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Chapter 13OracMed.1.13

El viernes en la mañana

The Mystery of the Sacred Mount

The soul is invited to contemplate Calvary as the mystical site of restoration, the tree of life, and the source of divine grace.

Today, you are to contemplate the mystery of the cross and the seven words the Lord spoke upon it. The text continues: The evangelist says they came to the place called Golgotha.✦ Reflect on these steps of the text. I. The mystery of the cross. My soul, we have arrived at the sacred mount of Calvary and reached the summit of the mystery of our restoration. Oh, how marvelous this place is! Truly, this is the house of God, the gate of heaven, the land of promise, and a place of salvation.1 Here the tree of life is planted; here the mystical ladder Jacob saw is set, joining heaven with earth, by which the angels descend to humanity and humanity ascends to God. This is, O my soul, a place of prayer. Here you should adore and bless the Lord, and give him thanks for this supreme gift, saying: "We adore you, Lord Jesus Christ, and we bless your holy name, for by this holy cross you redeemed the world." Thanks be to you, most merciful Savior, because you loved us so much and washed us from our sins with your Blood, and offered yourself for us on that cross, so that, with the sweetest fragrance of this noble sacrifice, kindled with the fire of your love, you might satisfy and appease God. Blessed be you forever, Savior of the world, reconciler of men, restorer of the angels, restorer of the heavens, triumpher over hell, conqueror of the devil, author of life, destroyer of death, and redeemer of those who are in darkness and the shadow of death. So come, all of you who are thirsty—come to the waters; and you who have no gold or silver, come and receive every good thing for free.✦ You who long for the water of life: this is that mystical rock struck by Moses's staff in the desert, from which water poured out in abundance for the thirsty people. You who long for peace and friendship with God: this is also that stone the patriarch Jacob anointed with oil and set up as a memorial of friendship and peace between God and humankind.2 You who long for wine to heal your wounds: this is that cluster of grapes brought from the promised land into this valley of tears; and now it is crushed and pressed in the winepress of the cross for our healing. You who long for the oil of divine grace: this is that precious jar of Elisha's widow, full of oil, with which we all must pay our debts. Though the jar seems small for so many, don't look at the amount but at its power, which is so great that as long as there is a vessel left to fill, the stream of this sacred liquor will keep flowing.3

The Stripping and Crucifixion

A detailed meditation on the physical suffering of Christ, from his stripping to the agony of the nails and the shedding of his precious blood.

I. So wake up now, my soul, and begin to ponder the mystery of this holy cross, by whose fruit the harm from that poisonous fruit of the forbidden tree was repaired—just as the Bridegroom made known to the bride in the Song of Songs when he said: Under a tree I raised you to life, my bride; for under another tree your mother was dishonored when she was deceived by the ancient serpent.4 See, then, how once the Savior has reached this place, those wicked enemies—so that his death might be more shameful—strip him of all his clothing, down to the inner tunic, which was woven in one piece from top to bottom, without any seam. See, then, here with how much meekness that most innocent Lamb lets himself be flayed, without opening his mouth or speaking a word against those who treated him so; rather, with a very willing heart he consented to be stripped of his garments and left shamefully naked, so that with them—better than with fig leaves—the nakedness of those who through sin had lost the garment of innocence and of the grace they had received might be covered.5 II. After this, consider how the Lord was nailed to the cross, and the pain he would suffer when those thick, sharp-edged nails were driven through the most delicate parts of the most delicate body there ever was.6 And look also at what the Virgin would feel when she saw with her eyes and heard with her ears the cruel, hard blows that fell so often on those divine limbs. Look how they then raised the cross high, and how they went to set it into a hole they had made for that purpose, and how—cruel as the officers were—when they were seating it they let it drop with a jolt, and so that whole holy Body would shudder in the air, the wounds would tear open further, and his pains would grow still worse.7 So then, O my Savior and Redeemer! what heart could be so stony that it would not break with sorrow—since on this day the stones themselves were split—when it considers what you suffer on that cross?8 Pains of death have hemmed you in, Lord, and the waves of the sea have broken over you; you are stuck in the deep of the abysses and find nothing to rest your weight on.9 The Father has forsaken you: what can you hope for, my Lord, from human beings? Your enemies shout abuse at you, your friends break your heart, your soul is in anguish, and for love of me you will not take comfort.10 My sins were indeed hard, and your penance makes that plain.11 I see you, my King, fastened to a beam; no one holds up your body but three iron spikes; from them hangs your sacred flesh, with no other relief.12 When you let your body's weight fall on your feet, the wounds in your feet tear open against the nails driven through them; when you shift it onto your hands, the wounds in your hands tear open under the weight of your body. His limbs cannot come to one another's aid except at equal cost of pain. For that holy head, tormented and wasted by the crown of thorns — what pillow will support it?✦ Oh, how well your arms would have served there, most serene Virgin, for that task! But it isn't your arms that will serve there now—only the arms of the cross. The sacred head will lean on them when it wants to rest, and the only relief they provide will be to drive the thorns deeper into his brain.13 On top of all this, I see those four principal wounds as four springs always pouring blood; I see the ground flooded and running with streams of blood; I see this most precious liquor trampled and spilled upon the earth, crying out and pleading more powerfully than the blood of Abel — for that blood demanded vengeance against the murderer, but this asks pardon for the sinner.✦✦1415

The Compassion of Mother and Son

A reflection on the mutual suffering of Jesus and Mary at the foot of the cross, highlighting Mary's role as the new Eve.

III. On the compassion of the Son for the Mother, and of the Mother for the Son. III. The Son's pains grew with the Mother's presence, and with them his heart was no less crucified within than his sacred body was without. There are two crosses for you, O good Jesus, on this day: one for the body, and another for the soul. The first is of passion, and the second of compassion; the one pierces your body with iron nails, and the other pierces your most holy soul with nails of pain.16 Who can, O good Jesus, describe what you felt when you considered the anguish of that most holy soul, which you knew so certainly was crucified with you on the cross?17 When you saw that tender heart pierced and run through by a knife of sorrow? When you turned your bloodied eyes to look at that divine face, covered with the yellow pallor of death, and at the anguish of her soul—already more than dead, though death had not yet come—and at those rivers of tears flowing from her purest eyes, and heard the groans torn from that sacred breast, wrung out by the weight of such great sorrow?18 Truly, no words can express how much this invisible cross tormented your compassionate heart. And who else, O blessed Mother, could describe the greatness of the sorrow and anguish in your heart, when you saw the one you had watched born with such joy dying amid such heavy torments?19 when you saw the one you had seen praised by the angels now mocked and blasphemed by men? when you saw that holy body, which you had handled with such reverence and raised with such tender care, so cruelly treated and tormented by the wicked? when you looked at that divine mouth, which you had refreshed with heaven's milk, now made bitter with gall and vinegar?20 and that divine head, which you had so often rested against your virgin breast, now bloodied and crowned with thorns? Oh, how many times you lifted your eyes on high to look at that divine form that had so often gladdened your soul as you gazed on it—and your eyes turned from their course, because the tenderness of your heart was more than your sight could bear!21 And even though these sorrows were so great, blessed Virgin, you didn't refuse the company of the cross, nor did you turn your back on it; you stayed there beside it—not fallen or cast down, but standing like a pillar of strength, contemplating with inestimable pain the Son on the cross. So, just as Eve, looking with delight on that fruit and tree of death, took part in the world's ruin, you, looking with such great bitterness on the fruit of life that hung from that tree, might take part in the world's remedy.22

Lessons from the Cross

Concluding reflections on the practical application of the passion, specifically the imitation of Christ's patience in our own trials.

IV. Another meditation on the lessons learned at the foot of the cross. V. On the patience we must have in our trials, in imitation of Christ

Read the original Latin

Este día has de contemplar el misterio de la cruz y aquellas siete palabras que el Señor en ella habló.

Síguese el texto: Vinieron —dice el evangelista— al lugar que se dice Gólgota.

Meditación sobre estos pasos del texto.

I. El misterio de la cruz

Venido habemos, ánima mía, al sacro monte Calvario, y llegado a la cumbre del misterio de nuestra reparación. ¡Oh, qué maravilloso es este lugar! Verdaderamente esta es casa de Dios, puerta del cielo, tierra de promisión y lugar de salud. Aquí está plantado el árbol de la vida, aquí está asentada aquella escalera mística que vio Jacob, que junta el cielo con la tierra, por donde los ángeles descienden a los hombres y los hombres suben a Dios. Este es, ¡oh anima mía! , lugar de oración. Aquí debes adorar y bendecir al Señor, y darle gracias por este sumo beneficio, diciendo así: «Adorámoste, Señor Jesucristo, y bendecimos tu santo nombre, pues por medio de esta santa cruz redimiste el mundo». Gracias sean dadas a ti, clementísimo Salvador, porque así nos amaste y lavaste de nuestros pecados con tu Sangre, y te ofreciste por nosotros en esa cruz, para que, con el olor suavísimo deste noble sacrificio, encendido con el fuego de tu amor, satisficieses y aplacases a Dios.

Bendito seas para siempre, salvador del mundo, reconciliador de los hombres, reparador de los ángeles, restaurador de los cielos, triunfador del infierno, vencedor del demonio, autor de la vida, destruidor de la muerte y redentor de los que están en tinieblas y sombra de muerte.

Todos, pues, los que tenéis sed venid a las aguas, y los que no tenéis oro ni plata venid a recibir todos los bienes de balde. Los que deseáis agua de vida, esta es aquella piedra mística, herida con la vara de Moisés en el desierto, de la cual salieron aguas en abundancia para el pueblo sediento. Los que deseáis paz y amistad con Dios, esta es también aquella piedra que roció el patriarca Jacob con olio y la levantó por título de amistad y paz entre Dios y los hombres. Los que deseáis vino para curar vuestras llagas, este es aquel racimo que se trajo de la tierra de promisión a este valle de lágrimas; el cual ahora es pisado y estrujado en el lagar de la cruz, para nuestro remedio. Los que deseáis el olio de la divina gracia, este es aquel vaso precioso de la viuda de Eliseo, lleno de olio, con que todos hemos de pagar nuestras deudas; y, aunque el vaso parece pequeño para tantos, no miréis a la cantidad, sino a la virtud, la cual es tan grande, que, mientras hubiere vaso que henchir, siempre correrá la vena deste sagrado licor.

I. Despierta, pues, ahora, ánima mía, y comienza a pensar el misterio desta santa cruz, por cuyo fruto se reparó el daño de aquel venenoso fruto del árbol vedado; como lo significó el Esposo a la esposa en los Cantares, cuando dijo: Debajo de un árbol te resucité, esposa; porque debajo de otro árbol fue deshonrada tu madre, cuando fue engañada por la antigua serpiente.

Mira, pues, cómo llegado ya el Salvador a este lugar, aquellos perversos enemigos, porque fuese más vergonzosa su muerte, le desnudan de todas sus vestiduras, hasta la túnica interior, que era toda tejida de alto a bajo, sin costura alguna. Mira, pues, aquí, con cuánta mansedumbre se deja desollar aquel inocentísimo Cordero, sin abrir su boca ni hablar palabra contra los que así le trataban; antes de muy buena voluntad consentía ser despojado de sus vestiduras y quedar a la vergüenza desnudo, porque con ellas se cubriese, mejor que con hojas de higuera, la desnudez de aquellos que por el pecado habían perdido la vestidura de la inocencia y de la gracia recibida.

II. Después desto considera cómo el Señor fue enclavado en la cruz, y el dolor que padecería al tiempo que aquellos clavos gruesos y esquinados entraban por las más delicadas partes del más delicado de todos los cuerpos. Y mira también lo que la Virgen sentiría cuando viese con sus ojos y oyese con sus oídos los crueles y duros golpes que sobre aquellos miembros divinales tan a menudo caían. Mira cómo luego levantaron la cruz en alto, y cómo la fueron a meter en un hoyo que para esto tenían hecho, y cómo —según eran crueles los ministros— al tiempo del asentar la dejaron caer de golpe, y así se estremecería todo aquel santo Cuerpo en el aire y se rasgarían más las llagas y crecerían más sus dolores.

Pues, ¡oh Salvador y Redentor mío! , ¿qué corazón habrá tan de piedra, que no se parta de dolor —pues en este día se partieron las piedras—, considerando lo que padeces en esa cruz? Cercado te han, Señor, dolores de muerte y envestido han sobre ti las olas de la mar; atollado has en lo profundo de los abismos y no hallas sobre qué estribar. El Padre te ha desamparado: ¿qué esperas, Señor mío, de los hombres? Los enemigos te dan grita, los amigos te quiebran el corazón, tu ánima está afligida, y no admites consuelo por mi amor. Duros fueron, cierto, mis pecados, y tu penitencia lo declara. «Véote, Rey mío, cosido con un madero; no hay quien sostenga tu cuerpo, sino tres garfios de hierro; dellos cuelga tu sagrada carne, sin tener otro refrigerio. Cuando cargas el cuerpo sobre los pies, desgárranse las heridas de los pies con los clavos que tienes atravesados; cuando lo cargas sobre las manos, desgárranse las heridas de las manos con el peso del cuerpo.

No se pueden socorrer los miembros unos a otros, sino con igual perjuicio. Pues la santa cabeza, atormentada y enflaquecida con la corona de espinas, ¿qué almohada la sostendrá? ¡Oh, cuán bien empleados fueran allí vuestros brazos, serenísima Virgen, para este oficio! ; mas no servirán ahora allí los vuestros, sino los de la cruz. Sobre ellos se reclinará la sagrada cabeza, cuando quisiere descansar, y el refrigerio que dellos recibirá será hincarle más las espinas por el celebro. Sobre todo esto, veo esas cuatro llagas principales como cuatro fuentes que están siempre manando sangre; veo el suelo encharcado y arroyado de sangre; veo este tan precioso licuor hollado y derramado sobre la tierra, dando voces y clamando mejor que la sangre de Abel; pues aquella pedía venganza contra el homicida, mas esta pide perdón para el pecador».

III. De la compasión del Hijo a la Madre y de la Madre al Hijo

III. Crecieron los dolores del Hijo con la presencia de la Madre, con los cuales no menos estaba su corazón crucificado de dentro, que el sagrado cuerpo lo estaba de fuera. Dos cruces hay para ti, ¡oh buen Jesús! , en este día: una para el cuerpo, y otra para el ánima; la una es de pasión, y la otra de compasión; la una traspasa el cuerpo con clavos de hierro, y la otra tu ánima santísima con clavos de dolor.

¿Quién podrá, ¡oh buen Jesús! , declarar lo que sentías, cuando considerabas las angustias de aquella ánima santísima, la cual tan de cierto sabías contigo estar crucificada en la cruz? ; ¿cuando veías aquel piadoso corazón traspasado y atravesado con cuchillo de dolor? ; ¿cuando tendías los ojos sangrientos y mirabas aquel divino rostro, cubierto de amarillez de muerte, y aquellas angustias de su ánima, sin muerte ya más que muerta, y aquellos ríos de lágrimas que de sus purísimos ojos salían, y oías los gemidos que se arrancaban de aquel sagrado pecho, exprimidos con el peso de tan grave dolor? Verdaderamente no se puede encarecer lo mucho que esta invisible cruz atormentaba tu piadoso corazón.

Y ¿quién otrosí podrá, ¡oh bendita Madre! , declarar la grandeza de los dolores y ansias de tus entrañas, cuando veías morir con tan graves tormentos al que viste nacer con tanta alegría? , ¿cuando veías escarnecido y blasfemado de los hombres aquel que allí viste alabado de los ángeles? , ¿cuando veías aquel santo cuerpo, que tú tratabas con tanta reverencia y criaste con tanto regalo, tan mal tratado y atormentado de los malos? , ¿cuando mirabas aquella divina boca, que tú con leche del cielo recreaste, amargada con hiel y vinagre? , ¿y aquella divina cabeza, que tantas veces en tus virginales pechos reclinaste, ensangrentada y coronada de espinas? ¡Oh, cuántas veces alzabas los ojos a lo alto para mirar aquella divina figura, que tantas veces alegró tu ánima, mirándola, y se volvían los ojos del camino, porque no podía sufrir tu vista la ternura del corazón!

Y, con ser tan grandes estos dolores, no rehusaste, Virgen bendita, la compañía de la cruz, ni le volviste las espaldas, sino allí estuviste junto a ella; no caída ni derribada, sino en pie, como coluna de fortaleza, contemplando con inestimable dolor al Hijo en la cruz; para que así como Eva mirando con deleite aquel fruto y árbol de muerte intervino en la perdición del mundo, así tú, mirando con tan grande amargura el fruto de vida que de aquel árbol pendía, intervinieses en el remedio del mundo.

IV. Otra meditación de la doctrina que se aprende al pie de la cruz

V. De la paciencia que habemos de tener en los trabajos, a imitación de Cristo

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Matt.27.33;Mark.15.22;John.19.17 — And they came to a place called Golgotha, which is the place of a skull. Mark.15.22 — And they brought him to the place called Golgotha, which means, Place of a Skull. John.19.17 — Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place called the Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.
  2. ↩Isa.55.1 — Come, all who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
  3. ↩John.19.2 — And the soldiers, having woven a crown of thorns, placed it on his head, and they clothed him in a purple robe.
  4. ↩Gen.4.10 — And he said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground."
  5. ↩Heb.12.24 — and to Jesus, mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than Abel's

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Spanish 'salud' here is salvific (salvation), not physical health.
  2. 2 ↩Spanish 'título' here means a memorial marker or standing witness (Jacob's pillar), not a legal title-deed; rendered 'memorial'.
  3. 3 ↩Spanish 'virtud' here means efficacy/power of the oil, not moral virtue; rendered 'power'.
  4. 4 ↩Spanish resucité (literally “I resurrected/raised you to life”) renders the Canticle’s suscitavi; kept as “raised you to life” to preserve both the Song of Songs echo and the cross-as-life typology against the tree of the Fall.
  5. 5 ↩Spanish desollar is literally 'to flay/skin.' In Passion meditation this often names the violence of tearing bloodied clothes from the body; rendered 'flayed' to keep that force, not softened to a mere undressing.
  6. 6 ↩Spanish esquinados suggests angular/edged nails (not smooth and round), stressing the added tearing as they entered.
  7. 7 ↩Rendered as officers (the men charged with the execution), not liturgical ministers.
  8. 8 ↩The source continues the vocative sentence from s1; the leading comma is retained only as sentence division in the input refs, not as English punctuation.
  9. 9 ↩"envestido han sobre ti las olas" rendered as waves breaking over him; "atollado has" as being mired/stuck rather than merely submerged, preserving the sense of no footing ("no hallas sobre qué estribar").
  10. 10 ↩"por mi amor" taken as causal: out of love for the speaker (the sinner), not as "my love" as subject. "no admites consuelo" kept as deliberate refusal of comfort, not inability to feel it.
  11. 11 ↩"penitencia" rendered as "penance" (Christ's voluntary suffering as satisfaction), not merely psychological repentance.
  12. 12 ↩"cosido con un madero" rendered as fastened to a wooden beam (not literal sewing). "garfios de hierro" as iron spikes/hooks for the nails. Opening quotation continues into the next section in the source.
  13. 13 ↩Source 'celebro' is the older spelling of 'cerebro' (brain); rendered as 'brain' for the concrete anatomical force of the image.
  14. 14 ↩'licuor' is older Spanish for 'licor' (precious liquid); kept as 'liquor' in the older devotional sense of a poured liquid, not modern alcohol.
  15. 15 ↩'clamando mejor que la sangre de Abel' is comparative excellence of appeal (better/more excellently), not mere volume of sound; rendered 'more powerfully' to carry that force in modern English.
  16. 16 ↩Spanish pasión / compasión keeps the traditional Passion-Compassion pair: physical suffering and shared sorrow with Mary. Ánima is rendered soul per lexeme policy.
  17. 17 ↩"aquella ánima santísima" is read as Mary's soul co-crucified with Christ by compassion, continuing the prior section's two-crosses motif (passion / compassion).
  18. 18 ↩"sin muerte ya más que muerta" rendered as living-death oxymoron for Mary's soul in grief: already more than dead, though she had not died.
  19. 19 ↩entrañas rendered as heart for the inmost maternal seat of feeling; womb is also possible but weaker in this affective cascade.
  20. 20 ↩leche del cielo kept as heaven's milk—poetic elevation of Mary's nursing, not a separate supernatural substance.
  21. 21 ↩se volvían los ojos del camino rendered as eyes turned from their course; the sense is that she could not keep looking along the path of vision.
  22. 22 ↩Spanish 'coluna' is the historical spelling of 'columna' (pillar/column); rendered as 'pillar of strength' for 'coluna de fortaleza'.

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