Preparatory Prayer:
"May God have mercy on us, and . . . cause the light of His countenance to shine upon us and may He have mercy on us." Psalm 66.
Setting:
The Son of God is lying on His deathbed. It is the hard bed of the Cross and for His pillow He has been provided with a crown of thorns. By the bedside stands Mary, His Mother; near Mary is the beloved disciple, John; at the bleeding feet Magdalene is kneeling. This is holy ground, drenched with blood, soaked in the Precious Blood of God's divine Son. This is the place where I am privileged to come in order to let the terrific lessons of Calvary sink into my innermost soul. A realization of faith of these lessons would shake my soul to its very foundations, would set my feet on the road to sanctity as nothing else. Jesus will speak to me here; He has a final message to leave to the world and it will be conveyed to my soul, not so much by His words spoken as by His actionsdone. He draws me to Calvary this morning to be present at His last sermon.
Fruit:
To treasure in my heart always the lessons of Calvary; to practice them in my daily life.
"O all ye who pass by this wayside, attend and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow." This is the invitation Our Blessed Lady has issued to me today, and, in response, here I am by her side. I fall on my knees and Mary, standing close to me, bids me, with great reverence, to lift up my eyes and fix them intently on her dying Son.
The spectacle that meets my gaze is a most moving argument for the heinousness of sin. Sin it was that perpetrated this crime. Sin fixed those nails in His feet and hands; sin placed on His head that crown of thorns; sin, a little later, will drive a spear into His side; sin stalks up to this hill and jeers in His face, defying Him to come down from the Cross; sin, after He is dead, will stride abroad into the whole world, proclaiming Him the most ignominious failure, promising men freedom and happiness if they forget all about this first lesson taught them by His Passion.
On the day he beatified Pope Pius X, our present Holy Father prayed to him, saying; "Do thou, whose heart was. broken by the sight of a world falling headlong into bloodshed and strife, come to the aid of humanity and Christendom, now facing a danger as great as then." And, in another place, he put forceful emphasis on his conviction that one of the most frightening signs of the times is that men have lost their sense of sin.
Sin, the work of man, rots the world, stains and disfigures the work of God. Think of the innumerable private and public sins; sins against God and His Church, sins against neighbors, sins against the humblest and weakest human beings, sins against the family and humanity.... In the penetrating light of faith compare this immense evil with the holiness of God. Compare it with the Christian ideal for which man was created. Compare it with the purposes for which the Redeemer suffered and died. Then ask yourselves if divine justice can continue to tolerate this deformation of God's image, this widespread abuse of God's gifts, this mockery of the Blood of Jesus Christ."
This was part of the Pope's message on Passion Sunday, 1950, spoken to thousands gathered around him in St. Peter's Square, and to invisible millions scattered throughout the world. Who does not catch in these words an echo of the last sermon preached by Our divine Lord on the Cross? If this is the work of sin on the sinless Christ, who can fail to recognize that sin is an evil for which no name is too hard? God, the Father, loves His Son. It is impious blasphemy to call Him a cruel God. Calvary proves, not the cruelty of a God, but the enormity and depravity and wickedness of sin, seeing that it is thus expiated, and by One Who Himself is free from even the smallest breath of this disease.
Teach me, Lord, to see sin as You see it. The nails in Your feet and hands, may they bring home to me the malice of using my feet to walk into places of sin or my hands to steal or commit impurity! May Your crown of thorns deter me from consenting to impure thoughts! May. Your eyes, weighed down with blood and spit, warn me to guard my eyes from looking at what is sinful or suggestive of sin! Your parched tongue and swollen lips, may they teach me to guard myself against all obscene language, all uncharitable conversation, all excessive use of intoxicating drink!