Station XII
JESUS DIES ON THE CROSS
1st Prelude: History.----In addition to all His physical pain, our Lord had also to endure the mental suffering of mockery and derision. "And they that passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying: Vah, Thou that destroyest the Temple of God, and in three days buildest it up again; save Thyself, coming down from the Cross. In like manner also the Chief Priests, mocking, said with the Scribes one to another: He saved others, Himself He cannot save. Let Christ, the King of Israel, come down from the Cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with Him reviled Him." (Mark xv.)
Whilst all around were deriding and mocking our dying Saviour, the thief on His right hand began to reflect and repent. Rebuking his companion, he said: "Neither dost thou fear God, seeing thou art under the same condemnation. And we justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds----but this Man hath done no evil. And he said to Jesus: Lord, remember me when Thou shalt come into Thy Kingdom. And Jesus said to him: Amen, I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise."
"Now, there stood by the Cross of Jesus, His Mother, and His Mother's sister Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen. When Jesus therefore had seen His Mother and the disciple standing whom He loved, He saith to His Mother: Woman, behold thy Son. After that, He saith to the disciple: Behold thy Mother. And from that time the disciple took her to his own."
2nd Prelude: Composition of Place.----The summit of Calvary----the foot of the Cross. See the crowd of Priests, Scribes, and Ancients pushing their way through the people to get in sight and within hearing of Jesus. They stand triumphant before the Cross to mock Him in His misery. Note how the darkness deepens. With it comes fear over the souls of men. See the Immaculate Mother, Magdalen, and John close to the Cross. I shall take my place with them close to Jesus.
Mary is Jesus' last gift, kept for the end. He had declared His Father to be ours-" I ascend to My Father and to your Father." He had given Himself----"This is My Body; this is My Blood." He had promised us His Holy Spirit----"If I go I will send Him to you." Jesus had parted for our sakes with all He had in this world----His followers, His friends, His fame, His honour. What was now left to Him? She alone----she to whom He came at first----His Immaculate Mother----now He will give her to us. We must not be able to say there is anything, however dear to Him----however especially His Own, that He has not shared with us. Jesus will prove His right to the title of elder Brother by making His Mother our Mother. As He has said----"My Father, and your Father," He will say----My Mother and yours.
Heartbroken, Mary is standing at the foot of His Cross, with the disciple whom Jesus loved. Who can fathom her sorrow? Never was there a mother whose heart was capable of a greater, deeper, or more comprehensive love----and therefore also of greater pain----than the heart of the Mother of Jesus. The whole awful scene was enacted before her eyes; she saw it all----the nails, the wounds; she heard it all----the strokes of the hammer, the imprecations against her Son, and His own words and sighs. She stood close to the Cross, and looked into His blessed, dying face. Who can form any idea of her pain! And Mary suffered all this voluntarily. No one, nothing but her own intense love could impose upon her the sacrifice of being present in person at the death of Jesus. She made it courageously and undauntedly----in spite of the threats and invectives of His foes. She held up until the day with all its horrors was over, and accompanied it all with the most magnificent acts of adoration, love, compassion, and all other virtues.
And why did the Immaculate Mother of Jesus act thus? Precisely because she was the Mother of Jesus----and wished to participate in the sufferings and shame of her Divine Son. Mary recognized to the full the great significance of His death. It was the great sacrifice of the Redemption, and she must co-operate in it, as Eve had once taken active part in the Fall. What drew our Lady to the Cross and held her there? Her deep, loyal faith, which revealed to her all the glory of the Cross. And then her love----love stronger than death. Lastly, the unfathomable humility that made her ashamed to be treated better than her Jesus----her Son, and her God.
How Mary and John are rewarded. Such faithful, motherly, and heroic love as Mary showed was certain to be rewarded by our Lord. Jesus saw everything----her actions, her thoughts, and her sufferings. He comforted and cared for her life. Mary was not to die with Jesus but to survive Him many years, and therefore it was fitting that He should make provision for her. So, glancing at John, He said to His Mother: "Woman (i.e., second Eve), behold thy Son." Thy Son Jesus is dying, and can no longer care for thee. I will give thee John to take My place, he shall tend thee----I give him to thee.
And to John He said: "Behold thy Mother." Take My place with her now, honour and love her, and take care of her as I have hitherto done. Poor Mother! These words smote Mary's heart with a thrill of unutterable pain----they were His actual leave-taking, a formal adieu to her. Everything seemed to vanish from her heart and before her eyes----her whole life, the soul and centre of which Jesus had been, seemed nothing----His place is now to be taken by John. But it was Jesus' Will, and Mary consented to the loss of her Son and our Saviour with the same humility with which she had once consented to His conception----"Ecce ancilla Domini----Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum."
John, too, obeyed our Lord's Will with deep, great humility and confusion, readiness and love----receiving Mary as his own Mother with dispositions of reverence, love, and tender solicitude----striving to care for her as Jesus had done throughout His whole life. John had a great privilege by his virginity, his courage and fidelity to Jesus----and his child-like love for our Blessed Lady.
And it was almost the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened: and the veil of the Temple was rent in the midst" (Luke xxiii. 44). Towards midday, and probably very shortly after the Crucifixion, the sky began to grow dark and lowering, and by degrees a complete eclipse of the sun set in, which lasted until about three o'clock in the afternoon, when our Lord's death took place. The eclipse of the sun was evidently given as a testimony to the innocence and Divinity of Jesus. This eclipse could not have been an ordinary natural one, for the moon was at the full, and the eclipse lasted nearly three hours. As the appearance of a miraculous star had proclaimed the birth of Jesus, so now an eclipse of the sun proclaimed His death. Jesus waS the spiritual Light of the world, and thus it was right that the sun, the source of all its material light, should mourn at His departure. The Jews had repeatedly desired a sign from Heaven. Now they had a sign, and a very great one. And it was given to show them what a terrible crime they had committed, and to lead them to repentance. Darkness and obscurity betoken in the Scripture approaching judgment and the anger of God.
In the midst of the silence and obscurity that surrounded Mount Calvary, and towards the end of the three hours of Agony, when darkness and terror had reached their climax, our Lord suddenly made the air ring with the loud cry: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matt. xxvii. 46). Then Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said: "I thirst " (John xix. 28). And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the Temple was rent in the midst, and Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said: " All is consummated. Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." And saying this He gave up the Ghost. And the Centurion, seeing what was done, glorified God, saying: "Indeed this was a just Man."
Why did Jesus utter this cry: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Not through reluctance to suffer or repugnance to bear the greatness of His pain----but to reveal to us that He took these sufferings of interior desolation upon Himself also, and that He suffered without any interior consolation. He wished, too, to show that all the prophecies with regard to the manner of His death were now fulfilled; and therefore He chose for this cry the first words of the very Psalm in which the principal prophecy is contained. Lastly, Jesus, our loving Lord, intended this cry to be a comfort to us when we, too, have to suffer without human or Divine consolation. By His complete abandonment He has left us a precious treasure for the benefit of the desolate to the end of time.
Here on the Cross, Jesus merited for us the strength not to despond when we stand in the midst of the desert of darkness and solitude----and not to despair even in our last hour. We are not alone there----Jesus our Saviour has been there before us and erected His Cross to be a comfort to us. This cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" is like the voice of a friendly guide and powerful helper, proclaiming His presence in the pathless desert waste, and offering His aid. Jesus loves to call Himself the "Son of Man," and truly there is none among His many titles to which He has more fully proved His claim.
But there was a deeper depth yet to which He must descend if He would be like us in all things. Sin had fixed a gulf between us and our God. It had hidden His face from us----and then left us wailing in our despair. Here surely the Son of Man must part company with us----He "Who did no sin, neither was guilt found in His mouth." No, for He is come to seek and to save that which was lost----Jesus, our loving Saviour, will follow us down into our misery that He may rescue us. Sin cannot touch Him----but its chastisement He can draw upon Himself. He has undertaken to satisfy for us to the full----to bear all that He may bear consistently with the. dignity of His Person. Therefore Jesus will endure, as far as possible, the most awful form of human suffering----separation from God, dereliction by God.
How was Jesus' cry of agony----" My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"----received? This touching cry of the desolate Heart of Jesus only evoked fresh mockery and scorn from the enemies of Jesus----"Behold He calleth Elias; let us see if Elias come to take Him down." They seem not to have quite caught our Lord's words, and thought He had called Elias, who was regarded as the forerunner of the Messiah, the helper in great distress and persecution, and defender of God's people. At all events their words were a fresh expression of derision. O Sacred, suffering Heart of Jesus!
St. Mark tells us" there was darkness over the whole earth until the ninth hour "but, oh, how deep, how terrible the darkness over the soul of Jesus! Among His unspeakable sufferings the keenest was this hiding of the face of the Father. We have no thoughts or images whereby to bring home to ourselves in the very least the love with which the soul of Jesus turned to the Father. To be about His Father's business He had come into the world. That the Father's name might be hallowed He had taught and toiled and wearied, and suffered. It was when He spoke of the Father that His full Heart revealed itself. To the Father's face He lifted His eyes, weary with sin and sorrow of earth.
How did Mary and John and Magdalen hear this cry of Jesus' Crucified Soul? The deep, mysterious abysses of His dereliction and mortal agony lay open before them. They themselves were plunged therein, and accompanied our Lord in all His pain, all His conformity of Will, and love to His heavenly Father, and His love for us sinners. Let us think of this when we, too, shall be alone in this desert of darkness, aridity, abandonment, desolation, and engulfed in this abyss.
COLLOQUY.----O love of the Sacred Heart! O my Jesus, how good art Thou! Behold, O Thou delight of the Angels and Saints, Thou art forsaken upon the Cross, and deprived of every consolation, yet Thou dost deal so mercifully with me, a wretched sinner. All, Lord Jesus, willingly do I entrust myself to Thy loving Heart, wholly do I resign myself to Thy Will. Do Thou carry out the designs of Thy Heart, cleanse me, sanctify me, dear Lord, in the way and manner pleasing to Thee, only keep me from every sin. O Mother of Jesus, in every temptation and danger, assist me efficaciously, at any cost. O my Mother, keep me faithful to Jesus.
"It is consummated." All the enemies of God and man are conquered. (1) Satan is prostrate beside the Cross, with his head crushed under the foot of the Blessed Mother. (2) The world, Satan's great ally, without whose aid he can do nothing, is also conquered----Have confidence, I have overcome the world. (3) The lust of the flesh, of the eyes, and the pride of life: Jesus' most patient Body has conquered all. Body of Christ, save me. Passion of Christ, strengthen me. "He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the Cross"----and so has triumphed over pride.
O Sacred Heart of Jesus, help me by the contemplation of Thy Sacred Passion to love Thee ardently, to give Thee of my best, to give fearlessly, perseveringly, and from love. O my Mother, keep me close to thee, then I shall be true to Jesus and value and love the Cross of Christ.
With a mighty voice, with an upward glance of infinitely touching resignation and childlike confidence Jesus cried----Father, into Thy Hands I commend My spirit. The head drops on the breast, the Heart is still, the Soul is with the Father----Jesus has been obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. He has loved us to the end!
"Father, into Thy Hands I commend My spirit." O beautiful words! full of help and consolation for me. A little while ago Jesus' words were a piteous cry to the Creator"----My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Now it is the filial commendation to the Father. The lesson He wishes us to have ready for our last hour is confidence. Had there been any other, Jesus would have taught it. I must learn this lesson now. I ought to be perpetually rehearsing for the hour of my death, as the Church teaches in the Hail Mary, and the most important thing to rehearse is confidence.
St. Francis de Sales tells us that we shall derive great spiritual profit by committing our souls absolutely and without reserve into the hands of God's infinite goodness and mercy. Is He not our Father, Who has made us, preserved us, spared us, chosen us, called us? We advance slowly in perfection, only because we have never abandoned ourselves entirely to God, and yet if we desire to attain sanctity----we must begin, continue, and end our spiritual career by the practice of this virtue, in imitation of our Divine Model----Whose whole life so beautifully exemplified it.
The Twelfth Station:
Jesus Dies on the Cross
God is dead! No wonder the earth quaked, the sun hid itself, the dead rose and Mary stood by in horror. Your human body gave up it's soul in death but Your Divinity, dear Jesus, continued to manifest its power. All creation rebelled as the Word made Flesh departed from this world. Man alone was too proud to see and too stubborn to acknowledge truth.
Redemption was accomplished! Man would never have an excuse to forget how much You loved him. The thief on Your right saw something he could not explain - he saw a man on a tree and knew He was God. His need made him see his own guilt and Your innocence. The Promise of eternal life made the remaining hours of his torture. endurable.
A common thief responded to Your love with deep Faith, Hope, and Love. He saw more than his eyes envisioned - he felt a Presence he could not explain and would not argue with. He was in need and accepted the way God designed to help him.
Forgive our pride, dear Jesus as we spend hours speculating, days arguing and often a lifetime in rejecting Your death, which is a sublime mystery. Have pity on those whose intelligence leads them to pride because they never feel the need to reach out to the Man of Sorrows for consolation.
Amen |
