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| Prayer Before and Prayer After |
Meditation for Wednesday
The Last Words of Jesus on the Cross
“And afterwards, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said: ‘I thirst.’ Now there was a vessel set there full of vinegar. And they, putting a sponge full of vinegar about hyssop, put it to His mouth. Jesus, therefore, when He had taken the vinegar, said: ‘It is consummated’ and bowing His head, He gave up the Ghost” (John 19, 28-30).
First Prelude: In spirit take your stand beneath the cross of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and with profound respect and love hear His sacred words.
Second Prelude: O my beloved Saviour, I pray Thee, implant deeply in my heart the sacred lessons that Thou wouldst teach me from the cross.
First Point
“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
Suffering intense agony, Christ hangs upon the cross. Nowhere does He find refreshment or relief and, yet, in such exceeding agony He is mindful, in His infinite love, of the salvation of others. He prays for His executioners, promises paradise to the penitent thief, gives us His holy Mother, and consoles His beloved friends. Still, no one seems to think of Him. No one offers Him even a slight alleviation. He looks down to earth and finds Himself forsaken; He raises His eyes to heaven and thence, even, no aid is nigh. In His extreme death-struggle, Jesus cries with a loud voice: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
Oh, what must Mary’s heart have suffered when she heard this cry of anguish from the lips of her dying Son! She comprehended better than anyone else the immensity and bitterness of the grief that Jesus would reveal to the whole world in that awful cry. He would make known the full measure of His inward and invisible pain and with it, the greatness of His love for us, together with His ardent desire to be loved by us in return. If we would, in some measure, realize the inexpressible benefit that Christ conferred upon us in this mystery of mercy, let us consider what it means to be forsaken by God. By our sins we have deserved to be rejected by Him for all eternity but by His extreme abandonment on the cross, Christ willed to preserve us from being totally abandoned by God forever. He merited, for sinners, the grace never to be wholly deserted by God during life. He, likewise, merited for us grace to bear trials and reverses, abandonment by creatures and apparent dereliction. Oh, what thanks do we owe Jesus for such love! With what fidelity must we serve Him in life, that we may not be forsaken by Him in the all-important and decisive hour of death! What is my conduct when I am forgotten by creatures, and when God also withdraws His sensible consolation?
Second Point
The Last Words of Jesus
Having taken vinegar and gall, offered to Him in answer to His cry: “I thirst,” Jesus said: “It is consummated.” Oh, sublime word of my Saviour, glorious message of victory, that fills heaven with joy, earth with peace, and hell with fear and trembling! How happy are we that Jesus has consummated our redemption! Now does the Blood of Jesus powerfully cry to heaven entreating pardon for us; the anger of the Eternal Father is appeased; justice has been transformed into mercy.
May we be able to say in our last hour: I have accomplished the Divine Will in my regard? With confiding trust we shall then be able to repeat that other word of Jesus, “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.” Let us for a moment ponder the weight of the word, “It is consummated.” Must we not tremble at the thought of our weakness, since we are so blind to understand and so slow to accomplish the Divine Will? Let us even now commend to the heavenly Father our utter blindness that He may enlighten us; our misery that He may relieve it. Let us implore Him to direct all things to His honor, that, according to the example of His divine Son, we may accomplish His Will in all things. May I be able to say with assurance at the close of each day: I have accomplished everything enjoined upon me by obedience.
Affections: O my beloved Saviour, Thou wilt empty to the very dregs the chalice of abasement and suffering offered Thee by Thy Father. To rescue me from hell, and to make me share in Thy heavenly bliss, Thou dost strip Thyself of all divine consolations, and plungest Thy soul into the abyss of the bitterest desolation. O sweetest Jesus, what sacrifices shall I, poor sinner, make in thanksgiving for such an incalculable benefit, such boundless love? Thou, O my Saviour, hast accomplished everything that could redound to the honor of Thy heavenly Father, and my sanctification. Permit me not to die without having achieved Thy merciful designs. Grant me a true hunger and thirst for Thy love and my perfection, that when departing this life I can say with assurance: “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”
Resolution: I will perform all my actions in a spirit of love and obedience.
Spiritual Bouquet: “Father, into Thy hands, I commend my spirit.”
Prayer: Our Father. . .
“And afterwards, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said: ‘I thirst.’ Now there was a vessel set there full of vinegar. And they, putting a sponge full of vinegar about hyssop, put it to His mouth. Jesus, therefore, when He had taken the vinegar, said: ‘It is consummated’ and bowing His head, He gave up the Ghost” (John 19, 28-30).
First Prelude: In spirit take your stand beneath the cross of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and with profound respect and love hear His sacred words.
Second Prelude: O my beloved Saviour, I pray Thee, implant deeply in my heart the sacred lessons that Thou wouldst teach me from the cross.
First Point
“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
Suffering intense agony, Christ hangs upon the cross. Nowhere does He find refreshment or relief and, yet, in such exceeding agony He is mindful, in His infinite love, of the salvation of others. He prays for His executioners, promises paradise to the penitent thief, gives us His holy Mother, and consoles His beloved friends. Still, no one seems to think of Him. No one offers Him even a slight alleviation. He looks down to earth and finds Himself forsaken; He raises His eyes to heaven and thence, even, no aid is nigh. In His extreme death-struggle, Jesus cries with a loud voice: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
Oh, what must Mary’s heart have suffered when she heard this cry of anguish from the lips of her dying Son! She comprehended better than anyone else the immensity and bitterness of the grief that Jesus would reveal to the whole world in that awful cry. He would make known the full measure of His inward and invisible pain and with it, the greatness of His love for us, together with His ardent desire to be loved by us in return. If we would, in some measure, realize the inexpressible benefit that Christ conferred upon us in this mystery of mercy, let us consider what it means to be forsaken by God. By our sins we have deserved to be rejected by Him for all eternity but by His extreme abandonment on the cross, Christ willed to preserve us from being totally abandoned by God forever. He merited, for sinners, the grace never to be wholly deserted by God during life. He, likewise, merited for us grace to bear trials and reverses, abandonment by creatures and apparent dereliction. Oh, what thanks do we owe Jesus for such love! With what fidelity must we serve Him in life, that we may not be forsaken by Him in the all-important and decisive hour of death! What is my conduct when I am forgotten by creatures, and when God also withdraws His sensible consolation?
Second Point
The Last Words of Jesus
Having taken vinegar and gall, offered to Him in answer to His cry: “I thirst,” Jesus said: “It is consummated.” Oh, sublime word of my Saviour, glorious message of victory, that fills heaven with joy, earth with peace, and hell with fear and trembling! How happy are we that Jesus has consummated our redemption! Now does the Blood of Jesus powerfully cry to heaven entreating pardon for us; the anger of the Eternal Father is appeased; justice has been transformed into mercy.
May we be able to say in our last hour: I have accomplished the Divine Will in my regard? With confiding trust we shall then be able to repeat that other word of Jesus, “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.” Let us for a moment ponder the weight of the word, “It is consummated.” Must we not tremble at the thought of our weakness, since we are so blind to understand and so slow to accomplish the Divine Will? Let us even now commend to the heavenly Father our utter blindness that He may enlighten us; our misery that He may relieve it. Let us implore Him to direct all things to His honor, that, according to the example of His divine Son, we may accomplish His Will in all things. May I be able to say with assurance at the close of each day: I have accomplished everything enjoined upon me by obedience.
Affections: O my beloved Saviour, Thou wilt empty to the very dregs the chalice of abasement and suffering offered Thee by Thy Father. To rescue me from hell, and to make me share in Thy heavenly bliss, Thou dost strip Thyself of all divine consolations, and plungest Thy soul into the abyss of the bitterest desolation. O sweetest Jesus, what sacrifices shall I, poor sinner, make in thanksgiving for such an incalculable benefit, such boundless love? Thou, O my Saviour, hast accomplished everything that could redound to the honor of Thy heavenly Father, and my sanctification. Permit me not to die without having achieved Thy merciful designs. Grant me a true hunger and thirst for Thy love and my perfection, that when departing this life I can say with assurance: “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”
Resolution: I will perform all my actions in a spirit of love and obedience.
Spiritual Bouquet: “Father, into Thy hands, I commend my spirit.”
Prayer: Our Father. . .
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