5th Sorrow

THE SCHOOL AND SCIENCE OF SORROW AND SUFFERING

The School of Saints
“My most holy Son and myself are trying to find, among those who have arrived at the Way of the Cross, some soul, whom We can instruct systematically in this Divine Science; and whom We can withdraw from the worldly and diabolical wisdom, in which the sons of Adam, with blind stubbornness, are rejecting the salutary discipline of sufferings. If thou wishest to be our disciple, enter into this school, in which alone is taught the Doctrine of the Cross and the manner of reaching true peace and veritable delights. With this wisdom, the earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible; nor the vain ostentation and pomp, which fascinates the bleary-eyed worldlings, who are so covetous of passing honors, and so full of ignorant admiration for costly grandeur” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).

The Science of Saints
“My daughter, in all that thou art made to understand and write concerning these mysteries, thou drawest upon thyself, and upon mortals, a severe judgment, if thou dost not overcome thy pusillanimity, ingratitude and baseness, by meditating day and night on the Passion and Death of Jesus crucified. This is the great Science of the Saints, so little heeded by the worldly, it is the Bread of Life and the Spiritual Food of the little ones, which gives Wisdom to them and the lack of which starves the lovers of this proud world . In this science I wish thee to be studious and wise, for with it thou canst buy thyself all good things. My Son and Lord taught us this Science when He said: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life: no one cometh to My Father except through Me’ (John 14:6). ” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).

THE FIFTH SORROW OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
Mary sees Jesus Crucified and Dying on the Cross

"Pilate saith to them: 'What shall I do then with Jesus that is called Christ?" They say all: 'Let Him be crucified!' The governor said to them: 'Why, what evil hath He done?' But they cried out the more, saying: 'Let Him be crucified!' And Pilate seeing that he prevailed nothing, but that rather a tumult was made; taking water washed his hands before the people, saying: 'I am innocent of the blood of this just Man; look you to it!' And the whole people answering, said: 'His blood be upon us and our children!' Then he released to them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered Him unto them to be crucified" (Matthew 27:22-26).

Friends of the Cross, disciples of a crucified God, the mystery of the Cross is a mystery unknown to the Gentiles repudiated by the Jews and spurned by both heretics and bad Catholics, yet it is the great mystery which you must learn to practice at the school of Jesus Christ and which you can learn only at His School. You would look in vain for any philosopher who taught it in the Academies of ancient times; you would ask in vain either the senses or reason to throw any light on it, for Jesus alone, through His triumphant grace, is able to teach you this mystery and make you relish it.

Become proficient, therefore, in this super-eminent branch of learning under such a skillful Master. Having this knowledge, you will be possessed of all other branches of learning, for it surpassingly comprises them all. The Cross is our natural as well as our supernatural philosophy. It is our divine and mysterious theology. It is our philosopher-stone which, by dint of patience, is able to transmute the grossest of metals into precious ones, the sharpest pain into delight, poverty into wealth and the deepest humiliation into glory. He amongst you who knows how to carry his cross, though he know not A from B, towers above all others in learning.

Listen to the great St. Paul, after his return from the third Heaven where he was initiated into mysteries which even the Angels had not learned. He proclaims that he knows nothing and wants to know nothing but Jesus Christ crucified: “For I judged not myself to know anything among you, but Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). You can rejoice, then, if you happen to be a poor man without any schooling or a poor woman deprived of intellectual attainments, for if you know how to suffer with joy you are far more learned than a doctor of the Sorbonne who is unable to suffer as you do.

You are members of Jesus Christ: “Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid” … “Now you are the body of Christ, and members of member” … “For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth the church: Because we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones” (1 Corinthians 6:15; 12:27; Ephesian 5:29-30).

What an honor! But, also, what need for suffering this entails! When the Head is crowned with thorns should the members be wearing a laurel of roses? When the Head is jeered at and covered with mud from Calvary's road should its members be enthroned and sprayed with perfume? When the Head has no pillow on which to rest, should its members be reclining on soft feathers? What an unheard of monster such a one would be! No, no, dear companions of the Cross, make no mistake. The Christians you see around you, fashionably attired, super-sensitive, excessively haughty and sedate, are neither true disciples nor true members of the crucified Jesus. To think otherwise would be an insult to your thorn-crowned Head and His Gospel truth My God! How many would-be Christians there are who imagine they are members of the Savior when in reality they are His most insidious persecutors, for while blessing themselves with the sign of the Cross, they crucify Him in their hearts.

If you are led by the spirit of Jesus and are living the same life with Him, your thorn-crowned Head, then you must look forward to nothing but thorns, nails and lashes, in a word, to nothing but a cross. A real disciple needs to be treated as his Master was, a member as its Head. And if the Head should offer you, as He offered St. Catherine of Sienna, the choice between a crown of thorns and a crown of roses, do as she did and grasp the crown of thorns, fastening it tightly to your brow in the likeness of Jesus.

You are aware of the fact that you are living temples of the Holy Spirit: “Or know you not, that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, Who is in you, Whom you have from God; and you are not your own? For you are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) and that, like living stones: “Be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5) you are to be placed by the God of love in the heavenly Jerusalem He is building. You must expect then to be shaped, cut and chiseled under the hammer of the Cross, otherwise you would remain unpolished stone, of no value at all, to be disregarded and cast aside. Do not cause the hammer to recoil when it strikes you. Yield to the chisel that is carving you and the hand that is shaping you. It may be that this skillful and loving Architect wants to make you a cornerstone in His eternal edifice, one of His most faithful portraits in the heavenly kingdom. So let Him see to it. He loves you, He really loves you; He knows what He is doing, He has experience. Love is behind every one of His telling strokes; nor will a single stroke miscarry unless your impatience detects it.

At times the Holy Spirit compares the cross to a winnowing that clears the good grain from the chaff and dust: “He will thoroughly cleanse His floor and gather His wheat into the barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:13; Luke 3:17). Like grain in the winnowing then, let yourself be shaken up and tossed about without resistance, for the Father of the household is winnowing you and will soon have you in His harvest.

He also likens the cross to a fire whose intense heat burns rust off iron. God is a devouring fire: “Because the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, a jealous God” … “God himself will pass over before thee, a devouring and consuming fire, to destroy and extirpate and bring them to nothing before thy face quickly, as He hath spoken to thee” … “For our God is a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24; 9:3; Hebrews 12:29) dwelling in our souls through His Cross, purifying them yet not consuming them, exemplified in the past in a burning bush (Exodus 3:23).

He likens it at times to the crucible of a forge where gold is refined: “As silver is tried by fire, and gold in the furnace: so the Lord trieth the hearts” … “For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation” (Proverbs 17:3; Ecclesiasticus 2:5) and dross vanishes in smoke, but, in the processing, the precious metal must be tried by fire while the baser constituents go up in smoke and flame. So, too. in the crucible of tribulation and temptation, true Friends of the Cross are purified by their constancy in suffering while the enemies of the Cross vanish in smoke by their impatience and murmurings.

Below you will find an account of the Crucifixion and Death of Our Lord, together with some comments of Our Lady, as related by Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, taken from the book, The Mystical City of God.

THE MYSTICAL CITY OF GOD : Volume 3 : The Transfixion
Book 2: "The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus"

Our Savior then, the new and true Isaac, the Son of the eternal Father, reached the mountain of sacrifice, which is the same one to which His prototype and figure, Isaac, was brought by the patriarch Abraham (Genesis 22:9). Upon the most innocent Lamb of God was to be executed the rigor of the sentence, which had been suspended in favor of the son of the Patriarch. Mount Calvary was held to be a place of defilement and ignominy, as being reserved for the chastisement of condemned criminals, whose corpses spread around it their stench and attached to it a still more evil fame. Our most loving Jesus arrived at its summit so worn out, wounded, torn and disfigured, that He seemed altogether transformed into an object of pain and sorrows. The power of the Divinity, which deified His most holy humanity by its hypostatical union, helped Him, not to lighten His pains, but to strengthen Him against death; so that, still retaining life until death should be permitted to take it away on the Cross, He might satiate His love to the fullest extent. The sorrowful and afflicted Mother, in the bitterness of her soul, also arrived at the summit of the mount and remained very close to her divine Son; but, in the sorrows of her soul, she was as it were beside herself, being entirety transformed by her love and by the pains which she saw Jesus suffer. Near her were St. John and the three Marys; for they alone, through her intercession and the favor of the eternal Father, had obtained the privilege of remaining so constantly near to the Savior and to His Cross.

When the most prudent Mother perceived that now the mysteries of the Redemption were to be fulfilled and that the executioners were about to strip Jesus of his clothes for crucifixion, she turned in spirit to the eternal Father and prayed as follows: “My Lord and eternal God, Thou art the Father of thy only-begotten Son. By eternal generation He is engendered, God of the true God, namely Thyself, and as man He was born of my womb and received from me this human nature, in which He now suffers. I have nursed and sustained Him at my own breast; and as the best of sons that ever can be born of any creature, I love Him with maternal love. As His Mother I have a natural right in the Person of His most holy humanity and Thy Providence will never infringe upon any rights held by Thy creatures. This right of a Mother then, I now yield to Thee and once more place in thy hands Thy and my Son as a sacrifice for the Redemption of man. Accept, my Lord, this pleasing offering, since this is more than I can ever offer by submitting my own self as a victim or to suffering. This sacrifice is greater, not only because my Son is the true God and of Thy own substance, but because this sacrifice costs me a much greater sorrow and pain. For if the lots were changed and I should be permitted to die, in order to preserve His most holy life, I would consider it a great relief and the fulfilment of my dearest wishes.”

The eternal Father received this prayer of the exalted Queen with ineffable pleasure and complacency. The patriarch Abraham was permitted to go no further than to prefigure and attempt the sacrifice of a son, because the real execution of such a sacrifice God reserved to Himself and to His Only-begotten. Nor was Sara, the mother of Isaac, informed of the mystical ceremony, this being prevented not only by the promptness of Abraham’s obedience, but also because he mistrusted, lest the maternal love of Sara, though she was a just and holy woman, should impel her to prevent the execution of the divine command. But not so was it with most holy Mary, to whom the eternal Father could fearlessly manifest his unchangeable will in order that she might, as far as her powers were concerned, unite with Him in the sacrifice of His Only-begotten.

The invincible Mother finished her prayer and she perceived that the impious ministers were preparing to give to the Lord the drink of wine, myrrh and gall, of which St. Matthew and St. Mark speak (Matthew 27:34; Mark 15:23). Taking occasion from the words of Solomon: Give strong drink to the sorrowful and wine to those that suffer bitterness of heart, the Jews were accustomed to give to those about to be executed a drink of strong and aromatic wine in order to raise their vital spirits and to help them to bear their torments with greater fortitude. This custom they now perverted in order to augment the sufferings of the Savior (Proverbs 3:6). The drink, which was intended to assist and strengthen other criminals, by the perfidy of the Jews, was now mixed with gall, so that it should have no other effect than to torment his sense of taste by its bitterness. The blessed Mother was aware of their intentions and in her maternal tenderness and compassion asked the Lord not to drink of it. Jesus in deference to the petition of his Mother, without rejecting entirely this new suffering, tasted of the mixture, but would not drink it entirely (Matthew 27:34)

It was already the sixth hour, which corresponds to our noontime, and the executioners, intending to crucify the Savior naked, despoiled Him of the seamless tunic and of his garments. As the tunic was large and without opening in front, they pulled it over the head of Jesus without taking off the crown of thorns; but on account of the rudeness with which they proceeded, they inhumanly tore off the crown with the tunic. Thus they opened anew all the wounds of his head, and in some of them remained the thorns, which, in spite of their being so hard and sharp, were wrenched off by the violence with which the executioners despoiled Him of his tunic and, with it, of the crown. With heartless cruelty they again forced it down upon his sacred head, opening up wounds upon wounds. By the rude tearing off of the tunic were renewed also the wounds of his whole body, since the tunic had dried into the open places and its removal was, as David says, adding new pains to his wounds (Psalm 68:27). Four times during the Passion did they despoil Jesus of his garments and again vest Him. The first time in order to scourge Him at the pillar; the second time in order to clothe Him in the mock purple; the third, when they took this off in order to clothe Him in His tunic; the fourth, when they finally took away His clothes. This last was the most painful, because His wounds were more numerous, His holy humanity was much weakened, and there was less shelter against the sharp wind on Mount Calvary; for also this element was permitted to increase the sufferings of His death struggle, by sending its cold blasts across the mount.

To all these sufferings was added the confusion of being bereft of His garments in the presence of His most Blessed Mother, of her pious companions, and in full sight of the multitudes gathered around. By his divine power He, however, reserved for Himself the nether garment which His Mother had wound around His loins in Egypt; for neither at the scourging, nor at the crucifixion could the executioners remove it, and He was laid in the sepulcher still covered with this cloth. That this really happened, has been revealed to me many times. Certainly, He desired to die in the greatest poverty and to take with Him nothing of all that He created and possessed in this world. He would gladly have died entirely despoiled and bereft of even this covering, if it had not been for the desires and the prayers of His blessed Mother, to which Christ wished to yield. On her account, He substituted this most perfect obedience of a Son toward His Mother for extreme poverty at His Death. The holy Cross was lying on the ground and the executioners were busy making the necessary preparations for crucifying Him and the two thieves. In the meanwhile our Redeemer and Master prayed to the Father in the following terms:

“Eternal Father and my Lord God, to the incomprehensible Majesty of Thy infinite goodness and justice I offer My entire humanity and all that according to Thy will it has accomplished in descending from Thy bosom to assume passible and mortal flesh for the Redemption of men, My brethren. I offer Thee, Lord, with Myself, also My most loving Mother, her love, her most perfect works, her sorrows, her sufferings, her anxious and prudent solicitude in serving Me, imitating Me and accompanying Me unto death. I offer Thee the little flock of My Apostles, the Holy Church and congregation of the faithful, such as it is now and as it shall be to the end of the world; and with it I offer to Thee all the mortal children of Adam. All this I place in Thy hands as the true and almighty Lord and God. As far as My wishes are concerned, I suffer and die for all, and I desire that all shall be saved, under the condition that all follow Me and profit of My Redemption. Thus may they pass from the slavery of the devil to be Thy children, My brethren and co-heirs of the grace merited by Me. Especially, O My Lord, do I offer to Thee the poor, the despised and afflicted, who are My friends and who follow Me on the way to the Cross. I desire that the just and the predestined be written in Thy eternal memory. I beseech Thee, My Father, to withhold Thy chastisement and not to raise the scourge of Thy justice over men; let them not be punished as they merit for their sins. Be Thou from now on their Father as Thou art Mine. I beseech Thee also, that they may be helped to ponder upon My Death in pious affection and be enlightened from above; and I pray for those who are persecuting Me, in order that they may be converted to the truth. Above all do I ask Thee for the exaltation of Thy ineffable and most Holy Name.”

This prayer and supplication of our Savior Jesus were known to the most blessed Mother, and she imitated Him and made the same petitions to the eternal Father in as far as she was concerned. The most prudent Virgin never forgot or disregarded the first word which she had heard from the mouth of her divine Son as an infant: “Become like unto Me, my Beloved.” His promise, that in return for the new human existence which she had given Him in her virginal womb, He would, by His almighty power, give her a new existence of divine and eminent grace above all other creatures, was continually fulfilled. To this favor was due also her deep science and enlightenment, concerning all the operations of the sacred humanity of her Son, none of which ever escaped her knowledge and attention. Whatever she thus perceived, she imitated; so that she was always anxious to study and penetrate them with deep understanding, to put them promptly into action, and to practice them courageously and zealously during all her life. In this neither sorrow could disturb her, nor anguish hinder her, nor persecution detain her, nor the bitterness of her suffering weaken her. If the great Queen had assisted at the Passion with the same sentiments as the rest of the just, it would indeed have been admirable; but not so admirable as the way in which she suffered. She was singular and extraordinary in all her sufferings; for, as I have said above, she felt in her own virginal body all the torments of Christ our Lord, both interior and exterior. On account of this conformity we can say, that also the heavenly Mother was scourged, crowned, spat upon, buffeted, laden with the Cross and nailed upon it; for she felt these pains and all the rest in her purest body. Although she felt them in a different manner, yet she felt them with such conformity, that the Mother was altogether a faithful likeness of her Son. Besides the greatness of her dignity, which in most holy Mary must, on this account, have corresponded in the highest possible degree with that of Christ, there was concealed therein another mystery. This was, that the desire of Christ to see His exalted love and benignity as exhibited in His Passion copied in all its magnitude in a mere creature, was fulfilled in her, and no one possessed a greater right to this favor than His own Mother.

In order to find the places for the auger holes on the Cross, the executioners haughtily commanded the Creator of the universe. (O dreadful temerity!), to stretch Himself out upon it. The Teacher of humility obeyed without hesitation. But they, following their inhuman instinct of cruelty, marked the places for the holes, not according to the size of His body, but larger, having in mind a new torture for their Victim. This inhuman intent was known to the Mother of light, and the knowledge of it was one of the greatest afflictions of her chastest heart during the whole Passion. She saw through the intentions of these ministers of sin and she anticipated the torments, to be endured by her beloved Son, when His limbs should be wrenched from their sockets in being nailed to the Cross. But she could not do anything to prevent it, as it was the will of the Lord to suffer these pains for men. When He rose from the Cross, and they set about boring the holes, the great Lady approached and took hold of one of His hands, adoring Him and kissing it with greatest reverence. The executioners allowed this because they thought that the sight of His Mother would cause so much the greater affliction to the Lord; for they wished to spare Him no sorrow they could cause Him. But they were ignorant of the hidden mysteries; for the Lord, during His Passion, had no greater source of consolation and interior joy, than to see, in the soul of his most blessed Mother, the beautiful likeness of Himself and the full fruits of His Passion and Death. This joy, to a certain extent, comforted Christ our Lord also in that hour.

Having bored the three holes into the Cross, the executioners again commanded Christ the Lord to stretch Himself out upon it in order to be nailed to it. The supreme and almighty King, as the Author of patience, obeyed, and at the will of the hangmen, placed Himself with outstretched arms upon the blessed wood. The Lord was so weakened, disfigured and exhausted, that if the ferocious cruelty of those men had left the least room for natural reason and kindness, they could not have brought themselves to inflict further torments upon the innocent and meek Lamb, humbly suffering such nameless sorrows and pains. But not so with them; for the judges and their executioners (O terrible and most hidden judgments of the Lord! ) were transformed in their malice and deathly hatred into demons, void of the feelings of sensible and earthly men and urged on only by diabolical wrath and fury.

Presently, one of the executioners seized the hand of Jesus our Savior and placed it upon the auger hole, while another hammered a large and rough nail through the palm. The veins and sinews were torn, and the bones of the sacred hand, which made the heavens and all that exists, were forced apart. When they stretched out the other hand, they found that it did not reach up to the auger hole; for the sinews of the other arm had been shortened and the executioners had maliciously set the holes too far apart, as I have mentioned above. In order to overcome the difficulty, they took the chain, with which the Savior had been bound in the garden, and looping one end through a ring around His wrist, they, with unheard of cruelty, pulled the hand over the hole and fastened it with another nail. Thereupon they seized His feet, and placing them one above the other, they tied the same chain around both and stretched them with barbarous ferocity down to the third hole. Then they drove through both feet a large nail into the Cross. Thus the Sacred Body, in which dwelled the Divinity, was nailed motionless to the holy Cross, and the handiwork of His deified members, formed by the Holy Ghost, was so stretched and torn asunder, that the bones of His body, dislocated and forced from their natural position, could all be counted. The bones of His breast, of His shoulders and arms, and of His whole body yielded to the cruel violence and were torn from their sinews.

It is impossible for human tongue or words of mouth to describe the torments of our Savior Jesus and what He suffered on this occasion. On the last day alone more will be known, in order that His cause may be justified before sinners and the praise and exaltation of the saints may be so much the greater. But at present, while our Faith in this truth, gives us occasion and obliges us to apply our reason (if such we possess), I ask, implore and beseech the children of the holy Church, each one for himself, to study this most venerable sacrament. Let us contemplate it and weigh it with all its circumstances, and we shall find powerful motives to abhor and firmly resolve to avoid sin, as the cause of all this suffering to the Author of life. Let us contemplate and look upon His Virgin Mother, so afflicted in spirit and overwhelmed by the torments of her purest body, in order that through this gate of light we may enter to see the Sun that illumines our heart. O Mistress and Queen of virtues! O true Mother of the immortal King of ages become man! It is true, O my Lady, that the hardness of our ungrateful hearts makes us very unfit and unworthy of suffering thy pains and those of thy most holy Son our Lord; but through thy clemency make us partakers of this favor, which we do not deserve. Purify and free us from this deadening lukewarmness and gross neglect. If we are the cause of these sufferings, what propriety or what justice can there be in visiting them only on thee and on thy Beloved? Let the chalice pass from the lips of the Innocent, in order that it may be tasted by the guilty who deserve it. But alas! Where is our good sense? Where wisdom and knowledge? Where is the light of our eyes? Who has so entirely deprived us of our understanding? Who has robbed us of our human and sensible hearts? If I, O Lord, had not received from Thee this being according to thy image and likeness; if Thou hadst not given me life and motion; if all the elements and creatures, formed by Thy hand for my service (Eccleasiasticus 39:30), were not giving me continual notice of Thy immense love: at least Thy being nailed so outrageously to the Cross, and all Thy torments and sorrows for my salvation, should have sufficed to draw me to Thee with the bonds of compassion and gratitude, of love and confidence in Thy ineffable kindness. But if so many voices cannot awaken me, if such love does not enkindle mine, if Thy Passion and Death do not move me, if such great benefits cannot oblige me, what end shall I expect as the result of my foolishness?

After the Savior was nailed to the Cross, the executioners judged it necessary to bend the points of the nails which projected through the back of the wood, in order that they might not be loosened and drawn out by the weight of the body. For this purpose they raised up the Cross in order to turn it over, so that the body of the Lord would rest face downward upon the ground, with the weight of the Cross upon Him. This new cruelty appalled all the bystanders and a shout of pity arose in the crowd. But the sorrowful and compassionate Mother intervened by her prayers, and asked the eternal Father not to permit this boundless outrage to happen in the way the executioners had intended. She commanded her holy angels to come to the assistance of their Creator. When, therefore, the executioners raised up the Cross to let it fall, with the crucified Lord face downward upon the ground, the holy angels supported Him and the Cross above the stony and fetid ground, so that His divine countenance did not come in contact with the rocks and pebbles. Thus altogether ignorant of the miracle the executioners bent over the points of the nails; for the sacred body was so near to the ground and the Cross was so firmly held by the angels, that the Jews thought it rested upon the hard rock.

Then they dragged the lower end of the Cross with the crucified God near to the hole, wherein it was to be planted. Some of them getting under the upper part of the Cross with their shoulders, others pushing upward with their halberds and lances, they raised the Savior on His Cross and fastened its foot in the hole they had drilled into the ground. Thus our true life and salvation now hung in the air upon the sacred wood in full view of the innumerable multitudes of different nations and countries. I must not omit mentioning another barbarity inflicted upon the Lord as they raised Him: for some of them placed the sharp points of their lances and halberds to his body and fearfully lacerating Him under the armpits in helping to push the Cross into position. At this spectacle new cries of protest arose with still more vehemence and confusion from the multitude of people. The Jews blasphemed, the kindhearted lamented, the strangers were astounded, some of them called the attention of the bystanders to the proceedings, others turned away their heads in horror and pity; others took to themselves a warning from this spectacle of suffering, and still others proclaimed Him a just Man. All these different sentiments were like arrows piercing the heart of the afflicted Mother. The sacred body now shed much blood from the nail wounds, which, by its weight and the shock of the Cross falling into the hole, had widened. They were the fountains, now opened up, to which Isaias invites us to hasten, with joy, to quench our thirst and wash off the stains of our sins (Isaias 12:3). No one shall be excused who does not quickly approach to drink of them; since the waters are sold without exchange of silver or gold, and they are given freely to those who will but receive them (Isaias 54:1).

Then they crucified also the two thieves and planted their crosses to the right and the left of the Savior; for thereby they wished to indicate that He deserved the most conspicuous place as being the greatest malefactor. The Pharisees and Priests, forgetting the two thieves, turned all the venom of their fury against the sinless and holy One by nature. Wagging their heads in scorn and mockery (Matthew 27:39) they threw stones and dirt at the Cross of the Lord and His royal Person, saying: “Ah Thou, who destroyest the temple and in three days rebuildest it, save now Thyself; others He has made whole, Himself He cannot save; if this be the Son of God let Him descend from the Cross, and we will believe in Him” (Matthew 27:42). The two thieves in the beginning also mocked the Lord and said: “If Thou art the Son of God, save Thyself and us.” These blasphemies of the two thieves caused special sorrow to our Lord, since they were so near to death and were losing the fruit of their death pains, by which they could have satisfied in part for their justly punished crimes. Soon after, however, one of them availed himself of the greatest opportunity that a sinner ever had in this world, and was converted from his sins.

When the great Queen of the angels, most holy Mary, perceived that the Jews in their perfidy and obstinate envy vied in dishonoring Him, in blaspheming Him as the most wicked of men and in desiring to blot out His name from the land of the living, as Jeremias had prophesied (Jeremias 11:19), she was inflamed with a new zeal for the honor of her Son and true God. Prostrate before the person of the Crucified, and adoring Him, she besought the eternal Father to see to the honor of His Only-begotten and manifest it by such evident signs that the perfidy of the Jews might be confounded and their malice frustrated of its intent. Having presented this petition to the Father, she, with the zeal and authority of the Queen of the universe, addressed all the irrational creatures and said: “Insensible creatures, created by the hand of the Almighty, do you manifest your compassion, which in deadly foolishness is denied to Him by men capable of reason. Ye heavens, thou sun, moon and ye stars and planets, stop in your course and suspend your activity in regard to mortals. Ye elements, change your condition, earth lose thy stability, let your rocks and cliffs be rent. Ye sepulchres and monuments of the dead, open and send forth your contents for the confusion of the living. Thou mystical and figurative veil of the Temple, divide into two parts and by thy separation threaten the unbelievers with chastisement, give witness to the truth and to the glory of their Creator and Redeemer, which they are trying to obscure.”

In virtue of this prayer and of the commands of Mary, the Mother of the Crucified, the Omnipotence of God had provided for all that was to happen at the death of His Onlybegotten. The Lord enlightened and moved the hearts of many of the bystanders, at the time of these happenings on earth, and even before that time, in order that they might confess Jesus crucified as holy, just and as the true Son of God. This happened, for instance, with the centurion and many others mentioned in the Gospels, who went away from Calvary striking their breasts in sorrow. Among them were, not only those who previously had heard and believed His doctrine, but also a great number of such as had never seen Him, or witnessed his miracles. For the same reason Pilate was also inspired not to change the title of the Cross, which they had placed over the head of the Savior, in Hebrew, Greek and Latin. For when the Jews protested and asked him not to write: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”; but: “This one says, He is King of the Jews”; Pilate answered: “What is written, is written, and I do not wish it to be changed.” All the inanimate creatures, by divine will, obeyed the command of the most holy Mary. From the noon hour until three o’clock in the afternoon, which was called the ninth hour, when the Lord expired, they exhibited the great disturbances and changes mentioned in the Gospels. The sun hid its light, the planets showed great alterations, the earth quaked, many mountains were rent; the rocks shook one against the other, the graves opened and sent forth some of the dead alive. The changes in the elements and in the whole universe were so notable and extraordinary, that they were evident on the whole earth. All the Jews of Jerusalem were dismayed and astonished; although their outrageous perfidy and malice made them unworthy of the truth and hindered them from accepting what all the insensible creatures preached to them.

The soldiers who had crucified Jesus our Savior, according to a custom, permitting the executioners to take possession of the property of those whom they executed, now proceeded to divide the garments of the innocent Lamb. The cloak or outside mantle, which by divine disposition they had brought to Mount Calvary and which was the one Christ had laid aside at the washing of the feet, they divided among themselves, cutting it into four parts (John 19:23). But the seamless tunic, by a mysterious decree of Providence, they did not divide, but they drew lots and assigned it entirely to the one who drew the lot for it; thus fulfilling the prophecy in the twenty first Psalm. The mysterious signification of the undivided tunic is variously explained by the saints and doctors; one of these explanations being, that though the Jews lacerated and tore with wounds the sacred humanity of Christ our Lord, yet they could not touch or injure the Divinity, which was enclosed in the sacred humanity; and whoever should draw the lot of justification, by partaking of His Divinity, should thenceforward possess and enjoy it entirely.

As the wood of the Cross was the throne of His majesty and the chair of the doctrine of life, and as He was now raised upon it, confirming his doctrine by his example, Christ now uttered those words of highest charity and perfection: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!” (Luke 23:34). This principle of charity and fraternal love the divine Teacher had appropriated to Himself and proclaimed by His own lips (John 15:12; Matthew 15:44). He now confirmed and executed it upon the Cross, not only pardoning and loving His enemies, but excusing those under the plea of ignorance, whose malice had reached the highest point possible to men in persecuting, blaspheming and crucifying their God and Redeemer. Such was the difference between the behavior of ungrateful men, favored with so great enlightenment, instruction and blessing; and the behavior of Jesus in His most burning charity, while suffering the crown of thorns, the nails, and the Cross and unheard of blasphemy at the hands of men. O incomprehensible love! O ineffable sweetness! A patience inconceivable to man, admirable to the angels and fearful to the devils! One of the two thieves, called Dismas, became aware of some of the mysteries. Being assisted at the same time by the prayers and intercession of most holy Mary, he was interiorly enlightened concerning his Rescuer and Master by the first word on the Cross. Moved by true sorrow and contrition for his sins, he turned to his companion and said: “Neither dost thou fear God, seeing that thou art under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man hath done no evil.” And thereupon speaking to Jesus, he said: “Lord, remember me when Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom!” (Luke 23:40).

In this happiest of thieves, in the centurion, and in the others who confessed Jesus Christ on the Cross, began to appear the results of the Redemption. But the one most favored was this Dismas, who merited to hear the second word of the Savior on the Cross: “Amen, I say to thee, this day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise!” O fortunate thief, who, of all others, heard those words so much desired by all the saints and just of the earth! Such a word the ancient Patriarchs and Prophets did not hear; they had judged themselves very happy to be allowed to descend into limbo and wait through the long ages for paradise, which thou, in changing so happily thy condition, didst acquire in one moment. Thou hast now ceased to rob earthly possessions of thy neighbor, and immediately snatchest Heaven from the hands of thy Master. Thou seizest it in justice and He yields it to thee in grace, since thou wast the last disciple of His doctrine on earth and the most alert of all in practicing it, after having heard it from His mouth. Thou hast lovingly corrected thy brother, confessed thy Creator, reprehended those who blasphemed Him, imitated Him in patient suffering, asked Him humbly, as thy Redeemer, not to forget thy miseries; and He, as thy Exaulter, has at once fulfilled thy desires, without delaying the guerdon merited for thee and all the mortals.

683. Having thus justified the good thief, Jesus turned His loving gaze upon His afflicted Mother, who with St. John was standing at the foot of the Cross. Speaking to both, He first addressed His Mother, saying:

“Woman, behold thy son!” and then to the Apostle: “Behold thy Mother!” (John 19:26). The Lord called her “Woman” and not “Mother”, because this name of “Mother” had in it something of sweetness and consolation, the very pronouncing of which would have been a sensible relief. During His Passion He would admit of no exterior consolation, having renounced for that time all exterior alleviation and easement, as I have mentioned above. By this word “Woman” He tacitly and by implication wished to say: “Woman blessed among all women, the most prudent among all the daughters of Adam, Woman, strong and constant, unconquered by any fault of thy own, unfailing in my service and most faithful in thy love toward Me, which even the mighty waters of my Passion could not extinguish or resist (Canticles 8:7), I am going to My Father and cannot accompany thee further; My beloved disciple will attend upon thee and serve thee as his Mother, and he will be thy son.” All this the heavenly Queen understood. The holy Apostle, on his part, received her as his own from that hour on; for he was enlightened anew in order to understand and appreciate the greatest treasure of the Divinity in the whole creation next to the humanity of Christ our Savior. In this light he reverenced and served her for the rest of her life, as I will relate farther on. Our Lady also accepted him as her son, in humble subjection and obedience. Always practicing the highest possible perfection and holiness without failing on any occasion, and not permitting even the immensity of her present suffering to weigh down her magnanimous and most prudent heart, she promised then and there that she would show him this obedience during her whole life.

Already the ninth hour of the day was approaching, although the darkness and confusion of nature made it appear to be rather a chaotic night. Our Savior spoke the fourth word from the Cross in a loud and strong voice, so that all the bystanders could hear it: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). Although the Lord had uttered these words in His own Hebrew language, they were not understood by all. Since they began with: “Eli, Elli,” some of them thought He was calling upon Elias, and a number of them mocked Him saying: “Let us see whether Elias shall come to free Him from our hands?” But the mystery, concealed beneath these words, was just as profound as it was unintelligible to the Jews and Gentiles; and they have been interpreted in many ways by the Doctors of the Church. I shall give the interpretation which has been manifested to me. The dereliction of which Christ speaks, was not one in which the Divinity separated from the humanity, dissolving the hypostatic union, nor including a cessation of the beatific vision in His soul; for both of these He enjoyed from the first moment of His conception, by the Holy Ghost, in the virginal womb and could never lose. But certainly the sacred humanity was in so far forsaken by the Divinity, as it did not ward off death or the most bitter sorrows of His Passion; though, on the other hand, the eternal Father did not forsake Him entirely, since He showed his concern by causing the changes in the visible creation in order to give witness for His honor at His Death. Christ our Savior intimated quite a different dereliction by these words of complaint, one which originated from His immense love for men; namely, from His love of the foreknown as lost and the reprobate, which during His last hour caused in Him the same anguish as it did during His prayer in the Garden. He grieved that His copious and superabundant Redemption, offered for the whole human race, should not be efficacious in the reprobate and that He should find Himself deprived of them in the eternal happiness, for which He had created and redeemed them. As this was to happen in consequence of the decree of His Father’s eternal will, He lovingly and sorrowfully complained of it in the words: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” that is, in so far as God deprived Him of the salvation of the reprobate.

In confirmation of this sorrow the Lord added: “I thirst!” The sufferings of the Lord and His anguish could easily cause a natural thirst. But for Him this was not a time to complain of this thirst or to quench it; and therefore Jesus would not have spoken of it, so near to its expiration, unless in order to give expression to a most exalted mystery. He was thirsting to see the captive children of Adam make use of the liberty, which He merited for them and offered to them, and which so many were abusing. He was athirst with the anxious desire that all should correspond with Him in the faith and love due to Him, that they profit by His merits and sufferings, accept His friendship and grace now acquired for them, and that they should not lose the eternal happiness which He was to leave as an inheritance to those that wished to merit and accept it. This was the thirst of our Savior and Master; and the most blessed Mary alone understood it perfectly and began, with ardent affection and charity, to invite and interiorly to call upon all the poor, the afflicted, the humble, the despised and downtrodden to approach their Savior and thus quench, at least in part, His thirst which they could not quench entirely. But the perfidious Jews and the executioners, evidencing their unhappy hardheartedness, fastened a sponge, soaked in gall and vinegar, to a reed and mockingly raised it to His mouth, in order that He might drink of it. Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of David: “In my thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink” (John 16:28; Psalm 68:22). Our most patient Savior tasted of it, partaking of this drink in mysterious submission to the condemnation of the reprobate. But at the instance of His Blessed Mother, He immediately desisted; because the Mother of grace was to be the portal and Mediatrix of those who were to profit of the Passion and the Redemption of mankind.

In connection with this same mystery the Savior then pronounced the sixth word: “Consumma tum est,” “It is consummated” (John 19:29). Now is consummated this work of my coming from Heaven and I have obeyed the command of My eternal Father, Who sent Me to suffer and die for the salvation of mankind. Now are fulfilled the Holy Scriptures, the prophecies and figures of the Old Testament, and the course of My earthly and mortal life assumed in the womb of My Mother. Now are established on earth My example, My doctrines, My Sacraments and My remedies for the sickness of sin. Now is appeased the justice of My eternal Father, in regard to the debt of the children of Adam. Now is my holy Church enriched with the remedies for the sins committed by men; the whole work of My coming into the world is perfected in so far as concerns Me, its Restorer; the secure foundation of the triumphant Church is now laid in the Church militant, so that nothing can overthrow or change it. These are the mysteries contained in the few words: “Consummatum est.”

Having finished and established the work of Redemption in all its perfection, it was becoming that the incarnate Word, just as He came forth from the Father to enter mortal life (John 16:8), should enter into immortal life of the Father through death. Therefore Christ our Savior added the last words uttered by Him:

“Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.” The Lord spoke these words in a loud and strong voice, so that the bystanders heard them. In pronouncing them He raised His eyes to Heaven, as one speaking with the eternal Father, and with the last accent He gave up His spirit and inclined His head. By the divine force of these words, Lucifer, with all his demons, were hurled into the deepest caverns of Hell, there they lay motionless, as I shall relate in the next chapter. The invincible Queen and Mistress of all virtues understood these mysteries beyond the understanding of all creatures, as she was the Mother of the Savior and the Coadjutrix of His Passion. In order that she might participate in it to the end, just as she had felt in her own body the other torments of her Son, she now, though remaining alive, felt and suffered the pangs and agony of His death. She did not die in reality; but this was because God miraculously preserved her life, when according to the natural course death should have followed. This miraculous aid was more wonderful than all the other favors she received during the Passion. For this last pain was more intense and penetrating; and all that the martyrs and the men sentenced to death have suffered from the beginning of the world cannot equal what the blessed Mary suffered during the Passion.

INSTRUCTION WHICH THE MOST HOLY QUEEN MARY GAVE ME

I, as thy Mother and thy Instructress, shall ask the Lord, by His divine power, to impress in thy heart the knowledge, which I have vouchsafed thee, in order that it may remain fixed and ever present to thee as long as thou livest. In virtue of this blessing, keep in thy memory Christ crucified, Who is my divine Son and thy Spouse, and never forget the sufferings of the Cross and the doctrine taught by Him upon it. This is the mirror by which thou must arrange all thy adornments and the source from which thou art to draw thy interior beauty, like a true daughter of the Prince (Psalm 44:14), in order that thou mayest be prepared, proceed and reign as the spouse of the supreme King. As this honorable title obliges thee to seek, with all thy power, to imitate Him as far as is becoming thy station and possible to thee by His grace, and as this is to be the true fruit of my doctrine, I wish that, from today on, thou live crucified with Christ, entirely assimilated to thy exemplar and model and dead to this earthly life (2 Corinthians 5:15). I desire that in thee shall vanish the effects of the first sin, that thou live only for the operations and movements of divine virtue, and that thou renounce thy inheritance as a daughter of the first Adam, in order that in thee may bear fruit the inheritance of the second Adam, who is Jesus Christ, thy Redeemer and Teacher.

Thy state of life must be for thee a most rigid cross, on which thou must remain crucified, and thou must not widen thy path by seeking for dispensation to make it easy and comfortable, but at the same time, insecure and full of imperfections. This is the deception into which the children of Babylon and of Adam fall, that each one, according to his state, seeks to find ease in the work commanded by the law of God. They set aside the salvation of their soul, in their efforts to buy Heaven very cheaply, or risk losing it, by dreading the restrictions and entire subjection necessary to observe rigorously the divine law and its precepts. Hence arises the desire to find explanations and opinions, which smooth the paths and highways of eternal life, without heeding the doctrine of my divine Son, that the path of life is very narrow (Matthew 7:14). They forget that the Lord Himself has walked these narrow paths, in order that no one might imagine he can reach eternal life over paths more spacious and comfortable to the flesh and to the inclinations vitiated by sins. This danger is greater for ecclesiastics and religious, who by their very state must follow the Master, and must accommodate themselves to His life of poverty and must choose for this purpose the Way of the Cross. Some of them however are apt to seek the dignities, attached to the religious state, for their temporal advantage, for the increase of their own honor and praise. In order to secure it, they lighten the Cross they have promised to bear, so that they live a carnal life, little restricted and much eased by deceptive dispensations and vain excuses. In their time they shall recognize the truth and that saying of the Holy Ghost: "Each one thinks his path secure, but the Lord weighs in his hands the hearts of men" (Proverbs 21:2).