23 March 2013 5th Week of Lent -- Saturday Pilate tries to save Jesus from the fury of the Jews “Pilate said to them, ‘What shall I do then with Jesus, called Christ?’ They all say, ‘Let him be crucified!’ ”(Mt 27:22) Pilate’s efforts to rescue Jesus only incensed his enemies further. They thought Jesus would elude them. Three classes were concerned in bringing about his death -- Pilate, the people, and the priests. The priests had the greater guilt. Jealous, they invented and sustained the accusation; excited and seduced the people who overpowered the judge by cries of rage and fury which they made the crowd shout. Their sin was great. The sanctity of their office, the greater light and grace they had received, ought to have made them models to their people. Here is another sad proof of the truth of the old saying: ‘The best when corrupted become the worst.’ And this unhappily continues nowadays. “The governor said to them, ‘Why what evil has he done?’”(Lk 23:22) This question ought to have reminded the Jewish people of the public life of Jesus which had brought blessings on them. Among them might have been many he had miraculously cured -- given sight, hearing, or use of their limbs. A still greater number delivered from the possession or temptations of the devil. All our life, and especially since we entered into our state in life, we can remember many wonderful graces and blessings. They constantly flash across our minds, and ought to increase our love and devotion to Jesus. How is it, then, that we correspond so little with these graces, that we are so lukewarm in his service? “He said to them the third time, ‘I find no cause of death in him. I will chastise him, and let him go.’” (Cf Lk 23:22) Three times Pilate had declared Jesus innocent. Still, he condemned him to a cruel and shameful punishment. He aimed to save his life by exciting compassion for his sufferings; but did not see what the Jews were aiming at. Scourging often preceded crucifixion. How often have our passions -- pride or sensuality -- made us act like fools? Have we tried to escape from the humiliations and mortifications which we ought to seek? Have we sought pleasures and distinctions which we knew well would harm us? Are we then, on guard against our passions? Do we earnestly fight them? Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp136-8 The scourging of Jesus Christ Our innocent Lord heard himself sentenced to the humiliation and suffering of scourging. He was dragged to the place of punishment; saw the preparations and anticipated all its horror. How terrible must this fear have been to his sensitive nature! But he never wavered and went resolutely forward in bearing all for us. How differently do we act! How often do we waver or actually shrink from carrying out our resolutions! And only because we are terrified by the anticipation (which usually exaggerates) of the trouble they would cost us. Such as, rising on time, doing an act of penance or mortification, or faithfully fulfilling a particular duty. The horror of scourging is nondescript. Imagine yourself undergoing it -- clothes torn off, bloodied body bound to the pillar, while strong men armed with whips, straps, cords or iron spikes, scourge you till their arms drop with fatigue. Your whole body is sore, flesh torn, the ground covered with blood. In all our troubles, of mind or body, let us fix our eyes on Jesus our King bound to the pillar. This sight will make all our sufferings seem nothing. We will then bear them with courage and with love. It was a cruel and cowardly expedient for Pilate to appease the people and to save Jesus from death. Our Lord bore it out of his heroic love for us. He abandoned his body into the hands of the executioner, that he might expiate, in his innocent flesh, the countless sins by which men dishonor God. If I have offended against holy purity even but once, I ought to say to myself -- ‘Here is my work! It is I who, by the hands of the executioners, have torn the body of Jesus, who have covered it with blood and wounds.’ Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp138-40 ‘Refugium peccatorum’ (Refuge of sinners) But now we assure him that we want to follow him closely, to stay with him and not leave him alone, in those moments and in those places when it is not easy to say that we are his disciples. We want to follow him in our work, or studies, on the street; and when we are in the church, with the family; or during healthy recreation. But we know that by ourselves we cannot do anything: with our daily prayers, we can. Perhaps one of his disciples went in search of the Holy Virgin and told her that they had taken her Son. And she, despite her immense pain, gave them peace in those bitter hours. We, too can find refuge in her -- ‘Refugium peccatorum’ -- if despite our good intentions we were not brave enough to stand up for the Lord when he was counting on us. In her we will find the necessary strength to remain with the Lord in bad times, and to be reinforced by her in our desire to make amends. Ref: Cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:246 Entrusting the World to Mary The Second Vatican Council renewed in us consciousness of the Church and her mission; and also consciousness of a particular relationship between the Church and the contemporary world. This conciliar program of renewal leads me to add a particular act of entrustment of the contemporary world to the act of entrustment of the Church to the Mother of God and the Mother of the Church which I pronounced last year. I desire to make reference in this way to the act which Pope Pius XII performed forty and thirty years ago and which was recalled also by Pope Paul VI, when he proclaimed Mary ‘Mother of the Church’ on the occasion of the closure of the third session of the Council. The contemporary world is threatened in various ways. It is perhaps threatened more than it has been at any other time in the course of history. So it is necessary for the Church to wake and watch at the feet of Him who is the Sole Lord of history and Prince of the age to come. I, therefore desire to watch and wake together with the whole Church, raising a cry to the Heart of the Immaculate Mother. I invite all to join me in spirit. Ref: Cf Pope John Paul II, “Prayers and Devotions”, 1994, p187 • Our Lady of Victory. This image bears that name, because the French having fortunately taken it from the hands of the Greeks, during a sanguinary engagement with them near Constantinople, in the year 1204, they gained by means of it a complete victory.—(Spondanus, Annals ann. 1204.) “Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar (http://www.bethlehemobserver.com) • Our Lady of Victory of Lepanto. Hungary. 1716. (See Oct. 7 for details). (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm) • Our Lady of Victory of Lepanto, Hungary (1716) (http://www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html) • Our Lady of Victory. (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html) • Our Lady of Victories. (http://www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)