Himself to such and so many sufferings was not His own good but ours; not any advantage to be reaped by Him, but by us; that is, to satisfy Divine justice for our sins.

6. Finally, the manner in which Jesus endured those tortures was eminently perfect. For He suffered of His own free will: "He was offered, because it was his own will" (a), and with an ardent desire of suffering: "I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized; and how am I straitened until it be accomplished" (b); and in silence : "He held his peace, and answered nothing" (c); and with the greatest patience, for "he gave his body to the strikers, and his cheeks to them that plucked them" (d).

Add to what has been said that on this occasion Jesus exercised in a heroic degree all the most exalted virtues-poverty of spirit, humility, meekness, fortitude, obedience, charity, and the love of His enemies. O sweetest Jesus, who will be able to comprehend "what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth" (e) of all the virtues which you practised, and of all the pains and sorrows which you suffered during the time of your passion.

II. From the thorough consideration of these six points to-day, there ought to flow, as from a fountain, the following affections: (1.) Of compassion towards Jesus, who so lovingly endured so many torments for our sake; (2.) Of hatred and horror for sin, which could not be duly atoned for except at the price of the blood of the Son of God. (3.) Of admiration of the exceeding goodness and wisdom of

(a) Isa. liii. 7.
(d) Isa. l. 6.

(b) Luke xii. 50.

(c) Mark xiv. 61.

(e) Ephes. iii. 18.

the Lord, who found the fitting means to blend in such a wonderful manner justice and mercy. (4.) Of hope of our eternal salvation; "for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled shall we be saved by his life" (a). (5.) Of love of God, who loved us so much as to give His only-begotten Son for our salvation. (6.) Of zeal for the salvation of souls, whom God valued so highly, loved so much, and purchased at so dear a price.

But we should observe, with regard to these affections, that it is not necessary that we should excite ourselves to all of them in every meditation, but let each one stir up within himself those which are most useful for his spiritual profit, and which principally tend to lead him to a solid perfection of life, by means of a constant imitation of Christ in the third degree of humility.

III. But in order that the exercise of the intellect also, united to that of the will, may reap the desired fruit, the following rules are to be observed:

1. We must propose the suffering of Christ to our mind in a manner so vivid as to seem to ourselves to be present at that mystery, and actually to behold it with our very eyes; so that we might fancy that we heard the whistling of the whips, the blows of the bludgeons, the shouts of the executioners, the words of the Redeemer; to feel in ourselves the wounds produced by the blows, the pricks of the thorns, the piercing of the nails; to taste the vinegar and gall; to touch the rough, stiff chains

(a) Rom. v. 10.

and ropes; to see the pale, livid face of Jesus, covered with filth, smeared all over with spittle, and dust, and blood. In one word, we should strive that "this mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus (a).

2, Moreover, let each one of us say to himself— "Jesus suffered all this for me, and for me individually. He died as much for me alone as for all men. At the moment of His death He thought of me individually, He prayed for me, and offered up to His Eternal Father for me the sacrifice which He was consummating on the cross. Nay more, even as He descended from heaven to die for all men, so would He have descended to die for me alone, had this been necessary. In such manner that I may say with the apostle. "He delivered himself for me" (b); and that sin of mine [N], and that other [N], caused Him such distress, that it forced Him to sweat blood in the garden, it lacerated His flesh at the pillar, it nailed Him to the cross, it tore open His sacred side.

3. We should never lose sight of the third degree of humility, and all the meditations should be directed in an especial manner to those points, in which we have already resolved to imitate, in that third degree, the most noble example of Jesus Christ.

§ III.

Observe that to-day, principally, it is necessary to keep the soul in a state of holy sadness; that is, not only not to occupy it with joyous, even though

(a) Philip. ii. 5.

(b) Gal. ii. 20.

pious, imaginations; but to cultivate therein that silent sorrow which may pierce it through, and to nourish there that holy horror, which should seize it on contemplating the bloody spectacle presented by the scene of the Redeemer's crucifixion. For this end you should close the windows, and, drawing down the blinds, keep the room in that state of darkness which contributes so much to the interior recollections of the soul, Refresh yourself from time to time with touching passages from the Scriptures, chosen from the Psalms and the Prophets.

2. Increase somewhat your exercises of exterior penance; for it is fitting that, while contemplating the sufferings of Christ, we, too, should "bear about in our bodies the mortification of Jesus" (a). Diminish somewhat the quantity of your food, or abstain, either entirely or in part, from some delicacy which is particularly palatable. It is also a wise counsel to determine before dinner the quantity of food which you will take, and not to go beyond this limit without necessity. In fact, during the time of meals, we should keep before our eyes Jesus at supper with His disciples, we should observe His behaviour, and how He acts in respect of food and drink.

For the rest, as the fruit of the last meditation was to wish to be despised with Jesus, and to live in contempt rather than surrounded by honours, the fruit of the following meditation will be to wish, to live afflicted with Jesus, amid tribulations rather than enjoyment, solely in order to bear a closer resemblance to Him.

(a) 2 Cor. iv. 10.

SECOND MEDITATION.

On what Christ suffered in His body, and on the manner in which He suffered for our instruction.

FIRST POINT.

Consider the pains which Jesus suffered in His body. First of all, He was most cruelly torn with Scourges. How terrible this butchery must have been we may infer, first, (1.) from tenderness of his flesh, which was so delicate that, as S. Bonaventure says, the sole of His foot was more sensitive than the pupil of our eye; add to this that He was extremely weak because of His bloody sweat, worn out after His terrible agony, and exhausted in the last degree after the sleeplessness and sufferings of that dreadful night.

2. From the fury of the executioners, who, by their natural dispositions, were fierce and cruel; who were, moreover, urged on to their brutal task by the money of the Jews, incited by the demons, and relieved each other from time to time to the number of twenty couples, as was revealed to Saint Mary Magdalen de Pazzi.

3. From the quality of the scourges, which were fresh, thorny rods, whips made from the sinews of oxen, and iron chains studded with spikes, which tore that immaculate flesh into small pieces.

4. From the number of the blows, which, as Saint Bernard asserts, amounted to 6,666. From all this you may infer what must have been the agony of Jesus under such inhuman tortures.

O my Jesus! Pilate caused you to be thus cruelly