XI. Jesus is nailed to the Cross

“ They crucified Him, and with Him two : others, one on each side, and Jesus in the midst.’”’ Jesus delivers Himself up to His executioners “dumb as a lamb before his shearers.” The torture of the nails being driven into the hands and feet is inexpressible. Still less could anyone describe all that the Sacred Heart of Jesus endured in the midst of these torments! Jesus must doubtless have repeated the words He had said on entering into this world: “Father, Thou wouldst no more holocausts of animals, they are insufficient to acknow- ledge Thy sanctity . . . but a body Thou hast fitted to me”: Corpus autem aptasti mim. “ Behold, I come!” Jesus unceas- ingly gazes into the face of His Father, and, with incommensurable love, He yields up His body to repair the insults offered to the Eternal Majesty. actus obediens usque ad mortem. And what manner of death does He undergo? The death of the Cross: Mortem autem crucis. Why is this? Because it is written: “Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.” He willed ‘ to be “reputed with the wicked,” in order to confess the sovereign rights of the Divine Sanctity.

He delivers Himself likewise for us. Jesus, being God, saw us all at that moment, He offered Himself to redeem us, because it is to Him, High Priest and Mediator, that the Father has given us: Quia tut sunt. What a revelation of the love of Jesus for us! Hecould not have done more : Majorem hac dilectionem nemo habet, ut animam suam ponat quis pro amicis suis. And this love is likewise the love of the Father and the Holy Spirit, for these Three are but One... .

O Jesus, Who, “‘ in obeying the will of the Father and through the co-operation of the Holy Spirit, did by Your death give life to the world, deliver me by Your most sacred Body and Blood from all my iniquities and from all evils; make me ever adhere to Your commandments and never suffer me to be separated from You!”