THE TWENTY-EIGHTH CHAPTER.

Christ is shown to the people by the Governor, with the words: “Behold the Man!”

After that Jesus had been thus inhumanly treated, and all the poisonous malice of the Jews had been poured out upon Him, yet not even then did their raging madness and hatred wax cold, nor was their thirst of blood quenched. Not satisfied with having thus shamefully mocked and set at nought the Son of God in the sight of all who were in the judgment hall, they would have Him led out before the gaze of all the people, who, for fear of pollution, had not dared to enter in; for Pilate was a heathen and profane, and it was not lawful for the Jews to come under his roof. They were afraid of becoming polluted by entering into a heathen man’s house, yet they had no fear of calling down Christ’s innocent Blood upon themselves. They desired to eat the Paschal Lamb, yet they feared not unjustly to put the true Paschal Lamb to death. Pilate, therefore, brought forth Jesus in His cruel agony, and set Him before the gaze of that raging crowd, saying: 220“Behold the Man! Behold I lead Him forth to you.” See how grievously He hath been treated, how fearfully He hath been scourged.

Let us now observe, and this with great compassion, how pitiably our Lord stood there, covered with a shameful garment that might well excite their laughter, His crown of thorns upon His Head, His sceptre a reed, His Wounds gaping, His limbs worn and wearied, His poor Body horrible to see, trembling with cold, and sledding large drops of blood. Let us look, too, with inward sorrow, on His loving face, on which the angels desire to gaze; how pitiably it is swollen from the cruel blows, how torn and scratched by the finger-nails of His tormenters, how stained and discoloured with mingled blood and brain, how foul with spittle, so that He hath almost lost the form of man. Oh! of a surety, he who is not moved by this, is harder than steel and adamant. When, then, Pilate had led Him forth before the people, he said: “Ecce homo!” “Behold the Man!"

This can be interpreted in divers ways. The Father of heaven lath indeed loved us from all eternity, and it is His will that we should give Him love for love, according to our poor measure. This is why He said to the soul of man: “Ecce homo. Behold the man.” Look upon Him, that thou 221mayest be looked upon by Him; love, that thou mayest be loved; acknowledge Him, that He may acknowledge thee. “Behold My only-begotten One beareth fullest testimony of My love for thee, since I have given Him all for thee. Neither His Body, nor His soul, nor His Blood, were so dear to Me, that I could hesitate to give Him for thy sake. Nay, if I could have found in My fatherly Heart anything better or more precious, that would I have given for thee. Behold the Man! In the manhood of My Son, I have given thee My most high Godhead, for He is one with Me, and in Me, one, same, true and undivided God, and whosoever receiveth Him, receiveth Me. I have given thee, moreover, My Holy Spirit, to cleanse, and comfort, and enlighten thee; to teach thee all truth and justice; to inflame thee with His own love; to solace thee, and enrich thee with all graces and virtues. For I took exceeding great complacency in thee, and thou didst find favour in My eyes, and I set My Heart upon thee, and chose thee for My own beloved bride. And from everlasting had I decreed, that My delight and My pleasure should be in thee, even in thee whom I had chosen to be My temple, and My chamber, and My dwelling-place. Behold the Man! In Him have I given thee My whole undivided Self, that thou also mightest give 222to Me thy whole undivided self, all that thou art, and all that thou canst do. With the purest love have I embraced thee, without ever looking for any reward or compensation from thee. Wherefore it is just that thou in thy turn shouldst love Me without looking for any reward; that is, that thou shouldst love Me for Myself alone, that I may be thy reward, thy hope, and thy aim, and that thou shouldst love Me, because I have loved thee, and that thou mayest deserve to be loved by Me. And if thou wilt enter with Me into a compact of love, and become worthy to be loved by Me, thou must be a willing and living instrument in My hands, and allow thyself to be led by Me; and thou must offer and resign thy whole self wholly to Me, without any wish or choice of thy own, and suffer whatever may seem good to Me to do with thee both in time and in eternity. Yes, I say, it is thus absolutely necessary that thou shouldst leave Me to work in thee, and leave thyself to suffer, and to forego, and that thou shouldst ask of Me to accomplish in thee all that from everlasting I have decreed and fore-ordained, denying thyself utterly, and giving Me all power to work in thee. And with entire trust in My goodness, thou must cling to Me, receiving with great gratitude from My hand all that I shall permit to happen unto thee, both adversity and prosperity, 223temptations, afflictions, abandonment, distress; trusting that in My lovingkindness I send thee these things, as being the best, and most healthful, and useful for thee, and in these must thou exercise thyself. But if thou art stable in thyself, and persevere, and look into the depths of thy soul, thou wilt clearly see why I have suffered these things to happen to thee, and that they are most necessary for thee, and for thine own interest. But, above all, I wish thee to take care, lest thou resist My workings within thee by obstinacy, self-seeking, wandering thoughts, negligence and dissipation. But in whatever affliction, distress or abandonment, I may suffer to come upon thee, thou shalt desire to persevere therein just as long as shall seem good to Me, until I loosen and snatch thee therefrom, and set thee free; and thou shalt bear that cross even unto the end for My sake. It behoveth thee, indeed, to be thus shaken and tossed by temptations and troubles, until every straw of lust, or selfishness, or vicious propensity be -blown away from thee, and thy soul, which is so proud and stiff, must be ground by these things as if by a mill-stone, until thou, in thine own eyes, art brought down to nothing, like dust and ashes, so as not only to acknowledge, but to feel that thou art the most wretched and vilest of all whom the world containeth. And thou 224must be so stripped of all will and choice of thy own, that whatever God shall do with thee and with all creatures, may be so pleasing to thee, that thou mayest not even desire it to be otherwise, even if all creatures and all the elements were subject to thy rule. But before this state can be reached, there is work for thee to do, and toil for thee to bear; and to obtain all this many will be the crosses and labours, yea, and spiritual deaths, which thou wilt have to undergo. For before it can bring forth the fruit, the grain of wheat must die in the earth. Of a truth, these are the two wings; exceeding trustworthy, which summarily and swiftly lift us to the spiritual life; that is to say, self denial and patient suffering of adversity; in two words, self-denial and suffering. For whosoever knoweth how to resign himself to God in all simplicity, to him no affliction, nor infirmity, nor adversity can happen at all, without turning to an increase of virtue. This is that to which the apostle beareth witness, when he saith: “We know that to them who love God all things work together for good.”

Therefore, if a man bear all things equally, and from all that happeneth to him gather matter for self-exercise, and if he carefully look into the depth of his own heart, he will hear the Father’s voice speaking to him inwardly, and saying: “Ecce 225homo!” “Behold the Man!” Know thyself, know what thou art; acknowledge thy too great want of mortification, and the manifold vices that lie hidden in the depth of thy soul; take good heed that thou art nothing, that thou hast nothing, that thou canst do nothing of thyself. Suffer Me, then, to work within thee. Cleave unto Me by love, serve Me by faith, and whatever thou canst not do by thine own power I will do it for thee. In this knowledge, therefore, such a man will exercise himself, and when all his defects and crosses have been taken away, he will go with them to God, and give Him thanks, for thus having caused him to know his own vileness; and he will answer God, and will say in his turn, “Ecce homo!” Behold the man!” Behold, O my God, I am wretched and fit for nothing, and weak, and powerless; I have been conceived in sin, born in misery, and brought up in vice. Against whom, O Lord, dost Thou put forth Thy power? “Ecce homo!” “Behold the man.” Be not angry with the leaf that is carried away by the wind. Forget not, O tender Lord, my poverty and frailty, and take not away from me the help of Thy grace, for I am a man, and a frail potsherd; I am a worm, and no man, full of the uncleanness of the flesh, from which filth and dirt run down both within and without. The power of 226resistance hath gone from me, and already I am overcome. Have mercy on me, O Thou, my God! Fight for me, work in me, do unto me what Thou wilt. Behold! I resign my whole self to Thee. For I know that Thy nature is goodness, and that it belongeth to Thee to have mercy and to spare. All my malice I cast into Thine infinite goodness. Thou hast granted unto me to know my sins, O Lord, grant that I may overcome them. Tear up by the roots all uncleanness of sin, and whatever is displeasing to Thee, and again plant in me Thy divine love, and all virtues.

Lastly, by this acknowledgment of his own frailty, and by the contemplation of his own vices, a man will very often make greater progress, if he only exercise himself well therein, than if in the meanwhile he had exercised himself in other things, however high. Of a truth, if a man is to be thoroughly cleansed, the vices which lie hidden in him must be brought to light, and he himself must sit with holy Job on the dung-hill and filth of his own vices, and this, too, with much sorrow and anguish, scraping off the gore and unclean matter of his wounds with a potsherd; that is to say, wiping away with labour and pain the impure flux of thoughts that spring from his sensual and corrupt nature. And he must place his exercise in this, so 227that with grievous toil he may cultivate the field of his conscience, if one day he would have it yield pleasant fruit. Now he must exercise himself in these things for a while, and many times must he die to these vices, and conquer them, and go with them to God, and throw all his sins and faults many times into God’s Wounds, and wash them therein, and burn them away in the flame of God’s love, until he feel that they have gone utterly from him, and that he hath been freed from them by God.

Moreover, this word, “Ecce homo,” may be taken in this sense, as if, namely, the Son Himself were to say: “Ecce homo:” “Behold, O man.” Behold what I have done for thee; I have known thee from everlasting in My essence, for from everlasting hast thou been in Me, sharing My being according to the idea of My Eternal Mind. Besides, I made thee a creature, and embraced thee with such high love, and endowed thee with such excellent grace, that I created thee to My own image and likeness. And that thou mightest know how goodly and fair I made thee, I shrunk not from taking thy nature, and from stamping on it the image of My worshipful Godhead. I was made thy own flesh and blood that I might redeem thee. I created My soul with all its powers, and I filled it with all spiritual gifts and graces, that I might perfectly practise all virtues, that I 228might satisfy for thy sins, and that I might merit and obtain for thee life everlasting. “Ecce homo.” I, Who before all ages was born of the divine womb of My Eternal Father, in a certain marvellous and unutterable way, ever abiding equal with the same Father in power and glory, thought it no lowering of Myself to take thy nature, and to be made thy servant for three and thirty years, and in much poverty and lowliness and affliction, to work thy salvation. I was made, too, an exile from Mine own kingdom, that thou mightest become its heir. I was made an enemy of My Father, and was forsaken and chastened by Him with cruel chastisement, and I suffered His anger to be cast on Me, that thou mightest find grace, and be made the friend and child of God. Lastly, I took all thy debt upon Me, and I, Who was thy Judge, and Who by right could have sentenced thee to eternal damnation, was so touched with mercy, that under the appearance of a guilty sinner I gladly gave Myself over to a shameful death for thy sins, and spent My whole Self even to the last little drop of blood. Moreover, out of pure love, I gave thee My very Heart’s Blood to drink: I became a worm, and no man, mocked and scoffed at by all, the reproach of men, and the hated sickening outcast of the people. As the fruit of the vine was I pressed in the wine-press of My Passion. 229My strength withered up like a potsherd, and was dried by the fire of love; and even as snow melteth when the sun looketh down, so in My Father’s sight was I exhausted, and consumed, and melted for the sake of thy salvation. “Ecce homo.” “Behold the Man!” What more wilt thou that I should do for thee? How could I have shown thee greater faithfulness, greater good-will, greater loving-kindness? See, how I stand here disfigured for thy sins; how I, the Lord of lords, am forsaken from on high, and from below, and despised by all. See how the torment of those thorns has pressed into the marrow of My Heart, that I may pick out the thorns and sharp points of thy sins. From the top of My Head to the sole of My feet, I am but one gaping, bleeding Wound, that I may perfectly heal thee of every hurt. All the evil that thou hast deserved by following the desires of thy nature, all that I have washed away in such great and sharp bitterness of pain; and I have so cleansed thee wholly from every stain of sin in My precious Blood, that thou mightest become pleasing and acceptable in My sight. “Ecce homo:” “Behold the Man.” Keep for ever in thy mind the remembrance of this love, and with what zeal, and labour, and sorrow, I sought after thee, and be not after this a stranger to Me. See if there can be any sorrow that can be 230compared with My sorrow! See if ever any guilty wretch suffered such pain for his own sins, as I have suffered for thine!

From these words, too, Holy Church, our Mother, hath deemed that the Sacred Host should be elevated and shown to all, as if to speak to us, and say: “Ecce homo!” “Behold the Man;” in order to stir us up, the good Mother that she is, to bear ever in mind the Incarnation, Nativity, Passion,. Death, and Resurrection, and, in a word, all the love and all the benefits shown and conferred upon us by Christ; for the Holy Thing, that is the Mass, hath been instituted in remembrance of God’s love, and of the works which for our sakes He hath accomplished. For the same reason it hath been decreed, that there should be placed in all the churches the mirror of truth, that is, the image of the Holy Cross of Christ Jesus; so that as often as he crosseth the threshold of the temple, man may contemplate the figure of his Maker hanging upon the Cross; and that straightway there may come into his mind that wonderful love, which his God then declared to him; and that he may so exercise and occupy himself therein, as to forget all strange and outward images, and may imagine that his crucified Lord is addressing him in these words: “Ecce homo:” “Behold the man.” Behold how I hang here, despised, mocked, wracked, fastened 231with nails, wounded, deprived of all comfort, My arms naked and stretched out towards thee, to take thee back into My grace. Behold how I hang here, with My Head bowed down, that I may give thee the kiss of peace and reconciliation; with My side and Heart open, that I may bring thee, My chosen bride, into the pleasant chamber of My Heart, and there embrace thee with love everlasting. Then man, in his turn, as if accepting Christ’s loving invitation to approach His sweet Wounds, turneth himself, full of confidence, to God, and to Christ’s nailed and pierced feet, and throwing himself down with as lowly submission as he can, thinketh how he himself hath inflicted, by his foul sins, all this bitter sorrow on his Lord and God, and at the same time confesseth all his sins with bitter sorrow and burning tears, saying: “Enter not now, O most merciful God, into judgment with Thy useless and sinful servant, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified.” If in Thy angels evil was found, how much more unclean will man be, who was conceived in concupiscence, and born in sin? Lord, correct me not in Thine anger, for I am not spirit, but flesh; not an angel, but a man. “Behold the Man.” What is man, Lord God, that Thine anger should rage against him, whose life is like the wind or the smoke, which quickly passeth away? Why dost 232Thou show Thy power against the leaf, which is carried away by the wind? Then, too, at the same time, with all his weakness and all Ills sins, man turneth to God, and saith: “I know, O God of mercies, that Thou madest me pure and exceeding fit for no other end than that I might serve Thee, love Thee, praise and give Thee thanks, and that I might be an obedient instrument in all things, whereby Thou mightest work according to the desire of Thy Heart, in all delight and without hindrance. But alas! I have been corrupted and made foul by sin; I have utterly destroyed Thy noble instrument, and rendered it unfit for use, so that I am unworthy that Thou shouldst work in me at all. For by sin I have been made wholly useless, and corrupt, and hateful; nor do I know if I deserve ought else, than that Thou shouldst take away from me all Thy grace, and cast me off from Thy face. But, O most merciful God! while I thus wait for Thy tender long-suffering, and Thy long-suffering tenderness, wherein Thou hast borne so patiently all the wrong, and contempt, and shame that I have inflicted on Thee, I here call to mind that it is not Thy will that any man should perish, and that Thou desirest not the death of the wicked, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness, and live. Trusting then to this, I turn to Thee.

“O sweet Lord Jesus Christ, Who, by the will of the Father, and the co-operation of the Holy Ghost, didst renew our too corrupted nature, and restore it to its first purity, so that by Thee far greater grace and glory have been born to us, than we lost by our first parents: Behold, I desire so to offer myself as an instrument in Thy hands, whereby Thou mayest work in me according to the desire of Thy Heart, as no creature hath ever offered itself before. But, O tender God, this is not in my power, for by a long habit of sin I have utterly corrupted myself. But whatever I may now be, I offer myself to Thee. If Thou hast renewed the whole world by Thyself, surely Thou art able to form me again to that purity, in which I was created by Thee. Thou art able out of a stone to raise up a child of Abraham. Vouchsafe, therefore, by Thy divine Mystery, to form and make over again all that by my own wickedness I have destroyed.”

Thirdly, the word “Ecce homo” may be literally understood, as if Pilate, when he said to the Jewish multitude: “Ecce homo,” “Behold the man,” meant to address them in these words: “Behold the man.—Now let your blood-thirstiness be quenched, let this now be enough for you; cease now to persecute any more the innocent blood. For, contrary to right and justice, contrary to my mind and conscience, I have fearfully 234 chastised this innocent man, in order to appease your mad rage. Let tills be enough for you, and now show some kindness to this man, who hath deserved no evil. For he is a man. Have compassion on your own flesh and blood, and on one of your own race; let your cruel tyranny be turned into mercy, your hatred into love; have pity upon Him in His cruel punishments, which you see have been inflicted upon Him. He is no beast, but a man. No robber or malefactor was ever so brought down to nothing, or so unworthily punished for his crimes, as this Just Man, Who hath done no wrong. If ye despised Him because He said He was a king, now, at least, receive Him Whom you see the most wretched and abject of men.”

When, then, the cruel Jews heard these words, and saw Jesus thus disfigured standing before them, their hearts of steel, far from being softened, began rather to glow with a white heat of hatred and envy, so that they cried out savagely: “Away with Him, away with Him!” “We cannot even look upon Him!” “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” “We will have no more excuses: He is guilty of death.” When Pilate saw that he could do no good, and that he was powerless either by word or deed to set Jesus free, and that the rage and madness of the Jews increased more and more, he 235washed his hands before all the wicked people, and said: “I am guiltless of the innocent blood of this Just Man. See ye to it.” But they with discordant and horrible cries, cried out: “His Blood be upon us, and upon our children.” O unheard of malice! O accursed hatred!

Here let each man enter into the secret places of his heart, and there meditate with himself with what sorrow the Heart of Jesus was pierced at these words, since He clearly saw that they had been uttered by the Jews out of envy and malice. Let us consider how heavy an affliction it was to our tender-hearted Lord, Whose nature is goodness, when He looked into the deceitful and plague-stricken hearts of His people, and beheld with what cruelty and hatred they were consumed, how they thirsted for His Blood, so as even to give themselves and their children over to eternal malediction, and the terrible vengeance of God, if only they could put Christ to death. How sadly, peradventure, did our Lord think within His Heart: “O My people, what have I done to you, or how have I grieved you? I chose you from out the nations, and highly exalted you. With fatherly love I kept and cherished you, and I filled you with all good things, and now you seek to kill and crucify Me.”

After this, Pilate passed sentence upon 236Christ, and gave Him into the hands of the Jews, that they might crucify Him, and put Him to death according to their desire. Ah! where is the man whose heart will not tremble with horror, and who will not break forth into tears, when he seeth the Author of life sentenced to death? the Son of God, to Whom the Father hath given all judgment, suffering Himself, of His own free will, to be condemned to a shameful death? Oh! who can refrain from tears, when he calleth to mind how his dear Lord, the innocent Lamb, was delivered into the cruel hands of the Jews, that they might fulfil their designs upon Him? What will they now do, when they have obtained the judge’s consent, who dared to do so much without the governor’s leave? Will they not pour out upon Christ the rage which they have so long borne in their hearts? Of a truth, whatever evil they could think of, that they inflicted upon Him. By the most bitter, shameful, cruel and contemptible death they can think of, will they kill Him; for He hath given Himself over to their will. O wicked judgment! O unjust sentence! O cruel condemnation! O perverse judge, a little while ago thou didst find no cause in Him, and now thou sentencest Him to death. A little before thou didst declare Him a just man, and now thou condemnest Him to die. A 237little before thou didst confess that thou knewest well that the Jews had been moved by hatred and envy to deliver Him to you, and that there was no fault at all in Him, and now thou givest Him over into the hands of His enemies, and to their cruel will!