The Tenth Saturday: The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery – The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus

Gospel Readings:

Matthew 27

Mark 15

Luke 23

John 19

MEDITATION

1. Jesus is given gall to drink and then stripped of his garments. He arrives at Calvary, called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull. They leave him no time to breathe! Hurriedly they prepare everything necessary to crucify him, for they wish to remove this life, hated by its enemies, from the world as quickly as possible.

My soul, hear the cries, observe with what anger they untie him and tear away his garments which had clung to the wounds; and once again his pains are renewed. Observe his bleeding and torn body. Penetrate his very Heart; you will find it meditating upon your misery, or concentrating on heaven and your reconciliation. From the great fatigue and the heavy burden of the cross Jesus is exhausted, and they offer him wine mingled with gall. The Prophet had already foretold this gall. So Jesus, upon arriving here, begins expiating the sin of our first Fathers, which was the disobedience of the forbidden fruit. His throat was the only part of his body still intact, yet with this too he wanted to suffer for us.

How great is the number of those whose God is their belly, and who have made the temple of the Holy Spirit a dwelling place for the devil, losing their body and soul to satisfy the pleasures of their flesh!

We must show obedience with our throat also, by shunning sensuousness and by accepting without complaint the food set before us, though it be of a disagreeable taste, especially when the Church’s precepts join our penitence to that of all believers.

My soul, place your Saviour before your eyes, covered in blood, wretchedly disfigured, wholly an open sore. His heart grieving, shedding the warmest tears, He raises his eyes to heaven and once again offers himself to the Eternal Father as a sacrifice for us.

“And he was heard for his godly fear” (Heb 5:7).

Once again, with unbelievable pain, they place the crown of thorns on his head which they had before removed. His blessed head is again tortured, and new blood pours upon the ground. My soul, harder than stone, why do you not bow down at his feet to wet them with your tears and receive the precious flow of blood spilling from his every part? How many graces you will find there! How much enlightenment and consolation!

My Jesus, my Saviour, my Love, allow that I embrace your sacred feet. I long to kiss them before they are nailed to the cross; and I long to be consumed by your love before death takes you from me. With your divine hands, before they are pierced by the nails, embrace my sinful soul on whose behalf You are bearing such horrible torments. Destroy its malice, in its poverty clasp it to your Heart, that it may never again be separated from you.

O Lord, I behold you deprived of everything, of your garments, the company of your relatives and friends, the sweetness of your Mother, your reputation and honour. When, O Lamb of God, will You grant me the grace to detach myself from all that keeps me from you? Your Apostle Bartholomew imitated you to the point of losing his very skin; and Peter not only wished to be crucified, but upside down. Augustine, in practicing perfect detachment from all that had been an occasion of offence to you, never again admitted a woman in his house, nor touched money for fear of contaminating his soul. Others withdrew to the desert or in cloisters; others surrendered their bodies to torture. Those who were forced to live in the world used it as if they used it not.

O Love that deprives itself of all, O Love that transforms all, change this heart of mine, make it similar to yours, poor and deprived of everything, detached from creatures and intimately joined to you. Crucify my heart with yourself and consume me by your love, O my hope, my repose and my glory.

Jesus always obeys with meekness and promptness, as He considers his tormentors the executors of his Eternal Father’s orders; this to teach us to preserve submission and inner peace in the most disagreeable and painful events of our lives.

When we suffer violence, injustice, betrayals and other sorrows, and look upon them as ordered by God, who sends them to us by means of the ministers of his loving designs, we must sincerely submit to them. However, since it is natural to view those who torment us with aversion, the person we crucify with Jesus is being called to constantly sustain an inner struggle, so that he not view his tormentor with aversion and give in to despair. He must remain close to God and receive what befalls him in a spirit of submission and surrender. He must open his heart to faith and to the certain trust that it is Jesus who is sending this pain, that he will not be tempted beyond his strength, and that this tribulation shall one day end and be turned into joy (Cf. 1 Cor 10:13 and Jn 16:20).

And now, my soul, with intimate pain observe your sweetest Redeemer: He wanted to be born naked, He lived poor and naked He suffered, being unable to cover his purest limbs; nor did he have a place to lay his sacred head.

O Mary, they will cast lots for the seamless tunic woven by your hands! Who is there here who can penetrate the heavy sorrow oppressing your Heart?

2. Jesus is crucified. My soul, the cross is ready: behold the altar upon which this divine Lamb is about to be sacrificed for you. Behold the marriage bed upon which Jesus awaits his chosen souls.

Why, O my sweet Jesus, do you not permit me to be nailed to the cross instead of you? I and not you deserve this scaffold.

Observe, my soul, with what meekness and submission He stretches out on this bed of pain, having no pillow other than his crown of thorns. He lifts his eyes to heaven to open its doors, until then closed; and because he is both the Priest who reconciles and the victim of our reconciliation, without a word He offers himself to his Eternal Father with open arms and the burning desire to save all sinners.

He says: “Father, the hour has come; glorify thy Son” (Jn 17:1).

He has stretched out his arms to invite sinners, to embrace them and present them to his Eternal Father. He leads the guilty back to God, He joins heaven and earth, and He makes one family of humanity, of which God is the Father. There had never been nor ever will be a Priest more acceptable to God, nor a more sacred altar, nor a more perfect sacrifice, nor a holier victim, since this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Observe how they seize his hands and drive huge nails through them, piercing his nerves, so that they might better support the weight of his body. The nerves contract owing to the violence of the pain. The same is done to his feet, and in this way the Saviour’s body is completely dislocated. But He is silent, He does not let a sound escape him: moreover, upon his face where the sharpest pain is depicted, there is revealed his superhuman patience, his deepest submission and his most vivid love.

My soul, if you are able, feel his pain; and if you cannot, at least desire to feel it. Ask Jesus to impress upon your heart what He is feeling in his most sacred body.

O my God, soften the hardness of my heart so that it becomes sensitive to your pain, to your love and to the hatred of sin which has reduced you to such a state. Do not deny me, O Lord, what I am seeking from you, for I cannot feel your pain if You yourself do not grant me this sentiment through your mercy. From this place your blazing heart raises its cry to all the world: “Come to me, all you who are guilty, and I shall forgive you; come to me, all you who are afflicted, and I shall comfort you; come to me in these arms extended to welcome you, all you who are lost, and I shall receive you.” “Learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Mt 11:29).

O divine Jesus, compassionate Shepherd of this tormented soul, behold I am coming to you. I obey your voice. Here is a lost sheep that is returning to the fold: welcome me in your arms. Grant me this love, this meekness, this lowliness to which you invite me. Subject me entirely to your will. Impress upon my soul these divine virtues, that I may follow close behind you and never again wander astray. For so long I have been deaf to your voice, which from within was prompting me to come to you. Open my ears today, that I may hear you and follow: and incessantly hold me with your omnipotent hand, for You know how easily I forsake you. Receive me in the company of those bearing the cross after you, and bind me to it that I may reap the fruits of salvation and of eternal love.

3. Jesus dies. When the cross, upon which the Saviour was nailed, was lifted and dropped into that hole, who can understand what pain these movements caused, what jolts to a body whose nerves were taut and limbs dislocated? He himself testified through his Prophet that all his bones could be counted! “They have pierced my hands and feet, I can count all my bones” (Psalm 21:16-17).

Before this spectacle ferocious cries of joy and derision were raised to heaven by his enemies who were satisfied, while the Saviour, suspended between heaven and earth, stretched out his arms to receive all sinners and offer Heaven to them as their possession, thus fulfilling his prophecy: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (Jn 12:32).

It was the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land; the moon was the colour of blood; man had accomplished the killing of God!

Blaspheming beneath the cross, they mocked the Son of God amidst the curses of a thief, the scorn of the vilest soldiers and the challenges of the Chief Priests and Scribes.

And Jesus, silent until then, opens his most holy mouth and utters the word of forgiveness, not only for his executioners but for all those who were the cause of his death through their sins, imploring that they not obstinately continue in their sin but be converted. And with love and moans He said: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34).

Such love! Such compassion! Why do my eyes not become two fountains of ever-flowing tears, and my heart, a furnace of eternal love? Lord, communicate the feeling of your pain to my soul.

I adore you, O Son of the living God, lifted up on the cross, exposed to the eyes of the world; I bow before you, I praise and bless you, love and thank you, and I acknowledge you as God of my heart, love of my soul. Here beneath this Cross You gather all your children scattered throughout the world; here You rip to pieces the sentence of eternal death uttered against all humankind; here You sanctify suffering and You give yourself to all souls. What an excess of love! You were born in secret and in the silence of night; You were visited and adored by a few shepherds and the three Magi alone. You were recognized in the Temple only by two just souls; you lived in obscurity for thirty years and publicly for a mere three. After your Resurrection You appeared to a few chosen persons only, for a short time and in solitary places. Only your disciples were witnesses of your Ascension, after which a cloud hid your glory from them. Yet, in being crucified You wished that this take place publicly, at the hour of noon, during Passover (when Jews came to Jerusalem from all over), between two thieves, with your arms extended and your heart full of sorrow and love.

“I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people” (Rom 10:21; Is 65:2).

O Lord, may you be blessed, praised and glorified by all creatures.

Here you are, O my Jesus, your life at an end: our Redemption is complete. All is finished: and You have not yet been taken down from the Cross! Your only thought is to suffer and to love. This is what You want us to learn from you, the model for all of humanity: not the miracles, not the glory, but the suffering and the love.

The only treasure You leave to us is your divine Mother. Mother, behold your children; Children, behold your Mother… (Cf. Jn 19:26-27). May You be blessed! This is the great treasure you left us when dying: Mary, Your own Mother.

O Mary, you witnessed the cruel and shameful things they did to your Son; you heard the blows of the hammer as they drove the nails through the hands and feet of your Beloved; you saw him nailed to the cross. What will you do now, most afflicted Mother?

She was there, still and quiet, observing that excess of pain being communicated to her through her motherly love. She was weak, from a night passed in suffering, from lack of food, from the tears she had shed. Moreover she was a woman, a mother, the Mother of God, and therefore even more sensitive. Though bearing an immeasurable pain with great effort, she did not faint as women often do; she stood firm, her soul pierced through, in everything conforming to the will of the Father.

Her tears having dried, she stood there for a time pale and trembling, until, by means of a secret virtue communicated to her by her Son, she gathered her strength and rose, opened a way for herself with St. John and the women who had accompanied her, and drew near the cross.

In that moment, standing firm and fixing her eyes on the Saviour, she became our advocate by inwardly offering to the Eternal Father the pains and the blood of their Son, with the ardent wish of saving all of humanity.

She feared to see him dying, and suffered in seeing him living in the midst of torments.

She wanted the Eternal Father to alleviate the pain, yet desired that the orders of heaven be fulfilled to their fullest.

That divine Lamb and this innocent sheep gazed at each other, and understood: each was being tormented by the other’s sufferings.

Only the two holiest Hearts of the Mother and of the Son can understand everything they suffered; because their pain is in proportion to their love, to know how much they suffered we must understand how greatly they loved. And who can measure the extent of such love?

She is holy, innocent, without a blemish, the faithful companion of her Son’s pains. What greater cross can a mother bear than that of being forced to watch her own son dying in pain and torment, and she unable to offer him solace, or utter a word of comfort?… Such a bitter cross was reserved to Mary alone, for she alone could bear it. Her love for Jesus made her suffer more than all torturers ever could.

The Saviour saw from the cross that his pain was piercing the heart of his most holy Mother, the sight of which was yet another sorrow for his gentle heart.

But his Eternal Father had wanted it so; this was the height of the sacrifice and obedience being offered to his divine Parent. Hence, he did not even comfort her with the sweet name of Mother, but said to her, Woman, behold, your son!…

VIRTUE – Fortitude.

REFLECTION – Bear with courage all the pains and adversities that befall you today, imagining yourself to be with Jesus crucified in body and in soul.

Strong in spirit, reject all temptations, recalling the Apostle’s words: “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24).

If your friends have forsaken you, do not complain. Forgive offences just as Jesus forgave those who crucified him, and for love of Mary of Sorrows give up all feelings of hatred and revenge.

Let your conversation be longer and more benevolent with those whom you do not like, while brief and reserved with those whom you like.

EJACULATION – O Mary, most bitter sea of sorrow, let me weep along with you.