St. Robert Bellarmine: The Seven Words on the Cross

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CHAPTER VI: The fifth fruit to be drawn from the consideration of the fourth Word spoken by Christ upon the Cross.

In the three first words Christ our Master has recommended to us three great virtues–charity towards our enemies, kindness to those in distress, and affection for our parents. In the four last words He recommends to us four virtues, not indeed more excellent, but still not less necessary for us, humility, patience, perseverance, and obedience. Of humility, indeed, which may be called the characteristic virtue of Christ, since no mention of it has been made in the writings of the wise men of this world, He gave us examples by His actions through the whole course of His life and in chosen words showed Himself to be a Master of the virtue when He said– “Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of Heart.”[1] But at no time did He more clearly encourage us to the practice of this virtue, and along with it of patience, which cannot be separated from humility, than when He exclaimed–“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” For Christ shows us in these words that by the permission of God, as the darkness testified, all His glory and excellence had been obscured, and our Lord could not have borne this, had He not possessed the virtue of humility in the most heroic degree.

The glory of Christ, of which St. John writes in the beginning of his Gospel–“We saw His glory, the glory as it were of the Only-Begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth,”[2] consisted in His Power, His Wisdom, His Uprightness, His royal Majesty, the happiness of His Soul, and His Divine dignity which He enjoyed as the true and real Son of God. The words, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me,” show that His Passion threw a veil over all these gifts. His Passion threw a veil over His power, because when fastened to the Cross He appeared so powerless, that the Chief Priests, the soldiers and the thief mocked His weakness by saying–“If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the Cross; He saved others, Himself He cannot save.”[3] What patience, what humility was necessary for Him Who was Almighty, to answer never a word to such taunts! His Passion threw a veil over His Wisdom, because before the High Priest, before Herod, before Pilate, He stood as one devoid of understanding and answered their questions by silence, so that “Herod with his army set Him at naught, and mocked Him, putting on Him a white garment.”[4] What patience, what humility, was necessary for Him Who was not only wiser than Solomon, but was the very Wisdom of God Himself, to tolerate such outrages! His Passion threw a veil over the uprightness of His life, since He was nailed to a Cross between two thieves, as a seducer of the people, and a usurper of another’s kingdom. And Christ confessed that the being abandoned by His Father seemed to cast a greater gloom over the glory of His innocent live. “Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” For God is not wont to abandon upright, but wicked men. Every proud man indeed takes particular care to avoid saying anything which could lead his hearers to infer that he had been slighted. But humble and patient men, of whom Christ is the King, eagerly seize every occasion of practising their humility and patience, provided that in so doing there is no violation of truth. What patience, what humility was it necessary to possess, in order to endure such insults, especially for Him of Whom St. Paul says–“It was fitting that we should have such a High Priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.”[5] His Passion cast such a veil over His regal Majesty that He had a crown of thorns for a diadem, a reed for a sceptre, a gibbet for an audience chamber, two thieves for His royal attendants. What patience then, what humility was necessary for Him Who was the true King of kings, Lord of lords, and Prince of the kings of this world. What shall I say about the happiness of soul which Christ enjoyed from the very moment of His conception, and of which, had He wished, He could have made His Body partaker? What a veil did His Passion throw over the glory of this happiness, since it made Him as Isaias says–“Despised, and the most abject of men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity,”[6] so that in the greatness of His suffering He cried out, “My God, My God, Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” In fine, His Passion so obscured the mighty dignity of His Divine Person, that He Who is seated not only above all men, but above the -very Angels, could say–“But I am a Worm and no man, the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people.”[7]

Christ in His Passion, then, descended to the very abyss of humility, but this humility had its reward and its glory. What our Lord had so often promised that “he that shall humble himself shall be exalted,” the Apostle tells us was exemplified in His own Person. ” He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the Cross. For which cause also God hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a Name which is above all names; that in the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.”[8] So He Who appeared to be the least of men is declared to be the first, and a short and as it were momentary humiliation has been followed by a glory which shall be eternal. Thus has it been with the Apostles and all the Saints. St. Paul says of the Apostles–“We are made as the refuse of this world, the offscouring of all even until now;”[9] that is, he compares them to the vilest things that are trodden under foot. Such was their humility. What is their glory? St. John Chrysostom tells us that the Apostles now in heaven, are seated close to the very throne of God, where the Cherubim praise Him and the Seraphim obey Him. They are associated with the greatest princes of the celestial court. They shall be there for ever. If men would consider how glorious a thing it is to imitate in this life the humility of the Son of God, and would picture to themselves to what a height of glory this humility would lead them, we should find very few proud men. But since the majority of men measure everything by their senses and by human considerations, we must not be astonished if the number of the humble is small, and the number of the proud infinite.


ENDNOTES

1. St. Matt. xi. 29.
2. John i. 14.
3. St. Mark xxvii. 40-42.
4. St. Luke xxiii.
5. Heb. vii. 26.
7. Psalm xxi. 7.
8. Philip. ii. 8-10.

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CHAPTER VI: The fifth fruit to be drawn from the consideration of the fourth Word spoken by Christ upon the Cross.

The fifth word, which is found in St. John, consists of the one only word “I thirst.” But to understand it we must add the preceding and subsequent words of the same Evangelist. “Afterwards Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. Now there was a vessel set there full of vinegar. And they putting a sponge full of vinegar about hyssop, put it to His mouth.”[1] The meaning of which words is, that our Lord wished to fulfil everything, which His Prophets, inspired by the Holy Ghost, had foretold about His life and death; and now everything had been accomplished with the exception of having gall mixed with His drink, according to that of the sixty-eighth Psalm: “And they gave Me gall for My food, and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.”[2] Therefore was it that He cried out with a loud voice, “I thirst;” that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. But why in order that the Scriptures should be fulfilled? Why not rather because He was really thirsty and wished to quench His thirst? A prophet does not prophesy for the purpose of that being accomplished which he foretells, but he prophesies because he sees that that will be accomplished which he foretells, and therefore he foretells it. Consequently the foreseeing or foretelling anything is not the cause of its happening, but the event that is to happen is the cause why it can be foreseen and foretold. Here we have a great mystery laid open before us. Our Lord had suffered a most grievous thirst from the beginning of His Crucifixion, and this thirst kept on increasing, so that it became one of the greatest pains He endured on the Cross, for the shedding a great quantity of blood parches a person, and produces a violent thirst. I myself once knew a man who was suffering from a serious wound and consequent loss of blood, who asked for nothing else but drink, as though his wound were of no consideration, but his thirst terrible. The same is related of St. Emmerammus, the martyr, who was bound to a stake, and otherwise grievously tortured, yet complained only of thirst. But Christ had been dragged backwards and forwards through the city, during the Scourging at the pillar had most copiously shed that Blood which during His Crucifixion flowed from His Body, as from four fountains, and this loss of Blood had continued for hours. Must He not then have suffered a most violent thirst? Yet He endured this agony for three hours in silence, and could have endured it even to His death, which was so near at hand. Then why did He keep silent on this point for so long a time, and at the moment of death, disclose His suffering by crying out, “I thirst!” Because it was the will of God that we should all know His Divine Son had suffered this agony, and so our heavenly Father had wished it to be foretold by His Prophet, and He also wished our Lord Jesus Christ, for the sake of giving an example of patience to His faithful followers to acknowledge that He suffered this intense agony by exclaiming, “I thirst;” that is, all the pores of My Body are closed, My veins are parched up, My tongue is parched, My palate is parched, My throat is parched, all My members are parched; if any one longs to relieve Me, let him give Me to drink.

Let us consider now what drink was offered Him by those who stood by the Cross. “Now there was a vessel set there full of vinegar. And they putting a sponge full of vinegar about hyssop put it to His mouth.” Oh, what consolation! What a relief! There was a vessel full of vinegar, a beverage which tends to make wounds smart and hasten death, and for this reason was it kept in order to make those who were crucified die the quicker. In treating of this point, St. Cyril says with truth, “Instead of a refreshing and cooling draught, they offered Him one that was hurtful and bitter.” And if we consider what St. Luke writes in his Gospel, this becomes all the more probable: “And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming to Him and offering Him vinegar.”[3] Although St. Luke speaks of this as happening to our Lord as soon as He was nailed to the Cross, still we may piously believe that when the soldiers heard Him exclaiming, “I thirst,” they offered Him vinegar by means of that same sponge and reed which in their derision they had previously offered Him. We must conclude then that as at first a little before His Crucifixion they presented Him with wine mixed with gall, so at the point of death they gave Him vinegar, a drink most distasteful to a man in His agony, so that the Passion of Christ was from first to last a real and genuine Passion which admitted no consolation.


ENDNOTES

1. St. John xxi. 28, 29.
2. Psalm lxviii. 22.
3. St. Luke xxiv. 36.

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CHAPTER VIII: The first fruit to be derived from the consideration of the fifth Word spoken by Christ upon the Cross.

The Scriptures of the Old Testament are often to be interpreted by the Scriptures of the New Testament, but as regards this mystery of our Lord’s thirst the words of the sixty-eighth Psalm may be regarded as a commentary of the Gospel. For we cannot absolutely decide from the words of the Gospel whether those who offered our thirsting Lord vinegar did so for the purpose of affording relief, or for the sake of aggravating His pain, that is whether they did so from a motive of love or hatred. With St. Cyril we are inclined to believe that they did so in the latter sense, because the words of the Psalmist are too clear to require any explanation; and from these words we may draw this lesson, to learn to thirst with Christ after those things, for which we may thirst with profit. This is what the Psalmist says: “And I looked for one that would grieve together with Me, but there was none: and for one that would comfort Me, and I found none. And they gave Me gall for My food, and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink.”[1] And so those, who a little before His Crucifixion gave our Lord wine mixed with gall as well as those who offered our crucified Lord vinegar only, represent those of whom He complains when He says: “I looked for one that would grieve together with Me, but there was none; and for one that would comfort Me, and I found none.”

But perhaps some one may ask: Did not His Blessed Virgin Mother, and His Mother’s sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene, and the Apostle St. John who stood near the Cross truly and heartily grieve together with Him? Did not those holy women who followed our Lord to Mount Calvary, bewailing His lot, truly grieve together with Him? Were not the Apostles, during the whole time of His Passion, in a state of sorrow, according to that prediction of Christ–“Amen, amen, I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice?”[2] All these grieved and truly grieved, but they did not grieve together with Christ, because the cause and reason of their sorrow was quite different from the cause and reason of Christ’s sorrow. Our Lord says; “I looked for one that would grieve together with me, and there was none, and for one that would comfort me, and I found none.” They grieved for Christ’s corporal suffering and death; but He did not grieve for this except for a short time in the garden to prove that He really was Man. Did He not say: “With desire I have desired to eat this Pasch with you before I suffer,”[3] and again: “If you loved Me, you would indeed be glad, because I go to the Father?”[4] What then was the cause of that sorrow of our Lord in which He found none to grieve together with Him? It was the loss of souls for whom He was suffering. And what was the source of that comfort which He could find none to offer Him, but cooperating with Him for the salvation of souls after which He so ardently longed? This was the one comfort He sought after, this He desired, this He hungered for, this He thirsted for; but they gave Him gall for His food, and vinegar for His drink. Sin is signified by the bitterness of the gall, than which nothing can be more bitter to one who has the sense of taste; and obstinacy in sin is shown by the sharpness and pungency of the vinegar. Christ, then, had a real cause for sorrow when He saw for the thief who was converted, not only another remain in his obstinacy but countless others besides; when He saw that all His Apostles were scandalized at His Passion, that Peter had denied Him, that Judas had betrayed Him.

If then any one desires to comfort and console Christ hungering and thirsting on the Cross, and full of sorrow and grief, let him in the first place show himself truly penitent; let him detest his own sins, and then along with Christ let him conceive a great sorrow in his heart, because so great a number of souls daily perish, though all could so easily be saved would they but use the grace He has purchased for them in redeeming them. St. Paul was one of those who grieved together with Christ, when in His Epistle to the Romans he says; “I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great sadness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I wished myself to be an anathema from Christ, for my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongeth the adoption as of children,” &c.[5] The Apostle could not more closely show his longing desire for the salvation of souls than by this climax; “For I wished myself to be an anathema from Christ.” He means, according to what St. John Chrysostom says in his work on Compunction of Heart, that he was so exceedingly afflicted at the damnation of the Jews as to wish, if it were possible, to be separated from Christ, for the sake of the glory of Christ.[6] He did not desire to be separated from the love of Christ, as that would be contradictory to what he elsewhere states in the same epistle; “Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ?”[7] but from the glory of Christ, preferring to be deprived of a participation in the glory of his Saviour rather than that his Lord should be deprived of the additional fruit of His Passion, which would accrue from the conversion of so many thousands of Jews. He truly grieved together with Christ and solaced the grief of his Divine Master. But how few imitators has the great Apostle now-adays? In the first place, many pastors of souls are more afflicted if the revenues of the Church are diminished or lost than if a great number of souls perished through their absence or neglect. “We bear,” says St. Bernard, speaking of some, “we bear the detriment which Christ suffers with more equanimity than we should bear our own loss. We balance our daily expenses by a daily entrance of our gains, and we know nothing of the daily loss which happens to the flock of Christ.”[8] It is not enough for a bishop to lead a holy life, and endeavour in his private conduct to imitate the virtues of Christ, unless he endeavours to make his subjects, or rather his children, holy, and tries to lead them, by making them follow in the footsteps of Christ, to eternal joy. Let those, then, who desire to suffer with Christ, to mourn with Him and to compassionate Him in His sorrows, ever watch over His flock, never forsake His lambs, but direct them by their words, and lead them by their example.

Of the laity too might Christ reasonably complain, for neither sorrowing with Him, nor affording Him any relief in His sorrow. And if when hanging on the Cross He complained of the perfidy and obstinacy of the Jews, on whom His labours were lost, by whom His sorrows were ridiculed, and, as on so many madmen, the precious medicine of His Blood was wasted, how might He complain now at beholding, not from the Cross, but from heaven itself, those who believe in Him, profit nothing by His Passion, tread His precious Blood under foot, and offer Him gall and vinegar by daily increasing their sins, without a thought of the Divine judgment or a fear of the fire of hell! “There shall be joy before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance.”[9] But is not this joy turned into sorrow, milk into gall, and wine into vinegar, when he who by faith and baptism has been born as it were in Christ, and who by the Sacrament of Penance has been resuscitated from death to life, within a short while after again kills his soul by a relapse into mortal sin?” A woman when she is in labour hath sorrow, but when she hath brought forth the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.”[10] But is not the mother afflicted with a two-fold grief if the child dies immediately after birth, or is still- born? So many work for their salvation by confessing their sins, perhaps even by fasting and alms-deeds, but their labour is in vain and they never obtain pardon for their sins, because they have a false conscience or are guilty of a culpable ignorance. Do not these labour, and labour uselessly, and afflict both themselves and their confessors with a double grief? Such people are like a sick man who accelerates his death by the use of a bitter medicine which he hoped would cure him; or like a gardener who bestows great pains on his vinery and grounds, and loses the whole fruit of his care by a sudden storm. These then are the evils we ought to deplore, and whosoever mourns and is afflicted thereat really grieves with Christ on the Cross, and whosoever labours according to his strength in lessening them, alleviates the sorrows and grief of his crucified Lord, and shall participate with Him in the joys of heaven, and shall reign for ever with Him in the kingdom of His heavenly Father.


ENDNOTES

1. Psalm lxviii. 21, 22.
2. St. John xvi. 20.
3. St. Luke xxii. 15.
4. St. John xiv. 28.
5. Romans ix. 1, 2, 3.
6. Lib. i. hom. 18.
7. Rom. viii. 35.
8. “De Consider.” lib. iv. cap. 9.
9. St. Luke xv. 10.
10. St. John xvi. 21.

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CHAPTER IX: The second fruit to be derived from the consideration of the fifth Word spoken by Christ upon the Cross.

When I attentively meditate on the thirst which Christ endured on the Cross, another and very useful consideration occurs to me. Our Lord seems to me to have said, “I thirst,” in the same sense as that in which He addressed the Samaritan woman, “Give Me to drink.” For when He unfolded the mystery contained in these words, He added, “If thou didst know the gift of God, and Who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink, thou perhaps wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.”[1] Now, how could He thirst Who is the fount of living water? Does He not refer to Himself in saying, “If any man thirst, let Him come to Me and drink?”[2] And is He not that rock of which the Apostle speaks: “And they drank of the spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ?”[3] In fine, is it not He Who addresses the Jews by the mouth of Jeremias the Prophet: “They have forsaken Me the fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water?”[4] It seems to me, then, that our Lord from the Cross, as from a high throne, casts a look over the whole world, which is full of men who are athirst and fainting from exhaustion, and by reason of His parching state He pities the drought which mankind endures, and cries aloud, “I thirst,” that is, I am thirsty on account of the dried and arid state of My Body, but this thirst will quickly end. The thirst, however, that I suffer from My desire that men should begin by faith to know that I am the true fount of living water, should come to Me and drink, that they may not thirst for ever, is incomparably greater.

Oh, how happy should we be if we would but listen with attention to this address of the Word Incarnate! Does not almost every man thirst, with the burning and insatiable thirst of concupiscence, after the fleeting and turbid waters of transitory and perishable things, which are called goods, such as money, honour, pleasures? And who is there that has listened to the words of his Master, Christ, and has tasted the living water of heavenly wisdom, that has not felt a loathing for earthly things, and begun to aspire after those of heaven, who has not laid aside the desire of acquiring and accumulating the things of this world and begun to aspire and long after those of heaven? This living water does not spring out of the earth, but comes down from heaven, and our Lord, Who is the fount of living water, will give it to us if we ask Him for it with fervent prayers and copious tears. Not only will it take away all eager longing for the things of earth, but will become an unfailing source of food and drink for us in this our exile. In this strain does Isaias speak: “All you that thirst, come to the waters,”[5] and that we may not think this water is precious or dear, he adds: “Make haste, buy and eat; come ye, buy wine and milk without any price.” It is called a water that must be bought, because it cannot be acquired without some effort, and without being in the proper dispositions for receiving it, but it is bought without silver or any bartering, because it is freely given, as it is invaluable. What the Prophet in one line calls water, he calls in the next wine and milk, because it is so efficacious as to embrace the qualities of water, wine, and milk.

True wisdom and charity is called water, because it cools the heat of concupiscence; it is called wine because it warms and inebriates the mind with a sober ardour; it is called milk because it nourishes the young in Christ with a strengthening food, as St. Peter says: “As new-born babes desire the rational milk.”[6] This same true wisdom and charity–the very opposite to the concupiscence of the flesh–is that yoke which is sweet, that burden which is light, which those who take up willingly and humbly find to be a true and real rest to their souls, so that they no longer thirst, nor do they labour to draw water from earthly sources. This most enjoyable rest for the soul has filled deserts, peopled monasteries, reformed the clergy, restrained the married. The palace of Theodosius the Younger was not unlike a monastery; the house of Count Elzearius differed but little from a house of poor religious. Instead of oaths and quarrels, the Psalms and the sound of sacred music were heard there. All these blessings we owe to Christ, Who satiated our thirst at the price of His own suffering, and so watered the arid hearts of men that they will never more thirst, unless at the instigation of their enemy they wilfully withdraw themselves from that everlasting spring.


ENDNOTES

1. St. John iv. 7-I0.
2. St. John vii. 37.
3. 1 Cor. x. 4.
4. Jeremias ii. 13.
5. Isaias lv. 1.
6. 1 St. Peter ii. 2.

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CHAPTER X: The third fruit to be drawn from the consideration of the fifth Word spoken by Christ upon the Cross.

The imitation of the patience of Christ is the third fruit to be gathered from the consideration of the fifth word. In the fourth word the humility of Christ, coupled with His patience, was conspicuous. In the fifth word His patience alone shines forth. Now, patience is not only one of the greatest virtues, but is positively the most necessary for us. St. Cyprian says, “Amongst all the paths of heavenly training, I know of none more profitable for this life or advantageous for the next, than that those who strive in fear and devotion to obey the commandments of God, should above all things practise the virtue of patience.” But before we speak of the necessity of patience we must distinguish the virtue from its counterfeit. True patience enables us to bear the misfortune of suffering without incurring the misfortune of sin. Such was the patience of the martyrs, who preferred to endure the tortures of the executioner rather than deny the faith of Christ, who preferred to suffer the loss of their earthly goods rather than worship false gods. The counterfeit of this virtue urges us to undergo every hardship to obey the law of concupiscence, to risk the loss of eternal happiness for the sake of a momentary pleasure. Such is the patience of the slaves of the devil, who put up with hunger and thirst, cold and heat, loss of reputation, even of heaven itself, in order to increase their riches, to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh, or to gain a post of honour.

True patience has the property of increasing and preserving all other virtues. St. James is our authority for this eulogium of patience. He says, “And patience hath a perfect work: that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing.”[1] On account of the difficulties we meet with in the practice of virtue, none can flourish without patience, but when other virtues are accompanied by this one, all difficulties vanish, for patience renders crooked paths straight, and rough paths smooth. And this is so true that St. Cyprian, speaking of charity, the queen of virtues, cries out, “Charity, the bond of fraternity, the foundation of peace, the power and strength of union, is greater than faith or hope. It is the virtue from which martyrs derived their constancy, and it is the one we shall practise for ever in the kingdom of heaven. But separate it from patience, and it will droop; take away from it the power of suffering and enduring, and it will wither and die.”[2] The same Saint shows the necessity of this virtue also for preserving our chastity, uprightness, and peace with our neighbour. “If the virtue of patience is strongly and firmly rooted in your hearts, your body, which is holy and the temple of the living God, will not be polluted with adultery, your uprightness will not be sullied with the stain of injustice, nor after having fed on the Body of Christ will your hand be imbrued with blood.” He means to signify by the contraries to these words, that without patience neither a chaste man will be able to preserve his purity, nor a just man be equitable, nor one who has received the Holy Eucharist be free from the danger of anger and homicide.

What St. James writes of the virtue of patience is taught in other words by the Prophet David, by our Lord, and His Apostle. In the ninth Psalm, David says, “The patience of the poor shall not perish for ever,”[3] because it has a perfect work, and consequently its fruit will never decay. Just as we are wont to say that the labours of the husbandman are profitable when they produce a good crop, and are useless when they bring forth nothing, so patience is said never to perish because its effects and rewards will remain for ever. In the text we have just quoted, the word poor is interpreted as meaning the humble man who confesses that he is poor, and can neither do nor suffer anything without the help of God. In his treatise on patience,[4] St. Austin shows that not only the poor, but even the rich, may possess true patience, provided they trust not in themselves but in God, from Whom, as really in want of all Divine gifts, they may ask and receive this favour. Our Lord seems to imply the same when He says in the Gospel, ” In your patience you shall possess your souls.”[5] For they only really possess their souls, that is, their life as their own, and of which nothing can deprive them, who endure with patience every affliction, even death itself, in order not to sin against God. And although by death they appear to lose their souls, still they do not lose them, but preserve them for ever. For the death of the just is not death, but a sleep, and may even be regarded as a sleep of short duration. But the impatient, who in order to preserve the life of the body, do not hesitate to sin by denying Christ, by worshipping idols, by yielding to their lustful desires, or by committing some other crime, appear indeed to preserve their life for a time, but in reality lose the life both of body and soul for ever. And as of the really patient it may with truth be said, “A hair of your head shall not perish,”[6] so of the impatient might we with equal truth exclaim: There is not a single member of your body that shall not be burnt in the fire of hell.

Lastly, the Apostle confirms our opinion: “For patience is necessary for you, that doing the will of God you may receive the promise.”[7] In this text St. Paul explicitly asserts patience to be not only useful, but even necessary in order to accomplish the will of God, and by accomplishing it to feel in ourselves the effect of His promise: “To receive the crown of glory which God hath promised to them that love Him,”[8] and keep His commandments, for “If any one love Me he will keep My word,” and “He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words.”[9] So we see that the whole of Scripture teaches the faithful the necessity of the virtue of patience. For this reason Christ wished in the last moments of His life to declare that inward, and most bitter, and long endured suffering of His–His thirst–to encourage us by such an example to preserve our patience in every misfortune. That the thirst of Christ was a most vehement torture we have shown in the preceding chapter, that it was a long endured suffering we can easily prove.

To begin with the Scourging at the pillar. When that took place Christ was already fatigued by His prolonged prayer and Agony and Sweat of blood in the Garden, by His many journeys to and fro during the night and the succeeding morning, from the Garden to the house of Annas, from the house of Annas to that of Caiphas, from the house of Caiphas to that of Pilate, from the house of Pilate to that of Herod, and from the house of Herod back again to Pilate. Moreover, from the time of the Last Supper our Lord had not tasted food or drink, or enjoyed a moment’s repose, but had endured many and grievous insults in the house of Caiphas, was then cruelly scourged, which of itself was sufficient to produce a terrible thirst, and when the scourging was over His thirst, far from being satiated, was increased, for there followed the crowning with thorns and the mocking Him in derision. And when He had been crowned, His thirst, far from being satiated, was increased, for there followed the carrying of the Cross; and loaded with the instrument of His death, our wearied and exhausted Lord struggled up the hill of Calvary. When He arrived there they offered Him wine mixed with gall, which He tasted but would not drink. And so this journey was over at last, but the thirst that throughout the whole way had tortured our dear Lord, was undoubtedly increased. Then followed the Crucifixion, and as the Blood flowed from His four Wounds as from four fountains, every one may conceive how enormous His thirst must have been. Finally, for three successive hours, in the midst of a fearful darkness, we must again try to imagine with what a burning thirst that sacred Body was consumed. And although those that stood by offered vinegar to His mouth, still, as it was not wine or water, but a sharp and bitter draught, and that a very small draught, as He had to suck it up in drops from a sponge, we may without hesitation assert that our Redeemer from the very commencement of His Passion even to His death, endured with the most heroic patience this awful agony. Few of us can know by experience how great this suffering is, as we can find water anywhere to slake our thirst, but those who journey many days together in a desert sometimes learn what the torture of thirst is like.

Curtius relates that Alexander the Great was once marching through a desert with his army, and that after suffering all the deprivations of the want of water, they came up to a river, and the soldiers began to drink its waters with such eagerness, that many died in the very act, and he adds that “he number of those who perished on that occasion was greater than he had lost in any battle.” Their burning thirst was so insupportable that the soldiers could not restrain themselves so far as to take breath whilst they were drinking, and consequently Alexander lost a great part of his army. There have been others who have suffered so much from thirst as to think muddy water, oil, blood, and other impure things, which no one would touch unless reduced by dire necessity, delicious. From this we may learn how great was the Passion of Christ, and how brilliantly His patience was displayed throughout. God grant that we may know this, imitate it, and by suffering together with Christ here, come to reign with Him hereafter.

But I fancy that I hear some pious souls exclaim that they are eager and anxious to know by what means they can best imitate the patience of Christ, and be able to say with the Apostle, “With Christ I am nailed to the Cross,”[10] and with St. Ignatius the Martyr, “My Love is crucified.”[11] It is not so difficult as many imagine. It is not necessary for all to lie on the ground, to scourge themselves to blood, to fast daily on bread and water, to wear a coarse hair-cloth, an iron chain, or other instruments of penance for conquering the flesh, and crucifying it with its vices and concupiscences. These practices are praiseworthy and useful, provided they are not injurious to one’s health, or performed without the sanction of one’s director. But I desire to show my pious readers a means of practising the virtue of patience, and of imitating our meek and gentle Redeemer, which all may embrace, which contains nothing extraordinary, nothing new, and from the use of which no one can be suspected of seeking to gain applause for his sanctity.

In the first place, then, he who loves the virtue of patience ought cheerfully to submit to those labours and sorrows with which we are assured by faith it is the Divine will we should be afflicted, according to those words of the Apostle: “For patience is necessary for you: that doing the will of God, you may receive the promise.”[12] Now, what God wishes us to embrace is neither difficult for me to show or for my readers to learn. All the commandments of our holy mother the Church must be kept with loving obedience and patience, no matter how hard or difficult they may appear. What are these commandments of the Church? The fasts of Lent, of the Ember days, and of certain vigils. To keep these religiously as they ought to be kept, will require a great amount of patience. Now, suppose a person on a fast-day sits down to a well spread dinner-table, or in the single meal that he is allowed eats as much as he would at any two meals on an ordinary day, or anticipates the time for his collation, or eats more than he is allowed, such a person will certainly neither hunger nor thirst, nor will his patience produce fruit. But if he firmly resolves not to take food before the appointed time, unless sickness or some other necessity obliges him, and to take food that is coarse and common and suitable to a time of penance, and does not exceed what he usually takes at a single meal, but gives to the poor all that he would eat if it were not a fast day, as St. Leo advises: “Let the poor be fed by what those that fast abstain from; “and elsewhere,” Let us feel hunger for a little time, dearly beloved, and for a short while let us diminish what we want for our own comfort, in order to be of service to the poor;” and if at eventide he allows the collation to be nothing more than a collation; in such a case undoubtedly patience will be necessary to bear our hunger and thirst, and thus by fasting we shall imitate as far as we are able the patience of Christ, and shall be nailed in part at least to the Cross with Him. But some one may object, all these things are not absolutely necessary. I grant it; but they are necessary if we desire to practise the virtue of patience, or become like our suffering Redeemer. Again, our holy Mother the Church orders ecclesiastics and religious to recite or sing the canonical hours. Now, we shall require all the assistance which the virtue of patience can give us, if this sacred reading and prayer is to be performed in the manner in which it ought to be, as there are few who have not enough to do to keep themselves free from distractions during prayer. Many hurry through their prayers as quickly as possible, as though they were undertaking a very laborious duty, and wished to free themselves from the burden in the shortest possible time, and then they say their Office, not standing up or kneeling down, but sitting or walking about, just as if the fatigue of prayer would be lessened by sitting or lightened by walking. I am speaking of those who say their Office in private, not of those who sing it in choir. Again, in order not to break into their sleep, many recite during the day that part of the Office which the Church has ordered to be said during the night. I say nothing of the attention and the elevation of mind that is required whilst God is invoked in prayer, because many think of what they sing or read less than of anything else. Indeed it is surprising that many more do not see how necessary the virtue of patience is to take away the repugnance we feel to spend a long time in prayer, to rise so as to say the canonical hours at the proper time, to bear the fatigue of standing or of kneeling, to prevent our thoughts from wandering, and to keep them fixed on the one thing we are engaged in. Let my readers listen to an account of the devotion with which St. Francis of Assisi recited his Breviary, and they will then learn that the Divine Office cannot be said without the exercise of the greatest patience. In his Life of St. Francis, St. Bonaventure speaks thus: “This holy man was wont to recite the Divine Office with no less fear than devotion towards God, and although he suffered great pains in his eyes, stomach, spleen, and liver, he would neither lean against any wall or partition whilst he sang, but standing erect, without his hood, he kept his eyes fixed, and had the appearance of a person in a swoon. If he was on a journey he would keep to his regular time, and recite the Divine Office in the usual manner, no matter if a violent rain was falling. He thought himself guilty of a serious fault, if during its recital he allowed his mind to be occupied with vain thoughts, and as often as this happened he hastened to confession to make atonement for it. He recited the Psalms with such attention of mind as if he had God present before him, and whenever the Name of the Lord occurred he would smack his lips from the sweetness which the pronunciation of that Name had left behind it.” As soon as any one endeavours to recite the Divine Office in this manner, and to rise at night to recite his Matins, Lauds, and Prime, he will learn by experience that labour and patience are necessary for the due performance of this duty. There are many other things which the Church, guided by the Holy Scriptures, lays down for us as the will of God, and for the due fulfilment of these also we require the virtue of patience; such as to give to the poor from our superfluity, to pardon those that injure us, to make satisfaction to those whom we have injured, to confess our sins at least once a year, and to receive the blessed Eucharist, which requires no small preparation. All this demands patience, but by way of example I will explain a few more things at greater length.

Everything which either devils or men do to afflict us is another indication of the Divine will, and another call for the exercise of our patience. When bad men and evil spirits try us, their object is to injure not to benefit us. Still God, without Whom they can do nothing, would not allow any storm to break upon us, unless He judged it to be useful. Consequently every affliction may be regarded as coming from the hand of God, and should therefore be borne with patience and cheerfulness. Holy and upright Job knew that the misfortunes with which he was stricken, and which deprived him in one day of all his riches, of all his sons, and then of his bodily health, proceeded from the hatred of the devil, yet he exclaimed: “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the Name of the Lord,”[13] because he knew that his calamities could only happen by the will of God. I do not say this because I think that when any one is persecuted either by his fellow creatures or by the devil, he should not, or ought not to do his best to recover his losses, to consult a physician if unwell, or to defend himself and his property, but I merely give this advice, not to bear any revenge against evil men, not to return evil for evil, but to bear misfortune with patience because our God wishes us to do so, and by fulfilling His will we shall receive the promise.

The last thing I wish to observe is this. We must all strive to be intimately convinced that everything which happens by chance or accident, as a great drought, too much rain, pestilence, famine, and the like, does not happen without the special Providence and will of God, and consequently we should not complain of the elements, or of God Himself, but should- regard evils of this kind as a scourge with which God punishes us for our sins, and bowing ourselves beneath His Almighty hand, bear everything in humility and patience. God will thus be appeased. He will scatter His benedictions upon us. He will chastise us as His sons with a fatherly love, and will not deprive us of the kingdom of heaven. We may learn what is the reward of patience from an example which St. Gregory adduces. In the thirty-fifth homily on the Gospels, he says that a certain man Stephen was so patient as to consider those that oppressed him his greatest friends; he returned thanks for insults; he looked upon misfortunes as gains; he counted his enemies in the number of his well-wishers and benefactors. The world considered him as a fool and madman, but he turned no deaf ear to the words of the Apostle of Christ; “If any man among you seem to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise.”[14] And St. Gregory adds that when he was dying many angels were seen assisting round his couch, who carried his soul straight to heaven, and the holy Doctor did not hesitate to rank Stephen amongst the martyrs on account of his extraordinary patience.


ENDNOTES

1. St. James i. 4.
2. Serm. “De Patientia.”
3. Psalm ix. 19.
4. Cap. xv.
5. St. Luke xxi. 19.
6. St. Luke xxi. 18.
7. Heb. x. 36.
8. St. James i. 12.
9. St. John xiv. 23, 24.
10. Gal. ii. 19.
11. “Epist. ad Rom.”
12. Heb. x. 36.
13. Job i. 21.
14. 1 Cor. iii. 18.

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CHAPTER XI: The fourth fruit to be drawn from the consideration of the fifth Word spoken by Christ upon the Cross.

There remains one fruit more, and that the sweetest of all, to be gathered from the consideration of this word. St. Austin, in his explanation of the word “I thirst,” which is to be found in his treatise on the sixty-eighth Psalm, says that it shows not only the desire which Christ had for drink, but still more the desire with which He was inflamed that His enemies should believe in Him and be saved. We may advance a step further than St. Austin, and say that Christ thirsted for the glory of God and the salvation of men, and we ought to thirst for the glory of God, for the honour of Christ, for our own salvation, and the salvation of our brethren. We cannot doubt that Christ thirsted for the glory of His Father, and the salvation of souls, for all His works, all His preaching, all His sufferings, all His miracles proclaimed it. We must consider what we have to do not to show ourselves ungrateful to such a Benefactor, and what means we must take to become so inflamed as really to thirst for the glory of that God Who “so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son;[1] and fervently and ardently thirst for the honour of Christ, Who “loved us, and delivered Himself for us an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness,”[2] and so feelingly compassionate our brethren as zealously to desire their salvation. Still the most necessary thing for ourselves is so cordially and earnestly to long for our own salvation, that this desire should compel us, according to our strength, to think and speak and do everything that can help us to save our souls. If we care nothing for the honour of God, or the glory of Christ, and feel no anxiety for our own salvation or that of others, it follows that God will be deprived of the honour which is His due, that Christ will lose the glory which is His own, that our neighbour will not reach Heaven, and that we ourselves shall perish miserably for eternity. And on this account I am often filled with astonishment when I reflect that we all know how sincerely Christ thirsted for our salvation, and we, who believe Christ to be the Wisdom of the living God, are not moved to imitate His example in a matter so intimately connected with ourselves. Nor am I less astonished to see men hunt after worldly goods with such avidity, as though there were no Heaven, and so little trouble themselves about their salvation, that, far from thirsting for it, they scarcely give it a passing thought, as though it were a trivial matter of light importance. Moreover temporal goods, which are not unmixed pleasures, but are accompanied with many misfortunes, are sought after with earnestness and anxiety; but eternal happiness, which is an unalloyed pleasure, is cared for so little, longed for so unconcernedly, as though it possessed no advantage whatever. Enlighten, O Lord, the eyes of my soul, that I may find the cause of such a hurtful indifference!

Love produces desire, and desire, when it is excessive, is called a thirst. Now who is there that cannot love his own eternal happiness, particularly when that happiness is free from everything that can mar it? And if so great a prize cannot but be loved, why cannot it be ardently desired, eagerly sought after, and with all our strength thirsted for ? Perhaps the reason is that our salvation is not a matter that falls under the senses, we have never had any experience of what it is like, as we have had in matters that regard the body, and so we are solicitous for the latter, and coldly indifferent to the former. But if such is the case, why did David, who was a mortal man like ourselves, so eagerly long for the vision of God, and the happiness of heaven consists in the vision of God, as to cry out: “As the hart panteth after the fountains of water, so my soul panteth after Thee, O God. My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?”[3] David is not the only one in this vale of tears who has desired with such a burning desire the sight of the vision of God. There have been several others also, who were distinguished by their holiness, by whom the things of this world were regarded as mean and insipid, and to whom the thought and the remembrance of God were alone agreeable and most charming. The reason then why we do not thirst for our eternal happiness is not because heaven is invisible, but because we do not think of what is before us with attention, with assiduity, with faith. And the reason why we do not regard heavenly things as we ought is that we are not spiritual, but sensual men; “The sensual man perceiveth not those things that are of the Spirit of God.”[4] Wherefore, my soul, if you desire for your own salvation, and that of your neighbour, if you have at heart the honour of God and the glory of Christ, listen to the words of the blessed Apostle St. James: “If any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God, Who giveth to all men abundantly, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.”[5] This sublime wisdom is not to be acquired in the schools of this World, but in the school of the Holy Spirit of God, Who changes the sensual man into the spiritual one. But it is not enough to ask for this wisdom once only and with coldness, but to demand it with much groaning from our heavenly Father. For if a father according to the flesh cannot refuse his son when he asks for bread, “how much more will your Father from heaven give the Good Spirit to them that ask Him.”[6]


ENDNOTES

1. St. John iii. 16.
2. Ephes. v. 2.
3. Psalm xli. 2, 3.
4. 1 Cor. ii. 14.
5. St. James i. 5.
6. St. Luke xi. 13.

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CHAPTER XII: The literal explanation of the sixth Word, “It is consummated.

The sixth word spoken by our Lord on the Cross is mentioned by St. John as being in a manner joined with the fifth word. For as soon as our Lord had said, “I thirst,” and had tasted the vinegar which was offered Him, St. John adds: “Jesus therefore when He had tasted the vinegar, said: It is consummated.”[1] And indeed nothing can be added to the simple words, “It is consummated,” except that the work of the Passion was now perfected and completed. God the Father had imposed two duties on His Son: the first to preach the Gospel; the other to suffer for mankind. Of the first Christ had already said, “I have glorified Thee on earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.”[2] Our Lord spoke these words after He had concluded the long and farewell address to His disciples at the Last Supper. Then He had accomplished the first work which His Heavenly Father had imposed upon Him. The second task, of drinking the bitter cup of His chalice, remained. He had alluded to this when He asked the two sons of Zebedee, “can you drink the chalice that I shall drink?”[3] and again, “Father, if Thou wilt, remove this chalice from Me;”[4] and elsewhere, “The chalice which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?”[5] Of this task, Christ at the point of death could now exclaim, “It is consummated, for I have drained the chalice of suffering to the dregs: nothing now remains for Me but to die.” And bowing His head He gave up the ghost!”[6]

But as neither our Lord nor St. John, who were both concise in what they said, have explained what was consummated, we have the opportunity of applying the word with great reason and advantage to several mysteries. St. Augustine, in his commentary on this passage, refers the word to the fulfilment of all the prophecies that had reference to our Lord. “Afterwards Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst,” and, “when He had taken the vinegar, said, It is consummated,”[7] which means that what remained to be accomplished has been accomplished, and so we may conclude that our Lord wished to show that everything which had been foretold by the prophets concerning His Life and Death had been brought to pass and fulfilled. Indeed, all the predictions had been verified. His Conception: “Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son.”[8] His Nativity at Bethlehem: “And thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, art a little one among the thousands of Juda; out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be the ruler in Israel.”[9] The apparition of a new star: “A star shall rise out of Jacob.”[10] The adoration of the Kings: “The Kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer presents, the Kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts.”[11] The preaching of the Gospel; “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because the Lord hath anointed Me; He hath sent Me to preach to the meek, to heal the contrite of heart, and to preach a release to the captives, and deliverance to them that are shut up.”[12] His miracles: “God Himself will come and will save you. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be free.”[13] His sitting upon the ass; “Behold thy King will come to thee, the Just and Saviour: He is poor and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.”[14] And the whole Passion had been graphically foretold by David in the Psalms, by Isaias, Jeremias, Zacharias, and others. This is the meaning of what our Lord said when He was about to set out for His Passion: “Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and all things shall be accomplished which were written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man.”[15] Of those things therefore which had to be accomplished, He now says, “It is consummated;” everything is finished, so that what the prophets foretold is now found to be true.

In the second place, St. John Chrysostom says that the word, “It is consummated,” shows that the power which had been given to men and devils over the person of Christ has been taken away from them by the Death of Christ. When our Lord said to the Chief Priests and masters of the Temple, “This is your hour and the power of darkness,[16] He alluded to this power. The whole period of time, then during which, by the permission of God, the wicked had power over Christ, was brought to a close when He exclaimed, “It is consummated,” for then the peregrination of the Son of God amongst men, which Baruch had foretold, came to an end: “This is our God, and there shall no other be accounted of in comparison of Him. He found out all the way of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob His servant, and to Israel His beloved. Afterwards He was seen upon earth, and conversed with men.”[17] And together with His pilgrimage that condition of His mortal life was ended, according to which He hungered and thirsted, He slept and was fatigued, was subject to affronts and scourgings, to wounds and to death. And so when Christ on the Cross exclaimed, “It is consummated, and bowing His head He gave up the ghost,” He ended the journey of which He had said, “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world, again I leave the world and I go to the Father.”[18] That laborious pilgrimage was ended of which Jeremias had said, “O expectation of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble: why wilt Thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man turning in to lodge.”[19] The subjection of His Human Nature to death was ended, the power of His enemies over Himself was ended.

In the third place was ended the greatest of all sacrifices, in comparison to which real and true Sacrifice all the sacrifices of the Old Law were regarded as mere shadows and figures. St. Leo says, “Thou hast drawn all things to Thyself, O Lord, for when the veil of the Temple was rent, the Holy of Holies departed from unworthy priests: figures became truths: prophecies became manifest: the Law became the Gospel.” And a little later, “By the cessation of a variety of sacrifices in which victims were offered, the one oblation of thy Body and Blood makes up for the differences of the victims.”[20] For in this one Sacrifice of Christ, the priest is the God-Man, the altar is the Cross, the victim is the Lamb of God, the fire for the holocaust is charity, the fruit of the sacrifice is the redemption of the world. The priest, I say, was the God-Man, than Whom no one is greater: “Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech;”[21] and rightly according to the order of Melchisedech, because we read in Scripture that Melchisedech was without father or mother or genealogy, and Christ was without a father on earth, without a mother in Heaven, and without genealogy, for “who shall declare His generation?[22] “from the womb before the day-star I begot Thee;”[23] “and His going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity.”[24] The altar was the Cross. And as previous to the time when Christ suffered upon it, it was the sign of the greatest ignominy, so now has it become dignified and ennobled, and on the Last Day shall appear in the heaven more brilliant than the sun. The Church applies to the Cross the words of the Evangelist: “Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven,”[25] for she sings: “This sign of the Cross shall appear in Heaven when the Lord shall come to judge.” St. John Chrysostom confirms this opinion, and observes that when “the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,”[26] the Cross shall be seen more brilliant than the sun in its mid-day splendour. The victim was the Lamb of God, all innocent and immaculate, of whom Isaias said, “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,”[27] and of Whom His Precursor exclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him Who taketh away the sin of the world,”[28] and St. Peter: “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold or silver, but with the precious Blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled.”[29] He is called also in the Apocalypse, “The Lamb which was slain from the beginning of the world,”[30] because the merit of His Sacrifice was foreseen by God, and was of advantage to those who lived before the coming of Christ. The fire which consumes the holocaust, and completes the Sacrifice, is the immense love which, as in a heated furnace, burnt in the Heart of the Son of God, and which the many waters of His Passion could not extinguish. Lastly, the fruit of the Sacrifice was the atonement for the sins of all the children of Adam, or in other words, the reconciliation of the whole world with God. St. John in his first Epistle says, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world,”[31] and this is only another way of expressing the idea of St. John Baptist: “Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him Who taketh away the sin of the world.”[32] One difficulty here arises. How could Christ be at one and the same time priest and victim, since it is the duty of the priest to slay the victim? Now, Christ did not slay Himself, nor could He do so, for if He had He would have committed a sacrilege and not have offered a sacrifice. It is true Christ did not slay Himself, still He offered a real sacrifice, because He willingly and cheerfully offered Himself to death for the glory of God and the salvation of men. For neither could the soldiers have apprehended Him, nor the nails have transfixed His hands and feet, nor death, although He was fastened to the Cross, have had any power over Him, unless He Himself had wished it. Consequently, with great truth did Isaias say, “He was offered, because it was His own will;”[33] and our Lord: “I lay down My life; no man taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself;”[34] and more clearly still St. Paul: “Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness.”[35] In a wonderful manner therefore was it arranged that all the evil, all the sin, all the crime committed in putting Christ to death was committed by Judas and the Jews, by Pilate and the soldiers. These offered no sacrifice, but were guilty of sacrilege, and deserve to be called, not priests, but sacrilegious wretches. And all the virtue, all the holiness, all the dutifulness displayed in the Passion, were the virtue and the holiness and the dutifulness of Christ, Who offered Himself a victim to God by patiently enduring death, even the death of the Cross, in order to appease the anger of His Father, to reconcile mankind to God, to make satisfaction to the Divine justice, and to save the fallen race of Adam. St. Leo beautifully expresses this thought in a few words: “He allowed the impure hands of wretches to be turned against Himself, and they became cooperators with the Redeemer at the time they were committing a heinous sin.”

In the fourth place, by the Death of Christ the mighty struggle between Himself and the prince of the world was brought to a close. In alluding to this struggle, our Lord made use of these words: “Now this is the judgment of the world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself.”[36] This struggle was a judicial, not a military one; it was a struggle between rival suitors, not between rival armies. Satan disputed with Christ the possession of the world, the dominion over mankind. For a long time the devil had unlawfully thrust himself into possession, because he had overcome the first man, and had made him and all his descendants his slaves. For this reason St. Paul calls the devils, “the principalities and powers, the rulers of the world of this darkness.”[37] And as we said a little before, even Christ calls the devil “the prince of this world.” Now the devil did not wish merely to be the prince, but even the god of this world, and so the Psalmist exclaims: “For all the gods of the Gentiles are

devils, but the Lord made the heavens.”[38] Satan was adored in the idols of the Gentiles, and was worshipped in their sacrifices of lambs and calves. On the other side, the Son of God, as the true and lawful heir of the universe, demanded the principality of this world for Himself. This was the contest which was decided on the Cross, and judgment was pronounced in favour of our Lord Jesus Christ, because on the Cross He fully atoned for the sins of the first man and of all His children. For the obedience shown to the Eternal Father by His Son was greater than the disobedience of a servant to his master, and the humility with which the Son of God died on the Cross redounded more to the honour of the Father than the pride of a servant tended to His injury. So God by the merits of His Son was reconciled to mankind, and mankind was snatched from the power of the devil, and “translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love.”[39]

There is another reason which St. Leo adduces, and we will give it in his own words. “If our proud and cruel enemy could have known the plan which the mercy of God had adopted, he would have restrained the passions of the Jews, and not have goaded them on by unjust hatred, in order that he might lose his power over all his captives by fruitlessly attacking the liberty of One Who owed him nothing.” This is an exceedingly weighty reason. For it is just that the devil should lose his authority over all those who by sin had become his slaves, because he had dared to lay his hands on Christ, Who was not his slave, Who had never sinned, and Whom he nevertheless persecuted even unto death. Now, if such is the state of the case, if the battle is over, if the Son of God has gained the victory, and if “He will have all men to be saved,”[40] how is it that so many are in the power of the devil in this life, and suffer the torments of hell in the next? I answer in one word: They wish it. Christ came victorious out of the contest, after bestowing two unspeakable favours on the human race, First that of opening to the just the gates of Heaven, which had been closed from the fall of Adam to that day, and on the day of His victory He said to the thief who had been justified by the merits of His Blood, through faith, hope, and charity, “This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise,”[41] and the Church in her exultation cries out, “Thou having overcome the sting of death, hast opened to believers the kingdom of Heaven.” The second, of instituting the Sacraments which have the power of remitting sin and of conferring grace. He sends the preachers of His Word to all parts of the world to proclaim, “He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved.” And so our victorious Lord has opened a way to all to attain the glorious liberty of the sons of God, and if there are any who are unwilling to enter on this way, they perish by their own fault, and not by the want of power or the want of will of their Redeemer.

In the fifth place, the word, “It is consummated,” may rightly be applied to the completion of the building, that is, the Church. Christ our Master uses this very word in reference to a building: “Hic homo coepit aedificare et non potuit consummare”–“This man began to build and was not able to finish.”[43] The Fathers teach that the foundation of the Church was laid when Christ was baptized, and the building completed when He died. Epiphanius in his third book against heretics, and St. Augustine in the last book of the City of God, show that Eve, who was built from a rib of Adam whilst he was asleep, typifies the Church, which was built from the Side of Christ whilst He slept in Death. And they remark that not without reason does the book of Genesis use the word built, not formed. St. Augustine[44] proves that the building of the Church commenced with the baptism of Christ, from the words of the Psalmist: “And He shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.”[45] The kingdom of Christ, which is the Church, began with the baptism He received at the hands of St. John, by which He consecrated the waters and instituted that Sacrament which is the gate of the Church, and when the voice of His Father was clearly heard in the heavens: “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.”[46] From that moment our Lord began to preach and to gather disciples, who were the first children of the Church. And all the Sacraments derive their efficacy from the Passion of Christ, although our Lord’s Side was opened after His Death, and Blood and water, which typify the two chief Sacraments of the Church, flowed forth. The flowing of Blood and water from the Side of Christ after Death was a sign of the Sacraments, not their institution. We may conclude then that the building of the Church was completed when Christ said, “It is consummated,” because nothing then remained but death, which immediately followed, and consummated the price of our redemption.


ENDNOTES

1. St. John xix. 30.
2. St. John xvii. 4.
3. St. Matt. xx. 22.
4. St. Luke xxii. 42.
5. St. John xviii. 11.
6. St. John xix. 30.
7. St. John xix. 28, 30.
8. Isaias vii. 14.
9. Micheas v. 2.
10. Numbers xxiv. 17.
11. Psalm lxxi 10.
12. Isaias lxi. 1.
13. Isaias xxxv. 4, 5, 6.
14. Zach. ix 9.
15. St. Luke xviii. 31.
16. St. Luke xxii. 53.
17. Baruch iii. 36-38.
18. St. John xvi. 28.
19. Jer. xiv. 8.
20. Serm. 8. De Pass. Dom.
21. Psalm cix. 4.
22. Isaias liii. 8.
23. Psalm cix. 3.
24. Micheas v. 2.
25. St. Matt. xxiv. 30.
26. St. Matt. xxiv. 29.
27. Isaias liii. 7.
28. St. John i. 29.
29. 1 St. Peter i. 18, 19.
30. Apoc. xiii. 8.
31. 1 St John ii. 2.
32. St. John i. 29.
33. Isaias liii. 7.
34. St. John x. 17, 18.
35. Ephes. v. 2.
36. St. John xii. 31, 32.
37. Ephes. vi. 12.
38. Psalm xcv. 5.
39. Coloss. i. 13.
40. 1 Tim. ii. 4.
41. St. Luke xxiii. 43.
42. St. Mark xvi. 16.
43. St. Luke xiv. 30.
44. “De Civit.” l. 27, c. 8.
45. Psalm lxxi. 8.
46. St. Matt. iii. 17.

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CHAPTER XIII: The first fruit to be drawn from the consideration of the sixth Word spoken by Christ upon the Cross.

Whoever attentively ponders on the sixth word must derive many advantages from his reflections, St. Augustine draws a most useful lesson from the fact that the word “It is consummated” shows the fulfilment of all prophecies that had reference to our Lord. For as we are certain from what has happened that the prophecies regarding our Lord were true, so ought we to be equally certain that other things which the same Prophets foretold, and which have not yet come to pass are equally true. The Prophets spoke not of their own will, but were inspired by the Holy Ghost, and because the Holy Ghost is God, Who cannot either deceive or mislead, we should be most confident that everything which they foretold will come to pass, if it has not done so already. “For as heretofore,” says St. Augustine, “everything has been accomplished, so what has to be fulfilled will assuredly happen. Let us then stand in awe of the Day of Judgment, for the Lord will come. He Who came as a lowly Babe will come as a mighty God.” We have more reasons than the saints of old for never wavering in our faith, or in our belief of what is to come. Those who lived before the coming of Christ were obliged to believe, without proof, many things for which we have abundant testimony, and from what has been fulfilled we may easily deduce that the remaining prophecies will be accomplished. The contemporaries of Noe heard of the universal Deluge, not only from the lips of the prophet of God, but from his conduct in working so diligently at the construction of the Ark; still they were hard to convince, as never before had there been a Deluge, or anything similar to it, and consequently the Divine wrath overtook them unawares. As we know that what Noe foretold came to pass, we should have no difficulty in believing that the world and everything we now esteem so much will one day be destroyed by fire. Still, there are very few who have such a lively faith in this as to detach themselves from perishable things, and fix their hearts on the joys above, which are real and everlasting.

The terrors of the Last Day have been foretold by Christ Himself, so that those are altogether inexcusable w ho cannot be induced to believe that because some prophecies have been fulfilled, therefore others will be. These are the words of Christ: “And as in the days of Noe, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the Flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, even till that day in which Noe entered into the ark. And they knew not till the Flood came and took them all away; so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Watch ye, therefore, because you know not at what hour your Lord will come.”[1] And St. Peter says: “The day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence, and the elements shall be melted with heat, and the earth, and the works which are in it shall be burnt up.”[2] But some may argue, all these things are a long way off. Let it be that they are a long way off, and if they are, the day of death is certainly not far off: its hour is very uncertain, and yet it is certain that in the particular judgment which is close at hand, an account will have to be rendered of every idle word. And if of every idle word what of sinful words, of blasphemies which are so common ? And if an account of every word is to be rendered, what of actions, of thefts, adulteries, frauds, murders, injustice, and other mortal sins? Therefore the fulfilment of some prophecies will render us all the more blameworthy if we do not believe that the other prophecies will be accomplished. Nor is it enough merely to believe, unless our faith efficaciously moves our will to do or to avoid what our understanding teaches us should be done or avoided. If an architect were to give it as his opinion that a house was about to fall, and the inhabitants were to acknowledge that they believed the architect’s words, but still would not abandon the house, and were buried in its ruins, what would people say of such faith? They would say with the Apostle: “They profess that they know God, but in their works they deny Him.”[3] Or what would be said if a doctor were to order a patient not to drink wine, and the patient were to own that the advice was good, but were to continue to drink wine, and be angry if it was not given him? Should we not say that such a patient was mad and had no confidence in his physician? Would that there were not so many Christians who profess to believe in the judgments of God and other things, and by their conduct give a denial to their words!


ENDNOTES

1. St. Matt. xxiv. 37, 38, 39, 42.
2. 2 St. Peter iii. 10. 3. Titus i. 16.

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CHAPTER XIV. The second fruit to be drawn from the consideration of the sixth Word spoken by Christ upon the Cross.

Another advantage may be derived from the second interpretation which we gave of the word “It is consummated.” With St. John Chrysostom, we said that by His Death Christ finished His laborious sojourn amongst us. No one can deny but that His mortal life was beyond measure bitter, but its very bitterness was compensated for by its shortness, by its fruit, by its glory, and its honour. It lasted thirty-three years. What is a labour of thirty-three years compared to an eternity of rest? Our Lord laboured in hunger and thirst, in the midst of many griefs, of insults without number, of blows, of wounds, of death itself. But now He drinks from the fount of joys, and His joy shall last for ever. Again, He was humbled, and for a short time was “the reproach of men and the outcast of the people;”[1] but “God hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a Name which is above all names, that in the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.”[2] On the other hand, the perfidious Jews for an hour exulted over Christ in His sufferings; Judas for an hour enjoyed the price of his avarice, a few pieces of silver; Pilate for an hour gloried because he had not lost the friendship of Tiberius, and had regained that of Herod. But for nearly two thousand years they have all been suffering the torments of hell and their cries of despair will be heard for ever and for ever.

From their misery all the servants of the Cross may learn how good and profitable a thing it is to be humble, to be meek, to be patient, to carry their cross in this present life, to follow Christ as their guide, and by no means to envy those who appear to be happy in this world. The lives of Christ and of His Apostles and Martyrs are a true commentary on the words of the Master of masters. “Blessed are the poor, blessed are the meek, blessed are they that mourn; blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”[3] And on the other hand, “Wo to you who are rich, for you have your consolation. Wo to you that are filled, for you shall hunger. Wo to you that now laugh, for you shall mourn and weep.”[4]

Although neither the words nor the life and death of Christ are understood or followed by the world, still whoever wishes to leave the bustle of life and enter into his heart and seriously meditate and say to himself, “I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me,”[5] and importunes His Divine Master with humble prayer and groaning of spirit, will without difficulty understand all truth, and the truth shall free him from all errors, and what before appeared impossible will become easy.


ENDNOTES

1. Psalm xxi. 7.
2. Philipp. ii. 9, 10.
3. St. Matt. v. 3, 10.
4. St. Luke vi. 24, 25.
5. Psalm lxxxiv. 9.

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CHAPTER XV: The third fruit to be drawn from the consideration of the sixth Word spoken by Christ upon the Cross.

The third fruit to be gathered from the consideration of the sixth word is, that we should learn to become spiritual priests, “to offer up to God spiritual sacrifices,”[1] as St. Peter tells us, or as St. Paul advises us, “to present” our “bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God,” our “reasonable service.”[2] For if this word “It is consummated” shows us that the Sacrifice of our High Priest has been accomplished on the Cross, it is just and proper that the disciples of a crucified God, who are desirous, as far as they can, of imitating their Master, should offer themselves as a sacrifice to God according to their weakness and their poverty. Indeed, St. Peter says that all Christians are priests, not strictly so indeed as those who are ordained by bishops in the Holy Roman Church for offering the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ, but spiritual priests for offering spiritual victims, not such victims as we read of in the Old Testament, sheep and oxen, turtles and doves, or the Victim of the New Testament, the Body of Christ in the Blessed Eucharist, but mystical victims which can be offered by all, as prayer and praise and good works and fasts and almsdeeds, as St. Paul says, “Let us offer the sacrifice of praise always to God, that is to say, the fruit of lips confessing to His Name.”[3] In his Epistle to the Romans, the same Apostle most distinctly tells us to offer to God the mystical sacrifice of our bodies after the sacrifices of the Old Law, which were regulated by four decrees. The first was, that the victim should be something consecrated to God, which it would be unlawful to turn to any profane use. The second, that the victim should be a living creature, as a sheep, a goat, or a calf. The third, that it should be holy, that is, clean; for the Jews considered some animals clean, others unclean. Sheep, oxen, goats, turtles, sparrows, and doves were clean; whereas the horse, the lion, the fox, the hawk, the raven, and others were unclean. The fourth, that the victim should be burnt, and should send forth an odour of sweetness. All these things the Apostle enumerates. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present yourselves a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service.”[4] As I understand the Apostle he does not exhort us to offer a sacrifice strictly speaking, as though he wished our bodies to be killed and burnt, like the bodies of sheep When offered in sacrifice, but to offer a mystical and reason able sacrifice, a sacrifice that is similar but not the same, a spiritual and not a corporal one. The Apostle therefore exhorts us to the imitation of Christ inasmuch as He offered on the Cross for our advantage the Sacrifice of His Body by a true and real Death, so we, for His honour, should offer our bodies as a living, a holy and perfect victim, a victim which is pleasing to God, and which in a spiritual manner is slain and burnt.

We will now give a few words of explanation concerning the four decrees which regulated the Jewish sacrifices. In the first place, our bodies should be victims consecrated to God, which we should use for the honour of God. For we must not look upon our bodies as our own property, but as the property of God, to Whom we were consecrated in Baptism, and Who has bought us at a great price, as the Apostle tells the Corinthians. Nor ought we to be merely victims, but victims living by the life of grace and of the Holy Spirit. For those who are dead by sin are not victims of God, but of the devil, who kills our souls and rejoices in their destruction. Our God, who always was and is the fountain of life, will not have offered to Him fetid carcases which are fit for nothing but to be thrown to the beasts. In the second place, we must take great care to preserve this life of our souls so that we may offer our “reasonable service.” Nor is it enough for the victim to be living. It must also be holy. “A living” and “holy sacrifice,” says St. Paul. The oblation of clean victims was a holy sacrifice. As we have said before, some quadrupeds were clean, as sheep, goats, and oxen, and some birds were clean, as turtles, sparrows, and doves. The former class of animals typify the active life, the latter the contemplative. Consequently, if those who lead an active life amongst the faithful desire to offer themselves as holy victims to God, they must imitate the simplicity and meekness of a sheep, which knows not revenge; the labours and seriousness of the ox, which seeks not repose, does not vainly run hither and thither, but bears its burden and drags its plough and works assiduously in the cultivation of the earth; and finally, the speed of the goat in climbing mountains and its quickness in detecting objects from afar. They must not rest satisfied with meekness only, or with undertaking certain duties. They must lift up their hearts by frequent prayer and contemplate the things which are above. For how can they perform their actions for the glory of God and make them ascend like the incense of sacrifice before Him, if they seldom or never think of God, seek Him not, and are not by means of meditation burning with His love? The active life of a Christian should not be entirely separated from the contemplative, just as the contemplative should not be entirely separated from the active. Those who do not follow the example of oxen and sheep and goats in continually and usefully labouring for their Master, but seek and pursue their own temporal commodities, cannot offer to God a holy victim. They resemble rather such ferocious and carnivorous beasts as wolves, dogs, bears, kites, and ravens, which make a god of their belly, and follow in the tracks of “that roaring lion” which “goeth about seeking whom he may devour.”[5] Those Christians who lead a contemplative life and desire to offer themselves as living and holy victims to God must imitate the solitude of the turtle, the purity of the dove, and the prudence of the sparrow. The solitude of the turtle is chiefly applicable to monks and hermits, who have no communication with the world and are wholly intent on the contemplation of God and singing His praises. The purity and fecundity of the dove is necessary for bishops and priests, who have intercourse with men and ought to bring forth and nourish spiritual children, and it will be difficult for them to imitate such purity and fruitfulness unless they frequently fly up to their heavenly country by contemplation, and by charity condescend to succour the necessities of men. There is a danger of their wholly abandoning themselves to contemplation and being unproductive of spiritual children, or of becoming so engrossed in external work as to be contaminated with earthly desires, and whilst they are all anxiety to save the souls of others, may themselves–which God avert–become castaways. The prudence of the sparrow is necessary both for contemplatives, and also for those who devote themselves to the active duties of the ministry. There are both hedge- sparrows and house-sparrows. Hedge-sparrows show the greatest care in avoiding the nets and snares set for them, and house-sparrows, which dwell near men, never become the friends of man, and with difficulty are captured by men. So Christians, and especially priests and monks, must imitate the prudence of the sparrow to avoid falling into the nets and snares set for them by the devil, and when they treat with men, should do so solely for their neighbours’ advantage, should avoid all familiarity with them, especially with women, should fly from idle conversations, should decline invitations, and should not be present at plays and theatres.

The last decree regarding sacrifices was that the victim should not only be living and holy but also pleasing, that is, should send forth a most sweet odour, according to what the Scriptures say: “And the Lord smelled a sweet savour,”[6] and “Christ delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness.”[7] It was necessary that the victim, in order to send forth this odour so pleasing to God, should be both killed and burnt. This takes place in the mystical and reasonable sacrifice of which we are speaking, when the concupiscence of the flesh is completely brought into subjection and burnt out by the fire of charity. Nothing more efficaciously, quickly, and perfectly mortifies the concupiscence of the flesh than a sincere love of God. For He is the King and Lord of all the affections of our heart, and all our affections are ruled by Him and depend upon Him, whether they be those of fear or hope, or desire or hatred, or anger, or any other inquietude of mind. Now love yields to nothing except to a stronger love, and consequently when Divine love has complete possession of the heart of man and sets it wholly in flame, all carnal desires yield to it, and, being completely subdued, occasion us no disquiet: and, therefore, ardent aspirations and fervent prayers should ascend from our hearts like incense before the throne of God. This is the sacrifice which God demands of us, and which the Apostle exhorts us to be ever most ready to offer.

St. Paul uses a very strong argument to persuade us to it, as it is of itself so hard and full of difficulty. His argument is expressed in these words: “I beseech you, brethren, by the mercy of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice.”[8] In the Greek text we find the word mercies used instead of mercy. What and how many are the mercies of God by which the Apostle beseeches us? In the first place there is creation, by which we were made something whereas before we were nothing. Secondly, although Almighty God stood in no need of our service, He has made us His servants, because He wishes us to do something for which He can reward us. Thirdly, He made us to His image, and rendered us capable of knowing Him and loving Him. Fourthly, He made us through Christ His adopted children and coheirs of His Only-Begotten Son. Fifthly, He has made us members of His Spouse, and of that Church of which He is the Head. Lastly, He offered Himself on the Cross, “an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness,”[9] to redeem us from slavery and wash us from our iniquities, “that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle.”[10] These are the mercies of God by which the Apostle beseeches us, as if he would say: The Lord has showered so many graces upon you, who have neither deserved them, nor asked for them, and should you think it a hard matter to offer yourselves as living, holy, and reasonable victims to God? Forsooth, far from being difficult, it should seem to any one who attentively considers all the circumstances, light and easy and pleasant and agreeable, to serve so good a God with our whole hearts throughout all time, and after the example of Christ to offer ourselves wholly to Him as a victim, an oblation, and a holocaust in the odour of sweetness.


ENDNOTES

1. 1 St. Peter ii. 5.
2. Rom. xii. 1.
3. Heb. xiii. 15.
4. Rom. xii. 1.
5. 1 St. Peter v. 8.
6. Genesis viii. 21.
7. Ephes. v. 2.
8. Rom. xii. 1.
9. Ephes. x. 2.
10. Ephes. v. 27.