CHAPTER II. WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE THE CRUCIFIXION
After the Last Supper, when on the Mount of
Olives, I gave Myself up to the pangs of cruel death, and when I felt that he
was present before Me, I was bathed in a bloody sweat, because of the anguish
of My tender Heart, and the agony of My whole bodily nature. I was
ignominiously betrayed, taken prisoner like an enemy, rigorously bound, and led
miserable away. After this I was impiously maltreated with blows, with spittle,
with blindfolding, accused before Caiphas, and pronounced worthy of death.
Unspeakable sorrows of heart were then seen in My dear Mother, from the first
sight she had of My distress till I was hung upon the cross. I was shamefully
presented before Pilate, falsely denounced, and sentenced to die. They stood
over against Me with terrible eyes like fierce giants, and I stood before them
like a meek lamb. I, the Eternal Wisdom, was mocked as a fool in a white
garment before Herod, My fair body was rent and torn without mercy by the rude
stripes of whips, My lovely countenance was drenched in spittle and blood, and
in this condition I was condemned, and miserable and shamefully led forth with
My cross to death. They shouted after Me very furiously, so that: Crucify,
crucify the miscreant! resounded to the skies.
The Servant.--Alas! Lord, the beginning is
indeed so bitter, how will it end? If I were to see a wild beast so abused I
should hardly be able to bear it. With what reason, then, must not Thy Passion
pierce my heart and soul! But, Lord, this is a great marvel to my heart; I
would needs seek Thy divinity, and Thou showest me Thy humanity; I would needs
seek Thy sweetness, and Thou settest before me Thy bitterness; I would needs
conquer, Thou teachest me to fight. Lord, what dost Thou mean?
Eternal Wisdom.--No one can attain divine
exaltation or singular sweetness except by passing through the image of My
human abasement and bitterness. The higher one climbs without passing through
My humanity, the deeper one falls. My humanity is the way one must go, My
Passion the gate through which one must penetrate, to arrive at that which thou
seekest. Therefore, lay aside thy faint-heartedness, and enter with Me the
lists of knightly resolve: for, indeed, softness beseems not the servant when
his master stands ready in warlike boldness. I will put thee on My coat of
mail, for My entire Passion must thou suffer over again according to thy
strength. Make up thy mind to a darting encounter, for thy heart, before thou
shalt subdue thy nature, must often die, and thou must sweat the bloody sweat
of anguish because of many a painful suffering under which I mean to prepare
thee for Myself; for with red blossoms will I manure thy spice garden. Contrary
to old custom, must thou be made prisoner and bound; thou wilt often be
secretly calumniated and publicly defamed by My adversaries; many a false
judgment will people pass on thee; My torments must thou then diligently carry
in thy heart with a motherly heartfelt love. Thou wilt obtain many a severe
judge of thy godly life; so also will thy godly ways be often mocked as folly
by human ways; thy undisciplined body will be scourged with a hard and severe
life; thou wilt be scoffingly crowned with persecution of thy holy life; after
this, if only thou shalt issue forth from thy own will and deny thyself, and
shalt stand as wholly disengaged from all creatures in the things which might
lead thee astray in thy eternal salvation, even as a dying man when he departs
hence, and has nothing more to do with this world--if only thou shalt do this,
then wilt thou be led forth with Me on the miserable way of the cross.
The Servant.--Woe is me, Lord, but this is
a dreary pastime! My whole nature rebels against these words. Lord, how shall I
ever endure it all? Gentle Lord, one thing I must say: couldst Thou not have
found out some other way, in Thy eternal wisdom, to save me and show Thy love
for me, some way which would have exempted Thee from Thy great sufferings, and
me from their bitter participation? How very wonderful do Thy judgments
appear!
Eternal Wisdom.--The bottomless abyss of
My hidden mysteries (in which I order everything according to My eternal
providence), let no one explore, for no one can fathom it. And yet, in this
abyss, what thou askest about and many things besides are possible, which yet
never happen. However, know this much, that, in the order in which emanated
beings now are, a more acceptable or more pleasing way could not be. The Lord
of nature knows well what He can do in nature. He knows what is best suited to
every creature, and He operates accordingly. How should man better know the
hidden things of God than in His assumed Humanity? How might he, who has
forfeited all joy through irregular lusts, be rendered susceptible of regular
and eternal joy? How would it be possible to follow the unpracticed way of a
hard and despised life, unless it had been followed by God Himself? If thou
didst lie under sentence of death, how could He, who should suffer the fatal
penalty in thy stead, better prove His fidelity and love towards thee, or
better excite thee to love Him in return? Him, therefore, whom My unfathomable
love, My unspeakable mercy, and My bright divinity, My most affable humanity,
brotherly truth, espousing friendship, cannot move to ardent love, what else
shall soften his stony heart? Ask the fair array of all created beings if ever
I could have maintained My justice, evinced My fathomless mercy, ennobled human
nature, poured out My goodness, reconciled heaven and earth, in a way more
efficacious than by My bitter death?
The Servant.--Lord, truly, I begin to
perceive that it is even so, and he whom want of understanding has not blinded,
and who well considers the subject, must confess it to Thee, and extol the
beautiful ways of Thy love above all ways. But still to follow Thee is very
painful to a slothful body.
Eternal Wisdom.--Be not terrified at the
following of My Passion. For he whose interior is so possessed by God that
suffering is easy to him has no cause to complain. No one enjoys Me more in My
singular sweetness than he who stands with Me in harsh bitterness. No one
complains so much of the bitterness of the husks as he to whom the interior
sweetness of the kernel is unknown. For him who has a good second the fight is
half won.
The Servant.--Lord, Thy comforting words
have given me such heart, that, methinks, I am able to do and suffer all things
in Thee. Therefore, I desire that Thou wouldst unlock for me the entire
treasure of Thy Passion, and tell me still more about it.