III. Jesus falls the first time under the weight of His Cross

He shall be “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity,” Vir dolorum, sciens infirnutatem.

This prophecy of Isaias is fulfilled to the letter. Jesus, exhausted by His sufferings of soul and body, sinks under the weight of His Cross. He, the Omnipotent, falls from weakness. This weakness of Jesus is a homage to His Divine power. By it, He expiates our sins, He repairs the result of our pride, and raises up a fallen world powerless to save itself: Deus qui in Filit tut humilitate jacentem mundum erexistt.

Moreover, at that moment, He merited for us the grace to humble ourselves for our sins, to acknowledge our falls and sincerely confess them; He merited for us the grace of fortitude to sustain our weakness.

With Christ, prostrate before His Father, let us detest the risings of our vanity and ambition; let us acknowledge the extent of our frailty. As God casts down the proud, so the humble avowal of our infirmity draws down His mercy, ‘“‘ For He knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust.” Let _usethen cry +9 4 God, metey, = inethe moments when we feel that we are weak in face of the cross, of temptation, of the accomplishment of the Divine will: Mzserere met; Domine, quoniam infirmus sum. It is when we thus humbly declare our infirmity that grace, which alone can save us, triumphs within us: Virtus in infirmitate perficitur.

O Christ Jesus, prostrate beneath Your Cross, I adore You. “‘ Power of God,” You show Yourself overwhelmed with weakness so as to teach us humility and confound our pride. O High Priest, full of holiness, Who passed through our trials in order to be like unto us and be able to compassionate our infirmities, do not leave me to myself for I am but frailty. May Your power dwell in me, so that I fall not into evil: Ut <«inhabitet in me _ virtus Christi !