Jesus carries the Cross to Calvary

Consummatum est. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Our Lenten meditations continue with posts taken from a Simple Exposition of the Circumstances of the Passion of Jesus Christ (1761) by Saint Alphonsus de Liguori.

I have inserted references in the text to numbered footnotes. These references are not hyperlinked but may be found by scrolling to the end of the relevant paragraph.

Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt. Tecum tutus semper sum.
Ad Jesum per Mariam.

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.

Jesus carries the Cross to Calvary

They put on His own garments. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum

As soon as the sentence is proclaimed, the unhappy people raise a shout of exultation, and say: Rejoice, rejoice; Jesus is already condemned. Make haste, lose no time; prepare the cross, and put him to death before to-morrow which will be the Paschal solemnity. They instantly seize him; tear off the scarlet cloak, and put on his own clothes, that (says St. Ambrose) he might be recognized by the people as the impostor (as they called him), whom they had a few days before hailed as the Messiah. They took off the cloak from Him, and put on His own garments, and led Him away to crucify Him. [1] 


They then take two large beams, make a cross, and insolently command him to carry it on his shoulders to the place of his execution. O God! what barbarity! to put so heavy a burden on a man who has been so tortured and exhausted of strength.


[1] [31] And after they had mocked him, they took off the cloak from him, and put on him his own garments, and led him away to crucify him.
Et postquam illuserunt ei, exuerunt eum chlamyde, et induerunt eum vestimentis ejus, et duxerunt eum ut crucifigerent. [Matt 27]

Bearing His own cross. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Jesus lovingly embraces the cross. And bearing His own cross, He went forth to that place which is called Calvary. [2] Behold the officers of justice set out along with the criminals, and among these goes the Saviour loaded with the very altar on which he is to sacrifice his life. A devout author justly remarks that the Passion of Jesus Christ was, in all its circumstances, an object of astonishment and an excess, as it was called by Moses and Elias on Mount Thabor.[3]




[2] [17] And bearing his own cross, he went forth to that place which is called Calvary, but in Hebrew Golgotha.
Et bajulans sibi crucem exivit in eum, qui dicitur Calvariae locum, hebraice autem Golgotha : [John 19]

[3] [31] Appearing in majesty. And they spoke of his decease that he should accomplish in Jerusalem.
visi in majestate : et dicebant excessum ejus, quem completurus erat in Jerusalem. [Luke 9]

Veronica wipes the face of Jesus. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum

Who would have ever imagined that the sight of Jesus covered with wounds should only serve to increase the rage of the Jews and their desire to see him crucified? What tyrant has ever made a criminal carry his own gibbet on his shoulders after he had been consumed by torments? It fills one with horror to think on the accumulation of cruelties, insults, and derisions which his enemies made Jesus suffer in less than half a day, from his capture till his death.

The fetters, the buffets, the spittle, the mockery, the scourges, the thorns, the nails, the agony and death, succeed one after another without interruption. In a word, the Jews and Gentiles, the priests and the people, all united to make Jesus Christ (as Isaias had foretold) a man overwhelmed with insults and sorrows.

The judge defends the innocence of Jesus, but the defence served only to add to the pain and ignominies of the Redeemer; for had Pilate at once condemned him to death, Jesus would not see Barabbas preferred before him, he would not have been treated as a fool, he would not have been so cruelly scourged and crowned with thorns.But let us return to the consideration of the astonishing spectacle of the Son of God going to die for the very men who conduct him to death. Behold the prediction of Jeremias verified: And I was as a meek lamb that is carried to be a victim. [4] Behold how they lead the innocent Saviour as a lamb to the slaughter. O ungrateful city, dost thou thus banish from thee thy Redeemer with so much contempt, after he had conferred so many favors upon thee? O God, such too is the ingratitude of the Christian, who, after being favored with many divine gifts, banishes Jesus from his soul by sin.

[4] [19] And I was as a meek lamb, that is carried to be a victim: and I knew not that they had devised counsels against me, saying: Let us put wood on his bread, and cut him off from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more.
Et ego quasi agnus mansuetus, qui portatur ad victimam : et non cognovi quia cogitaverunt super me consilia, dicentes : Mittamus lignum in panem ejus, et eradamus eum de terra viventium, et nomen ejus non memoretur amplius. [Jeremiah 11]

Daughters of Jerusalem...JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

The appearance of Jesus in the journey to Calvary was so pitiable that the women followed him weeping and lamenting over his sufferings. And there followed Him a great multitude of people and of women who bewailed and lamented Him. [5] But the Redeemer turning to them, said, Weep not over me, but over your children: For if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry?[6]

By these words he wished to give us to understand the great punishment which our sins deserve: for if he who was innocent and the Son of God, merely because he had offered to make satisfaction for our transgressions, was treated in this manner, how shall men be treated for their own sins?







[5] [27] And there followed him a great multitude of people, and of women, who bewailed and lamented him.
Sequebatur autem illum multa turba populi et mulierum, quae plangebant et lamentabantur eum. [Luke 23]

[6] [28] But Jesus turning to them, said: Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over me; but weep for yourselves, and for your children.
Conversus autem ad illas Jesus, dixit : Filiae Jerusalem, nolite flere super me, sed super vos ipsas flete et super filios vestros.
[29] For behold, the days shall come, wherein they will say: Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the paps that have not given suck.
Quoniam ecce venient dies in quibus dicent : Beatae steriles, et ventres qui non genuerunt, et ubera quae non lactaverunt.
[30] Then shall they begin to say to the mountains: Fall upon us; and to the hills: Cover us.
Tunc incipient dicere montibus : Cadite super nos; et collibus : Operite nos.
[31] For if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry?
Quia si in viridi ligno haec faciunt, in arido quid fiet?  [Luke 23] 

Jesus meets His Blessed Mother. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Look at him, O my soul: see him moving along with his flesh all torn, carrying a crown of thorns on his head and a heavy cross on his shoulders, surrounded by enemies who load him with insults and maledictions. O God! his sacred body is all mangled, so that at every step the pain of his wounds is renewed. The cross torments him before he is fastened to it, for it presses on his wounded shoulders, and cruelly beats into his head the thorns of that barbarous crown.

...upon His shoulder. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum

Alas, how great and manifold his pain at every step! But Jesus leaves not the cross; no, he does not leave it, because through it he wishes, as Isaias foretold, to reign in the hearts of men: And the government is on His shoulders. [7] 

Ah, my Jesus, with what sentiments of love for me didst Thou then go to Calvary, where Thou wast to consummate the great sacrifice of Thy life! My soul, do thou also embrace thy cross for the love of Jesus, who suffers so much for thy sake. See how he goes before with his cross, and invites thee to follow him with thine. If any man will come after Me, let him take up his cross and follow Me. [8]

My Jesus, I do not wish to leave Thee; I wish to follow Thee till death; but, through the merits of this painful journey, give me strength to carry with patience the crosses which Thou dost send me. Ah, Thou hast rendered sorrows and insults amiable by embracing them with so much love for our sake.


[7] [6] For a CHILD IS BORN to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace.
Parvulus enim natus est nobis, et filius datus est nobis, et factus est principatus super humerum ejus : et vocabitur nomen ejus, Admirabilis, Consiliarius, Deus, Fortis, Pater futuri saeculi, Princeps pacis. [Isai 9]

[8] [24] Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Tunc Jesus dixit discipulis suis : Si quis vult post me venire, abneget semetipsum, et tollat crucem suam, et sequatur me. [Matt 16]

Simon of Cyrene bears the cross. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

They found a man of Cyrene, named Simon, him they forced to take up his cross. [9] And they laid the cross on him to carry after Jesus. [10] Was it through compassion that they unburdened Jesus of the cross, and placed it on the Cyrenian? No, it was through wickedness and hatred. Seeing that our Lord almost breathed forth his soul at every step, they began to fear that he would not reach Calvary alive; they wished not only that he should die, but also that he should die on the cross, that his memory might be forever infamous.

For to die on a cross was the same as to be the object of universal malediction: For he is accursed that hangeth on a tree. [11] Hence, in seeking the death of Jesus, they not only called on Pilate to put him to death, but always demanded his crucifixion: “Let him be crucified, crucify him, crucify him,” that his name might be so infamous on earth, that it would be no longer mentioned: Let us cut him off from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more. [12] Hence they took the cross off his shoulders that he might reach Calvary alive; thus they gained their object, and saw him dying the shameful death of the cross. Ah, my despised Jesus, Thou art my hope and all my love.

[9] [32] And going out, they found a man of Cyrene, named Simon: him they forced to take up his cross.
Exeuntes autem invenerunt hominem Cyrenaeum, nomine Simonem : hunc angariaverunt ut tolleret crucem ejus. [Matt 27]

[10] [26] And as they led him away, they laid hold of one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country; and they laid the cross on him to carry after Jesus.
Et cum ducerent eum, apprehenderunt Simonem quemdam Cyrenensem venientem de villa : et imposuerunt illi crucem portare post Jesum. [Luke 23]

[11] [13] Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written: Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
Christus nos redemit de maledicto legis, factus pro nobis maledictum : quia scriptum est : Maledictus omnis qui pendet in ligno : [Gal 3]

[12] [19] And I was as a meek lamb, that is carried to be a victim: and I knew not that they had devised counsels against me, saying: Let us put wood on his bread, and cut him off from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more.
Et ego quasi agnus mansuetus, qui portatur ad victimam : et non cognovi quia cogitaverunt super me consilia, dicentes : Mittamus lignum in panem ejus, et eradamus eum de terra viventium, et nomen ejus non memoretur amplius. [Jer 11]