II. Jesus is laden with His Cross

“Then therefore (Pilate) delivered Him to them to be crucified. And they took Jesus;—and: led Him forth... ... bearing His own Cross”’: Bajulans sibi crucem.

Jesus had made an act of obedience; He had delivered Himself up to the will of the Father, and now the Father shows Him what obedience imposes upon Him: it is the Cross. He accepts it as coming from the Father’s hands, with all that it brings with it of distress and ignominy. At that instant Jesus accepted the increase of suffering that this heavy burden, laid upon His bruised shoulders, brought to Him, and the indescribable sufferings wherewith His sacred members were to be afflicted at the moment of the crucifixion. He accepted the bitter sarcasms, the malignant blasphemies, which His enemies, apparently triumphant, were about to heap upon Him as soon as they should see Him hung upon the infamous gibbet : He accepted the three hours’ agony, the being forsaken by His Father: ...- We shall never sound the depths of the abyss of afflictions to which our Divine Saviour consented in receiving His Cross. At this moment, too, Christ Jesus, Who represented us all, and was going to die for us, accepted the Cross for all His members, for each one of us: vere languores nostros tpse tulit, et dolores nostros ipse portavit. He then united to His own sufferings all the sufferings of His mystical body, causing them to find in this union their value and price.

Let us therefore accept our cross in union with Him, like Him, so as to be worthy disciples of this Divine Head ; let us accept it without reasoning, without repining. Although the Cross that the Father laid upon Jesus was of such weight, was His love, His confidence towards His Father diminished thereby? Quite the contrary. “The Chalice which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” Let it be the same with us. ‘If any man will come after Me let him . . . take up his cross and follow Me.”’ Do not let us be of those whom St Paul calls ‘‘ enemies of the cross of Christ.”’ Rather let us take up our cross, the one that God lays upon us. In the generous acceptation of this cross, we shall find peace. Nothing brings such peace to the soul that is in suffering, as this utter self-surrender to God's good pleasure.

My Jesus, I accept all the crosses, and the contradictions, all the adversities that the Father has destined for me. May the unction of Your grace give me strength to bear these crosses with the submission of which You gave us the example in receiving Yours for us. May I never seek my glory save in the sharing of Your sufferings !