TENTH MEDITATION FOR LENT
And Pilate again answering, saith to them: "What will you then that I do to the king of the Jews?" But they again cried out: "Crucify him." (Mark 15:12-13)
Pilate did not know what to do with Jesus, as if He were a useless person; the Jews were in haste to have Him crucified. A stranger at the trial would have thought from the conduct of Pilate and the Jews, that Jesus Christ was fit for nothing but to be despised, outraged and crucified. Wretched people! You do not know what to do with the Savior who has been sent specially to you; this Savior will be taken away from you and given to the Gentiles, to barbarians who will know how to profit by the mysterious stone which you have rejected. Jesus Christ is now really present among us in the Blessed Sacrament. But is Jesus Christ in this august Sacrament more useful to us than He was to the Jews? Do we know the treasure which we possess? Do we know the infinite value of this precious Victim, and do we profit by the treasure which we have? Unhappy are the kingdoms and provinces where heresy reigns with such tyranny! The abuse and contempt with which your people treat this august Sacrament have reached the extreme limit. You have not known what to do with this Divine Savior, and He has been taken from you and brought to the Indians, the Chinese, the Iroquois. But, O my God, have I known how to profit by the presence of this Divine Savior who dwells among us?
[From 'The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus' by Fr. John Croiset, SJ]
Pilate did not know what to do with Jesus, as if He were a useless person; the Jews were in haste to have Him crucified. A stranger at the trial would have thought from the conduct of Pilate and the Jews, that Jesus Christ was fit for nothing but to be despised, outraged and crucified. Wretched people! You do not know what to do with the Savior who has been sent specially to you; this Savior will be taken away from you and given to the Gentiles, to barbarians who will know how to profit by the mysterious stone which you have rejected. Jesus Christ is now really present among us in the Blessed Sacrament. But is Jesus Christ in this august Sacrament more useful to us than He was to the Jews? Do we know the treasure which we possess? Do we know the infinite value of this precious Victim, and do we profit by the treasure which we have? Unhappy are the kingdoms and provinces where heresy reigns with such tyranny! The abuse and contempt with which your people treat this august Sacrament have reached the extreme limit. You have not known what to do with this Divine Savior, and He has been taken from you and brought to the Indians, the Chinese, the Iroquois. But, O my God, have I known how to profit by the presence of this Divine Savior who dwells among us?
[From 'The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus' by Fr. John Croiset, SJ]
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