CHRIST, A MILD KING.

"Behold, thy King cometh to thee, meek." (Matt. 21:5)

I.

"Thou art thyself, my King and my God, who commandest the saving of Jacob." (Ps. 43:5) Upon other occasions, He displays Himself to us as the King of majesty, a powerful King, or the King of terrors; but in His Passion He assumes the character of a mild King, who, "when He suffered, He threatened not." (1 Pet. 2:23) The same being is, therefore, today represented seated on an ass, who on other occasions "sitteth on the Cherubim, and walketh on the wings of the winds." (Ps. 98:1 and 103:3) In this character of mildness He will visit you today in the Holy Eucharist; and in order that you may not dread His majesty, He has concealed Himself under the disguise of food, and with admirable patience and mildness suffers Himself to be received and deposited in the breasts, not only of His friends, but also of His enemies.

II.

With what ardor you ought to wish that this King would come and reign in your soul and subdue all your unruly passions. He is infinitely wise, and therefore, He can direct you; infinitely powerful, and therefore, He can protect you; infinitely rich and bountiful, and therefore, He can reward and crown you. "The Lord ruleth me," exclaims holy David, "and I shall want nothing." (Ps. 22:1) If you, therefore, wish to be supplied with every good thing, submit yourself to be ruled by Him.

III.

You must make a due preparation to receive your Guest, in order that He may visit you in the character of mildness, and not of terror and indignation. Go forth, therefore, to meet Him, as did the Jews, on this day, with your fresh green branches of good works. Spread your garments as they did on the road, that is, trample under your feet everything of vanity, pride, and earthly consideration. Say with His Prophet: "I will extol Thee, O God, my King, and I will bless Thy name forever, yea forever and ever; hearken to the voice of my prayer, O my King and my God." (Ps. 144:1 and 5:3)

FOURTH WORD: "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?"

I.

"About the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, Lamma Sabacthani? that is, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" A loud cry and a shrill voice are signs of excessive grief. Our Lord was left alone in His sufferings for a long time. He was destitute of every kind of comfort which might arise from the inferior part of His soul; He was forsaken by His own people, even by His Disciples; He foresaw, besides, that the greater part of mankind would forsake Him, although He endured all these torments for their salvation. At this awful moment the oracle of the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled, "Great as the sea is thy destruction; who shall heal thee?" (Lam. 2:13)

II.

Christ might have easily freed Himself from this interior anguish, had He chosen to do so, by surrendering Himself to the joys of the Beatific Vision which possessed the superior part of His soul; but He refused to do this, in order that in His sufferings He might reduce Himself to our level in all things. He wished also to instruct us how to bear desolation and aridity in prayer and that trouble of mind from which the greatest virtue does not exempt us. Learn, therefore, on similar occasions, to stand resolutely collected within yourself, to have recourse to prayer, and patiently to await the assistance of God: "For it shall surely come, and it shall not be slack." (Hab. 2:3)

III.

If the eternal Father left His Son in this state of desolation, you have no reason to be surprised or to complain if He sometimes seem to abandon you, and to withdraw all consolation from you. Such desolation is frequently a sign of His love, sent to try your constancy and increase your merit. Hence, David prayed: "Prove me, O Lord! and try me; burn my reins and my heart." (Ps. 25:2) Offer yourself to God in the same spirit, and only beg with the same Prophet that "He would not utterly forsake you." (Ps. 118:8)

FIFTH WORD: "I THIRST."

I.

"Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst." Christ experienced a twofold thirst, corporal and spiritual. His corporal thirst was inflamed by His last night's restless watching, His interior afflictions, and the loss of so much blood. Our Lord chose to undergo this torment for our instruction. He who "brought forth water out of the rock" (Ps. 77:16), who satisfied the thirsty Israelites in the desert, and who supernaturally quenched the thirst of Samson, refused this indulgence to Himself. Learn hence to suffer inconveniences for His sake.

II.

"And they putting a sponge full of vinegar about hyssop, offered it to His mouth," not to quench but to increase His thirst. What a draught was this for the Son of God, "who giveth food to all flesh" (Ps. 135:25), "who openeth His hand, and filleth every creature with blessings everlasting." (Ps. 144:16) How different is this from the beverage which He bestows on us in the Holy Eucharist! Be ashamed at your own delicacy in the articles of eating and drinking; and reflecting on the thirst of your Savior on the Cross, never complain or express dissatisfaction at any inconvenience to which you may be subjected.

III.

The spiritual thirst of Christ principally regarded three objects. 1. He ardently desired to obey His heavenly Father in perfection, and to accomplish all the prophecies which had been uttered respecting Himself. 2. He thirsted for more sufferings, hence He openly proclaimed His corporal thirst, in order that His pains might be increased, and not that He might be refreshed. 3. He longed with His whole soul for the complete redemption of all mankind, for whom He was dying. Endeavor to experience the same zeal for virtue and the salvation of your neighbor. "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall be filled." (Matt. 5:6)

CHRIST'S LAST WORDS, AND DEATH.

I.

"When Jesus therefore had taken the vinegar, He said, It is consummated." (John 19:30) He congratulates Himself for having now fully accomplished the will of His divine Father, "becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Phil. 2:8) He has now fulfilled the prophecies and figures which regarded His life, and of which He said: "Do not think that I come to destroy the Law or the Prophets: I come not to destroy, but to fulfill." (Matt. 5:17) He has now terminated His labors and His sufferings, which He endured with patience to the very last, and has drunk the chalice to the very dregs. Well, therefore, might He say to His eternal Father: "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do; and I come to Thee." (John 17:4, 11)

II.

His last words were: "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." (Luke 23:46) He uttered these words "with a loud voice," to show that He had triumphed over death, sin, and the devil. He teaches us also how to recommend ourselves to God in our last moments, and to forget at that awful hour all earthly cares and ideas. Beseech your dying Savior, that death may not attack you unprovided against it, or prevent you from entertaining at the moment of your dissolution such holy sentiments.

III.

"And bowing down His head, He gave up the ghost." (John 19:30) O ineffable Mystery! The sun of glory is eclipsed, the temple of the living God is dissolved, and the Author of life yields to death. How true is the sentence of the Apostle: "Ye are bought with a great price." (1 Cor. 6:20) Do not feel less affected at the completion of this awful Mystery than all nature seemed to be on this occasion. For "the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst" (Luke 22:45); "the earth quaked, and the rocks were rent, and the graves were opened." (Matt, 27:51) Be ashamed and confounded at your sins. Tear asunder the veil of self-love that hangs between you and your God. Tremble at the account that you will have to give for Christ's Death and Passion. Rend your heart with true contrition, and quit the loathsome grave of tepidity and sin.

CHRIST, YOUR REDEEMER.

"Arise, O Jerusalem; loose the bonds from off thy neck, O captive daughter of Sion, ye were sold for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without money." (Isa. 52:2)

I.

The Church in a particular manner at this holy time celebrates the benefits of our common redemption. We were all subject to the tyranny of the devil and children of wrath in consequence of original sin, and there was no created being able to atone for the crime. We should all have been lost forever, had not God sent His only begotten Son as "a redemption to His people." (Ps. 110:9) This Divine Son offered Himself a sacrifice for us, and enabled us to address Him in the prophetic language of Isaiah: "Thou, O Lord! art our Father, our Redeemer, from everlasting is Thy name." (Isa. 63:16)

II.

We were redeemed, "not with corruptible gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ." (1 Pet. 1:18-19) Although one drop of His blood would have been perfectly adequate to our redemption, He nevertheless shed it all, and underwent the most severe torments, "because with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him plentiful redemption." (Ps. 129:7) Besides, not content to have redeemed us once, He has left Himself to us in the Holy Eucharist, in order that we may as often recover ourselves from the hands of our enemies, as we approach Him with sincere sorrow. O ineffable love! Return Him all the thanks that you are able for this favor.

III.

Your Redeemer wishes to visit you on this sacred day, in order to banish from your soul the remains of sin, and to break the chains of your vicious habits. Prepare yourself, therefore, to receive Him as you ought. Surrender yourself to Him, because you are wholly His: "You are not your own, for ye are bought with a great price." (1 Cor. 6:19) Center all your affections in Him, and say with the Psalmist: "I am Thine: save me" (Ps. 118:94), and with the Church, pray that "you may feel in yourself the benefit of His redemption."

A SUMMARY OF OUR LORD'S PASSION.

Imagine yourself standing at the foot of the Cross on which your Redeemer is suspended, and hear Him cry out in the words of the Prophet: "Oh all ye who pass by the way, attend and see if there be any sorrow like to My sorrow." (Lam. 1:12) Ponder attentively the whole Passion in relation to the four principal circumstances, "that you may be able to comprehend with all the Saints what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth." (Eph. 3:18)

I. THE DEPTH.

How ignominious it was! He was suspended aloft in the air, as one unworthy either to live or die on earth. He was condemned at four tribunals, dragged along the streets, and pointed at as a blasphemer, a seducer, an impostor, a glutton, and an idiot. How can you contemplate this scene and still be so tender of your reputation?

II. THE HEIGHT.

How grievous His sufferings were! Though His frame and constitution were of a delicate nature, He refused every kind of comfort, both interior and exterior. He was left alone and forsaken by all His friends: "He became a stranger to His brethren, and an alien to the sons of His mother" (Ps. 68:9), i.e., the Synagogue. If on the Cross He had attempted to court any comfort, the weight of His body pressed the heavier on the wounds of His hands and feet, and increased His torments. If He leaned His head against the Cross, the thorns were inserted more deeply in it; and if He thirsted, His drink was vinegar and gall. Although He suffered more than all the Martyrs, His interior pains were more afflicting than those of His body. Good God, what unheard of torments!

III. THE BREADTH.

How universal were His sufferings! "From the sole of the foot unto the top of the head, there is no soundness therein." (Isa. 1:6) His head was pierced with thorns, His face was buffeted by fists and defiled with spittle, His eyes and lips were swollen, His beard plucked, His shoulders lacerated with stripes, His side pierced with a spear, His hands and feet bored with rough nails; in fine, His whole body was bathed in His own blood. Every interior faculty was also tortured: His memory, His intellect, His will. Fear indignation, solicitude for those He loved, and other emotions, struggled within Him. "He shall be filled with reproaches." (Lam. 3:30)

IV. THE LENGTH.

How long His torments lasted! His whole life before had been a continual suffering. "I am poor and in labors from My youth," says He by the Royal Psalmist. (Ps. 87:16) The pains, however, which He suffered from His last supper until His expiration, were excruciating and intolerable, and endured all that night, and the day following, for about twenty hours. Contemplate the cruel and loving scene, and express those feelings which condolence and affection suggest.

OUR LORD'S BURIAL.

I.

After Christ was dead, His sacred body was taken down from the cross by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. They laid the sacred treasure in the Mother's arms, fulfilling the expression in the Canticle: "A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me; He shall abide between my breasts." (Cant. 1:12) Observe with what sighs and tears and what expressions of profound grief she received the mangled body. Ponder what was said and done by her and her devout companions on this occasion. Take care that you make your beloved Savior "a bundle of myrrh" in your regard, by frequent and affectionate contemplation on His passion. "Gather this bundle for yourselves," says St.Bernard.

II.

After grief and love had performed their parts over the dead body of our Lord, His sorrowing friends embalm it and wrap it in a clean winding-sheet. Christ loves cleanliness even in the grave. Learn hence to purify your heart in the most perfect manner when you approach Him in the Holy Eucharist. Christ wishes His mystical members - that is, the faithful - to be embalmed, as well as His corporal members, with the myrrh of mortification and penance, according to the Apostle: "Always bearing about in our body the dying of Jesus; that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies." (2 Cor. 4:10)

III.

When they had buried Christ, each one returns to his home; for they are not permitted to remain and watch at the sepulcher. Imagine what was the solitude of the Blessed Virgin and other pious persons, and how they devoted themselves to prayer and contemplation, "waiting for the blessed hope and the coming of the glory of the great God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." (Tit. 2:13) The Holy Virgin might comfort herself with the words of the Psalmist: "In the evening, weeping shall have place; in the morning, gladness." (Ps. 29:6) In desolation do you also have recourse to prayer, and learn to put your confidence in God alone.