VI. A woman wipes the face of Jesus

Tradition relates that a woman, touched with compassion, drew near to Jesus and offered Him a linen cloth to wipe His adorable Face.

Isaias foretells of the suffering Jesus: “There is no beauty in Him, nor comeliness, and we have seen Him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of Him”: Non est et species, neque decor, nec veputavimus eum. The Gospel tells us that during those terrible hours after

His apprehension, the soldiers had dealt Him insolent blows, that they had spat in His face; the crowning with thorns had caused the blood to pour down upon His sacred countenance. Christ Jesus willed that we should be healed by the bruises that His Divine Face received for us: Livore ejus sanatt sumus.

Being our Elder Brother, He restored to us, by substituting Himself for us in His Passion, the grace that makes of us the children of His Father. We must be like to Him, since such is the very form of our predestination: Conformes fiert imaginis Filit suit. All disfigured as He is by our sins, Christ, in His Passion, remains the beloved Son, the object of all His Father’s delight. We are like to Him in this, if we keep within us sanctifying grace which is the principle of our divine similitude. Again we are like to Him in practising the virtues that He manifests during His Passion, in sharing the love that He bears towards His Father and towards souls, His patience, fortitude, meekness and gentleness.

THE WAY OF THE CROSS SS

O Heavenly Father, in return for the bruises that Thy Son Jesus willed to suffer for us, glorify Him, exalt Him, give unto Him that splendour which He merited when His adorable countenance was disfigured for our salvation !