God’s protection extends to all his children, to the innocent and sinful. He will never leave us to our enemies. Christ, the champion of the weak, shows himself in today’s celebration of the word as defender of womankind against cruelty and lust. It is this same Champion and Defender that we meet in the Eucharistic mystery.
Stational Church
Meditation – God’s Appeal to All the World
Pilate’s “Ecce, Homo!” his appeal to the scornful multitude now on the point of breaking out into mob violence, was even more truly the mighty appeal of God’s marvelous mercy to his chosen people and to all the human race.
“Behold the Man!” Behold the Lamb of God, the Son of the living God, in all these unsightly wounds, the most beautiful of men here disfigured beyond recognition, as one stricken by leprosy and all the other filthy diseases of mankind; yes, behold Him here, the most frightful symbol and demonstration of the monstrous evil of mortal sin ever to be given to the world; but even more, behold Him here, the clearest and the mightiest appeal of Heaven to all the world of souls to be converted and to rise from spiritual death to life, true and even divine.
“Behold the Man.” O my soul, behold Christ Jesus there as the Lamb of God loaded with your own personal sins and bearing the ghastly wounds your sins inflicted on Him. Pray that you may recognize here, in this reed and purple and crown, God’s very own caricature of your senseless pride, of the folly of your imaginary greatness. In that purple rag of a cloak see the sham honor and dignity in which your self-conceit and self-complacency clothe you! In that reed recognize the might of your strength in which you have been trusting. In that crown acknowledge the depth of humiliation you deserve for all your vanity and your open and secret envious ambition for recognition and authority and for honors and offices. O my soul, be honest enough to see and to acknowledge what a spectacle you are to all heaven in the light of the revelation in God’s word: “Behold the Man!”
Yet again, “Behold the Man!” Look on Him that you may be filled with hope and courage. Let the crushing truth you have just been making your very own, serve to crush your nauseating and contaminating pride in all its open and especially its hitherto hidden forms. Behold the Man, the Lamb of God laden with your sins, but only to wash them away and to cast them into the deep sea of oblivion; yes, and even to take away your stony heart and give you a heart of flesh, to put His own spirit in your midst, and to cause you to walk in His commandments and to keep His judgments and to do them (Ezech. 36:26-30); in a word, to make a way in your wilderness, that shall be called “The Holy Way.” (Isa. 35:6-8.)
Excerpted from Our Way to the Father, Rev. Leo M. Krenz, S.J.
The Station, at Rome, is in the church of St. Chrysogonus, one of the most celebrated martyrs of the Church of Rome. His name is inserted in the Canon of the Mass. The church was probably built in the 4th century under Pope Sylvester I.
Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Catholic Culture, March 30, 2009
God’s protection extends to all his children, to the innocent and sinful. He will never leave us to our enemies. Christ, the champion of the weak, shows himself in today’s celebration of the word as defender of womankind against cruelty and lust. It is this same Champion and Defender that we meet in the Eucharistic mystery.
Stational Church
Meditation – God’s Appeal to All the World
Pilate’s “Ecce, Homo!” his appeal to the scornful multitude now on the point of breaking out into mob violence, was even more truly the mighty appeal of God’s marvelous mercy to his chosen people and to all the human race.
“Behold the Man!” Behold the Lamb of God, the Son of the living God, in all these unsightly wounds, the most beautiful of men here disfigured beyond recognition, as one stricken by leprosy and all the other filthy diseases of mankind; yes, behold Him here, the most frightful symbol and demonstration of the monstrous evil of mortal sin ever to be given to the world; but even more, behold Him here, the clearest and the mightiest appeal of Heaven to all the world of souls to be converted and to rise from spiritual death to life, true and even divine.
“Behold the Man.” O my soul, behold Christ Jesus there as the Lamb of God loaded with your own personal sins and bearing the ghastly wounds your sins inflicted on Him. Pray that you may recognize here, in this reed and purple and crown, God’s very own caricature of your senseless pride, of the folly of your imaginary greatness. In that purple rag of a cloak see the sham honor and dignity in which your self-conceit and self-complacency clothe you! In that reed recognize the might of your strength in which you have been trusting. In that crown acknowledge the depth of humiliation you deserve for all your vanity and your open and secret envious ambition for recognition and authority and for honors and offices. O my soul, be honest enough to see and to acknowledge what a spectacle you are to all heaven in the light of the revelation in God’s word: “Behold the Man!”
Yet again, “Behold the Man!” Look on Him that you may be filled with hope and courage. Let the crushing truth you have just been making your very own, serve to crush your nauseating and contaminating pride in all its open and especially its hitherto hidden forms. Behold the Man, the Lamb of God laden with your sins, but only to wash them away and to cast them into the deep sea of oblivion; yes, and even to take away your stony heart and give you a heart of flesh, to put His own spirit in your midst, and to cause you to walk in His commandments and to keep His judgments and to do them (Ezech. 36:26-30); in a word, to make a way in your wilderness, that shall be called “The Holy Way.” (Isa. 35:6-8.)
Excerpted from Our Way to the Father, Rev. Leo M. Krenz, S.J.