Twenty-seventh Day.
When the Lord had been scourged, the soldiers platted a crown of thorns and placed it on His head, pressing it down, striking the crown with sticks that they might save their hands from wounds, and then they put a purple garment on Him. All this was done to mock Him, because He said He was a king: the crown of royalty He bore on His head, and the purple garment which kings generally wore covered His body. They carried out their derision still farther; they bent their knees before Him, and having blindfolded Him, they struck Him in the face, asking Him to point out who was the one that had given Him the blow. O loving face of Jesus! [pg 158] upon which the angels desired to gaze; look with pity on poor humanity that dost treat Thee so cruelly; look with pity on our inordinate desires to satisfy the demands of our passions. Ah, Thou knowest who hast heaped these insults upon Thee! In Thy omnipresence Thou seest the sins which we commit. The Jews, indeed, treated Thee as a mock king, and like a fool, whilst poor mankind in its ignorance hast prepared all these torments for Thee.
Prayer.
Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus, etc., etc.
Twenty-eighth Day.
Pilate must have witnessed much of this cruelty, as it was inflicted right in his court, with his consent, perhaps even by his orders. What a frightful spectacle it was to look upon this figure of a man, scourged almost beyond recognition, with a crown of thorns on His head, bound, and a cloak thrown over His shoulders. Pilate thought that this spectacle would render the Jews merciful, that the punishment had been sufficient. So he led Our Lord over an archway and placed Him in full view of the assembled multitude, saying: “Behold the man!” Yes, O Christian heart, look at the Lord exhausted after the scourging, the crown of thorns on His head, clotted blood in His face, burning with a fever heat, ready to die from loss of blood. O my Jesus, what sufferings didst Thou not endure to satisfy the cruelty of man! Thou hast become a spectacle before God and the world. But the Jews were hardened. The sight of Christ in this condition did not move them. [pg 159] They cried, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him.”
Prayer.
Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus, etc., etc.