*** *** ***
XIV.
What a desolate little party they were, who followed His dead body to the tomb!
You would say, as you walk after them in the last of the stations, that you
could imagine no more ignominious failure than this. But are you right? Even as
they are walking to the place of burial, He is already beginning to enter upon
the hour of His triumph. For no sooner had He expired on Calvary than His soul
went to Limbo (the Limbo of the ancients) and we can dimly imagine the ecstasy
of joy with which the souls imprisoned there heard the gladsome news of their
fast-approaching delivery.
The
faithful prophets and patriarchs of the Old Testament are there. The heroic
mother of the Machabees who sacrificed her seven sons rather than violate God’s
Law, Judith and Esther — types of Mary His Mother, Saint Elizabeth, Saint
Zachary, and their son the Baptist, Saint Joseph His foster-father — all these
names come readily to mind as we enter with the triumphant Christ into that
prison house.
The
place is flooded with light, for Jesus is the true light, and we hear the
heartening message: “Come ye blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world.”
The
triumphant message continues, and on Sunday morning His sacred soul returns to
Calvary to be re-united with His glorified body. Such a contrast now — no more
suffering or disfigurement — but the face of Our Lord radiant with joy as He
hastens, first to His Mother, and then to one friend after another, to speak to
them of the kingdom of God, and to assure them that He is risen indeed. “Where,
O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
Without
the hope of our own resurrection too, life would be a sort of blind alley. But
we know that if we suffer with Him we shall certainly rise with Him. And even
in this vale of tears, we can begin to share in the joys of that resurrection.
For there is a resurrection above our sins and passions, there is a
resurrection above our worldliness and our petty jealousies, above our cramped
and narrow selves, a resurrection befitting men destined to share, even here,
in the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
We are told that He was risen “truly” — no mere appearances, but in very
reality. After having thought on the lines indicated as we walked with Him to
Calvary, surely that must be the first trait in our resurrection also — no mere
external conversion, but, what He values alone, a conversion of heart, a
turning of the heart away from sin, to be inflamed by His love. His
resurrection was lasting, for “Jesus Christ being risen from the dead, dies now
no more.” He wants from us too, a clean breakaway, a definite and entire
severing of the manacles that have held us captive — such as we saw when
thinking about our last fall. And, after His resurrection, He appeared openly,
letting everyone know of the wonderful change. Let me not be afraid to imitate
Him here also. Many are timid about giving the impression that they love Him
enthusiastically, and, whatever they have been in the past, are now determined
to canalise all their energies in one direction — to make Him known and loved.
He
rose truly; He rose never again to die; and He let the world know of His
resurrection. So, the little procession to the tomb is not so desolate after
all, for Calvary is not the end but only the beginning.
One
of Michelangelo’s greatest works is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The
surface measures some ten thousand square feet, and it is covered with over
eight hundred figures, some twelve feet long, others eighteen, all most
carefully and conscientiously finished. Every detail of each picture stands out
with marvellous truth to nature — the hairs of the head and beard, the
finger-nails, the creases in the garments. A masterpiece, an everlasting monument
to the genius of him who produced it!
But
what a price it cost him! Day after day, the artist had to work, lying flat on
his back, with the paint dropping down on to his face, In the course of time
his eyes grew so accustomed to looking upwards that, long after he had finished
his beautiful ceiling, he would have to hold a letter above his head in order
to read it. You can produce a masterpiece only by being willing to pay the
price.
We
have seen the price paid by Our Saviour as we accompanied Him and His Mother
from station to station.
His masterpiece is the human soul pulsating with His own very life. Treasures
of grace He has accumulated on Calvary, and He longs for the soul to draw near
and be filled. Could we see into a soul radiant with sanctifying grace we would
drop down on our knees in adoration, thinking ourselves to be in presence of
God Himself.
How do you think Michelangelo would feel if, when coming one morning to
continue his glorious work, he found that during the night his pictures had
been destroyed, that someone jealous of his genius had smeared paint all over
his ceiling, effacing entirely those lovely images? It is a feeble expression
of Our Lord’s attitude towards sin which utterly undoes the grand work which
cost Him such a price. And suppose that during the night, the great artist
conceived a new idea, and next day proceeded to put it into execution, and
after a month or two has the satisfaction of seeing it in all its perfection,
how his heart is gladdened by his success! But again, his joy and satisfaction
are negligible compared with the joy the soul gives to Christ and Mary by
endeavouring faithfully to correspond with their inspirations.
Admittedly
this is hard to understand, for it is all to the soul’s interest, here and
hereafter, to co-operate thus with the workings of grace within her. So concerned
is Jesus about the soul’s sanctification that you would be inclined to believe
that to Him some advantage must accrue from its fidelity and advancement.
Nothing of the kind.
All the benefit is to itself. Why then does Christ “bother” about the soul? Why
not allow it to go its way? Why pay such a price for its redemption? Only one
answer is possible, and we have seen it already. Love is the only explanation.
“Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his
friends.”
On
our first page, we promised to try to develop one single idea at each of the
fourteen stations, and it may help us, when making the stations to have that
idea in a form which is easy to remember. So, here is a summary, indicating
each of these ideas in the corresponding station:
I. Independence
of men’s opinions. Jesus
is condemned to death.
II. Is it I,
Lord, who am “guilty of death”? Jesus carries His cross.
III. Hell, and
the sinner’s first serious fall. Jesus falls the first time.
IV. The fiat of
Jesus and Mary.
Jesus meets His mother.
V. The
apostolate — a responsibility and an honour. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry
the cross.
VI. Veronica and
how to sanctify pleasure.
Veronica wipes the face of Jesus.
VII. The falls
“in-between.”
Jesus falls the second time.
VIII. The safety
of the hard way.
Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem.
IX. “Never
again” — the sinner’s last fall. Jesus falls the third time.
X. The
completeness of the giving of Christ. Jesus is stripped of his garments.
XI. The soul’s
Crucifixion and exaltation. Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross.
XII. Calvary and
the Mass.
Jesus dies on the cross.
XIII. Suffering,
the acid test of love.
Jesus is taken down from the cross.
XIV. Calvary,
the prelude to our resurrection. Jesus is laid in the tomb.
