LENT 2024: DAY 31 - Wednesday March 20

 

“The place assigned for the Crucifixion was Golgotha, or the “Place of the Skull”… Certainly, it was a place where dead bones were thrown after execution. Once on the hill, the executioners stripped him of His garments, opening new wounds in His Sacred Body…

 

The Cross was prepared and over it was placed an inscription written by Pilate in Hebrew, Latin and Greek, reading: “JESUS OF NAZARETH, KING OF THE JEWS.” (John 19:19) His death and also His Kingship were proclaimed in the name of the three cities of the world: Jerusalem, Rome and Athens… Pilate would be asked to change what he had written, but he would refuse: “What I have written, I have written.” His Kingship remained proclaimed, though, for the moment, a Cross would be His throne… Truth was made to speak when men ridiculed.

 

Being stripped of His garments meant that He was no longer localized by dress. In His nakedness He became the Universal Man… The rough nail was applied to that hand from which the world’s graces flow, and the first dull knock of the hammer was heard in silence. Blow followed blow and was quickly re-echoed from the city walls beneath… Feet too were pinioned, the feet which sought the lost sheep among the thorns. Every detail of prophecy was being fulfilled. A thousand years before, David looked forward to the role hammer and nails would play in greeting the Messias as carpenters would put to death Him Who carpentered the universe. “My enemies ring Me round… I am spent as spilt water, all My bones out of joint, my heart turned to molten wax within Me; parched is My throat, like clay in the baking and My tongue sticks fast in My mouth; Thou hast laid Me in the dust, to die… They have torn holes in My Hands and Feet… and they stand there watching Me, gazing at Me in triumph.” (Psalm 22)

 

Isaias had foretold that in His death the Messias would be linked up with criminals and wrongdoers. Being a vicarious victim for sinners, He was accounted no better than the scum of the earth. As Isaias prophesied: “A victim? Yet He Himself bows to the stroke; no word comes from Him. Sheep led away to the slaughter-house, lamb that stands dumb while it is shorn; no word from Him… Such is His due, that gave Himself up to death, and would be counted among the wrongdoers; bore those many sins, and made intercession for the guilty.” (Isaias 53)

 

Because crucifixion was the most excruciating of all torments, it was customary to offer the condemned a drink to deaden sensitivity to the pain… The soldiers: “offered Him a draught of wine mixed with myrrh, which He would not take.” (Mark 15:23) Our Lord, when it was brought to His lips knowing it to be a sedative, refused to sip. Though His Body, already exhausted, cried out for water, he would not drink that which would dull His role as mediator. At His birth, His mother was given the gift of myrrh and accepted it as a sign of His ransoming death. At His death, He would refuse the myrrh which would deaden the reason of His coming.

 

Our Lord used many pulpits during His public life… But all faded into insignificance compared to the pulpit which He mounted now – the pulpit of the Cross it was lifted slowly off the ground, wavered in midair for a moment, tearing and lacerating His Sacred Flesh; then suddenly with a deep thud that seemed to shake even hell itself, it sank into the pit prepared for it. Our Lord had mounted His pulpit for the last time.

 

Like all orators, He overlooked His audience. Far off, in Jerusalem, He could see the gilded roof of the temple… Here and there on temple walls He could catch a glimpse of those who were straining their eyes to see Him… At the edge of the crowd were timid followers, ready to flee in case of danger; there, too, were executioners getting their dice ready to shake for His garments. Close to the Cross was the only Apostle present, John… Magdalen was there too… and His own mother. Mary, Magdalen, John; innocence, penitence, and priesthood; the three types of souls forever to be found beneath the Cross of Christ.”

 

 

(Chapter 48, pgs. 784 – 789)

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