VIII. Jesus speaks to the women of Jerusalem

“And there followed Him a great multitude of people, and of women, who bewailéed and lamented Him. But Jesus, turning to them, said: Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over Me; but weep for yourselves

~and for your children. For behold the days shall come, wherein they will say: Blessed are the barren. ... Then shall they begin to say to the mountains: Fall upon us... . For if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry.”

Jesus knows the ineffable exigencies of His Father’s justice and holiness. He reminds the daughters of Jerusalem that this justice and this holiness are adorable perfections of the Divine Being. Jesus Himself is “a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners ;’’ He only substitutes Himself for them; and yet, see how rigorously Divine justice strikes Him. If this justice requires of Him so extensive an expiation, what will be the rigour of the stripes dealt to the guilty who obstinately refuse to unite their share of expiation to the sufferings of Christ. Horvendum est incidere in manus Der viventis. Upon that day, the confusion of human pride will be so great, so terrible will be the chastisement of those who wanted to do without God, that these unhappy ones, outcast from God for ever, will gnash their teeth in despair, they will call upon the hills to cover them, as if the hills could hide them from the fiery darts of a justice of which they will clearly see therentire-equity sia...

Let us implore mercy from Jesus for the dreadful day when He will come, no longer as a Victim bowed down under the weight of our sins, but as the Sovereign Judge to Whom the Father has given all power.

O my Jesus, grant me mercy! O Jesus, True Vine, grant that I may remain united to You by grace and good works, so that I may bear fruit worthy of You. Grant that I may not become, through my sins, a dead branch, good for nothing but to be gathered up and cast into the fire !