I. Jesus before his judges. - O my soul, go through the sorrowful way followed by thy  Father, thy loving Jesus, in the hours of his horrible sufferings.

     It was nearly midnight, when thy God, loaded with chains, often thrown down to the ground by the shocks and blows of those barbarous soldiers, fell into the brook Cedron, and so David's words were accomplished: He shall drink the water of the torrent on the way.

     Slapped in the house of Annas, He was lead to that of Caiphas to be mocked, declared a blasphemer, guilty of death. And then He is put into prison and abandoned until dawn to the derision, spittle, and blows of the insolent soldiery.

     At break of day, He was dragged along the streets and appears before two heathen tribunals, Herod's and Pilate's. The late considers him a madman; and as such, He is covered with a white robe, and exposed to be the laughing-stock of the deceived mob. 

     Look, my soul, at thy Jesus always humble, always patience; He suffers to be lead like a meek lamb where the perfidy of men and the fury of Satan oppress him with grief. Consider how He remains silent in the presence of cries, calumnies, and contempts. And Jesus remained silent, to teach thee that when thou art calumniated or accused, thou must commit thyself to God, and seek for his sake no other justification than silence. 'He shall be lead as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer.' (Is. 53:7) Thou shalt acquire the peace of thy heart by remembering with Isaias the profound humiliation of the Saviour: They refused to do justice to him, on account of the abjection to which He was reduced. O how many Saints, how many hermits, how many pacific men were begotten by this silence of Jesus!

     Have mercy on me, O Lord, have mercy on me! I am full of sins, and Thou art the very innocence: however Thou lovest those who treat the so unworthily to such a degree as to die for them. And shall I cling feelings of resentment and hatred for the least injuries? Thou sufferest to be judged by all, and shall I not be judged by anyone? When will my heart be changed, o infinite goodness? I confess before thee, my God, my savior, my Master, my unthankfulness, pride and presumption: I wish by thy grace to imitate thee and to suffer in silence all the pains and injuries that will be done to me. I forgive with all my heart those who offended me, or will ever offend me: I exempt them from returning me honor they have deprived me of, and I will have no other honor but the one of serving and loving thee. Destroy in me every sentiment of harshness and revenge. Dilate my heart by thy charity, that I may unreservedly love thee, and in thee all those who persecute me, that 'I may be accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus Christ.' (Acts 5:41)

 

     II. Being withdrawn from prison, Jesus is ignominiously dragged along the streets of Jerusalem, in order to make him odious and contemptible to the people, who judge things by appearances; He was called cursed, seducer, magician, madman, and then delivered up into the hands of the executioners, who by dint of whistlings lead him to Pilate's house. On his way, they did him a thousand injurious violences. He heard nothing but blasphemies; dragged with ropes, pushed by spears, without rest, forced to walk, extenuated with the fatigue and sufferings of a whole night, He fell, he was loaded with blows and injuries, as the most contemptible of all men. So the royal Prophet saw him: 'I am a worm, and no man, the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people.' (Ps 22:6)

     So from the Garden to Calvary, in less than twelve hours, they caused him to take six journeys, and the sweet Master left in them all the traces of his unalterable patience, of his profound humility, of his infinite charity, of his incredible penance.

     Awake, my soul, come out of the languidness and lethargy thou art in. Look at those women going with Mary into the streets of Jerusalem, wetting them in their tears and filling the air with their sights. Recognize among them the most beautiful of creatures the holiest of women, the most afflicted of mothers, recognize mary, the Mother of Jesus, thy dear Mother, seeking him whom her soul loveth, and going about the broadways asking if anyone has seen him.

     O most sweet Mary, thou spent the whole night in painful prayer, till thou knewest that thy Son was in the hands of sinners. But when He was seized and put into a prison, made the butt for the injuries and scorns of the soldiers, and thou heardest from John the news of his sufferings and the capital sentence passed by the Sanhedrim; who can say the anguish of thy heart? But, always submitted to the will of God, thou didst no give way to the transports of despair so common to afflicted women; and through inwardly suffering an unspeakable sorrow, thou outwardly showedst only decency and perfect resignation. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, repeatedst thou, be it done to me according to thy word. The sun has not yet risen, and thou leavest thy silent abode to find Jesus and follow him as far as the Cross.

     And behold, turning into the streets leading to Pilate's palace appears a multitude of people in agitation. It is a crowd, a throng, involving and dragging along with them in the midst of scornful cries and blasphemous owls a man loaded with chains, his hands bound behind hid shoulders, his countenance discomposed, his hair torn, his face deformed by spittles and blood, so that He is quite unrecognizable. But the violent beating of thy heart, O Mary, points thee out in the midst of those ferocious men thy innocent Son. Among the curses of the mob and the triumph of his enemies, under that ignominious robe, the Son of God, silent in the tumult meek in the outrages, quiet in the shocks, does not murmur or complain of anyone.

     This divine Lamb, being in the midst of wolves, wished to see his holy Mother: because lovers, when afflicted, use to feel more lively the absence of their friends, and warmly wish for their presence, although that is to be an increase of their sorrow. 

     But thou, Blessed Virgin, couldst not see thy Son, and He had not this consolation. Suffer me to accompany thee till thou wilt be able to see him again and be consoled by him.

 

     III. The scourging. - Consider, my soul, how Pilate, having proclaimed the innocence of Jesus, yet wishing to satisfy the people, condemns the innocent Lord to be publicly scourged, in order to subtract him from death. What justice! Condemn an innocent soul only to satisfy the hatred of his accusers! They make him enter the Praetorium, they take off all his clothes, without he saying one word, showing hatred nor resistance.

     Then He offers the Everlasting Father with a heart full of love that innocent Flesh which was to be torn, and that precious Blood that He since so long desired to shed,  for us. Then they bind him to a pillar, and without any regard to the Jewish Law, which prohibited to give more than 40 lashes, following the Roman Law, according to which the number was not limited, they only think of satisfying their fury.

     A whole cohort of 500 soldiers surround that place, forming an iron circle: two vigorous executioners, that are followed by others stronger and more cruel, seize a bundle of rods and leather whips, and ropes flails with knots strung bones.

     Look my soul, at thy meek quiet Jesus, as if He were convicted of all the crimes they charged him with, standing, bent, bound to a low pillar which He embraces, his hands bound with straps on the other side of the pillar, his feet joined and fastened at its foot.

     Who can say his confusion and sorrow?

     Since the first blows, is virginal flesh was bruised, broken, ridged; and on every side, his Blood gushes out like a stream. The flails snatch shreds of flesh, and the lows falling on his live wounds, continually produce new ones. What an atrocious, what a bloody spectacle! Who can think of it without shuddering? They strike him without ceasing, and He does not complain or stir; and they tear him so cruelly, that his whole body is nothing but a wound, and He seems rather skinned than scourged.

     This is, O divine Jesus, the cruel and shameful torment Thou wishedst to bear for us, and to which Thou sumittedst to atone for our guilty pleasures! How can I still offend thee? O my God, on what ground have I deserved that Thou shouldst suffer so much for me? Thou hadst foretold all this by the mouth of Prophets: 'The ploughers sloughed upon my back; they made long their furrows...' (Ps 129:3) '...God gives me up to the ungodly,... He breaks me with breach upon breach' (Job 16:11,14) '...From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and bleeding wounds; they are not pressed out, or bound up, or softened with oil' (Is 1:6) 'But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities' (Is 53:5)

     O my God, and all this for our sins! How? Thou endurest such a torture for wicked men like myself? For me, guilty of so many sins, sufferest Thou so excessive sorrow? What shall I do, then, O my Savior, for thee, to atone for my own crimes?

     Behold, my soul, this model of penance from which all Saints learnt to treat their bodies and submit them to the spirit. As long as we live in this world, our soul has no greater enemy than our flesh. Their flesh, ever rebellious does no wish to submit  neither bit nor yoke; it follows without moderation its earthly inclinations, which the senses favor; it tends to the objects it desires with so much violence, that the spirit, and flesh alone causes it more pain than all its other enemies together. There is what produced the great austerities practiced by Christians after the coming of the Messiah, and unknown to the previous centuries: hairclothes, iron chains, disciplines, continual application to mortify their senses: and all this for fear to see, hear, say and taste anything which might defile the purity of their heart.

     We must, by the mortifications of our body, prevent temptation and falling. Paul the Apostle himself, who had been caught up into paradise, said: 'I chastise my body and bring it into subjection.' (1 Cor 9:27)  If even all the holiness of David and all the wisdom of Solomon could not prevent their falling because they suffered to be flattered by sensual pleasures; what will become of those, whose life is entirely occupied with seeking what can satisfy their body? It is to expiate and put a stop to this dissoluteness so common among men, that our Saviour would have his innocent flesh so cruelly lacerated.

 

A Prayer to Jesus Scourged

 

     O my God, my love, the life of my soul, here I am before thee struck and affected by sorrow and astonishment, so that I cannot utter one word; but I prostrate myself at thy sacred feet, I kiss this soil wet with thy Blood, I weep for my sins, acknowledge my misery, and expect thy mercy, I will not quit this place, I will remain here to look at this spectacle.

     O most precious and most holy Bood of my scourged Lord, I adore thee. I will never go far from thee, O Lord, but embrace thy feet, till Thou hast washed and purified me by his precious balm, from which only, I expect the recovery of my wounds. So be it.