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THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT ~ CASTING OUT THE DUMB DEVIL

(Read Luke xi, 14-28.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY how many there are like this poor man, who was possessed by a dumb devil, who also are a prey to the evil spirit. In the first place are all those who are either willfully silent in confession regarding sins which they were not however ashamed to commit, or who will not tell all their specifying circumstances. Such again are all those who are silent about their temptations, which would cease if they spoke of them to their confessor or spiritual adviser. Thirdly, all those who neglect to admonish and correct their subjects, or those who come under their care. Fourthly, all those who neglect to make known to right authority disorders or scandals, in order to their remedy. Finally, all those who do not have recourse to the Lord, to beg His help in all their needs.

APPLICATION: Look and see if any of these spirits of dumbness be found in you. If there be some, pray to our Lord earnestly and with all your heart that He would deliver you from them.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thou hast made the Most High they refuge, there shall no evil approach unto thee. (Ps.xc, 9-10)

CONSIDER SECONDLY how the crowd seeing that the demon was driven out of the possessed man by our Lord, at once began to praise and exalt Him. And the multitudes were in admiration at it. (Luke xi, 14.) On the other hand some of the envious Pharisees began to carp at and condemn Him, saying that He cast out devils by the power and the help of the prince of demons: He casteth out devils by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. (Luke xi,15.) Thus one and the same miracle is praised by the good and criticised by the wicked, who through envy and hatred are not able to get anything but evil out of good things.

APPLICATION. O how often is this repeated! The good praise and find motives to imitate the virtuous actions of the more fervent: whilst the envious and less strict lame and criticise them. Be on your guard then against condemning the defects of others, or, worst, belittling their virtues. Strive rather to imitate the latter.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS. I cried with my whole heart, hear me, O Lord; I will seek thine ordinances. (Ps. cxviii, 145.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY how Jesus Christ, seeing Himself so shamefully accused by the Pharisees of casting out devils by Beelzebub, became not indignant nor showed resentment. By His invincible meekness He gave proof that He worked miracles by divine power alone, and that the hour had come wherein through Him in person they might gain for themselves the kingdom of heaven. Doubtless the kingdom of God is come upon you. (Luke xi. 20.) For unto to this had He come on earth in visible form, in order to deliver them from the tyranny of the devil and to make them heirs of heaven.

APPLICATION: Each time you receive Holy Communion suppose that to you also it is said: The kingdom of God is come upon you. Learn to prize at their real worth and to profit those precious moments, when Christ in His real presence is actually within you.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever. (PS. lxxii,26.)

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MONDAY AFTER THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT ~ JESUS AND BARABBAS

Not this man but Barabbas. (John xviii, 40.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that Pilate finding his plan of transferring the trial of Christ to Herod had failed, tried to free Him on the occasion of the Feast of the Pasch, when at the request of the people he was wont to release one prisoner each year. He proposed therefore to the people the choice between two, the one Barabbas, who was a murderer, thief and leader of sedition, the other, Jesus. And he said: Whom will you that I release to you? Consider here the gross injustice of Pilate towards Jesus. After having declared Him innocent he put Him on an equality with the most wicked of malefactors. But how far more grievous was the injustice of the Pharisees, who stirred up the people to ask for the pardon of Barabbas rather than that of Jesus! Reflect how bitter to the heart of our Lord was such an affront.

APPLICATION: It may easily happen that at times you will be passed by unnoticed, and will see another whom you consider inferior to yourself promoted to some post of honour or work. Recall to mind on such occasions that Jesus for love of you was forsaken by every one, and out of spite was set beneath Barabbas, and this will teach you how to bear slights for the love of Him.

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

CONSIDER SECONDLY that the Jews, not content with demanding of Pilate the liberation of Barabbas, clamoured for the condemnation of Jesus to the death of the cross. Such are the judgements of men when they are mastered by their ungoverned passions. They would grant life to a malefactor who is deserving of death, and deliver to death of the cross an innocent man who had deserved nothing but good at the hands of all.

APPLICATION: How many there are who having set before them on the one hand the little imaginary good there is in some vile creature, and on the other the infinite treasure of God’s grace, choose rather, at the instigation of their own passions and of the devil, to lose the grace of God than a mere shadow of good which will vanish in a moment. Thus it comes to pass that anew they sentence Jesus to the death of the cross: Crucifying again to themselves the Son of God. (Heb. vi, 6.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I have had delight in the way of thy testimonies, even as in all riches. (Ps. cxviii, 14.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY the wonder of Pilate at the people’s demand. He understood not the divine mystery, namely, that the divine Father willed that His innocent Son should be condemned by the voice of the people and that a guilty man should be set free, in order that on the one hand divine justice should be satisfied for the sins of men through the death of Jesus, and on the other hand that the divine mercy should be satisfied by the deliverance of man from eternal death.

APPLICATION: As then you behold the divine Father condemn to death His own innocent Son in order that you should be freed from eternal death, will you not say with David: The mercies of the Lord I will sing for ever? (Ps. lxxxviii, 2.)

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: With the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. (Ps. cxxix,7.)

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TUESDAY AFTER THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT ~ THE SCOURGING

The Son of man shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked and scourged. (Luke xviii, 32.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY the injustice of Pilate, who declared Christ to be innocent and in the same breath condemns Him to be scourged. This he did in order to satisfy the fury of the multitude, now become more insolent than ever because of the excessive timidity of the judge in protecting and acquitting an innocent man. Pilate was likewise led to sentence Christ to be scourged in order thereby to avoid putting Him to death as the Jewish rabble desired, and yet he finally sentenced Him to be crucified to satisfy that same vile multitude.

APPLICATION: Be then on your guard against yielding to fear or to the desires of your unruly passions, which even against your will can drag you along into sin. At the very beginning resist then with generosity and with resolution. Too many like the Pilate let themselves be drawn along by their passions. They scourge Christ by their venial sins, and then proceed to crucify Him with their mortal ones.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I am ready for scourges, and my sorrow is continually before me. (Ps. xxxvii, 18.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY the excessive shame which Jesus endured in this flagellation, whilst He was divested of His garments and bound to the pillar before the gaze of so great a multitude. Thus was He made an object of scorn and derision to that insolent mob. Jesus was more cruelly wounded and covered with confusion by being thus exposed to the gaze and wanton jests of this vile rabble than by the scourges, as He signified, saying to His Father: Thou knowest my reproach, and my confusion, and my shame. (Ps. lxviii, 20.)

APPLICATION: And thus it was that Jesus wished to atone for the shame and confusion due to you because of your sins, and at the same time to win for you by His grace the precious nuptial garment of divine grace.

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

CONSIDER THIRDLY the excessive torture inflicted upon Jesus by this scourging, firstly on account on the exceeding delicacy of our Blessed Lord’s Body. Moreover, the fierceness of the executioners was stimulated by the evil spirit and also by the Jews who wished to procure His death under these blows, the number of which amounted to many thousands. Finally, the instruments were of various kinds, formed either of very hard sinews, of knotty rods, or of ropes furnished with iron points. By theses the divine body of our Lord was made quite livid in all its members, wounded and flayed even to the very bones, causing the precious blood to flow in streams from every part.

APPLICATION: At a spectacle so frightful are you not moved to pity? Do you not feel touched with compassion? See how dearly those gratifications of your senses against the law of God have cost your Jesus! Have you then the heart to add wound to wound by your renewed sins? Can you whilst gazing at all those wounds and so much blood which Jesus has shed all on account of your sins, still gratify your rebellious desires and give pleasure to your traitorous senses by renewing the sufferings and wounds of our Lord?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: The wicked have wrought upon my back: the have lengthened their iniquity. (Ps.cxxviii, 3.)

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WEDNESDAY AFTER THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT ~ CROWNING WITH THORNS

Platting a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in is right hand. (Matt. xxvii, 29.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY the diabolical cruelty of these inhuman executioners. The sight of Jesus standing there all bathed in His own blood, and with every part of His body torn open with wounds, should have sufficed to awaken pity in the most cruel hearts. Nevertheless these ministers of Satan only invented new ways of adding to His sufferings. After having cruelly covered His sacred body with the wounds of the scourges, they pierced His sacred head with a crown of thorns, covered Him with a ragged purple robe, placed a reed in His hand for a sceptre, and then for their pastime they adored Him as king of the Jews whilst they struck and spat upon His face. To what do we see you reduced O King of heaven and glory of the angels!

APPLICATION: These insults are a true image of what is done to Christ by those who adore Him with words and offend Him by their deeds, treating Him as a mock king. The empty reed symbolises those words that are offered to God, outwardly good but with out any interior spiritual value. The crowning of thorns is those wicked thoughts of presumption, pride and sensuality: the purple rags are those of good works carelessly performed. Such is the treatment so often given to Jesus!

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Thou has set a crown of precious stones on his head. He asked life of thee, and thou hast given him length of days for ever and ever. (Ps. xx, 4-5.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY the torture produced by that crown woven with the most sharp thorns and shaped like a helmet. They forcibly pressed it upon the head of our Blessed Lord with blows of sticks or with mailed hands, so that the thorns pierced His temples and passed through His eyes and ears, covering with blood that divine face which is the delight of paradise. A thorn entering the foot of an unwary beast of prey is sufficient to overcome it with pain, and make its roars resound throughout the forest. And Thou, O my Jesus, what torture, what spasms of pain didst Thou not suffer from seventy thorns buried and embedded in the tender flesh of Thy sacred head, wherein are united so many nerves and centers of feeling.

APPLICATION: See here the fruit which the soil of your heart has yielded, that soil which the Son of God cultivated with such care and so much fatigue, by so many inspirations and so many benefits bestowed, thorns of excruciating pain and of intense ignominy.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: I am turned in my anguish while the thorn is fastened. (Ps. xxxi, 4.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY the mystery which our Blessed Saviour would teach you by this His painful and ignominious crowning. It is that all that the world regards as most honourable, such as scepters, purple robes or crowns, are in His sight worthless and a mere mockery; whereas all that the world counts as a mockery and a disgrace is ion His eyes honourable and glorious: Thou has crowned him with honour and glory. (Heb. ii, 7.) Christ while on earth would have no crown but one of thorns, and those the most piercing. How then can you hope to be a worthy member of such a head, if you leave to Christ the thorns of suffering and seek for yourself only comfort and ease? St. Catherine of Siena refused the crown of gold and embraced the crown of thorns which Jesus offered her, so that she might be conformed to Him her spouse.

APPLICATION: And you who as a Christian should become in all things like unto Christ, would you ask for any other crown than that which your leader wore? If you now refuse the gentler thorns that are now offered you, you may find yourself pierced with more painful ones at the hour of your death.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: I looked for one that would grieve with me, but there was none; and for one that would comfort me, and I found him not. (Ps. lxviii, 21.)

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THURSDAY AFTER THE THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT ~ ECCE HOMO

And Pilate said to them: Behold the man. (John xix, 5.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY how Pilate desirous of delivering Jesus from death, when now he beheld Him so shamefully treated and disfigured with wounds, thought that by showing Him to the people in so piteous a state, their stony hearts might be softened and satisfied with the Divine Blood already shed. Consequently, Pilate brought forth Jesus before the people crowned as he was with thorns, clothes in purple and streaming with blood, and said to them: Behold the man!

APPLICATION: Do you also contemplate Him and say to yourself: “Behold the man. Behold that God-Man Who came to atone for my sins with His suffering, and see to what a state He is reduced by my iniquities !” And if the sight of all those wounds does not suffice to restrain your sensuality, all those thorns to humble your pride, all that confusion and shame to repress your ambitions and vanity, will you also cry out with those inhuman Jews: Crucify Him, crucify Him?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Behold, O God, our protector; and look upon the face of thy Christ. (Ps. lxxxiii, 10.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that you ought to consider these words, Behold the man, as spoken to you by the Divine Father Himself. Behold that man, Who is also God, born of Me, from eternity, Who having assumed human flesh made Himself your surety, your teacher, and a model of every virtue for your imitation. Therefore in your surety try to understand the gravity of your iniquities in the excess of His sufferings. Thank Him for such great mercy shown in your regard, without which you would have been eternally lost. As your teacher, give ear to the lessons He would give you, instructing you that the pleasures of the flesh are thorns, that gratify the senses and wound the soul; that the power of the great is no more than an empty and fragile reed. They make fair promises of support and of happiness which they soon break, and all their purple and riches are but mere rags which are soon consumed and perish. Finally our Blessed Redeemer teaches you as a perfect model by giving you an ex-ample of all virtues in His sacred person; Look and make it according to the pattern. (Exod. Xxv, 40.)

APPLICATION: From the example of our Blessed Lord learn to practice the virtue of meekness when you receive an insult or affront from others, to practice humility in your trials and afflictions which you have merited by your sins. ; Look and make it according to the pattern.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: My heart had said to thee: my face hath sought thee: thy face, O Lord, will I seek. (Ps. xxxvi, 8.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY how these malicious Jews seeing Pilate so firm in not wishing to condemn so innocent a man to death, discovered a means of making him cast himself headlong into the precipice of so enormous an injustice by the cry of; If thou releases this man, thou art not Caesar’s friend; you will lose Caesar’s favour, you will become his enemy. Oh what a powerful invention was this to terrify and crush the heart of the judge and make him guilty of the frightful crime of deicide!

APPLICATION: Even now also what innumerable fears and human respects draw many persons away from good, and plunge them into evil even against their will! Many there are who at heart would sincerely wish to live a good and regular life, to avoid taking part in useless and frivolous conversation, to attend more frequently to the exercises of devotion; but they are deterred by the fear of human respect, and, on seeing themselves noticed and laughed at, they lose all heart and at once give up. View then matters in their proper light, and learn to make more account of the honour of God than of what people say.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: This is the work of them who oppose me before the Lord: and who speak evils against my soul. (Ps. cviii, 20.)

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FRIDAY AFTER THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT ~ JESUS CONDEMNED TO DEATH

Pilate washed his hands before the people, saying: I am innocent of the blood of this just man. (Matt. xxvii, 24.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY that Pilate, desirous as he was to end the case and pass sentence, still hesitated in his troubled heart. On the one hand he saw the manifest innocence of Jesus, and on the other the agitation of that tumultuous multitude who would accuse him to Caesar. In the meantime his wife sent him a message, warning him on no account to render himself guilty of the death of that innocent and just Man: Have thou nothing to do with that just man. By Divine Providence would make it appear that, as the first woman at the instigation of the bad angel was the cause of Adam’s fall, so Pilate should be withheld from giving an unjust sentence by a woman moved thereto by her good angel. But because Pilate heeded not this special light and help he rendered himself much more guilty in the sight of God.

APPLICATION: How often too may this be the case with you! You are tempted either by your passions or by the devil or by human respect to fall into some fault! Meantime our Lord in His mercy has sent you light and remorse of conscience, warning you to resist and withdraw yourself from the commission of that fault. If in spite of all you yield to your unruly passions and despise the help of heaven, you will be still more gravely guilty because you thud commit sin with full advertence and as it were with your eyes open.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Enlighten my eyes that I sleep not ever in death: lest mine enemy say at any time: I have prevailed against him. (Ps. xii, 5.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY how Pilate being in such conflict between his own conscience and his fear of the people, tried to satisfy at one and the same time both his conscience and the perverse desires of the Jews, by protesting that he had no part in the condemnation of Christ and by washing his hands before all the people: I am innocent of the blood of this just man. But what did it avail him to wash his hands, when he foully stained his conscience by condemning the innocent to death?

APPLICATION: Those resemble Pilate who when they sin try to appear innocent themselves by casting the blame upon others: or those who against their own conscience consent to the unjust demands of others; or lastly those who under outward appearances seek to hide their interior faults. But how grievously do they deceive themselves, and how to their shame will they be covered with confusion when they stand before the judgment seat of God.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Enter not into judgement with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. (Ps. cxlii, 2.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY the iniquitous and unjust sentence of Pilate, who not only condemned the innocent Jesus to the death of the cross, but gave Him also into the power of His enraged enemies to do their worst with Him: he delivered him up to their will. (Luke xxiii, 25.) Behold to what extreme Pilate is led through not resisting the unjust and furious clamours of that people, and through fear of losing Ceasar’s favour; and this because he looked more to his own private interest than to the sacred cause of justice, See, too, how all his designs were brought to naught, for this same Pilate was accused by these very Jews to Ceasar, lost his favour and himself came to die a miserable death.

APPLICATION: Let us also learn from this example to resist at the beginning, and earnestly to fight against our unruly passions. Pilate began to yield when first he left the case of our Lord to the people themselves, then passed Him on to Herod, next when he subjected the innocent Saviour to be scourged, and finally gave way when he passed on to the dreadful crime of condemning Jesus to be crucified.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in my innocence: I have put my trust in the Lord. (Ps. xxv, 1)

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SATURDAY AFTER THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT ~ JESUS LADEN WITH THE CROSS

They put on him is own garments and led him away to crucify him. (Matt. xxvii, 31.)

CONSIDER FIRSTLY the various sentiments which the sentence of Pilate aroused, proclaimed as it was with sounds of trumpets. The Pharisees and all the people, now that they had obtained what had long been refused them, rejoiced and triumphed in a manner proper only to sinners, who, as we are told in Holy Writ, rejoice in most wicked things (Prov. ii,14.) without paying any heed to the fatal evil which hang over them. On the contrary our Blessed Lord on hearing the sentenced raises His heart and mind to heaven. He accepts that sentence, not as brought about by the perversity of the Jews nor as unjustly pronounced upon Him by Pilate, but as decreed for Him from all eternity by His divine Father for the salvation of the human race. And therefore He receives it with humble resignation, thereby conforming Himself most perfectly to the will of His divine Father.

APPLICATION: In the various vicissitudes of life there may not be wanting those, who will procure or cause you many kinds of crosses and troubles either unjustly or out of contempt or revenge. Learn however not to consider the person of the one who is the immediate cause to you of that insult or injury, but regard rather the divine good pleasure which permits this for your greater good. In this way you will accept the affliction with more resignation and bear it with greater patience.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: We have rejoiced in the days in which thou has humbled us; for the years in which we have seen evils. (Ps, lxxxix, 15.)

CONSIDER SECONDLY that the executioners publicly and in fury hastened to tear off the purple garment from our Blessed Lord and covered Him again with His own, so that He should be recognised and despised by all the people of Jerusalem. This shame was chosen by our Lord to atone for all that false shame and confusion which you feel when you are ashamed to wear the livery of Christ openly, or to show yourself an exact observer of all that you state of life requires of you.

APPLICATION: As a mere Christian you profess yourself to be a follower of Christ. Why then are you ashamed before others and even among those of your own household to do publicly that which your state as such demands?

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS. I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord, and thy law is my meditation. (Ps. cxviii,174.)

CONSIDER THIRDLY the sentiment of Jesus on seeing Himself confronted by the executioners with the cross, how He saluted and adored it more tenderly even than did the Apostle Andrew when he said: O good cross, long have I desired thee and now thou art here, ready for my yearning soul. He does not wait for it to be placed upon His sacred shoulders. He Himself advances towards it, embraces it, kisses it, and presses it to His heart. He sees that it is the altar on which He is to sacrifice Himself to the obedience and the glory of His Father, that it is the one plank of safety in our own disastrous shipwreck, that it is the sole sign of salvation and the standard of victory against our enemies.

APPLICATION: With what sentiment do you receive your crosses? Do you fly from them or do you embrace them? God never wishes that any one should be without his cross, because without the cross, because without the cross there is no salvation, it being a necessary means of entering into glory. Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. But the cross alone is not sufficient to save us. We must try even to love the cross of adversity, bearing it with resignation, with patience and with generosity after the example of Jesus.

AFFECTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS: Let me know that this is thy hand, and that thou, O Lord, hast done it. (Ps. cviii, 27.)

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