angel from heaven to comfort and strengthen him to drink to the dregs the fearful cup, on which man's salvation depended. Thrice he rose to approach his three apostles, but in spite of his gentle reproaches, they slept and could not comfort him: thrice he returned to pray, uttering the same words. He knew that his hour had come, and arousing his apostles he bid them prepare, as his betrayer was at hand. Already the noise of an advancing multitude had gathered the rest around them, and the flickering of torches and the sheen of the uplifted swords announced the coming of an armed host. As this body approached, the apostles, to their horror and dismay, beheld Judas guiding them on, and even beheld him advance to kiss our divine Lord, profaning the mark of affection, in order to point him out to his enemies. Peter, who bore one of the swords, could not bear the sight, and drawing his sword, no sooner saw them lay hands on his divine Master, than he rushed upon them, and prostrating Malchus, a servant of the high priest, dealt him a blow, which, however, only severed his ear. But our divine Lord bid him put up his sword: "Thinkest thou that I cannot ask my Father, and he will give me presently more than twelve legions of angels?" and touching the wounded man he' cured him. This miracle should have converted his enemies, but though lost * Mark xiv, 47. † Matthew xxvi, 51; Luke xxii, 51. While all stood in amaze"Jesus of Nazareth." "I When they rose he again upon them, it was not the only display of his power. ment he asked: "Whom seek ye?" They answered: am he;" and at these words they all fell prostrate. asked them, and when they made the same reply he continued: "I have told you that I am he: if therefore you seek me, let these go their way. Why have you come out against me, as it were against a thief with swords and clubs? When I was daily with you in the temple, you did not stretch forth your hands against me: but this is your hour and the power of darkness." Peter strikes the servant of the High Priest. His disciples now seeing him in the hands of his enemies, lost courage and fled, and the Jews debating whether they should take him, at last resolved to lead him first to the house of Annas, who would after the end of the pasch be the high priest, for God had so permitted it that this divine office was then in the hands of two political intriguers, Annas and Caiphas, who exercised the sacred functions in rotation. The crowd sought to propitiate the one about to assume the office, and accordingly dragged our divine Lord before him. Full of gratified vanity and triumphing over our Redeemer, the impious Annas questioned him as to his doctrine and disciples, but Jesus answered: "I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in the synagogue and in the temple, whither all the Jews resort; and in secret I have taught nothing. Why askest thou me? Ask them who have heard me what I have spoken to them; they know what things I have said." One of the officers standing by, eager to court the favor of Annas, gave our Saviour a blow, saying: "Answerest thou the high priest so ?" "If I have spoken evil, give testimony of the evil," said our divine Lord meekly, "but if well, why strikest thou me." Annas, though addressed by his flatterers as high priest, was not, and accordingly sent our Lord to his son-in-law, Caiphas, the high priest of that year. Meanwhile Peter, who had recovered from his alarm, followed Jesus at a distance with another disciple, who, being known to the high priest, entered with the divine captive into the court of the house, and obtained admission for Peter. The latter apostle sat warming himself amid the servants and soldiers, when a servant-maid exclaimed: "Thou wast with Jesus of Nazareth." All that he saw alarmed him, and disowning the very master whom he had followed from love, he answered: "I neither know nor understand what thou sayest." Then rising up he left the group, and went into the vestibule, as if to avoid further questioning: though in vain-another servant seeing him began to say to the standers-by: "This is one of them;" but he denied again and again, protesting "I am not." An officer eyeing him closely, asked: "Did I not see thee in the garden with him?" and another added: "Surely thou art one of them, for thou art a Galilean." But Peter had yielded to the first temptation, and now plunging deeper into sin, began to curse and to swear that he knew not his divine Redeemer. Jesus meanwhile had been led from the house of Annas to the adjoining one of Caiphas, and aware of the fall of his servant, as the cock crew the second time, turned and cast one glance of reproach on his faithless disciple. Overwhelmed with contrition, remorse and love, Peter began to weep, and as tradition tells us, night after night, till by his glorious death he planted the cross on the very capitol of pagan Rome, he bewailed afresh his weakness and sin. Caiphas warned of his approach had already summoned the priests and doctors of the law; and as he had, by virtue of his office, prophesied that Christ should die for the people, he now sought means to accomplish it with a show of justice. Many accusers appeared, but not even malice could invent of all their tale a capital offence. At last one said: "We heard him say, I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another not made with hands." Even this was not sufficient, and as Jesus remained silent, the high priest sought to convict him out of his own mouth. Turning to our Blessed Lord he asked him: "Answerest thou nothing to the things that are laid to thy charge by these men ?" But our Lord spoke not. "Art thou the Christ, the Son of the blessed God?" then asked the high priest of the Jewish nation, the successor of Aaron-" answer, I adjure thee, by the living God." "I am," replied our Lord distinctly, "and you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming with the clouds of heaven." Then the high priest rent his garments, as was the custom to mark great grief or indignation, and exclaimed: “What need have we of any farther witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy. What think you? . . . He is guilty of death." Then they spit in his face and buffeted him. Not content even with this, they blindfolded him, and striking him, cried in mockery: "Prophesy unto us, O Christ, who is he that struck thee!" Thus they continued during the rest of the night. Let us pause in adoring wonder to contemplate our divine Lord exhausted by his bloody sweat and bitter agony, dragged like a vile beast from the garden across the torrent and up to the house of Annas, thence to that of Caiphas, with blows and buffets at every step, deprived of all repose or a moment's rest to enable him to bear the new torments that awaited him, deserted by all, mocked and insulted and spit upon. Well do the fathers tell us that not till the day of judgment will man know all that Jesus endured for us that night. Isaias had foretold it, saying in the person of our Lord: "I have given my body to the strikers, and my cheeks to them that plucked them. I have not turned away my face from them that rebuked me and spit upon me." The Sanhedrim, or council of the Jews, had condemned him to death for blasphemy, and according to the law he should be stoned; but our Lord was to show in his death that the power had passed from Jacob to the hands of the stranger. They sought to crucify him, to punish him by Roman law and the Roman gibbet. When therefore it was morning they led him through the city, bound in heavy fetters, to the house of Pilate, the Roman governor, and accused him of disturbing the public peace, of seditiously persuading people not to pay tribute, and of declaring himself to be the Messias or King of the Jews. The Roman governor sought to take up the matter formally, but the Jews would not enter his court for fear of contracting legal uncleanness, and when he asked them what accusation they brought, and the grounds of it, they insolently replied: "If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up to thee." He bid them take him and try him according to their law, but they avowed their thirst for his blood: "It is not lawful for us to put any man to death." Amazed at their fury, and all that he had doubtless heard of our Lord's miracles and holy life, Pilate entered and asked him: "Art thou the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered: "Sayest thou this of thyself, or have others told it thee of me?" Pilate answered: "Am I a Jew? Thy own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee up to me, what hast thou done?" Jesus answered: "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now my kingdom is not from hence." "Art thou then a king?" “Thou sayest it; I am a king. For this was I born, and for this I came into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth." "What is truth?" said Pilate musingly, and going forth to the Jews he declared that he found no grounds for condemning him, and, as it was his custom, offered to set him, or a robber named Barabbas, at liberty in honor of their festival: but the people asked Barabbas, and cried out to crucify Jesus. They however mentioned that he came from Galilee, and Pilate, hoping to rid himself of a case in which conscience warned him not to enter, sent him to Herod. Again was he dragged through the streets of Jerusalem, again loaded with scorn and blows: his silence induced Herod to treat him as a fool. Clothed in a white garment like an idiot he was again led back to the hall of Pilate. In vain did the pagan governor seek to save him: hearing that he claimed to be the Son of God, he was filled with fear, and his wife, who in dreams had received warning, urged him not to condemn him: but as the Jews told him that whoever made himself a king, was an enemy to Cæsar, he yielded and ordered our divine Lord to be scourged, hoping, weak man! that the Jews would then be moved to pity. Our Lord was then stripped and bound to the column. Who but God's saints, to whom he has revealed the horrors of that day, can tell the blows dealt on his bruised and feeble frame by the strong arms of the Roman soldiers, whom Satan inspired with cruelty and hate. Every blow of the fearful scorpion or scourge tore its way through his quivering flesh, the virginal flesh of the Emanuel, of the expected of the nations, and his blood began to flow for the ransom of the world. When their rage was appeased, he became the object of their sport. Leading him out to their companions, the whole guard, some hundred in number, gathered around him. Tearing off his mantle, and opening afresh each gaping wound, they threw about him a purple cloak, and platting a crown of thorns pressed it upon his brows. See! how amid his gory locks, A reed was thurst into his hands as a sceptre, and there he sat as a mock king. Bending the knee before him, they struck him, saying: "Hail, King of the Jews." Again they spit in his face, and taking his sceptre smote his sacred head, driving in anew the cruel thorns. Fearful ignominy! He who sitteth at the right hand of his Father, he who will sit one day to judge the world, is thus treated with derision and scorn! By whom? Not only by Pilate's guard, O Christian, but by you whenever you commit sin. How often has your reverence been a mockery, how often have you scourged him by impurity, pressed on the thorny crown by pride, or left his sceptre over you a reed by a worldly life? Pilate, touched by the spectacle, hoped that it would move the Jews; and leading him out he exclaimed: "Behold the man." Crucify him! crucify him!" 66 |