On the taking down of the Lord Jesus from the Cross
On the taking down of the Lord Jesus from the Cross
LORD JESUS CHRIST, Fortitude Divine, I bless and thank you for your humility in being taken down from the tall Cross, on which, until sunset, you hung for our salvation. As evening came on, you were ordered to be taken down in accordance with the prescriptions of the old law, since the approaching Paschal Feast was to be kept on that holy Sabbath.
I praise and glorify you for the dedicated and loving attention shown you by your closest friends. When Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, a teacher of the law—both illustrious gentlemen—came with their house servants to the Cross they set up ladders; one servant climbed up on the right, another on the left, while still another busied himself freeing your feet. With great deference and devotion they withdrew from your sacred hands and feet three precious nails—worth far more than glimmering gold—and with the aid of hardy companions they reverently took hold of your most noble body and slowly and cautiously lowered it to the ground.
Blessed are you, men of mercy, for showing such compassion to the Lord, your God, in your desire to give him fitting burial. The loyalty you previously showed your Friend when he was alive, is expressed, now that he is dead, with even greater reverence. Indeed, you will receive special recompense from God in heaven, because you have demonstrated your loyalty to him while on earth. And since you have already prepared a place of burial for him on earth, he himself will undoubtedly prepare a more blessed dwelling place for you in heaven, as he had promised his disciples the night before he died.
Would that I, the least of all servants of God, had been present at the burial of my Lord, so that I could have offered him some service, no matter how slight. I certainly would willingly have held the ladder next to the Cross or handed up the instrument used to pull out the nails or given a helping hand to those holding the body.
How fortunate I would have considered myself if I had been standing so near to the Cross as to receive, as a remembrance of his Passion, one of the Lord’s nails as it fell on my breast from above. And as often as I gazed upon it, I would have been immediately reduced to tears.
I praise and honor you for that enviable embrace with which your most sorrowful Mother received you in her hands and clasped you in her arms, when your faithful and compassionate friends devoutly handed you to her and placed you in her virgin lap.
O how many tears did then flow from her most pure eyes, and how warm were the droplets that lingered on her chaste cheeks and then fell from her motherly countenance upon your broken body! O how pure the lips with which your most chaste Mother kissed your immobile limbs, and how intently and sorrowfully did she look upon your sacred wounds! O with what loving arms did she hold and enclose the blessed fruit of her womb, whom she saw immolated on the altar of the Cross for the world’s salvation! Who is there among the devout who can fathom the depth of her sorrow or tell of the profusion of tears that Jesus’ holy Mother then shed?
Now, my soul, draw nearer and devoutly kiss Jesus’ ruby-stained wounds. When he was hanging, nailed to his Cross, there was no way of your getting near to him because of the crushing crowds and the height of the cross, but now he is lying wounded and dead in his grieving Mother’s lap.
No matter how great a sinner you may be, or how acutely the fear of eternal damnation horrifies you, draw near, because it was for you that the Lamb was slaughtered and for you that the Victim, who has taken away the sin of the world, has been offered. So merciful and compassionate is the Lord Jesus, and so holy and sweet is Mary his Mother, that no one who wholeheartedly requests pardon goes away empty-handed or disappointed.
How heartwarming are these words to me, a sinner; they are sweeter to my heart than honey and the honeycomb. I well realize that whatever Jesus suffered in the flesh, he endured all for me. I am likewise aware that I am consoled and have greatly benefitted from all the good that the Virgin had done in her life, all the holy services she had rendered unto Christ, and all the trials she and Jesus had endured together in this world.
Chosen Mother, hold on your lap your beloved and only Son, who suffered a cruel death for me, and keep him there for a time, before he is placed in the tomb, while I, on bended knee, adore him here on earth. I pour out my prayers before him and kiss his wounds and limbs, disfigured by martyrdom. Hear me, my Lady; be merciful to me, answer my prayers, and offer your Son to me that I may kiss him, who so loved my soul.