On Christ being brought before Pilate
On Christ being brought before Pilate
LORD JESUS CHRIST, most just Judge of the living and the dead, I bless and thank you for your hasty and disorderly arraignment before Pilate, the governor. After morning had arrived, with all the chief priests gathered together in one place—their loathsome counsel having been decided to hand you over to death—their attendants took you, at an early hour and under restraint, to the uncircumcised heathen governor. There the most grievous accusations were brought forward against your innocence and you, whom the holy prophets in ages past had proclaimed with high praise as Savior of the world, they called malefactor and destroyer of the nation.
Such horrendous impiety to condemn an innocent person by appealing to false witnesses, to desire the death of the Author of life, to aspire to crucify Christ the King, and to curse one who is holy and just to a most shameful death! May your persecutors be confounded and put to shame. They deserve to suffer worse punishments.
I praise and glorify you, my revered Jesus, for the solemn demeanor and becoming attitude you exhibited while before the tribunal of Pilate the judge. As a meek lamb, bound with cords, you stood in the presence of your accusers—your head lowered, your eyes fixed on the ground, your face calm, speaking but few words and those in a soft voice, awaiting reproaches, and prepared for stripes.
Faithful disciple of Christ, see and consider how your Lord and Savior, King and Judge of all men, allowed himself to be dragged before this judgment seat and how he humbly and willingly subjected himself to secular powers. By this he has given us an admirable example of self-submission, that during community chapter you too may learn to accuse yourself of your many faults and shortcomings and to bear with patience as others censure you.1
Submit humbly to your superior’s judgment and do not go against those in authority, whom God has set over you. If you wish to avoid the pains of hell, then for the love of Jesus bear patiently all unjust remarks as well as any severe statements made against you. Do not let this wonderful patience of God foolishly slip from your heart when false charges are brought against you. Fall down at the feet of the bound Jesus and beg for pardon and grace. Pray also that he forgive you all your failings, and especially in this time of mercy may he correct your excesses, lest in the future he condemn you forever along with the reprobates.
Have mercy, O good Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner, for my soul trusts in you. Breathe within me a good spirit that would inflame me to a more fervent pursuit of virtue, and that would lead me to strive humbly and with my whole heart to submit myself to my superiors and to obey all their commands.
Grant me not to fear human judgments nor grudgingly to accept others’ accusations, but to desire to be so exercised, accused, and disciplined, and that the growing self-esteem that I find within me be completely trodden underfoot and that my own will be brought to nothing. Thus, by despising myself may my love for you increase and may it ever soar higher and higher.