2nd Station

THE SECOND STATION : JESUS ACCEPTS HIS CROSS

“St. Augustine assures us that there is no spiritual exercise more fruitful or more useful than the frequent reflection on the sufferings of Our Lord. St. Albert the Great, who had St. Thomas Aquinas as his student, learned in a revelation that by simply thinking of or meditating on the Passion of Jesus Christ, a Christian gains more merit than if he had fasted on bread and water every Friday for a year, or had beaten himself with the discipline once a week till blood flowed, or had recited the whole Book of Psalms every day” (The Secret of the Rosary, St. Louis Marie de Montfort, “Twenty-Eighth Rose”).

O Cross, beloved of My soul, now prepared and ready to still My longings, come to Me, that I may be received in thy arms, and that, attached to them as on an altar, I may be accepted by the Eternal Father as the sacrifice of His everlasting reconciliation with the human race.

In order to die upon thee, I have descended from Heaven and assumed mortal and passible flesh; for thou art to be the scepter with which I shall triumph over all my enemies, the key with which I shall open the gates of Heaven for all the predestined, the sanctuary in which the guilty sons of Adam shall find mercy, and the treasure house for the enrichment of their poverty.

Upon thee I desire to exalt and recommend dishonor and reproach among men, in order that My friends may embrace them with joy, seek them with anxious longings, and follow Me on the path which I through thee shall open up before them.

My Father and Eternal God, I confess Thee as the Lord of Heaven and earth, subjecting Myself to Thy power and to Thy divine wishes, I take upon My shoulders the wood for the sacrifice of My innocent and passible humanity and I accept it willingly for the salvation of men.

Receive Thou, Eternal Father, this sacrifice as acceptable to Thy justice, in order that from today on they may not anymore be servants, but sons and heirs of thy kingdom together with Me.

If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his Cross daily and follow Me.

"And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!

If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his Cross daily and follow Me.

He that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me.

God accepts the Cross given to Him by man!
Do we accept the Crosses God gives to man?
God willingly accepts the Cross that comes to Him from the hands of men. Do I accept the Cross that comes to me from the hand of God? The Cross is our salvation. It is the key to Heaven. Reject the Cross and you reject salvation. Throw it off your shoulders and you throw away the key to Heaven. The Cross stands at the heart of history. Does it also stand in my heart? Our Lord said: "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his Cross daily and follow Me." Elsewhere He says: "And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!"

God's Divine Providence sends us many crosses each day—some small, some great. Do we accept them as willingly as Our Lord accepted them for our salvation. The Cross tests our love. It proves our love. It pays our debts. It heals our wounds and bad habits. Yet how many Crosses have we thrown away by our complaints, our pride, our anger, or our faint-heartedness? Let us henceforth accept our Crosses with the supernatural vision of the predestined, rather than the too naturalistic outlook of the damned. For as St. Augustine so frighteningly says—the same Crosses and sufferings lead some souls to Heaven and other souls to Hell.

Jesus Accepts the Cross of Death
The battle was over, the enemy had won, and nothing now remained except that the execution should be carried out as quickly as might be. He, of whom it had been said, before He was yet born, that He would sit on the throne of David His Father, and that of His kingdom there would be no end, was about to be put to death.

He whose life, as an infant, Herod the Great had failed to destroy, who had openly defied the lesser Herod, saying He would die where and when He would, was at last at the mercy of His murderers.

He whom at Nazareth, at Capharnaum, then in Jerusalem, men had planned to annihilate and had failed, now at length was delivered into their hands.

They had wished to cast Him down from the mountain, and He had passed through their midst; they had taken up stones to stone Him, and He had gone out of their sight; they had sent guards to take Him, and the guards had returned empty-handed; they had plotted and devised schemes, and yet He had come in and gone out as He would, and no one had dared to lay a hand upon Him.

Now He stood before them, on the steps between them and Pilate, ' to the Jews a block of stumbling, to the Gentiles foolishness ', not only helpless to resist, but almost seeming that He would not resist even if He were able. He was to be led as a lamb to the slaughter; He would not open His mouth. The guilt of the world was upon Him and He would carry it. The sentence had been passed, by His Father, by Himself, and by man; it was for Him now to complete the greatest act of love that man has ever done, for man or for God, upon this earth.

Hurry-Up and Kill Him!
Pilate had delivered the Redeemer to the will of His accusers that they might crucify Him, and they set to work without delay. Since the advent of the emperor Tiberius to the imperial throne in Rome, criminals sentenced by the Roman senate were reprieved for ten days, and, when the emperor had personally pronounced the sentence, even for thirty days. Usually, at least one day of grace was granted. Very rarely did the execution take place on the day of the sentencing. The chief-priests would not grant Christ such a reprieve for fear that Pilate, who had seen that Jesus was innocent, might in the meantime come to his senses and regret and change the sentence of death already pronounced. Therefore, they were very anxious to get Christ out of the way as soon as possible. They took Jesus down the steps from the balcony where He had stood all this time by the side of Pilate. The Governor's work was done and he could retire to his next diversion: Israel had no further use for the despicable Gentile.

There were other executions appointed for that day, for executions were common on the eve of a great feast. Jesus, then, need not be sent back to prison to await another day. He could be put to death at once with the other criminals; one more in the group would be of no account. There was little time left for further mockery or insult; the sanction had been gained, His blood was already upon the accusers and their children, and a silence of dread determination fell upon the crowd. Indeed, from now until He is actually raised upon the cross, we hear no more of cries and accusation; the task is hurried through without a further word, even the evangelists themselves catch the spirit of the scene, and pause only twice in their story.

The Cross
The preparation for the last journey consisted in the following four things. First the cross was procured. Either it was now hurriedly constructed, or it had been made during the final trial, or perhaps the Romans kept on hand a supply of crosses for purposes similar to the present one. The cross of Christ was at least fifteen feet long including the part in the ground. For the feet of the Savior suspended on the cross were quite distant from the ground, since Scripture says that He was exalted. Then there was a rod needed to apply to His mouth the sponge saturated with vinegar. The cross-piece either at right angles with the main piece, or, in two parts, turned upwards at either side, may have been six feet long. Thickness and width were suited to the purpose of the cross, and we may truthfully say to Jesus in our prayers, "Who hast carried the heavy cross for us."

Then they prepared the title of guilt which was to be attached to the cross above the head of the Redeemer. Wooden tablets coated with plaster were used for this purpose, and for official notices there were always some on hand. The tablet had on it the name of the crime. In the case of Christ, Pilate caused the title to be written in the Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages, the first being the language of the emperor, and the other two the popular tongues. For many Jews, living in foreign parts and present for the paschal feast, understood the Greek better than the Hebrew tongue. Moreover, the use of three languages in the title had a deeper meaning. The confusion of languages at Babylon was the expression of God's anger. The holy cross, the sign of reconciliation, was to restore the unity of tongues. In the unity of faith and of love the peoples of all tongues should be united in the worship of the Crucified One. The title read, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews." Now we have it in clear terms from the judge himself that Christ was not executed on account of a crime, but because He was Jesus, that is, the Redeemer, and because He was King in the realm of truth.

A Sign for All Time
Whether Pilate, in framing this title, purposely desired to vex the chief-priests, cannot be stated with certainty. It suffices to remark that they felt and showed themselves offended and aggrieved. Therefore, according to the opinion of several commentators, they entered a protest at once in front of the court building, against the wording of the title, although St. John narrates it as happening later on. They said to Pilate, "Write not, the king of the Jews; but that he said: I am the king of the Jews." But Pilate, who towards the end had been so yielding, answered, "What I have written, I have written"; from which words they could draw the conclusion, "and thus shall it remain." For an official document cannot well be changed; it might diminish the respect due to authority. Thus Pilate, unwittingly, gave testimony unto the truth. Thus, unwittingly, at an early date, did he produce a short gospel. Not to lose time and not to anger Pilate, the chief-priests relinquished their wish. Meanwhile, the soldiers prepared the Savior for His last journey.

Pain Upon Pain
All this time Jesus had stood before the people as He had left the hands of the Roman soldiers; the red robe of mockery still covered His shoulders, the helmet of thorns was still encasing His head, the cords were still tied around His wrists, the blood flowed down His face, hiding it like a veil. Now these things were torn, once more, from His body, opening the dried wounds afresh, and the blood began to flow anew. His own garment was brought up from the barrack yard, and meekly He covered Himself with it. Just as painful to His Sacred head was the putting on of the outer garment. It was not in parts and had but a small opening at the top and therefore had to be drawn over the head to the shoulders. They then violently and amid jests pushed against the crown of thorns, if indeed they were not constrained to remove it and press it on again, owing to its long and branching thorns.

Make Sure He is Recognized!
This change of garments was, therefore, again most painful to the Redeemer. In this garment He would walk, for the last time, the streets of His beloved city. This was done, as St. Ambrose says, in order that, clothed in His own garment, He might, when led forth, be more easily recognized by the populace as the now unmasked deceiver Who had been acclaimed by their hosannas a few days before.

If he could not be recognized by his disfigured face and macerated body, then He would be recognized by His clothes. As He went or stumbled along, it should be clear, without a doubt, to every onlooker, who was the Criminal that was going to receive the reward that was His due. It was Jesus of Nazareth, the Jesus whom many knew, whom, till that moment, many had professed to revere! Who would reverence Him now?

Embracing the Cross
Finally they led Christ to the place where the cross was. We cannot help but think that at the first sight of it, undoubtedly of His own free will, the Savior was filled with fear and dismay and that He trembled even to the very marrow of His bones. How a child will tremble at the sight of the rod, a criminal at the sight of instruments of torture, a condemned man at the sight of the sword or of the gallows!

Thus and even more did the Savior tremble, for, sin excepted, He had taken upon Himself all the infirmities and weaknesses of our nature. But at the same time His soul raised itself from purely human sensations to loftier, divine thoughts and sentiments. He had so often yearned for the cross. How He had longed to see the sacrifice consummated! Now the desired hour had finally arrived.

Jesus—the Fruit on the Cross, the Fruit of the Cross.
The executioners were waiting, holding the wooden beams to which the condemned man was destined to be nailed. This cross of death would shortly become a Tree of Life, bearing the Fruit of suffering and giving life to all who would unite themselves to His sufferings through their own little crosses and eat of the life-giving Fruit in Holy Communion with this life-giving Savior. The beams were put upon His shoulders, the bed on which He was to die; meekly He put His arms about them, He pressed them to Him, for they were to be His standard through the ages.

Hail O Cross, our Only Hope
The Redeemer had, therefore, hardly looked upon the cross, when He saluted it as the instrument of the salvation of the world. He embraced it as a most intimate friend, long expected and finally found. His Divine lips imprinted upon it a tender kiss. He pressed it most joyfully to His Most Sacred Heart, and, with His own hands, He took it and laid it upon His hallowed shoulder. Two years before, not far from that very spot, He had stood over a begging cripple and had bid him arise, and take up his bed and walk; in that very street His deed had roused a controversy. He had saved others, Himself He refused to save.

Procession to Calvary, Procession through Life
There was no delay. Then a trumpet gives the signal and the triumphal procession of the King of kings is set in motion. The usual procession was formed, the herald leading, the Roman guard with the prisoners in their midst, the crowd making way, pinned against the walls of the narrow street. “And bearing His own cross, He went forth to that place which is called Calvary, but in Hebrew Golgotha.”

Thus, in the future, the Redeemer will appear with the cross in the clouds of heaven to sit in judgment upon the good and the bad. Those who will have accepted and carried their crosses in a spirit of sorrow and repentance over sin—like the Good Thief—they will find mercy and forgiveness. Those who will have baulked and bucked under their crosses, in an attempt to free themselves from their just punishment, showing no sorrow for sin, nor any desire to satisfy for their sins—like the bad thief—will perish and be judged unfavorably.

EXCERPTS FROM THE MYSTICAL CITY OF GOD
BY THE VENERABLE MARY OF AGREDA

The sentence of Pilate against our Savior having been published in a loud voice before all the people, the executioners loaded the heavy Cross, on which He was to be crucified, upon His tender and wounded shoulders. In order that He might carry it they loosened the bonds holding His hands, but not the others, since they wished to drag Him along by the loose ends of the ropes that bound His body. In order to torment Him the more they drew two loops around His throat.

The Cross was fifteen feet long, of thick and heavy timbers. The herald began to proclaim the sentence and the whole confused and turbulent multitude of the people, the executioners and soldiers, with great noise, uproar and disorder began to move from the house of Pilate to mount Calvary through the streets of Jerusalem. The Master and Redeemer of the world, Jesus, before receiving the Cross, looked upon it with a countenance full of extreme joy and exultation such as would be shown by a bridegroom looking at the rich adornments of his bride, and on receiving it, He addressed it as follows :

"O Cross, beloved of My soul, now prepared and ready to still My longings, come to Me, that I may be received in thy arms, and that, attached to them as on an altar, I may be accepted by the Eternal Father as the sacrifice of His everlasting reconciliation with the human race. In order to die upon thee, I have descended from Heaven and assumed mortal and passible flesh; for thou art to be the scepter with which I shall triumph over all my enemies, the key with which I shall open the gates of Heaven for all the predestined (Isaias 22:22), the sanctuary in which the guilty sons of Adam shall find mercy, and the treasure house for the enrichment of their poverty. Upon thee I desire to exalt and recommend dishonor and reproach among men, in order that My friends may embrace them with joy, seek them with anxious longings, and follow Me on the path which I through thee shall open up before them. My Father and Eternal God, I confess Thee as the Lord of Heaven and earth (Matthew 11:25), subjecting Myself to Thy power and to Thy divine wishes, I take upon My shoulders the wood for the sacrifice of My innocent and passible humanity and I accept it willingly for the salvation of men. Receive Thou, Eternal Father, this sacrifice as acceptable to Thy justice, in order that from today on they may not anymore be servants, but sons and heirs of thy kingdom together with Me" (Romans 8:17).

None of these sacred mysteries and happenings were hidden from the great Lady of the world, Mary; for she had a most intimate knowledge and understanding of them, far beyond that of all the angels. The events, which she could not see with the eyes of her body, she perceived by her intelligence and revealed science, which manifested to her the interior operation of her most holy Son. By this divine light she recognized the infinite value of the wood of the Cross after once it had come in contact with the deified humanity of Jesus our Redeemer. Immediately she venerated and adored it in a manner befitting it. The same was also done by the heavenly spirits attending upon the Queen. She imitated her divine Son in the tokens of affections, with which He received the Cross, addressing it in the words suited to her office as Coadjutrix of the Redeemer. By her prayers to the eternal Father she followed Him in his exalted sentiments as the living original and exemplar, without failing in the least point.

When she heard the voice of the herald publishing and rehearsing the sentence through the streets, the heavenly Mother, in protest against the accusations contained in the sentence and in the form of comments on the glory and honor of the Lord, composed a canticle of praise and worship of the innocence and sinlessness of her all-holy Son and God. In the composing of this canticle the holy angels helped her, conjointly with them she arranged and repeated it, while the inhabitants of Jerusalem were blaspheming their own Creator and Savior.

As all the faith, knowledge and love of creatures, during this time of the Passion, was enshrined in its highest essence in the magnanimous soul of the Mother of wisdom, she alone had the most proper conception and correct judgment of the suffering and death of God for men. Without for a moment failing in the attention necessary to exterior actions, her wisdom penetrated all the mysteries of the Redemption and the manner in which it was to be accomplished through the ignorance of the very men who were to be redeemed. She entered into the deepest consideration of the dignity of the One, who was suffering, of what He was suffering, from and for whom He was suffering. Of the dignity of the person of Christ our Redeemer, uniting within Himself the divine and the human natures, of their perfections and attributes, the most blessed Mary alone possessed the highest and intuitive knowledge outside of the Lord himself.

On this account she alone among all mere creatures attached sufficient importance to the Passion and Death of her Son and of the true God. Of what He suffered, she was not only an eye-witness, but she experienced it personally within herself, occasioning the holy envy not only of men, but of the angels themselves, who were not thus favored. But they well knew that their great Queen and Mistress felt and suffered in soul and body the same torments and sorrows as her most holy Son and that the Holy Trinity was inexpressibly pleased with her; and therefore they sought to make up by their praise and worship for the pains which they could not share. Sometimes, when the sorrowful Mother could not personally witness the sufferings of her Son, she was made to feel, in her virginal body and in her spirit, the effects of His torments before her intelligence made her aware of them. Thus surprised she would say: "Ah what new martyrdom have they devised for my sweetest Lord and Master?" And then she would receive the clearest knowledge of what the Lord was enduring.

The most loving Mother was so admirably faithful in her sufferings and in imitating the example of Christ our God, that she never permitted herself any easement either of her bodily pains, such as rest, or nourishment, or sleep; nor any relaxation of the spirit, such as any consoling thoughts or considerations, except when she was visited from on high by divine influence. Then only would she humbly and thankfully accept relief, in order that she might recover strength to attend still more fervently to the object of her sorrows and to the cause of His sufferings. The same wise consideration she applied to the malicious behavior of the Jews and their servants, to the needs of the human race, to their threatening ruin, and to the ingratitude of men, for whom He suffered. Thus she perfectly and intimately knew of all these things and felt it more deeply than all the creatures.

Another hidden and astonishing miracle was wrought by the right hand of God through the instrumentality of the blessed Mary against Lucifer and his infernal spirits. It took place in the following manner: The dragon and his associates, though they could not understand the humiliation of the Lord, were most attentive to all that happened in the Passion of the Lord. Now, when He took upon Himself the Cross, all these enemies felt a new and mysterious tremor and weakness, which caused in them great consternation and confused distress. Conscious of these unwanted and invincible feelings the prince of darkness feared, that in the Passion and Death of Christ Our Lord some dire and irreparable destruction of his reign was imminent. In order not to be overtaken by it in the presence of Christ our God, the dragon resolved to retire and fly with all his followers to the caverns of Hell. But when he sought to execute this resolve, he was prevented by the great Queen and Mistress of all creation; for the Most High, enlightening her and intimating to her what she was to do, at the same time invested her with His power.

The heavenly Mother, turning toward Lucifer and his squadrons, by her imperial command hindered them from fleeing; ordering them to await and witness the Passion to the end on Mount Calvary. The demons could not resist the command of the mighty Queen; for they recognized and felt the divine power operating in her. Subject to her sway they followed Christ, like many prisoners dragged along in chains to Calvary, where the Eternal Wisdom had decreed to triumph over them from the throne of the Cross, as we shall see later on. There is nothing which can exemplify the discouragement and dismay, which from that moment began to oppress Lucifer and his demons. According to our way of speaking, they walked along to Calvary like criminals condemned to a terrible death, and seized by the dismay and consternation of an inevitable punishment. This punishment of the demon was in conformity with his malicious nature and proportioned to the evil committed by him in introducing death and sin into the world, to remedy which, God himself was now undergoing death.

CONCLUDING MEDITATION AND PRAYER

V. We adore Thee, O Christ, and we praise Thee,
R.. Because by Thy holy cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

MEDITATION
God willingly accepts the Cross that comes to Him from the hands of men. Do I accept the Cross that comes to me from the hand of God? The Cross is our salvation. It is the key to Heaven. Reject the Cross and you reject salvation. Throw it off your shoulders and you throw away the key to Heaven. The Cross stands at the heart of history. Does it also stand in my heart? Our Lord said: "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his Cross daily and follow Me." Elsewhere He says: "And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!"

God's Divine Providence sends us many Crosses each day—some small, some great. Do we accept them as willingly as Our Lord accepted them for our salvation. The Cross tests our love. It proves our love. It pays our debts. It heals our wounds and bad habits. Yet how many Crosses have we thrown away by our complaints, our pride, our anger, or our faint-heartedness? Let us henceforth accept our Crosses with the supernatural vision of the predestined, rather than the too naturalistic outlook of the damned. For as St. Augustine so frighteningly says: "The same Crosses and sufferings lead some souls to Heaven and other souls to Hell."

PRAYER
O my Jesus, I cannot be Thy friend and follower, if I refuse to carry the Cross. O dearly beloved Cross! I embrace thee, I kiss thee, I joyfully accept thee from the hands of my God. Far be it from me to glory in anything, except in the Cross of my Lord and Redeemer. By it the world shall be crucified to me and I crucified to the world, that I may be Thine forever.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory Be.
V. Lord Jesus, crucified,
R. Have mercy on us!