Interior sufferings of Christ, His patience and the fruits of His death

Stabat Mater dolorosa. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Our Lenten meditations continue with posts taken from Considerations on the Passion of Jesus Christ* by Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori.

"You may use this little book* in your prayers when you meditate on the Passion. I am using it myself every day. I desire that you should not allow a day to pass without recalling to your mind, with the aid of this or another book, something of the Passion. The Passion was for the saints a continual subject of meditation." (St Alphonsus, 1773)

This grace I ask of thee to-day: obtain for me a continual remembrance of the passion of Jesus, and of thine also, and a tender devotion to them.

Interior sufferings of Christ, His patience and the fruits of His death

[ ] References in the text to numbered footnotes are not hyperlinked but may be found at the end of the relevant paragraph.

Watch with me. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Hitherto, also, we have spoken only of the outward bodily pains of Jesus Christ. And who can ever explain and comprehend the inward pains of his soul, which a thousand times exceeded his outward pains?

This inward torment was such that in the Garden of Gethsemani it caused a sweat of blood to pour forth from all his body, and compelled him to say that this was enough to slay Him: My soul is sorrowful even unto death. 4[1]

And since this anguish was enough to cause death, why did he not die? St. Thomas answers that he did not die because he himself prevented his own death, being ready to preserve his life, in order to give it in a while upon the tree of the cross.






[1] [38] Then he saith to them: My soul is sorrowful even unto death: stay you here, and watch with me.
Tunc ait illis : Tristis est anima mea usque ad mortem : sustinete hic, et vigilate mecum. [Matt 26]

This sorrow also, which most deeply afflicted Jesus Christ in the garden, afflicted him also throughout his whole life; since, from the first moment when he began to live, he had ever before his eyes the causes of his inward grief; among which the most afflicting was, the sight of the ingratitude of men towards the love which he showed them in his Passion. Nevertheless, an angel came to comfort him in the garden, as St. Luke relates. [2] Yet Venerable Bede says that this comfort, instead of lightening his pains, increased them.  The angel, indeed, strengthened him to endure with greater constancy for the salvation of men; upon which Bede remarks that Jesus was then strengthened for suffering, by a representation of the greatness of the fruits of his Passion, without the
least diminution of the greatness of his sufferings.  Therefore the Evangelist relates that immediately after the appearance of the angel, Jesus Christ was in an agony, and sweated blood in such abundance that it fell to the ground. [3] St. Bonaventure further relates that the agony of Jesus then reached its height; so that our afflicted Lord, at the sight of the anguish that he must suffer at the termination of his life now come, was so terrified that he prayed his divine Father that he might be delivered from it: Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me. [4] Yet he said this, not that he might be delivered from the pains, for he had already offered himself to suffer them,—He was offered, because He Himself willed, —but to teach us to understand the agony which he experienced in enduring this death so bitter to the senses; while in his will, in order to accomplish the will of his Father, in order to obtain for us the salvation he so ardently desired, he immediately added: Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt. [4] And he continued thus to pray and to resign himself for the space of three hours: He prayed the third time, saying the same words. [5]

[2] [43] And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony, he prayed the longer.
Apparuit autem illi angelus de caelo, confortans eum. Et factus in agonia, prolixius orabat. [Luke 22]
[3] [44] And his sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground.
Et factus est sudor ejus sicut guttae sanguinis decurrentis in terram.  [Luke 22]
[4] [39] And going a little further, he fell upon his face, praying, and saying: My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me. Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
Et progressus pusillum, procidit in faciem suam, orans, et dicens : Pater mi, si possibile est, transeat a me calix iste : verumtamen non sicut ego volo, sed sicut tu. [Matt 26]
[5] [39] And going away again, he prayed, saying the same words.
Et iterum abiens oravit, eumdem sermonem dicens. [Mark 14]

 

But let us follow the prophecy of Isaias. He foretold the blows, the buffetings. the spitting, and the other insults which Jesus Christ endured the night before his death from the hands of the executioners, who kept him in bondage in the palace of Caiphas, in order to take him the next morning to Pilate, and to make him condemn him to death. I have given My body to the strikers, and My cheeks to them that plucked them; I have not turned away My face from them that rebuked Me and spit upon Me. [6]




[6] [6] I have given my body to the strikers, and my cheeks to them that plucked them: I have not turned away my face from them that rebuked me, and spit upon me.
Corpus meum dedi percutientibus, et genas meas vellentibus; faciem meam non averti ab increpantibus et conspuentibus in me. [Isa 50]

Mocking, striking and spitting at Jesus. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum

These insults are described by St. Mark, who adds that these soldiers, treating Jesus as a false prophet, in order to mock him, covered his face with a cloth, and then striking him with blows and buffetings, bade him prophesy who it was that smote him. [7] Isaias goes on to speak of the death of Jesus Christ: He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter. [8] The eunuch of Queen Candace, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, reading this passage, asked of St. Philip, who, by a divine inspiration, had come to join himself with him, of whom these words were to be understood? and the saint then explained to him the whole mystery of the redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ; upon which the eunuch, then enlightened by God, desired at once to be baptized.Isaias then continues, and foretells the great fruits which the world would derive from the death of the Saviour, and says that from it great numbers of saints would be spiritually born:Because His soul hath labored, He shall see and be filled; by His knowledge shall this my just servant justify many, and He shall bear their iniquities. [9]   



[7]  [65] And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him: Prophesy: and the servants struck him with the palms of their hands.
Et coeperunt quidam conspuere eum, et velare faciem ejus, et colaphis eum caedere, et dicere ei : Prophetiza : et ministri alapis eum caedebant. [Mark 14] 
[8]  [7] He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth.
Oblatus est quia ipse voluit, et non aperuit os suum; sicut ovis ad occisionem ducetur, et quasi agnus coram tondente se obmutescet, et non aperiet os suum.  [Isa 53]
[9] [10] And the Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity: if he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed, and the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in his hand.
Et Dominus voluit conterere eum in infirmitate. Si posuerit pro peccato animam suam, videbit semen longaevum, et voluntas Domini in manu ejus dirigetur.
[11] Because his soul hath laboured, he shall see and be filled: by his knowledge shall this my just servant justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities.
Pro eo quod laboravit anima ejus videbit et saturabitur. In scientia sua justificabit ipse justus servus meus multos, et iniquitates eorum ipse portabit. [Isa 53]

Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt. 

Tecum tutus semper sum.
Ad Jesum per Mariam.