The spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius : $b adapted to...

1st Prelude. Christ was dragged from court to court, everywhere loaded with false accusations; but He opened not His mouth. He was dressed in a fool’s garment, cruelly scourged and crowned with thorns, and bore all patiently. Exposed to the sight of the multitude, He saw a robber preferred to Him, was rejected by His people and condemned to the death of the cross.

The persons. The judges presume to sit in judgment on Him who has proved Himself to be the Son of God. Our sins, like theirs, are often far more serious than we are willing to acknowledge to ourselves. We blind ourselves. Caiphas did so by claiming that it was “expedient that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not” (St. John xi, 50). This was true, but not in the sense the high priest gave to it. Do I ever judge my neighbor unjustly? perhaps even my superiors?

The witnesses little think how wicked their accusations are, leading to the crime of deicide: “The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity” (St. James iii, 6). Meanwhile Christ is silent, to teach us how to suffer; silence under accusations, true or false, is usually better than the most eloquent defense. Isaias had predicted: “He shall be dumb as a lamb before his hearers, and he shall not open his mouth” (liii, 7). He only spoke when the honor of God required it, as when the high priest said: “I conjure thee by the living God that thou tell us if thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said to them: Thou has said it. Nevertheless I say to you, hereafter you shall see the son of man sitting on the right hand of the power of God and coming in the clouds of Heaven. They answering said: He is guilty of death” (St. Matth. xxvi, 63-66). What injustice! This is often repeated to-day by those who hate the Church; we must wait patiently for the time of its glorification.

POINT II. Dressed in a fool’s garment, scourged, crowned with thorns. Behold the humiliations, the cruel sufferings patiently endured by the Redeemer, as an expiation of your own sins. Try to realize the details of the torments heaped upon Him. That flagellation was borne to expiate sins of the body. Do I practise bodily mortification enough? Soft members are out of place in the mystic body of Christ. He is crowned with thorns; do I look for honors and laurel crowns? He is decked in mockery with a rag of purple; do I delight in vain display? Lord, make me like unto thee.

POINT III. Pilate shows Him to the people: “Ecco homo,” “Behold the man.” Let me observe Him well, noticing every indignity inflicted on Him. His head crowned with thorns, His face defiled with spittle, every visible portion of His sacred body livid with bruises and stained with clotted blood: “A worm and no man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people” (Ps. 21), “Despised and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows” (Is. liii, 3).

The words: “Give us Barabbas and take Jesus away.” How can I complain when others are preferred to me? “Let him be crucified”; “His blood be upon us and upon our children.” How fearfully has this curse been carried into effect. Behold the whole Jewish race struck with spiritual blindness for already nineteen centuries, in the midst of nations blest with the light of faith. How this ruin of His nation must have grieved the heart of the Redeemer. Pilate vainly tries to disclaim his responsibility for the deicide: “I am innocent of the death of this just man.” So we may deceive ourselves, wilfully. Am I always honest in my pretences?