes any longer on it to
refresh it ; it is parched and scorched with
utter desolation : there is not a pleasant
spot left in it ; all is abandoned to dismay'
to terror, and dejection ! Oh, the suffer-
JESUS SEEMS TO BE FORSAKEN 263
ings of our Blessed Lord must indeed be
nearly consummated when they have reached
this pitch, that Omnipotent Justice had left
nothing more to take from Him but life !
2. Reflect upon those words by which
Jesus in His agony of sorrow gave vent
to His feelings. " Eli, Eli," He exclaims,
" lamma sabacthani ? " (" My God, my God,
why hast Thou forsaken Me 1 ") He does
not now, as a few moments before, address
God as His Father, as when He prayed for
forgiveness for His executioners. He seems
to feel that He no longer acts towards Him
as a loving parent, but as a stern, inflexible
judge ; and therefore addresses Him by that
name which, in the language He spoke, was
understood to express this character. He
repeats the invocation twice " My God,
my God," as those do who are earnest in-
deed, and overpowered with anguish. He
at the same time recalls to the memory of
those who heard Him that remarkable pro-
phecy, the minute description of His Pas-
sion, which is contained in the psalm whose
first words He quoted. There is a peculiar
strength, too, in the word here chosen (or
264 THIRTY-SEVENTH MEDITATION
rather copied from Him, though in point of
time anticipated) by the prophet : " Why
hast Thou forsaken Me ? " As though He
had said, " That men, who are fickle, and
mere broken reeds, should have abandoned
Me, cannot be surprising ; but that Thou,
whose dutiful Son I have ever been, shouldst
thus desert Me, doth indeed overwhelm Me
with sorrow and desolation. That the world,
to which I have ever been opposed in maxims
and practice, should in the end have rejected
Me, was to be expected ; but that Thou,
whose will I have adored and faithfully per-
formed, shouldst now cast Me off, does indeed
bring utter darkness on My soul. That I
should have looked on My right hand and
on my left, in vain, for a compassionate
friend, was natural for Me, who am not of
this world ; but that I should raise up Mine
eyes to heaven, and there find no one to
take My part, is indeed the consummation
and uttermost excess of sorrow and bitter-
ness." Such is the language in which Jesus
seemed to express this last of His sufferings.
Oh, how severe, how poignant, must it have
been, to wring from His pious and loving
JESUS SEEMS TO BE FORSAKEN 265
heart such words of remonstrance ! Let us
completely pass over the stupidity or obsti-
nacy of the Jews who exclaimed, " Eliam
vocat iste ; let us see if Elias will come and
take Him from the cross." But let us rather
adore in awful silence the wonderful mystery
of redemption which was to be accomplished
by such unexpected means as this seeming
abandonment of the well-beloved Son by the
well- pleased Father. Let us learn, too, some
idea of the rigour of Divine justice, when
exercised against sin, by seeing to what
degree its severity could be carried against
Him who undertook its atonement. Let us
detest sin as it deserves to be detested by
all who love their Saviour, Whom it reduced
to such extremity of misery, compared with
which all the inflictions of the executioners
were accounted by Him as nothing. And,
oh, let us affectionately sympathise with
Him amid so much desolation of spirit, such
darkness and seeming abandonment by His
last and chiefest trust !
3. Affections. " Alas, desolate Heart of
Jesus ! who shall attempt to offer Thee
consolation when Thine only true stay and
266 THIRTY- SEVENTH MEDITATION
comfort hath been withdrawn ? Who shall
pretend to offer it refreshment, when the
heavens are as brass to it, refusing the
smallest kindly drop of moisture ? What
would any consolation we could offer be to
Thy soul ! bitterer than to Thy palate that
nauseous potion which one of the crowd,
placing on a reed, would fain have offered
Thee when Thou hadst invoked Thy Father !
Accept, then, rather our earnest desire to
make Thee all the reparation in our power,
for the grief and mortal anguish which our
sins caused Thee at that moment of severest
trial. Accept the offer of humble and
afflicted hearts, which we now presume to
make Thee. Eeceive their lowly homage,
their sincere devotion, and their earnest
desire to gladden Thy Heart by forwarding
to the utmost of their power the work
Thou comest to accomplish here below.
But above all things, through this portion
of Thy bitter sufferings, through the deso-
lation which Thou didst feel upon the cross,
and the dereliction of Thy soul, grant, we
beseech Thee, that our last hour may be
sweetened with Thy choicest consolations ;
JESUS SEEMS TO BE FORSAKEN 267
that in that dread moment we may see
Thee, who didst suffer to purchase our peace,
comforting and encouraging us, and Thy
Eternal Father inviting us to receive the
fruits of Thy Passion. Make the terrors
of death to flee from us ; break down the
power of our infernal foes ; and, turning
our couch in our sickness, scatter the fresh-
ness of Paradise round our suffering bodies
and minds ; that with the image of Thee
crucified pressed to our lips, we may die in
Thy embrace, and be received in the next
world in Thine arms. If by Thy wounds
we were healed, and by Thy stripes our
scourges were removed, so by Thy dere-
liction let us be comforted in death, and
by the desolation of Thy last hour be ours
filled with hope and cheerful confidence in
Thy loving mercies and the merits of Thy
death and Passion."
268 THIRTY-EIGHTH MEDITATION
JESUS EXPIRES
Preparation. Represent to yourself our
Blessed Saviour bowing down His head, and
giving up the ghost.
i. Reflect how the Divine Jesus, having
completed His heavenly mission of recon-
ciliation and mercy ; having fulfilled to the
last tittle the law and all justice; having
performed to the letter the will of His
Divine Father ; having given the most per-
fect example of every virtue, and delivered
the sublimest doctrines ; having suffered
all possible indignity, outrage, and pain ;
having in fine fully discharged every en-
gagement to God and to man, save what
the act of His death had to accomplish,
summed up all this in those two last words,
" Consummatum est." " My work is done,
I have come to the end of My earthly
day's task : and I am now, as in the begin-
ning, only thine. It is time that I return
to Him that sent Me." Oh, who else that
JESUS EXPIRES 269
has arrived, since our first fall, to this
strait and final pass, could have spoken
the same words, and thus declared in the
face of Heaven, that He had accomplished
all that He had come into the world to
do ? Here for the first time is closed
a life without blemish or imperfection,
without the smallest transgression of the
smallest precept, but glorious by the com-
pletest possible union with God, by perfect
love ! Yet, even so did not Jesus, our
model and exemplar, wish to quit this
world, before He performed another act of
homage and duty towards His Heavenly
Father, that so we might understand its
great importance. " Father," He exclaimed,
"into Thy hands I commend My spirit!"
Not in fear or doubt were these words
spoken, as if He could for a moment be
uneasy respecting His acceptance by His
dear Father, but He wished to leave us
an example how none should presume upon
even an entire life devoted to God, when
the hour is come for surrendering our souls
to Him, but that we must commend our-
selves to His mercy with all earnestness
270 THIRTY-EIGHTH MEDITATION
and humility. Now, Jesus having thus to
the last moment of His life instructed us,
not forced by any law of .necessity, riot
conquered by His sufferings, but of His own
free choice yielded His spirit. He hangs
down His head, towards earth, as if to give
to it a last kiss of peace, He closes His
eyes as though it were to a gentle slumber,
and His thrice-blessed soul is separated from
His body. There is no savour of death in
that pure flesh, no dominion of corruption
over it. No distortion of features, no con-
traction or contortion of limb disfigures this
corpse, lovely even in death, and worthy of
the great holocaust which in it has just
been offered. But not so is it with nature,
astounded at the great act here accom-
plished, and indignant at the outrage com-
mitted against her Maker. Every part of
her frame thrills with horror and dismay.
The sun, abashed at the deeds that day
perpetrated in its light, withdraws its rays,
the earth is shaken, the graves open, and
the bodies of many arise, and the Old Law,
through its type the temple, gives way
before the New which opened for man the
JESUS EXPIRES 271
sanctuary of heaven. Such is the death
of Jesus, worthy of His life, worthy of His
divine character !
2. Reflect upon the changes which took
place in every part of creation at that
instant when the soul of Jesus passed over
His lips. In that moment the work of
redemption was complete, the seal was set
to the greatest of all God's wonders, and
all its fruits were secured, and all its
rights brought within our possession. But
first see what a change is wrought in the
world, by the loss it undergoes. Only a
few minutes before, it held within it the
greatest of treasures, the person of the God-
man. It was as His tabernacle, His shrine,
and nothing created else could be put in
comparison with Him. Now it possesses
Him no more, it has lost Him for ever,
as a living man treading the ordinary paths
of humanity, and what is worse, it has itself
wilfully and wickedly deprived itself of
Him. It has not merely lost Him, it hath
slain Him ! How dreary must the earth
now seem to angels, and to all good men
that understand what has happened, how
2/2 THIRTY-EIGHTH MEDITATION
little worth conversing or living in ! It is
like a temple or a palace that has been
sacked and rifled by an enemy, and all its
desirable things carried off and lost irre-
trievably : its gladness has fled, and they
find in it no more comfort. But at the
same moment, hear what a commotion is
stirred up below, when the brazen doors
of the temporary receptacle of the Just of
the Old Covenant fly open, and an un-
wonted light breaks the gloom of that
ancient prison. The tidings which have
reached them from day to day have pre-
pared them for the so joyful event, but
now that it has come, how they break forth
into a hymn of jubilee, a "Hosanna to the
son of David, and blessed is He that cometh
in the name of the Lord ! " which celebrates
the triumph obtained over the power that
held them in thraldom. But upon this
mystery of the descent into hell we shall
have occasion more particularly to meditate.
Let us rather turn our eyes to that deeper
dungeon, that house of woe and gnashing
of teeth to which this nobler captivity is
for a time an appendage. In the long and
JESUS EXPIRES 273
hideous howl of agony which bursts from
the infernal tenants of that place, we may
learn the value of the prize snatched from
their jaws by the event which has just
taken place. During three preceding years
they had seen with dismay their power
greatly curtailed, and the dominion which
they had exercised over the bodies of men
thwarted and almost destroyed. Again and
again they had been forced to acknowledge
Him who imperiously commanded them, as
the Son of the Living God. But still they
knew not the full measure of His dignity or
might, and hurried on the blinded Jews to
that last catastrophe, by which they had
hoped to destroy His power. Now there-
fore, to their utter dismay, they discover
that the death which they had plotted, and
succeeded in inflicting, had been their utter
ruin, that in expiring, Jesus had completely
crushed the serpent's head, that had laid
snares for His heel. They had pursued
Him, the true Son of God, with the same
mad indiscretion as Pharaoh had the people
of Israel, His adopted children, into the
very jaws of death, thinking that in those
s
274 THIRTY-EIGHTH MEDITATION
straits He could not escape their vengeance;
but they had found, as in the former case,
the gulf close only on the pursuer, and the
destruction only fall on the intended de-
stroyer. Death is now swallowed up in
victory, its sting is plucked out, and the
grave is deprived of its prey ! And still
more, hell sees its kingdom overthrown,
and its victims snatched for the future
from its grasp ! But man ! Oh, in him
is the great, the vital change : for he is
redeemed ! In that instant in which the
breath of Jesus ceased, the chains fell off
the hands and feet of the captive of four
thousand years, he returned to the pos-
session of a long-forfeited inheritance, his
attainder of ages was reversed, and he re-
entered into the privileges, with the title,
of a child of God, having place in His
eternal Kingdom. Now lift up thy head,
high but fallen creature, great indeed to
have been thought worthy of such a pur-
chase ! No more art thou condemned to
the outward darkness, but thou art invited
into the inner apartment, the wedding-feast
of God's Son ; no longer art thou abandoned
JESUS EXPIRES 275
to the devices of a corrupt heart, to idolatry
and superstition, but thou shalt cast thy
idols away to the bats and moles, and shalt
say, " Let us come and ascend to the moun-
tain of the Lord." For a new era is come
upon the earth. Wherefore doth it tremble,
but that it feels the throes of a new birth ?
Wherefore are the heavens darkened, save
that beneath the veil new heavens are
creating ? " Ecce nova facio omnia," saith
the Lord : and " in those days, I will create
new heavens and a new earth." A dew till
now unknown hath in this hour fallen and
fertilised the barren world, reversing the
curse on Adam. Grace hath been" poured
out with open hands, yea, in a twofold
stream it hath flowed from them during
the last three hours, forming a treasure
which no time can exhaust. The many
sacrifices of the Old Covenant have lost
their efficacy ; the morning and evening
oblation are wanted no more ; type and
figure, like the light of stars and moon,
have disappeared before the splendour of
the real Sun of truth and righteousness ;
and the New Law, with its unfailing sacri-
276 THIRTY-EIGHTH MEDITATION
fice, takes possession of the world. The
great and fundamental mystery of atone-
ment is in existence, the sublime doctrine
of the incarnation and death of the Son
of God finally established, all the promises
are accomplished, and man has no future to
look to but heaven.
3. Affections. " Rejoice then, earth,
and sing thy loudest praises to the God
that made thee. For behold He hath re-
moved thy shame, and hath clothed thee
with gladness, and crowned thee with mercy
and compassion; no more art thou accursed,
since the Blood of that Divine Victim hath
flowed upon thee : the very thorns and
briars which thou wast condemned to bring
forth have been changed before heaven
into lilies and roses, since they have sprung
from a soil so watered ! No longer shalt
thou be reproached as barren, since the
Cross bore upon thee its precious fruit,
more savoury and more wholesome far
than the tree planted in the midst of Eden !
And ye, children of men, forget your
forty centuries of darkness and of dismal
horror, for your light is come : remember
JESUS EXPIRES 27;
not your long captivity of ignorance and
infernal tyranny ; for the hour of delivery is
arrived, and the oppressor's staff is broken
for ever, and the arm of your taskmasters
is withered ! Ye are a free, a purchased
people, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation !
But to Thee, dear Redeemer of our souls,
what shall we say ? Behold, Thou hangest
upon Thy cross, a lifeless corpse ; and have
we any right to exult and rejoice as long
as Thou art in this state, and that through
our faults ? Yea, dearest Lord, for it hath
pleased Thy immense goodness to have it
so, and make our gladness spring out of
our sorrow. We will love Thee the more
for this, blending together our compassion
and our shame with our joy and triumph,
for by Thy death upon the cross Thou hast
redeemed us, and hast made us Thine own
for ever."
278 THIRTY-NINTH MEDITATION
IHetrttatton
ON THE CONDUCT OP THOSE WHO WERE
PRESENT AT THE CRUCIFIXION
i. Reflect how unequally the spectators
of our Blessed Redeemer's death were
divided into two classes, the one a very
small body of dear friends and faithful
followers, the other an immense multitude
of strangers who had little or no sympathy
for Him, or of enemies who were only in-
clined to exult and triumph in His suffer-
ings. Let us meditate this day upon the
conduct of both, drawing, from the evil
and the good, wholesome instruction. The
sufferings which Jesus endured were such
as might have drawn pity from rocks, and
had an irrational creature been made to
suffer them, no man with a heart in his
bosom could have refused to pity it. More-
over, a crime committed under the influence
of passion generally rises up against the
feelings of the committer of it the moment
the paroxysm is over. Love is turned to
THOSE PRESENT AT THE CRtTCIFIXION 279
hatred after it has led to an excess, and
hatred often into love. Judas, who had
withstood all the kind remonstrances of his
Master while his horrible crime and its
reward was in prospect, cast away this, and
loathed the other when the deed had been
perpetrated. But the Jewish priests and
their obsequious rabble knew no such tender-
ness and flexibility of heart ; as they began,
so they persevered. With deadly hatred
they commenced, and in deadly hatred they
watched the consummation of their work.
Even when a criminal has been pursued by
justice to death, there is a mournful solem-
nity in the triumph of public virtue over
crime, which admits of no exultation. The
person of the unhappy is always sacred.
But now consider the behaviour of the men
who looked on Jesus crucified. " They
that passed by blasphemed Him, wagging
their heads, and saying, Vah, Thou that
destroyest the temple of God," &c. In like
manner also the chief priests and ancients,
mocking, said, " He saved others, Himself
He cannot save" (Matt, xxvii.). And so
when He called on God in the Hebrew
280 THIRTY-NINTH MEDITATION
tongue, " Eli, Eli," they affected to under-
stand that he called on Elias to save Him !
Now let us imagine those men acting in
such a manner while the sun was darkened,
and all nature manifestly protesting against
their black crime, and sympathising with
the innocent sufferer ! Yet on them all
this makes no impression, they continue
their taunts and insults to the last ! Nor
does it appear that, when the last catas-
trophe came, when the earth reeled with
a terrible earthquake, and the rocks were
riven in twain, and the graves opened, the
hearts of these men relaxed from their
obduracy, or began to tremble and repent.
For even after witnessing those awful
phenomena, they dared call Him to Pilate
an impostor, " seductor ille." Good God !
to what lengths will not passion, after hood-
winking reason, lead men, even till it have
hurled them over a fatal precipice. What
an awful instance have we here of this worst
form of blindness !
2. Reflect, however, now upon the more
consoling spectacle of the few who joined
not in this unfeeling conduct. As of the
THOSE PRESENT AT THE CRUCIFIXION 28 I
two that hung upon the cross with Jesus,
one was taken and the other left, so from
among those who had taken part in the
atrocities of that morning, the mercies of
God selected such as should be first to taste
those fruits of redemption which had just
ripened upon earth. " The centurion," first,
" and they that were with him watching
Jesus " (that is, presiding at His execution),
" having seen the earth quake and the
things that were done, were sore afraid,
saying, * Indeed, this was the Son of God ' '
(Matt, xxvii. 54). " And all the multitude
of them that were come together to that
sight, and saw the things that were done,
returned striking their breasts " (Luke xxiii.
48). With too many, indeed, this was
probably but a passing emotion of terror
that vanished with its cause, but to mul-
titudes, no doubt also, it was the beginning
of a change of heart and of life, and the
first steps to their becoming faithful dis-
ciples of Him, dead, whom living they had
rejected. Oh ! how bitter to one of those
must the regret have been to the end of life,
of having seen Jesus in the flesh, only to
282 THIRTY-NINTH MEDITATION
persecute and maltreat Him, and to have
waited till it was beyond his power to
repair what he had done before he acknow-
ledged Him ! How overcome with shame
and confusion must he have been if, travel-
ling into distant countries, he was inter-
rogated by the disciples as to what manner
of man the Lord Jesus was, and under what
circumstances he had seen Him, and what
intercourse he had had with Him, and was
obliged to own that he had refused to know
Him till He had expired, and that, in con-
sequence of his vociferations among others,
upon the ignominious cross : for his only
conversation with Him had been in those
cries of " Crucify Him ! crucify Him ! " and
" Non hunc sed Barabbam ! " But there
are others standing here who will have no
such reproach to make themselves. At a
little distance are the pious women who
have followed Him from Galilee, minister-
ing to Him, who have courageously followed
Him amidst the insulting mob from Pilate's
court to Calvary, weeping loudly over His
unjust treatment. And now that He ex-
pires, how unrestrained do their sobs break
THOSE PRESENT AT THE CBUCIFIXION 283
forth, how they wring their hands, and
bend to the ground with anguish unspeak-
able. Nearer still stands a more choice
group, Mary Magdalen, Mary of Cleophas,
and others privileged by relationship or
peculiar love to draw so nigh. But con-
spicuous beyond all are Mary and John.
Into the feelings of those chosen souls who
shall attempt to enter ? Who shall presume
to imagine to himself the tumult of affec-
tionate grief that tossed their hearts, and
made them unconscious of all else around ?
3. Affections. " To this small knot we
will attach ourselves, we will not heed the
taunts and scoffs of the hardened soldiery
or of the brutal priests. We will ever
stand by the side of John and of Mary, of
our brother and our mother, and through
their feelings contemplate the great mj^stery
of love that hath just been accomplished.
Much shame must, indeed, be mingled with
ours, much contrition which they could not
feel. Too great a share had I, dear Lord,
in Thy crucifixion ; too plainly, I fear, do I
belong to the crowd, not to be repelled by
those purely loving friends, and refused
284 FORTIETH MEDITATION
place among them. But no : they are too
meek and kind to treat me thus ; they will
allow another penitent to stand where
Magdalen is admitted. With those who
love Thee, dear Jesus, I join my heart and
affections, and give Thee my entire self for
ever. By the homage of a loving and peni-
tent heart I desire to compensate Thee for
the blasphemies and scoffs of Thy unfeeling
enemies. Worth but little indeed is what
I offer Thee, but given Thee at such a
moment, in such a place, Thou wilt not
refuse to accept it."
JForttetfj Jlctittation
OUR SAVIOUR'S SIDE IS PIERCED
i. Reflect upon the vain superstition of
the Jews, who, straining at a gnat and swal-
lowing a camel, as they had done through-
out the Passion, scrupled about allowing our
Saviour's body, as well as that of His com-
panions, to hang upon the cross during the
Sabbath. They therefore requested Pilate
to give such orders as would prevent the
OUR SAVIOUR'S SIDE is PIERCED 285
profanation of this day. This niceness of the
priests regarding a legal observance was
wisely permitted by Almighty Wisdom for
several important purposes. First, the work
of Redemption, for which the cross had been
chosen, being accomplished, it was right that
all the ignominy of its punishment should
be ended. It was not becoming that our
dear Saviour's body should be allowed to
hang, like a malefactor's, upon the cross ex-
posed to vain curiosity or derision, for days,
as was the custom. From the moment He
expired, the season of suffering was done,
and that of glory begun. Any further in-
fliction after that moment, of infamy or
reproach, could have purchased nothing more
for man, nor have added anything to the
merits of redemption. Therefore, the trem-
bling earth, the darkened heavens, the rend-
ing rocks, the divided veil, the resuscitated
bodies, and the converted centurion are the
first signs of that glorious period which was
begun when Jesus yielded up His spirit.
Secondly, this vain scrupulosity of the Jews
served to make the fulfilment of two pro-
phecies much more striking. For among
286 FORTIETH MEDITATION
the rules in eating the Paschal Lamb, as
eminently typical of our Lord's death, one
was to refrain most carefully from breaking
any of its bones. " Os non comminuetis
in eo." The applicability of this image
would hardly have been perceptible had
not Jesus been placed in such a situation,
as that, humanly speaking, it should have
appeared almost necessary that this should
have happened. The priests, therefore, hav-
ing prevailed with Pilate to allow the bodies
to be taken down after only three hours'
crucifixion, a time ordinarily not sufficiently
long to cause death, it became necessary
to complete the execution by the ictus
gratiosus, or death-blow, whereby the legs
of criminals being broken, their death was
accelerated. And accordingly this was done
to the two thieves at the right and left
hand of Jesus. It was natural to expect
that as much would have been done to
Him, but He had prevented the stroke,
having already expired. And thus was the
prophecy or symbol fulfilled in Him, con-
trary to the probable course of things. The
soldiers respected evidently the body of one
OUR SAVIOUR'S SIDE is PIERCED 287
whose death had been attended by so many
wonderful signs, and would not wantonly
commit an indignity upon it. But one of
them, whether compassionately to assure
himself of His sufferings being at an end, or
from some other unknown cause, pierced His
side with a lance, and thus gave fulfilment to
another prophecy, " videbunt in quern trans-
fixerunt;" a prophecy which without all this
concurrence of circumstances could not have
been fulfilled ; as this transfixion did not
enter into the sentence or into the cus-
toms of crucifixion ! But lo ! the wonderful
appearances that ensue ! From that wound,
inflicted upon a corpse, there issues a copious
flow of blood and water, evidently so clearly
distinguished as not to be explicable upon
mere natural grounds, and worthy of re-
ceiving from the faithful eye-witness John a
special attestation, with strong asseverations
of the truth of his testimony. It is not,
as to a natural phenomenon, that he turns
our attention to it, but as to some mys-
terious and mystical event, having its own
peculiar and interesting meaning.
2, Reflect how, in fact, there is much for
288 FORTIETH MEDITATION
the mind and heart to be interested in, in
this last wound inflicted upon our Divine
Redeemer. For He was anxious that the
price of our ransom should be so fully paid
as that He should have reserved nothing of
it for Himself. Now that price was His
Blood, and although one drop of it was suf-
ficient, He desired to give all that He had
of it. Now the chief wounds hitherto in-
flicted on Him had been on His hands and
feet, by the nails, which did indeed produce
a copious effusion, as did also the crown
upon His head, and as the lashes had done
upon His back, but they could not well
drain, in so short a time as three hours,
His sacred Body. It was necessary at once
to break open the reservoir in which this
precious treasure was chiefly contained, that
so its riches might flow in ample streams
upon the earth. That Blood which the very
nature of crucifixion concentrated and im-
prisoned in the breast and heart must be
poured out, that so man might have every
tittle of His purchase. But this \vas not
all. Was it right that His sacred head
should be gored with thorns, His blessed
OUR SAVIOUR'S SIDE is PIERCED 289
members pierced with nails, His adorable
flesh gashed and torn, but that His heart,
the seat of love, should bear no seal of that
deed of ransom ? that His breast, on which
we, His brethren, shall recline in the banquet
of His love, should have no scar to testify
to eternity how tenderly He loved us ? And
was that our sanctuary to be kept closed
against us ? Were His Passion and death to
make no passage for our affections, whereby
our hearts might creep in, and bury their
sorrows, their anxieties, their trembling fears
in the loving heart of Jesus ? Should we
have been left without the means of warm-
ing our faith, enlivening our hope, and in-
flaming our charity at that very hearth and
altar of every hallowed sentiment, whereon
the holocaust of salvation was mystically
immolated before it was slain upon the
cross ? Of how much mystical delight, of
what tender emotions, of what ecstasies of
charity would not those saints have been de-
prived, who have loved Jesus crucified above
all things, had their affectionate devotion
been confined to the contemplation of His
mere outward wounds, and had not been
T
290 FORTIETH MEDITATION
able to find in them a way whereby their
love could penetrate to His sacred heart,
object above all others of a Christian's
veneration and tender affection ? But more-
over, the Church has always wished us to
consider another mystery, of more general
interest. Death was to our Blessed Lord,
our second and better Adam, what sleep was
to the first ; and as from the latter's side
His spouse Eve was formed, so was the
spouse of Christ, that is, His Church, mys-
tically brought forth from His side, when
after His death it was pierced by the lance.
For by the mixture of blood and water was,
in some sort, signified that mixture of good
and bad who compose the visible body of
Christ here below. But besides, we have
here the two Sacraments represented, upon
which our sanctification and the application
of our loving Saviour's death and Passion
mainly depend ; to wit in the water, the
laver of baptism, whereby we are cleansed
from original sin, and the adorable Sacra-
ment of the altar, in which we partake of
His precious Blood. And as by these two
Sacraments we may be said to belong to
OUR SAVIOURS SIDE IS PIERCED 291
the Church, inasmuch as by the one we are
admitted into it, and by the other we are
kept in communion with it, as its very name
implies, we may easily see how in the issu-
ing of their emblems from this sacred, open
fountain of grace, the Church may be said
to have been produced.
3. Affections. - - " When Thy Apostle
Thomas doubted, Thou wast pleased, most
Blessed Saviour, to convince Him by invit-
ing him to place his hand into this wound
of Thy blessed side. Thus didst Thou not
allow this source of mercy to be closed up,
but, once open, it remains open day and
night for us to have recourse to in all our
necessities. Yes, it is through Thy wounds
that we are to have access to Thy heart,
capacious enough as it is to contain us all,
with all our necessities. Let it be to us a
refuge in all our perils, a sure retreat in all
our straits, as the cavern of Odalla in which
David found safety from his pursuer, or as
that into which Thy prophet retreated in
Horeb to hear the consoling voice of God.
In seasons of distress I will therein hide
my head, sure that in that safe asylum no
292 FORTIETH MEDITATION
enemy shall be able to hurt or to annoy
me ; none shall presume to violate that sanc-
tuary ; or to drag me thence. And let my
breast, too, dear Jesus, be wounded, in the
likeness of Thine, by love. Let it ever
be open to the inspirations of Thy grace,
affording a harbour to good thoughts, while
it gives no room to any that could displease
Thy loving heart. And finally, through this
mystery of the blessed Passion, give me an
inviolable attachment to that holy Spouse,
my Mother, who came from Thee in such
an hour, and in so mysterious a manner."
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