Annotations and meditations on the Gospels 0916101487, 2003000889

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A N N O T A T IO N S A N D M E D IT A T IO N S ON TH E GO SPELS

A n n o t at io n s AND

M e d itatio n s o n t h e G ospels VOLUME II T he P a s s i o n N a r r a t i v e s J E R O M E N A D A L , S.J.

TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY

Frederick A. Homann, S.J.

WITH AN INTRODUCTORY STUDY BY

Walter S. Melion

S a in t J o se p h ’s U n iv e r sit y P ress PHILADELPHIA

Copyright © 2007 by Saint Joseph’s University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission.

L ibrary

of

C ongress C ataloging- in -P ublication D ata

Adnotationes et meditationes in Evangelia. English. Selections. Annotations and meditations on the Gospels / [text by] Jerome Nadal ; translated by Frederick A. Homann; with an introductory study by Walter S. Melion. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 0-916101-48-7 1. Bible. N.T. Gospels—Meditations. 2. Bible. N.T. Gospels—Picture Bibles. 3. Bible. N.T. Gospels—Liturgical lessons, Latin. I. Nadal, Geronimo, 1507-1580. II. Homann, Frederick A. III. Melion, Walter S. IV. Title. BS2555.54.A36 2003 242'.5-dc21 2003000889

Published by:

SAINT JOSEPH’S UNIVERSITY PRESS 5600 City Avenue Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19131-1395 www.sju.edu/sjupress/ Saint Joseph’s University Press is a member of the Association of Jesuit University Presses

C ontents List of Illustrations ...................................................................................................................... vii P reface................................................................................................................................................xi Another Note about T ranslation.............................................................................................xiii Introductory Study Haec p er imagines huius mysterij Ecclesia sancta [clamat]: The Image of the Suffering Christ in Jerome Nadal’s Adnotationes et meditationes in E van gelia ................................................................................... 1

A nnotations a n d M editations on the Gospels: The Passion N arratives......................... 75 Christ Prays in the Garden ....................................................................................................... 79 The Betrayal by Judas. Armed Men Come to the G a rd e n ........................................... 93 The Severance of Malchus’s E a r..............................................................................................101 Christ Is Arrested .......................................................................................................................107 Annas Questions Jesus. Peter Denies H im ......................................................................... 113 Jesus Is Taken to Caiphas ........................................................................................................121 The Adjuration of Caiphas. Christ Confesses His D iv in ity ...................................... 129 Morning in the Council of Chief Priests and Elders ...................................................137 The First Meeting of Christ and Pilate ............................................................................143 Events at Herod’s Court .......................................................................................................... 153 Jesus Is Returned to P ila te ........................................................................................................161 Christ Is Scourged.......... ............................................................................................................ 173 Jesus Is Crowned with T h o rn s................................................................................................ 185 Events before Pilate Sentences Jesus ................................................................................... 195 Pilate Passes Sentence on Jesus ............................................................................................. 211 Events before the Crucifixion ................................................................................................219 Jesus Is Crucified ...................................................................................................................... 227 The Raising of the C ro ss..........................................................................................................241 Events after the Cross Was Raised and before Christ Gave Up the S p ir it..................251 Christ Gives Up the S p irit....................................................................................................... 265 Christ’s Body Is Taken Down from the Cross ............................................................... 273 Christ Is Buried ......................................................................................................................... 279 Some Notes and References .................................................................................................. 285

Illustratio n s PLATES

1. Christ Prays in the G a rd e n ............................................................................................ 77 2. The Betrayal by Judas. Armed Men Come tothe G ard e n .................................... 91 3. The Severance of Malchus’s Ear ...................................................................................99 4. Christ Is Arrested .............................................................................................................105 5. Annas Questions Jesus. Peter Denies Him .............................................................I l l 6. Jesus Is Taken to Caiphas ............................................................................................. 119 7. The Adjuration of Caiphas. Christ ConfessesHis D iv in ity ................................127 8. Morning in the Council of Chief Priests and Elders ............................................135 9. The First Meeting of Christ and Pilate ..................................................................141 10. Events at Herod’s C o u r t ................................................................................................ 151 11. Jesus Is Returned to P ila te ..............................................................................................159 12. Christ Is Scourged .......................................................................................................... 171 13. Jesus Is Crowned with Thorns ................................................................................... 183 14. Events before Pilate Sentences Jesus ......................................................................... 193 15. Pilate Passes Sentence on Jesus ...................................................................................209 16. Events before the C ru c ifix io n ..................................................................................... 217 17. Jesus Is Crucified ............................................................................................................ 225 18. The Raising of the C ro ss................................................................................................239 19. Events after the Cross Was Raised and before Christ Gave Up the Spirit . . . . 249 20. Christ Gives Up the Spirit .......................................................................................... 263 21. Christ’s Body Is Taken Down from the Cross

...................................................271

22. Christ Is Buried ...............................................................................................................277

Illustratio n s FIGURES

1. The Revelation of Christs Divinity in the Garden of G ethsem ane.................... 23 2. The Betrayal by J u d a s ..................................................................................................... 25 3. Gerard de Jode,

D om inicae Passionis mysteria, Title P age.................................................................... 27 4. The Revelation of Christs Divinity in the Garden of G ethsem ane.................... 29 5. Christ Prostrated His Enemies with a Single Word and Samson Prostrated a Thousand Philistines with the Jawbone of an Ass . . . 31 6. Samgar Killed Six Hundred Men with a Ploughshare and David Killed Eight Hundred Men with His Attack ....................................33 7. The Revelation of Christs Divinity in the Garden of G ethsem ane.................... 35 8. Benito Arias Montano,

D ivinarum nuptiarum conventa et acta , Title P a g e ................................................ 37 9. Sponsa Looks into the Mirror of the Life of C h r is t............................................. 39 10. Benito Arias Montano,

Christi Jesu vitae adm irabilium que actionum speculum , Title P age......................41 11. Christ before

C a ip h a s........................................................................................ 43

12. Christ before P ila te ............................................................................................................. 45 13. Christ before P ila te ............................................................................................................. 47

P re face This volume completes the three-volume series of Jerome Nadal’s A nnotations a n d M editations on th e [L iturgical] Gospels (first and second editions, 1595; third edition, 1607) published by Saint Joseph’s University Press. This series makes available, for the first time in English translation, three key sections of Nadal’s opus m agnum that focus on the most im portant events in the life of C hrist celebrated during the course of the liturgical year. Vol. 1: The Infancy Narratives , which included a CD-ROM with high resolution scans of all 153 engravings of Gospel episodes from the 1607 edition of the A nnotations a n d M editation s , was published in 2003. A practical decision was made to complete Vol. 3: The Resurrection Narratives (2005) prior to Vol. 2: The Passion Narratives , since the latter was the longest text and posed the most challenges for translation. Vol. 1 included the monographic essay, “The Art of Vision in Jerome Nadal’s A dnotationes et m editationes in E vangelia ,” by Walter S. M elion, formerly professor and chair, Department of the History of Art, The Johns Hopkins University, and currently Asa Griggs Chandler Professor of Art H istory at Emory University. This essay serves as an introduction to the series as a whole, while commenting more briefly on the Infancy Narratives. In the present volume, Professor M elion’s introductory essay, “H aec p e r im agines huius m ysterij Ecclesia sancta [clam at]: The Image of the Suffering Christ in Jerome Nadal’s A dnotationes et m editationes in E vangelia ,” complements his essay in Vol. 3, “M ortis illius im agines u t vitae: The Image of the Glorified Christ in Jerome N adal’s A dnotationes et m editationes in Evangelia.” Here, as in Vols. 1 and 3, the 1607 edition of Nadal’s Latin text is presented in an accessible and readable contemporary English translation by Frederick A. Homann, S.J., formerly professor of mathematics at Saint Joseph’s University. Gifted with uncommon translation skills, Father Homann renders Nadal’s text, especially its most dense passages, with apparent effortlessness, not to mention elegance. And, as in Vols. 1 and 3, the translator further assists the reader with useful and informative notes and references that complement the translated text. Saint Joseph’s University Press is profoundly grateful to Professor Melion and Father Homann for their generous and indispensable collaboration on this project. Likewise, it is a pleasure to express our warmest thanks to Woodstock Theological Library (Georgetown University) for the extended loan of its copy of the 1607 edition of the A nnotations an d M editations , on which this series is based. Finally, we wish to record our sincere appreciation to the graphic artists who worked on this project (Thomas E. M alone [Vol. 1], Jonathan B. Dart [Vols. 2 and 3], and Carol M cLaughlin [Vol. 2]), as well as to our proofreaders, M artin R. Tripole, S.J. (Vols. 1 and 3), and Joseph P. Lea (Vol. 2). Joseph F. Chorpenning, O.S.F.S. Editorial Director Saint Joseph’s University Press Philadelphia

A n o t h e r N ote

about

T ranslation

Every translator approaching a theological text knows Fausts perplexity. How can one inculturate Scriptural light and divine Revelation into one’s own culture and language? Goethe’s tragic figure, Doctor Faustus, aim ed to bring the New Testament light into his beloved medieval German world. W hen he encountered the Greek term Logos on reading the prolog to the Fourth Gospel, he first proposed to translate it as Wort (Word.)·. “In the beginning was the W ord.” But then he admitted that, “I falter here; who can help me? I recognize that the Word’ is quite inadequate, and that if I am truly enlightened by the Spirit, I must translate ‘Logos’ otherwise.” Faust then considered Sinn (m in d!th ou gh t), K raft (pow er), and Tat (deed) as candidates in turn for the translation of Logos, rather than Wort (Word), until he was distracted from his search and the dramatic action moved elsewhere (Goethe, Faust, Part I, Scene III, 11. 863-83). Text history and semantic range are all important for translator and exegete in their tasks of inculturation. As Jerome Nadal wrote the pages on Christ’s Passion in his A nnotations a n d M editations on the Gospels some two centuries before Goethe reworked the Faust legend, he had to expect such Faustian perplexity. How could he cull the spiritual riches found in the terse Scriptural accounts of the Passion and death of Jesus as these treasures were filtered through the prism of medieval Western Christian devotional practice and the exegetical texts of early Christian theologians? How could he translate the riches of text and subtext into the expanding devotional treasury of the Tridentine Catholic Reform? W hat images could he use, at what level of verbal intensity and doctrinal exegesis should he set the meditation prayers of his sixteenth-century text? Where could he find help? Nadal, as we know, looked to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola for inspiration. In doing so, he could draw on the Carthusian monk Ludolph of Saxony (c. 1300-77) and the Franciscan tradition for aid in presenting his exegetical annotations and devotional meditation on the Passion of Christ. From this Nadal became even more affectively involved in the Lord’s sufferings as he explained the spiritual theology and physical geography of the Passion. Indeed, some of his annotations for the W iericx engravings that accompanied his text can hardly be distinguished in form from personal m editation and response to the events the engravings illustrate. Ignatius, Nadal’s longtime spiritual guide, had been deeply moved to conversion by reading— or hearing read—-Ludolph’s Franciscan inspired Vita Jesu Christi, whose purpose was to bring the devoted Christian into an ever closer personal relationship with God’s mercy and love revealed in Jesus Christ. That effort became the central thrust of Ignatius’s concise Spiritual Exercises, and today Ludolph’s seminal influence on the Ignatian text is being increasingly recognized and probed by such scholars as Ewert Cousins, Paul Shore, and John W. O’Malley, S.J. Cousins’s essay, “Franciscan Roots of Ignatian M editation” (in Lgnatian Spirituality in a S ecular Age, ed. G. P. Schner [Waterloo: W ilfrid Laurier University Press, 1984], 51-64), and Shore’s paper, “The Vita Christi of Ludolph of Saxony and Its Influence on the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola” (Studies in the Spirituality o f Jesuits 30 [1998], no. 1), explore the

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topic well. O’M alley’s book, The First Jesuits (Harvard University Press, 1993), is invaluable for its command of Ignatian and Nadalian sources. The fourteenth-century Carthusian’s affective reflections and accessible theology drew on Scriptural text and patristic catechetical homilies just as Nadal would do two centuries later. All this was to help his hearers or readers— and Ludolph helped Ignatius perhaps most notably of all— to come to the living Christ and to foster a deep personal love of the Savior, a goal that permeates the Spiritual Exercises and controls every page of Nadal’s A nnotations a n d M editations. Whether Nadal himself ever read Ludolph’s widely circulated Vita Christi is not clear. But his fam iliarity with Ignatius and the S piritual Exercises—he has been called “the theologian of Ignatian spirituality”— and the striking resemblance between Nadal’s intimate, affective meditation style and techniques and those of Ludolph and the Franciscans, make that encounter very likely. Clearly, the advice for meditating on Christ’s Passion that Nadal appended to his annotations for the W iericx engraving, Christ Prays in the G arden, is an em otionally charged expansion of the restrained directions of Ignatius found in the third week of the S piritual Exercises for contemplating Christ’s sufferings (Sp. Ex., nn. 191-99). Nowhere more than in Nadal’s Passion meditations is this affectivity so pronounced. His twenty-four page quarto contemplation of Christ’s Seven Last Words on the cross marks a high point of the devotio m oderna and Imitation o f Christ spirituality that reaches back to the M editationes vitae Christi once attributed to St. Bonaventure, to the medieval Stabat M ater sequence and the thirteenth-century Franciscans. For in the matter of mystical prayer and application of the spiritual senses {sensus spirituales ), Nadal, like Ludolph, followed Bonaventure and other classical sources, as Nadal’s modern editor, Fr. Miguel Nicolau, S.J., has shown, even though according to Nicolau, the theological term inology could lack precision, especially in making a distinction between the faculty of perceiving spiritual objects and the act of doing so. This imprecision, of course, could present Faustian perplexity for Nadal’s modern translators, especially in the case of the Passion meditations. Some instances of the striking similarity of Nadal’s Passion spirituality to that found in Bonaventure’s Tree o f Life (Lignum Vitae) and to Pseudo-Bonaventure’s M editationes vitae Christi will be given in the Notes and References section following the translated text. How then can the translator make Nadalian affectivity and application of the senses in p riva te meditation reach people today who may have viewed in common, and even all too passively, the over-graphic scenes in Mel Gibson’s 2004 film The Passion o f the ChrisP. For active personal devotion to Christ’s Passion and application of the senses and imagination in prayer was the key to the rapid growth of the Franciscan spirituality that arose from and appealed to medieval Catholic lay folk, and later came to Ignatius and Nadal. “There is no other path but through the burning love of the C rucified,” Bonaventure insists, “that love which so transformed Paul into C h rist... that he could say, W ith Christ I am nailed to the cross. I live now, not I, but Christ lives in me’ {The S ou l’s Jou rn ey into God, prologue 3 ).” Pseudo-Bonaventure’s exhortation to “look with love upon all C hrist’s sufferings, for we should not grow weary in contemplating what the Lord was not wearied to suffer for us” {Meditationes vitae Christi, ch. 74), is surely a harbinger of the frequent meditative repetitions Ignatius

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XV

sets for the retreatant in the third week of the Exercises. It is as well a reason why Nadal’s text and the W iericx engravings try to account for every item of the Lord’s sufferings that the Scriptures recount. Throughout Nadal’s text there appears the poignant theme of Mary’s sharing in the sufferings of her Son. This imaginative strand has roots in the Franciscan devotion to the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin. It is seen most notably in the supreme medieval achievement of personal compassion for the Blessed Mother (and her Son) that is the Stabat M ater sequence of Fra Jacopone daTodi (c. 1230-1306). This medieval Passion spirituality of intimate experience, simple, direct, and devoid of theological speculation, gave a new emotional outlook to Western European Christianity. The Franciscan Christ was no longer the grave and noble Redeemer, Judge, and King dominating the portals of Gothic cathedrals, or the divine Logos, the only begotten of the Father Who reveals His glory, but rather Jesus, Son of Mary, Isaiah’s Man of Sorrows. The devotion to Christ’s humanity, fostered by Francis and Bonaventure, suffused Ludolph of Saxony, Thomas a Kempis, and the devotio moderna. Bonaventure developed it also into a profound mystical theology, notably in The S oul’s Journey into G od (Itinerarium m entis in D eum ). In the sixteenth century St. Ignatius took the devotion to another level, that of apostolic vocation and mission. W ith Nadal, he assimilated the medieval Franciscan gift and developed it for an emerging complex, newly nationalized Europe of the early modern Catholic reform. The Society of Jesus knew Christ as the poor man born of M ary in a Bethlehem stable, one Who went to His death like a gentle lamb for our sins, and yet the eternal Lord, the King Who invites us to share His life and mission in establishing the kingdom of God. Ignatius has little explicit theology in the Exercises ; Nadal does display Tridentine (and earlier) doctrine throughout the A nnotations a n d M editations , notably in the N ativity and Resurrection sequences. Like Ignatius, Nadal speaks prim arily to persons of faith, to lead them to a deeper faith, to contrition and penance through heartfelt compassion and reflection on the Word made flesh, the C hild born of M ary in Bethlehem, the Prophet W ho proclaimed the kingdom of God, the Isaian M an of Sorrows, the risen and glorious Lord Who ascended to the Father and pours out the Holy Spirit on His Church. Yet in calling people to reinvigorate their C atholic faith and loyalty to the Church through affective meditation on Christ’s death and Resurrection, Nadal at times alludes to M artin Luther and the Protestant Reformation in German lands, but his words are far from eirenic. For him Lutherans were the archheretics, and Luther is buried in Hell. Outraged at the brutality of Christ’s Roman and Jewish persecutors, Nadal equated Christ’s suffering at their hands to the pain and damage caused by contemporary heretics and their errors. Luther and Calvin were linked with Judas and the Devil. In fact, says Nadal, “Luther in Hell keeps shouting, ‘Faith alone justifies!’ and Calvin screams, ‘C hrist’s Body isn’t really there in the Eucharist!’ (.M editation on the First M eetin g o f Christ a n d P ilate).” Nadal’s outbursts here and elsewhere no doubt reflect his early experiences as a missionary visitor to Germany. In a letter from Vienna to St. Ignatius in M ay 1555, Nadal laments that “There is the truly grave danger that if the remaining Catholics here aren’t helped, there won’t be a single one left in Germany two years from now.... The task of helping Germany in its religious life is, I think, reserved for our Society.”

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To do full justice to Nadal today, a translator must somehow contextualize that sixteenth-century confrontational mindset for ecumenically-minded readers. Nadal, of course, openly allows that our Catholic sins, past and present, have brought Christ to the cross, and he urges us to repent and to renew our fidelity to the Church and its duly appointed ministers. Luther and Calvin aren’t the only ones responsible for Christ’s crucifixion—we all are! Today Nadal might allow—-in Faustian perplexity— that the Lutheran fides/faith equivalence that he protested can be understood as faith/faithfulness—-faithfulness to Christ, that is— and this way be given an orthodox and acceptable interpretation in Catholic theology. Nadal’s tirade against Christ’s ancient Jewish persecutors is a somewhat different matter. At times his outrage at the Jerusalem chief priests seems to transform into an assault on the contemporary sixteenth-century European Jews. For his times saw Catholic leaders, in Spain and Portugal above all, instigate repressive measures against the Jews and even against Christians of Jewish descent (the so-called “New Christians” in the Iberian peninsula), though he does not seem to have supported such initiatives. Nadal, in fact, with the support of St. Ignatius, effectively resisted the demands of aristocratic benefactors that such persons of mixed racial or religious descent be barred from attending the newly opened Jesuit schools in Spain, or being admitted to the Society itself. Should then a modern translator preserve his occasional barbs at his Jewish contemporaries as an uncomfortable historical record of sixteenth-century Judeo-Christian tensions, or soften them for twenty-first century devotional purposes as the other side of his intense affectivity for the suffering Christ? In any case, translator and reader should, first of all, recognize their own faults and failures that put Christ on the cross, even as Nadal wanted his contemporaries to do. The Notes and References that follow the translation text w ill provide additional historical data about topics that appear in Nadal’s reflections, as well as some references for further study. Nadal’s engraving-illustrated text went on to become a major aid to inculturation and evangelization of the lands and peoples of Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia that Jesuit missionaries encountered in their own response to Christ’s call. May its English language translation continue to know that graced success. Frederick A. Homann, S.J. Loyola Center Merion Station, Pennsylvania

H ä E C PER IM A G IN ES H U I US M Y ST E R I] E c c l e s i a s a n c t a [ c l a m a t /:

T he Image in

of the

J erome N ad al’s

S uffering C hrist A d n o t a t io n e s e t

M E D I TA TI O N E S IN E V A N G E L IA W alter S. M eli on

Emory U niversity

The introductory essay to volum e III of this series, “The Image of the G lorified C hrist in Jerom e N adal’s A dnotationes e t m ed ita tio n es in E vangeliaE incorporates a discussion of the sacrificial im age of C hrist described and expounded in the im a go , adnotation es , and m editatio of chapter 101, “The Cross is Raised” (Plate 18).' There I argue that Nadal portrays the raising of the Cross as an act of sacram ental artifice fashioned by the Dens Artifex\ the sacred image of Christ upon the Cross prefigures the resplendent manifestation of the risen Christ at the tomb. In this essay, I explore N adal’s extended accounts of two further images of the suffering Christ: that made known in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the judgm ent porch of the governor’s palace in Jerusalem. The events that took place in the garden and the palace are subdivided into phases; they consist of m ultiple scenes allowing the votary to track the full scope of the meditative images instituted by Christ to illum inate the m eaning of His Passion. Both sequences contain rarely illustrated

sce n e s-Je su s

openly acknowledging His divinity before

Judas and the soldiers at Gethsemane and Pilate defending Jesus after His return from H ero d -th at Nadal utilizes to dem onstrate how the soul engages in pious meditation by mobilizing the eyes, using them to attach body, mind, and heart to the im a gin es Jesus has conferred in support of Christian doctrine (Plates 2, 11).

Nadal on the Exposition of Christ in the Garden o f Gethsemane The sequence of chapters initiating the Passion cycle in the A nnotations a n d

M editations provides the context for Nadal’s exegesis of the image divulged at the R aising of the Cross. We are asked to consider how and w hy Jesus presents H im self as a visual exemplum, conveying truths by means of images that secure

A N N O T A T IO N S A N D M ED IT A T IO N S ON T H E GO SPELS

rhetorical effects.

Based on John 18:6, image 108, The B etrayal by Ju d a s,

illustrates Judas and his henchmen overcome by Christ’s revelation of His divinity (Plate 2).3 Nadal extracts the episode from the typological frame of the Speculum

hu m anae sa lva tion is , where it was traditionally juxtaposed with Old Testament préfigurations from Judges 3 and 15 (Samson slaying a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass and Samgar killing six hundred men with a ploughshare) and 2 Kings 23 (David killing eight hundred men in battle).3 He adapts the scene to the theme of vision, im p licitly arguing that images play an integral role in meditative prayer. Such prayer embraces ocular demonstration, revealing the dual natures of C hrist and fostering the affective experience of visual truth. The lettered subdivisions retail the event’s three phases: [A] Judas kisses Jesus, against whom the soldiers dare not proceed; [B] Jesus approaches them, asking whom they seek; [C] by His word alone, Judas and the soldiers are prostrated. Although caption C refers uniquely to the power of C hrist’s voice, the print suggests that His very presence results in a sim ilarly violent action.

The

panoramic landscape is lit by a full moon, but brighter light emanates from His person and face. As this light passes from right to left, it casts dark shadows, producing strong ch ia roscu ro effects among the chaotically tum bling soldiers. Immersed in this propulsive light, the soldiers’ lanterns are either extinguished or dimmed while Judas shields his darkened eyes from Jesus’s radiant face, propelled backward by the sight of Him. The annotations likewise emphasize that the sight of Christ is the prime cause of the events we behold. They are punctuated by exhortations insisting that these circum stances be viewed {vides), observed { an im adverteratis) , regarded attentively {considera) , and beheld {aspice).11 These admonitions are addressed by turns to Judas, his henchmen, and to us. Annotation A asks further whether the indices of divine virtue witnessed then and now may have surfaced in the m ind’s eye, causing the cohort to hesitate. This hesitation is the first of the signs staged by Jesus to show His divine control over the events about to transpire; by its veridical force, it contravenes Judas’s weaker signal to the soldiers. {Nonne signum

in ter vos con ven era t?...Deus erat Jesus, n oleb a t ten eri v elp a ti, n isi sua volú n tate.) Annotation B states squarely that the cohort was stunned a d conspectum Iesu (in, at, by the sight of Jesus, i.e., by His viewing of them, as well as their viewing of Him), and annotation C adds that just as He exercised divine power when He first said, Ego sum, so He showed His hum anity when He said it again {Iesum illic se

Deum, h ie hom inem esse professum ) f The m editation personalizes the theme of vision, opening w ith an imperative: since we wish to meditate on C hrist’s Passion, we must first observe

IN TRO D U C T O RY STUDY

3

the mysteries that took place at Gethsemane as if we were ourselves present (adeste

hue, ad vertite, a n im a d vertite om nes q uotq u ot d evotion em am atis).b The things we there witness m ust be not sim ply considered ( non ex istim etis solum ) but also spiritually experienced (ut in vobis ea fi e r i sp irituali quadam experientia p ercip ere

possitis ); they must be grasped by the external senses, that we might share common cause w ith Christ ( etiam ex terioribus sensibus com m u n ica te Christo p ro p itio ).7 In other words, we are enjoined to use our eyes, to discern by sense what is here to see (& idem sen tite in vobis). C iting Romans 6, Nadal explains that meditation is a p lanting of oneself w ith C hrist in the likeness of His death, w hich must be known by practice rather than speculation ( non sp ecu la tion e tantum ...sedpraxi)·, this entails sensory devotion, tangible affect, and spiritual experience (dr sensu

devotion is, &p io nos ta n gen te a ffectu , & quadam spiritus ex perientia), subsets of true knowledge. Such knowledge transcends mere scien tia , being im bued w ith affective conform ity to res, things v ividly experienced ( non en im nudam ib i

scien tia m ...sed p ia m , & a ffectu rei con sen tan eo im butam ) .s In their epistles, Peter and Paul attem pt to secure these crucial epistemological effects; by the judicious use of figures, they exceed nuda scientia, substituting in its place a mode of sensory discernm ent ( ratio sen tien d i) that makes things fully sensible to our capacities, elevating them sp iritu ally (u t p e r res a d m od u m sen sib iles p o ten tia e nostrae

m oveantur, & in spiritus sensum assurgant) 3 Nadal quotes 1 Peter 2 and 4 to show how profitably Peter m arshals the figure of exam ple to furnish us w ith the substance of m editation on C h rist’s Passion. His suffering in the flesh is praised as the consum m ate exem plum of m artial valor, that surpasses all human exempla, inspiring us to to take up arms in the spiritual combat. (C hristo igitur, inquit, passo in ca m e, vos eadem cogita tion e

arm am ini. Et rursum : Christus passus est p ro nobis, vobis relinquens ex em plum . !") Im plicit here is the famous example of Decius Mus, codified in the Ad H erennium as a figure of thought conferring great clarity and vividness on the treatment of a them e: “He who in a voyage prefers his own to his vessel’s security, deserves contempt. No less blameworthy is he who in a crisis of the republic consults his own in preference to the common safety...It is this that, in my opinion, Decius well understood, who is said to have devoted him self to death, and, in order to save his legions, to have plunged into the midst of the enemy. He gave up his life, but did not throw it away; for at the cost of a very cheap good he redeemed a sure good, of a small good the greatest good. He gave his life, and received his country in exchange. He lost his life, and gained glory, which, transm itted with highest praise, shines more and more every day as time goes on.”" As Decius flung him self upon the weapons of the Samnites, so Christ freely went forth to meet His foes

4

A N N O T A T IO N S A N D M ED IT A T IO N S ON T H E GO SPELS

(Jesus ulterius p rogred itu r a d turbam )'1·, as Decius stirred the Romans to feats of arms, so Christ urges the faithful to arm mind, intellect, heart, and will against tem ptation {mens, anim us, voluntas, cor, p o ten tia e om nes, q uibu s con tra hostes

nostros pu gn a n d u m est); as Decius is invoked to incite courageous em ulation, so Christ is visualized to strengthen the soul’s resolve actively to imitate, rather than merely to regard, His example (et exempla quidem adprax im p e r se spectant, non a d

solam rerum speculationem ...ut anim um & vim ab illo accipiam us, & a d im itationem nos p e r illu d exerceamus) Nadal indicates that C hrist H im self licenses the use of rhetorical devices that convey truths by means of distinct and striking images. W hen he asks Jesus why He went to meet His captors and identified Himself to them, he receives the following response: “I wanted to show to all men that I suffered voluntarily on their behalf ( volui om nibus dem onstrare m e m ea volú n ta tep a tip r o m ortalibus) , [and so] I advanced toward the soldiers and inquired: ‘Whom do you seek?’ They said: ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ I replied: ‘I am He.’ To which words I attached something of my power, thereby draining [those soldiers] of their powers, casting them down, and with them Judas, Satan, and all his satellites.”'■* By using the term dem onstrare to designate this exchange enacted purposefully to reveal the true nature of His sacrifice, Christ calls attention to His m astery of ocular dem onstration, a rhetorical figure possessing liveliness and distinction in the highest degree.15 By the power of the rhetor’s words, such a dem onstration makes the subject pass vividly before the eyes. Christ somewhat alters this technique: His simple words are accom panied by visibly forceful effects that dem onstrate the divine power informing those very words. By contrast, the second exchange dem onstrates His hum anity, the two

d em on stration es operating in tandem as a com parative antithesis, a mixed complementary figure consisting of opposing thoughts that meet in a comparison. This comparison amplifies and embellishes the ocular demonstration Christ has staged, showing that His voluntary submission to His enemies, rather than simply signaling His weakness, is a further demonstration of His superhuman strength, making known that He would vanquish sin and death not with divine power alone, but in hand-to-hand combat through the weak hum anity He assumed (sed ex in firm itate

assum ptae hu m anitatis f u i t m ih i com inu s con fligen d u m : & tam en m eam virtu tem sim iliter exero in hoc etiam gen ere belli). 16 A further comparison is tacitly made by the juxtaposition of these dual dem onstrationes , conferring additional vividness on the actions Christ orchestrates: they are strikingly similar to the example given to illustrate the technique of detailed parallel comparison in th t Ad H erennium : “Let us im agine a player on the lyre...he has a personal beauty, presence and stature

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5

that impose dignity. If, when by these means he has roused a great expectation in the public, he should in the silence he has created suddenly give utterance to a rasping voice...he is the more forcibly thrust off in derision and scorn, the richer his adornm ent and the higher the hopes he has raised.”1’ Having first exercised, then choosing not to exert His divine power, C hrist is like the perform er who provokes his audience, but unlike the lyric poet, He is seen deliberately to have aroused the mob that inaugurates the Passion He embraces. Those who m editate on the events Jesus has set in motion w ill discover that He employs a third com parison. According to N adal, they w ill find Him addressing them from w ithin the heart, where He constructs a comparison of contrast, connecting them to Judas: “Friend, wherefore have you come? Judas wished to betray me to the Jews, not to slay me outright; you, when you consent to sin, not only betray me to the devil but forthw ith crucify what is w ithin you; you kill the grace by which I am in you.”18 As defined by the PseudoCicero, this form of comparison is used to “deny that som ething else is like the thing we are asserting to be true”—that is, to repudiate the Judas latent in everyone, and to exhort the faithful to react to His manifestation of divinity cum hum anity as a demonstration of the true mystery of the Incarnation, upon which the efficacy of His sacrificial death is predicated.19 In his closing period, Nadal forcibly reiterates that this m ystery has been rendered dem onstrably visible. He urges the votary to acknowledge that he has seen the mysteries manifest in this place by Christ {video, b en ign e Iesu: ego vero te au ctore ex horum m ysteriorum virtu te

m e ita com parabo) 7° Image 108 and chapter 81 likely derive from a meditative series devised by the Spanish theologian Benito Arias M ontano, who introduced the epiphany at G ethsemane into the C hristi Iesu vita e a d m ira b iliu m q u e a ction u m sp ecu lu m of 1573/74 {M irror o f th e L ife a n d A dm irable D eeds o f C hrist Jesus) (Figure 1)7' Although the episode featured prom inently in Ludolph of Saxony’s Vita Christi , it remained largely unillustrated before Montano incorporated it into his book and developed the references to vision he found in the Dutch and Latin editions of the

Vita. To situate N adal’s reading of this scene, I shall first look closely at M ontano’s inventive adaptation, before exam ining the m editative tradition from which it emerged and finally circling back to the A nnotations a n d M editations. The image of Judas and his henchm en overcome by the revelation of C h rist’s d iv in ity reappears in two meditative Passion series issued in Antwerp during the last third of the sixteenth century: M ontano’s S peculum , published by Philip Galle and engraved by Jan W iericx and the Galle workshop after designs by Gerard van Groeningen, who co-devised the inventions w ith M ontano; and the D om in ica e

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Passionis rnysteria typicis ad u m b ra tion ib u s adam ussim effigia ta (M ysteries o f the L ord’s Passion P recisely P ortrayed in F igured Scenes ), published by Gerard de Jode and engraved by Antoon W iericx after designs by Maarten de Vos (Figures 3, 4 ).22 De Jode incorporated the series into the Thesaurus sacrarum historiarum Veteris et

Novi Testamenti of 1583. C odified by Ludolph of Saxony in the Vita C hristi , C h rists exercise of divine power in the Garden of Gethsemane was frequently illustrated in fifteenthcentury editions of the B iblia p a u p eru m and S peculum hu m a n a e sa lva tion is (Figures 5, 6 ).23 Dutch paraphrases of the Vita C hristi , such as the Antwerp editions of D it es dleven ons liefs heren ihesu cristi (1503, 1512, et al.), generally contained a woodcut of the scene (Figure 7)C The Latin texts of the Vita Christi published in Paris-most im portantly the Chevallon edition of 1534 and Sonnium edition of 1580, the latter edited by Johannes D adraeus-rem ained unillustrated, and indeed, the episode had largely ceased to be portrayed until it was revived in Antwerp around 1570.-" It appeared neither in Diirer’s several Passion series nor in Lucas van Leyden’s, the most famous printed cycles of the sixteenth century. Moreover, the texts attaching to the later images expound the miracle differently from the fifteenth-century sources: whereas the B iblia pa u p eru m and S peculum emphasize that it was the divine power of the Word that alone felled C hrist’s enemies (Christus prostravit hostes suos u nico verbo), M ontano, De Vos, and Nadal shift focus onto the potent visual effect of Christ’s Person and countenance. The inscription below De Voss print, for instance, though it refers in closing to the Lord’s voice (D om ini voce), states that Jesus, having seen Judas approaching with armed attendants, identified Himself openly (se d o cet essepala m ) (Figure 4).26The engraving makes clear that this act of disclosure was both visual and verbal: positioned on high ground, sharply silhouetted by moonlight, His face brightly lit by torches, Christ dominates the image as His visage anchors the eyes of the mob sprawling downward. His gestures correspond to the words, Quern q uaeritisi Ego

sum, but His imposing presence is what seems to overwhelm. How and why do Montano and Nadal revive the scene of Christ’s exercise of divine power? They adapt it to the theme of vision, thereby im plicitly arguing that images play an integral role in m editative prayer. Such prayer embraces ocular demonstration as the divinely sanctioned instrum ent m aking known the two natures of Christ, converting the manifestation of doctrine into the affective experience of revealed truth. Montano and Nadal extract the episode from the typological frame in which it was embedded by pictorial tradition; they instead develop the references to vision that proliferate in the Dutch and Latin versions of Ludolph’s Vita Christi. In truth, the position, attitude, and gesture of Christ in

IN TRO D UCTO RY STUDY

the oblong print from the Speculum seem loosely based on the woodcut in D ieven

ons liefs heren (Figures 1, 7), while the full-length figure of the soldier tum bling backward, his arms outstretched, features prom inently in both this woodcut and W iericx’s engraving (Figures 4, 7). (I should add that I do not here address the com plem entary question of w hy this scene tem porarily dropped out of the Passion canon.) The Christi Iesu speculum attaches to another series devised by M ontano, the

D ivin a ru m n u p tia ru m co n v en ta e t a cta ( C om pact a n d C elebration o f th e D ivin e N uptials) (Figure 8 ).27 The C onventa et acta chronicles the efforts of Sponsa , the allegorical bride personifying the C hristian soul, to prepare herself for the eschatological feast to be celebrated by her divine bridegroom Sponsus. Virtues instruct the aspiring bride who is converted to love of her prospective spouse when, m idw ay through the series, she gazes into a m irror held by S cien tia, the personification of knowledge born of conviction (Figure 9 ).28 The m irror introduces a second print series, the Christi Iesu sp ecu lu m , comprising fifty scenes of C hrist’s life from the Annunciation to Last Judgm ent. The pictorial status of the Speculum is underscored by its title-print, consisting of the Holy Face reflected in a convex mirror, meant to be understood as the mirror of the soul that arrests

Sponsa's gaze (Figure 10). The scenes of C hrist’s Infancy, ministry, Passion, and Resurrection that follow are thereby characterized as mirror images caught in the act of being viewed by Sponsa , in whose soul they are screened and im printed, becoming part of her mnemonic currency. They therefore constitute a meditative program that secures love of God through the viewing of sacred historical exempla elucidating the allegorical journey of the Christian soul, whose visual experience of these pictorial exempla the viewer is invited to share. By entering into Sponsa's act of beholding, the votary joins her as she gradually lays claim to scien tia in an unfolding process that converts seeing into knowing by engaging her sensible, affective, and cognitive faculties. As vision secures knowledge of C hrist, so M ontano doubles vision, com pelling us to see as Sponsa sees, in order to make sight itself his meditative theme. Nowhere does he develop this theme more fully than in the scene illu stratin g the soul’s view ing of John 18:6, the scriptural episode concerning the revelation of Christ’s divinity to human eyes. The soul’s active view ing of exem pla is the lens through w hich M ontano repeatedly adduces the opposing Figure of blindness, this antithesis then serving to evoke corollary opposites such as innocence and gu ilt, b elief and incredulity. Christ’s exercise of divine power in the garden initiates the two-part illustration of Judas’s betrayal recounted in John 18:3-9 (Figures 1, 2). The soldiers who have come to arrest Christ do not know Him, and so, embracing the Father’s w ill, He

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8

w illingly identifies Himself to them. W hen they hear Him say, “I am H e,” they draw back and fall to the ground. The print dramatizes this encounter: the soldiers recoil violently upon seeing Christ, and one of them attempts to cover his eyes with upraised arm and shield (Figure 1). Yet, as M ontano’s distich stresses, rhev still fail to discern Him: “W hat, pray, is the power of darkness, the error of blind hearts, that they do not perceive the beacons of hidden power ( virtu tis

ta cita e ut lu m in a non videant)V '19 The reference to silently lum inous power suggests that the sight of Christ, not His words, has overwhelmed the soldiers, and further, that the light of His divinity floods Sponsa’s seeing heart, as she meditates silently on this mirror image, looking into the Holy Face reflecting her soul (and conversely, looking into her soul to see im printed upon it the H oly Face that portrays her to herself). The counter-figure of the heart that cannot see is amplified in the four prints showing the judgment of the captive Christ by Annas, Caiphas, Herod, and Pilate, all of whom fail to recognize Him as the Messiah (Figure 11). M ontano’s distinctive reading of John 18 closely corresponds w ith the argument of D it es dieven ons liefs h eren , a text he perhaps consulted in Antwerp, during his close working relationship with Christopher Plantin.31 Introduced by the woodcut cited above, chapter 49 considers the events following the agony in the garden, dw elling on the nature and m eaning of Jesus’s revelation of His divinity (Figure 7). Judas and his cohort are described as hardhearted men blinded by their inab ility to look outside themselves and to discern intentions other than their own. W hen they stand next to Jesus, their lanterns and torches lighting the garden, they are as if blind {al v erb lin t ), failing either to see or recognize Him (n iet en con den gesien noch bekenen) A Accordingly He exercises His divine power, declaring Himself to be the Jesus of Nazareth whom they seek, and thereby striking them down with the superhuman authority of the Word. His purpose is to make visible ( w illen doen blijcken) that He has voluntarily accepted the Passion He is about to suffer,33 having demonstrated the majesty He holds in reserve (bew ijsen w ild e...d a t d ie godlik e m a ch t a ltijt in hem was).·* The text now proposes an alternative account, averring that the radiance stream ing from His face, not His divine voice alone, caused the men to fall backward. They are blinded by this splendor, as if they have stared directly into the sun {gelijc een d ie

in d ie sonne siet ) A O nly after He restores them, giving them the strength to rise, are they finally allowed to seize H im , but even then they rem ain m om entarily immobilized by the natural sight of His noble and virtuous face. Although they have now succum bed to the potent effect of His matchless d ivin ity and exceptional hum anity, they obdurately continue to pursue Him, failing to

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recognize that He is the C hrist (sijn also verb lin t en d e verh a rt)M'\ in spite of the visual dem onstration He has staged, they seize H im , deceived by the mere appearance of weakness He fabricates ( w aert als of... hi a l on m achtich w are om hem

selven te bescudden ).37 Indeed the text insists that Jesus compelled them to allow the disciples to flee, in order that they, as His true witnesses, m ight promulgate the works seen and heard in this place, works to which His enemies were deaf and blind (en d e dat si van hem en de van sinen wercken d ie si van hem gesien en de geh o ert

hadden gh etu ych n issegh even souden ).38 The notion that the suffering Christ sought to move hearts by m obilizing the ocular perception of divinely revealed truth, characterizes one strain of meditative literature deriving from the manuscripts and incunabula of Ludolph’s

Vita C h r is tie M ontano distilled the argum ent of such texts, utilizing them to adapt the once canonical illustration to his interest in the exegetical functions of engraved im agery. (It is w orth noting that he is one of the originators of the scriptural emblem book.) By contrast, devotional tracts such as D leven ons heeren, consisting of seven Passion meditations, one for each day of the week, emphasize the agency of C hrist’s godlike voice {sijn godlik e stem m e)d° The Friday devotion asks us to consider His words to Judas and the soldiers. W hen He first declares, I am He, divine speech knocks His auditors flat.·" W hen He reiterates that He is Jesus of Nazareth, they are catapulted backward head over heels.42 He delivers His third address, spoken from near at hand, in hum an voice {met d ie stem m e sijn s

m en schheyts ), as an invitation to His captors to inaugurate the Passion.43 In the M irour o f M ans Salvacioun, a M iddle English translation of the Speculum hum anae salvationis, it is the “base voice fulle meke saying, ‘Loo, I am here,”’ that assaults the congregation of C hrist’s enemies, who are “fowlly thrawen to the erthe at o worde of mekenesse.”44 The Parisian editions of the Vita Christi are especially rich in vision imagery derived from m any exegetical sources. Every aspect of Judas’s betrayal and the capture of Christ is presented in visual terms. Ludolph begins by observing that Judas’s decision to identify Christ with a kiss was necessitated by three concerns having to do w ith the relation between seeing and knowing: first, the soldiers could not recognize Jesus, having never before seen H im ; second, His facial likeness to James the Less made the two virtually indistinguishable; and third, His uncanny ab ility to transform H im self as if into someone unknown made it imperative that His identity be made manifest.45 According to Anselm’s Speculum

eva n gelici serm onis, these measures were superfluous, since Christ chose to reveal H im self { eviden ter o sten d isti ), going forth into the ligh t of their lanterns and torches.46 His words, Ego su m , correspond to His action of self-disclosure and

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offering (sem etipsum m anifestans & offerens).*7 Chrysostom develops this point in the H om ilia 82. in Ioa n n em , stressing that C hrist neither hid nor concealed Himself: “But Jesus showed H im self because they could neither discern nor see Him, even in their midst, without His consent.”4* By divine power He dictated that He be in itially inapprehensible, also to Judas; so again by that power He w illin gly made H im self known, allow ing His captors to seize Him. Following Chrysostom , Ludolph characterizes both this occlusion and m anifestation as “especially revelatory of His power” ( m axim e estp o ten tia e eius osten sivu m ) , thus making visible Jesus’s willingness to be captured (ostenderetur q u o d d e voluntate sua

cap eretu r )T The thunderous power of His words, issuing jointly from God the Father and the Holy Spirit, is considered in terms of its visible effects: by prostrating Judas and the cohort, Jesus was giving them, as much as He was able, a substantial spur to conversion in the form of a “visible miracle of His power” ( ut

etiam quantum in se est, d a ret Iudaeis m ateriam con version is, viso p o ten tia e suae miraculo)A' In turn, their falling backward is a powerful figure of the inability to see what Christ has generously proffered. Ludolph explains that the iniquitous fall backward because they cannot see the danger of their case ( non v id et su i casus

p e r icu lu m ; casus — fall, condition— being a pun on the fallen condition of the sinful); nor can they judge the consequences of their actions. In contrast, the just fall face forward, for they eagerly entrust themselves to those visible events, that they m ight be raised to invisible ones (q u i in istis visib ilib u s sem etipsos sp on te

deiiciunt, ut in invisibilibus erigan tu r) T Pricked by compunction, they humiliate themselves before God, discerning their true nature as they do C hrist’s, bearing witness unlike Judas to God lying hidden in human flesh (Deus en im lateba t in

carne). (Lud olph is here paraphrasing Augustine’s Tractatus 112. in Ioa n n em .y2 Whereas Jesus makes apparent His divine power and sacrificial purpose, converting them into transparent notae legible to His friends (am icis enim suis om nia

nota fa c it ), Judas conceals his intentions, making use of infelicitous signa ( ostendis am icitia m signo, & agis p rod ition em d e facto')/ 2' Christ makes all known in opposition to Judas, who pretends to be a kinsman rather than a rogue, friend and disciple rather than traitorous enemy. He trades in sim ulations (sim ulation es ), feigning a kiss of peace that contravenes the true office of loveT' W hen Christ addresses him as friend, asking why he has come, He simultaneously reminds Judas of his lost apostolic vocation and also speaks ironically, deprecating the false signals the traitor purveys. At issue is the nature of visible evidence, Augustine’s distinction between the signs of friendship sincerely wielded by Christ {amicitiae signis) and the semiotic artifice dispensed by Judas (eoru m dolus laten tiu s p era ga tu r) T C hrist’s admonitory question, A mice a d q u id venisti?, is interpreted as a warning to Judas to

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see him self ( vide q u id feceris), to strip away the veneer of false intentions, and thus to uncover the perniciousness they mask. Ludolph im plicitly demands that the rupture in the fabric of dem onstrative signs be sealed, that the clear distinction between good and bad figures be restored, and their attendant effects be plainly differentiated: “O innocent lamb of God, what is yours, what that w olf’s? W hat compact is there between Christ and Belial?”·6 He is paraphrasing 2 Corinthians 6:14-15, a passage that widens the forensic gap between faith and disbelief: “For what participation hath justice w ith injustice? Or what fellowship hath light and darkness? And what concord hath C hrist w ith Belial? Or what part hath the faithful w ith the unbeliever?”57 In this context, the scriptural prompt invites m editation on the nature of ocular perception as an instrum ent of spiritual discernment, capable of distinguishing true evidence from false. Ludolph fin ally advises the votary to look w ithin h im self lest he im itate Judas by abjuring truth, reenacting the faithless kiss that betrays Christ. C iting O rigen’s Tractatus 35- in M a tth a eu m , he insists that we discrim inate internally and externally between true and false appearances, refusing to trade in counterfeit signs when dealing w ith God or our fellow m en.58 Such probity is itself a true sign of love that issues from a m erciful heart, a point Ludolph makes strongly by com paring the eschewal of feigned behavior to the works of corporal m ercy enum erated in M atthew 2 5 .59 In order better to refrain from engaging in sim u la tio n es , we m ust im agine ourselves kissing an effigy of the crucified Christ, hum bly pressing our lips to its feet unlike the presumptuous Judas who kissed the Lord’s face. If a crucifix is unavailable, we m ust kiss the ground, im agining ourselves at the base of the crucifix (q u o d si im a ginem cru cifix i an te se

non habeat, oscu letu r terram, repraesentando h oc idem).™ Implicit in this instruction is an allusion to the just man who, falling forward, deals tru th fu lly in visible things, purifying visual experience of all duplicity. The contemplative act we are encouraged to perform involves a doubling of images, for we must visualize the effigy— i.e., im agine the im age— of the crucified C hrist, positioning ourselves before it.61 These closing remarks suggest that the epiphany at Gethsemane concerns the m editative function of the im age-m aking faculty. Just as Christ is seen to have staged a visual exercise of His divine power, appealing to the eyes as agents of conversion, so are we invited to im itate His use of exem plary images, converting ourselves into the im age of true disciples who bestow a genuinely loving kiss shorn of all feigned effects. The conversion of the eyes by the example of Christ at Gethsemane is the m editative them e of the M ed ita tion es S a n cti B on a ven tu ra e, a devotional handbook often read in conjunction w ith the Vita C h risti.hl The Pseudo-

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Bonaventure develops the figure of falling forward as a reference to the eyes of the soul, in opposition to Judas’s backward fall and traitorous kiss.

He

commands the loving soul to prostrate herself before Jesus, from which position she w ill hum bly gaze at His feet, kissing and w ashing them w ith tears in im itation of the penitent Magdalene who bowed down before the risen Christ on the m orning of the Resurrection. The soul w ill then rise to kiss His hands, m editating on the good works those hands authorize, w hile considering the V irgin who by her virtues was privileged to kiss her son later on the same day. Finally, in the fulness of the day, when all things are brilliantly illum inated, the soul will dare to kiss Christ on the lips, beholding Him fa c i e a d fa ciem C This consummate experience of contem plative union is im agined as the clim ax of a gradual process by which the prone soul rises, moving up the glorious body of Christ, that becomes increasingly visible in the changing light of day. His body is at last im agined as the full-length image of the heavenly bridegroom of the Song of Songs, a glorious apparition with whom the soul lovingly unites: “And now what rem ains, good Jesus, but that in joy You fill me w ith Your face, courteously giving me to kiss Your lips in the fulness of day and fervor of spirit. Tell me, O most sweet and serene [Jesus], where You feast, where You recline at noon, that I might come to You, for only then, good Jesus, when Your glory has been revealed, will I be satisfied. The M editationes and Vita Christi, by reading the epiphany at Gethsemane in terms of visual experience and the prayerful service of the eyes, suggest the context for Montano’s interpretation of this episode as the luminous revelation of silent strength to hearts unable to see, and his im plicit admonition that our hearts be restored to sight (Figure 1). W ithin the frame of the Christi lesu speculum , the scene is presented as if mirrored by the Holy Face, a conceit that recalls the gloss on contemplative viewing in the M editationes , where we are encouraged to regard the bridegroom face to face (Figure 10). The further frame of the C onventa et

acta, that subsumes our viewing into that of Sponsa the soul, whose conversion into a w orthy bride of C hrist the series sets forth, closely parallels Ludolph’s argument that the epiphany was material for a change of heart, once the miracle of His power had been recognized ( m a teriam con version is, viso p o ten tia e suae

m iracu lo)C His call to attend to signs and the ways they are viewed, correlates w ith the circum stances fram ing vision in M ontano’s two series: that we see through Sponsa’s eyes, looking with her into the eyes of Christ, makes us doubly conscious of the nature and m eaning of contemplative viewing. Moreover, the scene’s devotional pedigree serves as an heuristic prom pt, leading M ontano’s audience to reflect on the place of vision within meditative prayer.

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13

The episode plays a sim ilar role in N adal’s A nnotations a n d M editation s, serving to urge his prim ary audience—the com m unity of Jesuit scholastics at the order’s colleges— to consider the m editative function of dem onstrative visual exem pla (Plate 2).

How does C hrist, he inquires, engage the votary’s eyes,

H im self using visual means to turn knowledge into conviction, converting the dry recognition of scriptural events into the rich apprehension of doctrinal truths, informed fully by affective, cognitive, and im aginative em pathy with the nature and m eaning of the Passion? N adal was clearly fam iliar w ith the m editative literature, since his account touches upon m any of the issues raised in the Vita

Christi, the M editationes, and their sources. Sanctioned by Ignatius himself, the Vita Christi, replete with verbal im agines composed by the action of exterior and interior sense, had provided a crucial model for the S p iritu a l E xercises .6(’ Like Ludolph, Nadal ponders the visible effects of Christ and His words, construing them as veridical notae, evidentiary sign a , and miraculous dem onstrationes of His divine power; and he dwells at length on how and w hy Christ sought to convert Judas and the Jews by means of these dem onstrative images. Image 108, as we have seen, retains basic com positional elem ents, such as Jesus’s position and attitude, fam iliar from M ontano and the Dutch editions of Ludolph. M ontano’s inclusion of the epiphany at Gethsemane offered a precedent for Nadal’s decision to incorporate the scene into a m editative cycle consisting of an elaborate textimage scheme setting forth the life of Christ. As M ontano strove in im itation of Christ at Gethsemane to appeal to the eyes and heart, so Nadal labors to indicate how Jesus H im self claims sight as an affective and cognitive hinge. The epideictic force of the visual exemplum He purveys seizes the will of those who are ready to see; their m editative prayer is the corrective lens that transforms blind obstinacy into acute discernment . Chapters 80, Christ Prays in the Garden, 82, The S everance o f M ale bus’s Ear, and 83, C hrist Is A rrested, am plify the argum ent of chapter 81 (Plates 1, 3, 4). Whereas the latter reveals how Jesus, by the comparative use of visual exempla and ocular demonstrations, invites the votary to suffer w ith Him, transforming mere knowledge of the Passion into empathetic understanding of its nature and scope, they by turns explain how the rhetorical figures that am plify meditative prayer are based in an o rigin ary act of self-representation, how these figures may be further adorned to heighten their transform ative effects, and how chief among these effects is the visualization of divine m ysteries heretofore neither known nor apprehended. T he relation between prayer and blood is the ch ief them e of N adal’s m editation on the Agony in the Garden (Plate 1). Image 107 marks the stages of

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C hrist’s journey into solitary prayer*’7: He crosses the Cedron [A], entering the garden [B] where, leaving eight disciples in a rocky shelter [C ], He brings the remaining three to another site, just above the first [D ]; leaving them as well, He enters the grotto where He prays [E] and is com forted by the angel [F], after twice returning to the three disciples [G ]. The descriptive annotations explore this itinerary, focusing on the kind and degrees of prayer offered by the solitary C hrist. Nadal explains that in solitude He conceived a spiritual im age of His im m inent Passion and death ( cru d elissim a ep a ssion is dr m ortis repraesentationem

con cip it anim o), made extraordinarily vivid by His heightened bodily senses, both external and internal.Sit He directs to God His spirit and will accommodated to the senses that intensify the living image placed before His eyes. So powerful is this visual prolepsis that He struggles between life and death, praying all the more fervently (ex h o c co n flictu . . . cu m o ra retp ro lix iu s ), until C h rist’s whole body was covered w ith a bloody sweat (cop ioso sa n gu in is su d ore d ifflu er et

universum Christi Iesu corpus). 69 Copious devotion is the source of this profusion of blood, a point underscored in the colloquy, the second of two m editations. Nadal emphasizes that Christ, having prayed by means of visual images, instructs us to do likewise: we are to see Him portraying His bitter death to Himself, and to observe how this image magnifies the one He had earlier represented to the disciples at the Last Supper. The extreme effect of this acris m ortis repraesentatio and the specificity with which His torments appear to His m ind’s eye ( ob oculos

m entis m eae in fin ita illa...atrocita s in m eam vitam , ca ten a e, vincula, raptationes, colaphi, alapae, sputa, vulsiones ), result from the m ystery of the Incarnation, for His divine nature (gloria an im a e) makes these images strong, whereas His hum an ity (an im am p a ssib ilem ) makes Him susceptible to their in fluen ce.’0 Therefore, when C hrist m anifests His d iv in ity and hum an ity in chapter 81, converting solitary repraesentationes into public dem onstrationes, He transforms the images He has represented only to H im self into exemplary actions signifying His divine and hum an natures to the m ultitude. H aving visualized H im self while praying, He now represents H im self to their eyes. Viewed in this light, the ocular dem onstrations are like images that function as instrum ents of public ministry, addressed both to provoke and convert. It is as if the sources of C hrist’s m editative im agery— the d iv in ity em powering them and the hum an ity inten sifying their effect— have been translated into the substance of visible exempla. By this act of translation, Christ is seen to engage one of Nadal’s chief concerns— the negotiation between the private and public along a spectrum incorporating all forms of oratio, from deeply private, individuated prayer to sacred oratory.

IN TRO D UCTO RY STUDY

15

C hapter 82 refines the argum ent that C hrist made use of visible

dem on stration es in an attem pt to convert His enemies (Plate 3). 1 Annotation A describes how He forestalled all action-the cohort’s assault, the disciples’ flight—to divulge His power of co n tro llin g.7’ W hile the anxious men surrounding Him stood immobilized, annotation B states, they heard and saw that Jesus voluntarily suffered to fulfill Scripture and His Father’s w ill. In an apostrophe, Nadal asks why they remained unmoved by sights the whole world plainly saw ( videtis n un c

p la n issim e R om ani & Iu d a ei , u n iversi vid etis m ortales ).73 C hrist explains in annotation C w hy He perm itted H im self to be captured, having spoken the words, “this is your hour and the power of darkness.” He was staging a visible demonstration, com pelling them to acknowledge that of which they were already aware ( ea illis dem onstravi quorum ipsi eran t sibi con scij) -nam ely, that they could neither seize nor harm H im w ithout His consent.

In doing this, He was

converting their conscience/consciousness into an eyewitness to His divine authority ( non p o tu isse tam en teste eoru m co n scien tia ...n isi ego velim , n isi

p erm itta m ) ,74

The print accom m odates these themes by m aking C hrist

conspicuously visible. He is most brightly lit, both from w ithin and without, and also most deeply shaded, standing at the point where m oonlight and torchlight collide w ith the darkness of the hillside screen. Situated at a distance from the soldiers, He is unlabeled (the letter A attaches to Peter and M alchus, B to the cohort), since He arrests their motion rather than participating in it. As such, He functions as the object of their dilated attention. The m editation opens w ith a reference to Isaiah 53, the prophecy of the sacrificial Christ, whose silent countenance ( vultus) the prophet describes. s The circumstances of Christ’s arrest are characterized as signs m anipulated by Him to represent visually the nature of His suffering. For example, He allowed H im self to be bound first by the Romans, then by the Jews to show p lain ly that the whole world— both Jewish and Gentile— stood firm ly against Him. Nadal amplifies this universal sign rhetorically, m aking it more conspicuous by varying its parts

(m a gn a e in cu r ru n t reru m v icissitu d in es) , fashioning these parts into striking antitheses ( m a gn a e a n tith eses). 76 He then enum erates some of these antitheses: M alchus attacks C hrist, daring to do w hat he could not, w hile Peter defends C hrist, daring to do what he ought not. Peter’s rash violence is tempered by Christ’s judicious prohibition.77 In His address to the disciples, Jesus expounds a future antithesis they will enact: now while like Peter they have the power to resist, they m ust not; later, they w ill fail to resist, even when at lib erty to do so. He further explains that M alchus embodies the antithesis between sovereign royalty (M alchus means rex) and the servile condition of the Jewish state.78 He devises

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A N N O T A T IO N S A N D M ED IT A T IO N S ON T H E G O SPELS

these antitheses with a view to clarifying visibly the nature of the Passion mystery

{& toto passion is m ea e m ysterio eo sp ecta b a m ).7onJet IE S ES P Ja to g e r henigne. F- R egn rfen ta tu r in circu lo h o ra t e r t i a ; R esgo n Jet a rroganter P ila tu s . qua, ira ,¡ingtas, & obfiznata g er tm a cia R esgon Jet rurjum IESES J e regno ú ’c . Exit cum IESE P Jatu s; ca git con/tlium IuJceorum cruáfixus e f l I E S J rS . J e Barabba, v t Jimittat IES EM, refert G . A u J it clam ores qffiliíta M ater cum J u i s ¡ J e ea re a J lujaros . c r e fc it om nium a f f l i t l w .

P l a t e 11. J e s u s Is R e t u r n e d to P i l a t e . J e r o m e N a d a l, A d n o t a t i o n e s e t m e d i t a t io n e s Engraving by H ie ron ym u s W ie ricx after Bernardino Passeri, 2 3 2 x 145 m m.

i n E v a n g e li a

(A n tw erp . 16 0 7 ).

JE SU S IS R E T U R N E D T O PILATE M A T T H E W XXVI I

M A R K XV

L U K E X XI I I

J O H N X VI I I

N otes for P la te 11

A.

The p rosecu tion resum es; P ilate defends JESUS.

D.

P ila te asks, What then is to be d on e w ith JESUS?

B.

P ilate rejects th e J ew s’ a ccu ­ sations, bu t asks JESUS a b ou t the kingdom.

E.

They scream, “C rucify H im !”

D.

P ilate plans scou rgin g JESUS to a v o id sen din g Him to death.

F.

The th ird h o u r w hen JESUS was cr u c ifie d by th e obstinate, a n gry cries o f th e J ew s is show n in the roundel.

G.

His distrau gh t M other a n d h er com pan ion s h ea r th e tu m u lt a n d are dism ayed

C.

JESUS answers P ilate graciously.

B.

P ilate responds rudely.

C.

JESUS again speaks o f th e kingdom.

D.

P ilate pla n s to fr e e JESUS using Barabbas; h e brings his p la n to the Jews.

E.

In a rage, they d em a n d Barabbas be released instead.

GOSPEL

(Lk)

Pilate [a] called together the ch ief priests and the rulers and the people, and said to them, “You have brought before me this m an, as one who perverts the people; and behold, upon examining Him in your presence, I have found no gu ilt in this man as touching those things of which you accuse Him. Neither has Herod; for I sent you back to him , and behold, nothing deserving of death has been committed by H im .”

(Jn)

Pilate again entered the praetor­ ium [b], and he summoned

R EA D I N G S

JESUS, and said to Him, “Are You the king of the Jews?” JESUS answered, “Do you say this of yourself, or have others told you of Me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own people and the chief priests have delivered You to me. W hat have You done?” JESUS answered [c], “M y kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, M y followers would have fought that I might not be delivered to the Jews. But as it is, M y kingdom is not from here.” The Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” JESUS answered, “You say this; I am a king. This is

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why I was born, and why I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears M y voice.” Pilate said to Him, “W hat is truth?” And when he had said this, he went outside to the Jews again [d], and said to them, “I find no guilt in Him.” (Lk)

Pilate said, “I w ill chastise and release H im .” At festival time it was necessary for him to release to them one prisoner.

(Mt) At festival time, the procurator used to release to the crowd a prisoner, whomever they would. He had at that time a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore, when they had gathered together, Pilate said [d], “Whom do you wish that I release to you? Barabbas, or JESUS W ho is called C hrist?” For he knew that they had delivered Him up out of envy. (Mk) At festival time, he used to release to them one of the prisoners, whomever they had asked for. Now there was a man called Barabbas imprisoned with some rioters, one who in the riot had com m itted murder. The crowd came up and asked that he do for them as he was wont. But Pilate said to them, “Do you wish that I release to you the king of the Jews?” For he knew that the chief priests had delivered Him up out of envy. (Jn)

“Your custom is that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Do you wish that I release to you the king of the Jews?” They all cried out again,

“Not this man, but Barabbas!” Barabbas was a robber. (M t) The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to destroy JESUS. But the procurator said to them, “W hich of the two do you wish me to release to you?” They said, “Barabbas!” Pilate said [d], “W hat then am I to do with JESUS W ho is called C hrist?” They all said [e], “Let Him be crucified!” The procurator said, “Why? W hat evil has He done?” They cried out the more, “Let Him be crucified!” (Mk) The chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. But Pilate said to them, “W hat then do you want me to do to the king of the Jews?” T hey cried out [e], “C rucify H im !” But Pilate said, “Why, what evil has He done?” But they kept crying out the more, “Crucify H im !” (Lk)

The mob cried out, saying, “Away with this man, release Barabbas to us!”— one who had been thrown into prison for a certain riot that had occurred in the city, and for murder. Pilate spoke to them again, wishing to release JESUS. They kept shouting [e], “Crucify Him! Crucify H im !” He said a third time, “Why, what evil has He done?” I find no crime worthy of death in Him. I will therefore chastise and release Him” [d]. But they persisted with loud cries, demanding that He be crucified; and their cries prevailed.

(Mk) Now it was the third hour [f], and they crucified Him.

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ANNOTATION

A. After they all returned from Herod, prosecution of JESUS resumed far more violently. Pilate received H erod’s message, and questioned JESUS in the forecourt in their presence. The leaders bring charges; Pilate counters: “Stop tryin g to savage H im , you Jews! Eve questioned Him at length in your presence. I find no reason at all for His execution. Your charges are worthless, false, and m aliciously contrived. If Roman authority has no w eight w ith you (and it should have the most!), and the prefect who has that authority is discounted, then at least believe Galilee’s proselyte tetrarch, Herod. The message said, as you well know, that Herod cleared H im of all charges, just as I have. Herod saw Him as a fool. The cloak’s a sign of that! He trifled w ith Him; I’ll scourge H im and let Him go. So be satisfied!” The Jews were outraged at the idea. B. Pilate ignored their outcry, and reentered the praetorium taking JESU S w ith him . He w anted to question H im directly about the kingdom , for he knew JESUS hadn’t sought the kingdom of Judea by seditious revolt against Roman authority. He asks instead about w hat and where His kingdom is. C. JESUS answers politely. “Do you ask this of yourself, Pilate, or have others told you about M y kingdom?” Christ never asked anything out of ignorance, for He knew all things in diverse ways. But as new knowledge came by experience here and now in keeping with the

divine economy of the Incarnation, He could question Pilate as though He didn’t know the answer and wondered about it. C hrist knew that His teaching about the kingdom which He and the disciples proclaim ed, was public knowledge. They preached the kingdom of heaven, not one of earth. C hrist knew Pilate meant that kingdom . And so He dealt k in d ly w ith him , calling him to spiritual sanity: “Do you speak of the kingdom that I proclaim on your own, or have you learned of it from others?” B. Pilate bristled. H e’s annoyed that JESUS spoke of religion. “Am I a Jew,” he snaps, “Should I know or w orry about Your despicable superstitions?” He ignored Christ’s question and said, “Your people and priests have handed You over as a man condem ned. W hat have You done?” But why ask about what JESU S did, Pilate? D idn’t you hear their accusations? [Pilate] Yes, I heard and dismissed them all; Herod did too. So now I ask what He’s done. Perhaps it’s something the Jews didn’t mention, or I don’t understand. Tell me now why they harass and accuse You so viciously. Pilate was bitter and indignant, and disturbed by Christ’s response. He asks JESUS two things: whether He is a king, and what He has done. JESUS answers him. C. To the first question He says: “The kingdom I proclaim is not of this world. It is not physical, earthly, or human, like yours. It is a spiritual, heavenly, divine kingdom. Were it

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like yours, M y followers would fight to keep Me from being handed over to you or the Jews. No, M y kingdom is not here.” C hrist’s word about His kingdom is invariable, and His response confirms His teaching. For in it, what did He proclaim anywhere other than His kingdom , one spiritual and divine? Three times Christ said M y kingdom , each tim e em phatically, as though to say that kingdom, that kingdom of M ine! And at the same tim e, He lifts Pilate’s mind to the things of heaven, and to the crux of their talk, when He says, “No, M y kingdom is not here!” So then, where is it, if not here? [Christ] It is now, ever was, and ever w ill be in the heavenly, divine realm, a kingdom of all ages. For I reign always with M y eternal Father. Yet another one will arise from M y Incarnation, won by my life and death. And after M y Resurrection from the dead and Ascension to the Father, I will rule that kingdom . I don’t yet do so, but I shall when I sit at the Father’s right hand. Then I shall have destroyed all powers and subjected all things to the Father. I w ill judge the world; all enemies and lost souls w ill be in H ell’s eternal fire, and death destroyed. I shall hand the kingdom over to the Father, and reign in heaven with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and on earth for all eternity. Pilate was shaken to the core when he heard JESUS say so forcefully, “My kingdom is not here.” Yet he asked quietly, though not without envy and in a sly tone, “If what You say, JESUS, is true, You

are then a king?” JESUS answers, “You call Me a king, and I am just that. But there’s nothing to fear for yourself or the Roman empire. Hear Me, so that you can accept that, and learn too what you want to know, what I’ve done. “Yes, I am born coeternal Son from the eternal Father, I the King of all ages, the Infinite Word. I am the image and eternal witness of divine power by reason of M y procession and nativity from the Father. I am also God-man, born from the Virgin. M y Father made Me king over Sion, His holy m ountain [Ps 2 ], as witness to eternal truth, and to proclaim the law of the Lord and the mystery of divine truth [Heb 1]. He made Me heir of all, but this by the death that I will suffer to testify to truth, and to make for M yself a kingdom through m artyrdom on the cross that I am about to endure for that very truth and the proclamation of M y Gospel. You can understand, if you wish, what I have done, what the Father has done, and will do in Me. And you w ill see the kind of kingdom I have, if you’re w illing to open your eyes just a bit.” All this JESUS said, though not explicitly, but Pilate didn’t understand. JESUS saw some moral goodness and truth in Pilate, even though he would sin against Him. He gave Pilate a chance to commit a lesser sin, and fall more excusably from frailty and not m alice. Touching Pilate even more deeply, JESUS said, “All who are of the truth hear My voice.” How gracious a call to sanctity! Yes, there’s truth w ithin you, Pilate, recognize it! Yield to it!

J E S U S IS R E T U R N E D T O P I L A T E

Don’t just hear M y words, but understand and accept them! But P ilate’s am bitious pride and evil pagan practice let him hear nothing that could bring him to such a life. C h rist’s words moved him not at all. He understood nothing save his firm belief that JESUS was innocent. Yet out of curiosity, though carelessly and contem ptuously, he asked what Truth was. He didn’t expect an answer! D. Taking JESUS w ith him , Pilate went right away to the forecourt to address the leaders and the crowd of Jews. He repeated exactly his judgm ent that JESUS is innocent: I find no reason to condemn JE SU S. At that the Jews ranted more viciously. JESU S made no answer at all (for He had never answered their accusations in Pilate’s presence), so that he urged and exhorted H im to reply: “You don’t respond. Don’t You hear w hat they say against You, their m any accusations?” Not even then did Christ say a word, so that Pilate wondered. But unlike Herod, he didn’t take for a fool Him Whom he had just heard speak so wisely, so much did he admire His gentleness and innocent integrity in word and work. Pilate was totally given to freeing JESUS once he knew that the Jews had acted out of slanderous envy. Pilate therefore made a plan in keeping with contemporary Jewish practice that he thought could save JE SU S. There was a custom in Jerusalem that at the Pasch the Jews could ask the Roman prefect for the release of some one

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prisoner, which he would grant. There was then in prison a notorious thief, Barabbas, who had com m itted m urder in the course of a riot. Pilate would present him to the Jews along with gentle JE SU S, w ith the idea of freeing one of the two, but no one else. He hoped the Jews w ouldn’t be so hatefully cruel as to prefer the arch-crim inal Barabbas to a meek and hum ble JESU S. They would do no such thing, or so he thought. You’re wrong, Pilate, if you th in k their leaders are human beings! T hey look like them , but they’re demons and worse in their savage m alice, as you w ell know. You stand the prisoners in the forecourt, here the degenerate Barabbas, an icon of depravity, and over there, good JE SU S, W hose body is bruised from abuse, yet suffused w ith divine propriety, restraint, and dignity. [Pilate] No matter if you Jews want me to free someone else. I’m offering you either Barabbas or JE SU S. Rem ember who they are. Pick one of the two, but no one else. You’re won’t be so shameless and brutal as to take Barabbas over JE SU S. T hat would mean you know he’s guilty. Take JESUS, and don’t lust for blood. Pilate, you’ve no idea how blind these Jews are! They won’t ask for JESUS, God, and Savior of all. T hey want Barabbas, a thief and degenerate murderer. For once they heard Pilate’s offer, they feared that the crowd w ould rescue JESUS from their hands. So the leaders and elders parcel out their tasks and go to the crowd

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everywhere, suborn and incite them against Christ. They urge them to ask for Barabbas, not JESUS. See them scurry about, stirring up unrest. Their outrageous lies and calum nies arouse the crowd. Here they ask, over there they threaten and imprecate the people. Demons among them fuel their rage; Pilate waits to see where it will explode. When the demons decide the mob has been seduced to their side, they leave. The crowd gathers with the leaders. Once again Pilate asks, “W hat about it? Who do I release?” E. The crowd, leaders, and elders scream, “Barabbas, not JESUS!” You devils prefer a thief to One Who has given you endless gifts! You prefer an insurrectionist to a man of peace and tranquillity, a killer to the Author of eternal life! Don’t you fear God, or even Pilate? Pilate does everything to free JESUS, your fellow countryman, your Prophet, King, and Teacher. But you stop it all, and lie to destroy Him. W hen Pilate heard them demand Barabbas and not JESUS, he knew his plan didn’t work, and tried another ploy to free JESUS. “You Jews dem and Barabbas. I haven’t decided yet, and I’m not giving an answer. But if I free Barabbas, a thief, agitator, and killer, you should also want me to free a just and gentle man, something I should do. D. “W hat am I to do with JESUS, your Messiah? You can’t forbid His release!” This only aroused the Jews to greater fury. They spew out at last what their cunning had up to now concealed. For they weren’t

honest about the real reason for taking JESUS to Pilate, which was that they wanted Him crucified! E. All scream, “Crucify JESUS!” Pilate couldn’t allow the insolent fury, he snapped at the outrage: “W hy? He’s done nothing wrong. It’s all your hateful, wretched fury. I know, and you too, evil as you are, that He’s a just and holy m an.” The ever more violent Jews shout again, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” The more Pilate saw them afire with m alignant hate, the more he tried to save Him. Again he defends JESUS with bitter words for the Jews: “You’re evil, He’s innocent! He’s just, you’re not! You’re full of hate, envy, m alice, He’s resplendent w ith love, benevolence, and hum ility. So I repeat what I’ve said so often: JESUS has done nothing wrong. I find no reason to condemn or execute Him. T here’s no way I’ll crucify Him. I won’t murder Him cruelly and ignom iniously!” D. Pilate took another tack to see if perhaps he could m ollify the Jews and m itigate their hatred. He still wanted to save JESUS from death, w hich he thought he could do if he had Him scourged and crowned with thorns. T hat way the Jews might stop seeking His death once they were sated w ith His blood, gore, and abuse. T hey’re cruel and evil, Pilate. You’re not as bad, but you are wicked, cruel. W hy scourge JESUS, an innocent, just, holy man, and crown Him with thorns? There are other ways to free Him. W ill you satisfy the Jews? You know they’re implacable! Implacable or not,

J E S U S IS R E T U R N E D T O P I L A T E

you’ll still despise them. To spill just and holy blood at their request won’t help Caesar’s honor or yours. Your action’s im pious, tyrannical, and evil! F.

The entire event is shown in the roundel, with the third hour noted by having the sun in the First quadrant of its diurnal path. As noted, the Jews used a horologium w ith unequal hour m arkings so that the day always had twelve equal hours. The leaders and their crowd First made their insistent protest at the third hour, and urged to the end that He be crucified un til, as M ark wrote,

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“It was the third hour, and they crucified H im .’’ G. The sorrowful Virgin Mother, holy women, and disciples were nearby; they heard the tumultuous clamor in the atrium of the praetorium. And, as we may devoutly believe, there were groans either from the disciples or from those who reported exactly what was happening. Their unending agony and grief only grew with new reports or fresh outcries. Join that holy group in your mind, heart, and spiritual senses. Contemplate what happens there, and imitate it.

M E D I T AT I O N

D ism ayed by events at H erod’s court, the now cautious Jews return to Pilate, for they saw that Herod too upheld JE S U S ’S innocence. Frustration kindles even greater rage against JE SU S. A dm inistrators, leaders, and guards seethe w ith deeper anger, contum ely, and opprobrium than an yth in g up to now. Let us reverence this C h rist’s seventh procession, and in tears follow in His way. We m ay join the com panions of the V irgin M other, who follows her Son from afar in the intense sorrow of her heart, and with eyes ever Fixed on H im as m uch as she can. Gentle JE SU S is dragged last of all up the steps to P ilate’s praetorium . W ith M ary, let’s take this as our seventh station, and beg Christ that His sacred m ysteries be devoutly sealed deep in our hearts. And let’s ask M ary too for these graces. After the events at Herod’s place, and hearing his report, Pilate resumed

work for JESU S’S release, but made no progress against the execrable, fixed m alice of the Jews [Jn 18]. Finally he asks JESU S directly about His kingdom , as though he had heard about the kind of kingdom that Christ and His disciples preached. Note C h rist’s adm irable divine meekness, and how gentle He is w ith Pilate. Pilate could have freed H im w ith a single word, but he didn’t, and this failure was an unspeakable evil. Nevertheless good JESUS showers him w ith benefits, and overlooks his malice. He sees and probes the innate good Pilate has, and blesses it, though He knows Pilate will soon give Him to the Jews for crucifixion. But what do we weak souls do? If we catch anyone in a crim e, we investigate and prosecute it, and then in dark hatred judge him. If he has any good points or qualities, intelligence or am bition, these we set aside. Shouldn’t we rather follow C h rist’s

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salutary lead, and look at his virtue or good qualities? No one’s entirely bad. Even so, he would still have the nature that God made good. So we must ever look to the good, to contemplate and praise in it God the Author of all good. From that we can come to love the individual, praise the good he has, and be reconciled w ith him. Then we’ll have a way to aid his salvation by our good offices. Pilate defended C hrist’s inno­ cence, but in a weak, tim id way. He feared baseless rumors, or that his name be damaged, or that the people riot [M k 15; Jn 19]. He had the truth of the case against JESU S, but didn’t face it with courage. Would that judges and leaders weren’t so depraved! So often they face Truth fearfully, weakly! They probe much that is neither needed nor useful [Ps 116; Jn 14; 1 Jn 5]. But Truth itself stays fixed and firm, ever with divine strength. For God is Truth, and all truth partakes of that highest Truth. W ould that Truth inspire all judges and leaders, and human respect, friendship, or unforeseen and crippling fears never pull them from the ascent to Truth! Let’s dwell on C hrist’s actions, and especially those in His Passion, so that no defect of ours will miss the special help ready there for us. The great mysteries recounted in the Annotation were indeed found in Christ’s words [Jn 18], as they still are, yet Pilate didn’t understand them, sunk as he was in pagan rites and vices. So after he heard about Truth, and asked C hrist what Truth is, he went outside— as if out of contempt he would look after other things— for he expected no answer to his question. Alas, how we im itate Pilate in our negligence! W hen we read the

Scriptures or sacred writers, or listen to sermons, how often we miss their spirit! Or else we re so distracted that, as often happens, we don’t have the right ears for hearing the divine word. We don’t use our inner ears, only the outer ones, the physical ears that both we and the brutes have. We don’t attune the inner ears that can comprehend the mysteries. If a m ystical truth comes along w ith a desire to embrace it, all traces of the m ystery vanish as our m ind turns outside itself, to abandon inner, higher things, salvific things!. How sad! So much are we children of earth [Ps 4], ever with a heavy heart set on earthly affairs [Rom 1; Ps 4 ], that we shame our natural powers and the divine power and glory infused w ithin! And so we’re given to inanity, and work at deception to abandon Christ and turn Him out. And not only to reject Him as He instructs us from heaven, but to overlook Him there in the creatures in our midst [1 Jn 1], C hrist is eternal light, infinite perfection, the highest Truth. W here are we when we leave .that? Where are we, save in darkness, void, deception, sin, and dem onic ruins? We abandon God, the First Truth. We see not even the light and truth put by God in His creation. For God leaves a trace of H im self in it, and His own image in us! We don’t think about this, we don’t grasp it. In miserable exile, apart from God’s pure truth and light, we annihilate what is in us! Now, my soul, look at these perverse, detestable atrocities. Pilate gives you perfidious Jews, according to custom, the option to free one or the other prisoner from death, either JESUS or Barabbas, either a man of radiant innocence and virtue, glorious

J E S U S IS R E T U R N E D T O P I L A T E

in H is miracles, or a detested murderer and seditious thief. And he gives you the chance— alm ost compels you, if you weren’t so completely evil— to ask for JE SU S. Yet obstinately, you dem and Barabbas. C an this be anything but evil? Are you human beings, or wild beasts in human form? P ilate’s better than you by any m easure— Barabbas him self more just— for Pilate castigates you! Fearful demons are glad they can’t top your malice. O nly you could prefer Barabbas to JE SU S, only you who surpass demons in perverse malice could condem n H im . Now you’re equal w ith the dem ons, soon you’ll surpass them! W hen Satan tries to prevent C h rist’s death, you’ll work rabidly for it! How sad to pair Christ and Barabbas! A wild nightmare! They stand there, JESUS and Barabbas, for villains to judge, God, that is, and a desperado, Eternal Life and Sin which is eternal death, One who offers eternal life, the other who m erits eternal and tem poral death. Rage drives the Jew ish leaders to prefer Barabbas to JE SU S. T hey w ant him freed, and JESU S nailed to the cross. Insidiously, they move the crowd to dem and crucifixion be im posed on JE SU S. C rim in al conspirators make H im seem even worse and more detestable than the evil and detestable Barabbas, and one worth their contempt and scorn [Ps 21]. I know you’re here, holy angels! W hat are your thoughts? You know who JESU S is, who the Jews and the dem ons, your enem ies, are, and Barabbas too. Yet you don’t erase their black, evil acts, nor do you bring divine justice for your Lord and God! [Angels] We do m inister justice, and God does too. Nature itself abhors

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the crime. But we also know this, that God wished to reveal this sacrifice of His Son for the eternal life of human beings, and to teach us all. Let all see that by His Passion and cross Christ took up not only m an kind’s venial sins, but even our most atrocious and unspeakable ones. Christ truly put on the thief’s person. He truly died for his sins and like ones, and even greater sins. Once again God instructs us! Nevertheless we’re upset when someone who seems less worthy, or perhaps equally worthy or even better than ourselves, is given preference. T hat’s vicious pride, as against the real hum ility of thinking oneself unworthy and the least of all, and accepting it with equanim ity and a joyful, gracious heart when someone else is preferred to us. And what about this? A suffering C hrist, Lord and C reator of heaven and earth, lets a thief be preferred over H im self, but we take it amiss if anyone’s preferred over us! So think about Christ, im itate Him. Don’t just drive out pride, but envy too, and all deadly, destructive evil forces. Don’t say it’s wrong for someone to have an edge over us. Is anything worse than having the Jews prefer Barabbas to C hrist? Yet that didn’t lessen C h rist’s m erit, but only made it the more admirable. W hat else can we learn here, holy angels? [Angels] M any wonderful things, but this especially. Human judgm ental error is everywhere. W ho doesn’t ever cherish or want some inferior, less worthy goal? Even if at first ignorance and frailty (or both) begin the error, evil nevertheless slithers in, so that prudent and freewilled as you are, still you freely choose to take the worse path, w hich brings disaster! Really,

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w hat’s better, vice or virtue? Satan or Christ? Hell or Heaven? Darkness or light? Eternal fire or unending glory? Answer me! We know what you want and choose: usually the first options, your shame and perdition. But the highest values you w illfully neglect and defer. You’re better pleased with vice, Satan, Hell, darkness and eternal fire than with Christ, paradise, virtue, light and eternal glory. Those who excuse sin speak as if they wanted God away on the sidelines [Ps 148]! They are indeed

w ithout hope. But don’t you, who aren’t a hopeless sinner, do the same? W hen you’re a glutton or drunkard, and seek sensual pleasure, wealth and glory, don’t you prefer filthy, vile things over God’s will (which is God H im self)? And if so, is it anything other than what hopeless sinners do? We sinners must learn from the Jews’ tragic choice to love and embrace the better things. Through the majestic m erit of this, His incomparable abasement, Christ w ill help us obey His gracious will to His eternal glory.

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(Antwerp, 1607). Engraving by

C H R IS T IS S C O U R G E D MATTHEW

XXVII

MARK

XV

JOHN

XIX

N otes for P late 12

A.

The praetorium andpropylaeum . H ere P ilate view s C hrist’s scourging.

B.

The p illa r w h ere C hrist is bound.

C.

A lo g block w h ere the con d em n ed w ere decapitated.

D.

The cro w d o f Jew s a n d Romans.

GOSPEL

(Jn)

E.

JESUS is brutally scourged.

F.

At P ilate’s word, the lictors stop th eir scourging.

G.

The M oth er o f G od hears th e tu m u lt fr o m th e fla gella tio n . H ow sorely h er h ea rt a n d so u l are afflicted !

R EA D I N G S

Pilate [a], then, took JESUS and

(M t) JESUS he scourged.

had Him scourged [b], [e].

(Mk) JESUS he scourged.

ANNO A. The praetorium w ith its propylaeum and balcony, from w hich Pilate and his aides see JESUS flogged. B. The pillar. Crim inals were tied to it, and in Roman practice lashed with whips. (In his Funeral Oration f o r P aula , St. Jerom e says that he was shown a column stained with the Lord’s blood that supported the church portico.) JESUS is taken there and scourged. Part of the pillar is now at Rome in the church of Blessed Praxedes. C. A log block. The condemned were m ade to lay their necks there to take the executioner’s ready and sure blow.

AT I O N

D. The entire crowd of Jews and Roman soldiers gathered around for the spectacle. E. M any details should be noted here, though the engraving can’t show them all. First, see how brutal lictors take JESUS up the stairs at P ilate’s order. Lictors, consular aides, proconsular assistants and those of the prefects and praetors, together had the role of execu­ tioner for the condemned. A dozen were there for the consuls, h alf a dozen for the others. Lictors preceded the m agistrates, holding high a bundle of whips w ith an executioner’s axe attached. See how they drag gentle JESUS to the

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platform and pillar, to strip off His clothes, the white cloak of Herod’s as well as H is own, and then His seamless robe. They scatter His clothes about, and JESUS stands naked before all. You holy angels now here, don’t you recoil at the outrageous abuse of God? And yet you adore His corporeal majesty! Good JESUS, how great in that hour was Your sacred, virginal modesty! You souls who know Christ JESUS, you surely see dear JESUS naked, your Lord and Lord of heaven and earth soon to be shamefully brutalized as though a brigand. If you can’t bear this, how will you endure what comes next? Demons despise the naked Nazarene, but the soldiers gaze in awe at the splendor of Christ’s magnificent body and His profound dignity. The Jews only snicker. JESUS is tied naked to the sturdy pillar, hands and feet bound, His back bare to the blows. Discarding their swords, the lictors take their whips, dreadful executioners at their work. Then in savage twos and threes they strike. Fresh ones relieve the weary. Their first blows bring fierce welts, black bruises show in His sacred flesh, and terrible wounds open. Blood splatters about as Christ’s divine flesh, the flesh of alm ighty God, is torn apart. Other soldiers urge them on. Grim torturers vie with one another for harder blows. W hen they see His back so badly torn that there’s no room for another welt [Is 1, 35], they spin Him around to bash Him with no less fury [Jerome, Anselm, Bernard], Blood spurts out, His body is awash in it, the pillar and earth are soaked.

H oly angels, you turn your minds here from heaven to deplore the obscenity. Don’t you weep bitter tears? “Weep or lament, we can’t ,” they say! But what then? “We decry and deplore something never known to any of us!” Let the heavens shudder, earth tremble, every creature recoil from the face of the Creator so barbarously abused! Souls in Limbo grieve to hear of this. But demons rejoice; the ones there shout it to others, and all exult. Raucous devils deride a flagellated JESUS. The Romans show no mercy; some Jews feed their rage with the savage beating, some barely tolerate or even repudiate it, for fear that a satisfied Pilate will free JESUS. W hat C hrist endured up to now— the sorrow, fear, weariness, pain, and bloody sweat— was utter agony. He was taken like a notorious brigand and sm itten, damned first in the Jewish council, spat upon, struck w ith brutal whips, rods, and switches. His eyes .were masked to hum iliate Him. Condemned again in the Jewish plenary council, He was dragged to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, from Herod back to Pilate, clad in a fool’s white robe. Vicious chief priests and elders accused Him before the two rulers. He was readied for the cross amid great contention among them and the mob and all the Jews. W ho could count now the blows, jabs, insults, injuries, hum iliations, or bruises the violent chains visited on His hands and feet? Good Christ JESUS, You’ve been abused by these trials for almost twelve hours. Worn out with cold

C H R S I T IS S C O U R G E D

and weariness, desperately weakened by sadness and sorrow of spirit, You’ve endured both the evils heaped upon You and the crimes committed against You and the Father. Even worse, You see how Your many labors will not avail so many souls through their own fault. Still, if what happens next and what follows that be compared to it, it will all seem very little. And yet while the abuse rains on You, benign JESUS, Your love for the Father and all humankind grows ever deeper, and You’re more passionately given to our redemption through what You suffer, and You summon greater spiritual strength and resolve. For You counter with singular acts of heroic virtue ever of the highest order. C h rist’s scourging was utter b ru tality and an agony beyond words, as were all His wounds. This we m ay realize in part if we remember that C hrist’s hum anity was perfect beyond measure. Take His soul: it was by infused charism s far more excellent than any other hum an soul. As for His body, it was by every account perfect in the w ay it kept the balance and interplay of its parts, prim ary qualities, and four humours as they informed interior and external senses, and in the harm ony, perspicacity, and vivacity of its bodily organs. The same holds for its shape, form, and size, the just proportions of its lim bs, their grace, power and majestic dignity. But why say more? David sang the glory of C hrist’s hum anity [Ps 44]: “Your beauty exceeds all, O Christ, more gracious and perfect than all who were, are now, or will

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be,” as the unusual reduplicated Hebrew yopyapita suggests so well. It’s as if to sing, “Your incomparable, transcendent beauty, Christ JESUS! The more I ponder, the more I know Your utter perfection.” Solomon sang the same, to echo his father David [Sg 5]: “Who is your beloved beyond all others?” That is, the beloved is beyond and loved above all others. The bride answers: “My beloved is fair and ruddy, a paragon among ten thousand.” Her canticle tells the perfect beauty of Christ’s humanity. About Christ’s humanity, I say it is the very best, for God’s hand wrought it for hypostatic union with the Divine Word, and it was united to that Word of God. This shows how bitter for Christ was the scourging, for even if His courage endured the obscenity, still for His fine-tuned bodily senses even the least lesion meant pain beyond limit. F.

At P ilate’s word the thugs stay their lashes, for he didn’t want JESUS killed. T hey untie Him from the blood soaked pillar and make H im put on His garm ents. Then they retie H im . A battered JESUS finds some relief, though the clothes now irritate and exacerbate His wounds.

G. Behold the Virgin M other of God. In spirit she sees all, even though she was very lik ely close by, just outside the atrium . She couldn’t but feel the cruel whips, as the holy women did too. Their groans and sorrow swelled ever greater. Know how the sword of sorrow that her Son knew transverberares the V irgin M other’s heart and soul, and how C h rist’s dreadful

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stripes fall on her virginal, sacrosanct heart. Yet with great spirit, she endures all. Share her grief, her sorrow, and reflect on the indignity of fierce thugs lashing God, the grief He endures, and the copious flow of blood. Look into your heart to feel there— as you should by now— what Christ suffers. Bring the blows on yourself, so that with a vivid spirit you take them as though they fell on your heart and soul. If this spirit doesn’t seize you in m editating on C hrist’s Passion, at least use a physical discipline to arouse your devotion, begging God for the grace. But don’t think that if these feelings are there, then we needn’t do some prudent and circumspect external penance.

Note how Christ suffered the most intense bodily and spiritual grief in His Passion and death, but how His soul’s highest powers sustained and supported H im , as well as m agnanim ity of m ind and His unbounded love. And so it was that while He knew that His Passion and death would win us eternal salvation, as His Father w illed, still He thought nothing trivial, and He acted w ith absolute dedication. Because M ary, the blessed V irgin M other of God, kept deep hope and faith, she was fortified with the support of all other virtues, as well as with the unbounded hope and faith that came from her Son’s Passion and death.

M E D I T AT I O N

The immense compassion of God the Father and of the Son of God! Christ will be nailed to a barbaric cross and put to death, but must He be cruelly scourged too? It’s enough, Lord God, for Your Son to die, please don’t let Him be scourged, I beg You, if it be Your will! But I see, Lord God, that You don’t so will. Let Him, my heart’s life, be then scourged, the true light of my eyes, my soul’s strength and salvation! For I know You have imposed the law for adopted children on Your natural and coeternal Son [Is 14, 3; Pss 2, 34, 45; M t 3; Heb 12], “If He is M y Son, M y consubstantial Son, as He is, let Him be chastised as though an adopted son on behalf of M y adopted ones. Yes, I allow scourging, but not out of necessity. For nothing of M y Son’s Passion, save His death, was needed for human salvation

and life— the death of God was enough and more than enough for that. And not even His death was an absolute necessity. For had I so wished, a single meritorious act by Christ could have won your salvation and eternal life with Me [Eccl 5]. But I wanted to show even more compassion for you mortals. It wasn’t enough to confer just the mercy had in m aking M y Son man and in having Him free you from sin and Satan without having to die, but I added the great mercy that is M y Son’s death, scourging, crown of thorns, pain, hum iliation, and degradation, so that all these would not only suffice, but even be superabundant redemption. For I proclaimed in the psalm [Ps 129] that with Me is plenteous redemption by M y Son. Moreover, inspired by the Holy Spirit, David sang [Ps 50]: “Amply wash me from my sin.”

C H R S I T IS S C O U R G E D

Lord God, holy and m erciful, I do see why You add to His death Your Son’s sufferings for the copious redem ption of our sins [2 Esd; Ps 102], even though His death alone could m erit total redem ption. You’ve shown us Your love in His suffering and death; You’ve shown the great d ign ity of our hum an nature, itself Your gift. You’ve provided in Him the most efficacious example of hum ility, obedience, and every virtue. Lord JE SU S, the Father is the eternal font of Your beneficence. You suffered w hat You needn’t have, and more than needed. And You didn’t suffer for Yourself, but for us, for You merited grace and glory for us [Ps 13], not Yourself. And if You merited graces for Yourself, You m erited those You had set aside for our sake, or didn’t even make claim to. In this You exalted Your goodness, for You chose to merit through Your Passion and death what was already owed You: corporeal glory and all that looked to external excellence [Phil 2], You merited also to have Your C hurch saved from attacks by the impious, heretics, and the AntiC hrist, and that all who die in grace, yet need purification, may be cleansed after death. Lord, how ineffably great Your glorious goodness! Great JESUS, see how I take refuge in every part of Your Passion to help me grow. M y m ind is weak, my heart confused. I am destitute, reduced to nothing. Nor do I understand those who follow Your fearful sufferings and m ysteries. Help me, Lord JE SU S, by these m ysteries and Your suffering, You W ho are M ercy itself! JE SU S, God, You are scourged, and that most brutally, for us. Brash soldiers strip You; m eekly You obey them to stand naked before all. Neither

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angels nor demons were once stopped from seeing You naked, but now they look on You stripped otherwise. For You stand naked most of all before the Jews, the Romans, the world, and Your enemies, before those who stripped You to abase You and clothe You in confusion and shame [Ps 34], Yes, You blush deeply, holy JE SU S, yet You W ho are purer than Adam in paradise know not his guilt. For in You there is no sin, no urge to sin, nor could there ever be. All this is then new pain that You took from us for our sake, and not even new pain, for during the whole night and day You blushed at the indignities You endured as though a brigand, blasphemer, or vicious degenerate. And yet, great JE SU S, in Your nakedness You were garbed with celestial gifts and virtues, clad in justice, divine light, grace, and m ighty power [Is 59; Pss 92, 103]. You wore robes of divine justice and were covered w ith a pallium of zeal. In Your abasem ent and frailty You towered, Lord, for Your weakness towers over any human or hostile power presiding over sin and Hell [1 Cor 1]. For Your h um iliatin g nakedness is vested w ith mercy and love for our human family. So indeed did You work our salvation and the robes to hide our nakedness, for glory covered Yours, dear JESUS! Yes, we’re twisted and naked. We received in Adam the cloak of justice, but lost it by his fault and ours too, by his actual sin and our original sin. We were conceived and born naked, yet You formed us, Lord JESUS, with the gift of Your grace in the sacram ent of salvific water. But how often, alas, were we later despoiled! How often a soul, naked and fragile, cast itself am ong cruel, arm ed enem ies! How often God and the angels saw its

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brazen corruption! Holy JESUS, ever cover us with Your nakedness, wherein is the power of Your gifts and the robes of justice! Behold, my soul, how your God is bound and chained to a frigid pillar in the deep cold, and tied fast in more pain than ever. He was chained seven times already: in the Garden, at Annas’s place, a first time at Caiphas’s, and there again in the morning, then at Pilate’s court, and also at H erod’s, and then when Pilate sent Him to the pillar. Brought to a judge, He was untied, and when remanded, retied. Now you see Him bound again so that He could in no way evade the cruel lashes. A deplorable act, and even worse with its promise of the lash [1 Tm 3]! Grant me, JESUS, yet more blessings by this mystery. M ay I be held tight to Your Church’s pillar of truth and never separated from it by bitter trial! M ay I discipline m yself with salvific lashes lest I abandon the Church and not be held tight to it forever! Good JESUS, grant me ever to bind m yself closer to Your w ill and Your law. Let me hear well the holy call of the evangelical counsels that I have by Your grace. Grant also, Lord, to all who don’t hear that call that they not contemn Your counsels or disdain the religious life that is Your salutary gift, abundant grace, and easy yoke [M t 11]. Alas, not all hear it [M t 19], but one who doesn’t follow a rule of life should still order his ways to help him keep what counsels he can, and not be content w ith mere observance of the commandments. However much we may resist trudging further along the sorrowful path of indignities, we must, with Your help, face the infinite atrocity of Your scourging, my chastised God! Brutal,

vicious guards lash with cruel whips! Gore oozes over the dreadful wounds in alm ighty God’s holy flesh! His entire body is slashed! From head to feet there’s not a sound spot in Him [Is 1], His sores make Him despised like a leper, one stricken by God and laid low [Is 53]. Yet He was wounded for our iniquities [Is 59], and destroyed by the power and count of the lashes for our sins. But this isn’t His chastisement, His punishment, but ours! From it comes our peace; His gore is our salve. Wretched, grevious events! God is bitterly, ignominiously flogged for our sins, as we wallow in evil pleasures and our sinful lusts bring pain and death on Him! Vile thugs! It wasn’t enough to lash an innocent man the Roman way, but you had to use whips for blows even more cruel than switches on Him as though He were an infamous villain! Weep, weep, my soul! Lament, my heart! Shed tears! Surely you see how lashes pum m el the Son of God! You see JESUS scourged as one unclean! See Him beaten and abased, torn and ripped apart! JESUS grieves, not w ith tears, but in His wounds. They’re His body’s countless eyes that let Him shed not tears but bitter rivers of blood. Angels grieve as they can. The V irgin M other laments His pain. The holy fathers in the netherworld groan. Enoch and Elias in the earthly paradise weep as angel voices tell them the mysteries of His Passion, as we m ay devoutly believe. All nature mourns in turn. Can anyone be so hardhearted as not to weep and lament? Who, on recalling the infinite horror, wouldn’t feel as though every lash fell not just on his own body, but on his very soul as well? Yet in fact what we do sense is less harsh than what we should feel, though we can’t

C H R S I T IS S C O U R G E D

say it in words. See the fierce indignity here, devout soul! T hey lash one resplendent in His strength, form, and innocence that all admit! They scourge the Son of God, w hich all could believe that He was, and many should have. All this isn’t sim ply unfitting, or even com pletely so, but in fin itely crim inal and impious! See the sorrow and unlim ited pain of countless wounds that reach across C hrist’s body and into His soul. Every blow and wound hits a heart and soul already crushed w ith over­ whelm ing sorrow. Look to Paradise, to JE SU S, you who love H im , where there em erge not just four, but countless rivers of blood, not water, from a spring of celestial, not earthly delight [Gn 2], Yet all flow from a place of utter g rief and sorrow. And the rivers run not serenely like those of Paradise, but in torment. Nor do they water the earth like the others even if they can— and they surely can, even better than those of Paradise! For this greatest part of earth doesn’t adm it the rivers o f God! A sorrow too deep for tears! C h rist’s life was in His blood, and that life dim m ed as He shed that blood to become ever weaker in body, soul, and spirit. Look now to the V irgin M other to find more than deep sorrow and distress. For no blow could come on her Son’s body that didn’t also come to savage her body, heart, and soul. Perfect love joined M ary to her Son: He couldn’t be scourged and His M other not suffer too. M ary’s love was stricken by the brutal blows, and yet deepened by them . But the more her love grew, the more it was crucified. The sorrows of her Son! The immense sorrow of His M other! U nutterably cruel anyone who can’t sense this!

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Lord JESU S, You know how many were Your wounds, and I believe the devout saints who estim ate 5040. Surely there were as many as could be, for a vicious Pilate didn’t observe Jewish, or even Roman law. He aimed to placate the Jews by punishing You, gentle JESU S, and scourging You w ithout mercy, but not to death. The lashes were excessive, all were allowed, unless lethal! H oly JESU S, that scourging broke every law thanks to Jewish perversity and to diabolic malice. Still, Pilate didn’t get what he wanted— to parry the Jews’ demands— nor anything other than his aim to scourge You against the wish of the Jews. JESUS was viciously abused, but prophecy and divine promise were fulfilled, and our salvation prepared. Yes, holy JE SU S, You were set among the wicked by this, and beyond mere contum ely. For God let Pilate observe what Moses had prescribed [D t 2 5 ], that he should lash You, because the Law said that one who didn’t m erit death was to be lashed. But Pilate broke the Law in the num ber of stripes he allowed. A ccording to it, a g u ilty person was punished with more or fewer lashes in keeping w ith the enorm ity of his crime, though they were not to exceed forty. But You were lashed w ithout restraint, most innocent JE SU S, so You stood accused of every possible crime. In punishing You, Pilate meant to say You didn’t deserve death, but in scourging You so, he said that You merited endless executions. Infinite is this sign of Your love for us, good JE SU S. For what does each wound and bruise tell other than Your unbounded love for us? And if each one tells this, what do all do together? W hat does their number tell?

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Great JESUS, Your wounds call in unison to the Father to beg pardon for our sins. Every single one can and does plead for us, and how much more powerfully all do together! And yet not better, for each one can do that much, yet is somehow far more powerful because each one in that uncountable m ultitude replicates with m ight the very same thing! Truly, great JESU S, by Your stripes You wash away our sins in full [Ps 50], and ever provide ample redem ption [Ps 129]. T heir divine voices sound sweet, clear harm onies, suave and efficacious, for the Father’s ears, and Yours, and those of the Holy Spirit. They protest Sin, Death, and Hell, and they are heard! They tell us to do penance for our sins, to reverence God, and to do His w ill. They show the saints the sure way to devotion. God’s raw wounds so freely endured, a generous gift for our salvation, emerge as our certain and divine refuge in every trial. They offer perfect haven in our labor and pains. Your each and every wound, blessed JESUS, is a spacious, celestial refuge for our shelter [Ps 30]. Yet Your wounds disturb me, great JESUS. For what do my sins not deserve if because of them You, Who are God, were so abused? Still, Your wounds are, and must be, our certain hope of salvation. W hat can and ought I not hope from You, W ho out of immense love, have suffered such abuse to forgive my sins and endow me with strength even before I came to be? Lord JESU S, Your wounds give me courage and power. This they surely can and will do unless my sins prevent it, for God took them to heal and prevent the wounds of my soul [Ps 37]. T here’s nothing sound in our flesh

[Is 1], all is wound, bruise, gore and swollen welt, nothing bandaged, salved, or soothed w ith the oil of warmth and gladness. You took sound flesh to heal ours,' to have Your stripes restore our health, and Your wounds heal ours. Your welts, unbandaged, unsalved, nor soothed w ith oil— or rather whose bandages, salve, and relief worked the savage opening of still other wounds— these Your welts, I say, bandage our wounds of mind and sense with Your strength, cure with the salve of Your blood, and soothe them with the oil of Your mercy. W ho could complain about trials and suffering, and not rather need to bear them with patient endurance? W ho wouldn’t ask to suffer even more for his sins, and seek to love and imitate Christ? Let’s set before the eyes of faith and devout meditation JESUS, Son of God, bound to the brutal scourging pillar. See the gore, wounds, and rivers of blood! And if we sense our own wounds, let’s adm it that strong medicine or soothing oil won’t cure them. Let’s adm it we’re utterly wretched! Gather from this scourging of God, sinful soul, grief and contrition for your vices. You wounded Christ, for as often as you sinned against God you whipped Christ, W ho bore every lash for each of your sins. From His wounds draw strength with eager and firm heart, one made wise and humble by chastising your body. That chastisem ent draws strength from C hrist’s stripes as though they fell on you, and through them your stripes are as fruitful as can be. Offer this bodily discipline to satisfy for your sins; use it to root out vice and win virtue. Use the inner chastisem ent of heart and soul that is contrition, which is ever

C H R S I T IS S C O U R G E D

needed, for we always sin. And to it bring C hrist’s scourging, hum bly and devoutly, to make full satisfaction for sin— that’s the power of contrition— while you sense and im itate the salvific pains of Christ and His Virgin Mother M ary. Then you’ll chastise your evil ways and vices, and erase them by the power of Christ’s wounds. Let’s learn too how to lash the Devil, especially when he attacks: let’s do to him just as he does to us. He relies on arrogance in the face of God and hatred for us. L et’s scourge him w ith the rods of C hrist that breathe h u m ility and endless divine love.

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Arm ed w ith them , let’s turn the power of C h rist’s wounds on him! T h at’s how to punish the beast of beasts! He flays us with pride, let’s flay him with C hrist’s humility, and ours in C hrist. He scars us w ith hatred, we’ll scar him with Christ’s charity, and ours in C hrist. Yes, the prayer and the spiritual sense we get from C hrist in prayer, make a powerful and effective scourge of the Demon. Let’s use them hum bly and well, and a defeated devil w ill flee the sight of C hrist JE SU S’S wounds, whose glory, strength, and power are infinite. AMEN.

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JE SU S IS C R O W N E D W I T H T H O R N S MATTHEW

XXVII

N

MARK

otes fo r

A.

C ruelly beaten, JESUS is d ra gged fr o m the atriu m to the aula in the Praetorium.

B.

P ilate retu rn ed to his o ffice to order w hat he w a n ted done.

C.

JESUS is b ru tally strip p ed o f His garm en ts, a n d cla d in a p u rp le cloak f o r derision.

D.

He is set on a stool, a crow n o f

GOSPEL

(Mt) The soldiers of the Procurator [a] took JESUS into the Praetorium, and gathered together about Him the whole cohort. They stripped Him [c] and put on Him a scarlet cloak; and plaiting a crown of thorns, they put it on His head [d], and a reed into His right hand; and genuflecting betöre Him [e], they mocked Him, saying, “H ail, King of the Jew s!” They spat on Him, and took the reed and kept striking Him on the head. (Mk) The soldiers led Him away into the courtyard of the Praetorium

XV

P la te

JOHN

XI X

13 thorn s p u t on His h ea d , a n d then is g iven a reed scepter.

E.

They strike, abuse, an d' lash JESUS w ith th e reed, a n d h a il Him as K in g o f the Jews.

F.

Outside, the Virgin M other a n d h er com pan ion s learn a ll this fro m informants.

R EA D I N G S

[b] , and they called together the whole cohort. They clothed Him in purple, and plaiting a crown of thorns, they put it on Him, and began to salute Him [e], “H ail, King of the Jew s!” And they kept striking Him on the head with a reed, and spitting upon Him [e]; and genuflecting, they did homage to Him. (Jn)

The soldiers, plaiting a crown of thorns, put it on His head, and arrayed Him in a purple cloak [c ] . And they kept com ing to Him and saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and striking Him.

A N N O T AT I O N

A. The Roman soldiers take JESUS

stay outside to keep their usual

from the atrium and drag Him on

hypocritical avoidance of ritual

the stairs inside to the aula of the

im purity. Messengers tell them

Praetorium . The Jews, however,

what happens to JESUS.

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B. Pilate went to the interior of the building where he told the soldiers what he wanted done. They were to crown with thorns the man just scourged, and salute Him as though He were a king. The Jews would then have reason to be satisfied with that, and he himself have more reason to free JESUS. Yet we know that some men had already been sent to get thorns for the soldiers to plait a crown resembling a royal diadem. C. The whole cohort was called to the inner hall of the Praetorium. Some made a crown of barbaric Egyptian nettle stalks. These were clipped from the small thorn bush whose pleasing blossoms were often made into wreaths. Others bring a purple and scarlet cloak— that either because it was double-dyed, or else its cloth was a scarlet purple color. Such cloth was royal apparel, and custom arily sent by the Romans to honor friendly kings. The cloak was p allium ­ shaped, and attached at the shoulder by a clasp. Other soldiers again strip JESUS of the clothes that protected His bruised body and yet clung to His wounds because of the clotted blood. And so the wounds of good JESUS were reopened. They robe Him in the scarlet purple cloak, and make Him sit on a wretched stool for His throne. Q. Blessed JESUS sat with His wounds reopened and His whole body bathed in blood. They bring the brutal crown, and offer it to Him: it’s the Roman Emperor’s gift, hon oris causa! The Emperor bestows a kingdom , but a thorny

and vile one, as befits Him! All this to hum iliate JESUS! They do not so much as set the crown on His head, as fasten and force it down with the cruel thorns. It was thick and wide, and its thorns pierced most of His head. The sacred blood of JESUS ran on His face, ears, and shoulders, everywhere! Next they force a reed or branch on Him as a royal scepter, and on bended knee all salute the King of the Jews, a king laden with every possible insult! E. “Hail, King of the Jews!,” they shout. Some strike His divine face, others spit on Him, one grabs the reed from Him—a thick, solid reed, as asiatic ones often are— to strike His head, and the crown of thorns is driven in ever deeper. The execrable thugs insult and humiliate Him in every possible way. Devout friends, im agine all this happens in your presence; know the indignities and sorrow of His wounds, and the gush of blood. If you’re deeply united with C hrist, you’ll experience like things happening in yourself, and your soul’s vital sense will be bloodied and stricken with Him. At times, you’ll even know like pain in your own body! Holy angels, this is your God’s sacred head! R adiant w ith the crown of divinity, it’s your glory in which are hidden all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom. In its power it sustains and governs heaven, earth, and all creation, and yet it is abused with cruel thorns. This is the face you angels long to see, whose light blesses your desire, and yet it's spattered

J E S U S IS C R O W N E D W I T H T H O R N S

w ith p utrid spittle and bruised w ith Roman blows. T hey didn’t blindfold JESU S as the Jews did, presaging their own blindness as it were, but allowed Him light. Heaven, earth, all things view the savage h u m iliatio n , and yet some hum ans w reak this outrage w hile others are unaware of it. Blush to be hum an, for humans wrought this atrocity. Weep that it came because o f your sins, but take courage, because through it those sins are expiated. C onsider too how to this point the demons exult, and the whole cohort rips C hrist w ith blasphemy, ridicule, derision, and mockery. The Jews saw none of it, but they heard the tum ult and shouts, and others told them the story. T hey were in part pleased, but w ary too, for fear that all this punishm ent and hum iliatio n would in the end lead Pilate to free JE SU S. And for them nothing could be worse. Good JESU S, I w ant to learn from You how You endured all that. [JESU S] I endured endless pain, anxiety, affliction, and grief w ith divine, not just hum an courage in the hours when the wounds from scourging tortured Me and the thorns wasted Me. But no matter how great the pain, M y prom pt, obedient spirit and M EDIT

Go out again, daughters of Sion, again go out in devout contemplation, and behold King Solomon. For once you went out to see King Solomon wearing the diadem his mother crowned him with on the day of his consecration,

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constant courage won over all by far. And I endured those pains not because your redem ption needed it— M y im m inent death could suffice for an in fin ity of souls— but for your benefit I suffered w hat was otherw ise for your redem ption, lest your banal contem plation of M y Passion w ouldn’t w in the m erit and spiritual vigor you need as incomparable help and protection. Know this too, that of all the bitter sorrows in M y entire Passion, the cru d est one was ever to see M y dearly beloved and honored Virgin M other afflicted by M y sorrow and pain. I saw her shocked and stricken by the blows, kicks, jabs, spittle, whips, insults, thorns, fear, grief, cold, and weariness piled upon Me. F.

As C hrist was crowned w ith thorns, the Blessed V irgin was outside the atrium grieving w ith her companions, and unable to see what was happening to JESUS. Yet she came to know either by message or by the shouts of the crowd that told her everything. In profound devotion, the sorrowful V irgin pondered all in her heart, and all the afflicted wom en and disciples groan and gasp at His thorn lacerated flesh, to suffer with a stricken Christ.

TION

and you beheld him on the day of his heart’s elation, that is, when the only begotten Son of God took our nature from the Virgin M ary and made it His delight to be with the children of men. Go out again, daughters of Sion, set

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aside that coronation of the Incarnation, and turn all your mind and heart to that coronation in the Passion, to which Christ once offered Himself. A sad and ignominious coronation, your Spouse’s thorn-scarred coronation! Behold, a brutally scourged C hrist presents H im self to you! You see God’s new wounds, yes, His whole body as a single wound, torn flesh, His blood everywhere, the earth soaked with the blood of God’s Son, and His immense interior pain besides. I beg you, recall what He did when He was untied from the w hipping post: He put on the garm ents those vicious thugs had torn off Him and thrown here and there. A p itifully weak and drained JESUS was made to find and pick them up; His blood soaks the earth. But why make Him dress, you brutes? You know He’ll soon be stripped anew. “We want to hum iliate and hurt Him even more.” There was little time between Pilate’s order (or permission) and the depraved soldiers’ shift from bloody scourging to their perverse crowning Him with thorns. Come, daughters of Sion, see what befalls your Spouse! The soldiers return to strip Him of His garments. In agony C hrist had robed H im self after the scourging; the rabid dogs now want even more pain for Him. Again, with raw force they strip JESUS. But why did you want to crown with thorns a man clad in purple, and not in His own garments? “We wanted first to torture Him by ripping off His clothes, then we thought it good to herald His crimes for greater reprobation and rejection. For that we didn’t want the least bit of hum anity, much less of authority, left in Him, which His garb might suggest. We had to strip off Herod’s white robe to make

Him seem a depraved crim inal, and not a fool.” H oly JESU S, was there anything those cruel, frenetic thugs could do to hum iliate You that they didn’t do? Daughters of Sion, you see your Spouse naked, finding His garm ents, robing Himself, and robed, again stripped and naked [Lam 3; Is 2]. W hat spiritual profit do you glean from this? “We’ve put our interior and spiritual senses to these mysteries. Most in tim ately do we feel those insults and deep sorrows— we’ve burned them on our hearts! Our souls swell w ith compassion; yet we draw great strength for hum ility and patience. We wanted to bring Him His garments, to help Him, and to stop the flesh-cutting lashes, but He didn’t want that. We must do what we know He wants, that by deep, devout m editation, as He shows the way, we search and find in prayer spiritual garments that He ever wants for us. Let’s put the clothes on Him that He wants to be clothed with and He will gently clothe us in grace. Let’s acknowledge the nakedness that our sins cause, and seek the salutary garb of the virtues to cover it. And let’s work so that these salutary garments aren’t again torn from us. For JESUS let His own garments be torn off so that the garb once given us won’t be ripped away by our enemies.” But why stop here? The brutal soldiers don’t. They drag JESUS inside to the aula and get the whole cohort around Him. They strip Him and wrap Him in a purple cloak. They make Him sit on a decrepit stool and savagely crown Him with a crown of thorns [Mt 27]. And it’s not one just for sport, like the purple cloak and stool for His throne, but one for raw torment, with

J E S U S IS C R O W N E D W I T H T H O R N S

its cruel thorns pressed down hard to wound Him and lance His skull (Tertullian). The soldiers shove a stout reed into His hand for a scepter, and abuse and mock Him on bended knee, shouting as if to adore H im , “H ail, King of the Jews!” They punch and spit on Him, and take the reed to beat His head ever so viciously. Old wounds reopen and the deep driven thorns make newer and worse ones. I give you, daughters of Sion, im m ense m aterial for your prayer. W hat in C h rist’s works, Passion, and death isn’t immense, or infinite, if you consider that God suffers, or the gravity of the sins for which He does, or the merit of His suffering? Thugs lead JESUS from the torture room to the Praetorium as if to a royal throne, to continue their abuse. “Fellow, You w anted to be a k in g ,” they cry, “You’ll be a king, a scourged, thorn-crow ned one, a fearful, sorry sigh t!” (W icked Satan works all this through them!) “We won’t let the Jews crown You, that’s absurd. W e’ll crown You king! T hat’s for Romans to do, not for vile Jews; our mockery’s best!” D aughters of Sion, follow your Spouse soon to be crowned w ith thorns; reverence His footsteps, take to your hearts the blood from His wounds, don’t let it go to any ground than yours. H e’s stripped o f His garments, take them to yourselves even if the demons rage. Keep and reverence them ; they’re C h rist’s, G od’s, the garm ents of a C hrist and God scourged for you. Salutary and divine, they clothe your souls! The dark thugs gather to crown JESUS. Satan too summons even more devils. So now, daughters of Sion, call the angels and your com panions, call heaven, earth, and all creation to a

189

horror unknown in any age, dreadful and grievous to all! God is crowned w ith thorns in excruciating agony! Behold, He now sits abjectly, open to all abuse. Behold H im , daughters of Sion, the One W ho sits over Thrones and C herubim , He W ho on this low stool merits a seat at the right hand of God the alm ighty Father in the highest! He W ho w ill judge the world m erits to sit on the throne of His majesty. It is He W ho sits at the right hand of the Father, W ho stands to extend His indignant retribution against evildoers, but His hand to the just for their aid and vindication. Com pare that m ajesty w ith this abjection, and see how divine power flows out from that to this. Through that majesty this abjection becomes an abasem ent powerful and excellent. Learn now that nothing is loftier than C h rist’s hum ility, and how to sit naked, wounded, and abject with Christ surpassess all delight. They next wrap Christ in an old, shabby cloak still purple and scarlet. “H ere’s the sign of Your reign, the purple for You! Now rule Your kingdom not of this w orld!” So cry the scoundrels, and their countless m alicious im itators— M uslim s, Jews, and heretics. T he first openly abuse C hrist, heretics do so when they fashion another Christ for themselves, and concoct doctrine other than C h rist’s. T hey mock and abuse Him and His truth. Yes, they’re m alicious, but w hat about us? We who profess orthodox piety, don’t we do as much? Heretics ever have Christ on their lips, but they clothe H im w ith garm ents not His, w ith their errors, that is. We confess C hrist, we adhere to C atholic faith and doctrine, yet our dead faith, evil deeds, and perverse witness to

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ANNOTATIONS AND MEDITATIONS ON THK GOSPELS

Him clothe Him with a tattered purple cloak just as the soldiers did! Cruel men! W hy clothe Him in purple? He already wears a deeper purple, one streaked by His bloody wounds. If you want His hum iliation, it’s more in that purple than in your shabby cloak. W hat do you really want? “We want, for great sport, to mock the pomp of a real coronation.” Savage madmen! And yet, holy martyrs, C hrist’s purple prepares purple for you. For your blood is precious purple too because Christ has mixed it with His own. And your Spouse vests you holy virgins with stoles that aren’t just white, but purple too because His blood flows in your virginity. And so all holy ones must be covered with C hrist’s blood and wash themselves in it. For only in and through His blood are they cleansed and come to eternal glory: the blood of JESUS gives eternal life! Come, daughters of Sion! See how from His seat Christ bestows purple robes; take them, and cleanse your souls with pure, perfect works in Christ. But see! W ith great pomp scoundrels bring JESUS a crown of thorns. Boldly they set it before Him, and then jam it down on God’s head, on the head of your head, holy angels, and yours, holy Church! For Christ is head of all. From Him you holy angels get your divine power and blessings, as do es the Church. The head of this Head is crowned with thorns! Surely sorrow and revulsion w ill touch you, holy angels, when C hrist’s pain flows from His head into the Church. His pain here, though, really pertains to us. For Christ s crown was woven from our thorns: our sins are His crown of thorns, each sin a thorn, and in fact the whole crown. The eternal penalty

of our sins is in His thorn-wracked wounds, those infinite sorrows that satisfy the punishment due them. How wretched we are not to know it, yet worse if we do, but don’t repent to amend our lives. The thorns challenge us and rebuke our negligence. Daughters of Sion, know the pain that crown caused your King. Every sense, internal or external, is either set in the head or derives from it. All of His are wracked, and touch most of all. Internal ones are stricken too: head pain pours over the whole body, as all its organs need the brain. Yet each thorn can pain all. W hat do all together do to C hrist’s perfect senses? If one suffers, others suffer with it [1 Cor 12], Now good JESU S, hum ble JESU S, scourged and crowned w ith thorns, Your every sense, Your every m em ber' suffers! Don’t all Your members suffer together, and their suffering and compassion is immense? It’s a cruel heart that doesn’t know this, and haughty eyes that don’t weep. If you’re a member of Christ’s body, then suffer with a thorn tormented Christ. If you don’t, what is your excuse, save to blame a cold heart? Weep, at least because you don’t weep at what angels bewail, though they can’t shed tears! Weep at what heaven, earth, and all creation bemoan with their tears! JESU S, our true and perfect Redeemer and good Sam aritan! He wipes out our iniquities [Ps 102], and heals the infirmities of touch through His scourging, and those of all our senses by His crown of thorns. For what was C hrist’s scourging and coronation other than healing of our senses, control of carnal lust, and the aversion of tem ptation? For however many lashes were inflicted on Christ,

J E S U S IS C R O W N E D W I T H T H O R N S

however m uch pain from thorns and wounds, Christ was afflicted by just as much from our sensual desires. Yet at the same tim e, His wounds bring health, for unless perverse sensual m otions are healed, neither is their im pudence, w hich is your fault, not the m edicine’s or the physician’s! Take His wounds to your heart, and from there to your senses. You’ll have divine aid, if not to suppress sensual desires, then at least to keep from harm . And w hat was said about sensual appetites must be understood and applied to the rational appetites and faculties too, and these you should order and discipline first of all. The thugs w anted a scepter for His royal accoutrem ents [M k 15], so for their evil sport they shove a stout reed, one used for games, into the right hand of hum ble JESU S, W ho doesn’t resist, obedient even to the dregs of hum an ity! Angels and m en, behold your King! See H im , all creation, King of kings and Lord of lords, the King of all ages [Rv 1; 1 Tm; Ex 6]! A lm ighty is His Name! He sits there cloaked in the double purple of His blood and that shabby cloak, crowned with thorns. He has a reed for scepter, H e’s hailed, on bended knee, in m ockery as K in g o f th e Jew s. H e’s punched, spat upon, and His head struck w ith the reed! W h at do you see here, holy angels? “We see countless, horrid human sins, and God’s mercy, C hrist’s patience, and a sign of the Kingdom of H eaven. For this purple, this crown, this scepter, and everything with them, have m erited for the hum an fam ily glory and an eternal kingdom . You’re anim als, you dem ons! And God ever toys with you! You think all this abases JE SU S, but it’s really defeat for you

191

and your sycophants, and it’s your infernal punishm ent as well! Here are C h rist’s most glorious trophies, by them He conquers and openly triumphs over you [Col 2 ].” W hat do you m ortals see? “We see w hat the angels saw, but we now look upon our sins. It’s a great gift for us to apply C h rist’s suffering and abasem ent to our faults, so that through His Passion we m ay be freed of them , and at the same tim e, beg pardon of Him W ho suffered to forgive us. If we reflect deeply, w e’ll realize that we’ve set all that suffering and abuse on Christ by our many sins. For we clothe H im in contem ptuous purple if our praise is hypocritical, or we neglect our prayer. We crown Him w ith thorns when we assail His servants w ith insult and injury, or harbor evil thoughts about them. We shove a reed in His hand when we condem n His providence and reject His laws. We mock Him as King of the Jews when we obey superiors half­ heartedly or deceitfully, and w ithout true assent of m ind [Eph 6]. “All who abuse and blasphem e C hrist, or counterfeit His words, revelation, or grace, slap H im in the face. He spits on C hrist who acts lewdly, or sins carnally, or wants only spiritual delights. The one who for his own ends or w orldly honors, abuses otherwise approved spiritual ministries and practices, bashes C h rist’s thorn crowned head. Yes, whoever sins against God vests C hrist in purple, crowns H im w ith thorns, puts a reed in His hand, and salutes H im .” God’s other creatures, what do you say? “We indeed always do the word of God our creator and governor. For we all exist in H im . In Him we have our being, and move in Him. In

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ANNOTATIONS AND MEDITATIONS ON TH E GOSPELS

Him we live, and He brings us to our end. We acknowledge and profess Him King by our obedient actions, nor can we do more than what in fact we do, unless the Lord grant it to us. Should the Lord do so, we would proclaim that those who received a nature higher than ours, are in fact lower than we. For they deny Him as King, Who rules the world, and Him in W hom they live and have their being they abuse and abase. Yes, if our Creator and Ruler would let us, we would turn on them, and they would all perish miserably at our hand.” Great JESU S, I want and ask from You, as humbly and fervently as I

can, that You clothe me in Your garments, with the purple that will be a fervent love and deep desire to shed my blood for You, and with the crown of thorns that w ill be the glory with You perfected by the m ortification of all my senses. M ay You pierce me with thorns of compunction and the fervor of your justice and glory. Put a reed in m y hand like that firm one in Yours, that I m ay scourge and dissipate my passions, tem ptations, and. every demonic incursion. Let it be for me a direction staff, the rod of Your kingdom, Who are blessed forever! AMEN.

GESTA P O S T CORON A TIOKEM , A N T R Q M M F E R R E T V R SENTENTÍA. 123

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,

A

P la te 14. E v e n ts b e fo re P i la t e S e n te n c e s Je su s. Jerom e N adal, A d n o ta tio n e s e t m e d ita tio n e s E n graving by H ie ro n ym u s W ie ricx after Bernardino Passen, 23 2 x 145 m m .

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in E v a n g e lia

(Antwerp, 1607)

EVENTS BEFORE PILATE SE N T E N CE S JE SU S JOHN

N

A.

otes fo r

P ilate show s th e J ew s a JESUS sco u rged a n d cro w n ed w ith thorns. He says, “E cce hom o!, B ehold the m a n !”

B.

A lthough P ilate defends JESUS, the Jew s accuse Him o f bhisphemy: “He has m ade H im self Son o f G od!”

C.

A fe a r fu l P ilate en ters the p ra etoriu m to q uestion JESUS m ore closely: “W here do Yon com e fr o m ! ”

D.

JESUS makes yio answer.

GOSPEL

Pilate therefore again went outside [a] and said to them, “Behold, I bring Him out to you, that you may know that I find no guilt in H im .” (JESUS therefore came forth, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak [a]). And he said to them, “Behold the m an!” [a]. W hen, therefore, the chief priests and the attendants saw Him, they cried out, saying, “C rucify Him! Crucify H im !” Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him” [b]. The Jews answered him, “We have a Law, and according to that Law He must die, because He has made H im self Son of God” [b]. Now when Pilate heard this statement, he feared the more [a]. And

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P la te 1 4

c.

S eein g this, P ilate urges Him to respond.

D.

JESUS answ ers, “You w ou ld have no p o w er over Me, etc. ”

A.

The w ords o f JESUS im press P ilate, w ho acts ov ertly to f r e e Him.

B.

The Jeivs protest, “I f y o u fr e e this m an, y o u a re no fr i e n d o f Caesar!”

A.

The p lo y d eters P ilate fr o m p ro tectin g JESUS.

L A D I N G S

he again went back into the praetorium, and said to JESUS, “W here are You from?” [c]. But JESUS gave him no answer [d]. Pilate therefore said to Him, “Do You not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to crucify You, and that I have power to release You?” [c]. JESUS answered [d], “You would have no power at all over Me were it not given you from above. Therefore he who betrayed Me to you has the greater sin.” And from then on Pilate was looking for a way to release Him. But the Jews cried out, saying [b], “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar; for everyone who makes him self king sets him self against Caesar.”

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ANNOTATION

A. After Pilate ordered the soldiers to stop abusing JESUS, he had Him brought to the propylaeum, where he preceded Him with the idea that if he couldn’t persuade or order the Jews from persecuting JESUS, perhaps he could stir their compassion. He goes at first to the outer edge where angry Jews glare at him. Pilate speaks, “Look, I’ll bring Him out here for you, scourged and crowned with thorns— and that with barbaric cruelty and disgrace— to let you know that I’ve done this at your request, so that a fellow countrym an’s pain could now satisfy you, and you won’t hound Him to death. For I claim, as I’ve often done, that I find in Him no cause for death. I’ll release Him, chastised, so that He can’t claim He's a king, and you’ll have nothing to fear from Him. Be m erciful, you Jews! Remember, you’re men too, and Caesar and I can persecute, accuse, and forgive yo u .” But Pilate, why don’t y o u free Him? “I want to, but I also want the Jews’ consent. JESUS is innocent, I know that and the fearsome Jewish spleen, but I’m not ready to stand strong for truth against malicious calum ny.” As Pilate speaks and the Jews explode, JESUS crowned with thorns and clad in a purple cloak, is led from the praetorium to Pilate. His body is bloodied with fearful bruises, a terrible sight, wretched beyond belief. Pilate brings JESUS to the Jews. “Behold the m an,” he says. “Behold the man,” says God the Father, “My Son, W ho is

coeternal with Me in M y G lory!” “Behold the m an,” say the angels, “our Creator, God, and Eternal Glory!” “Behold the man,” say the heavens and the earth and everything in them, “the One Who keeps, governs, and created us in His omnipotence!” “Behold God,” says the Virgin, “Who became man and was born God-man from my womb.” “Behold the man,” cry the devout, “He Who is our salvation and life, our glory and; hearts’ delight!” Now, Pilate, what do you have to say? “Behold the man, One so dishonored and abject that no one will envy or fear Him, but only contemn or pity Him.” And the evil chief priests and their thugs? For the crowd seems mute at the pitiful sight, even if they’re roused anew at C hrist. How do the conspiratorial Jewish leaders react? C hrist’s great wounds and m isery only enrage them the more! “C rucify Him! Crucify Him! The wounds are just the tip of our jealous, m alicious hate. We want His life, and a vile, ignom inious death for Him. C rucify H im !” U ntil now Pilate’s persistent defense of C hrist was rem arkable; obstinate Jewish savagery could in no way budge it. “Take Him yourselves, and crucify Him; I see no reason to condemn H im .” So he spoke in anger, execrating the Jews, to stop them from C hrist’s death. “I recognize H is innocence, and you bring nothing against H im , so surely I can’t and shouldn’t crucify Him. You crucify Him! If you can’t (as in fact you can’t, nor if you could,

E V E N T S B EFO R E PILATE S E N T E N C E S JESUS

w ould you dare). Your deplorable m alice is clear: you wouldn’t dare, but w ant me to, I who know and proclaim His innocence! You only shout, helplessly, ‘Crucify, crucify!’” Because his words angered them, and they didn’t want to appear to act just out of hate, they renew their cry, but must say what they had until now craftily avoided. “We have a Law, and according to that Law, He must die because He made H im self Son of God.” Twice already in the Sanhedrin they had charged this to condemn and kill JESUS, but they hadn’t dared until now to bring it to Pilate, for fear that if he heard of it, he would become upset and afraid to condemn Him. At a loss now what to do, they have to show their ploy: He made Himself Son of God, so according to our Law, He must die. They no longer dare say, “He has blasphemed,” as they once did and just lately shouted in the Council. For Christ didn’t allow either them or the demons to do whatever they pleased. He did let them tell the sublime truth of His Sonship: that Christ united in divine power with the Father and the Holy Spirit effected the union of His hum anity with the Word, and that God became, and is, man, and that for the constant proclamation of His divinity and the Gospel, Christ had to suffer as the prophets had foretold, and God decreed. In their fearful malice and blind perversity, however, the Jews twist a sublime truth to support a detestable, invidious charge. They twist the words “He made” to mean that Christ usurped the title, rather than professed that He was the Son of

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God, as He did say elsewhere more than once, twice even in the Sanhedrin a few hours before. All this as though He hadn’t confirmed the truth with divine testimony in raising the dead, giving sight to the blind, and casting out devils by His command. These signs confirmed with celestial authority the Truth He professed, and all His words and works. T hat brilliance blinded their proud and envious eyes, and the cacodemon drove them headlong into m alicious insanity. No wonder their vicious infighting. W e’re not allowed, they just said, to kill anyone; now they scream, “According to the Law He must die!” So you are allowed to do what you just said you couldn’t! For the Law doesn’t remand a blasphemer to the Gentiles to be stoned, let alone crucified, but rather to you for stoning, after a fair trial. W hy didn’t you take that opportunity when Pilate said, “Take Him yourselves and crucify Him?” The incredible evil of Devil and Jew! T hey wanted JESUS to die in utter pain and ignominy, on a cross, so that He would not only be killed, but even His Name be denied hum an esteem. After that anyone would either execrate or be ashamed of it. T hey tried to get the Romans to do it so that His infamous condem nation wouldn’t be by the Jewish people only, but rather bandied about the globe for all to approve. Demons urged this, the Jews promoted it. C. Pilate heard the new charge, and though he was already afraid to condem n JE SU S, he now feared

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even more. He had heard of the God of the Jews, and it wasn’t unusual for pagans to believe and adore offspring of the gods. Pilate respected the arcana he had heard about the God of the Jews, for Gentiles often placated an unknown god. So he grew more worried at the idea of executing the Son of an unknown God, but a God nonetheless. He left the Jews to reenter the praetorium with JESU S, to question Him there at length. “Now I’m not asking, are You a king, or what is Truth? I ask You, “Where are You from?” I know You’re a G alilean under H erod’s rule, but that’s not what I ask. It’s som ething else. You’ve told me Your kingdom isn’t of this world; I suspect You’re a king, though one we Romans needn’t fear. “But I don’t get the idea of Your kingdom when I hear You say You’re the Son of God. Tell me where You’re from, so that I can learn whether You are the Son of God. That way, once I know where Your kingdom is, I can save You from these evil Jew s.” All this suggests that had JESUS spoken, Pilate would have surely judged Him worth freeing, and tried to do so. For on hearing JESUS say that He was a king, he no longer suspected that He sought a kingdom . And what w ouldn’t he have done if he heard a forthright Christ say that the Son of almighty God came from heaven to earth, took flesh of the V irgin, to save m ankind from eternal death, and give us eternal glory? D. Because JESUS knew Pilate would kill h im lor other reasons, even if

He said He was God, He refused to answer because of his contemptible character and to thwart his graver sin. And equally, because He wanted to be seen to suffer by His own free choice, apart from the fact that He had shown in countless ways that He freely wanted to fulfill His Father’s will and precept, and the Scriptures too. C. W hen Pilate got no answer, he no longer wondered at His silence, but became upset, and made even greater efforts to get an answer and a chance to free Him. “Won’t you answer?” he; asks. Excited, if benevolent words, as though he desperately wanted an answer. He snaps, “Don’t You know I’ve the power to crucify You or set You free? JESU S, You Yourself know how I wanted to spare You, and still do. Answer me! And if nothing else prods You, at least know that Your life and death are in my hands! You can save Yourself!” D. Although Christ- wouldn’t answer at first, now out of regard for His Father’s Name He is silent no more, and says, “You wouldn’t have power over Me unless it had been given to you from above.” Once again He calls Pilate from worldly to spiritual concerns, as when He said, “M y kingdom is not of this w orld,” words that struck Pilate deeply. He was doubtless moved now, but, as JESUS knew, not enough to free Him. C hrist was not unm indful of Pilate’s honesty and power, and sought to reward him, to have him sin less, and so deserve less punishm ent, as He had also sought earlier.

E V E N T S B EFO R E PILATE S E N T E N C E S JESU S

So C hrist said, “You would have no power over Me unless it were given you from above. So the one who handed Me over to you has the greater sin .” Yes, you do have power over M e, but not, as you think, from Caesar or your office or the Jews. For neither demons, nor earthly power, nor all creation, have even the least power over Me. Any dispensation of power over M y life and death comes from heaven, God the Father grants it. A lthough you say you have such power and know M y innocence, still you sin gravely against God and Me by scourging and crowning Me w ith thorns. You sin gravely too in not daring to free Me. Yet the Jews sin far worse than you, who sin out of deep ignorance. Far less ignorant, they sin out of deep envy, malice, and evil.” A. C hrist’s words terrify Pilate. Now more openly than ever Pilate acts to free JESU S, even though he was already so minded. Leaving JESUS inside the praetorium, he returns to the propylaeum to confront the

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Jews. But when the leaders realize their malevolent plot was thwarted, and that religious motives hadn’t moved Pilate to crucify JESUS as they had hoped, they used a ploy they knew would work with the Romans. To intim idate him and have him ensure his reputation w ith Caesar wouldn’t be ruined, they challenge him. B. “If you release this man, you’re no friend of Caesar! Anyone who makes him self king opposes Caesar!” A furious, fierce threat, as if they would bring charges to the Tiber! You can’t escape, Pilate, you’re a traitor if you free this fellow, this would-be king. Don’t think His kingdom isn’t of this w orld— He didn’t deny He’s a king! And that’s to oppose Caesar! If you don’t stop H im , you’re clearly com plicit in His treason, no friend of Caesar, only a traitorous rival! A. The ploy drove Pilate to abandon C hrist. Beaten by em pty fear and selfish am bition, he yielded to the Devil and the Jews.

M E D I T AT I O N

Daughters of Sion, see how Pilate now condemns JESUS to the cross! But if we want to contemplate devoutly and fruitfully Christ’s cross, then before we pray over the crucifixion, we must set before our m ind’s eye and fix deep in our hearts all the pain and hum iliation C hrist had already suffered, and only then go to meditate on the cross. Pilate abruptly dism issed the charges against JE SU S, and justified this to the Jews by the blood and gore, the injury and insults piled on Christ.

W icked, cruel reasons! “If I have Him scourged, beaten, and h um iliated so that none could not p ity H im , then the Jews w ill check their m alicious, invidious cruelty. They’ll be moved by com passion if I bring them someone horribly beaten and pum m eled.” That was your idea, Pilate? W hat gross insanity! You’ve already seen Jewish savagery, did you th in k they’d be placated by the suffering of JESU S, and not incited to greater rage? Still, that wasn’t your plan, as much as it was

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Satan’s, there present and enraged. The sly old fox had long suspected that the JESUS’S plan was to wipe out sin with His blood. The m alignant Devil wanted to revile and subvert that divine, merciful plan. He persuaded Pilate, who had other ideas, that to free JESUS he should draw His blood to m itigate Jewish m alice. Derisive mockery at work here! He and his apostate spirits schemed to thwart JESUS with fierce cruelty visited on Him and savage tyranny over the Jews. “Behold, I bring Him out to you, to know that I find no cause in Him” [Jn 18]. From heaven God the Father says the very same: “Behold M y consubstantial and eternal Son. I m anifest Him to you mortals, so that although He is ever w ith Me invisible and im m ortal w ithin M y eternal being, He may become visible and mortal in your temporal and fragile nature. I have no reason to do this other than My benevolence for you. For your sake My Son came into the world at M y own an d H is m erciful choice, to free you from Satan, and to take all your sins on H im self [Jn 1], He suffered and died for you. M y love for you is the reason for M y Son’s Incarnation, Passion, and death. Realize this, mourn that death! Console Him as He suffers and dies for you. Don’t ape the ungodly. For even now the Jews condemn H im , and others, infidels and heretics, imitate them .” The Jews insist that the Law, it nothing else, surely justifies them. And so they now blaspheme that Christ died for His own sins, not for others’. M uslims make the same charge from their law; both groups destroy Christ. Heretics fall from C hrist’s justice in their isolation from the faith; Christ has shed His blood in vain for them! It’s not

just Lutherans and their ilk who claim they’re justified by faith alone, but individuals on their own. May it not be said that we Catholics do the same! W hat do the many sins that we commit against God do other than trample on His Son, pollute His blood [Heb 10], and revile the spirit of grace? And as we abuse a patient and longsuffering God and stay in our sin, doesn’t this say that Christ died in vain? For if He died from a cause other than our sins that God accepted, and yet truly died, we seem to put the cause for death in Him, and are worse than Pilate who found no such cause in Him. Behold the man! JESUS, the God-man! JESUS, Splendor of His glory, and figure of the substance of the eternal Father [Heb 2]! JESU S, Godman, can anyone truly m editate on this, unless You speak Your Word to his heart? Ecce h om o! Good JESUS, do so with the mysteries found in Ecce hom o! Behold, Pilate proposes something new, unim aginable, shocking; an innocent man, glorious in His miracles, adm irable in His word, outstanding in honor; Whom not even the Jews can ignore. Pilate presents this man scourged and broken, crowned with sharp thorns, cloaked in purple mockery, w ith a reed for scepter, yet the merciless Jews only urge crucifixion the more loudly. Pilate himself had this torture done more brutally than before, yet the Jews spurn it all! Good JESUS, life of my life, how stricken You are! Your defender now works unparalleled unjust cruelty on You, nor does he realize that You are and ever were alm ighty God. But how infinitely far your act, Pilate, exceeds what you held unbelievable! You thought you abused a man, you abused God! Pilate, you wretch! The Jews,

EV EN TS B E FO R E PILATE S E N T E N C E S JESUS

cruel and unm erciful beyond belief, saw your abuse, but didn’t stop the vile charges they made and renewed even more viciously! Pilate’s Ecce h om o! did the Jews no good, but let it be a blessing for us, devout friends. Yes, Pilate, you wanted to m ollify the Jews by scourging and crowning JESU S, but you did nothing of the sort, and didn’t either know or try anything else. You thought torture the most powerful motive for mercy, as it was. But what if you had tried other sorrows, affliction, injury, blows, chains, or savage clubs? W hat if you had known how He suffered spiritually then? For He was a man, W ho after anguished prayer in the Garden, was bitterly stricken in every way. W hat if you had revealed that afflicted man’s natural and divine gifts, or said that He was God, and urged the point? No doubt you yourself would have pitied JESUS and worked for His release, and even moved perverse Satan and his demons not to mercy, but to saving JESUS from death, however reluctantly. You would have gotten the Jews to drop their charges, even though they could never be persuaded that JESUS is God. The Jews were worse than devils. The devils at least stopped harassing JESUS when they suspected His divinity. The Jews never did. Yet had they been convinced that JESUS was God, no doubt they would have desisted. But we believe all C h rist’s suffering, pain, perfection, and gifts. By faith we believe He is alm ighty God, and those were the living and true pains of God, and were for that im m ense. Yet we rem ain uncom ­ passionate. Ecce hom o! is spoken to us, we are ever told, “Behold the m an!” His countless stripes and abuse leave no beauty or comeliness in H im , and

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we find in His im age nothing unm arred [Is 53]. He is a man abject beyond all others, marked with sorrow, stricken by infirm ity. Prophets and evangelists proclaim this; holy Church affirms it in its icons of the mystery. And still we’re not moved! Now if we aren’t blessed with sensible devotion, we should make the utm ost acts of devotion, and if not given to sensible com punction and tears, let’s at least have interior sorrow. If we’re not moved to suffer w ith C hrist and to endure our tribulations for His sake, let’s at least be moved to desire to do so for C hrist! Are we to think these grounds for com passion were given for the Jews alone? No, they’re offered to us most of all! They didn’t profit the Jews, and were only loss for them . We should beware of becoming like them, or even worse! Pilate showed the Jews a stricken Christ, One W hom they detested and harassed w ith im m ense hate. E cce hom o!, “Behold the m an !” But the alm ighty Father, the Father who wants all to be saved [1 Tm 2], shows us the very same JESU S. He embraces us in H is love, and pursues us w ith divine blessings, He W hom we profess and worship as the Father of immense majesty. He is the One W ho after infinite blessings has given us this one too, and most graciously speaks to our hearts, if we will but hear. E cce h o m o! “Behold M y only Son, your Lord, W hom I have given you in M y immense love. Behold, M y Son, He is yours. For I have so loved the world that I even give you M y Word that M y very being may be yours [Jn 3]. Open your hearts, take this treasure. E cce h o m o! Behold Me and the H oly Spirit in H im . Behold Our one triune divinity! And to commend

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Our love to you, We decreed that this My Son should not only become man, but also suffer and die for you. A jeweled treasure you have from Us, M y chastised Son, crowned with thorns and crucified for you! “For you, JESUS wanted from eternity to suffer death on a cross! Com ing into the world, He took that on H im self for your sake. He died to prepare eternal life for you, and He gave Himself as your food, to nourish you by His Body and Blood with Our triune divinity. Ecce hom o! I have given you all these gifts in Him, but I expect or ask nothing of you, other than what is useful and salvific for you, that you love Me and M y Son and the Holy Spirit [1 Jn 3], that you keep Our command­ ments and serve Our Church. “M y Son’s dear friends, love all whom I ever love in Him. Love God, and nothing will be difficult for you! All things w ill work for the salvation and eternal life of your soul and body. M y children, hear Me, your Father; hear your brother JESUS, My Son. He sits at M y right hand and asks these very same things of you. Then Our will shall please you, and you will live your life in obedience. But if you can’t see this and raise your minds on high, then behold, I give you M y Son this way: Christ became for you a Man of Sorrows, Who knew infirmity from the moment of His Incarnation [Is 53]. See Him garbed in your m ortality, frailty, and flesh, His im m ensity enclosed w ithin His M other’s womb! See Him there suffering in mind, heart, and spirit all future agony and His death to come! See Him born naked, crying, cold, in raw want, wrapped in swaddling clothes [Lk 2], laid in a manger between ox and ass, needing milk to live! See Him Who is

infinite holiness circum cised as a sinner: collect the blood from His wound, and the severed foreskin! “Follow Him in flight to Egypt with His mother (M t 2); think of His discomfort and the squalor of Egypt! How often little JESUS begged His mother for bread she didn’t have, or could hardly get! T hink too of the trials on His return from Egypt, and the fam ily’s fear of Archelaus as they fled to Galilee. See again His poverty! Imagine how He helped His mother in so m any ways, and Joseph too, in the carpenter shop. Picture how He worked it by H im self after Joseph died, how He lived to age 30 without notice, and as it were, forgotten, neither learning letters or doing any great deeds. “Think how later He led a busy, stressful life, in dire poverty and hard labor, how He was often hungry, or exhausted from His travels and preaching (Jn 4), and how Satan tempted Him three times, twice carrying Him aloft, once from the silent desert to the Temple pinnacle, another time to M ount Nebo and the peak of Phasga. Christ was rushed by His townsmen to be hurled over a cliff. How often the Jews set traps for Him as He preached! Endlessly they challenged Him, and disputed His words. They tried to trap Him in His speech [M t 22], and hid their faces from Him. They hurled countless insults and injuries at Him, and concocted their calumnies. So often they wanted to stone or arrest Him [Jn 8]. And at last their Sanhedrin voted to kill Him. “Behold a Man of Sorrows up to now, One W ho knows affliction and infirm ity! And more. Behold Him W ho prayed in the Garden [Lk 22], fought to the death with Death, went

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into agony, sweated a bloody sweat that fell to earth. A disciple betrayed H im into the hands of the wicked; cruelly, ignom iniously He was bound and led to Annas for savage abuse. Then He was dragged to Caiphas to be condem ned to death for blasphemy. T hat night He endured insult, blows and jabs, beating, spittle, and they plucked His beard. The next morning He was shoved over to the full council in the curia, condem ned again and hauled off to Pilate to face vicious and false accusations. “Next, at H erod’s court He was m ocked and returned to Pilate w ith His whole body fearfully lacerated. He was crowned w ith barbaric thorns, draped in purple, given a reed scepter, and to add to the insult, struck with it. In the end, a wicked, ambitious Pilate gave H im to the Jews to crucify. See Him stagger under the bitter weight of the cross! A ttend to the crucifixion, the raising of the cross, and a crucified God! Im agine how the torm ents of death swelled over the three hours to His death! Recall His first loss of blood, and His last at death. See how the dead C hrist’s side was pierced, and how He was taken from the cross, anointed, and buried. E cce h o m o! Behold w hat C hrist M y Son did and suffered out of im m ense love for you sorry mortals! “And now, against that, look to Christ’s glories. Ecce hom o! Behold Him conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the spotless V irgin [Lk 1], so that God became man! From His m other’s womb C hrist filled John the Baptist, shut in his own m other’s womb, with grace, spiritual joy, and prophecy. Zachary too sang divine prophecy of Him; countless angels told His birth in celestial song. A star led M agi kings

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from the East to adore Him and offer gifts to proclaim Him God-man and our redeemer [M t 2; Lk 2], “Though Herod w anted Him dead and the Jews were incensed at Him, He was presented in the Temple in the m orning light forty days after His birth, as Sim eon and Anna sang His divine power. W hen He was twelve, His divine doctrine and wisdom enlightened the doctors of the Law. At the Jordan the Baptist heard the Lather’s witness of Him when He was thirty: He is God’s Son! Moses, Elijah, and the apostles Peter, Jam es, and John heard the very same [M t 3; Lk 3; M k 1; Jn 1; M t 17; Jn 1]. John the Baptist testified to H im too, professed H im true M essiah and Son of God, and by his preaching prepared the way for our Savior. “JESUS taught celestial doctrine, God’s eternal Gospel, the kingdom of heaven, eternal life. Countless miracles confirm ed His teaching. All the troops or Herod— father or son— every Jewish attack or plot to kill Him, He avoided just as much as He wished. His single word in the Garden leveled the Jews and Romans. He healed the servant M alchus’s ear slashed by Peter. He let H im self be taken at the time He set by those He w ent out to meet in the Garden, though He knew the plot of Judas and the Jews. He knew He w ould be sentenced to death for professing to be the Son of God. Yet tw ice He did so openly in the Jewish Sanhedrin. He could defend H im self before Pilate, but He refused to do so out of obedience to the Father and His own free choice, for our redem ption. On the cross, He prayed for His executioners; He forgave a th ief and promised him Paradise that day. W ith a loud cry, one that made the

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centurion confess Him Son of God, He gave up the Spirit. “Heaven and earth, sun and moon, all saw and mourned His death. Jolted out of orbit the moon eclipsed the grief-stricken sun; the earth quaked, graves opened, rocks were split. Every creature, all nature mourned the dying God-man. The netherworld returned the saints' souls to their bodies. Yet My Son went down in full glory to the nether regions to confer eternal glory on the patriarchs in Limbo. He made it a Paradise, and He liberated souls from Purgatory. Then in superb divine triumph He assumed His body again, to rise from the dead, though the sepulcher was sealed. He appeared to His disciples over forty days, telling them in many ways about the kingdom of God [Acts 1]. He was then taken up into heaven where He sits on high at the right hand of M y majesty. Finally, amid manifest wonders, He sent the Holy Spirit, the Consoler to His disciples from Me [Acts 2], “Such are the m irabilia that My Son either suffered magnanimously, or worked gloriously for your life and salvation. You can’t number them! Ecce hom o !T h e One Who could do nothing for you that He didn’t do! He asks, the Holy Spirit and I ask, that you seal them in your heart, and because of them deplore your faults, confess your sins, do penance and works of charity, live as true C hristians, and each day grow into eternal life. But if these countless mysteries don’t move you to devout penance, then behold again the One at M y right hand Who rules the world, Who sees all your plans, works, and intentions. Behold Him, to Whom the divine mysteries I have told cry out to accuse you before M y Son on His majestic heavenly throne.”

How long, Lord God Almighty, w ill that wretched Pilate contemn these mysteries as worthless, and tram ple on Your labors, afflictions, sorrow, insults, blood and wounds, life and death, and contam inate them [Heb 10]? How long w ill he despise Your teaching, m iracles, power, and glory? Lord JESU S, Your justice matches Your mercy— both are infinite! Let him perish, be erased from the Book of the Living, and cast into the eternal fire [Ps 68]! You’re cursed, unless you relent, you wretch! Yet the very mysteries you scorn plead for your salvation. Nevertheless, we pray, Lord, through the mysteries You endured, that You give him a mind and chance for penance. For did You suffer and die for some, but not all sinners? [JESUS] “I died for all, and your wish is mine too: I want to give all grace and eternal glory [1 Jn 2]. If they don’t hear and accept M y voice, or use M y ever present help, it is their fault, for they can always do so if they wish. M y judgm ent casts to Hell those whom I know won’t use M y help. I begin to call in part of Hell here in this life for some because of their malice; I abandon them to obstinacy, contempt of all good, and an abyss of evil. Yet not even those do I punish as they deserve, without showing them mercy in this. I don’t let lesser sinners m ultiply their sins, but send them deprived of m ortal life to im m ortal death. Others, whom I know won’t call on M y Passion, death, and glorious powers, I see can be helped by trial, affliction, and punishment, or even be converted by fear of M y particular and general judgments at time of death, or of M y secret judgments and Hell. As a last grace, M y Father ever calls from heaven, Ecce, ecce h om o! ‘See the One

E V E N T S B EFO R E PILATE S E N T E N C E S JESUS

W hose Passion, death, and glory you contem n. Lo, H im I have given the power of final judgm ent and the keys of death and Hell [Jn 5; Rv 1], “’ He has a scourge in His hand, and if He doesn’t scourge You now, His reproaches won’t lead you to devout penance. Look, He stands over your head w ith drawn sword of burning justice, and in His indignant wrath He roars against you, M ane, Tekel, Phares! [Dn 5]. Your life’s deeds are all num bered and set on the scale of M y justice. T h ey’re found w anting, they condemn you! Let his punishm ent be split, let him perish! Cast one part to H ell, hold another for M y general judgm ent. W hen I come in m ajesty I w ill exact full punishment! I will bury soul and body in eternal fire and the immense eternal punishment prepared for Satan and his an gels.’ And so it happens that a terrified sinner does salutary penance.” Learn well, sinful mortal, that the heavenly Father puts an horrendous prospect before you. See that you don’t spurn this graced lesson, to perish eternally! Avoid sin, keep away from it, consider its consequences! Ecce hom o! He suffered all this to keep you from sin. He appears this way now lest you sin. If you do, you afflict all these wounds on Him, Who will visit them upon you, if you sin. If in your misery you’ve sinned, don’t, don’t scourge and crown Christ with thorns again, as those brutes once did! Instead heal the wounds you’ve inflicted on Him. You’ll heal His wounds if you repent, take Christ’s stripes on yourself, and chastise your body and soul. Think how the Son of God willingly suffered to keep you from sin, to call you back from it! His wounds speak to your heart. Ecce hom o! See Him who suffered so that you wouldn’t sin but turn to penance!

20 5

Good Christian, keep ever in the center of your soul this Ecce hom o even as perverse men keep pernicious idols in theirs. Let Christ live in your mind, suffer w ith H im , ask for grace and spiritual strength, and for His gifts. His blood gushed from countless wounds, His fountains of grace pour over you! Don’t let that blood and grace be in vain! Gates are open wide for you to come to the Lord’s great powers [Ps 70]! Rest in the strength and comfort of Christ’s wounds which comes into your heart w ith divine liberality from them. Think too of the sorrowful Virgin M other who suffered all this in m ind and body. Was not a sword then thrust into her heart, one forged from countless knives and daggers? Sorrowful, afflicted Mother! Yet M other of unsurpassed, magnanimous patience! Come to her, beg her to win for you salutary knowledge of Christ’s mysteries! You’ll find her sorrowful and agonized at heart, yet devout and affective in spirit, replete with the power of C hrist’s wounds, and abounding in benign mercy. She will then share some particle of her devout compassion, that will yet impart a sense of her devotion to flood your soul with fruitful consolation. P ilate’s E cce h o m o , alas, only rouses the rabid, pestiferous Jews to cry the more, C rucify H im , C rucify H im ! Pilate struggles to free an innocent man— they shout ever more loudly for crucifixion! “He made H im self Son of God. By our Law He must d ie!” D iabolic furies overwhelm them , and the greater the fury, the more blind they are. For the Law [Lv 24] says to stone, not crucify, a blasphemer, you Judean beasts! Just the same, you couldn’t say anything more harmful to your malicious plan than to

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ANNOTATIONS AND MEDITATIONS ON TH E GOSPELS

call JESUS the Son of God in the presence of a prefect up to now totally given to defending and freeing Him, and still working hard at it. You pushed your charges so that now Pilate grew more dubious than ever, and more inclined to free JESUS. Either way you show your blind hatred both because you wanted to crucify a blasphemer and because you made mention of the Son of God. The infinite evil of a jealousy that no abuse, malevolence, or cruelty can satisfy! So it ever seeks the death of the One it resents. The Jews envied Christ the profound power and inestimable glory of His Name, and— to say it now— they begrudged Him the idea of divinity. So it was that neither Christ’s suffering, or even His physical death alone, could ever satisfy them. That’s why they worked to crucify Him, and to destroy at once all His honor and reputation, and most of all any hint of His divinity. They said in private, “Let’s put sawdust in His bread, and delete Him from the land of the living; let His name be heard no more’’ [Jer 11], And more. “Let us condemn Him with a most shameful death, for His memory will come from His words. He said, “I am the Son of God.” So if He dies, He will not be the Son of God, and if by a shameful death, He will be accounted an evildoer.” Perverse m alice blinded them, nor could they grasp the divine mysteries found in C hrist’s death. For He was, and is, the Son of God. The Son of God died, and through death the Son of God triumphed over them, over Death, H ell, Sin, and all diabolical power. His Name is exalted above every name forever. Envy is the wretched child of a wretched mother, pride. The more power she provides,

the more her child corrupts, and it’s most destructive when it’s born of a false and arrogant idea of divine law, and draws strength from that. Such was the envious pride of the Jews that has ever begotten and nutured heretics, and that of hypocrites is like it. Pride and envy can’t rest unless they sin against divinity and reject all truth, even recognized truth. Yet the divine mercy for us is unbounded, and a power ever to be adored! Unless we refuse it, it pours into our hearts as we work with the prevenient motion and illumination of the Holy Spirit. For God is not a respecter of persons [Rom 1]. Yes, the same divine power touches Pilate, the imperious idolator swollen with am bition, as it does the Jews. Divine power doesn’t move them, but him it does. W hy? Because the Jews resist God, and Pilate doesn’t. He responds, however ineptly. He does do something: he questions, he hesitates. He suspects there’s a reason why the Jews riot, but his other faults let him grasp the truth only vaguely and abandon it readily. “W here do you come from?” he asks [Jn 19]. W ise JESUS doesn’t answer because of his unworthiness, for He knew what was in the man. Pilate exploded. He thinks JESUS a fool. “Don’t You answer me? Don’t You know I have power to crucify You, and I have power to free You? Twice, arrogantly, he snarls, “I have power!” To the first Christ doesn’t respond because the words insult Him, but to those which insult His eternal Father, He counters, “You would have no power over Me unless it had been given to you from above.” This He said with the fire of truth, to profess what He had often taught by His works: that

E V E N T S B E FO R E PILATE S E N T E N C E S JESU S

He would suffer death by the Father’s and His own free choice. The Jews and Romans, the demons and all creation couldn’t kill C hrist w ithout divine perm ission. And here there’s a divine lesson for us: we m ust govern w isely our silence and control our words. Pilate roused w hat little moral sense he still had and tried again to free Christ. By now Satan had stopped his brutal attack on JE SU S, and turned to suborning P ilate’s wife so that he could use her husband to free JE SU S. Jew ish m alice against JESUS was in itself deeper than Satan’s. Satan had incited them to kill C hrist, but when he now tried to stop them , he couldn’t. His was greater power for evil than for good or to prevent evil. The final word w ith Pilate was that of the Jews alone; they attack an im pious, pusillanim ous man through his ambition and fear of danger. “If you release this m an, you’re no friend of Caesar: anyone who makes h im self king betrays C aesar!” You’ll be g u ilty in C aesar’s eyes of treason, and we ll bring the case against you! W hat frenetic threats! N othing’s to be feared more than am b ition , and nothing’s more fragile than hum an glory. T heir ploy works on P ilate’s pestilent am bition! But what won’t you try, if you would crucify the Son of God? H um an fears, em pty hum an respect, they should never be feared or allow ed, however much one’s power m ay have needed or now depends on them. C hrist died as these vices were openly at work. T hey were factors in His death, though countless others conspired w ith them for it. Yet two virtues, h u m ility and spiritual freedom, can be seen am ong the principal consequences of that death.

207

D eplorable m alice, obstinacy, and rage led the Jews to a plot that would condemn C hrist to the cross. Divine justice is accustomed to allow horrendous sins to those whose perversity it wishes to condemn. And these Jews now call down their own punishm ent for their horrendous crimes. “We have no king but Caesar!” You’re insane! Isn’t it enough for you savages to kill your M essiah w ithout destroying your own freedom? Atop the penalties aw aiting them they pile the dire curse, “H is blood be upon us and upon our children!” If the blood ol Abel cried out against his brother Cain [Gn 4], how loud now the cry of God’s blood, you killers! Christ’s blood is far more efficacious because in dying He asked the Father to forgive you, and He ever brought His grace for you. But you’ve incurred God’s wrath w hich follows you until the end of time. W icked Pilate, your defense ol Christ leads only to an evil betrayal of His blood to protect your interests and satisfy the mob. You send God to the cross, deaf to your w ile’s pleas for His release. Jewish m alice and your am bition together thw art Satan. You m eld hypocrisy and parricide. You wash your hands and claim you’re innocent of the blood of the Just One. You want to blame your crime on the Jews. No m atter that you do, you won’t increase their guilt. You only add to your own when you add hypocrisy to am bition, hum an respect, and execrable mendacity! Your infinite goodness, C hrist JESU S! Yet how great the scourge of such vices even am ong Your faithful! W hat great ambition and vanity there, hypocrisy and frequent, pernicious m endacity! Lord, You know those in whom these gross evils lurk. Heal us,

208

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Lord, through the deep and holy mysteries we contemplate! Judges have given countless perverse verdicts, but Pilate’s surpasses them all in its evil, iniquity, and malice. For who indeed have injured by their unjust sentences or perverse deeds any other than humans only? Pilate’s sentence sinned against God: it robbed God of life! And the atrocity expanded when he freed a convicted crim inal and scandalously preferred him to Christ-G od! And although C hrist’s death w ill free all mortals, however many there are, from eternal death— and this was in His power— Pilate would deprive them of life, which he could do, for in his mind he not only deprived Christ of life, but of resurrection, glory, and the power to liberate men.

God made Pilate’s crim e a symbol of the persecutions incited by the Roman emperors whose vices mirrored Pilate’s. The emperors feared, for the most part, that the profession of C hristian faith would underm ine the Roman im perium . But the insane Jewish obstinacy symbolizes the heretics’ stubborn perversity, for by their errors they try to displace Christ, and so God Himself, from the Church. Indeed, all heresy ends in atheism. C hrist JESU S, through these Your m ysteries, grant that your Church may be free from every depraved heresy and all pagan tyranny. M ay Your C atholic and orthodox doctrine ever be celebrated, and your Name praised for ever! AMEN.

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P la te 15. P i l a t e Passes S e n te n c e o n Je s u s . J e ro m e N adal, A d n o t a t i o n e s e t m e d it a t io n e s Engraving by H ie ro n ym u s W ie ricx after Bernardino Passed, 2 3 2 x 145 m m.

in E v a n g e lia

(A ntw erp, 1607)

PILATE PASSES SE N T E N CE O N JE SU S M A T T H E W XXVI I

M A R K XV

N

A.

otes fo r

P ilate stops d e fe n d in g JESUS. He returns to the balcony o f the p ra etoriu m a t G abbatha, a n d fr o m th e ju d g m en t-sea t cries, “B eh old yo u r K in g!”

B.

The sa va ge J ew s shout, “Take Him aw ay! Take Him a w a y !”

A.

P ilate asks, “S hall I cru cify y o u r K in g?”

B.

They cry, “We h a ve no k ing bu t C aesar!”

C.

A m essenger fro m his w ife com es to Pilate.

GOSPEL

(Jn)

W hen Pilate [a] heard these words, he brought JESUS outside, and sat down on the judgm ent-seat [a], at a place called Lithostrotos, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the Preparation Day for the Passover, about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews [a], “Behold your k in g !” But they cried out [b], “Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify H im !” Pilate said to them [a], “Shall I crucify your king?” The chief priests answered [b], “We have no king but Caesar!”

(Mt) As Pilate was sitting on the judgment-seat [a], his wife sent to him, saying, “Have nothing to do

L U KE XXI I I

P la te

J O H N XI X

15

A.

P ilate w ashes his hands, fr e es Barabbas, a n d sends JESUS to crucifixion.

D.

Barabbas goes free.

E.

The sold iers seize JESUS a n d g iv e H im th e cross to ca rry as they do f o r tw o thieves.

F.

See th e Virgin M other's state, h er su rpassing g r i e f a n d com parable m agnanim ity.

R EA D I N G S

with that just man, for I have suffered many things in a dream today because of H im .” Pilate, seeing that he was doing no good, but rather that a riot was breaking out, took water and washed his hands in sight of the crowd [a], saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just man; see to it yourselves.” And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.” (Lk)

Pilate decided that what the chief priests asked for should be done. So he released to them Barabbas [d], who for murder and riot had been put in prison, for whom they were asking; but JESUS he delivered to their will.

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A NNO TATIO NS AND M ED ITATIO NS ON T H E GOSPEES

(Mk) Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released to them Barabbas [d], but JESUS he scourged and delivered to be crucified__And when they had mocked Him [e], they took the purple off Him and put on Him His own garments. (Mt) Pilate released to them Barabbas [d ]; but JESUS he scourged ANNO

A. Once Pilate stopped defending JESUS, he decided on his own to condemn Him, and made no secret of it. He goes to the judgment-seat, a tall regal chair of splendid stone, set in the balcony of the praetorium , and visible outside from afar. He sits there and has JESUS brought to him. It’s about the sixth hour, or noon time. As Pilate begins, out of contempt for the Jews he sneers, “Behold your King!” B. They scream, “Take Him away, take Him away! C rucify Him! Don’t wait, Pilate, do it now!” For they knew Pilate intended to condemn, and not defend JESUS. Earlier they dem anded His crucifixion, now they want it done quickly and cruelly. A. Pilate snarls, “Shall I crucify your King?” B. They shout, “We’ve no king but Caesar!” You Jews are insane! You reject a fellow man ol the tribe of Judah of the house of King David Who claims He’s a heavenly King, not an earthly one. You say your only king is an impious, uncircum­ cised idolater, execrable by your

and delivered to them to be crucified__ W hen they had mocked Him, they took the cloak off.Him and put on Him His own garments. (Jn)

Then Pilate handed Him over to them to be crucified. And so they took JESUS and led Him away [e].

AT I O N

law! Your words im ply that the scepter’s been taken from Judah, and not just by Herod! And this also means that the Messiah has come! Pilate sits on his judgm entseat. A benign, holy JESUS, lashed and hurt, thorn-crowned and clad in purple, stands on one side, on the other, Barabbas, a notorious and violent thief. The tumult grows as the chief priests rant ever more rabidly and the atrium resounds. C. Then a messenger comes from Pilate’s wife, for the Devil was at work. Satan had always suspected that JESUS was the C hrist and God, but wasn’t certain and w ouldn’t believe it even in the Sanhedrin session, but when he saw JESUS keep silence against the charge that He was the Son of God— though Pilate wanted an answer— he then interpreted His silence as adm ission [so Ignatius, L etter to th e P h ilippian s \, even though he had always feared and dreaded it. His fear grew when JESUS answered other questions and said no power could kill Him unless God allowed it. The Devil saw Pilate, undone by new Jewish ploys, now w illin g to hand Him

PI I . ATK P A S S E S S E N T E N C E O N J E S U S

over to them. Here at last the Devil knew he’d be despoiled of his tyranny over us were JESUS killed. So he wants to prevent C h rist’s death and approaches P ilate’s wife in a noonday dream. He hallucinates and incites her to stop her husband from killin g JESU S any way she can. The wom an sends someone to tell Pilate about the dream and deter him from killing an innocent man. The messenger goes to Pilate, now sittin g on the judgm ent-chair. Pilate listens, but isn’t moved to free JE SU S. Yet this and other reasons made him dissociate him self in public from anything to do with JE SU S’S execution. A. Pilate calls for water to wash his hands in public there in the tribunal hall. He claims, “Em innocent of the blood of this just man! See to it yourselves!” He did this according to Jewish custom to show that he didn’t want to be stained with the murder of JESUS. Come now, Pilate, admit you’re killing this just man by your own free choice! You’re driven by ambition, and fear you’ll ruin your name and influence with Caesar. W hy deny it? You wash your hands, you ought to wash your words and works! Pilate says, “See to it!” See to what? God’s punishm ent for you Jews? Do you think you’ll see no such thing, Pilate? But you will when you’ve fallen into your own final catastrophe and brought yourself a wretched death! The ch ief priests arouse the mobs who scream, “His blood be upon us and upon our ch ild ren !” W h at’s that, you m indless Jews?

213

Don’t you see where your m alice leads you in your chaos? You know your envy and hate send innocent JESUS to death (even though you don’t know God, lor you don’t recognize Him through your own fault and malice has blinded you). Don’t you know that by His unjust condem nation you bring punishm ent on yourselves? God heard your cry. You’ve seen that after Christ suffered, you and your children have been stricken with countless evils. Forty years after you saw your land devastated, Jerusalem demolished. You’ve seen endless barbarity. Few of your im m ense num ber were left for derision. You see evils that have overtaken you to this very day. Has anyone not despoiled you? Any nation not enslaved you? You’ve never had even a patch of earth as your own where you can set foot. You’re dregs and bilge, the disgrace of all m ankind. Yet to this day you remain obstinate. JESUS, at once just and merciful, has nevertheless taken your curse benignly, for from the cross He asked the Father that many of you be saved through His blood, and that at the end of the age, His blood be salvific for all. W hat admirable mysteries of C hrist’s blood! Yes, He punishes, but He calls all to salvation [Is 10; Hos 1; Rom 9]. First He saves the many, finally He brings all to salvation! N othing else rem ained to do; from the judgm ent-seat Pilate announces his decision. D. ”We have decided to give Barabbas to the Jews who asked for him, and to send JESUS to crucifixion!” Alas!

214

A N N O T A T I O N S A N 15 M E D I T A T I O N S O N T H E G O S I ’ EI S

Miserable, sinful Pilate, you condemn a man whom you knew innocent and King of another world. And in your fear, you knew Him as Son of God, ignorant as you were of alm ighty God, the creator of infinite majesty and power for all ages! You condemn Him to the cross as a notorious thief, and worst of all, you turn Him over to profligate barbarians, His enemies, whom you knew had betrayed Him through envy. No doubt whatever that you shook all over after your unholy verdict. And what about the mob? The atrium resounds with their cheers. They thank Pilate profusely and congratulate one another in gross, insane hugs. D. Barabbas is now freed, to bound out a free man and scoot to his confederates. E. Soldiers seize JESUS to rip off the purple cloak. He’s clothed again in His own garments, and His hands freed. Two condemned thieves are brought there and the crosses prepared for them set out. Soldiers give JESUS the cross He is to carry, then the two thieves are given theirs. Pilate orders the charge written and an inscription set atop His cross. A dreadful sight! An unspeakable tragedy! The King of angels doomed to death on the cross! JESU S, God and creator of all, treated as a leper, stricken by God and abased! “He was wounded for our sins and stricken for our offenses. There is no wholeness in Him from the sole of His foot to the crown of His head” [Is 53]. Wounds exhaust JESUS, and as thorns edge in and out again they

savage His sacred head. Cold, lassitude, grief, and sorrow sap His strength. Pilate had tried to free Him, but then a single Jewish barb turned his mind, and one who had earlier stoutly defended JESUS, now gives Him to crucifixion for utterly trivial reasons. The Devil, a professed enemy, viciously assaults Christ, but then fearing for himself, he stops the persecution, to work for His liberation. A pagan wife proclaims Christ just, and tries to lift Him from wicked hands. And yet Jewish malice grows more obstinate and savage, to effect at last His wretched and shameful death on the cross. Good JESU S, do I not stammer here, and are not the horrors I tell nothing compared with those You meet and suffer, should they be brought forth? And I do stammer, even as You freely embrace that cross bravely and with stronger intent than Your suffering and afflictions could deter, to which You will be nailed. Look to M ary the Virgin Mother. In spirit, she gathered these atrocities in her heart and learned them from others. T hink how her sorrow swelled at the brutality, abuse, and outrage afflicting her Son. Yet at the same time, she stood strong in spirit to sustain the holy women and confused disciples. Endless weeping and tears came on the women and the apostles, and it ever came anew. Now about Pilate’s wife. It’s commonly held that her suffering came from a bad dream the Devil sent. But it seems impossible that it occurred at night or in the early morning. For at that time the Devil

P IL A T E PASSES S E N T E N C E ON J E S U S

didn’t yet have second thoughts about Christ’s death, nor did he fear His death prior to the trial where He seemed to profess that He was the Son of God, since He had already told Pilate that He was a king. Then at this the Devil came to believe that

215

He was the Messiah. His change came at about noontime. So it is a good guess that her dream occurred then. And almost all exegetes say it was a bad dream, for the Greek text reads kat onctr, that is, “through a bad dream.’’

GE STA SV M T P O S T E A A M TE CRV Ci.P'[.X 10N EM . M att.xxvg. M a rc .x v . Luc. xxrij.

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P la te 16 . E v e n ts b e fo re th e C r u c i f i x i o n . J e r o m e N a d a l, A d n o t a t i o n e s e t m e d it a t io n e s Engraving by H ie ro n ym u s W ie r ic x after Bernardino Passeri, 2 3 2 x 145 m m .

i n E v a n g e li a

(A n tw erp , 16 07)

EVENTS BEFORE THE C R U C I F I X I O N MATTHEW

XXVII

N

MARK

otes fo r

P

late

XV

LUKE

XXIII

16

A.

The gro u p m eets Sim on o f C yrene as they lea ve w ith JESUS brutally abused.

D.

O ne o f them w ipes th e f a c e o f JESUS w ith a towel, to fi n d His im age left there.

B.

They fo r c e S im on to carry His cross.

A.

JESUS turns to them to say, “Do n ot w eep f o r Me, etc. ”

A.

JESUS is very little relieved.

C.

The w om en o f Jeru sa lem fo llo w w eeping.

GOSPEL

(Mt) As they went out, they met a man of Cyrene named Simon [a]; him they forced to take up His cross. (M k) They forced a certain passer-by, Sim on of Cyrene [b], com ing from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to take up His cross. (Lk)

As they led JESUS away [a], they laid hold of one Simon of Cyrene, com ing from the country, and upon him they laid the cross to bear it after JESUS [b]. Now there was following Him a great crowd of people,

R EA D I N G S

and of women [c], who were bew ailing and lam enting Him. But JESUS, turning to them said [a], “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For see, days are coming when men w ill say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall upon us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if in the case of green wood they do these things, what will happen in the case of the dry?”

A N N OT .TION

A. JE SU S, b rutally abused, was told to halt as the group came out the gate and met Sim on of Cyrene, coming from the country. (Cyrene is a western coastal area of Egypt.)

B. The Romans impressed Sim on, that is, they forced him to carry the cross after JESUS. If the Jews had scruples about touching the cross, the Romans abom inated

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doing so, and the more readily then did they make Simon carry it, for they thought that he and his sons were disciples of JESUS. Benign JESUS, but little relieved, goes ahead and Simon follows with the cross. Blessed Simon who took Christ’s burden! Can anyone doubt his intense joy, yet deepest grief at Christ’s impending death? C. The women of Jerusalem wailed and wept in grief, even as they came w ithout fear to JESUS, Whose very words halted the whole group. D. And see, as JESUS stopped, a woman came with a linen cloth to wipe His face smeared with grime, gore, and spittle. The soldiers couldn’t stop her, for so Christ willed it. W ith deep reverence and devotion she wipes His face, and then finds traceci clearly there on the linen the image of that holy face! Church tradition sustains this, and the linen with its image is kept in awed reverence at St. Peter’s in Rome. A. JESUS, turning to them, doesn't ban their tears, but only confirms and extends them, saying, “Daughters of Jerusalem , do not weep for Me, but for yourselves and for your children!” Don’t weep like that for Me, you don't know what you’re doing, or why! You think I’m only a man wrongly condemned: your leaders are just as blind to their enormous crime in killing Me. Yours is ordinary maternal compassion, but I’ll tell you what to mourn. Mourn what I mourned when I saw Jerusalem days ago, as I entered the city to your acclaim, seated on the colt of an ass. For I

tell of evil days to fall upon the city as these your Roman foes encircle her. They’ll surround and constrain her on every side, and bring her and her children crashing to earth! T hey’ll not leave a stone upon a stone. Then people will say, “Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and breasts that never nursed.” They’ll begin— more pitiably than ever— to say to the mountains, Fall upon us! and to the hills, Cover us! (Christ’s words foretell the massacre and cruelty that came when Titus, son of Vaspasian, destroyed Jerusalem.) T hat’s what you must bewail, daughters of Jerusalem , to learn how to weep for Me. For if all this afflicts you and the city, as it will indeed, because of a perverse murder that killed not a mere man, as you think, but God and the Savior of all, shouldn’t you weep and grieve for M y death far more than you do now? To suffer these vast disasters is a far lesser evil for you than for Me to suffer any harm, let alone death, from the Jews or Romans. If they do this to Me in the green wood, what will happen to you in the dry? Christ compares the disasters to the vast evil of His death, and shows they’re far less. And so, He says, here is how to weep, daughters of Jerusalem ! Weep for yourselves and your children for the disasters to come upon you from M y death! Know now that M y death and cross are greater evils than you ever im agined or bewailed. Then you’ll know at last how to weep. JESUS didn’t exhort the Virgin M ary or her companions: the M other of God

EVENTS BEFORE THE CRUCIFIXION

didn’t belong in that group, and the holy women and some disciples, John in particular, were w ith her. He didn’t depict the calam ities to His M other or the G alilean women and devout Jerusalem ites. (Tradition tells how C hristians were warned by God before the city was destroyed to

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flee to Pella, a city in Arabia, where they would escape the danger.) But the V irgin M other did hear how JESUS was eased of the weight of the cross and some pain, and she too was a bit relieved, as were the holy women, yet grief for His other sufferings and im m inent death stayed unabated.

M E D I T AT I O N

Com e, you who love the cross, come, all who cherish fasting and m ortification of the flesh! Behold the wondrous example and divine lessons of the Lord JESUS! W hen soldiers and Jews saw Him stagger under the cross they feared He w ould die beneath its w eight, and so they m ake H im stop. T hat eased H is shoulders of the cruel burden, yet even at rest He held the cross erect until another took it up. Look! JESUS there with the cross cries to all, “If anyone wishes to come after M e, let him deny him self, take up his cross, and follow M e!” [M t 16]. “I go w illingly to the cross for you. I’ve carried it this far, now I leave it, not because I can’t carry it all the way to Golgotha— I have strength enough for that, for I W ho w ill endure for three hours on the cross, have strength enough to carry its wood up to Calvary. Don’t think that if I put the cross from M y shoulders, that I won’t or can’t carry it! No, I w ant to invite and exhort all of you to carry it! See, I put it in your hands and on your shoulders: I make it yours! “M y cross was heavy, but that w ill make yours light. M y burden was a grave one; yours w ill be easy because of M ine. For the cross I give you as a blessing— that is, the persecutions, trials, labor, torm ents, insult, and

death that I graciously allow you— is for this reason a light one, because all these are M y cross in M y members, and also because I M yself earlier bore them all for you. I gave them all the salutary power to be an exam ple for you to im itate. T hat saving power is channeled through M y m erits into your works in accordance w ith the graced plan of your cross. “Don’t refuse M y cross; it’s splendor and grace, m erit and salvation for you. Vicious foes have now relieved Me of it; w ill you return it to Me? And create the danger that under its w eight I die among you because of your sin? For whoever refuses M y cross often sins gravely, and alm ost always puts him self in danger of sinning, w hich is to kill Me. And more than once have I told you [M t 16], ‘Whoever does not take up his cross and follow Me, is not worthy of M e!’ “M y brothers and sisters, learn the lesson that I’ve also given through M y herald Paul. You won’t share in glory unless you share in suffering, but if by the Spirit you mortify the works of the flesh, you w ill live. Now the spirit and power of M y cross is the holy m ortification and chastisement of the flesh. And more [2 Cor 4 ], Always bearing the death of Christ JESUS in your bodies, chastise your earthly

A N N O T A T I O N S A N D MEDI TATIONS ON T H E GO S P E L S

bodies!’ Yes, I chose to bear all your sins and remit their punishm ent— which I did once for all who have received the sacrament ol Baptism, for at the time you have nothing to resolve your debts— but alter you’ve received My gifts and life, I want you to use My cross and sacrifice either for your own greater merit and spiritual progress, or for My Father’s glory and Mine, or for the remission of your sins. And although you do this, it’s not that I don’t now forgive your sins, for by My blood I’ve merited so that you too can merit and make satisfaction for them unless you willfully choose to leave the cross to Me alone and to have no part of it. That is, you can take nothing of value and fail to profit for yourselves from M y cross, and so only make it heavier lor Me. My entire cross works for the entire satisfaction of your debts— not that part corresponds to part, but rather M y entire Passion works for each and every one— so if you set your own efforts to make satisfaction, you in truth call on the entire power of My Passion. But otherwise you w ill, as it were, only inflict M y entire Passion and cross on Me once again.’’ Blessed are you, Simon, for providing us C hrist’s salutary lesson. Blessings, holy Cyrenean! Take up His cross as you do so gladly! For I see, as Christ stands there, that the Jews most of all are loathe to carry it— even to touch a cross, let alone carry that of JESUS, is lor them execrable, and Roman soldiers abhor carrying the cross of a condemned man (though not to jostle it or nail the convict to it!). But the Jews fear Pilate w ill revoke C hrist’s sentence if His via cru cis is halted, so they urge the soldiers to get someone to bear the cross for Him.

You now show up, good Simon, and they all shout, “Let him carry it! You there, take up His cross!” They seize you and force it on you. And you take the cross w illingly, for God had called you to that m inistry so sublime, and Christ H im self had prepared you and already entered your heart through His cross. How fast your assent! How radiant your heartfelt joy! “Now for the first time, I can embrace the Lord JESUS. W hat wondrous power in Your cross! Holy M aster JESUS, I want to be crucified with You; accept me, gentle JESUS! To carry Your cross is a blessing, but even better for me set to it, is to lay down my life for You!” Simon, beloved of God, followed Christ to exult under the cross. His preeminent example on that sacred way calls us all to the cross, inviting us to follow Christ with the cross. And at the same time his forceful words reproach all who refuse to carry it and follow Christ. “Unhappy souls, will you refuse the cross? Why? It’s bitter, you say? How? For body and soul? Yes, if you want to live according to the flesh! But to live according to the flesh is death! W hat does that hold other than the Devil, Sin, and Hell? You're wretched and pitiable! But blessed are those who love and embrace the cross! For there you’ll find Christ and merit eternal life in Paradise. The cross is a banner trium phant over the world, the flesh, and the devil. It’s the gate of salvation, the way to heaven, the mother ot virtue and eternal life, the terror and bane of demons, the extirpation of vice, an impregnable shield, and the Christian soldier’s armory!” A great crowd of people, men and women, follow JESUS. Most just tag along, but the women weep and lam ent with maternal abandon; the

EVENTS BEFORE TH E CRUCIFIXION

men, who sensed danger, don’t dare protest despite the outrageous atrocity. Truly, good JE SU S, none of them sorrowed w ith You or consoled You, yet Your unjust persecutors drew strength to open their jaws against You like rapacious, roaring lions. Good JE SU S, what did You do in that dark hour? “In mercy, I cared for them all, even M y foes, but I chose to call to the women, “Daughters of Jerusalem !” For M y way is to seek the humble of heart, devout tenderness, and simple freedom of spirit.” Blessed JESUS, why didn’t You address Your M other and her companions? “The evils I foresaw didn’t pertain to her or them. Still, I ever spoke interiorly to the Virgin M other with holy visitations of spirit, and she sustained her companions through M e.” But why turn the daughters of Jerusalem from weeping for You? “I didn’t stop them, but only led and exhorted them to true tears. Their sorrow for Me was scant if you think what it should have been. They wept as though I were a man weak, innocent, and oppressed, one who couldn’t escape his enemies. Yes, I was innocent, but weak only by choice, for in fact I had infinite power and strength. Foes oppressed Me, but a mere nod of M y head could have cast them all straight to H ell. And so to rescue humanity from demonic, sinful tyranny, I chose not to escape them. “Their lament, preoccupied with the present, wasn’t one for the future. So I told them to extend it elsewhere, and to weep more rightly. I didn’t inhibit their grief, but tried to deepen and extend it. Weep for yourselves and for your children, even as I wept six days ago and now weep bloody tears inside and out. I weep for you and your children, for your sins and

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punishm ent, and for M y grievous Passion and bitter death that I suffer for all, even if it w ill bring help to so very few. Immense evils threaten you and your children, and more by far are ready in Hell unless you do penance. Failure adds suprem e evil to your outrageous sins and those of your parents, in that your m alignant refusal crucifies M e anew. Yes, its im m ense, contumacious abuse kills Me! “Daughters of Jerusalem, I teach you how to weep. M ay you and your people understand and be converted [Dt 3], so that I may save all and avert the wrath kindled against them. But I know their obstinacy. And even more sad is it that though I w ant and offer to help them repent, they’re still unw illin g to do so. A tim e w ill come when none w ill be shown mercy, and in perfect justice I w ill cast them all into the Inferno!” Blessed JESUS turns from the daughters of earthly Jerusalem to you who seek the heavenly one, saying, “Pay heed! Not even you know how much you should lam ent M y Passion. For I see also some who deny M y Passion and death as matter for tears. I won’t be seen to have suffered and died for them if I haven’t at least borne a burden of sorrow. T hey celebrate M y Resurrection and its glory in M y Passion as though they can’t adm it that I died prior to M y rising. T hey want M y glorification even as I die. But no one can be glorified with Me unless he suffers with Me. For w ill not M y soul be sorrowful even unto death, yet ever rejoicing and glad in it all? “Surely such ones work with the Jews who crucified Me. The Jews rejoiced to see Me crucified, but these rejoice to contem plate M y cross and don’t want to grieve. Now the apostles

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and disciples, and My mother most of all, weren’t the only ones to grieve [Ps 68], for the Church does so too. 1 wanted those who would grieve with Me, but from the others I had almost no one. Heretics of old said that I didn’t really suffer and die, but only seemed to, and didn’t mourn M y death. Don’t imitate them, but rather those who believe My suffering and death were real, and are truly moved and sorrowed by them. For their sorrow turns to joy and they come from a sense of true death to know and take to heart the glorious power of true resurrection, as Church practice teaches. “Yet not all who see the need to mourn M y cross know how to do so. Some do like the women of Jerusalem, who mourned M y sorrow, pain, and death, yet were little changed by that. So hear now what to attend to in M y suffering. Mourn your sins that caused it, and then lament that M y cross will not avail many, and even be an obstacle for them through their own fault, though of itself it has abundant grace for all. T hink of all the sorrow, pain, hum iliation, opprobrium , and indignities of M y Passion, and remember how they were cast upon Me, God! Add death itself, and you’ll have immense cause for sorrow, the greater and more com pelling since I suffered gladly not for Myself, but for you. The details of M y Passion and death— how, where, by and for whom I suffered— can only add to your grief. And consider that although I suffered with joy in M y higher faculties, the

lower ones knew a vehement revulsion coming from the reality of M y humanity— and that caused Me untold pain and sadness, as it should do for you— even though I had in an absolutely perfect way subjected that humanity to God and reason. “Suppose too you were condemned to a very painful death, and your king chose to die in your place. Knowing that, and looking on your dying king, wouldn’t you have the best of reasons to grieve and sorrow? Now M y death is infinitely more than that of any king, and your temporal death is far from eternal death, as is suffering in this world from that in the other world and H ell. Lament M y death that way, and because your lam ent can’t rise to that pitch, weep because it’s your own fault that you can’t do as you ought. And admit that. As it was fitting that through M y Passion and death and other sorrow, sadness, and pain I enter into M y glory, it will be very wrong for you to celebrate the glory of M y Resurrection but reject the grief of M y Passion. Remove the time for sorrow and grief from that for glory and joy, and the greater and deeper will be your joy as it springs from the realization of M y Passion and death. M y sorrow on the cross gives strength to its glory. That glory and the victory of M y cross come to birth through sorrow to M y eternal glory, and that of M y Father and the Holy Spirit.” AMEN.

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JE S U S IS C R U C IF IE D M A T T H E W XXVI I

M A R K XV

N

otes fo r

L U K E XXI I I

J O H N XI X

P la te 1 7

A.

The a rriva l a t Golgotha.

D.

JESUS is crucified.

B.

They g iv e H im m yrrh ed w in e m ix ed w ith vinegar. When He tasted it, He refused to drink it.

E.

An in scrip tion is set atop the cross at P ilate’s order.

F.

Two thieves are crucified.

G.

The sun is totally eclipsed.

C.

F our sold iers p rep a re to cru cify Him.

GOSPEL

(M t) T hey came to the place called Golgotha, that is, to the Place of the Skull [a], and they gave Him w ine to drink m ixed w ith gall; but when He had tasted it, He would not drink [b ]. Then two robbers were crucified w ith Him, one on His right hand and one on His left. (Mk) They brought Him to the place called Golgotha, which translated, is the Place of the Skull. And they gave Him wine to drink mixed with myrrh, but He did not take it. Then they crucified Him, and they crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right hand and one on His left [f]. And the Scripture was fulfilled, which says, “And He was reckoned among the wicked.” (Lk)

W hen they came to the place called the Skull [c], they crucified Him there [d], and the robbers, one on His right hand and the other on His left.

READINGS

(Jn)

Bearing the cross for H im self, He went forth to the place called the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him, and with Him two others, one on each side, and JESUS in the center. Pilate also wrote an inscription and had it put on the cross [e ]. It read, “JESU S the Nazarene, King of the Jews.”

(M t) T hey put above His head the charge against H im , w ritten, This is JE SU S, the King of the Jew s.” Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. (M k) The inscription against H im was, “The King of the Jew s.” W hen the sixth hour came, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. (Lk)

There was also an inscription w ritten over Him in Greek and Latin and Hebrew letters, “This is the King of the Jew s.” It was

TU

ANN O T AT IO N S AND M ED ITATIO NS ON T H E GO SPELS

now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the

whole land until the ninth hour, and the sun was darkened.

ANN O TAT I O N

A. They come at last to Golgotha, the last spur of M ount Gihon that stretches to the Judicial Gate, to the left towards the north of M ount Sion. The mount was the location of Calvary, a polluted place for the Jews, and execrable for all because criminals were executed there. Bones and skulls lay everywhere. Emperor Aelius Hadrian adjoined to the city the little hill with its enclosure fortifications, keeping the site unchanged. Golgotha is some 1862 common paces from Pilate’s residence. W hen they came there after the soldiers had worked unspeakable injury and insult on JESUS along the way, they immediately strip off His garments. Bloody beating resumes as they ready nails and hammers. Four brutal soldiers are told to nail JESUS to the cross. B. Spiced wine was usually offered to those about to be crucified to give them strength for the mental and physical agony. But the villains didn’t offer Christ such wine, but rather a vile and bitter kind with the singular acidity of vinegar and m yrrh. JESUS tasted it, but refused to drink. The sadists did everything they could to sharpen His pain and hum iliation. Good JESUS, why did You taste, and not drink the wine? “For your sake, I obeyed evil men who urged Me to taste, not drink it, and I didn’t want to be urged or to do more than th at.” Yes, JESUS tasted

death for us all. He truly knew, truly suffered death [Heb 2]. But H e is said to have tasted death both because He rose soon afterwards, and because it was only according to His hum anity that C hrist died. For the Verbum, the Word, didn’t suffer in se, nor did His soul at its higher level. C. The cross is set on the ground and JESUS, God, is seized and thrown on it! Four soldiers are the principal executioners: two grab H is hands, another two stretch His feet to the cross and ready His torso. Three brutes take nails and hammers, the fourth stands nearby w ith some others. Two drive the nails through His palms, the third does it for His feet. Those who nail His hands stretch them cruelly, likewise the one for His feet, w ith a fourth soldier and some others helping. Each group tries so hard to outdo the other in violence that they dislocate Christ’s bones and force them out of place to be numbered one by one before they crucify Him. I have recounted the deplorable evil perpetrated against good JESUS, the Son of God. But devout souls can in no way endure what now follows, nor tongue or pen be able to dare retell. Whose heart is so callous, who can confess Christ as God and know and love H im in his heart, and yet endure letting savage brigands nail His hands and feet to the cross?

J E S U S IS C R U C I F I E D

D. Yet we m ust contem plate that atrocity. H am m er pounds nail as the hands and feet of the Godman are b ru tally spiked. The pounding rings afar. Divine blood spurts in torrents from His four wounds. Benign JESU S suffers excruciating sorrow; His hands and feet are rent; every painful affliction fills His divine heart for an unbearable agony. C h ristian , m ake ready for this bitter spectacle, and just as if you were there, im plore JE SU S present W ho endured all for you, to make you meet these m ysteries deep in your heart. I hope that at first your heart w ill in no w ay be able to endure the pounding ham m ers, the blows, the piercing of His hands and feet, for then w ith C hrist you w ill know the nails’ salvific thrust and sense it deep in your heart. Some tim e m ay you feel those pains in hands and feet, b itter indeed, yet endowed w ith the divine sweetness of soul that we read came upon JESUS w ith incredible benignity. E. W hile C hrist endures this, an officer sets an inscription atop the cross at Pilate’s order, for he wanted the reason for C hrist’s crucifixion proclaim ed to the whole world. And so the inscription, w ritten in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, noted not the charge which the Jews pressed hard, saying, “Everyone who makes him self king, opposes Caesar,” but the truth itself. For on his own, Pilate wrote JESUS THE NAZARENE, KING OF THE JE W S, a truth fixed in his heart. Yes, JESUS is a king, but not of this world [Augustine, C om m entary on

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Joh n 16, tr. 53]. Pilate had agreed to His crucifixion not for any crime, but for his own personal am bitions, and so he wanted the truth stated publicly. In truth, he expressed his mind. He aimed both to placate Caesar should anyone bring charges, and to humiliate and censure the Jews. So he snarled at them, Q uod scripsi, scripsil, W hat I’ve w ritten, that’s it! Take it or leave it! E

Two thieves are crucified w ith JESU S to further h um iliate Him and have H im counted among outcasts and crim inals. The chief priests and elders are there, and they incite the onlookers to savagery. The angels deplore it, as Satan and his demons exult in the executioners’ perverse cruelty. Yet the demons fear once they suspect their own undoing is at hand.

G. The sun itself couldn’t stand such savagery against its Creator and Lord. It kept back its rays from earth lest it give light to the barbarians. All creation suffers with its m ortally wounded Creator. The sun hides its light as the moon intervenes, and for three hours it threatened to ruin the earth. All creation grows limp and weak, yet raging and savage Jewish hearts pay no heed to the eclipse or creation’s groans. Even as executioners do they misuse that h alf dead light which an eclipse usually provides! Among the crowd were the weeping women of Jerusalem , though far different was the grief of the sacrosanct V irgin Mother, her companions, and the disciples. The afflicted Mother contemplated the Son of God nailed to a cross, and

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even heard hammers pounding the nails! Now if you can’t bear to meditate on these sufferings of Christ, how do you think His Mother felt then? What should you not feel once you know His M other’s sorrow? For if sim ilar blows were visited on the hands, feet, and side of St. Francis, what may we not believe the Virgin Mother suffered? If there weren’t outer wounds, still the insults and abuse her Son had suffered up to now were all swords to transfix her heart, and His crucifixion the sharpest and most bitter of all. The holy women and disciples were now stricken far more brutally, their hearts broken by the cruel nails. The Virgin Mother, as the one next to Himself suffering most, JESUS ever strengthened with immense spiritual power to bear what He knew she couldn’t endure without His aid. The holy women and disciples were in turn supported in their sorrow and grief by Son and Mother. We may confidently claim not from Jewish tradition, but from patristic consensus, that Adam, the first man, was buried in Golgotha. Jerome too on occasion agrees. For even if in Joshua 14:15 Adam refers to a proper name, as the double Hebrew article there indicates, [ha adam ha gadol\ nevertheless does not refer to Adam, the first man, but to Arba. For we read the Hebrew text ...Kariath-Arbach, ha adam ha gadol be anakim h u ... Translated, this is, Kariath-arba; this

Arba was the first (i.e., leading) man ofithe Anakim. It would be wrong to say that Adam, the first man, was the leader of the Anakim rather

than Arba, the ancestor of Anak and the Anakim [cf. Jos 15]. M any church doctors relate the tradition that it was this very mountain where Abraham was to immolate Isaac, and that its name is Moriah. Its distinguished shape supports the tradition. The name M oriah doesn’t indicate a particular place, rather Gn 22 identifies a region called Moriah, where Abraham was shown a particular spot, namely Golgotha. Also in the M oriah region was Araunah’s threshing floor, known to David, where Solomon built the Temple [2 Chr 3]. So it’s reasonable to identify the whole of Mount Sion with the land of M oriah where many divine mysteries occurred in diverse places. M oriah is however the land of foresight, instruction, myrrh, and reverent praise. It’s a land of foresight indeed, of ruah. Whence the place is named G od w ill p r o v id e , and A victim w ill be provided. It’s a land of instruction, yarah , because from Sion or M oriah comes the Law of the eternal Gospel, first from the cross of JESU S, then from the H oly Spirit sent upon the disciples, and from the Temple, as if from a symbol of the whole Gospel. It’s a land of m yrrh, m yrrh , because it’s the land of Christ’s Passion and burial, as the M agi kings prophesied. And M oriah is a land of reverent praise, y a r eh , because true reverence and divine cult were there, first in symbol, and then in spirit and truth. But I see that devout Christians hold that Christ was not nailed to a cross raised on high, but on one cast on the ground, as the

J E S U S IS C R U C I F I E D

icons usually depict it. Recent C atholic w riters don’t dare deny this, and nothing contrary can be clearly seen in earlier ones. C yril and Leo seem explicit, as do Anselm and Bernard am ong later writers. Surely Johns text: “And if I be lifted from the earth, I will draw all things to M yself” [Jn 10], supports the tradition. For Christ’s elevation was a true and full

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exaltation: from the Crucified One comes the power of attraction. W hy else then were the words fro m th e ea rth added— for when John spoke of the exaltation twice before, he didn’t use them— unless he would indicate the suffering of the cross began here right on the ground? All this we now contem plate devoutly and briefly; we don’t build dogmatic schemes.

M E D I T AT I O N

T hey come at last to G olgotha, to C alvary. A lthough in some ways G olgotha was sacred, Jews and Romans had nonetheless desecrated it when they m ade it a place for executing criminals. A detestable place w ith skulls, bones, trash, and offal everywhere! Yet here they took You, holy JESUS. You didn’t resist when the D evil carried You aloft in the desert, nor do You resist now as evil executioners bring You to crucifixion in this unholy spot. For You came not just to suffer these torments, but also to bear the incom parably fetid and foul sins of us all. Yet in d ig n ity and insult brought You surpassing glory! Not only were You doing the Father’s w ill in deep hum ility, but You were also defeating the dem ons, to work salvation and life for the whole human fam ily as You glorified Calvary. And in this You hum iliated as ever Satan and all evil spirits! The D evil knew w ell that an obedient Abraham went to C alvary to sacrifice his son Isaac, and indeed did so in a goat substitute [Gn 2 2 ]; he knew too that Adam was buried there. Out of malice then he wanted to make C alvary infam ous and execrable; he tried desperately to have JESUS

crucified there, and His death an abom ination. But to thwart that, great JE SU S, You raised the abom inable place of skulls to a glorious and resplendent level. T hey came to M ount G olgotha and M oriah, that is, the place of divine p ro visio n . For God had provided that there God His Son w ould be im m olated [Sg 4 ], T hey came to the place of m yrrh , that is, to the place of the bitter spices of C h rist’s suffering and burial, to the place of instruction. For the Son of God, living, dying, and dead, taught the whole world from the cross— for H im a celestial cath ed ra — the way of salvation and eternal life. He called every soul to salutary reverence, and taught them perfect divine worship. Take these m ysteries, daughters of Sion, and write them on your heart: open an intim ate, tender part of it for them. Behold, here for you is C hrist’s cross! JE SU S, your h eart’s one love, your salvation and eternal life, is now to be nailed to it for your sake! Defiled brigands work furiously, diabolically; Satan him self doesn’t rest! Even though he didn’t w ant JESUS killed, but couldn’t stop it, he nonetheless urged unspeakable atrocities to the

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executioners. Contem plate now that obscenity, devout friends. According to custom, anyone whom public authority sent to crucifixion was given aromatic wine to sedate him and lessen the pain. The perverse soldiers turned that kindness to savage inhum anity. “Let’s not give precious wine to this nefarious nobody! We ll drink it ourselves, if it’s here. We ll concoct som ething better suited for Him; w ine, yes, but sour wine! We can throw in sharp, bitter myrrh, and some revulsive gall too, to deaden any relief still there.” They thrust that abomination to His lips. The adorable meekness of patient JESUS! He knew, He saw what was happening, and yet He tasted, so that no sense faculty of His would not suffer for our salvation. His wounds sorely afflicted touch, even to death. Sight suffered to see such cruel men and deeds, and His hearing by the roar of gross injuries and insults. Stench in the night jail, the detritus of Golgotha, and especially the fetid breath of those degenerates, hurt His nostrils. And now the gall’s bitter taste ensured that the five senses of the Son of God were spared no pain; He was truly a Man of Sorrows. The word of God came to pass, for through suffering, and not through death alone, did He bear our infirmities, and carry our sorrows [Is 53]. Christ’s senses were most delicately perfect, ours are only imperfect and defiled. He didn’t have our imperfections, but only the pain of all our senses, in order to heal our languors and purge our impurities by His afflictions. Let us medicate our senses through whose gates death enters our souls, and apply the bitter pains of C hrist’s senses, even as He endured them, as an excellent remedy won by

m editation and spiritual devotion [Jer 3]. Yes, they’ll be healed entirely unless our malice impedes it; they’ll be healed at last at the retribution of the just. M eantime our sense appetites will work no harm, but be instead a chance for brave struggle and glorious victory. H oly JESU S, w hy didn’t You want to drink the potion once You tasted it? “I wanted to show that any least part of M y Passion could redeem you, for that taste alone made abundant satisfaction for all human sin. It was itself the Passion of the God-man, and I wished to drink no more. For a great crowd was there to see what would happen, and I didn’t want them to think I took arom atic wine to alleviate the pain, for which there was no relief. So I prudently refused to drink to prevent any false impressions. This salutary act taught you that should your senses admit any impurity, you must reject it right away and not let it enter your mind and will, where it could be leth al.” Great JESUS, You tasted the lethal drink, for Your Evangelists report that it happened there in Golgotha. Now the executioners strip You of Your clothes; You lay naked on the cross for us, though twice before stripped and reclothed. Now cruel soldiers despoil You a third time. You’re to be clothed w ith those garments no more, but w ith ones of celestial glory! A grim theft! No way do they spare You W hom they saw led half-dead to the cross. They strip You with insults and savage violence, peeling off Your seamless robe soaked with Your wounded blood. They don’t do so gently to protect it, but hastily, to reopen Your wounds, dear afflicted JESUS. How unmercifully they pull it over the crown of thorns; not caring

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w hether it’s tw isted around to aggravate the wounds, but doing it w ith m alicious cruelty. The wrenched thorn crown rips again throbbing head wounds as cruelty of every kind is visited on a hated and abject Christ. Meanwhile cross, nails, hammers, and barbaric executioners are readied. At Pilate’s order an inscription is made for the top of the cross, over Jewish objections. W hat a sad scene! And it’s all done in the sight of the gentle lamb JESU S, and for His affliction, as though He were then being crucified! Contem plate this, devout friends: here are the nails to crucify JESUS, your soul’s celestial light, for your sake! This, the cross to which He was nailed, over there those who nail Him to it. All menace Christ, your heart, and the depths of your being! The men now lay out my God on the cross: two grab His wrists, another one His feet. They fit and fix Him to the cross! The fear, the pain! But before you look at the dreadful deed, see the inscription on the cross and let your heart realize W ho is to be crucified. See the words: JESUS THE NAZARENE, KING OF TH E JE W S. T his is He W ho said to M oses, “I am W ho am ,” He W hose Name is the tetragram m aton YH W H , the Lord for all ages, a m em orial for every generation [Ex 3]. Here is God, the Lord God W ho created heaven and earth, the seas and everything in them [Ps 145]. For God, W hose very substance and being is the power and strength of Father, Son and H oly Spirit, made all. T his is He W ho created the angels; to those who m aintained their dominion and abode He gave eternal life [Jude]; on the rest He im posed eternal death. He keeps and rules all creatures from the start.

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In the fullness of tim e [Gal 4], He was made man, taking flesh from the im m aculate V irgin, and our infirm ities too, that He m ight make satisfaction to God for human sin. He H im self was made sin, a sin offering that is, for us [1 Cor 5]. This is He W ho w ill judge ju stly when He seizes the appointed tim e [Ps 7 4 ], and He will exercise that fearful judgm ent with divine power and majesty. In Him the just w ill receive the crown of glory from His hand, the rest w ill be cast into H ell, into the eternal fire w ith the Devil and his angels. He is the One W ho proclaim ed words of eternal life to the world, JESU S, the eternal Savior, and m ankind’s eternal salvation! Yes, He is the consubstantial Son of the Father, and has in H im self that life and im m ortality, but He has com m unicated it to us in profound mystery and immense blessing. And so even though we lost life and salvation through sin, and were liable to eternal death before God, He m erited for us life and eternal salvation as He overthrew and put to flight death and every other evil. But to have this merit and salvation the more precious and divine, He w anted to prepare those great gifts to us through w hat we m ortals see as our greatest evils: poverty, ignom iny, sorrow, pain, and death. That way His salvation became the more m ighty and glorious. On all this, devout friends, cast your spiritual eyes. For this is JESUS, the love of your heart, its light and delight, its life, salvation, eternal justice, and holiness [1 Cor 1]! He im parts divine wisdom and celestial strength. He drives from your heart the im perfections of fear, and engenders pure, perfect reverence. JESUS gives joyful peace, and endows the fruits and

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gifts of the Spirit. He lifts you to the sanctity of the Beatitudes, for you hold and enjoy in Him all good things. His Name be blessed forever! He is the NAZARENE, that is, the seed and holy flower, innocent, unstained, set apart from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, the custodian, crown, and glory of the angels [Heb 7]! He is ours too, from Whom good seed blossoms into eternal glory. He is infinite sanctity, immense purity, eternal splendor [Wis 7; Heb 1], As God He is set apart from every creature, higher than all the heavens from all eternity. On descending to us, He took our humanity to Himself, and so ennobled it that it became higher than the heavens in dignity, power, glory, and divinity. He is the KING, the living God and eternal King, the awe-inspiring King of Glory, the great King over all the earth, the King of kings and the Lord of lords [Jer 10; Pss 2, 23, 46; Rv 7, 9]. The Father made Him King over His holy mount Sion, to proclaim the great mystery of Gods law. He governs and rules every order of creatures, and men and angels, rational creation, with a special providential benevolence. For although He gives angels eternal glory, He H im self divinely sees to their purification, illum ination, and unions; He purifies and illumines their minds, for He reveals much to them from His divine and human treasures. As He illum inates divine arcana for the angels, He perfects their will w ith that and by union to the divine w ill. These blessings He effects both through H im self and through a m inistry of higher to lower angels. And C hrist likewise ordains a hierarchy for the Church, and hierarchical functions for its princes

and ministers who govern and rule His whole Body. For He is its head [Eph 4], by whose power and influence through the H oly Spirit the whole body of the Church grows into divine charity and edification, compacted and held together as it is by divine harmony. Yes, the Church enjoys the help of the Spirit through the m utual union of its members and the abundance of their charisms. This King brings the Kingdom of Heaven to earth, and w ith m ighty power He sets it in our minds. In His power we exult in the splendid jubilation of the glorious heavenly kingdom as it overflows into us so that we share in Christ and His gifts. In the celestial power of the kingdom we tram ple the demons, curb and avoid vice, and exercise divine power in the splendor of the virtues and charisms, thanks to this High King. He is King of the JEW S, of ones who know the Name of God and JESUS, who confess it and confess Him, who praise and adore the Name, exult in it, believe and trust in it, Jews who love it with all their mind, and heart, their whole soul and all their strength [Dt 6], who confess and exalt it in their works. These Jews aren’t like those who crucified Christ, whose lips confessed God but whose crimes were blasphemy [Ti 1]. No, Christ isn’t King of such as those; Satan is their king, he who is king of all the children of pride [Jb 14]. This is JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Come, angels; pay heed, holy Patriarchs of Limbo! Let the heavens, the earth, every elem ent, and all creation attend! Come, daughters of Sion, attend a spectacle that in cruel horror, indignity, and insult surpasses anything that ever was, is now, or will

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be! No man or demon could ever have devised or worked it unless God H im self allowed His Son to be sent to the cross, there to exercise His most sublim e mercy. Behold! JE SU S, the God-man, is seized, thrown naked on a rugged cross. W earied by endless blows over endless hours from the Garden till now, His whole body is fearfully lacerated, His head crowned w ith sharp thorns [Basil on Ps 21, Bernard’s Serm on on the Passion ] ! Yet w ith virtue and strength more than heroic, He stands steady to endure the cross to the end. And so the soldiers stretch H im out on it so b rutally and violently that it’s easy to num ber all His bones. Bone sockets and tendons are ripped or loosened am id intense pain. A supersatanic act! Before crucifixion no bone protruded for the executioners to harass; now they can w ork their cruelty on the tendons w ith in . “Stretch the v illain ’s body all the way, to make His every m uscle suffer! He’s been strong up to now, we can weaken Him to make His agony on the cross u nendurable!” W h at savagery! And the patient, in fin ite strength of benign JESU S! His sufferings surpassed all others, even those God let Satan visit on Job, for God didn’t allow crucifixion! You surpass Job in Your suffering, and in Your agony You far outdo him , great JE SU S. T ruly was it w ritten of You, “All you who pass by the way, attend, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow” [Is; Jer; Ps 21]. “M y lim bs are weak, M y bones are scattered and dispersed am id the painful stretch of muscle. Nor is there in teg rity in M y flesh in the face of Your wrath that once set against sinful m en, holy Father, You now turn on M e. Nor is there peace in M y bones

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from the face of their sins, for which I suffer as though M y own. M y bones once knew peace and unity; now with all M y limbs stretched out, they enjoy no concord or union.” Devout friend, let your soul’s bones be scattered, your strength be wasted away to see these scandals. Yet to help you endure more easily, rem em ber that your soul’s powers w hich your sins underm ined are renewed by C h rist’s suffering, and their unity restored. Yet what seems to alleviate your sorrow only deepens it. For w hat heart w ould allow God to suffer such pain that its own in firm ities be healed? And especially since we so often foolishly abuse His help, or reject it altogether? Although JESU S, the Lord of Glory, knew such pain, brutal soldiers nonetheless affixed H im to the cross w ith nails cruel beyond telling. Hear, you angels, the ham m ers’ savage beat! Hear it, all you in Limbo, and you heavens and all creation! Yet the sorrow and tears we sense you suffer w ith a crucified Creator keep you from hearing! T he ham m ers’ truculent ring reached Heaven, Hell, and all creation. Angels wept b itter tears [Is 3 3 ], the heavens were appalled and desolate, the earth m ourned and grieved. The sun sorrowed even more profoundly, and the moon followed its lead. No, the lum inaries of the w orld couldn’t bear to see such evil, or shed their light on the horrendous tragedy. M oon, where do you go? “I don’t w ant to reflect the sun’s light to earth, nor can I let sunlight bathe the earth. I’ll shift my assigned path and orbit to cross its face, so that not even the sun itself can cast ligh t on earth. A crucified God asks th is.” R acing to the sun, the moon buries its rays, an act the

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outraged orb eagerly welcomes. A fearful eclipse occurs, a darkness swallows the earth, and an even more fearful one occludes the minds of the Jews and Romans. See what blind obstinacy does, as all creation groans! In the ecliptic darkness itself however, the Romans and Jews stay at their savagery, nor do they consider how chaotic nature threatens them. Good JESUS, how did You feel, body and soul, when You moved creation to such sorrow? [Christ] “I was first of all perfectly obedient to M y Father. I gave the executioners M y hands and feet w illin gly; I knew unbearable pain, unspeakable and incom prehensible. M y whole body revulsed at the first nail driven; every wound of sense and sinew reopened. Excruciating pain came as the nails pierced my limbs where the nerves’ concurrence was most sensitive. The way they nailed Me to the cross dislocated M y bones, and the cruel tw isting of sinews did too, to increase M y pain. And so, even though there was nothing sound in M y flesh, nor peace for M y bones and sinews, the painful nailing of M y hands and feet only raised the agony unm ercifully. To nail M y hands and feet wasn’t just cruel in itself, but lethal too; because they were the nailings to the cross that would bring Me slow, agonizing death. “M y soul’s agony too was infinite. M y heart was being nailed with Me, My spiritual powers, mind and will, created and human as they were, crucified with Me! Sorrow, affliction and insult wracked them all. Only the divinity didn’t suffer, for it was united to M y suffering humanity, but because there was a true union of hum anity and Word, God was truly said to suffer and

be crucified. And in like manner My beatified soul’s higher faculties suffered nothing, yet this so little alleviated M y sorrows and pain that they only swelled the more. For it didn’t alleviate human sensitivity, but marked out human dignity and worth, so that sorrows arose infinitely more bitter.” Incomparable events! Infinite oceans of sorrow and mystery! Fountains of tears and weeping! Can any soul endure it all, and not be numb with grief? Aren’t words mute? I know all fails you, my soul, if you think or speak of it. Go rather to your heart and there meet Christ on the cross. Then your heart will melt, its flesh and sinews dissolve, and all powers fade away. Let your afflicted heart know that Christ’s executioners were there before you to seize hammers and nails to drive into His hands and feet, and with that to drive them into your heart too! There let your heart and soul melt into Christ’s wounds, and let all your powers and senses be crucified! Take up sorrow for a crucified Christ, and redirect it from the crucified One to your own sins. Here and nowhere else will you get deeper knowledge of them, for it was fitting that Christ be crucified in anguish to make satisfaction to God for these your sins. Yet we are arid spirits and insensitive, our m ind’s eye easily seduced. God is crucified and condemned before our eyes, and we don’t see that [Gal 3], we’re unmoved! We don’t crucify our old self along with Christ, that old self whom He crucified with Himself [Rom 6; Col 3], and not just mine, but everyone’s! Yes, the whole world was crucified with Christ. For what was Christ’s cross save the world’s punishment, ignominy, pummeling, and victory? The world is now crucified to us, so it has nothing over us; it dares nothing against us.

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It can do nothing. Yet we must be crucified to the world. W ith Christ is crucified whatever in the world displeases God, and that too is crucified to me, for Christ took up that punishment and death for my sake. So it is ever enjoined that by meditation and im itation of the cross my senses be crucified, and that the world find

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nothing in me not crucified and dead on the cross with Christ. Good and great C hrist, im print on my heart the intimate, living, sharp, efficacious meaning and power of Your crucifixion and cross, so that in and from the cross I may win eternal life. AMEN.

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TH E R A IS IN G OF TH E C R O S S M A T T H E W XXVI I

M A R K XV

LUKE

X XI I I

JOHN

XI X

N otes for P late 18

A.

An o p en in g in th e g r o u n d is m ade to h old the cross.

B.

The cross is raised, set in p la ce, a n d stea d ied w ith sev era l devices.

C.

Onlookers show various em otions as the cross is raised a n d set in p la ce w ith im m en se p a in f o r JESUS.

ANN O TAT I O N

A. A hole to steady the cross after it was raised had been dug earlier, or perhaps one already made for others was reopened. B. JESU S suffered exceedingly from the three nails; the pain from wounds all over His body was incessant, yet the most excru­ ciatin g and bitter agony by far comes now. The soldiers start to raise the cross and set it in the hole: one end is lifted w ith poles and two-pronged forks, the other they drag w ith ropes. A ll join in the atrocity. As they do, JESUS starts to hang by the wounds in His hands and feet, in fierce pain that the countless sinews in His hands and feet exacerbated. The higher the cross is raised, the greater His pain and the more blood. The cross shakes, either because things just go that way, or because the cruel executioners wanted it, as they drag, push, shove, and jostle the cross. Either way, good JESUS knows new agony as His wounds

everywhere grow worse. The cross is raised, and Christ hangs entirely from His lacerated hands and feet. To hum iliate Him even more, on either side other executioners set a cross for a doomed thief. C hrist’s last and greatest sorrow now begins. The brutes could do nothing more to JESUS save bring their thirst-wracked victim vinegar. Even so, His final sorrow grew ever so cruelly over the three hours, and little by little it brought death. Blessed Christ JESUS, God of immense majesty and power, how can three nails fix You to the cross? “Neither nails nor any power in creation could do so; only M y love for men and obedience to M y Father could.” But how could You endure the pain? “M y body and perfect humanity, M y omnipotent power of soul and body, marvelous beyond words, let Me endure the intense trials that no one else could.” C. W hen the soldiers started to raise the cross and it became visible, a

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tum ultuous roar arose from the onlookers. Some rejoiced, others jeered or blasphem ed, while still others wept in sympathy or looked on in disbelief. Shouts were everywhere as the cross was raised, and after several attem pts, firm ly fixed, and then the noise subsided. From afar the V irgin M ary had a very different cry of com m is­ eration; the holy women and disciples who stood with her were shocked, their tender hearts couldn’t bear to look on the cross, and they groaned in agony from the depths of their heart. M ary did so with perfect grace, the others with clear signs of sorrow. W hen first He could, JESUS turned His eyes to His beloved and afflicted Mother, she in turn looked on Him. Both hearts swelled with sorrow. Yet here they differ, because C hrist’s sorrows get no relief, but ever increase to hasten

His death. M ary’s sorrows, however, her soul and life, are preserved by her dying Son. And though her.sorrows of m ind and afflictions of her body that came from them, are m ultiplied, she is not abandoned by her Son; her Son is abandoned by the Father; the mother is sustained by her Son’s consoling strength. Good JESUS looks on all, not just on the disciples there, but on all who w ill be His disciples: He offers His sorrows and death to the Father for all, moved by the sight of all to mercy for all. But now the weeping and tears of M ary and her companions, and of the disciples, swell to fullness as do C hrist’s sorrows, and as His are endured yet grow up to His death, so are their sorrows, grief and tears. Yet all imitate M ary’s magnanimity, as she does her Son’s.

M E D I T AT I O N

Crucified JESUS, I can’t make my heart turn from Your crucifixion. The nails, the hammers, Your pierced hands and feet, the Roman executioners, the Jewish crucifiers, all call me back. Who gave nails power to pierce the hands and feet of God? Who gave you nails leave to strike God with savage cruelty? If the cosmos blanched and paled at the cross and death of Christ, why don’t you? No, you make the world tremble when you work the death of God. Don’t abuse your Creator, turn your brutality and spikes against me! Nails can’t do that, of course, they can only hurt Christ, for so God wills, and Christ too. God’s will then, and Christ’s immense love, gave the nails power: they couldn’t

pierce God unless God so willed. We’re able not to kill Christ: for God wills, orders, and threatens eternal death lest we destroy Him, and yet we do nail Christ to the cross by our sins! So we who drive nails into Christ, are worse than iron nails, and we ourselves are the nails! Yet our perverse minds don’t admit it! Tell us, hammers! Who is it your hard blows menace? “JE SU S!” Not so! For if C hrist didn’t w ant to be transfixed, no hammer, nothing at all could ever do it! Yet Christ willed to be fixed with nails and He gave you that power. Hammers were needed to nail Him to the wood, yet the wood could refuse the nail, especially one stained

T H E RA ISIN G OF T H E CROSS

w ith God’s blood. But C hrist lets it take the nails, nor is He unw illin g to be nailed to the wood by them. Those nails and ham m ers are needed and should be used to transfix m y heart! Come, nails stained with Christ’s blood, come, transfix m y hard heart, bathe it w ith C hrist’s blood. Drive out its hardness and make it keenly aware of a crucified Christ. M y heart is hard and contum acious, it won’t adm it the nails. Great JESU S, use Your hammer that splits rocks, and Your fire that burns off the dross, so that m y heart m ay adm it Your nails; let them never be taken from there, but be salvific for me in this life and glorious in heaven! M ay they transfix m y flesh and every sense and power w ith Your reverence, and fix them to the ligh t burden and sweet yoke of Your cross [Ps 118]. Let them ever bring the acute and efficacious desire of serving You. Yes, if the wise words of Your prophets are nail-like barbs [Eccl 12], holy JESUS, and at Your com m and I’ve set them firm and deep in m y heart, w hat can Your very own nails not do? W ill they not surpass the others and go deeper? A ll powerful are those nails, Lord JESUS, and infinite Your suffering! Great Lord JE SU S, didn’t Your hands make heaven and earth [Est 13], angels and m en, and all in heaven’s am bit? Don’t they sustain and govern all? You are the W ord o f God the Father. You created all, and through You the Father created all. And yet here are Your hands nailed to the cross! Yours are the hands of the hands that created all! His hands created all, Yours restore, perfect, and pacify all on earth and in heaven [Col 1]. W h at divine, powerful hands! Yet ones pierced by iron solid nails, and still God’s hands! The hands that brought countless

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healing and life to us, and eternal life to all who obey God! These are hands finely w rought and golden, replete w ith hyacinth [Sg 5], made from divine treasure, enriched and set with the most precious rings! Just so, great JE SU S, were Your hands fashioned, yet now the grossest men shape them in a very different way. Nails are their lathe, their jabs and blows the rings, fierce pain the gold, and im m ense ignom in y the hyacinth. But Your wisdom and power, JESU S, Your divine powers, these are the golden rings on Your hands! T hrough them You pour out the immense riches of divinity on mortals and share celestial gifts. Truly, You have opened Your hands, and they are ever open. You fill every anim al and all things w ith Your goodness and blessing [Ps 144]. Yes, hands are the most perfect instrum ent o f all, but Your hands, Your crucified hands, are a mystery beyond all praise! You dispense no grace, no salvation or life or gifts, You save no one, lead none to the kingdom of heaven, save by Your wounded hands. For these Your wounds, and those of Your feet, brought You death on a cross that m erited all good and is the architectonic instrum ent of all grace. From Your crucified hands comes the splendor of ligh t and power. In them God has set the m ighty horns of His power and of our salvation and eternal life. Your power, and Your Father’s, are hidden there. There is found our hope and our light, and yet our grief, bitter sorrow, and tears too, because the hands of our God are nailed to the wood of the cross for our sins that are those very nails! H oly JESUS, Your divine feet are nailed to the cross too. Your hands and

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feet suffer in and with each other, for their nerves all from one source do this. Holy, blessed feet! The feet, indeed the bare feet, that took You through all Palestine in obedience to Your Father’s will, as You sought out those You called and lead to eternal salvation, sowing Your word, God’s revelation, and giving us health and life. The sea w illingly made itself a path for You when it recognized its Creator’s feet! These are the feet that carried You resolutely ahead of the apostles to the cross in Jerusalem , and from the Garden to Judas the traitor and his armed cohort. These are the feet that made and make beautiful the feet of the evangelists of peace, the evangelists of good tidings. How beautiful and perfect then are Your feet whence come beauty and perfection. Holy JESUS, You walked the way of Your Father’s mandate, and with these feet You gave us the power to walk in that path. Here are God’s feet, and yet they’re nailed with a brutal spike! Do you raving maniacs think you destroy the purpose of God’s feet as you nail them to the cross with a spike, unwilling as you are to tie them with a rope? You’re wrong, you monsters! First of all, through C hrist’s pierced feet, a way is opened for us to share in H is blessings that come to us through those wounds. Then through His wounds we are given feet to go to God. Through these nails of affliction we are grafted onto Christ’s body. From them we who were afar are brought close and draw divine strength to w alk before God endowed w ith the form of C hrist’s feet. We strive for perfection and direct our steps in God’s ways [Ps 1], and we have our guideposts. Let us then w alk on a pure path to serve God, and go as Christ directs us. His

feet, His wounds tell us w ith efficacious divine power, “Arise and walk!’’ All this comes from your abuse, you beasts, yet you haven’t understood! You’ll understand when you fall to your ruin and infinite evils. You’ll know that these are the feet God uses to bring His wrath upon you, His hands to war on you when you are given to the demons for plunder. They’ll cast you into the horrendous pit of Hell! M y soul, you have God’s hands and feet fixed to the cross in your heart; you have the four rivers of alm ighty God’s mercy flowing out to you from the inexhaustible fount of C hrist’s Passion and cross. These are the afflictions that bring about C hrist’s death, and at the same time, death to our sins. M ake sure that your hearts don’t lose that divine power, for in His wounds are your salvation and life. Yet the wounds are also four horns that will blow away and disperse all substance, peace, and safety of your heart and soul if you neglect them [Zee 2]. Do you brutal thugs dare crucify God? “But we didn’t know that!” In ignorance no doubt you fixed God to a cross, yet you knew He was a just man, so you’ve unconscionably crucified Him. “But we’re Pilate’s men, and he made us do it!” Others, not you! You did it by your own choice! You’re more guilty, more detestable! Sun and moon shuddered at your atrocity. But you? D idn’t you blanch and shudder? W hen your hammers hit the spikes, didn’t your hands and bones shake too? Weren’t your hearts deadened? If you felt nothing, you’re not men, you’re animals! And even less than the dumb brutes! No doubt it befit God’s providence to let those who would crucify the God-man be wicked profligates. W ho did you think you

T H E RA ISIN G OF T H E CROSS

were abusing? W ell, that very One will come on the clouds in m ajesty w ith great power [Rv 21; Lk 21; Jude], Yes, He comes w ith His soldier saints to judge all the w icked for their every wicked, sinful act, and for all the cruel things im pious sinners have spoken against H im . A ll are judged evil, but you most of all. For you’ve not only spoken harsh words against Christ the judge of all, but done brutal harm [Rv 1], All are m arked for judgm ent, for every eye w ill behold Him, but you who nailed and crucified H im , are marked by name. Can anyone say how great is your sin, you wicked Jewish killers? Or your envy, ingratitude, perversity, malice, and obstinacy? All beyond belief! T hink of God’s gifts for you, and then the evil you’ve worked on God! In the beginning He chose to be born of your race and become a Jew. Ever evil, perverse, and rebellious, you always acted in such a way that would make H im hesitant to take flesh from you. Yet He overcame your evil w ith His goodness, fidelity, and truth. Before the flood you were almost all corrupt, yet God preserved your seed in Noah’s ark. The world was soon stained by idolatry, but God sent Abraham and the patriarchs to keep you from its evil cults. You were dying from hunger, God gave you Jose ph as a savior, and when God did this, He trum ped your malevolent betrayal of him by His singular blessings for you. Pharoah plotted your death, God sent you Moses whom you rejected. But He led you out of Egypt w ith signs and wonders, and routed the whole Egyptian army. You enjoyed the great gift of deliverance from corrupt Egyptian customs and cult, yet how often you rebelled in the desert, were disobedient and idolatrous!

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And because of your malice God wanted to destroy you, but His mercy won over His justice. His hands nourished and clothed you; He dwelt among you. He led you into the promised land, but how often you sinned against H im there! How often you abandoned His cultus for the demons! And deserved death! God nevertheless rescued you from your evil ways through the Judges [1 Kg 8]. Against His divine w ill you asked for a king, and this He allowed. He restored you through David, and exalted you through Solomon, corrupted as he was by women [3 Kg 11]. After Solomon, ten tribes fell into idolatry and were destroyed with their king. But how often the king of Judea, whose reign God allowed, also fell! Later God sent you the prophets [Acts 7] whom you persecuted, and murdered, those who foretold the coming of the Just One. Because your crimes ever offended God, He often chastised Judea itself, and at last destroyed city and Temple through Nabuchodonosor. And still God ever acted as a father with you; in His mercy He chastised you for your reform. That was a true sign of God’s love for you. God destroyed the ten tribes; other nations He looked down upon, but He never abandoned you. And so for seventy years He led you in Judea. He gave you leaders, He b u ilt the Temple and the city. He liberated you from Ham an and the cruel edicts of Ahasuerus. For you He pacified Alexander of M acedon. He saved you from A ntiochus, under whose rule m any had abandoned the Law. You breathed again at last under the Maccabees, yet in such a way that God sent you again no prophet after M alachi. He allowed you but few kings, and those from the Maccabees. Your sins then were very great, so God

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punished you severely by giving you over to the Romans, and through them into the hands of your ancient Idumean enemies, in the persons of Herod and his sons. He allowed factions in the Law among you and corrupt elections to the priesthood. Yet God didn’t perm it idolatry among you— a splendid instance of divine grace for you. To those suffering great calam ities God left the light of truth for you to follow and to greet the Messiah, whom all signs indicated was now at hand, or had already arrived. But that only stirred your perversity! Not only Herod, but even you yourselves wanted to kill the newborn Christ, W hom you could recognize from all the signs and many scriptural evidences. Later you should have recognized a twelve-year-old Christ, but you didn’t. There’s no doubt that Christ prays for you, and sends great graces, yet still you ever resist the Holy Spirit! C hrist began to proclaim the kingdom of God, and then you exploded with envy, perversity, malice, and hatred for your Messiah and God. And your menace never desisted until in fury you nailed the Lord to a cross, even though the Roman prefect resisted you. W hat can you Jewish crucifixion conspirators say to that? The soldiers would never have crucified JESUS, nor Pilate allowed it, save for you. You, you crucified the Messiah! How often before you wanted to kill Him! But what did you see in all this then that didn’t come from God’s great love? God attended you with the greatest blessings from the beginning of creation through all the ages, and at last with the one for which all the others prepared you. God took flesh from your people, God became a

Jewish man, God gave H im self to you— an infinite blessing if only you had recognized it! He chose to announce to you first of all the perfect light of Gospel Law. To the proclamation of the eternal Gospel He added the manifestation of its glory and confirmation of its teaching, and innumerable miracles of every kind for the healing of your infirm ities. He healed your sick and drove demons out of your bodies. He restored sight to blind eyes, hearing to deaf ears, speech to the mute, and with that, spiritual life to all. Ever did He offer it to you, and call and exhort you to it through His teaching and miracles. Was there ever any good He or His Father could do for you that He didn’t do or offer to you? And yet you, the dregs of humanity, ungrateful and barbarous, burdened Him with a shameful death. You m anipulated Pilate and his soldiers to crucify God W ho ever sought your safety and prayed for you, even in the very anguish of death, and from the cross itself. You’ve no human heart, only that of a wild beast! Fierce savages, infinite sin! Yet the Jews themselves call us to a crucified Christ with their furious shouts, “Raise the cross, let Him hang from the wood so that He is clearly accursed by God!” The brutal soldiers now tried hard to do that. “Raise the cross, let Him hang from it, a malefactor held by its nails!” Everyone’s shouting. Violent soldiers raise the cross, and forcibly jam it in the hole. A fearful sight! Painful beyond words! Those wicked men made the nails and cross Your dw elling place, Lord JESUS, but heaven is Your home. For Your throne is forever with the Father and the H oly Spirit in the divine unity. And the earth as God’s

THE RAISING OF THE CROSS

footstool is Yours too. Yes, You fill all with Your infinite essence, power, and presence. You’re exalted above all, and in all. You w illed the firm support of Your feet to be there in Your heavenly Temple where You sit above the C herubim . From there You extended and exercised Your power and m ercy on earth, and heard the prayers and sacrifices of Your servants. And yet You chose in Your h u m an ity a land greater by far as the footstool of Your merciful power, a far more perfect tem ple it was that You assumed. That hum anity is more truly the footstool of Your feet and the one You prom ised to glorify [Isa 60]. For that temple wasn’t glorified, but rather Yours, this Your hum anity! W hatever glory the first one had, it had because of this one, and so the glory of this newest tem ple shall be greater than that of the first or second [Hg 2]. The Seraphim praise these Your feet in the passage where the prophet Isaiah saw Your glory and spoke of You, Lord JESUS [Isa 6]. Sublime revelation taught the evangelist prophet of Good News the excellence of Your d iv in ity and of Your Incarnation and hum anity as well [Jn 1]. He told how w ith two wings the Seraphim covered Your face, that is, the m ystery of Your divinity, and w ith other pairs of wings the m ystery of Your Incarnation and humanity, professing both as the arcana of God. As he wrote elsewhere, “Long, long have I kept silence” [Is 42], Even the angels must celebrate in silence these ineffable, adorable mysteries! Your Incarnation and hum anity are the feet that take You to us, and God the Father has put all Your enemies and all things under Your feet. He has made a footstool of Your footstool [Ps 110]. Yet wicked men now set Your

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feet in another place, a different footstool— the cross itself, a throne lor Your humanity and so one for the Godman. At the same time they turn a cruel nail into an iron footstool for the Godman’s feet, for so Your holy and blessed feet used it on the cross. Intense pain tormented You in every wound from the weight of Your entire body, save where it was not so much relieved as surpassed by the excruciating wounds in Your hands. Pitiable were the changes: pain in the hands couldn’t relent w ithout increasing that in the feet, nor grow there w ithout pain swelling in the feet. Bitter changes, pitiable beyond belief. If indeed they were changes and not rather maximum pain p e r se, w ith unique torments for both hands and feet, a torment in itself. You insane Jews wanted to make Him accursed by God by hanging Him on a cross [D t 21]. You w anted to make Him abom inable, despicable in the eyes of all. Yours was a vicious war against God. But God overcame your insane plots through weakness. God could act through power. He didn’t wish to do so, but through the wood, the cross, the crucifixion, the death of His Son! All that to m agnify His mercy and exalt His powers. W hat blindness! The Scriptures proclaim that the M essiah was to die for sins. For what do the m any sacrifices, a goat, or offerings sprinkled with a calf’s blood signify [Heb 9, 10]? W h at’s their power? Sins can't be cleansed by the blood of animals! Blood only signified the true sacrifice of the C hrist [2 Cor 5] W ho was to come, W hom God also made sin, that is, an offering lor sin which you yourselves call sin. God had H im accursed, that is, He let Him be hung from the wood as if crucified for His own sins.

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A N N O TATIONS A N D M E D I T A I IONS ON T H E GO S P E L S

Yes, He was crucified and hung on the cross, not for His sins, but for those of all of us. Hear in David’s psalm, stubborn people, Christ’s cry from the cross, “My God, M y God, why have You abandoned Me? W hy are You far from My call for help, from the cause of My sorrow?’’ [Ps 21]. To explain, David says more, “I put aside what I did not covet: You know my weakness, and my sins are not hidden from You.” But hear too some words of Isaiah [Is 53], “The Lord has put the sins of all of us upon Him. I have stricken Him because of the people’s crime. He did no wrong, no guile was found in His mouth, and the Lord wished to wear Him away in infirmity.” That is, He will lay down His life for sin; He has borne their iniquities. “He was wounded for our iniquities, and worn away for our sins; the price of our peace is upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.” W hat could be said better, more clearly? Yet still you want to ignore that C hrist’s cross was cursed as sin [2 Cor 5; Gal 3], that is, as an offering for our sins, death on a cross for our sins, a most blessed sin, a glorious cross! The exaltation of the strong bronze serpent afire with divine love! That serpent, which Moses used to heal lethal ill, signifies You, good JESUS! You’re the seed that crushed the head of Satan’s serpent, and the fiery bronze serpent for all who look on You with faith fired by love. You’ve healed the bite of every snake and demon and driven out their poisons!

Truly, Lord, You ever mock Leviathan, the Devil, and his ministers! Through one serpent the Devil ruined the human race, through another You healed the children of Israel. In the serpent You showed the power of Your cross, and manifested it in Yourself. A lifeless serpent was raised up as a sign. But You, Lord JESUS, were lifted up in agonizing torment for our salvation. The serpent’s elevation didn’t claim a life it didn’t have, but Yours took Your life in raw violence. And so in sorrow and infinite agony You fulfill the figures and signs that foreshadowed You. Great JESU S, impress on my heart a deep sense of those sorrows that I may be drawn to You, for my heart, my love, my desire, have been crucified in You. You will be raised up and hung from the cross by the nails through Your hands and feet, with every bone in Your body shattered so that there will be nothing of substance that You can use. M y soul is distraught, my m ind reels, the spirit grows weary, tears dry up for the im m ensity of the sorrow, as though I’m reduced to nothing and cast to the lowest level of all things. Benign JESUS, from Your cross lift me up, guard and protect my spiritual senses, increase and confirm them and the intim ate power of Your cross, that I may confess and bewail my sins and they be fixed firmly to Your cross, and die completely. AMEN.

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EVENTS A F T E R THE C R O S S W A S RA ISE D A N D BEFORE C H R IS T G AV E UP THE SPIRIT M A T T H E W XXVI I

M A R K XV

L U KE X X I I I

J O H N XI X

N otes f o r P late 19

A.

The in scrip tion on th e cross o ffen d ed the J ew s a n d the c h i e f priests.

H.

Total sola r eclip se con tin u es w hile Christ’s agony a n d sorrows increase.

B.

They ask P ila te to revise the inscription, w hich h e adam antly refuses to do.

I.

At the ninth hour, He says to His M other, “B eh old yo u r so n !” And to John, “B eh old yo u r m oth er!”

C.

Christ, h a n gin g on th e cross, prays f o r His executioners.

K.

D.

P our sold iers d iv id e JESU S’S clo th in g a m on g them selves, bu t they cast lots f o r His seam less garm ent.

JESUS shouts, “M y God, M y God, w hy h a ve You a b a n d on ed M e?”

L.

He cries, “I thirst!”

M.

They offer H im a sponge soaked w ith vinegar.

N.

He says, “It is fin ish ed !”

0.

C ryin g o u t in a lo u d voice, He says, “Father, in to Your hands, etc., ” a n d gives up the spirit.

E.

Bystanders, c h i e f priests, a n d sold iers h u rl blasph em ies a t JESUS.

F.

Two cr u c ifie d th ieves a t fir s t revile Him.

F.

One o f them persists at the abuse.

G.

The oth er desists, reproaches the first, a n d then begs a n d obtains Christ’s pardon.

GOSPEL

(Jn)

[C, G, I, K, L, N, 0 g iv e C hrist’s seven last words on the cross.]

EA D I N G S

‘the King of the Jew s,’ but, ‘He said, I am the King of the Jews’” [b ]. Pilate answered, “W hat I have written, I have written!”

M any of the Jews read the inscription, Jesus o f Nazareth, the K in g o f the Jew s, because the place where JESUS was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin [a]. The chief priests of the Jews said therefore to Pilate, “Do not write

(Lk)

JESU S said, “Father, forgive them , for they know not what they do” [c]. But in dividing His garments they cast lots.

ANN O T AT IO N S A N D M ED IT AT IO N S ON T H E GOSPELS

(Mk) They crucified Him, dividing His garments, casting lots for them to see what each should take [d]. (Mt) After they had crucified Him, they divided His garments, casting lots, to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets, saying, “They divided M y garments among them, and upon M y vesture they cast lots.” (Jn)

Now after they had crucified Him, the soldiers took His garments and made of them four parts, to each soldier a part, and also the tunic. The tunic was without seam, woven in one piece from the top. They said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it, to see whose it shall be.” That the Scripture might be fulfilled which says, “They divided M y garments among them, and for M y vesture they cast lots.” The soldiers did just this.

(Mt) The soldiers sat down to keep watch over Him [e]. The by­ standers were jeering at Him, shaking their heads, and saying, “You W ho would destroy the temple, and in three days rebuild it, save Yourself If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” In like manner, the chief priests with the Scribes and the elders mocked Him and said, “He saved others, Himself He cannot save! If He is the King of Israel, let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe Him! He trusted in God; let God deliver Him now, if God wants Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God!’”

(Mk) Those passing by jeered at Him, shaking their heads, and saying, “Ha! You W ho would destroy the tem ple, and in three days rebuild it; come down from the cross and save Yourself In like manner, the chief priests with the Scribes said in m ockery to one another, “He saved others, H im self He can’t save! Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, so that we may see and believe!” (Lk)

The people stood looking on [e]; and the rulers with them kept sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others, let Him save Himself, if He is the Christ, the elect of God. The soldiers also mocked Him, com ing to Him, and offering Him common wine, and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself”

(Mt) The robbers also, who were crucified beside Him, taunted Him in like manner [f]. (Mk) Those who were crucified with Him reproached Him [f]. (Lk)

One of the thieves who were crucified abused Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us [f]!” But the other turned to rebuke him and said, “Don’t you even fear God, for you’re under the same sentence! And we indeed justly, for we’re getting what our deeds deserved, but this man has done nothing wrong!” And he said to JESUS, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom .” And JESUS said to him, “Amen, I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise!”

EVENTS AFTER THE CROSS WAS RAISED AND BEFORE CHRIST GAVE UP THE SPIRIT

(Jn)

Standing by the cross of JESUS were His mother and His mothers sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene [i]. When JESUS saw His Mother and the disciple standing by, whom He loved, He said to His Mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

(Mt) JESUS cried out w ith a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lam m a sa b a cth a n i ,” that is, “M y God, M y God, w hy have You abandoned M e?” [k]. Some of the bystanders, on hearing this, said, “This man is calling Elias.” And right away one of them ran, and taking a sponge, soaked it in common wine, put it on a reed and gave it to Him to drink [m], but the others said, “W ait, let’s see whether Elias w ill come to save H im .” (But JESUS again cried out w ith a loud voice and gave up His spirit.) (Mk) At the ninth hour, JESUS cried out w ith a loud voice, saying, ANNO A. M any Jews, lured to the terrible spectacle by its proximity, read the inscription on the cross which was seen to give the reason for His condem nation, and yet openly stated that JESUS was the King of the Jews. B. The chief priests were upset by the m urm uring of the crowd, and themselves annoyed at the inscription. They send messengers to convey their concern to Pilate. The inscription shouldn’t read

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“Eloi, Eloi, lam m a sa b a cth a n i?” Translated, this means, “M y God, M y God, w hy have You abandoned M e?” Some of the bystanders heard this and said, “Listen, He’s calling Elias!” Then someone ran, soaked a sponge in common w ine, put it on a reed and gave it to Him to drink, saying, “W ait, let’s see whether Elias comes to take Him down.” (But JESUS cried out w ith a loud voice and expired.) (Jn)

JESUS, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst” [1]. Standing there was a vessel full of common wine, and having put a sponge soaked with the wine on a stalk of hyssop, they put it to His mouth. Therefore, when JESUS had taken the wine, He said, “It is consummated!” [n]. (And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.)

(Lk)

JESUS cried out w ith a loud voice and said, “Father, into Your hands I commend M y spirit” [o]. (And saying this, He expired.)

AT I O N

“King of the Jew s,” which He wasn’t, but that “He would make Himself King of the Jews,” contrary to what it read. Pilate’s response was adam ant, even harsh: “W hat I’ve written, stands! I didn’t write ‘King of the Jews’ on a whim, you clods, it was deliberate and true! It stays!” It was a chance to show them the danger in their persistent insolence, and Pilate, as if inspired by God, confirmed a truth of faith. Christ was, in fact, King of the Jews and of

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all who profess God’s truth, and His preaching, and that of the apostles and disciples, promulgated that divine and heavenly kingdom. The envoys, cowed, return from Pilate to Golgotha to report his adamance. C. N ailed to the cross, holy JESUS knew sharp, unending pain, yet He pleaded with the Father, first of all for His executioners, excusing their sin by reason of ignorance.

Father, fo r g iv e them f o r they know n ot w hat they do! Filled with rage, malice, and hatred, they’re blinded and- beside themselves. How immense, C hrist’s benign mercy! Dying on the cross, in excruciating pain, and yet almost oblivious of it and His imminent death, He turns to pray for His enemies! W ith this, He rem itted, so far as He could, their sin of crucifixion, and found an arcane way to excuse that parricide, though there could hardly be one at all. Yet He did find one, and urged that they sinned under a fierce pressure that blinded their minds. However grave their deliberate fault, JESUS still finds an excuse! W ith loud voice and tears, He prayed for His persecutors as He ever did, with efficacious intent of mind and heartfelt groans, although we may believe that on the cross they were drowned in tears [Is 53; Heb 5]. The unutterable goodness of Christ JESUS! He prays for His persecutors, itself a supreme blessing, and intercedes with intimate compassion— as the tears reveal— and with heartfelt affection as H is loud, intense cry proclaims. And yes, Christ was heard from the cross, as always, because of His

reverence and honor with the Father. For His prayer surged not from His humanity alone, but from this human W ho was at the same time God. So God prayed and pleaded and was necessarily heard because of His reverent submission! But why weren’t the Jews moved to repent? Note first that answer to prayer doesn’t usually come right away, but only when divine providence so disposes. Note too that shortly afterwards m any contrite souls went home beating their breasts. Acts of Apostles tells how later many Jews were converted, and then we learn how a plethora of Gentiles entered the Church. And we know too that someday the rest of the Jews will be converted. D. The soldiers kept close watch on JESUS crucified, and up to this time none had left. Then the four who had nailed Christ to the cross, as executioners do, took for them­ selves C hrist’s clothes. Tradition tells that Christ had three garments, a seamless inner one, a second more ample outer one, and still another outer garment. The latter two they cut into four pieces, to be divided equally among themselves. To mock and deride JESUS, they pretended to argue about His precious robe fit for a king: perhaps it seemed right to sell it to His followers for a ransom! Once the outer garments were divided to their advantage, they didn’t want to tear the seamless one that was woven everywhere from top to bottom, for otherwise it would be ruined and its value lost [Caelius, Bk. 20, ch. 27]. They cast

EVENTS AFTER THE CROSS WAS RAISED AND BEFORE CHRIST GAVE UP THE SPIRIT

tetrahedral dice of equilateral triangle sides for the discarded tunic there on the ground. The dice were cast on a marble gam ing board, preserved today in the Lateran, and the w inner took the tunic, which later came to the Blessed V irgin Mother, according to pious belief, after he sold it. To this very day it’s kept w ith great devotion at Trier. Good JESUS, You’re despised in every way, nor are the despicable thugs content to see You barbarously set to die between two thieves unless they can also steal Your clothes to divide them like those of a thief, and mock You as a bogus king. It’s also clear from this text, as from the account of His w ashing of the apostles’ feet, that C hrist had besides the seamless robe several other garments, but we can believe there were no more than two. The seamless garm ent served as inner wear, the second one was worn loose over the tunic, and the third was an outer covering like a m antle. T he latter two were ch iton es, in Greek. St. Jerom e understands the seamless garm ent as a very tight ankle length tunic w ith long sleeves that clings to the body so that no w rinkle shows. Suidas thinks of the ch ito n as a very thin garm ent, and that C h rist’s seamless tunic was like that. C hrist forbade His apostles and disciples to own two tunics, and the Baptist urged that anyone who had two should give one to a person who had none. However the ch ito n o f Joseph and Tamar wasn’t an inner garm ent, but an outer one that was made in a special way as a festal robe for boys

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and virgins. And God surely made chitones for Adam and Eve! E. Bystanders now redouble their affronts to JESUS. Some blaspheme Him, shaking their heads and hurling in His face what the Council leaders had scorned: “Bah! You who destroy the Temple of God and in three days rebuild it!” And they scream, “If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” Such indeed were their blasphemies and those of the other Jews who had pushed the charges and condemnation of JESUS. But hear this, you madmen! You now destroy JESUS, God’s Temple, but in three days He w ill raise it up in glory! Arrogant chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees ranted on as they derided JESUS among themselves and shamefully abused Him: “He saved others, He can’t save Himself!” But hear this, you blind thugs! He did save others, and He could do it for Himself. Yet He didn’t choose to keep and save H im self from death, but rather gave H im self to it of His own accord, to give us eternal life! “If He is the King of Israel, let H im come down from the cross, so that we can see and believe H im !” You’re mad, and not just you, but Satan too, who drives you to this. The One Whose word leveled your troops in the Garden, was unw illing to save Himself, but proved that He could and now and always can. And if He could, you idiots, w hat’s the reason w hy He let H im self be crucified, rather than keep safe and sound? T he Demon cranks up this vain attem pt to have JESUS come down from the cross. For when he

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senses his power ever more fractured, and knows the power of JE SU S’S Passion as the cause, he acts at last to avert Christ’s death, or better, to keep him self from destruction. Yes, he wanted Christ destroyed, but he also wanted to isolate C hrist so that he him self wouldn’t perish and Christ put an end to his tyranny. And to this day it’s the Demon’s ploy to deter good people from enduring trials and crosses. But the devilish ploy availed little among the leaders who hurled derisive, m ocking words at Christ in their unbelief that JESUS could come down from the cross, and in their mendacity that they would believe Him if He did. M adness exploded into blas­ phem y of the very God they confessed: “Let God free Him if He wishes, for He said ‘I am the Son of God.’” Such were their words. Now what does it mean to say “if He wishes”? They don’t believe that JESUS is the Son of God or that God will deliver Him, so why add “if He wishes”? Unless it’s because they don’t dare say “if He can”! So in hiding their blasphemy they only get entangled in it! Insolent soldiers pile up abuse: “If You’re the King of the Jews, save Yourself!” That’s a wretched realm, and You’re worse! You couldn’t even elude us, and now it’s mad to hope for escape from nails and the cross! The soldiers hadn’t left as yet, but sat there to keep Him under m ilitary guard. And last of all, so there would be still other degenerates to hum iliate Christ besides the vile servants and JE SU S’S accusers or the crim inal

priests and elders, there were the two thieves. F.

These crucified thieves now hurl the very same insults at Him. At first the two acted in concert, for the Demon, in his desperate rage, either tried to persuade Christ with their conspiracy and common outcry to come down from the cross, or wanted at least to crush Him with jeers and opprobrium. However, he doesn’t seem to have persuaded most of the crowd. For the people, bowing to the authority of their leaders, to bait JESUS wasn’t such a great atrocity, and it was nothing for them to wait to see what would happen, or to look on what was then happening. Christ’s most glorious work on the cross now came to pass. For although one of the crucified thieves reviled and mocked JESUS, the other desisted.

G. Rather, w ith a contrite heart surprised by spiritual insight, the other thief at once becomes C hrist’s ally! He pleads C hrist’s case to his fellow thief, but the case he could bring against the brutal executioners, he makes against all, and rightly so. All deserve death! Christ however not only merits life and eternal glory, but He is life and eternal glory! He’s not only done no evil, but He works all blessings for every creature! He dies for all to give life to all! “W hy rant on, unlucky fellow?” he asks. “Isn’t it enough to see all the depraved Jewish cruelty to JESUS without you also abusing Him?. You’re doomed to torture and death too! “Yes, we deserve death, but He’s done no wrong, only holy and blessed works. So follow me, you

EVENTS AFTER THE CROSS WAS RAISED AND BEFORE CHRIST GAVE UP THE SPIRIT

wretch! Ask pardon of JESUS, and confess H im heavenly King, yes, the King of all ages! I beg that in His m ercy He remember me and not m y crimes when He comes into His kingdom !” Although the wicked thief didn’t hear his words, C hrist’s goodness and mercy did.

This day y o u w ill be w ith M e in Paradise, He says. But in what Paradise, good JESUS? “Not an earthly one, but a celestial world the angels enjoy!” And when? “Today, and not only before sunset, but in the today of M y generation, which is M y Father’s eternity and M ine!” But where? “In the netherw orld, and wherever I shall later b e.” A gift beyond wonder and praise! The whole world condemns Christ, a crucified thief defends Him! The apostles all flee, Peter, their leader, denies Him. O nly a thief on a cross joins the most holy V irgin M other Mary. Holy patriarchs and prophets for countless centuries awaited in tears Christ’s glory, but the thief met no delay! Others are sanctified and blessed in great labor and pain; for him , C hrist’s few words suffice! We’re slow, lazy, halfhearted, but a forceful th ief breaks into the Kingdom of Heaven! Dear crucified Christ, what great hope of pardon You gave when You blessed the thief! From the cross, the fountainhead of Your mercy and compassion, spills the torrent of Your divine blood, the glorious light of Your infinite goodness, the merit and efficacious redemption Your death won for us! Holy thief, what was it like to hear C hrist’s words of life? “Christ

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had already looked on my dying flesh, and I began in spirit to live in Him. I felt Him at work in me, and my sp iiit drawn to Him with great devotion. W ith Him I found salvation as I confessed and bewailed my sins. I asked His pardon, and offered this my final penance to God for my sins. Strength came from on high. Thanks to Christ’s meritorious death I knew surpassing consolation, light, and joy to taste the Kingdom of Christ on the cross, the beginning of paradise!” How blessed you are, holy thief! How wondrous His mysteries! Everything said up to now was told as it happened after the soldiers raised the cross: JESUS prayed for His enemies; the soldiers divided His garments among themselves, bystanders hurled insults at Him, as did the chief priests, elders, soldiers, and the two thieves. Then one thief asked Christ’s pardon and heard His promise of eternal life. H. The sun, however, was occluded just as the crucifixion began— darkness then covered the earth from the sixth to the ninth hour [M t 24; M k 15; Lk 2 3 ]— but the evangelists note the eclipse and its duration only afterwards, and John doesn’t m ention it at all. So we do know at w hat hour the whole hum an race ranted against C hrist crucified, when the sun m ourned, and the whole world, heavens, air and earth, was in fearful darkness. Even darker were the m inds of those evil men who didn’t sense the physical dark and weren’t deterred from their malice; just so did the abuse continue and even m ount. JE S U S ’S agony and wounds deepened each m oment

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and His blood spurted as cruel death arrived. I.

Before the ninth hour, JESUS looked to Mary, His desolate, ever afflicted mother. He calls her in spirit to Himself. She comes with her sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas and mother of James the Less, along with John and Magdalene. The others look on from afar, for the fury of the Jews and soldiers was aimed at Christ alone— His providence would let them harm none but Himself. You approached the cross, holy Mother, because your Son as well as your love for Him drew you there. You chose to view His death close by, and hoped to hear His words for you. You weren’t scandalized at His cross, or hesitant to accept your own, though the choice surely brought you yet greater grief, even as it expanded your strength of soul. But why do you come with these friends only? “Love brought them to me, and reverence keeps them close.” So JE SU S’S M other stood by His cross, and M ary of Cleophas, His m other’s sister, M agdalene, and with them, John. JESUS turned to them, to His M other first, and to His beloved disciple. Their hearts are broken, His M other’s beyond measure. The sword of her Son’s Passion and agony transverberated her soul, though even so her Son’s was the more deeply wounded.

I.

Woman, b eh old y o u r son!, He says. Good JESUS, was she not truly Your mother? “Yes, she was most truly M y mother!” So why is it that You address her as w om an and not as m other, her proper title? “I will

explain what I did first. In dying I was leaving M y mother, but transferring her maternal duties to a new son. And then I chose not to afflict further an afflicted mother, or burden M y own sorely grieved self, with memories of her maternal love. “Woman, behold your son!” The Father has abandoned Me in extremis, death comes. I give you now a final duty: turn your maternal compassion away from Me, turn it to John. Let him be your son in M y place, O Virgin of virgins, the beloved nephew of a loving maternal aunt! As he reclined on M y breast, I revealed to him celestial arcana. Repose now in him, and let him reverence and serve you. Let him obey you as I once did. Show a mother’s love to him, and be consoled that I won’t be gone forever. For I shall rise from the dead on the third day, and you shall exult in M y presence.” Then He said to John, B ehold y o u r m oth er! “Take M y greatest gift, dear friend, to assuage your grief for Me. Yes,'M ary Salome is your mother by birth, now let the V irgin M ary be your mother by this great privilege. Let her take you as son, to govern you by m aternal right. Obey and protect her as a mother, just as I did and would do were I living.” How Christ JESUS tended His M other and blessed them both! The Father left Him in sorrow and death, almost entirely forgotten. Christ acted as though unmindful of paternal desertion in His agony and death, to honor Mary. W ith loving care He consoles her tears in surpassing love for her, the highest consolation in His mother’s deepest

EVENTS AFTER THE CROSS WAS RAISED AND BEFORE CHRIST GAVE UP THE SPIRIT

desolation! I relate only this about His blessing for John, that it was by far most excellent because the V irgin M ary had become and was the M other of God. Yet this true Mother of God became by adoptive privilege John’s mother, and John a son of the M other of God! God once m ade a covenant that prom ised Abraham and his seed, and all the nations, blessing, redem ption, and salvation in C hrist. T his covenant God estab­ lished by covenant and oath. And now the Son of God, H im self alm ighty God, confirms it by His bloody death! But with it He adds a codicil whereby He makes John a son to His M other, com m ends him , and in him the universal Church and all the faithful, to her care. And when C hrist names M ary as John’s mother, He makes her the most merciful mother and protector of all, devout and sinners alike! T his codicil He confirm ed by His death. So it stands that the V irgin M other of God has assum ed the m aternal care and protection of the whole hum an fam ily, and C h rist’s faithful most of all. We must then show cultic devotion to M ary and know that a most safe refuge and protector has been given us in the V irgin M other of God and our mother! Great JESU S has endured intolerable pain on the cross for all hum ankind. Now there comes for Him an agonizing sorrow that not only exceeds the endurance of any other hum an being, but C h rist’s too, that is, the God-man’s hum an endurance. It is the ninth hour, the hour for H im to die. He gives now unequivocal proof o f His

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death and a powerful sign of the truth of His humanity. K. Christ shouts, M y God, M y God,

w hy h a ve You a b a n d on ed M e? “M y Father, God of M y life and My death, M y strength sinks, I die; I have no glory. For You send no help, no angel of comfort. Lethal wounds rack Me, those most of all the cruel nails opened and abused for three hours. M y soul knows only desolation, agony, sorrow, grief and unendurable pain. I leave behind a mother who was M y only solace, but Father, why have You left Me in such straits?” How the Incarnate Word begged for compassion, how desperately He sought help! He goes on: “I speak of the sins I bear, I the gentle, innocent Lamb of God. And I suffer so grievously because the countless human sins I bear are so grievous.” The bystanders explode in jeers and derision at this as they confuse His cry Eli! (“My God!”) with the name of Elias the prophet. “He calls on Elias, let’s see whether Elias comes to free Him!” C hrist was at the precipice of death; the blood of life drained away and lethal thirst in body and soul devastated H im . This way the prophecy of Scripture was to be fulfilled that David spoke in the name of Christ: “In M y thirst they gave M e vinegar to drink.” All else that He had to suffer before death had already been fulfilled. L.

Christ then shouted in a voice agonized yet clear, I thirst! “M y strength is dry as a potsherd, My tongue clings to M y jaw!” [Ps 21]. “I thirst.”

M . Now the angry mob, deriding Him for calling on Elias, runs to fill a sponge with vinegar and put it on a

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reed, i.e., to tie it to a hyssop reed. (Cyril would say some used a reed to bring Christ a drink, and others a branch of hyssop.) One of them has a pincer to push the mess to C hrist’s mouth. Good JESUS tastes it, for the Father w illed for Him to do so, and in this way for all His senses to know abuse. H is eyes, ears, smell, and tactile sense most of all, had already suffered grief beyond measure, and now His tongue did also. Open your hearts then to let His cry, “I thirst!,” pour from His lips into your soul, and hear it that your soul may gather strength. Great was C hrist’s thirst, yet how much more His spiritual thirst for our salvation! The Jews oppressed the first with bitter vinegar, the latter we destroy with even greater acerbity when we offend God or contemn Christ’s blood and thirst! Such contempt is vinegar far more galling for His spiritual thirst, for He sensed more intensely the inner pain His soul knew from past, present, and future ingrat­ itude, m alice, and sin in all ages. He was indeed stricken with intolerable affliction and corporeal pain; nothing other than the end was left, nothing save that Christ JESU S, W ho is God, blessed for ever, should die! All else about the work and sufferings of His mortal life that the prophets had proclaim ed and God decreed for Him, had reached fulfillm ent and perfection, and now He was about to send forth His spirit. But He wished to lay down His life of His own accord, and that this be m anifest to all. Yes, C hrist died because of His

Passion and cross, but only with H is accord could those sorrows touch Him. And so He set His seal on God’s covenant and His own, and He brought strong and unshakable pledge of fidelity to all. N. It is finished!, He cries. “All Scripture that prophesied about M y mission before I die has been fulfilled. Only death is left to consummate the work of M y Passion. Victory over Death, Hell, the Devil, and Sin will be had, m ankind’s perfect redemption won, and all things reach their final consummation. Nothing more remains than that I send forth M y spirit because of external violence, yes, but of my own accord, and so destroy Death’s power. But neither did My suffering that would have destroyed anyone else, have power to destroy Me, thanks to the union of M y divinity and M y immense human dignity. My soul could never depart M y body save by M y w ill, and unless I had so decreed. I chose to die for m ankind’s salvation, to undergo freely what the pain would do of itself, what the great cry that I will shout as I die will mean.” And so again He cries a great cry. For shortly before in the straits of utter sorrow, He had cried in loud voice, and now He cries to set aside every sorrow, and to embrace a death most glorious. O. Father, into Your hands I com m end My spirit! A cry that thunders through the heavens to reach the patriarchs in Limbo! Angels and saints all know that Christ dies, that the redemption and salvation of all is won! But what spirit do You hand over as You die, Christ JESUS, immortal God?

EVENTS AFTER THE CROSS WAS RAISED AND BEFORE CHRIST GAVE UP THE SPIRIT

“The spirit that informs this M y body and can suffer, yet somehow also enjoys the same eternal beatitude w ith You and M e, Father! Fill it w ith com plete joy and celestial beatitude! I have suffered all You have commanded M e, Father. Now is the tim e for You to veil no longer the splendor of M y glory. That glory I had from the very first m om ent of M y Incarnation, w ithout it suffusing the reaches of M y soul. And I com m end now the souls of all those for whom I lay down M y life. M ay they im itate M y Passion and patience, and be taken into Your hands at last!” His cry heard, the Jews, so ldie rs, and demons saw that JE SU S was dying, and they were torn apart. The demons knew for certain their power was broken, their resources sm ashed, their tyran n y shattered. And so they

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couldn’t bear to see Him die; they flee in confusion! Vicious brutes that they were, the soldiers were nevertheless moved by C h rist’s m ighty words and His immense strength of soul. Jew ish ranting abated, but not their malice: they were most gratified at His intense agony and bloody death. C h rist’s words had given the V irgin M other of God true spiritual strength, yet even so her sorrows grew, as did His, in His last agony, sorrow, and death. For M ary’s soul was in every way in tim ately linked to His. Her maternal compassion matched His passion. But at this one moment it comforted M ary to know that He w ould be freed at once from all suffering to be crowned w ith suprem e glory and joy. The holy wom en and apostles, like M ary, both grieved and hoped, though they far less than she.

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C H R IS T G IV E S UP TH E SPIRIT M A T T H E W XXVI I

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A.

Christ gives up the spirit w ith a lou d cry.

H.

The crowds, seein g the events, go aw ay striking their breasts.

B.

The darkness fr o m the sixth h ou r u n til now starts to lift.

I.

The Jew s have the savage idea to break the legs o f a ll the crucified.

C.

The Temple veil f o r the Holy o f H olies is rent in two fro m top to bottom.

K.

They ask P ilate to rem ove those c r u cifie d o n ce th eir legs are broken.

D.

The earth trembles.

L.

The thieves’ legs are broken.

E.

Rocks are split.

M.

F.

M any graves are opened.

A so ld ier opens JESUS'S sid e w ith a lance.

G.

The centurion, seein g how Christ d ied w ith a lou d cry, praises God.

N.

All His a cq u a in ta n ces a n d the holy w om en stan d a t a distance.

GOSPEL

(Mt) JESUS cried out w ith a loud voice, and gave up His spirit [a]. And behold, the curtain of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked [d], and the rocks were rent [e], and the tombs were opened [f], and m any bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep arose; and com ing forth out of the tombs after His Resurrection, they came into the holy city and appeared to many. W hen the centurion and those who were keeping guard with him over JESU S, saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, they were very much afraid, and they said, “Truly He was the Son of God.”

R EA D I N G S

(Mk) JESUS cried out with a loud voice and expired [a]. And the curtain of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. W hen the centurion [g], who stood facing Him, saw how He had thus cried out and expired, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God.” (Lk)

JESUS expired. W hen the cent­ urion saw what had happened, he glorified God, saying, “Truly this was a just m an.” And all the crowd that collected for the sight [h], when they saw what hap­ pened, began to return beating their breasts.

(Mt)

M any women were there [n], looking on from a distance, who

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had Followed JESUS from Galilee, ministering to Him. Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. (Mk) Some women were also there, looking on from a distance. Among them were M ary Magdalene, M ary the mother of James the Less and of Joseph, and Salome. They used to accompany Him and minister to Him when He was in Galilee— besides many other women who had come with Him to Jerusalem. (Lk)

All His acquaintances, and the women who had followed Him from Galilee, were standing at a distance looking on.

(Jn)

Bowing His head, JESUS gave up His spirit. The Jews [I], therefore, since it was the Preparation Day, ANNO

A. Christ bowed His head, and cried out with a loud voice to send forth His spirit. That very moment the price of our redemption was paid to God the Father for all human sins. All was consummated then; victory over the World, the Devil, Sin, and Hell was won at that moment. The next annotation considers how Christ yielded up H is soul; here we consider what happened on earth at His death. But first note this: C hrist’s soul was separated from His body in death, and so over the three days of death Christ was not a man. Yet the Word was hypostatically united both to His soul and to His

in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a solemn day [k]), asked Pilate that their legs be broken, and that they might be taken away. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first [1], and of the other, who had been crucified with Him. But when they came to JESUS, and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs; but one of the soldiers opened His side with a lance [m], and immediately there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness, and his witness is true; and he knows that he tells the truth, that you also may believe. For these things came to pass that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “Not a bone of Him shall you break.” And again another Scripture says, “They shall look upon Him Whom they have pierced.” AT I O N

body, so that we jnay truly say that C hrist’s side was opened on the cross, He was buried, and He descended to the lower world to lead the souls of the just from there, since Christ did the former things in His body, and the latter in His soul. The separation of a perfect soul from an utterly perfect body was even more excruciating, thanks to His earlier suffering. If we can scarcely grasp the close natural connection and union of an ordinary person’s soul and body, how are we to think of the union between the God-man’s body and soul? Most graciously indeed did Christ’s blessed soul for

CHRIST GIVES UP THE SPIRIT

th irty years inform His most holy body, a body joined and joyfully com pliant in its supreme orientation to that soul. For such a union to be rent was by far most b itter and painful, even if done with C h rist’s assent. His soul and body knew the deplorable death of God. B. A lthough the sky had grieved for the three hours that the sun, moon, and stars were occluded, it now resum ed slow ly its usual brightness as the eclipse ended. C. The interior of the Tem ple, no longer veiled, revealed what before was always covered and veiled. For as C hrist gave up the sp irit, the veil before the H oly of Holies was rent in two from top to bottom. D. The earth couldn’t endure its C reator’s death [Isa 41 ], and the ground bulged up by some three inches as though a trem or had struck it. E. The inert rocks and granite, and their m arble colum ns, split open to show their grief. Birds take to the air in fright; the sea is roiled as the earth quakes, the fish are terrified. Nor is the lower world unaw are of C h rist’s death. W hen the patriarchs in Lim bo heard from angel messengers the details of C h rist’s Passion, and knew that nothing rem ained other than that He bow His head and hand over His spirit, they realize when they feel the earthquake that C hrist has at that m om ent breathed His last. C h rist’s soul then comes to them , still shaken and sorrowed as they are at His Passion, to fill them all w ith

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eternal glory. And this too the saints in the lower world sense. F.

M any graves in Jerusalem and throughout Judea are opened to indicate the resurrection of many soon to come, for none would rise before C hrist’s Resurrection.

G. As these unprecedented events took place, deep fear gripped all there. The centurion and his soldiers were terrified most of all. T hey knew how w ith a loud cry He emitted His spirit, and so they acclaim Him as Son of God. They glorify God, and ever proclaim that this JESUS was a just man. H. The crowds, the men and women who came to the scene from the city, return home, striking their breasts in holy devotion and wonder. Dismayed and vanquished, Satan flees. I.

T hough their m alice has now succeeded, the Jews’ rage at JESUS doesn’t desist, even though they saw the portents. W h at subtle, pharisaic hypocrisy! T hey killed the Giver of the Law w ithout mercy, but ostentatiously parade their zeal for the Law, straining gnats and swallowing camels. They say it’s the Sabbath, and a great Sabbath, two feasts at once, the Pasch and the usual celebration of the seventh day of the week. It’s not fitting for the bodies to remain crucified on the Sabbath. So they said, but in fact their m alicious cruelty had other goals. For if perhaps JE SU S wasn’t yet dead, then He w ould die from the h um iliatio n and pain of His broken legs. Or if He weren’t to die right aw ay when they broke

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them, then He would be taken from the cross in great, bitter ignominy, just like the bodies of the other condemned men were. K. To do this, the Jews take some soldiers and go to Pilate to ask to have the legs of the crucified men broken, and all of them removed so as not to defile the Sabbath, but to keep it holy. Pilate accedes. L. On their return, the soldiers, in fear of- JESUS, go first to the others and break their legs, for they weren’t yet dead. But when they come to JESUS, they first look to see if He has given up the spirit. W hen they find that He has, they don’t dare break His legs. The Jews wanted that, but common decency more than Jewish rage counted w ith them. They couldn’t do so, nor, since God forbade it, could anyone break any of His bones. M. God’s providence let Longinus, a soldier, take his lance and open C hrist’s side with its tip, moving the metal between His ribs from the right side to His heart. He opened not just C hrist’s side, but the very heart of Christ JESUS! True blood and true water gushed from the wound to create the Sacraments and the Virgin Mother Church. A place of· refuge opened for all our trials and tribulations. Can we not approach C hrist’s open heart in full confidence? And place our hope, salvation, and life in delightful security in the cleft of the rock that is Christ? Take us, C hrist JESU S, by Your mighty call to Your heart that You now have open in celestial glory, so that we may live and

work to the eternal glory of Your Name! Blessed the soul whose heart is pierced by that lance of JESUS C hrist, the soul that beneath the cross collects a torrent of blood and a river of water, to be helped and cleansed by their fountains, to drink and feast there, and grow into perfect imitation of JESUS Christ! Yes, Longinus wounded His human body, so that if by chance JESUS wasn’t dead, He would die straightw ay with no more agony. Yet his was a wicked deed, even if C hrist’s body felt no pain. For C hrist, God, had His body m utilated. And yet God turned that adorable hurt into sacrosanct and divine mystery. N. M ary the Virgin Mother stood by the cross of JESU S, with Joanna, M ary of Cleophas, and M ary Magdalene. She withdrew however once she heard her Son commend her to John, and John to her. She stood a way off with friends, Mary M agdalene, the sisters M ary of Cleophas and M ary Salome, and others who had followed Christ all the way from Galilee. All noted and saw what happened, nor did they go anywhere, but waited to take away the dead body of JESUS. Christ’s death brought her unfathom able sorrow, yet with surpassing hope the Virgin Mother assuaged their grief and the others’ too. For she saw her Son win over Death, the Devil, Sin, and Hell, and bring Paradise and celestial glory to the anxious patriarchs in Limbo, and that He would soon rise in glory.

CHRIST GIVES UP THE SPIRIT

26 9

MEDITATION

Lord JE SU S, You had already shown us, w ith great signs from the cross, the immense depth of Your love for us. Now You confirm it by the motion and inclination of Your head. You bow Your head to us, and since You are our head, You bow Yourself en tirely to us [Eph 1 , 4 ] to deserve d ivin ely w ell of us. Because You lay down Your life w ith that bow of the head, You surely signify that You lay it down for us [Jn 10], and prove it by the nod of Your divine head. But You hand and return Your spirit to the Father, Your life w hich You lay down freely for Your sheep. And w ith the separation of Your body and soul all Your sorrows and pains end, engulfed by Your death which abolishes Sin and Death itself at the same time. Here was the great moment when, seeing the Creator dying, all creation trembled and shook as though it were undone. The grief it suffered in C hrist’s Passion, creation now pours out. The angels too mourn the death of H im W ho is their eternal life. The Virgin Mother felt the death of her Son, God, with inexpressible grief. Disciples and holy women, and anyone who ever revered C hrist’s teaching and m iracles, know a gripping, over­ powering sorrow that was, however, their last for His Passion. The glory of all the souls held in Limbo followed upon the sufferings w hich His soul’s glory endured. Ransom for human bondage was paid, and m ortal redem ption com pleted. D eath to sin and sense m ortification were sym bolized, as w ell as the elevation of m ind and absorption into God that Christ is accustomed to grant His servants.

W e’re w retched if we aren’t moved by these things, and even more w retched if we don’t recognize and deplore our spiritual misery. The heavens, w inds, sea and earth, sepulchers and everything in the earth, sense the power of Christ’s death. If we don’t sense it, if we’re in no way taken above ourselves, we’re more inert than dead earth, and our inertia worse than a corpse’s, and our in sen sitiv ity the more harm ful as we tolerate it. The centurion and his cohorts should surely move us to understand C hrist’s death. Infidels and idolators that they were, they were more than earth, rocks, and statues, and when they heard C hrist’s dying cry, and saw what happened, they knew and proclaimed JE SU S as divine. C h rist’s cry broke their rock hard hearts. The signs that came jolted their m inds and routed their infidelity. W ill they not change our poor faith and soften our hardened hearts? Finally, who won’t join the crowd? For all of those present who saw w hat happened [Lk 23] struck their breasts and returned home. Lord JESUS, shout Your last cry in our hearts! “I have cried out, and ever do so, yet you do not hear!” Great JE SU S, bring power, and force our rebellious wills to hear You. Work your signs on us, rend our veil of blindness, endow us w ith Your reverential fear; break and dem olish our hard hearts. Open the sepulchers o f our souls that our sins m ay exhale their fetid breath, and that by confessing them, we m ay reach safety. Drive us, Lord, drive us to Yourself: it w ill be more beneficial for us, and what You w ant. Bring together our heart’s reverent and devout sense of the

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m utilation You suffered after death. The lance pierced Your divine heart, may the lance’s power and Your wounded heart flow into the depths of

my heart, that reverence of You and the sharp point of intim ate compunction and Your love may ever pierce me. AMEN.

D E T O IÏIT V R C H R I S T I C O R P V S R C R V C E . Matth· xxvij, Marc, xv· Luc.xxuj, loan.xix,

-

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P l a t e 2 1 . C h r i s t ’s B o d y Is T a k en D o w n f r o m t h e C ro ss. J e r o m e N a d a l, A d n o t a t i o n e s e t m e d i t a t io n e s (Antwerp, 1607). Engraving by H ie r o n y m u s W ie ricx after B ernardino Passeri, 2 3 2 x 143 m m .

in E v a n g e li a

C H R I S T ’S B O D Y IS T A K E N D O W N F R O M TH E C R O S S M A T T H E W XXVI I

M A R K XV

N

A.

otes for

Joseph o f A rim athea goes boldly to P ila te to ask f o r th e body o f JESUS.

B.

N icodem us brings spices, a n d Joseph a burial linen, to the cross.

C.

They rem ove the body o f JESUS w ith p r o fo u n d a n d reveren t devotion.

GOSPEL

(Mt) W hen it was evening there came a certain rich man of Arimathea, Joseph by name, who himself was also a disciple of JESUS. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of JESUS. (Mk) W hen it was evening, as it was the Preparation Day, that is, the eve of the Sabbath, there came Joseph of Arimathea, a councillor of high rank, who likewise was looking for the kingdom of God. And he went in boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of JESUS. (Lk)

Behold, there was a man named Joseph [a], a m em ber of the Sanhedrin, a good and just man— he had not been party to their plan o f action— of Arim athea [d], a town of Judea, who likew ise was looking for the kingdom of God. He went

L U K E X XI I I

J O H N XI X

5LATE 21

D.

The tow n o f Arimathea.

E.

The p la ce o f th e sep u lch er a n d its entrance.

EA D I N GS

to Pilate and asked for the body of JESUS. (Jn)

After these events, Joseph of Arim athea, because he was a disciple of JESUS (although for fear of the Jews a secret one), besought Pilate [a] that he might take away the body of JESUS.

(Mk) Pilate wondered whether Christ had already died. Sending for the centurion, he asked him whether He was already dead. And when he learned from the centurion that He was, he granted the body to Joseph. And Joseph bought a linen cloth, and took Him down, and wrapped Him in the linen cloth [e]. (M t) Pilate ordered the body to be given up. And Joseph taking the body, w rapped it in a clean linen cloth.

~f

(Lk) (Jn)

A NN OTATIO NS AND MFD

AT IO NS ON I H h GO SI ’ hLS

Joseph took Him down, and wrapped Him in a linen cloth.

also came Nicodemus [b] (who at

Pilate gave permission. Joseph came, therefore, and took away the body of JESUS. And there

night), bringing a mixture of

ANNO A. Christ was in Limbo with the patriarchs where He held a celestial meeting in the underworld. The soldiers had left Golgotha, as had the Jews; a few onlookers remained. The body of JESUS had to be taken down from the cross, but Christ from the cross had already seen to that. He inspired the rich and noble decurión Joseph of Arimathea, a good and just man who was a disciple of JESUS, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, for he expected Christ to redeem Israel. In neither word nor work did he consent to the malice of the Jews, nor had he gone to Golgotha, but kept himself at home awaiting the outcome of these events. When Joseph saw the sun’s eclipse and felt the earthquake, and heard that the saints’ graves were opened and the rocks split, and learned the other signs that Christ had done from the cross, and then of Christ’s death, he put his fear aside and went boldly to Pilate to ask him for permission to remove the body of JESUS and bury it. Pilate readily granted the request and gave him the body once he heard the centurion’s report that He was dead; Pilate ordered the body returned and issued an edict prohibiting anyone from intervening or impeding him. B. Either Joseph or Nicodemus had agreed that one would go to Pilate

first had come to JESUS by myrrh and aloes, in weight about a hundred pounds. AT I O N

for permission to bury the body of JESUS and purchase a burial cloth, and the other prepare and bring spices, or the concurrence happened by divine providence. And so, in their opportunely divided tasks, Joseph, with Pilate’s approval and w ith a burial cloth, and Nicodemus with 100 pounds of myrrh and aloes for ointm ent, came to remove the body of JESUS from the cross. They came by the Court Gate to Golgotha with the centurion who granted leave by Pilate’s authority to remove the body and to ward off anyone who tried to impede them. They take w ith them the jar of spices and some ladders. C. They take down' C hrist’s body with profound reverence and respect. See how with anguished care they pull out the nails little by little, and how they remove the crown of thorns, soaked with God’s blood, from His head, as the V irgin M other waits to receive into her arms the body of her Son. Disciples take hold of His feet and lift them to let Him down more gently. G rief and tears are everywhere. W ith her abiding great hope, M ary eases not a little the sorrow she knows from the death and loss of her Son. She beholds the glory of Christ in the underworld, and the divinity in

C H R I S T ' S B O D Y IS T A K E N D O W N F R O M T H E C R O S S

275

His body. Others falter, m inding less His promise of resurrection than their own terror in the presence of death.

land of Sam uel, where he lived, died, and was buried [I Kgs 1], tw enty m iles from Jerusalem , to the west towards Joppa.

D. A rim athea, the town of the decurion Joseph. This is Ramatha, or Ramathaim Sophim, the home-

E. The sepulcher and Joseph’s garden where they plan to bury C hrist, and later did so.

M E D I T AT I O N

Your death, great JESUS, changed everything. Before it, You suffered at the hands of all, now no one can touch You; all is changed to Your glory, all things obey You according to the Father’s will and Yours. The malicious Jews asked Pilate to break Your legs too, JESUS, but that didn’t happen [Jn 19]. W hat did happen spoke of the great mystery of Your Church, as blood and water flowed from Your lance-pierced side. W hy didn’t you Jews ask for the body of JESUS, to finish your savagery with an even more mutilated corpse? You couldn’t have done so, even if you wanted to! Pilate would never have let you, because Christ didn’t wish him to; nothing could occur unless He consented. JESUS, Wisdom of the Father, willed that for God’s glory, Joseph, a disciple who awaited the kingdom of God, should seek His body for adoration, anointment, and reverent burial. Joseph, a timid, secret disciple, Christ empowered to ask in bold greatness of heart for His body; he sought it, he got it. Joseph’s daring magnanimity, his scorn of fear and danger, touch us today, we who fear even shadows in our practice of virtue! We’re slow and negligent, we don’t want the strength ever offered us by a Christ Who knocks on the door of our hearts, and we don’t open our eyes to the other mysteries of Christ’s descent from the cross that are our salvation. Christ didn’t wish to come down from the cross alive, He wished to

be taken down dead. From this we know that we have ever to cling to the cross so long as sin lives in us. If sin lives, or comes ever to life again until our mortal bodies put on immortality [1 Cor 15; Lk 9], we must then each day take up the cross of penance, and do penance. And we are not to ask to be taken down from the cross, save how Christ wished to be taken down from there, once His Passion and death were consummated. This we must confront with devout, heartfelt contrition: yes, we crucified Christ by our sins. M ay we no longer do so! Yet we do take Him down from the cross when we do penance and carry our own crosses— which we ought to do eagerly, and w ill do with great profit if we imitate in spirit the work of Joseph and Nicodemus. Our sins were the nails which held God crucified; we’ll remove them from C hrist’s body if we infix deep into our heart in a spiritual sense those nails, splattered with God’s blood, by which we can extract our own splinters of sin. Let us ever hold in our hearts Christ’s bloody nails, all His sufferings, and His death. Let us profess that His death is done and consummated, that Christ can die no more, and that He has prepared eternal life for us. Let us embrace Him, and clasp Him to our breast and deep heart, and never set Him apart from ourselves. AMEN.

VE

CHRISTI

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prem io M atris exception, quod non exprtm it im ago . B . Stratum corpusJuper planum lapiJcm vtujunt, obuoluuntjindene, C j’judario.

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133

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C H R I S T IS B URIED M A T T H E W XXVI I

M A R K XV

L U K E X XI I I

J O H N XI X

N otes fc P late 22

A.

B.

C.

We m ay d evo u tly im a gin e h ow th e M oth er o f JESUS receives th e body o f h er Son, n ow rem o v ed fr o m th e cross, even th ou gh no im a ge can d escrib e h er tears a n d g r i e f They a n o in t His body, la id ou t upon a fla t stone, a n d wrap it in a w in d in g cloth a n d a to w el headpiece.

D.

The holy w om en burial place.

E.

The Virgin M other M ary returns to the house in com pany w ith the holy wom en.

F.

The J ew s ask P ilate to set a gu a rd a t the tomb.

G.

They co m e to th e tom b, sea l it w ith an officia l notice, a n d post a guard.

They bu ry th e body in the ga rd en a n d tom b o f Josep h o f A rim athea, a n d then close the gra ve w ith a stone.

GOSPEL

manner of preparing for burial. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. There, accordingly, because of the Preparation Day of the Jews, for the tomb was close at hand, they laid JESUS.

(M k) Joseph bought a linen cloth, and took H im down, and wrapped Him in the linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out of a rock.

(J n)

And he took H im down, and w rapped H im in a linen cloth [b], and laid H im in a rockhewn tom b [c] where no one had ever yet been laid. They took the body of JESUS [a] and wrapped it in linen cloths w ith the spices, after the Jewish

the

R EA D I N G S

(M t) Joseph taking the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth [b], and laid it in his new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock.

(Lk)

n ote

(M t) Then Joseph rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb [c], and departed. (M k) T hen Joseph rolled a stone to the entrance of the tomb. (Lk)

And it was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was draw ing on. And the women who had come

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A NNO TATIO NS AND M ED ITATIO NS ON T H E GO SPELS

with Him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the tomb, and how His body was laid. (Mt) M ary M agdalene and the other M ary were there [d], sitting opposite the sepulcher. (Mk) M ary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, were looking on and saw where He was buried [d]. (Lk)

The women beheld the tomb and how His body was laid. And they went back and prepared spices and ointments [e]. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the dictate of the Law.

(Mt) The next day, the one after Preparation Day [f], the chief

priests and the Pharisees went in a body to Pilate, saying, “Sir, we remember how that deceiver said, while He was yet alive, A fter three days I w ill rise again .’ Give orders, therefore, that the sepulcher be guarded until the third day, or else His disciples may come and steal Him away, and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead’; and the last imposture w ill be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, guard it as well as you can.” So they went and made the sepulcher secure [g], sealing the stone, and setting the guard.

ANNOTATION

A. No image can capture the graced moment, and we must devoutly imagine how the Virgin Mother M ary took C hrist’s body as it was removed from the cross, and embraced it with exquisite love and sorrow, and how she cast her eyes over His sacred wounds, and with her hands gently caressed them and washed them with her tears. She trembled with compassion, yet with the fervent, consoling expectation of His Resurrection. The holy women and disciples, M agdalene most of all, were as much as they could at their sacred tasks of devotion; they grieved anew. The Virgin M other voices divine words to her dead Son that those nearby hear in awe. The Holy Mother ends, then others speak; she asks that her Son be buried at once, for evening comes. Christ’s body is then taken from her arms.

B. They lay JESU S’S body on a flat oblong stone in the cave entrance in front of the sepulcher. (Today pilgrim s call it the Stone o f A nointing .) In reverence they arrange it there for the rite. The Virgin M other anoints His head, Joseph and Nicodemus His body; the women and disciples help. They anoint Christ’s body, He anoints their souls, and with celestial grace signs them. The Virgin Mother knew that His body was anointed in devout reverence, and not by necessity. Others perhaps didn’t understand how needless it was, for they hadn’t full faith in H is Resurrection, preoccupied and disturbed as they were by His suffering, death, and burial. They wrap His body in a winding cloth, and cover the head with a towel, all secured with bandages, according to custom.

C H R I S T IS B U R I E D

C. Near where JESUS was nailed to the cross, a few hundred feet away, there is the garden of the senator Joseph of A rim athea, w alled and gated, and planted w ith trees. The garden has a bipartite cave whose am ple anterior was open, as if it were a vestibule into the inner part [so A ugustine, G ospel H arm ony, Bk. 3, ch. 24]. M ark also notes this, for an angel sat in its outer part on the stone that had shut the entrance to its interior. The holy women first entered here, and then went further into the tomb, for the inner cave, seven by eight units, was skillfully hewn from a cliffside, w ith its entrance looking east. C hrist JE SU S’S tomb! Here the burial rites were held w ith profound reverence and veneration by His faithful ones, in tears and deep grief. And His body was put in that new tomb where none had yet been laid. Its stone was turned and set into the tomb’s entrance— for it was very large— by Joseph and his men. Great and holy JESUS, I see in You new and adm irable blessings for men and angels. Here a cave holds You fast, there the nether­ world. A cave has Your body, the netherworld Your soul! [Christ] N othing holds Me, nothing can enclose or bind Me! From the netherworld, from the sepulcher, I fill all things. By M y d iv in ity I sustain and govern all. The powers of H ell I despoil and reduce to rubble. In Limbo I fashion a paradise, and M y majestic presence shows that I am Lord of the living and the dead, Judge of all, and Liberator of the just. I endow the grave w ith the power

281

of life and resurrection. From the sepulcher I assert the truth of M y death, I proclaim the glorious purpose of M y work on earth. D. The holy women sat at a distance to see where and how their beloved M aster was buried, and how the stone was set into the entrance to the tomb. They planned how they too w ould go in devotion to anoint His body. E. The V irgin M other returns to the house on M t. Sion, as do the wom en and the apostles. His disciples and followers each go to their places. But when the women who planned to go to the tomb on the first day of the week, return from the sepulcher, they purchase and carefully set aside arom atic spices to anoint JE S U S ’S body once the Sabbath ends. But they rested on the Sabbath, observing the Law. F.

Although the next day was a Sabbath, and a great one at that, the chief priests and m alicious Pharisees put aside their evilly faked zeal for the Law, and on the Sabbath approach Pilate. “Sir,” they say, “we recall that the impostor him self claim ed He would arise after three days. So order the tomb be guarded for these days.” W hat do they fear? “Perhaps His disciples w ill come and steal H im , and tell the people that He’s risen from the dead. That would make the last imposture worse than the first.” Stupid fools! God w ill turn your stu p id ity to ignom inious confusion, and have it show the truth of C hrist’s Resurrection! For if rage hadn’t aroused you, if you had kept your m ouths shut, if

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A N N O T A T I O N S A N D M I D I l A ' I ' I O N S O N T i l l · ( . O S I’ I I S

there hadn’t been soldiers at the tomb, yon could most likely have told the people a barefaced lie and denied that JKSUS had risen, but that the disciples had stolen Him, and that you now deplore their theft. But your frenetic efforts give instead clear evidence of C hrist’s Resurrection. In your fear you sealed the tomb and set a guard, all by Roman order, so that even though demons want to aid and abet your fraud, you can’t and

wouldn’t dare tell anyone that the truth is other than what it is. Pilate gives them the guards they want, and they leave together. G. They come to the garden and close the tomb with the official Temple seal. They urge the centurion to take great care lest the sepulcher suffer violence and the body be taken away in secret. He promises to do so. They leave as the watches are posted.

M KD I 1 AT I O N

Lord JKSUS, in every age You infuse within us a deep natural instinct to bury our dead and keep holy their graves. You endow us with a sense of immortality and of a life to be had through death. And in this You show too that there is infused in all a desire for that, a desire that comes because we are created in the image and likeness of God, yet one which nothing in nature can satisfy. That instinct for immortality was confirmed in your burial which brought out the hope of resurrection for humankind. Yet perverse mortals fell away from this ordination to immortality, and that’s no surprise, for “Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give thanks, but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless minds have been darkened, for although they claimed to be wise, they became fools” (Rom 1]. Through You, may we avoid their insipidity and all error, to realize the divine power in your burial. You died, eternal JKSUS, that we might dwell with You [Rom 6; Ps 4]. You were buried that we might he buried with You. And so Your death on the cross was the crucifixion and death of

our old self that was our death. Yours, therefore, was the death of our death, the death of Sin, that is. Your burial was also our burial. For dead to Sin, we re buried with You, and our life is hidden in You, so that we may sleep in peace and rest in the same in the singular hope of our resurrection in You. Truly, Your death knows divine mysteries and blessings. You put aside life, we put death aside. You sealed Your death through the sepulcher, just as You wish the powerful imitation of Your burial to seal the death of Sin within us. Anoint us, Lord, with myrrh and aloes and strong, exemplary penance, so that like a winding cloth we may in purity of mind be wrapped around You. We beg You to make us Your garden, one planted with devout, fruitful meditation and contemplation, watered and made fecund by the blood and water that flow from Your side. Set our heart in that garden, and because the heart is rock hard, hollow it by the power of Your burial, that it may receive You and become Your dwelling place, ready to embrace and foster You with love. Cast out all the old hardness from our stony

C H R I S T IS B U R I E D

hearts, and set there Your power and strength. Enclose all w ith You in the sepulcher, guard it with the rock that is Yourself, and seal it with Your blood. Grant me a great heart and firm hope bonded with hum ility. Most High JESU S, You are buried, and buried as dead God. How great the promise of Your wish that we be buried with You! How great the power that we can! W ith Your help we must observe Your burial rites in com pany w ith the grieving H oly V irgin M other, the apostles, disciples, and holy women. We w ill do this if first we set our m ind to what the Blessed Virgin sang about You W ho were taken down from the cross, about Your life, Passion, wounds, sorrow and trials, and about Your cross and death, for the Virgin spoke of their divine efficacy and celestial power. Who can imagine the intensity of her words, or their sublime divinity of spirit? For if Hierotheos in his sermon on M ary (D ionysius, On th e D ivin e N ames, ch. 4) outdid him self as he entered the mysteries he lauded, and all who heard acclaim ed him a eulogist inspired by God, what then can and ought we not believe about the V irgin M other of God’s hymn about her Son? That holy priest’s tribute ranks below those of the apostles, and he merits less praise than they. But the Queen of Heaven, the V irgin M other, outranks in grace and privilege even the apostles and all the angelic choirs! Consoled in devout m editation, let’s drink in what her celestial psalm teaches. Let our minds be lifted, if not by understanding the words and events, then at least by the taste and im port of their spirit. Let’s reflect too on the words of the apostles and the others, less graced than M ary’s, yet still sacred and sorrowful.

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Hosts of angels from heaven were also there, some those who stood ever at C h rist’s side. The patriarchs from Limbo and their tutelary angels came in spirit to the rites. All celebrate C hrist’s burial, and angels assist at the funeral offices. From Limbo the patriarchs follow the obsequies in devout, m editative reverence. The Virgin M other stands among the holy wom en. Apostles and disciples are there beside others moved by duty or devotion as Nicodemus and Joseph see to the arrangem ents. C hrist H im self aids their devotion. The apostles transport the sacred bier as the holy cortege moves on, and all follow chanting celestial praise and hymns. You Jews, where are you now? [Jews] A dead C hrist drives us away, but Pilate too gets rid of us with his edict. He gives the body to a corporal’s squad for burial, which they do, and then roll a great stone into the entrance of the tomb. A holy rock that holds G od’s body and C h rist’s im m ensity! Blessed JESUS, I offer my heart for Your tomb so that the power of Your death and burial m ay live within me. I offer You, W ho live for all ages, a dw elling place there, a blessing I don’t deserve. Yet You are worthy, You W ho w ith Your grace and splendor make me w orthy and deign to come to me. Lord JESUS, I beg You to confirm my faith in Your Passion and death, and to impress their spiritual sense upon m y heart. Through Your burial raise my hope of resurrection and eternal life, that the celestial radiance of Your charity and d eligh t in Your Resurrection may preserve that hope. AMEN.

S O M E N O T E S A N D REFERENCES N adal’s annotations and m edit­ ations on the Passion narratives are prim arily aimed at the reader’s personal affective response to C hrist’s sacrificial suffering. Although doctrinal matters do appear, and especially the doctrine of the H ypostatic Union as explanation of how Jesus, a divine person, could suffer and die, N adal’s focus here is nevertheless almost exclusively on devotional and ascetical considerations. Praise for the risen a n d glo rified Christ is deferred to the Resurrection narratives. Because a modern reader m ay not be fam iliar w ith the spirituality and devotional practices of the early modern C atholic reform, some notes will be given now that may help locate N adal’s spirituality in its historical context, but a theological analysis will not be attem pted. M ost attention will be given to the history of Western medieval devotion rather than to methods of scriptural exegesis at the time, or to the state of sixteenth-century archaeological knowledge of the H oly Land, even though these topics are important for evaluating Nadal’s text for its factual basis and intellectual probity. Some bibliographical references w ill be given w ithin the notes; the following are cited there by the indicated notations.

The C atholic E ncyclopedia (New York: Encyclopedia Press, 1907-14), hereafter CE. The N ew C atholic E ncyclopedia (Washington, D .C.: McGraw H ill, 1967), hereafter NCE. The N ew C atholic E ncyclopedia, 2"'! ed. (W ashington, D .C .: Thomson, Gale, 2003), hereafter NCER.

D. Fleming, S.J., ed., The Spiritual Exercises ofi St. Ignatius, A literal translation and a contemporary reading (St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1978), hereafter SPE. J. de Vi nek, ed., The Works o f Bonaventure, 5 vols. (Paterson, N.J.: St. Anthony G uild Press, 19601970),Vol. 1, M ystical O puscula [I960], hereafter BON. Bonaventure, The S o u l’s J o u rn ey

into God, The Tree ofi Life, The Life ofi St. F rancis, ed. E. Cousins (M ahw ah, N .J.: Paulist Press, 1978), hereafter BVN. Thomas à Kempis, The Im itation ofi Christ, ed. and tr. J. Tylenda, S.J. (New York: Random House, 1998), hereafter IC. J. Leclercq, F. Vandenbroucke, and L. Bouyer, A H istory ofi C hristian

Spirituality: Vol. 2, The Spirituality ofi th e M iddle Ages, trans. Bene­ dictines of Holme Eden Abbey (New York: Desclée, 1968), hereafter SMA. The Study ofi S pirituality, eds. C. Jones, G. W ainw right, and E. Yarnold, S.J. (New York: Oxford U niversity Press, 1986), hereafter SSP. Christ Prays in the Garden A dvice f o r M editation . N adal’s final directive for m editating on C hrist’s Passion urges us to consider “what the sacrosanct V irgin M other suffers, whether she is present or absent at the mysteries we contemplate.” This idea recurs throughout his Passion annotations and m editations, but it is seemingly neglected in Ignatius’s sparse

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directives for these meditations in the S piritual Exercises (SPE, nn. 191-99). Nadal’s presentation and development of the Blessed V irgin’s passion and compassion have their precedents in the M editations on Christ's Life (M editationes Vitae Christi), once attributed to St. Bonaventure (121774), but now often credited to the Franciscan John de Caulibus of San Gemignano (c. 1300). There the reader follows step by step the double passion of Christ and His Mother. C hrist’s suffering grows by sharing His Mother’s grief, and her grief in turn is augmented by His suffering, an insight Nadal firm ly endorses and employs in the opening lines of the meditation on the first meeting of Christ and Pilate. Mary’s passion began, according to Pseudo-Bonaventure, in the house of Simon the leper with Christ’s declaration that Magdalene’s anointing has prepared His body for the burial soon to come. “Don’t you believe,” we are asked, “that the sword of His word pierced His M other’s soul?” (M editationes , ch. 70). Her grief peaked at His crucifixion when she stood beneath the cross, as the sequence Stabat M ater, the Franciscan poet Jacopone da Todi’s incomparable expression of love and compassion for Jesus and Mary, portrays it. This turn of the thirteenthcentury Franciscan spirituality formed a bridge between the Western monastic spirituality of St. Bernard and the Cistercians and the devotio m oderna, which began to flourish in the late fourteenth century, and would in turn profoundly touch the spirituality of the West, and not least of all St. Ignatius and Jerome Nadal. Nadal captures and even expands its emotional cast that so warmly embraces the Passion of Christ and the sorrows of Mary. But he does so

in prose, not verse, and he takes time to mention the theological foundations for the mystery of God’s suffering and death. Nevertheless, the theology of the Hypostatic Union of the two natures, divine and human, in Christ does not figure here as prominently as it does in the meditations on the Nativity and the Resurrection. Fike Ignatius, Nadal’s gaze here is fixed on Christ, a Christ crucified for us. Dom Vandenbroucke’s study “New milieux, new problems from the twelfth to the sixteenth century” (SMA, pp. 223-342) provides a splendid panorama of this development; Chapter III, “The Franciscan Spring,” is especially useful. Catholic devotional and liturgical practice has continued to maintain a Franciscan tenor, drawing support from the 1950 Apostolic Constitution of Pope Pius XII, M unificentissimns Dens. In the course of the document’s formal definition of the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Pope states that “We must remember especially that since the second century, the Virgin M ary has been designated as the new Eve, who ... is most intim ately connected with [Christ] in that struggle with the infernal foe which ... finally resulted in the most complete victory over sin and death” (n. 39). A remarkable recent presentation of the tradition can be seen in the acclaimed 2004 Mel Gibson film The Passion o f the Christ, where the Virgin M ary’s role in the drama of salvation and events of the Passion is central to the story. M ary is there to support her Son and share His suffering, even as she is portrayed in Nadal’s account; she sees Satan mock, deride, and assail her Son, as Nadal describes and the Wiericx engravings visualize it.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

The Severance o f Malchus’s Ear M editation. In the colloquy Nadal thanks the apostle Peter for a wise lesson: “We shouldn’t follow rash impulses, spiritually good as they m ay seem, without first turning to Christ to see them with clear m ind and a true, humble spirit. T hat way we won’t impose our zealous spirit— or the demon’s— on God’s w ill.” The lesson given is classic Scriptural discernment of spirits as found most notably in 1 Jn 4:1. St. Ignatius discussed, at unusual length for him, rules for the discernment of spirits, drawing in part from a monastic tradition that was rooted in the New Testament (SPE, nn. 319-36). He insisted on the serious use of these rules in spiritual direction. To be sure, Ignatius’ own spiritual experiences at Loyola castle and at Manresa were the deep source of the rules, although, as we know, the ascetical writers of his era were also preoccupied with the topic. Chapter 54 of the third book of The Im itation o f Christ , the most renown text of the late medieval devotio m oderna and a favorite book of Ignatius, provides a striking example with its m any norms for the discernment of “contrary inclinations of nature and grace,” that move with “so great a subtlety that only the one who is spiritual and interiorly enlightened can discern them” (IC, p. 161). Ignatius’ debt— and through him, N adal’s— to early C hristian monastic and lay Crusader spirituality has been studied at some length by Jesuit scholars in the essays presented in Ignatius o f

Loyola: His P ersonality a n d S piritu al H eritage 1556-1956 (German text, 1956; English translation: St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1977). For example, H einrich Bacht’s perceptive paper, “Early M onastic Elements in Ignatian Spirituality,” explores the

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ancient tradition of discernment of spirits that came from Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and Evagrius Ponticus in the East by way of Cassian, Rufinus, and Jerome to the West and St. Ignatius. Bacht tells how Evagrius, in particular, speaks from experience to describe in striking detail a strategy to combat temptations and passions that could prove fatal to a monk or anchorite, and how he provides the elements of spiritual discernment that Bacht identifies in the S piritual Exercises. The images, realism, and term inology of Evagrius come through the monastic writers after him to Ignatius. In fact, Bacht asserts, the spiritual realism of the Ignatian Rules f o r the discern m en t o f spirits, “proves them to be a link in the one long chain of the tradition of C hristian spirituality that stretches unbroken from the very beginnings” (p. 236). (See also Bacht’s article, “Good and evil spirits,” The Way 2 [1962]: 188-95.) Nadal shares in that heritage, even though in this m editation he alludes to it only briefly, for his affective attention is directed to the suffering Christ and His Virgin Mother. Hugo Rahner’s paper, “The discernment of spirits,” chapter 4 in his book, Ignatius the Theologian (tr. Michael Barry [New York, Herder and Herder, 1968], pp. 136-80) complements Bacht’s work in its approach and patristic emphasis, but it too emphasizes the personal, experiental source of Ignatius’s doctrine as well as its deep roots in Christian tradition. Still useful for its historical survey is the multi-authored article “Discernement des esprits” in the D ictionaire d e spiritualité , vol. 3 (Paris: Beauchesne, 1957), cols. 1222-29. (Sister Innocentia Richards has provided an English translation, D iscernm ent o f Spirits [Collegeville, M n.: Liturgical Press,

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1970], but it does not include the original’s bibliographical references.) Joseph Pegnon’s contribution to this article, "The Modern Period,” studies the Spiritual Exercises and the Ignatian rules for discernment of spirits. He notes how the terminology of Ignatius’s first rule {SPE, n. 184) early on aroused the anxiety of the Spanish Inquisition, which was quick to find in its text all the errors of the heretical Illuminists (alumbrados ). Rather than submit the (Spanish) text of the S piritual Exercises to the Inquisition, Nadal wrote a treatise in 1553 to answer the Dominican Tomás de Pedroche’s censures, and in particular that of the Ignatian term sienta (feels, senses) that appears in the rule for discernment at election time in a spiritual retreat. Pegnon cites this

A pologia p ro exercitiis S. P. Ignatii (A defense of the Exercises of holy Father Ignatius) printed in M onum enta H istórica Societatis Iesu. Epistolae P H ieronym ii Nadal, vol. 4 (Madrid, 1905) pp. 820-73, where Nadal defends Ignatius’s use of sienta to describe the result of an interior experience, a usage that has disconcerted more than one commentator on the Exercises. Can it be that the intensity of this early controversy about discernment of spirits led Nadal to omit any extended remarks about the discernment lesson learned from Peter in the Malchus episode? Spanish opposition to Ignatius’ Society was still alive and well at the time he wrote the meditation! Christ Is Arrested Meditation. The closing meditation prayer asks Christ that “through Your arrest and chains, (You) free us from evil, ... embrace us by the bonds of Your infinite charity, ... and bind us by Your salvific precepts and counsels.” The

prayer is reminiscent of the one found in St. Bonaventure’s treatise, The M ystical Vine·. “Let us be bound with the bonds of the Passion of the good and most loving Jesus, so that we may also share with Him the bonds of love. For made fast by these latter He was drawn down from heaven to earth to suffer the former” (BON, vol. 1, pp. 161-62). Here in Nadal’s prayer is another trace of Franciscan imagery and affectivity.

Events at Herod's Court M editation. Nadal here urges Christians to “make the processional stations and pray with intense devotion, ... for church processions and stations of the cross recall Christ’s processions and stations.” The Stations o f the Cross devotion, known also as the Way o f the Cross ( Via crucis, Via dolorosa) today centers on fourteen key events in Christ’s suffering, death, and burial. (Sometimes a fifteenth station, the Resurrection of Christ, is now added to the usual fourteen.) The memorial stations are erected in churches, monastery chapels, and even in cemeteries; the faithful pray and process their way along these stations. The devotion began in the West, probably in the fifth century, in imitation of the Holy Land pilgrims who visited the places in Jerusalem hallowed by Christ’s Passion and death. Early station practices varied, some with five or seven stations, though the number fourteen seems to have first appeared in sixteenthcentury devotional texts. The twelfth and thirteenth centuries saw a widespread devotion to Christ’s Passion (and the Virgin Mary’s Seven Sorrows) which had a prominent role in the spread of an intensely affective Franciscan spirituality best encountered in the writings of the seraphic church doctor St. Bonaventure.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

W hen the friars assumed custody of the sacred sites in Jerusalem in 1342 after the Crusader conquests, they undertook to promote devotion to these sites of Christs Passion and death. By the fifteenth century the idea of a set of stations reminding European Christians of these places and events became commonplace, thanks to the energetic efforts of the friars and the papal indulgences granted to those who prayed the stations. Ignatius and Nadal were heirs to this highly personal and interior spiritual treasure, Ignatius surely from his reading of Ludolph of Saxony (d. 1370) and his own pilgrim age to the Franciscan administered shrines in the Fioly Land. Nadal perhaps refers indirectly to the devotion’s history in the opening lines of this m editation where he lists Christ’s processions: from the Garden to Annas, from Annas to Caiphas, etc. The return from Herod to Pilate marks the seventh procession and station. Still authoritative for the history of the devotion are Herbert Thurston’s The Stations o f the Cross (London, 1906), and Dom Cyprian Alston’s entry, “W ay of the Cross,” in CE, vol. 15, pp. 569-71. Franciscan scholar Bonaventure Brown’s entry, “W ay of the Cross,” in NCE, vol. 14, pp. 832-35, and “Stations of the Cross,” in NCER, vol. 13, pp. 499-501, synopsizes Thurston and Alston.

Christ Is S courged A nnotation G. Nadal suggests prudent use of a “physical discipline” to arouse one’s devotion to C hrist’s Passion. The term refers to a traditional instrum ent of personal m ortification and bodily penance, a whip of cords {flagellum ) , that was w idely used along w ith the hairshirt and body chains by

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medieval penitents and ascetics, such as St. Francis of Assisi and his mendicant followers (see BVN, Life o f St. Francis , L egenda m aior, pp. 220-21). Voluntary flagellation became part of the penitential fabric of religious life in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, though today it is used w ith m oderation, and spiritual directors are generally reluctant to approve its use. St. Ignatius urged his followers to appreciate the traditional self-inflicted penances, not only internal ones, but external too (SPE, nn. 82-86). He notes that w ith regard to exterior penances, one way is “to chastise the flesh, that is, giving it sensible pain, which is given by wearing haircloth or cords or iron chains next to the flesh, by scourging or wounding oneself, and by other kinds of austerity” {SPE, n. 85). Ignatius, however, learning from his early experience of self-induced bodily damage, cautions us that “what appears most suitable and secure with regard to penance is that the pain be sensible w ithin the flesh and not enter w ithin the bones, so that it give pain and not illness. For this it appears to be more suitable to scourge oneself with thin cords, which give pain exteriorly, rather than in another way which would cause notable illness w ithin” {SPE, n. 86). A brief history of the practice of self-flagellation and bibliographical references can be found in Philip F. M ulhern’s entry, “The D iscipline,” in NCER, vol. 4, pp. 774-75.

Jesus Is C rowned w ith Thorns M editation. Nadal begins the meditation by accommodating the text of Song of Songs 3:11 to Christ. Under the title of “daughters of Sion,” one he has not heretofore used, he invites the C hristian faithful to contemplate their thorn-crowned King. A remarkable

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precedent for this usage here and in later meditations can be found in St. Bonaventure’s opusculum on Christ’s Passion, The M ystical Vine (BON, vol. 1). To contemplate “the crown of thorns that so cruelly pierced the beloved head of C hrist,’’ Bonaventure calls out in chapter 4, part 3: “D aughters o f

Jerusalem, com e forth an d look upon K ing Solomon in the crow n w ith w hich His m other has crow n ed Him on the day o f His marriage, on the day o f the jo y o f His heart [Song 3:11]. Let every soul who calls herself a daughter of Sion, that is, of the Church, give up all worldly care and all vain thought. Through contemplation let her look upon K ing Solomon —which signifies Jesus Christ, who is our Peace.” Note that Nadal writes “daughters of Sion” rather than the Scriptural “daughters of Jerusalem,” as Bonaventure does. Nadal, however, in the meditation on the events before the crucifixion, uses the latter title for the Jewish women who for inadequate reasons bewailed Christ’s suffering as He carried the cross to Golgotha, and who heard His admonition, “Weep not for Me, but for your children.” Here again is a hint of how the pervasive Franciscan spirituality has found its way into Nadal’s composition and was there expanded.

Events before the Crucifixion A nnotation A. The Scriptural accounts (M t, M k, Lk) of Simon of Cyrene form the basis for the fifth of the fourteen stations of the cross. A nnotation D. The annotation tells the apocryphal story of a woman, Veronica by name in the popular Western medieval tradition, who wiped Christ’s face with a cloth on His way to Calvary, and was rewarded with an image of the Sacred Face on the cloth.

Nadal identifies her only as one of the “daughters of Jerusalem ,” and not necessarily as one of the holy women or “daughters of Sion.” The story of her compassion seemingly first found favor and artistic representation in the fourteenth century, and was soon commemorated in the sixth of the stations of the cross, as it is today. There is evidence that a cloth, with an image of Christ’s face was venerated at St. Peter’s in Rome around the end of the tenth century and thereafter, as Nadal suggests in the annotation. Nadal elsewhere vigorously defends the authenticity of Veronica’s veil. “Here’s what I say to anyone who protests that the story’s apocryphal: If tradition and the Roman church’s respectful use of the account doesn’t move you to devout confidence in its history, then you better be sure you don’t have a deep, vicious mindset that will destroy you and others too!” (See ch. 125 , JESUS is led to Calvary, p. 342 [text not included here].) What relation, if any, the Veronica Holy Face legend has to the Orthodox veneration of the Maftdylion icon of Christ’s face is not clear. According to Orthodox tradition, the icon was a miraculous impression on a cloth of the Sacred Face made by Jesus Himself for King Abgarus of Edessa. The legend tells how the king suffered from leprosy, and sent his servant Ananias with a letter begging Jesus to come and heal him. Jesus did not, but sent the holy image to Edessa where it became a holy relic, a divine sign with healing powers. (See Solrunn Nes, The M ystical Language o f Icons [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004], pp. 34-35), In 994 the M andylion was brought to Constantinople. Here thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Crusaders may have encountered the

NOTES AND REFERENCES

icon and brought the legend to the Western church, whose nascent affective Passion spirituality m ight well have transformed it into the Veronica legend of the Via crucis. A collection of older Veronica legends is given in Antoine Degert’s entry, “Veronica,” in CE, vol. 15, pp. 362-63. See also Paul Meagher’s entry, “Veronica,” in NCER, vol. 14, p. 457.

Events after the Cross Was Raised A nnotations. Prayer and m edi­ tation on Christ’s Seven Words from the cross form the core of the annotations and the (here omitted) meditation found in this lengthy chapter of Nadal’s text. That he refers to them explicitly as “Seven Words” indicates that the popular Good Friday devotion we know today flourished in the late sixteenth century. That grace, like the Stations, we can also attribute to St. Bonaventure and the Franciscan Passion spirituality. Almost as if it were Nadal himself, we can hear Bonaventure speaking: “Carefully preserve the last words of your Spouse, O Christian soul, if you wish to earn an incorruptible inheritance, undefiled and unfading. And since He did not utter many words on dying, the soul/bride who has w illingly chosen Christ will easily retain them __Seven words, like seven leaves, ever green, came forth from our Vine on the cross” (BON, vol. 1, The M ystical Vine, ch. 6, n. 3; ch. 7, n. 1). Bonaventure then meditates devoutly on the (mystical number) seven words in their accepted order. Although there is extensive con­ temporary textual exegesis of the Passion

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narratives, surprisingly little history of the Seven Words devotion is available today. Sylvester E. M akarewicz contributed the entry, “Seven Last W ords,” in NCER, vol. 13, pp. 36-38, to provide succinct textual and theological analysis of C hrist’s dying words. He indicates the formidable chronological and source problems the exegete faces, but provides no history of this extra-liturgical devotion, nor suggests any “Seven Last Words” sermon collections that have become numerous in recent times. Bonaventure and Nadal list Christ’s words in the order they usually have in the Gospel harmonies, but the actual order in which Christ spoke them cannot be ascertained with confidence. Neither Bonaventure nor Nadal seemingly adverted to the fact that each evangelist or Gospel editor drew material from somewhat independent Passion narratives that formed the early church’s catechesis, and whose details then each one arranged and developed according to his own theological point of view. Medieval and early modern Catholic reform devotional writers generally assumed a homogeneity of viewpoint among the evangelists, which leads them to try to coordinate conflicting secondary and minor details in the Gospel accounts. Nadal, for example, felt constrained to relate the scarlet cloak described in Matthew’s account of the crowning with thorns to the pu rple one noted by Mark and John. But of course his overriding concern was with the Lord’s terrible suffering for our redemption.

NNOTATIONS AND ss-.ri·

MEDITATIONS

im^

the

Salfer

G o spe ls

■ku&&£' This is a three-volume series that makes available, for the first time in English translation, three key sections of Annotations

and M editations on the Gospels, compos.ed by Jerome Nadal (1507-80), St. Ignatius Loyola’s closest collaborator in the early days of the Society of Jesus: Vol. 1: The Infancy Narratives; Vol. 2: The Passion Narratives; Vol. 3: The Resurrection Narratives. First published in Antwerp in 1595 (a second edition followed the same year, and a third edition in 1607),

Annotations an d M editations on the Gospels combined engravings portraying episodes from

the

Gospels

executed

by

the

premier Flemish engravers of the day w ith Nadal’s explanatory notes and interpretative meditations on these episodes as depicted in the engravings. The book’s purpose was to help young Jesuit seminarians to meditate on the Gospels that they heard read at Mass on Sundays, feast days, and the weekdays of Lent. The impact of this book on the sacred art of the period after the C ouncil of Trent was enormous not only in Europe, but also in the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

Nadal’s text (1607 edition) is presented in an accessible contemporary translation prepared by Frederick A. Homann, S.J.

In each

volume, the translated text is preceded by an introductory study by W alter S. M elion.

Volume

1

also

includes

a

CD -RO M that provides, again for the first time, high resolution scans of all 153 engravings of Gospel episodes from the ;\'J- 1607 edition of N adal’s Annotations and

^.Z^m&ditations on the Gospels.

A specialist in northern European Renaissance and Baroque prints, W alter S. M elion is Asa Griggs Chandler Professor of Art H istory at Emory University. He is the author and editor of m any scholarly studies, including

Shaping the N etherlandish Canon: K arel van M ander’s “Schilder-Boeck” (U niversity of Chicago Press, 1991).

Frederick A. Homann, S.J., is formerly professor of mathematics at Saint Joseph’s University. He is the translator, of Ladislaus Lukács, S.J., and Giuseppe Cosentino,

Church, Culture & Curriculum: Theology and M athematics in the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum (Saint Josephs University Press, 1999), to which he also contributed an introductory essay.

Jacket illu stration :

Jesus Falls on the Road to Calvary and Simon of Cyrene Carries the Cross (detail). E ngraving by H ieron ym us W ie ric x after B ernardino Passeri.

Adnotationes et meditationes in Evangelia (A ntw erp, 16 0 7 ).

Je ro m e N adal,

Sa

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J

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’s U

n iv e r s it y

PHILADELPHIA

P

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A n n o t a t io n s a n d M o n t h e G o spe ls

e d it a t io n s

By Jerome Nadal, S.J.

Translated by Frederick A. Homann, S.J. With introductory essays by Walter S. M elion “M ê lio n s essay m ak es a rea l c o n tr ib u tio n to o u r k n o w le d g e o f lin k s— b e tw e e n th e se n se o f s ig h t as u n d e r s t o o d in th e s ix te e n th c e n tu ry , relig io u s p ic tu re s, a n d relig io u s m e d ita tio n . . . H o m a n n ’s tra n s la tio n o f T h e I n fa n c y C y c le fr o m N a d a l’s b o o k is c o n s is te n tly re a d ab le , a n d th e q u a lit y o f th e illu s tr a t io n s is e x c e lle n t. It is a lso g r a t ify in g t h a t th e W ie ric x s ’ en g ra v in g s are re p ro d u c e d in c o lo r, th u s c o n v e y in g th e to n a l rich n ess o f th e ir w o r k .” Je ffrey M u lle r

Historians o f Netherlandish Art “M u c h to its cred it, S a in t Josep h 's U n iv e rsity Press d ecid e d to p u b lish an E nglish tra n slatio n o f th e

Annotations and Meditations on the Gospels. . . .

H o m a n n 's tra n s la tio n seem s sm o o th , a c c u ra te , a n d e m in e n tly re a d ab le . . . . M e lio n ’s essays . . . are in so m e w a ys a k in to N a d a ls o w n w ritin g s. H is o fte n den se texts c h a llen g e h is read ers y e t w o n d e r fu lly re w a rd th e ir p ersistence w ith a w e a lth o f insights a b o u t th e b rillia n ce o f N adal's v isio n a n d th e c o m p le m e n ta ry p o w e r o f a rt to stim u la te d e v o tio n .” Je ffre y C h ip p s S m ith

Catholic Historical Review “T h is firs t E n g lis h t r a n s la t io n o f J e r o m e N a d a l’s

Meditations on the Gospels s h o u ld

Annotations and

a t t r a c t t h e a t t e n t io n o f re se a rc h e rs

across a w id e ran g e o f field s o f R en aissan c e S tu d ie s. . . .W h ile th e b o o k ’s co ve rs a n d illu s tra tio n s as w e ll as its h ig h q u a lit y o f p ro d u c tio n g ive i t th e ap p e a ra n c e o f a c o ffe e -ta b le b o o k , it w ill also se rv e as an im p o rta n t p rim a ry so u rc e re fe re n c e f o r m a n y aspects o f R en aissan c e S tu d ie s. . . .” M a rk A . Lewis, S.J.

Renaissance Quarterly

Vol. I, The Infancy Narratives (2003) ISBN 0 - 9 1 6 1 0 1 - 4 1 - X (C loth) | 1 9 6 p p | 2 3 color images in text and 1 5 3 images on CD-ROM | $ 3 9 .9 5

Vol. II, The Passion Narratives (2007) ISBN 0 - 9 1 6 1 0 1 - 4 8 - 7 (C loth) |3 0 8 p p |4 5 color images in text |$ 3 9 .9 5

Vol. Ill, The Resurrection Narratives (2005) ISBN 0 - 9 1 6 1 0 1 - 4 7 - 9 (C loth ) | 1 8 1 p p | 1 6 color and 1 black and w h ite images in text | $ 3 9 .9 5

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