Jesus Christ suffered voluntarily for us

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.

Christ suffered voluntarily for us

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

Wounded for our iniquities. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum

Observe how it was foretold by Isaias: We have thought Him as it were a leper, and as one stricken by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath turned aside into his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. [1] 

Jesus, full of love, of his own will, offered himself, without a reply, to accomplish his Father’s will, whose will it was to behold him outraged by executioners at their own pleasure.

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. [2]

As a lamb offers itself to be shorn without complaint, so our loving Redeemer in his Passion caused himself to be shorn, not of his wool, but of his very skin, without opening his mouth.

What obligation did he lie under to offer satisfaction for our sins? Yet he chose to take it upon him, that he might deliver us from eternal damnation; and therefore every one of us ought to give him thanks, and say, Thou hast brought forth my soul, that it should not perish; Thou hast cast all my sins behind Thy back. [3] And thus Jesus voluntarily, through his own goodness, making himself the debtor for our debts, chose to sacrifice himself altogether, even to death in the pains of the cross, as he himself says in the Gospel of St. John: I lay down My life; no one taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. [4]

[1] [4] Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted.
Vere languores nostros ipse tulit, et dolores nostros ipse portavit; et nos putavimus eum quasi leprosum, et percussum a Deo, et humiliatum.
[5] But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed.
Ipse autem vulneratus est propter iniquitates nostras, attritus est propter scelera nostra; disciplina pacis nostrae super eum, et livore ejus sanati sumus. [Isa 53]
[2] [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]
[3] [17] Behold in peace is my bitterness most bitter: but thou hast delivered my soul that it should not perish, thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
Ecce in pace amaritudo mea amarissima. Tu autem eruisti animam meam ut non periret; projecisti post tergum tuum omnia peccata mea. [Isa 38]
[4] [17] Therefore doth the Father love me: because I lay down my life, that I may take it again.
Propterea me diligit Pater : quia ego pono animam meam, ut iterum sumam eam. [John 10]