Mar 01 2009
On The Way Of The Cross (The First Station)
I posted this earlier but somehow mistakenly deleted it.
He spared not His own Son, but delivered him up for us all (Rom 8:32).
He suffered because it was his own will (Isa 53:8).
looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons? — “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are punished by him. For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed (Heb 12:2-13)
Pilate at length, throug fear of losing favor with Caesar, after having so many times declared Jesus innocent, condemns him to die on the cross. O my most innocent Savior! (laments St Bernard) what crime hast though committed, that thou must be condemned to death? “What hast though done, O most innocent Savior, that thou should be thus judeged?” But I wee understand (replies the same saint) the sin which thou hast committed: “Thy sin is Thy love.” The crime is the too great love which thou hast borne us. This, rather than Pilate, condemns Thee to death.
The unjust sentence is read; Jesus hears it, and altogether resigned accepts it, submitting Himself to the will of the Eternal Father, which wills Him to die, and to die on the cross, for our sins: He humbled Himself, made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil 2:8).
Ah, my Jesus, if Thou who wast innocent didst accept death for the love of me, I, a sinner, for love of Thee, accept my death in such time and manner as it shall please Thee.-St Alphonsus De Liguori.
