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PASSION SUNDAY ~ TEMPTATIONS OF CHRIST

(Read John. viii, 46-59.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY the words which are read at the end of this day’s gospel: Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. In the same way as God exercises the virtue of the good by trials, punishes the offenses of the guilty by correction and condemns the crimes of the wicked by reprobation, so in like manner God employs three methods in hiding Himself from souls. In the first place He hides Himself from the good by depriving them of those lights and spiritual consolations which they once enjoyed, leaving them in aridity, in darkness and a prey to doubts and scruples, by which it appears to them that God has turned away and abandoned them altogether. And all this He ordains so as to give them the opportunity of exercising greater virtue.

APPLICATION: If it happens that you find yourself in this state of aridity without having given occasion by reason of your infidelity to our Lord to hide Himself, rest assured that God wishes in this way to try your constancy. As long as you persevere as before in serving God in prayer, practice of penance and mortification in the midst of this desolation, what treasures of merit will not this constancy gain you! The more our Lord seems to be hidden from you, the more is He intimately present in your soul.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Make thy face to shine upon thy servant, and teach me thine ordinances. (Ps. cxviii, 135.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that our Lord is often wont to hide Himself from those who offend Him, in order to punish them for their faults and defects. Such are they who are careless and heedless regarding exercises of prayer and other spiritual exercises or even omit them altogether, who are negligent about their regular observances and make little account of venial sins, who give entrance into their heart to inordinate affections. What wonder is it then that our Lord in consequence hides Himself, and turns away from those who thus live far from Him and care little for His grace?

APPLICATION: Beware, if you find yourself in this state. By frequent and humble recourse to prayer, try to obtain from our Lord that His grace and mercy He would deign to raise you from this state, which may at any moment bring you to the edge of the precipice. At the same time do not cease to be more on your guard against your sins and your faults, and more diligent in your exercises of piety.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I have sworn and I am steadfastly purposed to keep thy judgments of thy justice. (Ps. cxviii, 106.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY that our Lord hides Himself finally from the wicked, by abandoning them and letting them fall into other and greater sins and at last into eternal perdition. It was in this manner our Blessed Lord hid Himself from the Jews in going out of the temple. These arrogant men would not accept His doctrine nor acknowledge Him as the Messiah, notwithstanding that He had clearly proved Himself to be such by the many miracles which He wrought among them, but instead they accused Him of being a sorcerer, a magician and one possessed by the devil, insulting Him by a thousand different affronts, and finally attempting to stone Him. Most justly therefore were they abandoned by our Lord, Who permitted them to crucify Him; and by this crime they wrought their final spiritual and temporal ruin. Behold here into what an abyss of utter ruin and destruction the Jewish people, chosen as they had been of God, so highly favoured by Heaven, and protected by the Almighty, fell.

APPLICATION: Similar ruin is sometimes the lot of souls who by reason of their ingratitude and want of correspondence with the divine goodness are abandoned by Heaven, allowed to fall miserably, and finally by remaining impenitent to the end by a sad and deplorable death. In order that you may be preserved from such disaster be not ungrateful to the Divine Goodness, and remember the maxim of the gospel: Unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thou art my helper and my protector, O my God, make no delay. (Ps. xxxix, 18.)

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MONDAY AFTER PASSION SUNDAY ~ JESUS CRUCIFIED BETWEEN TWO THIEVES

They crucified him, and with him two others, one on each side and Jesus in the midst. (John xix, 18.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY how the Jews, not satisfied with inflicting upon Jesus so opprobrious and painful a death, would for His greater ignominy that He should be crucified between two thieves, as the chief of the malefactors and as a sacrilegious usurper of the divinity, so that His name and His memory might remain for ever buried in infamy and disgrace. But this infamy long before foretold by Isaias, and was reputed with the wicked (liii,12,) was a profound mystery of divine providence ordained for our instruction and for our profit.

APPLICATION:Thank our Lord who, at the cost of such great humiliations, sought only to promote your salvation and eternal happiness. At the same time try to bear willingly that shame and confusion which you may sometimes have to undergo for His glory.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: For thy sake I have borne reproach; shame had covered my face. (Ps. lxviii, 8.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY what lesson to our advantage Christ intended us to draw from His having two malefactors as His companions upon the cross. It was that the worst sinners whatever without any exception should always have hope of pardon. Dwelling upon earth Christ converse familiarly with publicans and sinners in order to convert and invite them to repentance: this man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. (Luke xv, 2.) So in a like manner, ascending the cross in company with the wicked, He wished to show that He died for all sinners, and that on His part He is ever ready to pardon them each time they dispose themselves for forgiveness.

APPLICATION: What confidence ought it not then to arouse in your heart to see your crucified Lord in the company of the wicked, sacrificing for them His Blood and His life! You are a sinner it is true, but you must not on that account lose hope of finding a place on Calvary and of being the companion of Jesus Crucified, Who will help you in life and will not abandon you at death.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Many are the scourges of the sinner, but mercy shall encompass him that hopeth in the Lord. (Ps. xxxi, 10.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY how Christ would die crucified between two thieves to show that He is the judge of the living and the dead, erecting a tribunal of justice on Calvary like unto that of Jehosaphat. In the valley of Jehosaphat the cross will be the sign of judgment, separating the elect to the right hand and the reprobate to the left, awarding punishment to the reprobate and glory to the elect. The same is done from the cross on Calvary. The wicked thief is condemned, the good one is saved.

APPLICATION: What sublime instruction is this for you! As a follower of Christ remain fastened to the cross and crucified with Him. Learn also from the two thieves who were also crucified with Him that it will not suffice for your salvation to live so crucified, unless after the example of the good thief you suffer your cross with patience and humility for the love of Jesus crucified for love of you.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Save me, O God, by thy name, and judge me in thy strength. (Ps. liii, 3.)

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TUESDAY AFTER PASSION SUNDAY ~ JESUS ON THE CROSS

If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to myself. (John xii, 32.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY how Christ on the altar of the cross performs the function of Priest, and offers a propitiatory sacrifice for all of us by immolating to the divine justice not indeed the blood of rams and of lambs, but His own blood and His own life, which were of infinite value. On His head instead of a mitre He wears a crown of thorns, in His hands as a pastoral staff He holds the nails, and for His sacerdotal robes behold His own sacred flesh empurpled with blood and enjewelled with wounds.

APPLICATION: Behold then this Divine High Priest Who for you offered Himself to His Eternal Father from the cross, will you not at least offer Him a heart truly humble and contrite, so that by the merits of this divine victim you may pay the debt of your sins to the full? Without blood there is no remission, says the Apostle. The Blood then which is offered for us by Jesus is that which you must continually offer to the divine justice to cancel your offenses. Without shedding of blood there is no remission. (Heb. ix, 22.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The Lord is the strength of his people, and the protector of the salvation of his anointed. (Ps. xxvii, 8.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY how Christ teaches and explains His heavenly doctrine from the pulpit of the Cross: Who of God is made unto us wisdom. (1Cor. I,30.) For what doctrine can you find laid down by the four evangelists which has not been taught you expressly by Jesus crucified, Whose tongue is His sacred wounds, Whose voice is His precious blood, Whose rule or model is His holy cross whereby He measures the greatness of heaven, the littleness of earth, the vanity and vileness of temporal things and the excellence and importance of eternal? Where can you learn so much truth and acquire so much light as in contemplating and listening to Jesus crucified? And they that approach to his feet, shall receive from his doctrine. (Deut. Xxxiii, 3.)

APPLICATION: Go you likewise to the school of Calvary and you will become more learned than even such a one as Plato, seeing there the true good which you ought to seek and the real evil which you are to avoid. Then will you be able to say with the Apostle: For I judge not myself to know anything among you, but Jesus Christ, and him crucified. (1 Cor. Ii, 2.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I have lifted up mine eyes to the hills, from whence my help shall come. (Ps. cxx,1.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY Christ on Calvary as your captain, Who sets up the cross as His standard and invites you by His example to fight against your enemies in order to gain the kingdom of heaven. The enemies who make the most fierce war against you are your inordinate desires of pleasure, of honour and of riches. See then how Jesus has triumphed over the desire for pleasure, by sustaining in His sacred Body many wounds and sufferings; how He has triumphed over the desire of honour by submitting Himself to so much shame and ignominy until He was satiated, glutted with reproaches, as the prophet says (Lam. Iii, 30.); how He has triumphed over the desire of the goods of this life by dying bereft of everything, to the extent even of being denied a drop of water to slake His burning thirst, or a winding-sheet of His own for His lifeless body.

APPLICATION: From the example of this your captain learn how you must combat your inordinate desires, because by Holy Baptism you have been made a Christian, enrolled under the standard of the cross, and have become a follower of Jesus Christ.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I fear no evils, for thou art with me. (Ps. xxii, 4.)

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WEDNESDAY AFTER PASSION SUNDAY ~ THE TITLE ON THE CROSS

And Pilate wrote a title also, and he put it upon the cross. And the writing was; Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. (John xix, 19.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY how our Lord at His circumcision took the name of Jesus at the first shedding of a few drops of blood, and when on Calvary, by the pouring out of His sacred blood from all His veins, publicly declared Himself to be Jesus in the face of His sworn enemies. By bearing this name written in different tongues over the head of the cross, Jesus would signify that from the beginning of His life to the moment of His death He was always the Saviour. On the cross however He was not only called Jesus, which word means Saviour, but He was also called the Nazarene, which word signifies holy and also flowering, because on the cross He has made the sanctity of all His divine virtues to burst forth with still greater beauty and glory.

APPLICATION: When you first began to serve God in good earnest, you did not wish to be a follower of Christ in name only but also in very deed by devoting yourself to the acquirement of virtue. How far have you kept this resolve up to the present time? And how have you shown it externally and in dealing with your neighbour? God grant that instead of there being seen in you the virtues of a true Christian, the habits and bearing of a world-ling be not more conspicuous in you.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Turn away mine eyes lest they behold vanity. (Ps. cxviii, 37.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that the Jews seeing the title placed on the cross by Pilate, protested and loudly complained that a crucified man should be called their king. So it is with many Christians. They wish indeed to have Christ for their king but not as one crucified in such abasement, in such poverty, amid so many torments. They would adore and follow Christ but without the cross, in the midst of riches, of honours and of pleasures.

APPLICATION: Be you careful not to resemble persons so unwise, because those who refuse the cross of Christ cannot ever belong to the kingdom of Christ.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Ye Kings, understand; be instructed, ye that judge the earth; serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto him with trembling. (Ps. ii, 10-11.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY the firm answer which Pilate gave to the Jews: What I have written, I have written. To all the other iniquitous demands of the Jews Pilate had shamefully yielded, condemning Christ to the scourging and finally to the death of the cross. About the title of the cross alone he remained resolute, it being God’s will that all should acknowledge Jesus crucified as the true king of mankind: The Lord had reigned from the wood.

APPLICATION: This reply of Pilate is also that which you must give even the devil, the world and the flesh try to change your good purposes and the holy resolutions which you have made at the feet of Jesus Crucified, at the time of prayer or of your other spiritual exercises: What I have written, I have written. I am resolved to keep the promises I have made to God, and to persevere in the good which I have begun. Happy then will you be. If you stand firm in resisting the unjust demands of your enemies.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Tell ye among the gentiles that the Lord had reigned. (Ps. xcv, 10.)

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THURSDAY AFTER PASSION SUNDAY ~ THE PARTING OF HIS GARMENTS

After they had crucified him, they divided his garments, casting lots. (Matt. xxvii, 35.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that the Jews after having inflicted upon the body of Jesus every [possible suffering, lacerating His sacred head with the thorns, , His hands and feet with nails and all the members of His body with the scourges, would moreover deprive Him of all else that He might call His own. First of all they divided His garments among themselves under His very eyes, casting lots upon His inner tunic. Over this injury also our Blessed Lord deeply grieved, seeing therein an image of a grievous wrong done Him by mankind. Even among those professing to be His followers there are those who of worldly goods , which are signified by the exterior garments, wish to secure as large a share to themselves as possible whilst for spiritual goods, signified by the interior tunic, they do not fear to risk them even for the merest trifles.

APPLICATION: This disorder, so frequent among worldlings, is by no means rare even among those who aspire to higher things, who are continually seen striving to obtain some post of honour, or to acquire the repute of great learning, whilst to acquire virtue and the perfection of their state of life they have little thought. Be careful on your part not to offer our Lord similar cause of complaint.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: They parted my garments amongst them, and upon my vesture they caste lots. But thou, O Lord, remove not thy help far from me. (Ps. xxi, 19-20.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that the executioners, whihst rending the garments of Jesus, outraged at the same time His good name, loading Him with grievous injuries, ridiculing His miracles and deriding His sufferings. See here a God dying upon a cross for the salvation of mankind, and how in His agony He is treated by men! Scoffers at those who do good are never wanting in this world. But to be scoffed at, even amid the greatest afflictions, this is bitter suffering indeed.

APPLICATION: It is perhaps also happen to you that, when oppressed by some infirmity of body or grief of soul, you are censured or reproved without having any cause whatever for it. Comfort yourself then by the thought of Jesus blasphemed and outraged as He hung on the cross.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: All they that saw me laughed me to scorn; they spoke with their lips and shook their head. (Ps. xxi, 8.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY how Satan finally made a last attempt on our Blessed Lord by means of that cry of the Jews: Let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. (Matt. xxvii, 42.) The devil saw that Jesus was sacrificing His life to save souls, and so by the mouth of the Jews he invites and urges Him to descend from the cross, inspiring Him with the hope of saving thereby all those souls of His chosen people.

APPLICATION: The devil also often employs a similar temptation against those who are striving to perfect themselves in their own state of life. He seeks to make them forsake the good which they are actually achieving in the place or office assigned them, perhaps by obedience, putting before them the hope of doing greater good elsewhere where they may work according to their own will and caprice. Never therefore give ear to those proposed to you to abandon the cross imposed upon you either by duty or by obedience. By acting thus you will deserve to have said of you as of Christ: He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. (Phil. ii, 8.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I have not turned aside from thy testimonies. (Ps. cxviii, 157.)

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FRIDAY AFTER PASSION SUNDAY ~ FIRST WORD UPON THE CROSS

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. (Luke xxiii, 34.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY how Jesus having remained silent on the cross amidst the most excruciating insults, finally opened His sacred lips. The first word He utters is a prayer of supplication to His Divine Father for the forgiveness of His executioners. This He did in order to give the first place of honour to charity, the queen of all the virtues, and principally to that most excellent form of charity, rendering good for evil and doing good to our enemies. Jesus on the cross resembled the glowing iron which the more it is struck the more resplendent it becomes. At His last supper our Divine Master had inculcated the precept of charity above all the rest. Now from the cross the first lesson He teaches and leaves to the faithful is that of charity, which displays so much greater perfection as it extends itself to those who are the most unworthy of it.

APPLICATION: Apply this lesson to yourself, and see that you make not more account of other virtues than of that of charity towards those who are undeserving of it, and even towards your enemies.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: If mine enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne it. (Ps. liv, 13.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that Christ was not satisfied with Himself alone pardoning His executioners. He would publicly implore their pardon of Hid Divine Father, extenuating and excusing as far as He could the unutterable enormity of that terrible deicide under the plea of their ignorance, so as the more easily to obtain the forgiveness of their Crime: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. What a sublime example this of pardoning injuries!

APPLICATION: When you suffer some annoyance or wrong from those with whom you live, or from others, possibly you are ready to forgive so far as barely to observe the precept of charity. But do you pardon them fully? If meantime you procure that your offender be punished by lawful authority by making much of the injury received, or if you desire that he be at least punished by God above, your forgiveness is not complete; you do not perfectly observe the precept of charity. Jesus Christ for your instruction not only pardoned His executioners but also prayed that they might not be punished by His divine Father.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS. Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion and merciful, long suffering and of much mercy. (Ps. lxxxvi, 15.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY with what tenderness and with what earnestness Jesus presented this petition to His divine Father: Jesus autem dicebat, which means that Jesus kept on praying. He did not play once only but many times, in various ways repeating His petition not with His lips and heart only but also by the incessant cry of His sacred blood and wounds. With sighs and with tears he offered the merits of His sufferings and death on behalf of His executioners, in such manner that our Blessed Saviour could not have prayed more tenderly and efficaciously for those, who might have given Him life, than He pleaded for those who were wickedly depriving Him of it.

APPLICATION: And does not this example fill you with shame and confusion because whilst you forgive some wrong done you, you still bear in mind the injury which you have received rather than the pardon which you have granted? This you show by the very words you use, by your abrupt manner, by your denying the offender those acts of courtesy and charity which before the offence you would not have withheld. In fine, to pardon injuries in full, and to render good for evil, manifests a virtue which is of the most perfect and at the same time extremely rare.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: If I have made a return to them that did evils to me, let me deservedly fall empty before my enemies. (Ps. vii, 5.)

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SATURDAY AFTER PASSION SUNDAY ~ SECOND WORD UPON THE CROSS

Amen, I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise. (Luke xxiii, 43.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY the wonderful conversion of the good thief. He beheld the invinsible patience and meekness of our dying Redeemer, and that divine charity in praying to His heavenly Father for those who were putting Him to death. Aided by divine grace, he recognised in Jesus the promised Messias and the true Son of God Who was suffering to expiate the sins of mankind. He began to compassionate Him, to proclaim His innocence, and to rebuke his companion who reviled and blasphemed their common Saviour. Oh what a sublime act! What exalted virtue in this good thief, who feared not to raise his voice in favour and in defence of Jesus crucified before all those who insulted Him as a malefactor!

APPLICATION: Do you also learn from this penitent as you behold you Jesus Crucified to compassionate Him in His sufferings, to detest your own sins which were the cause of them, to atone for the injuries which are done Him every day by sinners, and to correct those over whom you may exercise any authority or may have any power.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Be mindful of thy word unto thy servant, in which thou hast given me hope. (Ps. cxviii, 49.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY what it was that the good thief implored of Jesus. He did not ask to be released from his sufferings, nor to be detached from his cross, nor for any of this life’s goods. He asked only for those of the next: Lord remember me when thou shalt come into thy kingdom. See here the great faith of him who had been a murder, confessing as the Lord and Ruler of an immortal kingdom. One Who hangs there from an infamous gibbet, at the time when He is being outraged and derided by all! He asks only for a remembrance from the throne of Him Who had also been his companion upon the cross.

APPLICATION: At the feet of Jesus Crucified what are the requests that you make? On seeing your Saviour reviled and suffering for your sake, is it for worldly possessions, honours, riches and comforts for this present life that you are to petition Him? Christ by His blood and His death sought only to win for you, not indeed temporal and perishable good, but spiritual and eternal ones. What you must therefore ask Him for above all, is to make you worthy and strong to carry the cross that so you may be a participator in His glory.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Our God is our refuge and strength, a helper in troubles, therefore we will not fear. (Ps.xlv,2-3.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY the reply of our Blessed Lord to the petition of the good thief: This day thou shalt be with me in paradise. It was as if He had said: You, who are now suffering with Me on the cross, on this very day you in My company will be reigning with Me in paradise, you will be the first among the elect who shall pass immediately without the least delay from suffering to glory, from the gibbet to the throne.

APPLICATION: Now if our Lord remunerates so munificently a thief, who had lived in rapine and in plunder, in reward for so sublime a confession made by him on Calvary, what must not he expect who serves God in life and in death, and who remains ever the faithful companion of Jesus Crucified, bearing His cross? At the same time, however, behold the secret judgments of God. Of the two crucified with Christ one was saved and the other lost. If the former inspire you with hope, the latter should keep you in fear and encourage you to bear your cross patiently in expiation of your sins.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The fear of the Lord is holy, enduring for ever and ever; the judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves. (Ps. xviii, 10.)

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