On the pitiable appearance of Jesus after his soul left his body
On the pitiable appearance of Jesus after his soul left his body
LORD JESUS CHRIST, spotless Mirror of the Divine Majesty, I bless and thank you for your pallid and pitiable appearance at the onset of death, for as soon as your soul left your body clear signs of mortality set in. Alas, Jesus, the handsomest of men, your appealing and comely countenance was stained by the sordid spitting of unclean lips, and in your combat with death the glow of your gracious youth deserted you.
All this befell you, O most loving God, because of your desire to cleanse me of my sins. You allowed your body to be disfigured so that my soul might be purified, and you experienced a most horrible death so that I might be delivered from eternal death.
Death, what have you done? Were you not afraid to lay your hands on the Lord’s anointed? What rights do you have over him, or what defects have you discovered in the Son of God? You have attacked and assassinated him, but not without doing injury to yourself. By destroying life, you destroyed yourself, and because you have been pierced by the talons of Christ’s Divinity, you have lost your authority over your fiendish domain. By Christ’s descent into the abode of the dead, you were forced to surrender all the elect who had died in Adam’s sin, and who, for so long a time, had been held captive by the prince of darkness. It was thus foretold by the prophet: Death, I shall be your death; hell, I shall be your sting.1 And appropriately it is resonantly sung in the Church: Life dies upon the tree, the grave is deprived of its sting.2
Therefore, O Christ, by your dying the promise of life was restored to me, and with your conquering of the prince of death, a crown of joy was given me. In fact, when you succumbed on the wood of the Cross, many magnificent graces flowed from you and these have enriched our lives. The fruits derived from your Passion are inexhaustible: original sin is obliterated, personal sins are pardoned, forgiveness is more easily obtained, punishment is lessened, vengeance is suspended, all debts are paid, and mercy is shown to all who are contrite.
Lord, you did not die in vain. But for whom, then, did you die? Certainly, not for the angels, for they always remained steadfast in the truth. As for the devils, after their fall from heaven their wills became more and more obdurate, and as a result they could not be reinstated. Therefore, it was for man that you died. Deceived by the devil’s wiles, man fell and became liable to death, and so it was fitting that he, whom another’s malice had brought to ruin, should be raised up by another’s love.
O how great is that love of God and how unfathomable his wisdom! This is the astounding and ever-memorable mystery: it is through the Cross that man is saved; it is through disgrace that man enters the kingdom; it is through suffering that he achieves glory; and it is through death that he attains eternal life.
Your holy Passion, Lord, is the medicine for all our wounds. Your Cross is the defeat of all our enemies and the unfailing defense of all who believe in you. Your death is the term of our vices and the source of our virtues.
Thus, I rejoice in the benefits and fruits flowing from your Passion. I find consolation in the fact that you have redeemed me, but because of my love for you, I am at the same time saddened by your most painful death. It is a holy thing to rejoice with you because you conquered death, and it is also holy to condole with you because you endured such terrible suffering for me.
And now, faithful soul, look upon the sad and sallow face of your crucified Savior. Look intently on the various members of his dead body, and from your deep-seated compassion let the tears flow freely from your eyes. By gazing upon Jesus hanging on his Cross, you will spend your time most worthily, for your thoughts will then be given over to things holy and sublime. The image of the Crucified in the heart of the just man is like a cluster of henna from the vineyards of Engedi.3
If you are moved with pity and your heart abounds with humane sentiments, then raise your mind and heart to contemplate your God, who suffered crucifixion on your behalf and now hangs dead on the Cross. Behold the wood of the Cross, on which your salvation hangs.4 The Cross is the redemption of the believer but to the unbeliever an object of scorn.
Christ’s thorn-crowned head lies low on his sacred breast, and no longer are there any signs of life in him. His eyes see nothing—and yet nothing is secret or hidden from him. His ears hear nothing—and yet he knows all things even before they come to pass. He, who endows all flowers with sweet scents, smells nothing, and he, who gives life and supplies food to all the living, has lost his taste. He, who opened the mouths of the dumb, is now unable to move his lips, and he, who taught his followers, cannot utter a single word. The tongue that spoke only the truth is now silenced, and the face once brighter than the sun is now without color.
His cheeks, fair as those of a turtledove, have lost their radiance, and his hands, that stretched out the heavens above, are pierced by hard and sharp nails. His knees, so accustomed to being bent in prayer, are now naked and limp, and his legs, those marble columns5 that used to support his body’s weight, are now unsteady and powerless. His feet, so often weary from going about preaching, are now iron-bound to the wood of the Cross.
Every part of his body has the appearance of excruciating pain. His body is fraught with wounds, and these are begrimed with blood. His bones were not broken as in the case of the two thieves, and this was so that the Sacred Scriptures might be fulfilled. He is the true Lamb, prefigured in the Old Law, whose bones are to remain intact.
Such is my beloved, O daughters of Jerusalem, such is my friend,6 and it is to this deplorable condition that death has brought him. If I were to die a thousand times for him, it would still not be adequate compensation for his love.
O sweet Jesus, Redeemer of my soul, who can grant me to die with you on the Cross, and when it is time for me to leave my body to share in the happiness of that hour? I ask you from the bottom of my heart to allow me, in this frail body of mine, to live so as to direct all my actions and desires in accordance with your good pleasure, and that, after I prove myself through many a temptation, I may complete the course of my life in the state of grace and arrive at the reward of eternal beatitude.