The witnesses little think how wicked their accusations are, leading to the crime of deicide: “The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity” (St. James iii, 6). Meanwhile Christ is silent, to teach us how to suffer; silence under accusations, true or false, is usually better than the most eloquent defense. Isaias had predicted: “He shall be dumb as a lamb before his hearers, and he shall not open his mouth” (liii, 7). He only spoke when the honor of God required it, as when the high priest said: “I conjure thee by the living God that thou tell us if thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said to them: Thou has said it. Nevertheless I say to you, hereafter you shall see the son of man sitting on the right hand of the power of God and coming in the clouds of Heaven. They answering said: He is guilty of death” (St. Matth. xxvi, 63-66). What injustice! This is often repeated to-day by those who hate the Church; we must wait patiently for the time of its glorification.
POINT II. Dressed in a fool’s garment, scourged, crowned with thorns. Behold the humiliations, the cruel sufferings patiently endured by the Redeemer, as an expiation of your own sins. Try to realize the details of the torments heaped upon Him. That flagellation was borne to expiate sins of the body. Do I practise bodily mortification enough? Soft members are out of place in the mystic body of Christ. He is crowned with thorns; do I look for honors and laurel crowns? He is decked in mockery with a rag of purple; do I delight in vain display? Lord, make me like unto thee.
POINT III. Pilate shows Him to the people: “Ecco homo,” “Behold the man.” Let me observe Him well, noticing every indignity inflicted on Him. His head crowned with thorns, His face defiled with spittle, every visible portion of His sacred body livid with bruises and stained with clotted blood: “A worm and no man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people” (Ps. 21), “Despised and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows” (Is. liii, 3).
The words: “Give us Barabbas and take Jesus away.” How can I complain when others are preferred to me? “Let him be crucified”; “His blood be upon us and upon our children.” How fearfully has this curse been carried into effect. Behold the whole Jewish race struck with spiritual blindness for already nineteen centuries, in the midst of nations blest with the light of faith. How this ruin of His nation must have grieved the heart of the Redeemer. Pilate vainly tries to disclaim his responsibility for the deicide: “I am innocent of the death of this just man.” So we may deceive ourselves, wilfully. Am I always honest in my pretences?
The actions. Pilate delivers Christ to be crucified. This is the price paid for every soul, the death of Christ. How precious is a soul! The blood of Christ is the atonement of sin; what a terrible evil is sin!
Colloquy with Jesus, as He stands there condemned to an ignominious death; indulging the sentiments aroused by the meditation.
CONSIDERATION
On Generosity in the Service of God
When we performed the meditation on the Kingdom of Christ, we imagined a very noble prince, who, at the call of God, abandoned all other pursuits to devote himself to the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth, and summoned all brave souls to rally under his standard for this exalted purpose. We next considered that this parable was not a mere creation of the fancy, but was a fit expression of a grand reality. For such a noble prince did actually appear on earth, one far nobler than we could have conceived possible, the Son of God Himself, come down to establish the Kingdom of His Father in the hearts of men, and thus prepare them to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. At this summons we resolved to follow Him, and we have really left all things for that purpose, and our highest ambition now is to follow Him most closely by making ourselves as like to Him as, with God’s grace, may be possible.
To accomplish this purpose, we have been studying His example, from the moment of His incarnation, through His birth, childhood, His private and His public life, till we have seen Him deliver Himself into the hands of His enemies, submit to the most shocking indignities and torments; and all this through love for us, paying the penalties of our sins in His own Person, to save us from Hell and make us share His glory. The most appropriate term to express all this devotedness is “boundless generosity.” This is the most striking characteristic of our glorious King.
As we are earnestly striving to make ourselves like to Him, we will now consider the excellence of the virtue of generosity; and we do so by preference on this day on which we are meditating on the sacrifices by which Christ’s generosity was exhibited in the most impressive manner.