Those who had acclaimed him their king, less than a week before, now bay for his blood. Do we do the same to him?
Editor’s Notes
This is Day 30, in Week 3 – the purpose of which is growing in knowledge of Our Lord, so that we may love him more dearly and follow him more nearly.
Today we are returning to Fr Aloysius Ambruzzi’s Companion to the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, and considering his treatment of the Passion of Our Lord, particularly in his rejection, scourging and crowning with Thorns.
Kevin Davis from Catholic Family Podcast has kindly agreed to read this long text for us today – following on from his reading of the texts for Day 13 and Day 25. He also recently published a video about this series, St Louis’ True Devotion and important considerations when engaging in controversy with others – which you can see here:
Christmas and the Passion?
At the time of publishing this, we are only a few days from Christmas. It might seem strange to some, that we are meditating on sorrow and the Passion so close to Christmas.
But it is not strange at all. As has already been said, Christ came into the world in order to suffer and die. The wood of the Cross is anticipated by the wood of the manger. The stable is not just a cute image, but the result of poverty and humiliation. The baby in the manger is not just a beautiful baby, but the conscious and willing sacrificial Lamb of God.
So it is not only appropriate to contemplate the Passion in the lead-up to Christmas: it’s actually helpful, important, and necessary.
While we are spending the next few days meditating on the Passion, let us keep St Ignatius’ advice in mind – which may be hard, amidst the “mandatory fun” of the premature Christmas of the secular world:
[I]mmediately on awaking, to set before me where I am going and to what, and summing up a little the contemplation which I want to make, according as the Mystery shall be, to force myself, while I am getting up and dressing, to be sad and grieve over such great grief and such great suffering of Christ our Lord.
[S]o as not to try to bring joyful thoughts, although good and holy, as, for instance, are those on the Resurrection and on heavenly glory, but rather to draw myself to grief and to pain and anguish, bringing to mind frequently the labors, fatigues and pains of Christ our Lord, which He suffered from the moment when He was born up to the Mystery of the Passion in which I find myself at present.
Finally, St Louis de Montfort recommends going to confession on the day of the consecration. Look ahead now, and consider whether you need to arrange that with a priest in advance.
CONTENTS:
READING: The text is based on an extract from Fr Aloysius Ambruzzi SJ.
MEDITATION: The points for meditation are included below. A guide on how to use these points in meditation can be found here.
Reading: King and Victim
A Companion to the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius
Fr Aloysius Ambruzzi SJ
The first Prelude is to call to mind how the people asked that Barabbas should be released and not Christ, and how Christ our Lord was scourged, crowned with thorns and insulted, and then brought forth in the presence of all, bearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment (Matt. xxvii, 15-30; Mark xv, 6-19; Luke xxiii, 17-25; John xviii, 39-40; xix, 1-16).
The second Prelude is to see the Lithostrotos and the hall in the fortress Antonia.
The third Prelude is to ask sorrow with Christ in sorrow, a broken heart with Christ heart-broken, tears, confusion and pain for the great sufferings which Christ endures for me.
PART I: The Humiliation
1. “The Most Abject of Men”
Every mortal sin is an insult to the infinite Goodness of God. In committing it the sinner prefers, at least implicitly, his will to God’s Will, the satisfaction of his passions to God’s glory and honour. Sin is the love of self reaching out to the contempt of the Creator: Amor sui usque ad contemptum Dei.
The Son of God, then, having taken upon Himself to atone for our sins and lead us to salvation must needs be subjected to all sorts of outrage. Thus alone can He ever hope to detach our hearts and minds from proud thoughts and give us a leaning towards humility and self-contempt—the surest way to Heaven.
It is not enough, therefore, for Christ to have felt sad even unto death, to have been deserted, betrayed, insulted, and judged worthy of death. It is not enough for Him to appear in chains like a despicable and fearful criminal in broad day-light, in the crowded streets of Jerusalem. He must be looked upon as the worst of men, unworthy of treading upon this earth of ours, of enjoying the light of the sun that rises on the evil and on the good, and of being refreshed by the rain that falls on the just and on the unjust. Such, indeed, would be the fate that awaits every sinner. Against him there would rise all the creatures of the inanimate world and the Angels and Saints of God, were it not for the infinite abasement of the Son of God.
We feel deeply wounded if we are classed with persons of inferior rank. We even resent any preference shown to others, as implying a slight upon our gifts and qualifications. We want equal treatment, at least in so far that no one should be preferred to us. If we have hearts that feel, let us not forget that the Heart of Christ felt infinitely more than any of us.
2. “Away with this man and release unto us Barabbas”
“Now at the feast he (Pilate) was wont to release to them one prisoner, whomsoever they asked. And there was the man called Barabbas, imprisoned with certain rioters, men who in the riot had committed murder. And when the multitude came up, they began to ask him to do to them as he was wont.” (Mark xv, 6-8)
What a fine opportunity for Pilate! He has tried all along to get rid of the whole affair. Forced to take up the case, he loudly proclaims the innocence of Jesus:
“Having examined Him before you I have found no fault in this Man, touching those things whereof ye accuse Him.”
He is eager to release Jesus, though not without first giving some satisfaction to the diabolical fury of the blood-thirsty crowd:
“I will, therefore, chastise Him and release Him.”
However, now he is sure of success. He will act according to his sense of justice, without rousing the anger of the people to a higher pitch. They are asking the release of a criminal. Let them be forced to choose between Christ and the worst of criminals locked up in the tower, and the fate of Christ will be favourably settled.
And immediately he sets about to produce the man before them—one guilty of murder and rebellion, a man hated by all and hating all, whose life and freedom meant danger and insecurity for everyone.
Pilate said unto them:
“Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas or Jesus, Who is called Christ?” (Matt. xxvii, 17)
The Son of God is placed side by side with the worst of the children of men; the one who is innocence itself, with the man whose life has been an uninterrupted crime; the Saviour of men with the assassin of men. What a humiliation for Christ our Lord to hear Pilate crying: “Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas or Jesus Which is called Christ?”
And the name of Barabbas is mentioned first as the more reputable!
The people themselves are put out by the proposal—such is the horror which the very name of Barabbas inspires in everyone. And there is a moment’s hesitation. But a more bitter humiliation is in store for Christ.
“The chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus.”
And when the Governor asks them again, “Whether will you of the two to be released unto you?” they cried all at once saying,
“Away with this Man and release unto us Barabbas.”
How deeply does the Heart of Jesus grieve at the sight of His infinite Majesty thus scorned, and of the misery of His people that, rejecting the Author of life, ask instead for the life of a robber and an assassin.
3. The infamous proposal
“Whom will you that I release to you, Barabbas or Jesus?”
How often has such an infamous proposal been made, since that day, to nations, to societies, and especially to individuals! Yes, to individuals especially. How often, in the secret of our consciences, Christ is made to endure the humiliation which He suffered on the first Good Friday! How often we are solicited to choose between Christ and pleasure, between obedience to His Law and the satisfaction of our caprices!
We should have shuddered at the very thought of being invited to deliberate between Christ and Satan, and yet many a time we have cried out with the Jews: “Not this man, but Barabbas. Away with this man, and release Barabbas unto us”: away with Christ and His Law; we want the free use of our senses, of our hearts, of our wills, of our minds, and of every pleasing thing.
O! that we may weep over our monstrous ingratitude! that we may constantly wage war on Barabbas in order that Christ may live for ever in us!
PART II: The Suffering
1. Victim for sin
Sin—the repudiation of God in favour of self—is most often the result of sensuality.
The worship of the body has always been a favourite form of worship since “the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes and, delightful to behold” (Gen. iii, 6). In ancient times, and even now in many a pagan country, the flesh was openly adored in the most hideous forms. And if to-day people are generally careful not to mix up religion with immorality, we are not to conclude hastily that immorality is less rampant than in the past. Not only gross immorality continues to pervade more or less the strata of society, but the worship of the body has become more refined, the love of comforts more intense, and the avoidance of everything hard and annoying more studied.
And it is for this that Christ must suffer unspeakable torments in His Body—to atone for so many sins and to give us grace to fight against sensuality, if need be to the shedding of blood.
He has come into the world to be our Victim, our Teacher, and our Guide. He has assumed a Body that He might suffer. Our body is an instrument of the soul, the source of knowledge and of many innocent pleasures. Not so with Christ.
“When He cometh into the world He saith: Sacrifice and oblation Thou wouldst not: but a body Thou hast fitted to Me.” (Heb. x, 5)
Not only, then, is His Body perfect on account of the great perfection of His soul, but it has been made most delicate so that it might suffer more, it has received a kind of infinite capacity for suffering so that it may fully satisfy for the abominations that millions of men perpetrate on their own bodies.
His whole life has been a patient endurance of every kind of bodily suffering. He was born in a stable, deprived of every kind of comfort. Soon after He had to fly to Egypt. The long years at Nazareth were years of privations. “I am poor, and in labours from My youth” (Ps. lxxxvii, 16). And during His public life He endured hunger and thirst and fatigue and want. But that is little indeed compared with what He has now to suffer.
2. The Scourging
“Then Pilate, therefore, took Jesus and scourged Him.” (John xix, 1)
We read these words and pass on. We do not even shed a tear on the torments of the Saviour and on our sins. Truly “there is none that considereth in the heart.” (Jer. xii, 11).
“And scourged Him” not according to the Jewish custom, barbarous though it was—the stripes had not to exceed forty “lest thy brother should depart shamefully torn from thy eyes”—nor with the lictor’s rods, but with the lash or flagellum reserved for slaves. The severity of cat-o’-nine-tails is well known. Offenders, writes Fr Gallwey, dreaded it more than anything else, death included. Accordingly, the proposal to inflict it on husbands that maltreated their wives was not accepted, because it was said that a husband, once flogged through his wife’s evidence, would never forgive her in after years.
One who witnessed in the last century the public flogging of a prisoner at the cart-tail, used to describe how the cart was violently shaken by the convulsion of the howling sufferer, each time the lash fell, and how the skin of the victim was seen sticking to the cords as the executioner passed them through his fingers, after each lash. The Romans were so little inferior to modern executioners that it was not rare for the victim to die under their blows.
The soldiers deputed to scourge the Saviour are only too eager to wreak their fury on Him. They are sure there will be no objection on the part of Pilate, who wishes to satisfy somewhat the blood-thirsty feeling of the crowd. The soldiers have been kept under restraint these days for fear of exciting the Jews. At last they can show what kind of love they bear to the Jews, to this man, who, a few days ago, triumphantly entered the City.
The Saviour is stripped and tied to a short pillar. The strokes of Divine Justice which would have hurled us into Hell fall inexorably on His innocent Body.
Look, for a moment, at the gentle Jesus under the savage fury of His tormentors. The flesh becomes livid—wounds appear here and there—the blood streams forth.
The executioners are as hard as stones. They are urged on by the entreaties and the bribes of the Pharisees who are afraid lest Pilate should yield. They are instigated by the unseen powers of evil.
The silent patience and the meekness of the Divine Victim only increase their savage cruelty. They want to hear at least a groan from Him. Men succeeded each other, to begin in turn the cruel work with redoubled cruelty, till there is no part of that Sacred Body which the lash has not reached, and the Saviour falls to the ground which is all stained with His Blood and strewn with innumerable pieces of His Flesh.
Isaias saw Him and was horrified:
“He shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of thirsty ground: there is no beauty in Him nor comeliness: and we have seen Him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of Him. Despised and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and His look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed Him not.
“Surely He hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought Him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His bruises we are healed.” (Is. liii, 2-5)
3. At the feet of Jesus
Let us throw ourselves at His Feet to adore Him and to protect Him from the blows of His enemies. It is our sins—our sins of impurity above all—that are the cause of so much suffering. It is our sins that daily renew His Passion.
Shall we again scourge Christ’s Sacred Body? Shall we in the presence of this mangled Body indulge in any unlawful pleasure? Shall we say that it is hard to fight against the allurements of the flesh? “Have confidence: I have conquered the flesh,” the suffering Saviour tells us. And truly the sight of Christ scourged and the graces He has gained for us, have enabled thousands and thousands of Christians to live pure even in the midst of the greatest corruption.
This is the difference between pagan and Christian times, between pagan and Christian peoples, in spite of so much apparent similarity. While pagan Rome could hardly find ten young women willing to remain chaste, for a time, in honour of the goddess Vesta, millions of angels in the flesh now follow the Lamb without spot throughout their life.
Tecum in doloribus
1. O my Jesus, Thou art our Victim and our Saviour! Thou art to atone to the Divine Justice for so many sinful pleasures of ours, and obtain for us grace to fight against sensuality, even to the shedding of our blood.
2. Throughout Thy whole life, Thou hast endured all kinds of bodily sufferings. But that is nothing compared with what Thou hast to suffer now. The soldiers are eager to wreak their vengeance on Thee; they are urged on by the Jews, and instigated by Satan. They succeed each other, to begin again their cruel work with redoubled cruelty—till there is no part of Thy sacred Body which the lash has not reached—and Thou, O dear Jesus, fallest to the ground, already all stained with Thy Blood.
3. O my dear Saviour, behold me prostrate at Thy feet! Alas, my sins are Thy executioners; every unlawful pleasure is a blow that now falls mercilessly on Thy sacred Body. Give me grace never to renew Thy scourging! How can I, in the presence of Thy mangled Body, think of indulging in even the least sin against holy purity? The sight of Thee agonizing for me—the certainty of the graces Thou hast gained for me, will give me strength to fight bravely against the allurements of the senses, with Thee and for Thee.
PART III: The Insignia of our King
1. The Crowning of the King
Pride is the other root of sin. Through pride fell the angels in Heaven, and our first parents, in the garden of Eden. To appear greater and superior to others in our state of life, in our qualifications, in dress, if not in anything else, is the longing of sinful man. And Christ is to atone for it.
He has proclaimed Himself a King before Pilate: the soldiers of the Governor must, then, proceed to His solemn coronation.
They take the Saviour into the common hall. They gather unto Him the whole band. They strip Him. They put a scarlet cloak about Him to make fun of Him and scoff at Him. They put on His head a crown, not of gold or of silver, but of most sharp and pricking thorns to show that He is a petty king and a counterfeit God, and at the same time to torment that part of His sacred Body which alone has been left intact by the scourges. They place a reed in His right hand instead of a sceptre, out of derision, and they make Him sit down on a rough stone.
After the coronation comes the act of homage.
“They bow the knee before Him, and they mock Him saying: ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ And they spit upon Him, and take the reed and they smite Him with their hands.”
“Go forth, ye daughters of Sion, and see your king in the diadem wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals and in the day of the joy of his heart.” (Cant. iii, 11)
See Christ with His own Crown on His head—His royal robe on His shoulders—His sceptre in His hand. He is indeed a Victim, but at the same time a Conqueror and a King, a Teacher who shows us how to conquer and how to reign.
2. “Behold the Man”
“Behold the man,” cries Pilate! “Behold Him wounded with whips, covered over with spittle, all swollen with buffets: behold Him clothed in mockery, and crowned with a crown of sorrow and contempt. He claimed to be a King; He is hardly a man.”
And Jesus, in the innermost depth of His Heart, re-echoes the voice of the Governor:
“I am a worm and not a man: the reproach of men and the outcast of the people.” (Ps. xxvi 7)
Wild beasts would be moved to compassion at the sight of our Saviour’s sufferings. Pilate is deeply touched, but if he thought he would appease the fury of the people with his new move, he is surely deceived.
“Crucify, crucify Him,” they all cry.
“Shall I crucify your King?”
“We have no King but Caesar.”
“His Blood be upon us and upon our children.”
3. Ave Rex noster!
But He is our King. Let us bow down before Him and worship Him, our Saviour and King, the Way, the Life, and the Truth. Let us promise Him that we shall henceforth be His faithful subjects, that we shall glory to be clothed, for His love, with His insignia—privations, sufferings, and above all insults and reproaches—and that we shall march and fight with Him under the Standard of His Cross.
“One day,” writes St Teresa…
“… entering a chapel, saw a statue of our Lord there exposed for a special occasion. It represented our Lord covered with wounds and with such an expression that I was deeply moved. I understood better what our Lord has suffered for us, and at the same time I so realised my ingratitude that my heart was nearly broken.
“I fell on my knees at the feet of the Saviour, asking Him fervently and in the midst of abundant tears to give me grace never more to offend Him. I asked the help of St Mary Magdalene whom I had always loved and whose conversion I often honoured… She came to my help.
“Without trusting my good resolutions, I put all my confidence in God. I told Him, if I remember rightly, that I would not get up unless I was granted what I had asked, and I am certain that He heard my prayer, because that day was for me the beginning of a new life and never did I cease to make true progress in the way of perfection.”
Let us throw ourselves at the feet of our Lord, and beg Him to grant to us a similar favour.
Ave Rex!
Suggestions for the Colloquy
1. Sufferings and insults are Thy lot, O dear Saviour! Having stripped Thee, the soldiers put a scarlet cloak about Thee, on Thy head a crown of most sharp and pricking thorns, and a reed in Thy right hand—and bowing their knee before Thee, they mock Thee, spit upon Thee, and strike Thee with the reed. In all this Thou sufferest for me, O loving Jesus!
2. Pilate himself is horrified when he sees Thee, O Jesus, and thinking to appease the fury of the Jews, he brings Thee forth bearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment, and cries out: Behold the Man! Behold your King!
3. Hail, O King of my heart! Truly I have no other King but Thee! Do receive me under Thy standard—fill my heart with an ardent desire of being clothed with Thy uniform—with privations and sufferings, and above all with insults and reproaches.
4. Hail, O my King! I wish and firmly purpose to follow Thee in poverty and humiliations, and to distinguish myself in Thy service by acting against self-love, the love of comforts and ease, the longing for praise and honours.
Meditation for Day 30
King and Victim
Taken from St Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises
It is in mental prayer that that much of the preparation will be achieved – and meditation is a means of entering mental prayer. See our guide to meditation for two ways to use the below texts.
The Preparation
Prayer. The usual Preparatory Prayer.
The first Prelude is to call to mind how the people asked that Barabbas should be released and not Christ, and how Christ our Lord was scourged, crowned with thorns and insulted, and then brought forth in the presence of all, bearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment (Matt. xxvii, 15-30; Mark xv, 6-19; Luke xxiii, 17-25; John xviii, 39-40; xix, 1-16).
The second Prelude is to see the Lithostrotos and the hall in the fortress Antonia.
The third Prelude is to ask sorrow with Christ in sorrow, a broken heart with Christ heart-broken, tears, confusion and pain for the great sufferings which Christ endures for me.
The Points for Meditation
First Point. First: The whole multitude of the Jews take Him to Pilate and accuse Him before him, saying: “‘We have found that this man tried to ruin our people and forbade to pay tribute to Caesar.’”
Second Point. Second: Pilate, after having examined Him once and again, said: “‘I find no fault.’”
Third Point. Third: The robber Barabbas was preferred to Him. “They all cried, saying: ‘Give us not this man, but Barabbas!’”
Fourth Point. Second: Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him; and the soldiers made a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and they clothed Him with purple and came to Him and said: “‘Hail, King of the Jews!’“, and they gave Him buffets.
Fifth Point. Third: He brought Him forth in the presence of all. “Then Jesus went forth crowned with thorns and clothed with a purple garment, and Pilate said to them: ‘Here is the Man!’” and when the Priests saw Him, they shouted, saying: “‘Crucify, crucify Him!’”
In addition to the usual consideration of persons, words and actions, St Ignatius wants us to consider the following in all meditations on the Passion:
To consider that which Christ our Lord is suffering in His Humanity, or wants to suffer, according to the passage which is being contemplated, and here to commence with much vehemence and to force myself to grieve, be sad and weep, and so to labor through the other points which follow.
To consider how the Divinity hides Itself, that is, how It could destroy Its enemies and does not do it, and how It leaves the most sacred Humanity to suffer so very cruelly.
To consider how He suffers all this for my sins, etc.; and what I ought to do and suffer for Him.
One could consider these points in reference to oneself: How far have we been conscious of this in our daily lives so far, what practical conclusions should we draw from these truths, how far have we lived up to them so far, what must we do to live up to them in the future, etc.
One could consider the acts of virtue we can make in response to these truths – Acts of faith, humility, hope/confidence, thanksgiving, contrition and love – talking all the while to God, the Blessed Virgin, our Guardian Angels, etc.
One should feel free to linger on only one of the points, if this is how the meditation proceeds.
The Colloquy
Colloquy. I will finish with a Colloquy to Christ our Lord, and, at the end, with an Our Father.
Note. It is to be noted, as was explained before and in part, that in the Colloquies I ought to discuss and ask according to the subject matter, that is, according as I find myself tempted or consoled, and according as I desire to have one virtue or another, as I want to dispose of myself in one direction or another, as I want to grieve or rejoice at the thing which I am contemplating; in fine, asking that which I more efficaciously desire as to any particular things.
And in this way I can make one Colloquy only, to Christ our Lord, or, if the matter or devotion move me, three Colloquies, one to the Mother, another to the Son, another to the Father, in the same form as was said in the Second Week, in the meditation of the Three Pairs, with the Note which follows The Pairs.
Fr Ambruzzi has further suggestions above. It is important to speak frankly to God in our own words, rather than simply reading somebody else’s. If one feels moved to speak to God before meditating on all the points, one should certainly do so. The same applies if one feels moved to simply rest in God, rather than engaging in discursive meditation. These impulses should be followed over any particular method of meditation.
The End
End the meditation with a vocal prayer – such as the Our Father, the Anima Christi.
Reflect on how well we have prayed, and how well we have followed our chosen method.
Select a spiritual nosegay from your meditation to keep with you for the rest of the day.
See you tomorrow. Hit subscribe to make sure you don’t miss it or any of our other material:
See the index and explanation to this series here:
For more on the St Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion and Total Consecration, for which we are preparing, see here:
The theological basis of ‘True Devotion’ and the Consecration to Mary (Garrigou-Lagrange)
The fruits of ‘True Devotion’ and Consecration to Mary (Garrigou-Lagrange)
For more on the importance of not getting bogged down with methods, and on allowing God to act, see here:
For more on Week 3, and the vocal prayers that are are suggested for each day, see here:
‘Week 3’ of St Louis de Montfort’s Total Consecration preparation (Prayers, practices and reading)
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True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary (St Louis de Montfort)
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