9781644135945

The Light of the World
and offering Him vinegar, and saying: If Thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And there
was also a superscription written over Him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew: this is the
king of the Jews. And one of those robbers who were hanged blasphemed him, saying: If Thou
be Christ, save Thyself and us. . . . And it was almost the sixth hour; and there was darkness over
all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent
in the midst. And Jesus crying out with a loud voice, said: Father, into Thy hands I commend My
spirit. And saying this, He gave up the ghost” (Lk 23:33 ff.). “He humbled Himself, becoming
obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross” (Phil 2:8). “Oh all ye that pass by the way,
attend and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow” (Lam 1:12).
The holy body has been torn by the cruel scourge until it is one mass of burning and
bleeding wounds. The terrible crown of thorns has pierced His head, and He is consumed by
thirst. To this unspeakable physical pain is added an anguish of soul that is even more terrible.
He hears the shocking cry of His blinded people: “His blood be upon us and our children” (Mt
27:25). He hears the exultant yells of His enemies, and He looks into the future and sees that
millions of men will repay His suffering and His love with the basest ingratitude and the cruelest
indifference. Why do they act thus? They have no time to attend to Christ. The grace which He
won for them with such prodigal suffering and with so much love they neglect or abuse, and
thus run the risk of losing their immortal souls. The immense inheritance which He purchased
by His blood they allow to slip through their fingers. How this ingratitude and blindness tortures
Him! With Mary and John we stand under His cross today to share His agony.
Christ died in our stead. “Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows;
and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. But he was
wounded for our iniquities; he was bruised for our sins; the chastisement of our peace was
upon him, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath
turned aside into his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Is 53:4–6).
No mortal man could satisfy for the insult offered to God by sin; not even the highest of the
angels could make adequate satisfaction. “Search not for a man to redeem you; Christ the Godman
alone can perform works of sufficient value” (St. Basil). He takes our indebtedness upon
Himself and lifts it up to His cross. “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things, as gold or silver, from your vain conversation of the tradition of your fathers; but with
the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled” (1 Pt 1:18 f.). The penalties
which Christ suffered should have been our penalty. “Greater love than this no man hath, that
a man lay down his life for his friends” ( Jn 15:13).
Christ has died for each one of us personally. The wages of sin is death. All the penalties of sin
press upon us at death. God’s justice has not prepared anything so frightening as the prospect
of death. Every creature shrinks from the thought of it. Nothing is so surely a punishment for
sin as is death. Death cuts the bonds that secure the body and soul to the earth, just as sin first
severed the bond which bound men to God. Christ the Lord delivers Himself up freely to
death for our sake. His love is “strong as death.” His submission to this most terrifying of God’s
punishments is the highest token of His love. He chooses the most terrible prospect of death
that He may give me the surest sign of His love.
In giving over His body to death, He destroys the body of sin and death on the cross.
Having bathed mankind in His precious blood, He has provided humanity with a new and
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