Meditatio passionis Christi hora tertia
Christ Stripped and Prepared for Scourging
The crowd demands Christ's condemnation, and after being stripped and mocked, he modestly gathers and puts on his garments again while the devout reader is urged to contemplate his suffering and humanity closely.
The whole crowd of the Jews therefore demands that Chrisb be fixed to the cross, and so he is condemned by the wretched judge Pilate. They do not remember his benefits and works, nor his nature. Nor are they moved on account of his innocence; and because it seems cruel, they do not reconsider on account of the affliction they had previously inflicted on him. But the leaders and elders rejoice that they have accomplished their private intention. They laugh at and mock him — the true and eternal God — and they rush his death. He's led back inside, stripped of the purple garment, and stands naked before them; he isn't even given permission to reclothe himself. Pay careful attention here, and consider his form in every detail. So that you may enter deeply into his suffering and at the same time be nourished by it, turn your eyes away from his divinity for a moment and consider him as a mere man. You'll see a young man, handsome, most noble, most innocent, and most loving — yet about to be scourged, his whole body spattered with blood and bruises, his garments thrown in every direction and scattered on the ground, gathering them up with a certain modesty, reverence, and shame, reclothing himself before them even as they mock him, as though he were the lowest of all, abandoned by God and deserted by every help. Look at him carefully as well, and let yourself be moved with piety and compassion. Now he gathers one garment, now another, and reclothes himself before them.
The Pillar, the Cross, and the Company of Thieves
The meditation turns from Christ's humble reclothing to his scourging at the pillar, the laying of the heavy cross upon his shoulders, and his being led out with two thieves, prompting inward compassion and wonder.
Return after that to the divine nature, and consider that immense, eternal, incomprehensible, and sovereign majesty now made flesh — bending humbly down, reclining toward the ground, gathering up his garments again, dressing himself with reverence and a blush, as if he were the most worthless of men — no, more like a purchased slave under their power, accustomed to being corrected and beaten by them for some offense. Gaze on him also with care, and wonder at his humility, and in your own reflections suffer with him inwardly, as best you can, when he is tied to the column and scourged so savagely. And once he is clothed again they lead him outside, so that they might not delay his death any longer; then the venerable wood of the cross — long, thick, and very heavy — they place upon his shoulders, which the most gentle Lamb patiently takes up and carries. And as it is said in the accounts, the belief is that the Lord's cross was fifteen feet in height. And then he is led forward, hurried along, and filled with insults, just as was touched on above at the beginning, in the morning hour. And once led outside with his companions, he is — at any rate — handed over to two thieves. Look — this is his own company, his own fellowship. O good Jesus!
Bearing the Cross and Meeting His Mother
Christ is treated as the worst of criminals while carrying the cross alone, and his mother, unable to reach him through the crowd, meets him near the city gate but is unable to speak with him.
What a deep shame these so-called friends of yours bring on you! They pair you with thieves, but they do something even worse: they lay the cross on your shoulders for you to carry — something we never read about the thieves themselves. So not only was he, as Isaiah says, numbered among the wicked — he was treated as more wicked than the wicked themselves.✦ How astonishing, Lord, is your patience. Look at him closely here, how he walks bent under the cross, gasping for breath. Sympathize with him as much as you can, placed as he is in such straits, amid mockery heaped upon mockery. And because his truly sorrowful mother could not get near him or see him through the great crowd pressing in on him, she took a shorter route with John and her companions, arriving ahead of the others so she could get close to him. But when she met him outside the city gate where the roads converged, seeing him weighed down by so great a yoke — something she had not seen at first — she was nearly overcome with anguish. She couldn't speak a word to him, nor could the Lord speak to her, because he was being hurried along by those who were leading him to be crucified.
The Long Road to Calvary and Simon of Cyrene
Christ addresses the weeping women of Jerusalem, traces of memorial churches are noted, the great length of the way to Calvary is emphasized, and when he collapses under the cross, Simon of Cyrene is forced to carry it.
Further on, the Lord, going a little farther, turned to the women who were weeping and said to them: 'Daughters of Jerusalem, don't weep for me, but weep for yourselves,' and so on, as is more fully contained in the Gospel.✦ And in these two places, traces of the churches that were built there in memory of these events are still visible, as I learned from our brother who saw them. He also says that the mount of Calvary, where Christ was crucified, was as far from the city gate as our place is from the gate of Saint-Germain. So the carrying of the cross was an exceedingly long journey. When he had gone farther, then, and was so exhausted and broken that he could no longer carry the cross, he set it down. But those wretched men of the earth, unwilling to face their own death, fearing that Pilate might revoke his sentence because he showed a willingness to release him, forced someone else to carry the cross, and led Christ himself — thus relieved of the burden — like a bound thief to the place of Calvary.✦ Don't these things that he suffered at the morning hour, and at the first hour, and at the third hour — even before the crucifixion itself — seem to you to be the most intense and bitter pains, and horrors enough to stagger anyone? That is certainly what I think — and these things are not only moving toward compassion but are deeply piercing to the heart of the Passion.
Transition to the Crucifixion and Death
The meditation pauses at the end of the third hour and announces the coming focus on the crucifixion, death, and the events of the sixth and ninth hours, with a promise to treat the post-death mysteries later.
So much seems to have been completed of what needed to be said about these three hours for now. Let us turn now, then, to what happened in the crucifixion and death — that is, at the sixth and ninth hours. Afterward we will look at what took place after his death, namely at the hour of vespers and of compline.
Read the original Latin
Petit ergo tota multitudo Judaeorum ut cruci- chrisb figatur, et sic condemnatur a misero judice Pi- 1^^ lato. Non recordantur beneficiorum et operum natur. , ejus, nec moventur propter innocenUam ejus; et quod crudele videtur, non retractantur propter afflicUonem, quam ei prius intulerunt; sed gaudent principes et majores, quod intenUonem praivam perfecerunt. Rident et derident eum, qui est verus Deus et seternus, et mortem accelerant. Reducitur intus, spoUatur purpura, et stat nudus coram eis, nec datur ei revestiendi licenUa. Attende hic diligenter, et considera staturam ejus in singulis partibus. Et ut inlime compatiaris, et simul pascaris, averte parumper oculos a divinitate, et eum purum hominem considera, et videbis juvenem elegantem, nobilissimum, et innocentissimum, et amantissimum, totum autem flagellatura, et sanguine livoribusque respersum, pannos suos undique projectos sparsim de terra coIUgere, et cum quadam verecundia, reverenUa et rubore se coram eis quamvis irridentibus revesUre, ac si foret omnium infimus, derelictus a Deo, et omni auxilio desUtutus. Intuere eUam eum diUgenter, et pietate ac compassione movearis: nam modo colligit unum, modo alium, et coram illis se revesUt.
Redeas post ad divinitatem, et considera illam immensam, seternam, et incomprehensibilem, et imperatoriam majestatem incarnatam, se flectentem humiliter, ad terram reclinantem et pannos recoIUgentem, se cum reverentia et rubore similiter vestientem ac si esset homo vilissimus, imo servus emptitius sub istorum dominio consUtutus, et ab eis pro aliquo excessu correctus et casUgatus. Intuere etiam eum diligenter, et humililatem ejus admirare, et eidem etiam considerationibus compatiens, intiieri potes eumdem cum ad columnam ligatus sic enormiler flagellatur. Et eo revestito ducunt eum foras, ne mortem ulterius differant, ct tunc venerabile lignum crucis longum, et grossum, et multum grave ponunt super bumeros ejus, quod agnus mansuetissimus patienter suscipit et portat. Et ut dicitur in historiis, opinio est crucem Domini quindecim pedes habuisse in altum. Et tunc ducitur, et acceleratur, et opprobriis saturatur, ut supra in principio tactum fuit hora christas matutina. Ductus autem fuit foras cum sociis dacitur g^jg duobus utiquc latrouibus. Ecce haec est iifigen- sua societas. 0 bone Jesu!
quantam verecun"^- diam faciunt vobis isti vestri amici! latronibus vos associant, sed et deterius faciunt, qui crucem vobis portandam imponunt, quod de latronibus ipsis non legitur. Unde non solum, juxta Isaiam *, cum iniqiiis deputatus est, sed iniquorum iniquior. Indicibihs est, Domine, patientia vestra. Cerne igitur hic eum bene, quomodo vadit curvus subtus crucem, et vehementer anhelat. Compatere ergo ei quantum potes, in tot angustiis, et ludibriorum renovationibus posito. Et quia vere moesta mater ejus propter multitudinem gentium ei appropinquare non poterat nec videre, ivit per aham viam breviorem cum Joanne et sociabus suis, ut alios praecedens ei approximare valeret. Cum autem extra portam civitatis in concursit viarum eum habuit obvium, cernens eum oneratum hgno tam grandi, quod primo non viderat, semimortua facta est prae angustia, nec verbum ei dicere potuit, nec Dominus ei, quia acceleratus erat ab eis, qui eum ducebant ad crucifigendum.
Ulterius autem Dominus procedens parum post convertit se ad mulieres flentes, et dixit eis ': FilicB Hierusalem, nolite flere super me, sed super vos ipsas flete, etc, sicut in Evangelio plenius continetur. Et in his duobus locis apparent vesligia ecclesiarum adhuc quae ibi factae sunt in memoriam hominum, ut habui a fratre nostro qui vidit. Qui etiam dicit, quod mons Calvariae, ubi fuit Christus crucifixus, distabat a porta civitatis, quantum locus noster a porta Sancti Germani. Unde nimis longa portatio crucis erat. Cum ergo ulterius processisset, et ita esset tatigatus ct confraclus, quod amodo portare non posset, crucem deposuit. Illi autem pessimi dilTerre nolentes mortem suam, timentes ne sentcntiam ejus revocaret Pilatus, quia ostendebat voluntatem dimittendi eum, coegerunt quemdam crucem portare, ipsum autem sic exoncratum, ut latronem ligatum, ad Calvarife locum duxerunt. Nonne igitur hsec qu<" in matutinali, et prima, et tertia hora passus est, videntur tibi sine ipsa crucifixione vehementissimi dolores esse, et amarissimi, et horrores valde stupendi? Certe sic puto, et ad compassionem facienlia motiva, quinimo valde inferentia passionem.
Sic completa videntur, quee de his tribus diccnda sunt ad praesens. Videamus ergo nunc quae contigerunt in crucifixioue et morte, scilicet hora sexta et nona: postea videbimus de his, quae contigerunt post mortem, scilicet hora vespertina et completorii
Scripture echoes
- ↩Isa.53.12 — Therefore I will give him a share among the many, and he will divide spoil with the strong, because he poured out his life to death and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors.
- ↩Luke.23.28 — But turning toward them Jesus said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; but weep for yourselves and for your children."
- ↩Matt.27.32;Mark.15.21;Luke.23.26 — As they were going out, they found a man from Cyrene, named Simon; they compelled this man to carry his cross. Mark.15.21 — They compel a certain man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country—the father of Alexander and Rufus—to take up his cross. Luke.23.26 — And as they led him away, they seized Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, and laid the cross on him to carry it behind Jesus.
Meditationes Vitae Christi (Pseudo-Bonaventure), Castilian court context companion
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