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Chapter 78MedVC.1.78

Meditatio passionis Christi hora sexta

The Road to Calvary and the Stripping of Christ

The Lord is led to Calvary, stripped bare before the crowd, and his father sees his nakedness and covers him with a veil.

So when the Lord Jesus, led away by the wicked, reached the foul place of Calvary, you can picture those wicked workers toiling shamefully on every side. With these things, then, set yourself before your mind's eye with your whole attention, and look carefully at everything that is done against your Lord, and everything said and done by him and through him. So see with the eyes of your mind some driving the cross into the ground, others preparing the nails and hammers, others preparing the ladder and other implements, others arranging whatever they're supposed to do, and still others stripping him bare. He is stripped even further, and now he stands naked a third time before the whole crowd, as his wounds are torn open again by the rags stuck to his flesh. Now for the first time a father beholds his son thus seized, and weighed down by the pain of death. He is grieved beyond measure, and with shame, because he sees him completely naked — for they didn't even leave him his undergarments. He hurries over, then, and draws near to his son, embraces him, and covers him with a veil from his own head. O, in what great bitterness his soul now stands!

The Ladders and the Ascent to the Cross

The ladders are set against the cross, and Christ humbly climbs and stretches out his arms to his crucifiers.

I don't believe he could have said a word to him: if he could have done more, he certainly would have wanted to; but he couldn't help him any further. For she watches her son snatched furiously from her hands to the foot of the cross. Pay careful attention here to the shape of the cross. Two ladders are set up: one reaching back to the right arm of the cross, the other to the left arm, and those fixed upon it climb up with clubs and hammers.1 Another ladder is placed on the front side, reaching all the way to the spot where his feet were to be fastened. Look closely now at each detail: the Lord Jesus is compelled to climb the cross by this small ladder; yet he himself, without any resistance or opposition, humbly does whatever they want. See, then, how small the space is on the upper part?2 The ladders reach the cross, and he turns and opens his royal arms, stretching out his most beautiful hands on high and extending them to his crucifiers.3

Christ's Prayer and the Nailing to the Cross

Christ prays to the Father in acceptance of his Passion, and his hands and feet are nailed to the cross.

He looks up to heaven and says to the Father: Here I am, Father — you wanted me humiliated all the way to the cross for the love and salvation of the human race. I accept it, and I offer myself to you for them, those you gave me to be my brothers and sisters.✦ Accepted, then, Father — from now on be reconciled to me in love, and wipe away every old stain from them, and remove me far from them: I offer myself for them, Father. But the one standing behind the cross takes his right hand and fastens it firmly to the cross. Once that was done, the one on the left side takes his left hand and pulls it as far as he can, stretches it out, then drives in another nail, strikes it home, and fixes it fast. After this they climb down from the ladders, and all the ladders are taken away. The Lord hangs, pulled downward by the weight of his body, supported only by the nails driven through his hands. But then another comes forward and drags him by the feet as hard as he can, and with him stretched out that way, someone else fastens his feet with a terrible nail. But there are some who believe he was not crucified in this way — that rather, with the cross laid flat on the ground, they lifted him up and fixed the cross upright in the earth.

The Lord Suspended and His Sacred Blood

Christ is thrown upon the cross, stretched so that all his bones are visible, and streams of blood flow from his wounds as he hangs between two thieves.

If this pleases you more, look at how they seize him contemptibly, like the most worthless scoundrel, and throw him down furiously upon the cross on the ground, taking his arms and, after a violent stretching, fastening them most harshly to the cross. Likewise consider what was done with his feet, which they dragged as violently as they possibly could. Behold, the Lord Jesus is crucified, and stretched out on the cross in such a way that they could count all his bones, just as he himself complains through the Prophet. Streams of most sacred blood flow from all sides out of those great gashes. And so he is so constricted that he cannot move except in his head. Those three nails bear the weight of the whole body. He endures most bitter sufferings, and is afflicted beyond what can be said or even imagined. He hangs between two thieves.✦

Reproaches, Mockery, and the Sorrowful Mother

Christ endures insults and blasphemy from the crowd, the soldiers divide his garments, and his mother's compassion intensifies his suffering.

Punishment on every side? Reproaches on every side, insults on every side. For when he's hemmed in by insults like this, they don't hold back. Some blaspheme, saying: 'Ha! You who destroy the temple of God — others say: He can't even save himself. And they hurl many other insults: If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross so we'll believe you.'✦4 But the soldiers who crucified him also divided his garments among themselves in his presence.✦5 And all of this is said and done with his most sorrowful mother standing there, whose compassion greatly intensifies her son's suffering — and the reverse.6 She herself was hanging on the cross with her son, and she would rather die with him than go on living any longer. On every side there are torments too vast to be felt — and what I've told you doesn't even begin to approach them.7

The Prayers of Mother and Son

Mary and Jesus each pray to the Father — she entrusting her son to God, and he commending her to the Father's care.

His mother stood near his cross, and between the cross of the thief; she did not turn her eyes from her son. She was in anguish just as he was, and with her whole heart she prayed to the Father, saying: "Father and eternal God, it pleased you that my son should be crucified. This is not the time for me to demand him back from you." "But you see in what great distress her soul is now. I ask that you lessen her suffering, if it pleases you." "Father, I entrust my son to you." And the son likewise was praying to the Father for her, and silently within himself he was saying: "Father, my Father, you see how my mother is afflicted." "I am the one who ought to be crucified, not she. But she is with me on the cross." "My crucifixion is enough. I bear the sins of the whole people; she deserves nothing of the kind." "You see her — desolate, worn out with grief the whole day long." "I entrust her to you. Make her sorrows bearable."

The Weeping Disciples at the Cross

Mary, John, Mary Magdalene, and the holy women stand near the cross, weeping and suffering with the Lord and his mother.

There were, however, near the cross with the Lady: John, and Mary Magdalene, and two sisters of the Lady—namely Mary the mother of James, and Salome—and perhaps some others as well. All of them, and especially Magdalene, the beloved disciple of Jesus, were weeping intensely, and they could not be consoled about their beloved Lord and Teacher. They suffered with the Lord and with the Lady, and with themselves.✦ Their grief was often renewed in them, because their compassion was always being renewed, whenever new suffering was added to their Lord through insults or through deeds.

Read the original Latin

Cum ergo Dominus Jesus ductu impiorum ad Calvariae locum foetidum pervenit, conspicere potes operarios malos undique nequiter operari. His autem toto mentis intuitu te prsesentem exhibeas, et intuere diligenter cuncta, quse sunt contra Dominum tuum, et quae dicuntur et fiunt ab ipso atque per ipsum. Videas ergo oculis mentis alios figere crucem in terram, alios parare clavos et martellos, alios parare scalam et alia instrumenta, alios ordinare quidquid facere debeant, et alios ipsum spoliare. Spoliatur etiam, et nudus est nunc tertia vice coram tota multitudine, renovantur fracturae per pannos carni applicatos. Nunc primo raater conspicit filium suum sic captum, et aptalum dolore mortis affligi. Tristatur etiam supra modum, et cum rubore, quod videt eum totaliter nudum: nam et ei nec femoralia dimiserunt. Accelerat ergo, et approximat filio, amplexatur, etcingit eum capitis sui velo. O in quanta amaritudine est nunc anima sua!

Non credo quod ei vcrbum dicere potuit: si amplius facere posset, utique voluisset; sed amplius non potuit eum adjuvare. Eripitur enim filius suus de manibus ejus furibunde ad pedem crucis. Hic modum crucis diligenter attende. Ponun- Modus tur duae scahe, una retrorsum ad brachium i"" ^°" > craci- dextrum, alia ad sinislrum brachium, super fixus q^^g jjjgiefici ascendunt cum clavis, et marteliis. Ponilur etiam alia scala ex parte anleriori, actingens usque ad locum ubi debebant pcdes affigi. Conspice nunc bene singula: compellitur Dominus Jesus crucem ascendere per hanc scalam parvam; ipse autem sine rebellione et contradictione facit humiliter quidquid volunt. Cam ergo in supcriori parte islius parva? scalae porvenit ad crucem, reues vertit, et illa regalia aperit bracliia, et extendens manus pulcherrimas, in excelsum eas porrigit suis crucifixoribus.

Aspicit in coelum, Patri dicens: Ecce hic sum, pater mi, usque ad crucem me humiliari voluisti pro amore et salute gcneris huraani: placet, accepto, et pro eis me tibi offero, quos dedisti mihi, et fratres esse voluisli. Accepta igitur et lu, pater, et deinceps placabilis esto mei amorc, et omnium maculas veteres absterge, et elonga ab eis: me pro eis til)i oflero, Pater. Qui autem retro crucem est, accipit manum ejus dexteram, et eam fortiter cruci affigit. Quo facto, ille qui est in latere sinistro accipit manum sinistram, et trahit quantum potest, et extendit, et alium clavum immittit, percutit et conCgit. Descendunt post haec de scalis, et removentur omnes scalae. Pendet Dominus ex gravedine corporis deorsum trahentis, solum clavis infixis manibus sustentatur. Nihilominus occurrit et alius, et per pedes quantum potest eum trahit, et eo sic extento, alius configit ejus pedes clavo dirissimo. Sunt tamen quidam qui credunt, quod non hoc modo fuerit crucifixus, sed cruce extenta in terra, eum elevaverunt, et crucem fixerunt in terram.

Quod si hoc magis placet, conspice quomodo ipsum capiunt despicabiliter sicut ribaldum vilissimum, et prosternunt super crucem in lerra furibunde, brachia ipsius accipientes, et post violentam extensionem cruci durissime affigentes. Similiter et de pedibus factum intuere, quos traxerunt quantum violentissime potuerunt. Ecce crucifixus est Dominus Jesus, et sic in cruce extensus,quod dinumeran omnia ossa ejus possent, sicut ipse conquwitur 'per Prophetam. Fluunt undique sacratissimi sanguinis rivuli ex illis magnis scissuris. Sicque angustiatus est, quod se movere non potest nisi in capite. Illi tres clavi sustinent totius corporis pondus; do42. lores acerbissimos tolerat, et ulfra quam dici possit vel cogitari, affligitur. Pendet inter duos latrones.

Undique poena? , undique opprobria, undique convicia. Nam sic coangustato a conviciis non parcunt. Alii blasphemant,dicentes ^: Vah qui destruis templum Dei; alii vero '; Seipsum non potest salvum facere; et alia dicunt multa convicia *: Si filius Dei est, descendat de cruce, ut credamus ei. Sed et milites qui crucifixerunt eura '', diviserunt sibi vestimenta ejus in ipsius prpesenlia. Et hgec omnia dicuntur et fiunt praesente matre sua moestissima: cujus compassio multum augmentat filio passionem, et e contrario. Ipsa cum filio pendebat in cruce; et potius elegit mori cum ipso, quam amplius vivere. Undique sunt augustiae, et tormenta sentiri poterant, narraii vero nullatenus poterant.

Stabat mater juxta crucem ejus, et inter crucem latronis, non avertebat oculos a filio, angustiabatur ut ipse, et toto corde orabat ad Patrem, dicens: Pater et Deus aeterne, placuit vobis, ut filius meus crucifigeretur: non est tempus ut a vobis repetam. Sed videfis in quanta angustia est nunc anima sua: rogo ut mitigetis ei poenam, si placct. Pater, recommendo vobis filium meum. Et filius similiter orabat Patrem pro ea, et tacite intra se dicebat: Pater mi, yides quomodo affligilur mater mea. Ego debeo crucifigi, non ipsa; sed mecum est in cruce. Sufficit crucifixio mea, qui totius populi porto peccata; ipsa nihil tale meretur. Vides eam ^ desolatam, tota die moerore confectam. Recommendo eam tibi: dolores ejus tolerabiles facias.

Erant"^ autemjuxta crucem cum Domina Joannes et Magdalena, et duae sorores Domince, scilicet Maria Jacobi, et Salome, et forte etiam aliae, quffi omnes, et maxime Magdalena dilecta Jesu discipula, vehementer flebant, nec de suo Domino dilecto ac Magistro poterant consolari, compatiebantur Domino et Dominse, et sibi ipsis. Saepe renovabatur eis dolor, quia semper eis renovabatur compassio, cum in conviciis vel in factis suo Domino nova passio addebatur

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Gen.22.1 — After these things, God tested Abraham. And He said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."
  2. ↩Luke.23.32-Luke.23.33;Matt.27.38 — Two others also, criminals, were led away with him to be executed. Luke.23.33 — And when they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals—one on his right and one on his left. Matt.27.38 — Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left.
  3. ↩Matt.27.40 — You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!
  4. ↩Ps.22.18;John.19.24 — I will declare your name to my people; all my bones are exposed. They stare at me; they gloat over me. John.19.24 — So they said to one another, 'Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to see whose it shall be' — that the Scripture might be fulfilled that says, 'They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.' So the soldiers did these things.
  5. ↩John.19.25 — Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The source text is heavily corrupted here (Ponun- / tur / scahe / craci / sinislrum / jjjgiefici). The normalized reading reflects the most plausible intended sense: two ladders placed against the arms of the cross, with workers ascending with tools. The corruption likely arose from scribal miscopying of a description of the crucifixion scene.
  2. 2 ↩The source text is partially corrupted (Cam / islius). The normalized reading and most plausible sense point to a remark about the smallness of the upper portion of the cross. 'Cam' may be a corruption of a demonstrative or vocative; 'islius' is uncertain. Translation follows the likely intended question about the cramped space on the cross's upper part.
  3. 3 ↩The source text contains several uncertain or corrupted forms (reues, porvenit as variant of pervenit, bracliia for brachia). 'reues' is unclear — possibly a corruption of a pronoun or verb; the translation reads it as referring to Christ himself turning. The overall sense is clear: Christ extends his arms willingly toward those who crucify him.
  4. 4 ↩The taunts echo Matt. 27:40, 42 (destroy the temple / come down from the cross) and Matt. 27:43 (He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now); final Moses resolution deferred.
  5. 5 ↩Source text 'eura' is uncertain/corrupt; likely a corruption of 'eum' or a similar object. Translated as referring to Christ as the object of their action. 'prpesenlia' is likewise corrupt for 'praesentia'.
  6. 6 ↩Source text 'hgec' is a corruption of 'haec'. Translated accordingly.
  7. 7 ↩Source text 'augustiae' is a rare/corrupt form, likely for 'angustiae' (straits/distresses). 'narraii' is corrupt for 'narrare'. Translated to the most plausible intended sense.

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