NINTH MEDITATION FOR LENT
And the soldiers led him away into the court of the palace: and they called together the whole band. And they clothed him with purple: and, platting a crown of thorns, they put it upon him. And they began to salute him: "Hail, king of the Jews." And they struck his head with a reed: and they did spit on him. And bowing their knees, they adored him. (Mark 15: 16-19)
Would the most infamous and most criminal of men have been treated with such indignity? But these mockeries, these outrages, these unheard-of cruelties which the soldiers perpetrated on the Sacred Person of Jesus Christ, causing the Precious Blood to flow, only lasted a few hours, and they have been accompanied by the tears which compassion and love have drawn from so many faithful servants of Jesus Christ down the ages. But is not this terrible tragedy renewed daily in the outrages which are offered to Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament? And have not the most terrible of these acts of contempt mentioned in the Gospel been renewed hundreds of times by wicked Christians and infidels? How many people seem to enter a church only to insult our Savior? How many people throw discredit on the most dread of all mysteries by their want of reverence? Would that there might be found, O my Savior, at least a number of faithful servants who, sensibly touched at seeing Thee daily so little honored and loved, and treated with such indignities, would make Thee fitting reparation!
[From 'The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus' by Fr. John Croiset, SJ]
Would the most infamous and most criminal of men have been treated with such indignity? But these mockeries, these outrages, these unheard-of cruelties which the soldiers perpetrated on the Sacred Person of Jesus Christ, causing the Precious Blood to flow, only lasted a few hours, and they have been accompanied by the tears which compassion and love have drawn from so many faithful servants of Jesus Christ down the ages. But is not this terrible tragedy renewed daily in the outrages which are offered to Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament? And have not the most terrible of these acts of contempt mentioned in the Gospel been renewed hundreds of times by wicked Christians and infidels? How many people seem to enter a church only to insult our Savior? How many people throw discredit on the most dread of all mysteries by their want of reverence? Would that there might be found, O my Savior, at least a number of faithful servants who, sensibly touched at seeing Thee daily so little honored and loved, and treated with such indignities, would make Thee fitting reparation!
[From 'The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus' by Fr. John Croiset, SJ]
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