CHRIST, THE MASTER OF THE VINEYARD OF YOUR SOUL.

"Let my beloved come into his garden and eat the fruit." (Cant. 5:1)

I.

Your soul, and the soul of every rational creature, is a particular vineyard, belonging to the "great Master of the family," who is the subject of the Gospel of this day. Feel convinced that, today, He will come to examine His vineyard in you, and to gather fruit from it. Hear Him say, with the Spouse, in the Canticle: "Let us go up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vineyards flourish: if the flowers be ready to bring forth fruits." (Cant. 7:12)

II.

This Divine Master of the family has omitted nothing on His part which might conduce to render you a fertile vineyard. "I planted thee," He says by His Prophet, "a chosen vineyard, all true seed." (Jer. 2:21) He has sown in your soul much seed of true and real piety; He has guarded this seed by the enclosure of salutary Laws; He has given you His Sacraments, as channels to convey to your soul the fertilizing moisture of His grace. He has omitted nothing which could be beneficial to you. "What is there," He says, "that I ought to do more to my vineyard that I have not done to it?" Take care, then, that you yield Him proper fruit; beware lest the following part of the passage be applicable to you: "I looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it hath brought forth wild grapes." (Isa. 5:4) If this be the case, you have reason to fear the threat which hangs over you: "And now I will show you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted; it shall not be pruned, and it shall not be digged; but briers and thorns shall come up; and I will command the clouds to let fall no rain upon it." Meditate on the misfortunes that all these evils would entail upon you, and resolve to avert them.

III.

Nothing ought to be wanting to convince you that it is your duty to prepare for His visit. Prune away all superfluities by salutary mortification. Discover the nature of the soil of your soul by a thorough self-knowledge. Destroy the briers and growing weeds of passion, and let the tears of compunction fertilize the aridity of your soul. In fine, "let your vineyard be before you, and it will bring forth its fruits in due season." (Cant, 8:12; Ps. 1:3)

CHRIST INVITES ALL TO CONTEMPLATE HIS PASSION.

I.

Christ, with good reason, complains that, after having suffered so much for men, He still finds them ungrateful and forgetful. "I looked for one," He might truly have said during His passion, "who would grieve together with Me, but there was none; and for one who would comfort Me, and I found none." (Ps. 68:21) "The just perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart." (Isa. 57:1) Meditate on this pitiful state of your Jesus. Tell Him that you will not leave Him alone; that you will sympathize with Him; and that the Just One shall not perish without your notice and condolence.

II.

We can do nothing more pleasing to our Redeemer than to meditate frequently on His Passion. He invites all mankind to this holy exercise by the mouth of His Prophet: "O all ye that pass by the way, attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to My sorrow." (Lam. 1:12) He calls the attention of all mankind to His sufferings by the same Prophet: "Remember my poverty," he says, "the wormwood and the gall." (Lam. 3:19) Reflect, and apply the case to yourself: if you had suffered any serious loss in your property or person in the defense of your friend, would you not justly expect that he should ever be grateful for your friendly kindness? How much more has Christ suffered for you!

III.

Present yourself before Christ as an attentive spectator of His sufferings, and promise to meditate on them with feelings of gratitude. Say with the Prophet: "I will be mindful and remember; and my soul shall languish within me. These things I shall think on in my heart, therefore will I hope." (Lam. 3:20.) And if you contemplate His Passion, you will have good reason to hope; for He suffered in order that He might be able to present Himself as our advocate before His Father, and allege His own sufferings in our behalf. He pardoned the thief on the cross, and gave him admission into paradise.

CHRIST'S PASSION IN GENERAL.

WHO SUFFERS?

I.

He who suffers is the immaculate Lamb of God, "who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." (1 Pet. 2:22) He was the Holy of holies, possessed of the Divine Spirit beyond measure, the perfect form and image of His Father. His crucifiers confessed Him to be the Son of God, and their judge had already pronounced Him innocent.

II.

He who suffered had already devoted His whole life to the good of others. He "had gone about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil." (Acts 10:38) He therefore not only suffered without deserving these sufferings, but, on the contrary, He merited every kind of honor, respect, and veneration.

III.

He who suffered was the great Lover of mankind. He had made Himself our Redeemer, Pastor, Physician and Brother. If the son ought to feel sensibly the sufferings of his father, and the spouse to condole with her spouse in his afflictions, how much more reason have you to compassionate Jesus Christ in the sufferings which He has undergone for your sake! There is no character, however affectionate, and no title, however dear, that this man-God has not assumed in your regard. Grieve for Him, then; and if you cannot carry, with the Apostle, the marks of His sufferings on your own body, bear them in your heart. Resolve to suffer something, at least, for His sake.

CHRIST'S PASSION IN GENERAL.

WHAT DOES HE SUFFER?

I.

The sufferings of Christ were various and numerous. He suffers in His external goods; for He is stripped of everything that He had, even of His very clothes, and He is suspended naked on the Cross, in the presence of all the Jews. He suffers in His honor; for every species of reproach is thrown upon Him. His fame suffers; for He is variously traduced and calumniated: He is represented as a Samaritan, a man possessed by the devil, a glutton, a lover of wine, a blasphemer, and a seducer. His knowledge is insulted; for He is considered as a man without learning, and a madman. His miracles are esteemed as so many impostures. And to crown all, He is totally abandoned by His friends.

II.

How much He suffered in His body! His eyes were defiled with spittle, and filled with the blood which flowed from His sacred head, and tormented with the scornful gestures which they were obliged to behold. His ears were wounded with repeated blasphemies against God, and most unjust accusations brought against Himself. His taste was tormented with the most violent thirst, and then with vinegar and gall. Lastly, His sense of feeling was tortured, in every part of His sacred body, by thorns, stripes, and nails. So that it might be said of Him with truth, "From the sole of the foot unto the top of the head, there is no soundness therein." (Isa. 1:6)

III.

Christ suffered, also, most severely in His mind. His agony in the garden and His dereliction on the Cross were perhaps the severest of all His pains: add to those His foreknowledge of the ingratitude of mankind, and their abuse of His redemption. Be ashamed at your cowardice in suffering and your impatience under the pressure of crosses. Form a resolution of suffering something for Him who has suffered so much for you.

CHRIST'S PASSION IN GENERAL.

FROM WHOM DOES HE SUFFER?

I.

He suffers from every kind and character of men; from the highest to the lowest, from the sacred and the profane. He is dragged about the streets by the dregs of the people; He is forsaken by His friends, He is accused by the priests, laughed at by the soldiery, condemned by the council of the high priest, ignominiously treated in the court of the governor, and sentenced to death at the tribunal of the president. Learn, hence, to contemn the opinions and judgments of the world which was so unjust to your Savior.

II.

He suffered from those whom He came to save, on whom He had already bestowed most singular favors during His private and public life; so that He might truly say: "They have hated me without cause." (John 15:25) And what, is still more, He suffered Himself to be betrayed by His own Disciple, to give us an example of patience in the failure and abandonment of friends. "The man of My peace, in whom I trusted, who ate My bread, hath greatly supplanted Me." (Ps. 40:10)

III.

He was left exposed to the machinations of hell, according to the expression of St. Luke: "This is your hour, and the power of darkness." (Luke 22:53) He was surrendered to the power of Satan, not as holy Job was, with this restriction, "but yet save his life" (Job 2:6), but absolutely and even to death. Compassionate your Lord, thus forsaken by His friends and left to the mercy of His most cruel enemies; and if at any time it should be your fortune to experience the insolence of men, remember: "The disciple is not above his Master." (Matt. 10:24)

CHRIST'S PASSION IN GENERAL.

FOR WHOM DOES HE SUFFER?

I.

Christ did not suffer for Himself, for He was incapable of doing anything that deserved punishment; but He suffered in order to reconcile mankind to His eternal Father, and to open to them the gates of heaven. He suffered in every manner, because in every manner men had offended their God, and because His object was to apply a remedy to every vice. To correct our covetousness, He chose to die naked; to reform our pride, He willingly suffered reproaches; he opposed his torments to our luxury, and He drank vinegar and gall to atone for our intemperance.

II.

He suffered in a most peculiar manner for His enemies, that is, for all sinners; for "God commendeth His charity towards us, because, when as yet we were sinners, according to the time, Christ died for us and when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God; by the death of His Son." (Rom. 5:8, 10) And what is more, when He was in the act of expiring on the cross, He prayed for His executioners, that He might teach us "to overcome evil by good." (Rom. 12:21)

III.

Christ suffered for all mankind in general, and for each of us in particular. Apply, then. His sufferings to yourself, and make them your own. Render yourself capable of saying with St. Paul: "I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself for me." (Gal. 2:20) Reflect what return you can make for so much love: "What shall I render to the Lord for all the things that He hath rendered to me? I will take the chalice of salvation." (Ps. 115:3) Take, therefore, the chalice of His Passion, and drink it up, at least spiritually by contemplation: this is the return which your Savior expects, and of which He will most cordially accept.

CHRIST'S PASSION IN GENERAL.

WITH WHAT AFFECTION DOES HE SUFFER?

I.

His sufferings were prompted by a most sincere love for us; He earnestly wished beforehand for the hour in which His Passion would commence. "I have a baptism," He says, "wherewith I am to be baptized; and how am I straitened until it be accomplished!" (Luke 12:50)

II.

His sufferings were endured with the most profuse liberality. One single pain, one drop of blood, would have atoned for the crimes of a thousand worlds, in consequence of the nature of the sufferer; but Christ shed all His blood. "With Him" there is "plentiful redemption." (Ps. 129:7)

III.

He suffered with the greatest meekness; for, "when He was reviled, He did not revile; when He suffered, He threatened not: but He delivered Himself to him who judged Him unjustly." (1 Pet. 2:23.) And the Prophet had foretold that "He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter." (Isa. 53:7)

IV.

He suffered with an insatiable zeal for the salvation of mankind; hence He exclaimed on the Cross: "I thirst." (John 19:28)

V.

In His sufferings, He was perfectly humble; hence, He might have said of Himself: "I am a worm and no man; the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people." (Ps. 21:7)

VI.

He exercised the virtue of poverty during the whole of His Passion, and He ultimately died naked on the Cross.

VII.

His patience and perseverance were unconquerable, and never yielded to the most grievous tortures.

VIII.

He practiced the virtue of obedience in its highest degree during His sufferings. He was "obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Phil. 2:8) He was obedient not only to His eternal Father, but even to His cruel executioners. "I have given my body to the strikers," He says of Himself by His Prophet, "and my cheeks to those who plucked them; I have not turned away my face from those who rebuked me and spat upon me." (Isa. 50:6) Examine minutely this perfect model of patience and virtue, and "go and do thou likewise."