9781644135945

The Easter Cycle
for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34). “Learn of Me, because I am meek and
humble of heart” (Mt 11:29).
Prayer
Grant, we beseech Thee, O almighty God, that we who in our many adversities faint through
our own weakness, may take heart anew through the pleading of the passion of Thy only-begotten
Son.
Help us, O God, our salvation, that we may celebrate with joy the memory of those benefits
by which Thou hast deigned to restore us to a new life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Tuesday
Today we see the Lord surrounded by His enemies. Like a lamb He is led to the slaughter. His
apostles have fled; Peter, the chief of the apostles, has denied Him. The Lord lifts His eyes to
His Father, who must guide Him through the night of suffering to the light of the resurrection.
“But it behooves us to glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Introit). We are happy that
we are allowed to share His chalice and to carry His cross.
The enemies of Christ have surrounded Him. Christ knew perfectly well from the first moment
of His Incarnation that He was destined to suffer and die. His passion and His coming death
were always before Him. “And I was as a meek lamb that is carried to be a victim; and I knew
not [I did not resist] that they had devised counsels against Me saying: Let us put wood on
His bread and cut Him off from the land of the living, and let His name be remembered no
more” (Epistle). Christ goes to His death like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. He makes no
protest; He does not murmur or complain. Thus He allowed Himself to be taken prisoner by
His enemies, to be condemned by the high priests and Pilate, to be scourged, crowned with
thorns, and nailed to the cross. Through all this suffering He remains silent. He prays: “For to
Thee have I revealed My cause, O Lord My God” (Epistle). The more completely He entrusts
His affairs to the care of His heavenly Father, the more certainly the Father will bring to nought
all the plans of His enemies. They will succeed in putting Him to death, but by this very death
He will be victorious. Above all this injustice from Christ’s enemies stands God, the Lord of
hosts; “Thou who judgest justly and triest the reins and the hearts, . . . to Thee have I revealed
My cause, O Lord My God” (Epistle). The cross thus becomes the way of salvation, the way to
resurrection and glorification.
Even the faithful Peter denies the Lord. While standing in the courtyard of the high priest,
Peter is accosted by a maidservant with the words, “Thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth.”
Peter vehemently denies this charge: “I neither know nor understand what thou sayest.” Then
he flees to the outer court, where he is again challenged by the maidservant, “This is one of
them.” Peter again denies this accusation; but “after a little while they that stood by said again to
Peter: Surely thou art one of them, for thou art also a Galilean.” Still Peter denies: “I know not
this man of whom you speak.” Then the cock crew for the second time, and Peter remembered
the words which Christ had spoken, “Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt thrice deny Me.”
And He began to weep bitterly.
289