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| Consummatum est. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
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.
St. Augustine says that there is nothing more conducive to the attainment of eternal salvation than to think every day on the pains which Jesus Christ has suffered for the love of us. “Nothing is more salutary than to think daily on what the Man-God has endured for us.” And before him, Origen said that sin cannot reign in the soul that frequently meditates on the death of the Saviour. “It is certain that, when the death of Christ is carried about in the soul, sin cannot reign in it.” Besides, our Lord revealed to a holy solitary that there is no exercise better calculated to kindle in the heart the fire of divine love than the meditation on his Passion. Hence, Father Balthazar Alvarez used to say that ignorance of the treasures that we have in the Passion of Jesus Christ is the ruin of Christians. Hence, he would tell his penitents that they should not consider themselves to have done anything until they had succeeded in always keeping in the heart Jesus crucified. According to St. Bonaventure, the wounds of Jesus are wounds which soften the hardest hearts, and inflame the most frozen souls. Hence, a learned author, Father Croiset, writes that there is nothing which unfolds to us the treasures contained in the sufferings of Jesus Christ better than the simple history of his Passion.
To inflame a faithful soul with divine love, it is enough to reflect on the narration which the holy Evangelists have given of the sorrows of the Redeemer, and to view with the eyes of a Christian all that the Saviour has suffered in the three principal theatres of his Passion; that is:
in the garden of Olives,
in the city of Jerusalem, and
on Mount Calvary.
The contemplations which devout authors have made and written on the Passion are useful and beautiful; but certainly a single word from the Sacred Scriptures makes a greater impression on a Christian than a hundred and a thousand contemplations and revelations ascribed to certain holy souls; for the Scripture assures us that whatever they attest is certain with the certainty of divine faith.
Hence I have resolved, for the benefit and consolation of souls enamoured of Jesus Christ, to arrange in order, and to relate in simple language (adding a few brief reflections and affections) what the holy Evangelists say of the Passion of Jesus Christ. They supply abundant matter for the meditations of a hundred and a thousand years, and at the same time the most powerful motives to inflame us with holy charity towards our most loving Redeemer. O God, how is it possible for a soul that has faith, and reflects on the sorrows and ignominies which Jesus Christ has suffered for us, not to burn with love for him, and not to conceive strong resolutions to become a saint, in order not to be ungrateful to so loving a God?
Faith is necessary; for had not faith assured us of it, who could ever believe what a God has actually done for the love of us? He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.[1] Who, had he not the infallible assurance of faith, could, at the sight of Jesus, born in a stable, believe that he is the God who is adored by the angels in heaven? How, without the aid of faith, can he who beholds the Saviour flying into Egypt, in order to escape from the hands of Herod, believe that he is omnipotent? How could we, without the assurance of faith, believe that he whom we see sorrowful unto death in the Garden, is infinitely happy? or that he who was bound to a pillar, and suspended on a gibbet, is the Lord of the universe? How great should be our astonishment if we saw a king become a worm, crawling along the earth, living in a filthy hole, and thence making laws, appointing ministers, and governing his kingdom?[1] [7] But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man.
sed semetipsum exinanivit, formam servi accipiens, in similitudinem hominum factus, et habitu inventus ut homo. [Phil 2]
O holy faith, unfold to us who Jesus Christ is, who this man is, who appears as insignificant as the rest of men. The Word was made flesh.[2] St. John assures us that he is the eternal Word, the only-begotten of God. And what sort of life has this Man-God led on earth? Behold it described by the prophet Isaias: And we have seen him . . . despised and most abject of men, a man of sorrows.[3] He wished to be a man of sorrows; that is, he wished to be afflicted with all sorrows, and not to be for a moment free from pain. He was a man of sorrows and loaded with insults: Despised and the most abject of men. Yes, for Jesus was the most insulted and maltreated of all mortals,as if he had been the last and most contemptible of men. A God bound as a malefactor by the officers of justice! A God scourged as a slave! A God treated as a mock king! A God dying on an infamous gibbet![2] [14] And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Et Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis : et vidimus gloriam ejus, gloriam quasi unigeniti a Patre plenum gratiae et veritatis. [John 1]
[3] [2] And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him:
Et ascendet sicut virgultum coram eo; et sicut radix de terra sitienti. Non est species ei, neque decor, et vidimus eum, et non erat aspectus, et desideravimus eum;
[3] Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not.
despectum, et novissimum virorum, virum dolorum, et scientem infirmitatem; et quasi absconditus vultus ejus et despectus, unde nec reputavimus eum. [Isa 53]
How great the impression which these prodigies should make on him who believes them? How great the desire which they should infuse of suffering for Jesus Christ? St. Francis de Sales has said, “All the wounds of the Redeemer are, as it were, so many mouths which teach us how we ought to suffer for him. The science of the the saints consists in constantly suffering for Jesus; by constantly suffering for him we shall soon become saints. How ardent the love with which we shall be inflamed at the sight of the flames which are found in the bosom of the Redeemer? Oh, what a happiness to burn with the same fire with which our God burns? How delightful to be united to God with the chains of love!”
But why do so many Christians behold with indifference Jesus on the cross? During the holy week they are present at the celebration of his death, but without sentiments of tenderness or gratitude, and as if they commemorated an event which never happened, or which does not concern them. Perhaps they neither know nor believe what the Gospels relate of the Passion of Jesus Christ? I answer and say, that they know it and believe it, but they do not reflect on it.
Ah! for those who believe and reflect on the Passion of the Redeemer, it is impossible not to burn with love for a God who suffers such torments, and dies for the love of them. The charity of Christ presseth us.[4] The Apostle meant to say that, in thinking on the Passion of our Lord, we should consider not so much the sorrows and insults which he suffered as the love with which he bore them; for Jesus Christ wished to submit to such torments, not only to save us (since for our salvation a single petition offered by him to his Father would be sufficient), but also to make us understand the affection which he entertained for us, and thus gain our hearts.[4] [14] For the charity of Christ presseth us: judging this, that if one died for all, then all were dead.
Caritas enim Christi urget nos : aestimantes hoc, quoniam si unus pro omnibus mortuus est, ergo omnes mortui sunt : [2 Cor 5]
Ah! a soul that thinks of this love of Jesus Christ cannot but love him. The charity of Christ presseth us. It will feel itself bound and constrained, as it were by force, to consecrate all its affections to him. Hence Jesus Christ has died for us all, that we may live no longer to ourselves, but to this most loving Redeemer, who has sacrificed his divine life for our salvation. O happy you, O loving souls, who frequently meditate on the Passion of Jesus! You shall, says Isaias, draw waters with joy out of the Saviour’s fountains.[5] From the blessed fountains of the wounds of the Saviour you shall continually draw waters of love and confidence. And how can even the greatest sinner (if he repent of his sins) ever despair of the divine mercy at the sight of Jesus crucified, when he knows that the Eternal Father has placed on his beloved Son all our sins, that he might atone for them? And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.[6] How, says St. Paul, can we be afraid that God will refuse us any grace after having given us his own Son? He that spareth not even His own Son, but delivereth Him up for us all, how hath He not also with Him given us all things?[7][5] [3] You shall draw waters with joy out of the saviour's fountains:
Haurietis aquas in gaudio de fontibus salvatoris. [Isa 12]
[6] [6] 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.
Omnes nos quasi oves erravimus, unusquisque in viam suam declinavit; et posuit Dominus in eo iniquitatem omnium nostrum. [Isa 53]
[7] [32] He that spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how hath he not also, with him, given us all things?
Qui etiam proprio Filio suo non pepercit, sed pro nobis omnibus tradidit illum : quomodo non etiam cum illo omnia nobis donavit? [Rom 8]
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