Meditation

PILATE, on beholding the Redeemer of the world in the lamentable condition to which His executioners have reduced Him, imagines that His appearance alone must move the people to compassion, and therefore takes Him to the balcony in front of his palace, from whence He may be seen by the assembled multitude, saying "Ecce Homo."---"Behold the Man!"

Consider:
1. The state in which Jesus is shown to the people.

   He is so deformed and disfigured as scarcely to preserve the semblance of a man. His face is pale and bruised with the blows He has received, and defiled with the spittle---His adorable head is bending beneath the painful weight of the sharp thorns, which pierce His brow and form a crown of sorrow and ignominy---His torn, mangled, and bleeding frame is clothed with a garment of scorn and derision. He suffers in every part of His sacred Body, and His position is one of the deep est degradation. In this state of indescribable shame and confusion, the adorable Son of God is presented by Pilate to the people with these few words: "Behold the Man!" As though he had said: "Behold to what a condition the Man whom you accuse of aspiring to royalty is reduced! See whether He is not rather worthy of tears and compassion than of hatred!" And thou, my soul, attentively contemplate this Man-God, the King of Glory, overwhelmed with ignominy, in the presence of so great a multitude, His adorable Body streaming with blood and loaded with shame. He Who was the most beautiful of the sons of men, is now the abomination of His people. He has assumed so painful and humiliating an appearance to induce His Father to take pity upon us, and deliver us from the eternal punishments which we have deserved. Love for our souls, and desire for their salvation, have reduced Him to so pitiable a condition. But, on your part, what efforts do you make for the salvation of your soul which has been purchased by Jesus at so dear a rate? Are you anxious to guard its purity and save it from eternal misery? Or are you, on the contrary, willing for a mere trifle to sacrifice your right to that Paradise which Jesus has purchased for you at the price of so many humiliations and sufferings?

2. The feelings aroused in the hearts of the people by the appearance of Jesus.

The sight of the lamentable condition to which the most innocent Redeemer of the world is reduced, would have touched hearts of stone, and ought to inspire the Jews with feelings of compassion and mercy toward our suffering Jesus. But no sooner do they behold Him than they seem to lose every feeling of humanity, and, with the fury of wild beasts, clamorously demand His death, and seek with unexampled fury to deprive Him of that life which is all but extinct in His martyred Body. The diabolical hatred and implacable rage animating them against our blessed Lord urge them on to demand with loud cries that He should be crucified! Behold the consequences of allowing a passion once to take possession of the heart! There is no excess into which a man blinded by anyone passion may not fall. All passions delight but ruin the soul, and must therefore be combated with untiring energy. Pilate is well aware of the innocence of Jesus, and is by no means willing to yield to the iniquitous wishes of the Jews, but they fiercely and clamorously reply that according to their law He ought to die, because He has made Himself the Son of God. The laws of the world condemn Jesus to die. All worldlings who seek solely to gratify their passions exclaim by the voice of the Jews that Jesus must be put to death, that Jesus must be crucified! And do you regulate your conduct by such laws as these? Do you follow the maxims of worldlings? If such is the case, you will very speedily desert Jesus, and seek to crucify Him anew. Jesus beholds the rage of His enemies, He hears their furious outcries, and bitterly deplores their insensibility to His sufferings, but rejoices at the prospect of that Cross on which He is to die for love of me, while I tremble at the very name of crosses and sufferings. Why are my sentiments so contrary to those of Jesus?

3. The feelings which the sight of Jesus Christ should awaken in our hearts.

   While the people display no compassion whatever on beholding Jesus, let us imagine that the Eternal Father shows Him to us to excite at least in our hearts feelings of love, veneration, and of desire to imitate Him. Let us imagine that we hear the Eternal Father addressing us in the words of Pilate to the Jews, "Ecce Homo"---"Behold the Man!" He is your King, the King of wisdom, of love, and of holiness, but also the King of sorrow and ignominy. He has acquired possession of His kingdom by humiliation and suffering; He has purchased it for you at the price of His Blood and of His Wounds: for your sake He has sacrificed His dignity, and permitted Himself to be thus outraged and tormented. Adore this King, be subject to Him, and if you wish to enter His blessed Kingdom, follow Him in the way of the Cross and of suffering. He is desirous of reigning in your hearts, and He has purchased possession of them at the price of a most painful death. Consecrate then to Him all your thoughts and all your affections. Behold the Man! He is your Father; the most sweet, tender and loving of fathers---a Father who, for the love of His children, and in order to restore them to the life of grace which they had lost by sin, has sacrificed His own most precious life on the Cross, and is yet the most despised and abhorred of fathers. Love so good a Father, obey His commands, and never grieve His tender Heart. Behold the Man! He is your Master and your Model. Observe the virtues which He practices on this occasion. Extreme mildness amid so many provocations, perfect silence under so many outrages, great humility amid so many insults, and wonderful patience under so many sufferings. Contemplate, and endeavor to imitate Him. Never will you resemble Him in the honors of Paradise, never will you be His companions in glory, if you resemble Him not in His virtues. Resolve to do so by the help of His grace.

The Fruit

    Remain for some time with your eyes fixed on a Crucifix, and say to yourself, "Behold the condition to which a God has been reduced for love of me, and to satisfy for my sins." Offer Him all the powers of your soul, and all the senses of your body, in testimony of your love, and determine to use them solely for His glory. Ask Him, through the merits of His humiliations, to bestow upon you the spirit of humility and penance.

Example