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PALM SUNDAY ~ TRIUMPHAL ~ ENTRANCE INTO JERUSALEM

(Read Matt. xxi, 1-10.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that our Blessed Lord, though at all times a lover of humility, would however teach us three great truths by His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on this day. The first is, that in going to death Christ wished to make known to us that He regarded it as a glory to die crucified for mankind. On many occasions when speaking to His Apostles of His death, He called it an exaltation, and to-day He goes forward in triumph to meet the Cross, so as to let us see more clearly still that He reputes Himself honoured by suffering for us so ignominious a death.

APPLICATION. Does this not suffice to fill you with confusion, you who hold in such small account suffering somewhat for the love of Jesus or bearing a little shame for His service and glory? Christ goes in triumph to embrace the cross for your sake, and you fly from it, esteeming it only as ignominy.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS. It is good for me that thou hast humbled me. (Ps. cxviii, 71.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY another truth which our Blessed Lord teaches us by this His triumphal entry. It is this, that the love and benevolence, which He showed by this joyful and festive return to the faithless city of Jerusalem, He still uses towards those souls who have outraged and constrained Him to depart from them. Each time they dispose themselves to give Him entrance into their hearts and to receive Him with that reverence which is due to Him, there is He ready to welcome them.

APPLICATION. By not corresponding to grace and by your ingratitude you have, alas! Obliged our Lord to retire and hideHimself from your soul. Thus He has deprived you of His light and of His aids and of His spiritual consolations. Now it is time you should come forward and receive Him triumphantly and after the example of the multitude divest yourself of your evil habits and cast them at His feet, holding in your hands the palms of victory over your passions and olive branches which are symbols of true peace with God. If you act thus your Lord will more than ever enrich you with His gifts and graces, like the Emperors who on returning in triumph after battle, munificently rewarded the people who received them with honour and applause.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS. The Lord will not cast of his people until justice be turned into judgment. (Ps. xciii, 15.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY what our Lord would signify to us by the tears He shed amid the acclamations of the multitude, at the thought of the blindness and fickleness of that unfortunate nation. They proclaim Him now their Messias and Son of God, and in a short time will cry out Crucify Him, thus drawing on themselves the spiritual and temporal ruin of that people once so dear to God. Our Lord would thus make known to us how displeasing to Him is the inconstancy and fickleness of those who honour Him as their Lord, and soon afterwards outrage Him by their sins, thus changing their reverence for contempt.

APPLICATION. Enter into yourself and see how steadfast you are in your good resolutions and in the practice of virtue, because it is perseverance alone which merits the crown.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS. I have not turn aside from thy judgment, for thou hast appointed for me a law. (Ps. cxviii, 102.)

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MONDAY IN HOLY WEEK ~ THIRD WORD UPON THE CROSS

When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son. After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. (John xix, 26.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY how our Blessed Lady stood beneath the Cross contemplating the sufferings of her well-beloved Son. As many darts wounded her hearts as there were rents imprinted on that Divine Body all torn and streaming with blood. Thus she could say with even better right than holy Job : My eye abideth in bitterness. (Job xvii, 2.) What sorrow must have filled the soul of the Divine Son at witnessing His Holy Mother suffering so much for His sake! And will you not compassionate our Lord in this deep sorrow? In this painful condition Jesus does not cease to be mercifully providing for our salvation, by saying to the Holy Virgin: Woman, behold thy son. For by these words our Lord assigned St. John to her as her son and in him all the faithful who keep close to Christ. At the same time He made St. John, and all mankind, heirs of that love which the Holy Virgin bore her Divine Son Jesus.

APPLICATION: Thank our Lord with all your heart for the great love and marvelous favours bestowed upon you in those last moments of His life. In having recourse to our Blessed Lady, remind her often of the obligation imposed on her by Jesus when dying on the Cross to love you with the tenderness of a mother, as her own son and as the brother of Jesus.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS. Come, ye children, hearken to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. (Ps. xxxiii, 12.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that just as our Blessed Lord in saying to the Holy Virgin, Behold thy son left us as the heirs of that love which she bore Jesus, so in like manner in saying to his disciple, Behold thy mother, Jesus left to St. John and in him to all the faithful the inheritance of that filial love wherein He loved His Blessed Mother.

APPLICATION: In this sweet dispensation of our Lord, recognise the obligation imposed on you of loving and reverencing the Sacred Virgin as your true Mother, and of obeying and honouring her after the example of Jesus. If on your part you fulfil the duties of a good son towards our Blessed Lady, she will also be a true mother to you.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Lord, I am thy servant, I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaid. (Ps. cxv, 16.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that there are three kinds of children of our Blessed Lady. Some are her children inasmuch as their souls are animated by sanctifying grace: and therefore they are united and incorporated members of Christ. Hence the Holy Virgin being the Mother of Christ is also the Mother of the mystical body of Christ: The Mother of Christ is the Mother of the members of Christ, says Gilbertus. Others again are the children of the Holy Virgin and still close members of Christ, because they dedicate themselves with special love and reverence to the service of Christ and His Holy Mother. Finally, there are those who are children of our Lady and members of Christ, because they glory in being the inseparable companions of Christ and of the Sacred Virgin upon Mount Calvary.

APPLICATION: These last are the children of predilection, who bear off the honour of intimate brotherhood with Christ and of being specially devoted children of Mary, at the foot of the Cross. To this class must you aspire, to this class you must belong. Beg this favour of our Mother most sorrowful.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: My soul hath cleaved unto thee; thy right hand hath upheld me. (Ps. lxii, 9.)

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TUESDAY IN HOLY WEEK ~ FOURTH WORD UPON THE CROSS

Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished said: I thirst. And they putting a sponge full of vinegar about hyssop, put it to his mouth. (John xix, 28,29.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that Jesus seeing Himself near to death, cried out: I thirst. Thus would He make known to all, the corporal thirst which he suffered so terribly in those last moments of His life, from the fatigue of so many journeys, the loss of so much blood and the inward anguish which He endured. Our Lord would manifest this most bitter torment of thirst on the Cross, so as to make us understand what a price He paid to atone for our sins of intemperance and gluttony.

APPLICATION: Often call to mind how thirst whilst dying on the Cross was deprived of all alleviation in His bitter thirst. Hence do not seek superfluous delicacies for your palate, nor complain of what you may not have, although it may seem to you necessary or convenient for your use.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thirsty their soul fainted in them, and they cried to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress. (Ps. xxxii, 20-21.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that our Lord cried out: I thirst, to give us to understand the spiritual thirst He felt of suffering all that had been ordained by His divine Father, and of perfectly fulfilling the divine command. This command of the divine Father was not a general one to sacrifice His life for us in any manner whatever, but it was a very definite decree, in all its circumstances predicted by the Prophets. Among these predictions it had been foretold that in His thirst He should be given vinegar to drink: And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. (Ps. lxviii, 22.) Our Blessed Lord seeing His last moment of life was approaching cried out: I thirst, so that this torment, also set down as a final act of obedience to the Divine Father, might not be wanting.

APPLICATION: Oh hoe different is your conduct in conforming yourself to the divine Will! In order to escape the least inconvenience or suffering how frequently you have omitted to do the Will of God, whereas Christ when dying on the Cross asks for and seeks after fresh torments in order to conform Himself in the least details to the good pleasure of His Heavenly father. What confusion and shame ought not this reflection to arouse in your soul!

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Our souls waiteth for the Lord; for in him shall our hearts rejoice. (Ps. xxxii, 20- 21.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that our Lord cried out: I thirst, in order to manifest the spiritual thirst with witch He also burned so ardently for the salvation of souls. For this He would have most willingly have remained suffering still longer on the cross, had such been the good pleasure of His Heavenly Father. Hence in that cry uttered by Christ to His divine Father: My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? He made complaint at seeing that special assistance fail Him, by which He had been so miraculously upheld during life amid afflictions so many and so grievous. At the same time He desired to remain still longer on the cross, offering His Blood and His sufferings to satisfy the divine Justice more fully and to move the heart of God to compassion for souls. This was the thirst which above all tormented our Blessed Lord, whilst too He saw that for very many souls the price He was paying for their ransom and the treasure of His infinite merits would be of little or no avail.

APPLICATION: Strive earnestly so to work out your own salvation and promote also that of your neighbour that you may offer relief to the thirst of your Blessed Redeemer. Jesus was given vinegar mingled with gall by the wicked Jews to relieve the corporal thirst which consumed Him: God grant that you may not make Him a similar offer in His spiritual thirst for souls by being to them rather a hindrance than a help.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Behold the eyes of the Lord are on them that fear him and upon them that hope in his mercy, to deliver their souls from death. (Ps. xxxii, 18-19.)

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WEDNESDAY IN HOLY WEEK ~ LAST WORDS UPON THE CROSS

Jesus therefore when he had taken the vinegar said: It is consummated. (John xix, 30.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY how Jesus before expiring on the Cross saw that He has now accomplished all that had been given Him to do by His divine Father, and all that had been prophesied in Holy Scripture regarding His life and death. Then He cried out: It is consummated, to show thereby that He died with great contentment in having, during His stay of thirty-three years upon earth, entirely accomplished the Will of His Heavenly Father. Oh! what an intense consolation it will be for you also if at the end of your life you are able to say that you have ever sought the divine Will, and been always wholly faithful to your duty.

APPLICATION: Examine yourself, and if you find that up to the present time you have not been remiss in your duty, continue steadfastly in the same course until the end so that you may die a happy death. But if on the other hand you perceive that you fail in many things, seek to correct yourself betimes. Otherwise death which comes as an unexpected thief in the night, will be for you not without its bitterness.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Wait on the Lord and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land; when the wicked perish, thou shalt see it. (Ps. xxxvi, 34.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that Jesus cried out: It is consummated, to denote that on His part He had fulfilled all that was required for the complete and full accomplishment of our redemption. For He had most abundantly satisfied divine justice for us by the sacrifice on the cross, had made full atonement to the divine honour violated by our sins, and had merited for us all those powerful graces and helps to liberate us from sin and to attach us to virtue.

APPLICATION: Now it is for you to do your part, since without your co-operation the merits of all Jesus has done and suffered for you will be of no avail. Therefore St. Paul said: I fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh. (Coloss. I,24.) In order to enjoy the fruit of the merits of Christ, it is necessary that in our measure we conform ourselves to the sufferings of Christ.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS. I am thine, O save me; for I have sought thine ordinances. (Ps. cxviii, 94.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY how that which Christ said when dying on the Cross will also be said by you at the end of your life: It is consummated. For then pleasures will have passed away, honours and applause will have vanished; penances and humiliations will be at an end, but with this difference, that to earthly pleasures and honours succeed pain and confusion, whereas penance and humiliations are followed by joy and by glory.

APPLICATION: In what way will you when you come to die be able to say: It is consummated? Happy will you be if in that last moment you can say with St. Paul: I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. As to the rest there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord the just judge will render to me in that day. (2Tim. Iv, 7,8.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Seek ye God and your soul shall live. (Ps. lxviii, 33.)

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MAUNDY THURSDAY ~ SUFFERINGS OF JESUS ON THE CROSS

They shall deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified. (Matt. xx, 19.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY what our Blessed Lord endured on the cross from the sufferings of His sacred body, the anguish of His soul, and from the privation of all solace and comfort. His body is all torn. From all its wounded members flows a torrent of blood. The hands and feet are rent by nails and the head is pierced with a crown of thorns. Moreover the soul of our Blessed Lord is oppressed by such excessive bitterness and sadness, that these far surpass the tortures of the body. He is abandoned by His friends, by His disciples and even by His heavenly Father. He receives not the least solace from earth or from heaven. Finally He is derided, insulted and blasphemed by all the people. Were you even to see a wicked assassin suffer the smallest part of what Jesus endured, you could not but be moved to compassion for him, and how much more were an innocent friend of yours so to suffer!

APPLICATION: Ask yourself then how it is that you are not moved to tender compassion at so great sufferings of the Man-God, Who by His blood has prepared you a laver wherein to cleanse away your infirmities, and to extinguish the eternal fire which you have merited by your sins.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS. Wash me yet more from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sins. (Ps. l, 4.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that Jesus having made Himself your surety, might have satisfied the divine justice for you by a single sigh or by a single drop of blood. Nevertheless He wished to atone for your sins by an intense accumulation of pain, and by the excruciating death of the cross. Thus from the immensity of the price which He paid for you may recognize the enormity of your death, and from the excess of His torments you may understand the excess of your malice.

APPLICATION. Does not all this suffice to make you realise that sin, and offences against the divine Majesty, are in themselves a greater evil than even the death of a God such as that which He chose in order to atone for sin?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS. Mine iniquities are gone over my head, and a heavy burden are become heavy upon me. (Ps. xxxvii, 5.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that Jesus has endeavoured by this abyss of suffering to make known to you His excessive love for you, and at the same time wholly to win over to Him your heart. He loved me, and delivered himself for me. Any one who suffers even a slight inconvenience for your sake, will thereby touch at once your heart and gain your affection. Shall not then the Son of God by such an excess of suffering which He undergoes for you also win your heart?

APPLICATION: Can you rest satisfied with yourself by merely not re-opening again our Lord’s sacred wounds and crucifying Him anew by mortal sin? Will you not rather hasten to make Him a return of love for love, and to offer your whole self to the divine good pleasure? It was thus that Jesus offered His entire being for you, as a sacrifice of propitiation to His divine Father.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I will love thee, O Lord, my strength… my refuge, and my deliverer. (Ps. xvii, 2- 3.)

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GOOD FRIDAY ~ DEATH OF JESUS

Jesus having cried with a loud voice gave up the ghost. (Mark. xv, 37.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that this is the day on which your God, your Creator and your Redeemer dies. He expires uttering as strong a cry that it makes all creatures mourn and awakens a sorrowful re-echo throughout the whole universe. Thus would He teach you how you also must grieve over the death of which you are the true cause. It is not from the envy of the Jews, nor by the avarice of Judas, nor the injustice of Pilate, that Jesus dies, but because having made Himself your surety He wishes to atone for your sins: He was wounded for our iniquities. (Isaias lii, 5.)

APPLICATION: On this day then will you not also grieve sincerely for your sins and heartily detest them? Even the perfidious Jews when on Calvary they saw all nature mourning the death of its Creator returned striking their breast, If then the Jews united with inanimate creation to grieve over the death of our Lord, will your heart alone be harder than the very stones and more stubborn than those of that perverse people?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: My tears have been my bread day and night, whilst it is said to me, where is thy God? (Ps. xli, 4.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that Jesus dying on the cross for your sins demands that you not only renounce and detest them with interior and true sorrow, but that at the same time you satisfy the divine justice for them. Who his own self bore our sins in his body upon the tree; that we, being dead to sins, should live to justice. (1 Peter ii, 24.) Christ endured the suffering of His passion and of His death upon the cross, not that you might be wholly exempted from all atonement on your part, but that He might be your model in paying your debts to God and that you might enrich your sufferings, which in themselves are of no value, with His merits. Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps. (1 Peter ii, 21.)

APPLICATION. Look at the crucifix and consider the terrible atonement which our blessed Saviour has made for sins which in reality were not His. Up to the present moment what reparation have you made for your offences? Begin on this day to do penance for your sins with a resolution to continue to do so in future.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS. I acknowledge my iniquity, my sin is always before me. (Ps. I, 5.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY what our dying Jesus says to you by the mouth of St. Paul: Christ died for all, that they also who live, may not now live to themselves, but unto him who died for them. (2 Cor. V, 15.) Jesus dies on the cross, true God and true Man, plunged in an abyss of insults and of contumely, and into an ocean of bitterness and of suffering, in order that you, being dead to sin and risen to the life of grace, may by virtue of His death no longer seek a life of ease or a life according to the caprice and the dictates of your passions or inordinate inclinations. You must on the contrary live for that divine Lord, Who at the cost of His own infinitely precious life and divine blood, ransomed you from an eternal death of sin and punishment. You must resign yourself entirely to the divine good pleasure and employ all the powers of your soul and the senses of your body in the service of Christ, ready if necessary to give also your blood and life for your Saviour.

APPLICATION: And after all does it not seem to you most just that you, vile servant that you are, should live and die for Jesus, Who for your sake spent His life and finally died for you?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I am thy servant, O give me understanding. (Ps. cxviii, 125.)

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SATURDAY IN HOLY WEEK ~ BURIAL OF JESUS

Joseph taking the body wrapped it up in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in hid own new monument. (Matt. xxvii, 29- 60.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY the great change that took place at the death of Christ. When our Blessed Lord was born He had not a house wherein to find shelter. Throughout life He suffered hunger and many privation, and when dying on the cross he was even denies a drop of water to assuage His thirst. But now, on the contrary, after Jesus had expired nothing was wanting to Him. The tears and affection of the devout, the company and the reverence of the disciples, the rich abundance of ointments, the splendour of a noble sepulchre, all now were His. And so the prophecy concerning Him was fulfilled: And his sepulchre shall be glorious. (Isaias xi, 10.) Such is the way of divine Providence. Those who during life have abounded in the good things of the world, at death find that all things fail. Those who in life were poor and needy for God, abound at death in all good things. In life neglected, hated and oppressed, in death they shall be honoured, envied and glorified.

APPLICATION. Happy you also if you have lived even to the moment of death in the embrace of the cross of Christ, in poverty, inn suffering and in contempt! How much better thus will it be for you when you come to die, how much more happy will you in consequences then be!

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS. He hath delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. (Ps. cxiv, 8.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY the generosity of Joseph and Nicodemus, who previously from fear of the Jews had remained hidden disciples of Christ. Now, however, they come courageously to Calvary, take down the divine body from the cross, and venerate it in the sight of all the people. Such is the effect of the death of saints and much more of Christ’s, to generate sentiments of piety and strength in the soul. When the sacred corpse had been taken down from the cross, it was reverently laid in the arms of His Virgin Mother, so that where Jesus on entering the world had began His life, He might once more repose when leaving it. Consider here all the sorrow that is awakened in the heart of Mary, as she contemplates the face and lifeless form of her dear and only begotten Son, all those members of His so terribly lacerated and torn. At the foot of the cross Mary’s heart had been pierced at the sight of her dying Son. Now as she holds Him in her arms she is pierced and wounded anew at the sight of His dead body, so deformed, while at the same time the absence of His blessed soul deprived her of His most sweet words and of His most loving looks.

APPLICATION: Compassionate with all your heart our Blessed Lady in this her loneliness and desolation. At the same time console yourself at the return of her Jesus now dead into the arms of Mary. For she is thus declared to be the channel and means of every good for us. As the work of redemption began in the Holy Virgin at the birth of Christ and was completed at His death, so through her we must derive the beginning of the life of grace and attain to the life of glory hereafter.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid. (Ps. lxxxv, 16.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that our Lord was buried in a new sepulchre hewn out of rock, sealed and guarded by soldiers, so that His Resurrection might be all the more glorious and undoubted. Such also should our hearts be, in order that they may keep therein Jesus crucified and may participate in His glory. They should be new as the sepulchre was, that is divested of all irregular inclinations of the old man; firm as rock in the execution of the good resolutions made during these days of grace, hewn and worked by the chisel of mortification and of penance; sealed and guarded by the custody of the senses and by interior recollection.

APPLICATION: In this way your heart too will become a worthy habitation for Jesus crucified, and you also will merit to be partakers in the glory of His Resurrection.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God. (Ps. lxxxiii, 3.)

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