FIFTH MEDITATION FOR LENT
And then Jesus took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, "Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all the things that are written by the prophets shall be accomplished unto the Son of man. For he shall be delivered up unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and shamefully entreated, and spit upon: and they shall scourge and kill him." (Luke 18:31-33)
What must have been the sentiments of Jesus Christ! "Do you see," said He to His Apostles, "this people on whom I have lavished My benefits and in whose favor I have wrought so many miracles? This people is going to repay these benefits by the blackest ingratitude; I am going to give Myself into their hands, and they will deliver Me to the Gentiles; I am going to become the object of hatred of this people, the mockery of the soldiers, the laughingstock of the people of the court and a Victim sacrificed to the malice and impiety of the priests. There will be no contempt which I will not suffer, no outrage which I will be spared, no torment which I will not be made to suffer." But what would this amiable Savior have replied if He had been then asked, why, foreseeing all this, did He put Himself in their hands? Would He not have replied that His love was still greater than all those outrages, and that He exposed Himself willingly to them to testify to the excess of His love? His love is daily renewed in the adorable Eucharist. Jesus Christ has still the same sentiments in our favor. But, O my God, what are my sentiments with regard to Jesus Christ so little loved and treated with such contempt?
[From 'The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus' by Fr. John Croiset, SJ]
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