(b) Second.

The time that elapsed from the creation of the angels until the fall of the rebels and confirmation in grace of the loyal angels was 12 hours. Their trial began 3 instants before 12 midday on that first Sunday, Day of Creation. Let us consider what happened in each of the three instants. In the first instant, to try them God deprived all the angels of the beatific vision, of infused knowledge and of other gifts. Now reduced to the common state of the angelic nature He presented to their veiled understanding the complete Most Sacred Humanity of Christ united to the Divine Word, as also the complete Person of Mary associated to the Divine Council, for them to adore the Deific Humanity, venerate His Divine Mother and submit to them as Parents and Sovereigns over all other creatures. Thus tried, many of the angels, induced by Lucifer, were averse to and felt repugnance at their angelic nature being humbled by the preference given in God’s mysteries to two human creatures and therefore of inferior nature. Besides, carried away by self-love, Lucifer even desired that Hypostatic Union for himself because of the singular excellence of his angelic nature. In the second instant Saint Michael arose, and in a display of most vehement zeal for the glory of God won over many with his good example. These endeavoured to draw to God’s obedience the waverers and those blinded by temptation. In the third instant was given the Divine Mary’s dissuasive discourse to the angels that were falling into rebellion, in which She also warned them of the eternal punishment awaiting them if they did not desist in their evil. The discourse was also to strengthen the rest, especially the waverers, and due to it many overcame the temptation. At exactly 12 midday there occurred the fiery intellectual and spiritual battle between the good and bad angels, as follows. Saint Michael, captain of the loyal angels, proclaimed the Divine Majesty of the Most Sacred Face of Jesus with the imperious cry: <>, to which the other faithful angels replied with one accord: <>, they thus being confirmed in grace. But Lucifer, captain of the rebels, answered <>; and the other wicked angels answered in unison <>, thus consummating their blasphemous rebellion against God, the Omnipotent Creator, wherefore they were confirmed in disgrace, penetrated with eternal fire and changed forever into demons. As we know, of the heavenly militia two-thirds overcame the trial and a third succumbed. In contrast to Satan’s disobedience and fall, which occurred at 12 midday on the Day of Creation, Our Lord Jesus Christ, meek and obedient to the Father’s will, would be lifted up on the Cross at the same hour somewhat more than 5 millennia later, namely on the 25th of March of the year 34 of the Christian era.

(c) Third.

Our first parents Adam and Eve were created according to the physical and psychological state of a person 33 years old, in all the perfection of original justice and with the height of Christ and Mary, respectively. Adam and Eve’s marriage took place the instant after the universal creation, that is at its completion, and therefore after both had been created. Hence our first parents were not created joined in matrimony.

85. We continue our Gospel narrative and interpretation with the following text of Saint John: «And from henceforth Pilate sought to release Him» (John XIX, 12). As we have seen, since the Roman Procurator was completely convinced that Jesus was the Son of God and therefore truthful and just, he did his utmost to save Him from the clutches of the Jews. Therefore, with resolution and courage he asserted his authority, severely reproaching them for their groundless accusations and for the terrible error they committed by demanding His crucifixion, a sign that Pilate acted with certain docility to special graces. He made this intervention standing before the people, Christ beside him, within the porch where, as we know, he officiated as judge of the case. Since the attainment of true virtue often demands an act of heroic and unconditional abnegation, the Procurator, now resolute, ought courageously to have faced the final combat which defence of the Divine Victim entailed, that is to say the threats made him by the members of the Sanhedrin and the people, risking as a consequence his high office in Judea. This is seen in the following text of Saint John: «But the Jews cried out, saying: If thou release this man, thou art not Caesar’s friend. For whosoever maketh himself a king doth contradict Caesar» (John XIX, 12). We teach that while the excited mob shouted these and many other things, Annas and Caiphas arrived in great pomp with the rest of the Sanhedrin in train. Both Pontiffs approached the lattice-gate of the porch of judgement and manifested to Pilate with rabid anxiety their disconcertion at his so much opposing the divine Master’s condemnation, when according to them it was well proven that He was a declared enemy of Jewish law and of Caesar, to which moreover the will of the assembled populace bore witness. From the words and gestures of both Pontiffs, backed by the Sanhedrin and the people, Pilate discerned the risk he would run before Caesar by saving Christ and, cowed in the extreme, ceased to defend Him. Wherefore the Evangelist goes on to say that «when Pilate had heard these words, he brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgement seat, in the place that is called Lithostrotos, and in Hebrew Gabbatha» (John XIX, 13). That is, faced with the direct intervention of Annas and Caiphas and the clamour of the mob, Pontius sat in the curul seat in the porch of judgement - which being part of the Praetorium the Evangelist identifies as Lithostrotos or Gabbatha - fully determined to dictate sentence of condemnation against the Divine Culprit and so satisfy His voracious enemies. Besides, as is gathered from the sacred text, previously he had ordered Christ to be brought out through the lattice-gate of the porch so as to hand Him over immediately after dictating sentence. But then, as he proceeded to do so, his wife Claudia Procula came in person to the tribunal to insist that he refrain from bringing about the death of Jesus. Weeping profusely she reminded her husband of the disastrous consequences for him and for the Jews that would ensue from the crime. As Claudia’s action stirred Pilate’s conscience, at 10.35 a.m. he came out of the porch and standing beside Christ, again intervened in His defence, as we interpret from the following verses of Saint John: «And it was the Parasceve of the Pasch, about the sixth hour: and he saith to the Jews: Behold your King. But they cried out: Away with Him: Away with Him: Crucify Him» (John XIX, 14-15). We teach that with the expression `Behold your King’ Pilate did not intend to mock Christ but rather to ridicule the Jews themselves, especially Annas and Caiphas, who so obstinately agitated against that Just Man reduced to the most ignominious human condition because they said that He proclaimed Himself King, when it was obvious that His royalty was a joke and a mockery, as the purple, crown and sceptre He bore declared all too well. But at the same time, the words understood by all in their prophetic meaning, were the Jewish People’s final chance of salvation, being a sublime compendium of messianic prophecies, as Saint Louis de la Puente, native of Valladolid, very admirably expresses: <>. But as we see in the Gospel, far from acknowledging Christ as their King and Messias, the whole Sanhedrin and the mob reacted thus: «But they cried out. Away with Him: Away with Him: Crucify Him» (John XIX, 15). In this way was fulfilled what the Book of Wisdom foretold about the deicide sentiments of the Jewish People: «Let us therefore lie in wait for the Just, because He is useless to us, and He is contrary to our doings, and upbraideth us with transgressions of the Law, and divulgeth against us the sins of our way of life. He boasteth that He hath the knowledge of God, and calleth Himself the Son of God. He is become a censurer of our thought. He is grievous unto us, even to behold: for His life is not like other men’s, and His ways are very different... Let us condemn Him to a most shameful death; for according to His words, He shall be heard» (Wisd. II, 12-15, 20). Seeing the Jewish People’s unbending will to crucify Christ, Pontius Pilate made a final effort in His defence: «Shall I crucify your King? The Chief Priests answered: we have no king but Caesar» (John XIX, 15). The Roman Procurator had once again publicly called Christ King of the Jews, this time with refined irony so as to trample on the pride of a Sanhedrin thirsting after innocent Blood. For the words `Shall I crucify your King?’ were understood by the Pontiffs and by the mob as Pilate’s tacit acknowledgement of Christ’s temporal royalty over His enemies, who out of envy sought to kill Him since they knew He was the expected Messias. As we interpret from the Gospel, the Pontiffs Annas and Caiphas and the other members of the Sanhedrin, with unprecedented frenzy, vomiting hate and vengeance, cunningly asserted the authority of Caesar against any other that might contradict their purpose, understood by Pilate as an open threat to his own authority. For which reason, with iniquitous cowardice he then desisted once and for all from freeing Christ. It is fitting to clarify the following text of Saint John: «And it was the Parasceve of the Pasch, about the sixth hour» (John XIX, 14). We know that the trial of Christ, and therefore His appearance before Pilate, took place on the 25th of March of the year 34, that is on the 15th of Nisan. Since it fell on a Friday, the solemnity of the Passover was moved to the next day, Saturday. Therefore, as His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII defines, <>. The day of preparation for the Passover was always the 14th of Nisan, when the lambs were killed in the Temple so as afterwards to comply with the rite of the Paschal Supper as always at the start of the 15th of Nisan. With the expression `about the sixth hour’ the Evangelist means that it was almost 11 a.m. since the sixth hour began at 11 a.m. and ended at 12 midday. The time system used by Saint John corresponds to the reckoning of individual and consecutive hours between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. In other passages of his Gospel Saint John uses the same time system, when in verse 52 of chapter IV he refers to the seventh hour and in verse 39 of chapter I to the tenth.

86. Besides the time system of individual and consecutive hours used in the Gospels, as we have seen in Saint John, there existed another reckoning of time according to the following Roman system, which also appears in the Gospels: the Jewish day of 24 hours was divided into 8 periods of 3 hours. The first 4 periods were called respectively: first, second, third and fourth watches; and the other four: prime, terce, sext and none. Given this clarification, let us consider the different periods of time used by the Jews the whole year through without taking strictly into account the hour of sunset and sunrise. The Jewish day began at 6 p.m. and the first watch was between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., the second between 9 p.m. and 12 midnight, the third between midnight and 3 a.m., and the fourth between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.; prime was between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., terce between 9 a.m. and 12 midday, sext between 12 midday and 3 p.m. and none between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. when the day ended. Therefore, when we have said in this Treatise that the 14th of Nisan ended at sunset at the start of the 15th of Nisan we were referring to 6 p.m. as the official hour, irrespective of whether at that moment the sun had set or not. We must also keep in mind that before the Roman domination, the Jews divided the night into 3 watches of 4 hours and the day into 3 periods of 4 hours.

87. Given this clarification we continue our interpretation of the Gospel. Since Pilate was resolved to condemn Christ, for as Saint Matthew says (XXVII, 24a) he saw «that he prevailed nothing, but that rather a tumult was made», he reentered the porch leaving the Innocent Culprit outside the lattice-gate between two soldiers. When in the curul seat, at 10.45 a.m. the Roman Procurator in a powerful voice heard by all, pronounced sentence of death, as we interpret Saint Luke: «And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required» (Luke XXIII, 24), He decreed death by crucifixion against Christ, to the satisfaction and good pleasure of the Sanhedrin, for the crimes of civil and religious character presented by that Council with the support of the unanimous testimony of the people. Because of haste the sentence was first verbal and concise and would later be put in writing as we shall see. But as Pontius Pilate, after yielding so abominably, also wished to express his disagreement with the contents of the sentence he had pronounced under the relentless pressure of the Sanhedrin, he found no way more humiliating for the bloodthirsty crowd than the use of the rite of the washing of hands, prescribed in the Law of Moses (Deut. XXI, 6-7) to manifest that the hands washed had not been stained by any crime. Hence after sentencing Christ, the Procurator went out by the lattice-gate; and when beside Him, ministered to by soldiers Pilate washed his hands using the pitcher, washbasin and towel usually kept in the tribunal for the use of the judge in his personal hygiene. Saint Matthew relates this strange episode thus: «...taking water washed his hands before the people, saying: I am innocent of the Blood of this Just Man. Look you to it» (Matt. XXVII, 24b). Using this vile sham Pilate, at the same time as he feigned blamelessness in the Saviour’s death, ironically reproached the Jews. For he, a Roman, innocent in the proceedings against Christ, could yet employ that religious ceremony; but they, even though followers of the Mosaic Law, could not for their culpability. Despite his vain pretension the Procurator was an inexcusable accomplice in Christ’s death, even though he laid the entire responsibility for the deicide on the Jewish People, as indicated in the expression `look you to it’, meaning `the crime you committed by forcing me to condemn a righteous Man is your concern’. According to our doctrinal interpretation, Saint Matthew goes on to say that «the whole people answering said: His Blood be upon us and upon our children» (Matt. XXVII, 25). Determinant words with which the now deicide Jewish People signed and sealed its manifest apostasy, with full acceptance of the disastrous consequences down through the centuries, above all in the spiritual order, calling upon itself the salvific Deific Blood, not to benefit from Its redemptive value but to receive therefrom the curse of God. With the deicide, the Jewish People publicly and officially declared itself Christ’s enemy and therefore the People of Satan; though because of the infidelity in the spiritual order of the great majority, some time previously it had already lost the privileged status of Chosen People: some for rejecting John’s baptism, others Christ’s baptism, and others for lack of correspondence. The deicide apostasy of the Jewish People is handed down by generation from parents to children until their conversion en masse shortly before the Return of Christ. We make clear that the true Church of all times has always been essentially God’s Chosen People through its members’ supernatural consanguinity with Christ and Mary. Wherefore Jews converted to the Catholic Faith in the course of history have ceased to belong to the deicide People when incorporated into the true Chosen People of God, Holy Mother Church. Traditionally, in the First Station of the Way of the Cross is commemorated the mystery of Christ condemned to death.

88. The first three Evangelists relate both the freeing of Barabbas and Pontius Pilate’s delivery of Jesus, to the hellish mob; the fourth Evangelist relates only the latter. Saint Matthew: «Then he released to them Barabbas...» and Jesus «he delivered unto them to be crucified» (Matt. XXVII, 26). Saint Mark: «And so Pilate being willing to satisfy the people, released to them Barabbas, and delivered up Jesus...to be crucified» (Mark XV, 15). Saint Luke: «And he released unto them him that for murder and sedition had been cast in to prison, whom they had desired. But Jesus he delivered up to their will» (Luke XXIII, 25). And Saint John: «Then therefore he delivered Him to them to be crucified» (John XIX, 16a). We teach that after pronouncing sentence, Pontius Pilate ordered a centurion first to announce to Barabbas his pardon for the crimes committed and to bring him into his presence; and then to prepare the Cross intended for the murderer, and to lay it now on the shoulders of Christ. As the crucifixion of the thieves Dismas and Gestas was appointed for that day, Pilate also ordained that everything urgently be made ready for both to accompany Jesus to Calvary. After the washing of hands and the freeing of Barabbas amid the jubilant acclamations of the crazed multitude, at 10.55 a.m. Pontius Pilate delivered Christ over to them to be crucified. Saint Mark coincides with Saint Matthew (XXVII, 31a) in saying: «And after they had mocked Him, they took of the purple from Him and put His own garments on Him» (Mark XV, 20a). As we know, when sentenced and delivered up to death, Christ was in the stone-paved area outside the porch of judgement. We interpret that there He was first Victim of fresh outrages from the Chief Priests and other Jews, cruelly stripped by the Romans of the mock emblems of royalty including the crown of thorns, and then dressed in His own clothes, namely His seamless robe, and crowned anew. But they did not return His sandals which had been taken off at the Scourging, in order to make His path to Calvary much more painful due to the pointed cobbles and filth along the way.

89. We interrupt the Gospel narrative to fix our attention anew on the exalted and offended Co-Victim of Calvary, the Divine Mary, spiritually scourged and crowned with thorns. At the Cenacle She had felt those most cruel torments in Her own Body at the same time as Her Divine Son at the Praetorium. His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII has defined that when the Divine Mary was spiritually scourged Her Body was physically wounded the same as Christ’s, and when spiritually crowned with thorns Her Immaculate Head was wounded the same as Christ’s, but nobody saw the mysteries of Her scourging and crowning. At 10.45 a.m. on that good Friday the Sorrowful Mother and those accompanying Her arrived at the Praetorium, as also did the other groups of men and women religious coming from the Cenacle; that is, at the very moment Pontius Pilate pronounced the sentence against Jesus. Hence all could hear perfectly the sacrilegious decree. But the brutal and crazed mob, absorbed in its hatred of the Divine Culprit, did not then notice the presence of Jesus’ Mother and Her faithful followers. These, far from weakening in the Faith because of the most unjust sentence, were strengthened by Mary Most Holy, Who as Queen of Martyrs gave them example of invincible magnanimity and complete surrender to the divine plan, for on Calvary would be consummated the Work of Reparation and Redemption.

90. It also behoves us to equate our teaching on the mysteries of Christ’s Passion in the Praetorium, with the places - now commemorative chapels - wherein according to tradition the mysteries occurred. (1) The so-called arch of the Ecce Homo, situated in the chapel of that name within the monastery of the ‘Sisters of Sion’, was constructed by the Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd Century on the very spot where Our Lord Jesus Christ was presented to the people, and therefore in front of the porch or tribunal of His trial before Pilate. Within the confines of the present chapel of the Ecce Homo there was also to be found the stairway which gave access to the Praetorium, and by which Christ ascended to the tribunal and later descended bearing the Cross. Known as the ‘Scala Santa’ this stairway is conserved in Rome. (2) Within the present chapel of the Condemnation, built over the eastern portion of what was then the flagged patio or courtyard of the Praetorium, was the platform or dais where Pilate normally presided when administering justice in his public audiences. There he wrote and signed the sentence against Christ that he had first given orally in the judgement porch. Moreover, within the chapel of the Condemnation was written the INRI later to be placed on the upper part of the Cross on which Christ would die. (3) Within the present chapel of the Scourging there occurred this most cruel mystery as also that of the Crowning with Thorns, since the chapel was built both over the part of the hall where Christ was scourged and over the part of the patio or courtyard of the Praetorium where He was crowned with thorns.

91. Resuming our interpretation of the Gospel we teach that at 11 a.m. on that Friday the 25th of March of the year 34, Our Lord Jesus Christ received on His shoulders, from the soldiery, the ignominious Cross of our sins, standing outside the lattice-gate and on the flagged section adjacent to the steps by which from Lithostrotos He would descend to the great esplanade. The Evangelist Saint John alludes to that transcendent mystery: «And they took Jesus» (John XIX, 16b), the text indicating, we interpret, that when the Master was in the hands of the soldiers, and after His waist and neck were each lashed with a rope the better to secure Him, they laid upon Him the heavy Cross, placing its right intersection, which at the Crucifixion would correspond to His right arm and side, on His right Shoulder. Immediately, He began painfully to descend the stairway of access to the Praetorium down to the great esplanade that lay before the edifice. That is why the Evangelist adds: «And they led Him forth» (John XIX, 16c), namely, away from all that was the Praetorium. Christ bearing the burdensome instrument of execution then made His way along several of the streets within the walls of Jerusalem, for so must be understood the expressions of Saint Matthew: «And they led Him away to crucify Him» (Matt. XXVII, 31 b) and Saint John: «And bearing His own Cross» (John XIX, 17a). He then left the city through a gate in the walls, and once outside Jerusalem covered the distance between that gate and the exact place of the Crucifixion, as Saint John relates: «He went forth to that place which is called Calvary, but in Hebrew Golgotha» (John XIX, 17b). We teach that the full distance covered by Christ from the Praetorium to the site of the Crucifixion was about 1000 metres, that is one kilometre. From the revelations of Saint Mary of Jesus of Agreda we extract the following faithful expression of Christ’s most sublime sentiments when He received the Cross, here transcribed according to our interpretation: <>. From the revelations of the Mystical Doctor Saint Maria Cecilia Baij we also select the following doctrine, masterful and true. She relates that when Jesus took the Cross He said in His heart: <>. Saint Anne Catherine Emmerich relates the great truth that before taking the Cross, Christ knelt down and kissed it thrice. We add that in the Second Station of the Way of the Cross, Holy Mother Church traditionally evokes the majestic and important mystery of Christ receiving the Cross, foretold thus by the Prophet Isaias: «The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all» (Is. LIII, 6).

92. But before continuing the most bloody Way of the Cross from the Praetorium to Calvary let us consider the atmosphere that surrounded the Most Divine Lamb. Saint Mary of Jesus of Agreda very correctly says that when Christ was sentenced, <>. We add that although the tendency of the mob was to disorder, nevertheless some order was imposed by officers from the Praetorium entrusted with the execution. The procession was headed by mounted Roman soldiers duly armed and uniformed, some with trumpets announcing the passing of the bloody cortege, as also an official herald loudly proclaiming the sentence against Christ given orally by Pilate; following, a number of foot soldiers likewise armed and in uniform. After these came Christ bearing the Cross and subject to two soldiers by means of the cords entwining His Body; then the two thieves Dismas and Gestas, each with arms outstretched and bound to a transverse bean and consequently not bearing the whole cross. Saint Luke refers to these saying: «And there were also two other malefactors led with Him to be put to death» (Luke XXIII, 32). The sentenced three were also surrounded by foot soldiers, some bearing rods and whipcords and the rest with the instruments required for the Crucifixion. The official procession was completed by other Roman foot soldiers as also the tribune commanding the cohort designated for the mission. These were followed by many of the Chief Priests, Temple magistrates, Sanhedrin elders, and guards of the High Priests and of the pharisees; and surrounding the official procession, the enormous and bloodthirsty mob making an uproar proper to a pagan feast, with exceptions as we shall now see. Among the crowd, to the left of and not far from Her Divine Son, was the Most Sorrowful Mother, accompanied by Her two holy Sisters and by John, Mary Magdalen and Martha. The other Apostles, disciples and holy women also followed, mingled with and lost in the crowd on both sides of the procession. Although all His followers tried to be as close as possible to the Divine Lamb, they were often pushed further away by the natural pressure of the densely-packed concourse, since at the Passover there were priests and pilgrims not only from Jerusalem but also from all Palestine and beyond.

93. Of the great mysteries that took place after Christ with the Cross upon His Shoulder left the Praetorium on route to Calvary, the Gospel only records two: that of the Cyrenian and that of the women who followed Him in tears. We shall now consider, in chronological order, the most important episodes that occurred on the way to Calvary, now universally known as the Via Dolorosa and piously as the Way of Sorrows. After Our Lord Jesus Christ took the Cross upon Himself in the flagged section between the lattice—gate of the trial and the stairway, He began the most painful descent of the latter. As Saint Anne Catherine Emmerich very correctly says, on the way His pain was infinite. His feet were unshod and bleeding; He trembled and was crushed under the weight of the Cross; He was covered with sores and wounds and had taken neither food nor drink since the Last Supper, was weakened by loss of Blood and consumed by thirst and fever. While with His right hand He supported the Cross on His right Shoulder, with the left He wearily made constant effort to raise the hem of His long robe over which He was stumbling. To all this we add that the piercing crown of thorns on His Head, besides making it difficult for Him to see since it pierced even to His eyes, at His every step dashed against the Cross, accentuating His most cruel sufferings and loss of Blood, in suchwise that the Most Precious saving Fount aspersed the stairway of the Praetorium. As a preamble to our exposé of the Via Dolorosa, and in order to penetrate more deeply into the mystery of Christ’s three falls on the way to Calvary, we here cite the following dogmatic Definition of His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII: <>.

94. After Christ had descended to the esplanade, bearing the Cross He continued towards Calvary along the Via Dolorosa, supporting with infinite patience and meekness the harshness of His executioners, who at times jerked Him forward by the ropes to hasten His passage, and at other times pulled them back sharply thus to torment Him. Due to this violence and to the heavy weight of the Cross they forced and compelled Him often to turn this way and that; Hence when the greatly weakened Lamb rounded the first corner of the present Via Dolorosa, where a perceptible and abrupt slope began, the weight of the Cross crushed Him to the ground. Without relinquishing the Cross and with His left knee on the ground, He fell to His right side, dashing His Most Sacred Head against the ground, causing most painful contortion of all His Most Sacred Bones and laceration of His Most Divine Face. The Station of the First Fall is today evoked in the Via Dolorosa by the so-called Polish chapel, built on the very spot where it occurred. When they saw Christ on the ground under the weight of the Cross, far from being moved to compassion, many of those surrounding Him, above all the Chief Priests, gave vent to their unspeakable glee striking Him in cruel manner and with unprecedented ferocity. At the same time they grotesquely urged Him to raise Himself up from the ground through the superhuman power they said He attributed to Himself. With a supreme effort of His passible state Christ at last managed to get up and continue His bitter way with the Cross along the Via Dolorosa. As we interpret from Saint Mary of Jesus of Agreda, Jesus suffered many abominable affronts in word and in deed, since they flung into His Most Divine Face, as well as other filth, dirt and spittle in such quantities as to blind Him. The mystery of Our Lord Jesus Christ’s First Fall is venerated by Holy Mother Church in the Third Station of the Way of the Cross.

95. In this pitiful condition of torment and abandonment on the Way of Sorrows, Christ encountered His Beloved Mother. Together with Saint John and the four holy women of Her entourage, with great difficulty She had been able to come close to Her Most Divine Son and with Him exchange gazes full of tenderness and at the same time of desolation. According to the divine plan She as Co-Redemptrix shared all the Redeemer’s suffering, and so was not spared the outrages He suffered on the Via Dolorosa. Saint Mary of Jesus of Agreda veraciously relates that Mary Most Holy went to meet Christ, and that Mother and Son saw each other face to face but without speaking, nor did the cruelty of the executioners give them opportunity. We add that the two Divine Victims’ sorrowful exchange of gazes increased the affliction that overwhelmed Them. The Most Holy Virgin Mary’s greatest sorrow when She met Christ on the Way of Sorrows was hardly to recognize Her Divine Son, to see Him as a leper, bereft of the beauty She had so often caressed with Her holy hands. Nevertheless, the meeting exceedingly comforted and encouraged their passible Humanities to continue the bloody mission of Reparation and Redemption that would be consummated on Calvary. And since, besides, the Divine Mary’s most vehehement eagerness to be close to Her Divine Son had caught the eye of some in the sanguinary procession, it came to pass, as His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII teaches, that <>. We clarify that the hierarch was from Nazareth and had been the chief promoter of the attempt to cast Christ down from the mount at the beginning of His Public Life following His sermon in the synagogue there in the year 31; and was maintaining illicit relations with that perverse woman. The fulmination occurred when she gave her consent to the sacrilegious assault; wherefore she had not even time externally to manifest her intentions. Since their fulmination entailed not only sudden death but also their precipitation body and soul into Hell after the Particular Judgement, nobody in the crowd noticed the event. The iniquitous chief priest and the prostitute struck dead by Christ are figures of the Antichrist and the Antimary respectively. The encounter of Son and Mother happened at the same place on the Via Dolorosa where today there stands a commemorative chapel. Holy Mother Church evokes this mystery in the Fourth Station of the Way of the Cross. Our Lord Jesus Christ bearing the Cross then continued His painful way up to Calvary, increasingly weakened by the ceaseless outrages and shedding of Blood. As the ferocious executioners saw that the Meekest of Lambs made His way ever more slowly because of physical exhaustion, they tried to rouse Him with the whip as if He were a beast. Thus shamefully treated, Jesus left Jerusalem through one of the gates in the western wall, to continue thence outside the city His way to Calvary. Saint Paul confirms this in his Epistle to the Hebrews: «Jesus...suffered without the gate» (Heb. XIII, 12), that is, outside the city.

96. The first three Evangelist relate the episode of the Cyrenian. Saint Matthew: «And going out, they found a man of Cyrene, named Simon: him they forced to take up His Cross» (Matt. XXVII, 32). Saint Mark is more explicit: «And they led Him out to crucify Him. And they forced one Simon a Cyrenian who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and of Rufus, to take up His Cross» (Mark XV, 20-21). Saint Luke: «And as they led Him away, they laid hold of one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country. And they laid the Cross on him to carry after Jesus» (Luke XXIII, 26). This singular Gospel passage, piously commemorated in the Church as the Fifth Station of the Way of the Cross, occurred, as we interpret from the sacred text, shortly after Christ carrying the Cross left Jerusalem by one of the gates of the city. The true place where it happened is today marked by the chapel of the Via Dolorosa dedicated to the Cyrenian. As we have seen, the increasing physical weakness of the passible state of Christ’s Most Sacred Humanity began to alarm those in charge of the execution, and likewise the Chief Priests and other members of the Sanhedrin, who frantically longed to see their Victim nailed to the Cross for the greater discredit of His Divine Person and dismay of His followers. That was the main reason inducing the Roman tribune to seek a strong man to help the Innocent Culprit to bear the Cross to Calvary. Besides, this was foreseen in the divine plan, so that there be consummated on that Mount the mysteries of the Reparation and the Redemption, so vehemently desired by Christ and Mary. Hence it was the Most Sorrowful Mother seeing Her Divine Son extremely weakened and afflicted by the weight of the Cross, Who inwardly implored the Eternal Father to move the hearts of the wicked executioners to designate someone to help Him carry His heavy burden. As is seen in the texts of Saint Matthew and Saint Mark, they forced Simon of Cyrene to carry Jesus’ Cross, by which it must be understood that although strong men were not lacking there, the Roman tribune did not wish to force any of them, fearing that they might resist because of the shamefulness of the task. But on seeing Simon of Cyrene - who we teach was returning from work on a farm accompanied by His sons Alexander and Rufus, and until that moment removed from events - the soldiers saw their chance to thrust the task upon him as a foreigner and farm worker. Simon of Cyrene at first resisted, especially because of the ignominy of carrying the Cross of one condemned to death. But while he was arguing with those urging him on, his eye was caught by a Woman Who, mingled with the crowd, majestically looked at him with Countenance filled with sweetness and serenity, and at the same time distressed and tearful. It was Jesus’ Mother, inviting him to help Her exhausted and afflicted Divine Son. As Simon of Cyrene discerned through an interior inspiration - and likewise his sons Alexander and Rufus - that She was the Mother of the Culprit bearing the Cross, taking pity on Her he consented to give the necessary help. This admirable gesture of charity towards the Mother was immediately repaid by the suffering Son. When Simon of Cyrene approached to bear the Cross in His arms, Christ, pleased with his gesture, turned His most serene and injured Face to the left and gazed lovingly and mercifully upon him. As a result, besides making clear to him the mystery of the Divine Culprit, Simon’s soul was penetrated by compunction and repentance, and by a most vehement desire to embrace the Faith of the Gospel. Jesus not only supernaturally but also physically rewarded the good will of the Cyrenian who, shortly after sharing in the heavy burden of the Cross, noticed a perceptible lightening of its weight. This grace, which endured as far as Calvary, he deemed to be an evident sign of the Divinity and Messiahship of the Man of Sorrows. Hence we see how Christ, relieved somewhat of the exhausting burden by the generous hands of the Cyrenian, comforted him in turn in order that there be thus fulfilled also the consoling words of the Gospel: «Take up My yoke upon you... For My yoke is sweet and My burden light» (Matt. XI, 29-30). His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII infallibly teaches that <>. The admirable episode of the Cyrenian is a clear and appreciable manifestation of the inescapable obligation we all have, according to the divine plan, to co-operate with our acts of virtue in the Work of Reparation and Redemption, and therefore in our own salvation.

97. Before continuing with the Gospel it is well to give some more details about Simon of Cyrene and his sons Alexander and Rufus. Their city of origin, Cyrene, was in the north of Africa, on the Mediterranean coast in what is now Libya. Simon of Cyrene, his wife and their two sons, after emigrating settled in Jerusalem. They owned and cultivated a farm outside the city. The whole family, though Gentile of origin, professed the Jewish religion. As the news of Jesus’ trial before Pilate came to Simon’s hearing, moved by curiosity he left his work on the farm and with his two sons hurried to the city. Before he could enter, and near the gate in the wall, there occurred the Gospel passage to which we have referred. Simon of Cyrene was an uncultured but good-hearted man. Until then he had not understood the mystery of Christ, since most of his time was taken up with his farm, and city affairs did not particularly interest him. After his conversion on the Via Dolorosa, as we have seen, Simon of Cyrene and his two sons were witnesses of the other events on Calvary, and the three from then on joined the Apostles and disciples, though for the time being they continued to live family life. All of them, the Cyrenian’s wife included, were baptized by Saint Peter after Christ’s Resurrection. We teach that Simon of Cyrene, his wife and his sons were of the black race. The Acts of the Apostles mention a «Simon who was called Black» (Acts XIII, 1), referring to Simon of Cyrene, which confirms our teaching. It is also fitting to note that the main reason the Cyrenian was forced to carry Jesus’ Cross was that he was black. Years after becoming Christians, Simon of Cyrene and Alexander, in Rome, sealed their faith with martyrdom under the Emperor Nero. In the Epistle to the Romans (XVI, 13) Saint Paul sends eulogistic greetings to Rufus, `elect in the Lord’, as also to his mother, whom the Apostle venerated as his own. Mother and son were then in Rome. Later Rufus went with Saint Paul to Spain, where the Apostle consecrated and appointed him bishop of the city of Tortosa (Tarragona), according to the tradition which we confirm.

98. Shortly after the episode of the Cyrenian there occurred, at the place on the Way of Sorrows now marked by a chapel dedicated to the Sixth Station of the Way of the Cross, the beautiful gesture of the Veronica. As we know, the heroine of that valerous deed was Seraphia, Superior of the Carmelite women religious who all, under her guidance, accompanied Christ to Calvary. Seraphia ardently desired to come close to the Master to wipe His Most Divine Countenance covered in sweat, Blood and mud, and thus to console Him with heroic and magnanimous reparation; but because of many difficulties found no opportunity. As she would not desist in her purpose so noble and charitable, in the end she accomplished it through an heroic action stemming from her intense love for Christ. Courageously defying the tenacious vigilance of the brutal soldiers, she was able to kneel before the Man of Sorrows, and cover His Divine Face with a white cloth of hers, folded in three. Christ rewarded this display of indescribable tenderness not only by impressing His Most Sacred Face on the veil’s three folds, for veneration of and as testimony for posterity, but also by transfiguring Himself for Seraphia, for her to contemplate the glory concealed in the ignominiously disfigured passible state of His Deific Body. For her pious intrepidity Seraphia merited the appellation Veronica, meaning ‘true image’. The prodigy of the triple impression on the veil was noticed by part of the crowd, though it was attributed to sorcery. We add that the most loving Master protected the valerous and charitable woman from any confrontation. She was able without difficulty to depart through the cordon of soldiers, taking with her the sacred and precious treasure of the Holy Face, which afterwards she would place in the Cenacle for veneration by all. Regarding the three cloths of Veronica we make clear that the first is in Rome, the whereabouts of the second is unknown and the third is in Jaen (Spain).

99. After Serapia’s brave action, Jesus, ever more bowed under the weight of the Cross and the blows of the executioners, continued, outside the city, His painful ascent of the Via Dolorosa to Calvary. As the weight and roughness of the wood had opened a deep and most painful wound in His right Shoulder, Christ walked with increasing difficulty, for even with the help of the Cyrenian He was barely able to stand. The soldiers, frantic and impatient at the Culprit’s slowness, which hindered the official march of the procession, brutally hounded Him on, until He lost His balance, suddenly falling to His knees under the weight of the Cross and dashing His Sacred Countenance upon the sharp cobblestones. Who can measure Our Divine Saviour’s physical and moral suffering in that sudden and humiliating fall to the ground? But He bore it all with unspeakable patience and without exhaling the slightest complaint, as foretold by the Prophet Isaias: «He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and He shall not open His mouth» (Is. LIII, 7), Who is able also to appraise the immense affliction of our Divine Co-Redemptrix, Mary Most Holy, when in all Her Being She suffered, bloodily and at the same time spiritually, the outrages inflicted on Her Divine Son, and above all the unspeakable pain the heavy Cross produced in the Wound of His Divine right Shoulder as result of His second fall? For as His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII defines: <>. We teach that of all His wounds, the Shoulder Wound caused Our Lord the greatest pain, since the continual rubbing of the Cross laid bare His Bones. Jesus’ second fall, venerated in the Church in the Seventh Station of the Way of the Cross, happened at the place on the Way of Sorrows where today stands a chapel dedicated to that mystery.

100. The Evangelist Saint Luke relates the episode of the weeping women who followed Christ. We confirm the tradition that this occurred in the place along the Via Dolorosa marked as the Eighth Station by a stone set in the wall of a Greek convent. Saint Luke says: «And there followed Him a great multitude of people and of women, who bewailed and lamented Him» (Luke XXIII, 27). We teach that among the immense and brutal crowd following the official execution troop in which Jesus went carrying His Cross followed by the two thieves, there was a group of women, some with their children, witnessing the emotional scene, and who were distinct from the pious women or female Carmelite religious who under the authority of Seraphia (the Veronica) also followed Jesus. Some of the wailing and lamenting women of the Gospel were of Jerusalem and others had come to the city for the Passover. Seeing how ill-treated and afflicted Christ was, the vile outrages heaped on Him by that inhuman throng and how He bore all these sufferings in silence and with patience, moved by an irresistible inner force they were touched to the heart. Wherefore, taking pity on the most meek Lamb so bloodstained, they followed Him closely, unable to contain their tears and sighs, understanding, moreover, that the Man of Sorrows was innocent. As we see in Saint Luke’s Gospel: «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 and the wombs that have not borne and the breasts that have not given suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains: Fall upon us. And to the hills: Cover us» (Luke XXIII, 28-30). Jesus did not reproach these women for weeping sincerely over His pitiful state, but rather exhorted them to convert their tears into works of compunction and repentance for their sins as fruit of the contemplation of His Passion. This episode related by Saint Luke is evoked by the Church in the Eighth Station of the Way of the Cross under the title of `Jesus consoles the pious women of Jerusalem’, so to recall their compassionate and heroic gesture towards the most patient Nazarene, the exhortation and consolation they received from Him, as also the fruits of conversion they obtained by their most charitable tears. As they wept, Jesus hearing, not only gazed at them with infinite tenderness, but also permitted them for some seconds to behold His Most Divine Face transfigured and resplendent. The prodigy not only consoled the afflicted hearts of those compassionate women, but also moved them to conversion through sincere repentance for their sins. With the words `Daughters of Jerusalem’, Christ indicated not only the weeping women following Him, but all women of the Jewish People. The episode we are considering in Saint Luke’s Gospel is also a heart-rending prophecy of the spiritual disgrace of the Jews for their deicide apostasy, as also of the unspeakable material ruin that would befall them: principally the destruction of Jerusalem, the annihilation of the Jews as a nation and their dispersal throughout the world. For example, the Roman armies’ razing of Jerusalem in the year 71 A.D. entailed so many calamities that the majority of the besieged would have preferred to die rather than live through such miseries. That is why murder and suicide were rife amongst the Jews themselves, and not a few mothers killed their own children, and even ate them out of hunger, bewailing their having conceived them. Thus were fulfilled as never before the curses announced by God to Moses for violators of the Law, in this case for those who rejected the Law of the Gospel: «And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy womb, and the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters which the Lord thy God shall give thee, in the distress and extremity wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee» (Deut. XXVIII, 53). Christ’s final words to the weeping women that followed Him, «For if in the Green Wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry?» (Luke XXIII, 31) are a warning of the eternal spiritual ruin awaiting those who do not take advantage of His Passion and Death. Since if He, infinitely Just and therefore the Green Wood, was thus treated by the Father when He took upon Himself the sins of mankind, what shall become of those who, symbolized in the dry wood, cast aside grace and hinder the regenerating and life-giving action of the salvific Blood flowing from the most fertile Tree of Life, Jesus Christ. It is also well to consider that this prediction in Saint Luke on the ruin of the Jewish People is a synthesis of the Eschatological Sermon given by Christ on Holy Wednesday. For the apostasy of the Jewish People and the destruction of Jerusalem are evident figures of the final great apostasy at the time of the Antichrist and of the three days of darkness. We conclude this episode by teaching that the compassionate women wailing and lamenting as they followed the Master would later join, some as religious and others as tertiaries, the pious women that formed the female branch of Carmel.

101. As Jesus neared Mount Calvary the way became steeper and more difficult, and this contributed to His third fall to the ground as He began the ascent of the rising slope. As we said, this last fall was the most complete expression of His abasement on the Way of Sorrows; for together with the burden of the Cross, ever more pressing due to loss of Blood and the exhausted state of His greatly weakened Body, there was more especially the weight of our sin, to say nothing of His most bitter sorrow at the contemplation of the eternal condemnation of so many men and angels. If these factors as well as many others caused His first and second falls, with greater force did they cause the third and final one, since the summit of Calvary was now closer and the contemplation of the mysteries of His Passion there to be consummated more vivid and dolorous. Hence the third fall to the ground brought with it Jesus’ complete prostration under the weight of the Cross, His Body violently jarred and bruised, particularly His Most Divine Countenance, now yet more disfigured by skin lesions, contusions and mud. This unprecedented abasement of the passible state of Christ’s Most Sacred Humanity was surpassed by His love and most vehement desire to make reparation urgently to the Father and to redeem mankind, with the consequent fruits of salvation for many. Wherefore, in a supreme effort, prompt and impetuous, the Divine Lamb rose from the ground without abandoning the heavy Cross, so to continue the final stretch up the Mount. As befitting Her sublime mission of Co-Victim the Most Sorrowful Mother shared with Her Divine Son each of His three falls along the Way of Sorrows. Hence in Her immaculate and most sensitive Body, She spiritually felt prostrate on the ground and physically bruised and wounded, but Her condition passed unobserved. According to tradition that we confirm to be true, Christ’s third fall, venerated as the Ninth Station of the Way of the Cross, occurred at the spot on the Via Dolorosa presently marked by a column commemorating the mystery.

102. The majestic arrival of Our Lord Jesus Christ at the summit of Mount Calvary, at 11.50 a.m., is related by the first three Evangelists. Saint Matthew: «And they came to the place that is called Golgotha, which is the place of the Skull» (Matt. XXVII, 33); Saint Mark: «And they bring Him to the place called Golgotha, which is interpreted the place of Skull» (Mark XV, 22); Saint Luke: «And when they were come to the place which is called Skull» (Luke XXIII, 33a). The Mount of the Crucifixion and Death of Our Lord was also then called Golgotha, a Hebrew expression meaning `of the Skull’, as it was also known. It is now called Calvary, place `of the Skull’, deriving from the Latin `calva’, meaning cranium. The name of the Mount is due to a pious and very ancient tradition that Adam’s skull was to be found there. This was true, since we know infallibly that the first man was buried on Mount Calvary, at the very spot where afterwards Christ crucified would be lifted up. Besides, after the necessary research we have concluded that the area occupied by the walled old inner city of present-day Jerusalem is that place known in the Holy Bible as Mount Moria, which means `land of vision’. That there also exist other names of mounts in Jerusalem, such as Sion, Golgotha and Gabbatha, is due to the fact that with these titles the city’s inhabitants distinguished the most prominent parts of Mount Moria, specially reserving this last name to specify the site of the Temple, Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac was in the very place where later Christ would be crucified, as we interpret from Genesis when God said to Abraham: «Take thy only begotten son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and go into the land of vision: and there thou shalt offer him for holocaust upon one of the mountains which I will show thee» (Gen. XXII, 2), so indicating a prominent part of Mount Moria, which we affirm was Calvary. The name Mount Moria or `land of vision’ was given by the Lord mainly because there, in the sight of all, the Word made Man would be nailed to the Cross. We make clear that, although criminals had been executed on Mount Calvary during the Roman domination, by divine disposition no execution had taken place on the exact spot destined for the bloody Sacrifice of the Cross.

103. According to our chronology of the Gospel, once Our Lord Jesus Christ, helped by the Cyrenian and followed by the Divine Mary, Saint John and the four pious women, had reached the summit of Golgotha, the soldiers relieved His Most Sacred right Shoulder of the heavy wood of execution, which was placed on the ground. At crucifixions there existed the Jewish humanitarian custom, respected by the Romans, to give to the condemned beforehand a beverage, pleasing to the palate, of wine mixed with a little myrrh, to comfort him and besides to numb the senses so as to mitigate his sufferings. It happened to Christ, that when He was relieved of the Cross, the soldiers, as we interpret Saint Matthew, first «gave Him wine to drink mixed with gall. And when He had tasted, He would not drink» (Matt. XXVII, 34). This was done on the initiative of the Chief Priests, who, the more to torment Christ and in particular to mock His terrible thirst, bribed the soldiers to mix a small amount of wine with a large quantity of animal bile, in suchwise that the revolting mixture, as well as being exceedingly bitter, be so thick as almost to need masticating. As we see in Saint Matthew, Jesus tasted it and then did not wish to drink it. That He tried such a sickening concoction was in order also by the sense of taste to expiate our sins, especially gluttony, since even His entrails were convulsed by the nauseating savour; and that He refused to drink it after tasting was because that had sufficed to fulfil in this case its expiatory purpose. In Psalm LXVIII the holy Prophet David foretold this passage of Saint Matthew when he anticipatedly placed on Jesus’ lips the words: «And they gave Me gall for My food» (Psalm LXVIII, 22), proof also that the mixture was very dense. Finding themselves thwarted by Christ’s rejection of the bitter concoction after tasting it, the High Priests resorted to a new tactic to humiliate and discredit Him, namely then to offer Him, with perverse aims, the usual comforting beverage. As we see in Saint Mark, the soldiers «gave Him to drink wine mixed with myrrh. But He took it not» (Mark XV, 23). That Christ rejected the new and pleasant beverage without trying it was to deprive Himself of the feeling of comfort it would produce, and also so that there might be no misunderstanding that His sufferings on the Cross were mitigated by that beverage. This also foiled the perfidious, hierarchs’ hope, with the new and palatable beverage, that Jesus, consumed by thirst, would take it all, thus to confirm publicly that He was a glutton and a drinker of wine (Matt, XI, 19), a calumny which the pharisees had so often levelled against Him: and also so that His courageous suffering of the Cross be nullified in the opinion of the people, who consequently would attribute Christ’s infinite patience and meekness amidst the cruellest tortures, to the narcotic effect of the wine mixed with myrrh. As for the two thieves, Dismas and Gestas, who reached Calvary shortly after Christ, for them was observed, with its humanitarian aim, the Jewish custom to give a drink of wine mixed with a little myrrh as a comforting beverage.

104. In the Tenth Station of the Way of the Cross, Holy Mother Church recalls the most dolorous episode on Calvary in which Christ is stripped of His garments. Though not explicitly mentioned in the Gospel, it can be deduced with all certainty from the context of the sacred writing. We deem very enlightening and inspired the following teaching of Saint Mary of Jesus of Agreda who, as we interpret, says that to crucify the Saviour naked they stripped Him of His seamless robe. As it was closed and long, they pulled it over His Head without removing the crown of thorns. But they did so with such haste, violence and cruelty that they wrenched the crown off with the garment. Consequently they opened anew the wounds of His Sacred Head, and in some of these remained the thorn pricks, which, though tough and hard, had snapped at the violence with which the executioners had torn off the robe and, with it, the crown of thorns that with heartless cruelty they again forced down upon His Head opening wound upon wound. Thereby they also reopened all the wounds of His Most Sacred Body, for the garment had been stuck to them; so that its removal, as David (Ps. LXVIII, 27) says, added new pains to His wounds. To this teaching of the Mystic of Agreda we add that the Most Divine Body of Christ was so exceedingly wounded and disfigured by the brutal stripping as to give Him the appearance of the most abject of lepers, owing to the numerous contusions from the blows, to the congealed blood and to the pieces of Flesh torn off. But He did not permit them to strip off the loincloth covering the delicate parts of His Deific Body despite the many efforts the Chief Priests mockingly and sarcastically made to induce the soldiers to do so. With the shame of seeing Himself thus before the multitude there assembled, Christ also and chiefly expiated the sins of sensuality and immodesty. Everything done to the Man of Sorrows on the summit of Calvary was witnessed by the Divine Mary, Who was beside Him, and equally by Mary Cleophas, Mary Salome, the Apostle Saint John and the sisters Mary Magdalen and Martha, and no one from then on was able to separate them from the Most Divine Lamb, as was God’s plan. Witnesses also of this pitiful scene were Peter and the other Apostles, the disciples and the other holy women, since they were on the slopes of the Mount, indistinguishable amongst the crowd and close to where the events were taking place. The most dolorous Mother, Who shared each and every one of Her Divine Son’s sufferings along the Way of Sorrows, bloodily and invisibly suffered, both in Her Immaculate Soul and Body, the shameful outrage of the most bitter taste of the wine mixed with gall, and the most cruel stripping of garments, as befitted Her role of Co-Victim.

105. After they had stripped Our Lord Jesus Christ of His garments, Saint Mary of Jesus of Agreda says that <>. We add that they did so to increase the torment of His Crucifixion. While the executioners drilled the three holes in the wood, there took place that which His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII infallibly teaches: <>. As is gathered from the sublime papal teaching, Jesus, with the infinite power of His divine will, and fully accepted by His human will, suspended part of the infused knowledge in the passible state of His Most Divine Soul, so that His passible Deific Cerebrum might be limited in its functions. Hence that vital body organ, which in normal circumstances fully encompassed all the activity of the Soul, now found its capacity restricted, and morally suffered as a result of the lack of knowledge of certain mysteries and the physical weariness arising from fruitless efforts to try to understand them. The suspension of infused knowledge in the passible state of the Most Divine Soul of Christ, now veiled among other things the knowledge of how His utterly shattered passible Humanity would endure the supreme trial of Calvary, all the more so because His desolation and feeling of abandonment became ever more intense. For when He was stripped of His garments, in His passible state there was also diminished, in part, the contemplation of the countless fruits of the Redemption, and at the same time there was intensified the contemplation of the eternal condemnation of the numerous souls that despise the Blood He shed. That is why Our Lord Jesus Christ in the passible state of His Most Sacred Humanity, implored consolation from His Heavenly Father, Who assured Him of His physical and spiritual support. His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII defines that <>.

106. We interrupt the Gospel narrative in order further to fix our attention on the Most Sacred and Victorious Cross of our Redemption. His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII masterfully teaches that <>. In other words, the tree from which the two pieces of timber were taken for the Cross was the same one afterwards used by the traitor. It had a very tall trunk from which a branch sprang a short distance from the ground. From the main stem or trunk was taken what was required to make the Cross; and Judas made use of the branch which remained on the tree to hang himself. The tree in question was common cypress. The Cross was Latin in form, composed of two beams joined forming four right angles, as is traditionally represented in the Church, and therefore was neither T nor X nor Y-shaped. The vertical beam was 5 metres long, its diameter 18 centimetres, the transverse 2 metres long, its diameter the same as the other, and assembly was effected by cutting in each the mortise or groove required for the purpose. We now give the dimensions of the various parts of the Cross. (1) Vertical or upright beam: upper trunk, 60 cm.; joint, 18 cm.; trunk, 4.22 m. Regarding the vertical beam we teach the following. The INRI was affixed to the upper trunk. The Body of Christ took up 2.03 m., including both the forced stretching of His Body and the crown, which latter did not reach above the upper edge of the joint. 1.70 m. separated the Feet from the ground, and the section embedded in the ground measured 67 cm. (2) Transverse beam or crosspiece: right arm, 91 cm.; left arm, 91 cm.; joint, 18 cm, Christ’s right and left arms were crucified to the corresponding arms of the Cross, at an angle to the same. The exact weight of the Cross was 90 kilos, and because of the extreme weakness of Christ’s Body, it was enough to have caused His death at any moment along the Via Dolorosa, had not His Divinity sustained His Most Sacred passible Humanity. We take the opportunity to affirm the teaching that the wood used by Noe for the construction of the Ark was also common cypress, given the great durability of its trunk.

107. The ignominious crucifixion of Our Lord Jesus Christ took place at 11.55 a.m., that is 5 minutes before the end of the hour of terce, on Friday the 25th of March of the year 34, as we interpret the following text of Saint Mark: «And it was the hour of terce: and they crucified Him» (Mark XV, 25); in other words, still within the hour of terce, Saint Luke (XXIII, 33) and Saint John (XIX, 18) mention this transcendental event, situating it on Calvary, when they say that «they crucified Him there». Saint Matthew (XXVII, 38) also alludes to it when he speaks of the crucifixion of the two thieves, as we shall see. His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII teaches that <>. Let us consider how. First they nailed the right hand, forthwith the left; and immediately after, both feet at the same time, right over left, the same nail piercing the metatarsus of each foot. In other words, the Crucifixion was carried out very quickly, skillfully and brusquely by several executioners practiced in that kind of sanguinary work. Jesus, far from putting up the slightest resistance, gave Himself up as Most Meek Lamb to His bloody Sacrifice. The Crucifixion of the Divine Nazarene implied for His extremely sensitive and weakened Body the greatest of tortures suffered until then, not only because of the nailing itself, but also because of the brutal design with which it was done. For as we know, it was necessary to stretch His arms and legs to make them reach the intentionally badly placed holes, as we now relate: one of the executioners grasped Jesus’ right hand and placed it over the corresponding hole, and another hammered a nail through it, severing the veins and tendons of the wrist. Since the left hand did not reach the hole maliciously placed too far away, it was necessary to fasten to His left wrist one of the ropes with which He had come bound and to pull on it with unprecedented cruelty to make it reach the hole, so as to nail His left hand to the Cross. The forced stretching of Christ’s arms and shoulders to make the left wrist reach its hole amounted to 7 cm., namely 3.5 cm. for each arm. Following the crucifixion of the hands came that of the feet, much more painful still because they were nailed together at the metatarsus, right over left and directly onto the wood of the Cross. That caused the Lord unimaginable torment since a rope had to be fastened to His ankles, and His legs - and therefore His whole Body - stretched 7 cm. by means of brutal jerks on the rope by several of the executioners, for the hole had been located at a distance greater than His frame permitted. The Deific Body of Christ was, then, crucified in 3 minutes, with violent tension and general dislocation of bones, nerves, tendons and muscles, He gasping with asphyxia and suffering all in silence with full acceptance of the divine plan. As His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII teaches, once crucified, the soldiers affixed to the crown of thorns three bull’s horns, each 20 cm. long and pointing upwards, in the way that emblems of the divinity are affixed to the images of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The horns were brought purposely by some members of the Sanhedrin, who persuaded the soldiers to attach them in order the more to mock and ridicule the Most Divine Culprit. This the Most Holy Prophet David foretold, saying: «But the horns of the Just shall be exalted» (Ps. LXXIV, 11). Regarding the nails, we teach that the one used for the feet was larger than those used for the hands, and that the three were long enough and strong enough to pierce the Most Sacred Flesh of Jesus and besides to penetrate a good distance into the wood without protruding the other side. As befitted Her sublime dignity of Co-Victim of Calvary, the Sorrowful Mother suffered all the torments of the Crucifixion of Her Divine Son. As His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII infallibly defines, <>. The Crucifixion of Our Lord Jesus Christ is venerated in the Church in the Eleventh Station of the Cross.

108. Once the Divine Word made Man was fixed to the Cross of our Redemption, and while the Cross was still on the ground, to its upper trunk they nailed the condemnatory inscription, as the four Evangelists relate: «And they put over His head His cause written: THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS» (Matt. XXVII, 37); «And the inscription of His cause was written over: THE KING OF THE JEWS» (Mark XV, 26); «And there was also a superscription written over Him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS» (Luke XXIII, 38); «And Pilate wrote a title also: and he put it upon the Cross. -And the writing was JESUS OF NAZARETH, KING OF THE JEWS» (John XIX, 19), adding: «And it was written in Hebrew, in Greek and in Latin» (John XIX, 20b). We teach that after pronouncing sentence orally, when Christ carrying the Cross had left the Lithostrotos, the Roman Procurator, still inside the porch of judgement, determined exactly with the High Priests Annas and Caiphas, who were outside the porch, the terms in which the sentence officially should be drafted, thus to place on record the crimes attributed to Christ and that His condemnation was in accord with the legal procedure for the case. In this way both the Sanhedrin and Pilate endeavoured to cloak beneath a highly astute semblance of rectitude the greatest injustice which ever has been or ever will be committed: the condemning to death of the Righteous of the righteous, Jesus Christ. Besides, it was of great importance to the Procurator that the events be recorded in detail and in his favour, in agreement with the Sanhedrin, in case there should be any examination of the legal procedure on the part of the Roman emperor. Hence when the High Priests and Pilate had decided the terms of the sentence, the latter entered the courtyard of the Praetorium to draw up, from the place where he ordinarily administered justice, as we have seen, the document in duplicate; wherefore the `curul seat’ was brought there to him. But beforehand, because of the urgency of the matter, he ordered there to be made a trilingual inscription allusive to Christ’s cause, whose exact words are those of the Gospel of Saint John: «JESUS OF NAZARETH, KING OF THE JEWS», since the other three Evangelists restrict themselves to giving the sense. The affixing of the `INRI’ to the Cross was entrusted by Pilate to a centurion, who carried it privately without anyone reading it until the holy Rood was raised on Calvary. The sentence having been drawn up, at 11.20 a.m., Pontius Pilate personally handed a copy to Annas and Caiphas. To do so he again went out of the lattice-gate of the Praetorium, for both High Priests were waiting outside with their personal entourage.

109. At exactly 12 midday, at the beginning of the hour of sext on Friday the 25th of March of the year 34, Our Lord Jesus Christ was raised up upon the Cross when the base was set into a natural crevice in the rock of Calvary; for the crevice had been foreseen thus in the divine plan. The ignominious exaltation of the Cross was effected by first placing the lower end of the trunk over the border of the crevice, and then tying a rope to each arm of the Cross, so that while several soldiers pulled on the ropes, from behind others pushed and raised the Cross until it sank into the 67 cm. deep crevice and therefore became upraised for the multitudes to behold, though afterwards its position was secured by means of five wedges. With the Most Divine Lamb’s bloody exaltation of the summit of Calvary was consummated the rabid objective of the deicide Sanhedrin, backed by the bloodthirsty populace. For Christ was on high, hanging from the Cross in majestic silence, amid unspeakable convulsions caused by the further tearing of the wounds of His hands and feet and the general freshening of His countless wounds at the violent impact of the Cross upon the rocky bottom of the crevice, in which it had been set with unprecedented brusqueness and fury. The tension and dislocation of His Most Sacred Body, pierced by three nails, allowed Christ no posture to relieve His infinite pains. For even His Most Sacred crowned Head fell forward, together with His shoulders, intensifying the piercing both of the thorns and, due to increased tension, of the wounds in His hands, as also the asphyxia from His constricted lungs. When by natural impulse He raised His Head to relieve the anguish of His labored breathing, this entailed fresh contortions and renewal of His wounds. The holy King David, who prophetically had contemplated Calvary centuries earlier, foretold this transcendent event in simple though deeply expressive words: «They have pierced My hands and My feet. They have numbered all My bones» (Ps. XXI, 17-18).

110. The four Evangelist (Matt. XXVII, 38; Mark XV, 27; Luke XXIII, 33; John XIX, 18) allude to the crucifixion of the two thieves, their narrative concurring in essence, wherefore we here cite the text of Saint Mark: «And with Him they crucify two thieves: the one on His right hand, and the other on His left» (Mark XV, 27). Immediately after Christ on the Cross was lifted up, the two thieves Dismas and Gestas were crucified. They, as we said, came each fastened to a transverse beam. Therefore, after the thieves were unbound and before they were crucified, the soldiers assembled their crosses, nailing the transverse beams to the respective vertical beams, brought to Calvary beforehand and prepared for the purpose. Then, like to Christ, on the ground they crucified each thief with three nails, and afterwards raised them up, first Dismas to Christ’s right and then Gestas to His left; so that Jesus was in the middle of the two criminals, as Saint John states when he refers to the event: «...and Jesus in the midst» (John XIX, 18). The three hung facing west; and even though the three crosses were of the same shape, Christ’s was the largest; and its base was 5 metres from the base of each of the other two. Despite the stupefying liquor they had previously drunk, the two thieves uttered piercing screams of pain, and despairingly cursed their executioners, above all when the latter nailed their infamous hands and feet. Saint Mark also relates: «And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith: And with the wicked He was reputed» (Mark XV, 28), words which refer to that foretold by the Prophet Isaias (Is. LIII, 12) about the Crucifixion of Christ between two thieves as if He were one more evildoer.

111. We leave Our Lord Jesus Christ hanging from the victorious wood of the Cross, in order to consider the disastrous end of the traitor Judas Iscariot who, as we know, roamed the city in the grip of irremediable despair. Saint Matthew relates the Apostle’s tragic end: «Then Judas, who betrayed Him, seeing that He was condemned, repenting himself, brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the Chief Priests and ancients, saying: I have sinned in betraying innocent Blood. But they said: What is that to us? Look thou to it» (Matt. XXVII, 3-4), that is, you should have thought about that beforehand. Although Judas was present neither at Jesus’ civil trial nor on the Via Dolorosa nor at Calvary, by the commentaries to be heard in Jerusalem he was aware that the Most Innocent Master had been condemned to death. But as repentance was for him now impossible, given the deplorable state of his soul owing to the sin against the Holy Ghost in the highest degree, the news filled to overflowing his cup of remorse and despair; in suchwise that now even the purse of thirty pieces of silver, price of the iniquitous sale of Jesus, burnt his hands, soul and entire being. For that reason, with implacable frenzy he wished to be rid of the deicide sum, not motivated in any way by repentance for having betrayed Christ, since inwardly he would have betrayed Him many times over, but because of the baneful consequences accompanying that impious treachery. For in the last hours of his life, Judas Iscariot even came to feel in some measure the infernal pains of loss and of sense, and rabidly desired to be freed from them but without renouncing in the slightest his hatred of Christ; as happens to reprobates, whose sins afflict and distress them, not because they have offended God Whom they wish to continue to hate eternally, but because of the terrible suffering those sins cause them. Such was also the deplorable repentance of Judas Iscariot, related in the Gospel. With these diabolical dispositions Judas headed for the Temple of Jerusalem, and arrived at 11.25 a.m., when Annas and Caiphas were returning from the Praetorium. Although the traitor’ intention was to discard without further ado the purse of thirty pieces of silver by returning it to the principle hierarchs, purchasers of the Most Divine Prey, he soon inwardly felt the imperative divine authority forcing him, for his greater shame and ridicule, publicly to confess Christ’s innocence before them, and therefore the infamy of his treachery: like those in Hell who are forced eternally to proclaim God’s infinite Sanctity and to adore Him, and at the same time to acknowledge that their own wretchedness condemned them. Thus it would be more clearly established before history that Judas Iscariot, knowing that Jesus was the Righteous of the righteous and therefore the Most Divine Innocent, with clear premeditation had sent Him to His death out of hatred and envy. As we see in the Gospel, according to our interpretation, once the High Priests had achieved their deicide purpose, they treated the traitor with the greatest disregard and contempt, since he mattered nothing to them, neither he nor the money. Saint Matthew goes on to say that Judas, «casting down the pieces of silver in the Temple...departed and went and hanged himself with a halter» (Matt. XXVII, 5). He consummated the suicide at 12 o’clock midday, that is at the same hour Christ on the Cross was lifted up. Judas Iscariot effected his own death by hanging himself, with his belt, from the side-trunk of the cypress from which the wood for Christ’s Cross had previously been taken. This tree was outside Jerusalem in the place called Haceldama, name given to it afterwards because it was purchased with the thirty pieces of silver he had cast into the Temple, as can be seen in the following Gospel texts: «But the Chief Priests having taken the pieces of silver, said: It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood» (Matt. XXVII, 6). This attitude confirms once again the refined hypocrisy of the High Priests Annas and Caiphas who, after consummating the most ignominious deicide, then had scruples about returning to the treasury the thirty pieces of silver taken from it, alleging that they had been used for a profane purpose and therefore profaned the Temple. Wherefore the Evangelist adds: «And after they had consulted together, they bought with them the potter’s field, to be a burying place for strangers. For this cause that field was called Haceldama, that is, the field of blood, even to this day» (Matt. XXVII, 7-8). Saint Matthew goes on to say that: «then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the Prophet, saying: And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of Him that was prized, Whom they prized of the children of Israel. And they gave them unto the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed to me» (Matt. XXVII, 9-10), also confirming the Jewish People’s complicity in the deicide of the Saviour. This sacred Gospel text has been the cause of multiple and controversial interpretations on the part of Bible scholars. But after painstaking examination we now settle the matter once and for all: we teach that when in his Gospel Saint Matthew cited the prophecy referring to the traitor Judas Iscariot, he put the name of Zacharias, whose prophecy it is, as this text proves: «And I said to them: If it be good in your eyes, bring hither my wages: and if not let it be. And they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me: Cast it to the potter, a handsome price, that I was prized at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver and I cast them into the House of the Lord, for the potter» (Zach. XI, 12-13). That afterwards the name of Jeremias appears, when the Evangelist wrote Zacharias, is due to an inaccuracy of one of the first copyists, followed by the rest, that does not affect the divine inspiration of the Gospel. What is more, we see that Saint Matthew does not transcribe the prophecy of Zacharias word for word. This is easy to understand if we consider that Zacharias’ text, besides referring to a true event in his own life, is above all a prophecy on Judas’ treachery and the apostasy of the Jewish People. That is why Saint Matthew, when applying in his gospel Zacharias’ prophecy on Juda’s treachery, does so without restricting himself literally to the biblical text, but rather uses words more in keeping with his interpretation, in order thus to demonstrate the prophecy more clearly. We complete the doctrine by teaching also that after his suicide and Particular Judgement, Judas Iscariot’s soul was plunged eternally into Hell. But his accidental body continued still to hang from the tree until Christ’s Resurrection, when the traitor also rose at that moment to be condemned as well with his essential and accidental bodies. In other words: Judas Iscariot is in Hell with the three elements of his person. Concerning the traitor the Acts of the Apostles states that: «He...being hanged, burst asunder in the midst: and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem» (Acts I, 18-19). Saint Mary of Jesus of Agreda quite correctly says, according to our interpretation, that during the time the body of Judas hung from the tree, the Jews tried to remove and secretly bury it, because the spectacle redounded to the immense discomfiture of the priests and pharisees, since the traitor’s execrable body was irrefutable testimony of their wickedness. But there was no way they could take it down from the tree, since from there it would be plunged into Hell.

112. Once Annas and Caiphas had planned to buy the potter’s field with the thirty pieces of silver, price of the betrayal, both High Priests, accompanied by their personal entourage, walked quickly from the Temple to Calvary, arriving there at the moment the Cross of Christ was lifted up for all to behold. To see their deicide objective now fully consummated filled to overflowing the measure of their rejoicing. But their joy soon changed into frantic demonstrations of indignation when they read the terms inscribed on the ‘INRI’ affixed to the top of the Cross, which we know to have been: «JESUS OF NAZARETH KING OF THE JEWS» (John XIX, 19), since that could be taken, to their humiliation, as Pilate’s official acknowledgement of Christ’s temporal royalty over the people that had brought Him to His death. Such was the consternation this caused the two High Priests and the other Sanhedrists that first they tried in bribe the soldiers to wrench from the Cross that title so humiliating for them. Seeing the fruitlessness of their efforts, they persuaded the rabble present as well to press for that to be done, for Saint John says that»this title therefore many of the Jews did read: because the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city» (John XIX, 20a), thus alluding not only to the crowd there at the time of the crucifixion, but in addition to many others who, during the three hours the Saviour hung from the Cross, came from Jerusalem to Calvary to see the sacrificed Messias. As the ‘INRI’ was written in three languages, «in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin» (John XIX, 20b), it made it easier for both the citizens and the pilgrims come for the Pasch to understand its content. When Annas and Caiphas saw that neither their attempted bribe nor the pressure of the people sufficed to obtain what they desired, at 12.07 p.m., from Calvary they sent an embassy of twelve Sanhedrists to request Pilate to change the inscription on the Cross for another stating that Christ was condemned for proclaiming Himself King of the Jews. That is why the Evangelist recounts: «Then the Chief Priests of the Jews said to Pilate: Write not: The King of the Jews. But that: He said, I am the King of the Jews» (John XIX, 21), by which it must not be understood that Annas and Caiphas said this personally to Pilate, but through the deputation representing them. In the face of the Roman Precurator’s inflexible attitude, neither that entreaty nor the subsequent pressure of the Sanhedin’s envoys was of any avail. For, as we interpret from Saint John, to the envoys «Pilate answered: What I have written, I have written» (John XIX, 22), that is, ‘what I have written will remain written’, thereby reaffirming his personal conviction that Christ was truly King of the Jews, title he had drafted thus with the intention of humiliating them, although we teach that it was not without divine impulse, in order for there to be public evidence in writing that the deicide people had slain their King and Messias. Therefore Pontius Pilate, so that no one should dare to touch the ‘INRI’ affixed to the Cross, since he knew the astuteness and ingenuity of the Sanhedrin, sent a highly-trusted officer quickly to tell the tribune in command at Calvary not to allow the title of the Cross to be removed or substituted; and that was why nobody dared to do so.

113. The exaltation of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross was received by the great majority of the bloodthirsty populace with shouts of glee, raucous guffaws, and blasphemous cursing of God Executed, Whom they menaced with the most violent and aggressive gestures. This attitude continued, as we shall see, during the three hours of His most bloody Agony. Though the infernal human rabble, in the face of the infinite sufferings of its God and Creator, showed itself to be more callous and unfeeling than the very stones, nature did not react thus, but displayed considerable agitation and distress, in suchwise that its vitality declined all the while that life ebbed out of the Divine Word made Man in His long Agony on the Cross. That is why Saint Matthew says that «from the hour of sext, there was darkness over the whole earth, until the hour of none» (Matt. XXVII, 45). Also Saint Mark: «And when the hour of sext was come, there was darkness over the whole earth until the hour of none» (Mark XV, 33). Saint Luke, though less exact in his details about the time, says the same thing when he relates that «it was almost the hour of sext: and there was darkness over all the earth until the hour of none. And the sun was darkened» (Luke XXIII, 44-45a). We teach that at exactly 12 midday on that Good Friday, that is at the moment the Cross, with a sickening crash, was fixed into the crevice on Calvary, the sun, which had been shining with its midday vitality and splendour, was perceptibly affected, suddenly losing much of its natural luminosity in the completely cloudless sky. As a result, the dimmed solar disk could be regarded without discomfort, not only in Jerusalem but wherever the sun shone. And where it shone not, being night, there occurred other portentous signs of darkness. During the three hours of agony the dimming of the sun did not prevent things being seen until the moment Christ expired, when there was total darkness, as we shall see. Wherefore it was neither an eclipse nor dense cloud cover, but a supernatural and miraculous phenomenon. At the same time all the heavenly bodies were dimmed, and the animals, vegetables and minerals of the Universe were considerably debilitated, since the energetic-soul maintaining and invigorating the Universe lost a great part of its vitalizing force. The darkness, beginning at 12 o’clock midday on that Good Friday, gradually increased until it reached its peak, in step with the course and intensity of the agony of the Creator of the Universe, hanging from the Cross. In the following text the Prophet Amos, among other things, foretells as well this extraordinary event when he says: «And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that the sun shall go down at midday, and I will make the earth dark in its greatest light» (Amos VIII, 9); that is, on a day when the sun would shine very brightly. Although the portentous miracle of the darkness would have sufficed to convert all the iniquitous Jews, it did not turn out that way because, as on other occasions, they disparaged the authorship of Christ’s works, attributing them to witchcraft or satanic sorcery. Nevertheless, some of the populace were affected by the sight of the strange happenings, although the members of the Sanhedrin made it their business to stifle any human movement in Christ’s favour resulting from those supernatural phenomena. We place on record that all the inhabitants of the Universe perceived, though not in the same way and intensity, the general cosmic enervation. But Saint Luke’s expression: «And the sun was darkened» (Luke XXIII, 45a) has in addition a spiritual meaning, as we shall see. The phenomenon of the darkness also occurred in the other solar systems of the Universe.

114, Of the different events that took place during Our Lord Jesus Christ’s three hours of agony, we consider first the dividing of His garments, which occurred during the first quarter of an hour after He had been raised upon the Cross. It is narrated by the four Evangelists. Saint Matthew: «And after they had crucified Him, they divided His garments, casting lots; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, saying: They divided My garments among them; and upon My vesture they cast lots» (Matt. XXVII, 35; Ps. XXI, 19). Saint Mark: «And crucifying Him, they divided His garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take» (Mark XV, 24). Saint Luke merely say: «But they, dividing His garments, cast lots» (Luke XXIII, 34b). Saint John’s account is more detailed: «The soldiers therefore, when they had crucified Him, took His garments, (and they made four parts, to every soldier a part) and also His coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said then one to another: Let us not cut it, but let us cast lots for it, whose it shall be; that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saying: They have parted My garments among them, and upon My vesture they have cast lots. And the soldiers indeed did these things» (John XIX, 23-24; Ps. XXI, 19). We teach that, among the Romans, when an execution was carried out the soldiers acting as executioners had the right of booty over the criminal’s garments. With respect to Our Lord Jesus Christ, the garments shared out were His seamless robe and His cape or cloak. The robe, with its girdle, was brown, and Christ wore it to Calvary. The cream-coloured cape was snatched from Him on the Mount of Olives at the time of His arrest, and afterwards was brought to Calvary by one of the soldiers. His sandals were removed before the Scourging, and providentially remained in the Praetorium to be kept by Claudia Procula as a most precious relic. As the four principal executioners entrusted with the crucifixion suspected that the garments used by Christ could be sold at a good price to one of the famous Nazarene’s prominent friends, each took good care to demand his share of the booty. This created no problems as far as the dividing of the cape or cloak was concerned, since it comprised four pieces sewn together and could easily be divided for each to take his share. But as the robe was seamless, they were reluctant to divide it, wherefore they cast lots, and the winner carried the spoil. The other executioners taking part in the crucifixion shared the personal garments of the two thieves Dismas and Gestas. We affirm that after Christ’s death, the four pieces into which the cape was divided, as well as the seamless robe and the girdle, were purchased from the soldiers by Joseph of Arimathea at an agreed price. The seamless robe is preserved in Triers, Germany. Saint Matthew ends his account of the dividing of the Lord’s garments, saying of the executioners who shared in the booty: «And they sat and watched Him» (Matt. XXVII, 36) . That is, they settled nearby, awaiting any eventuality that might arise in keeping with their office until the death of the culprits; and also, because in some cases it was the custom afterwards to break the legs, as we shall see, and that task pertained to them as well. But irrespective of the surveillance of the executioners, there was in attendance the official guard on Calvary, made up of a considerable number of suitably armed Roman soldiers on horseback and on foot.

115. The first three Evangelists give us a general view of the merciless, provocative and cruel atmosphere, on the part of the Sanhedrin and the populace, that enveloped Our Lord Jesus Christ. We harmonize the sacred texts. Saint Matthew: «And they that passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads, and saying: Vah, Thou, that destroyest the Temple of God and in three days dost rebuild it: save Thy own Self. If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the Cross. In like manner also the Chief Priests, with the scribes and ancients, mocking, said: He saved others, Himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the Cross: and we will believe Him. He trusted in God: let Him now deliver Him if He will have Him. For He said: I am the Son of God» (Matt. XXVII, 39-43; Psalm XXI, 9). From Saint Mark (XV, 29-42a), since he essentially coincides with Saint Matthew, we select only the following taunt of the Jews: «Let Christ the King of Israel come down now from the Cross, that we may see and believe» (Mark XV, 32a). As for Saint Luke, he merely says that «the people stood beholding. And the rulers with them derided Him, saying: He saved others; let Him save Himself, if He be Christ, the Elect of God» (Luke XXIII, 35). As is interpreted from the sacred texts, the High Priests and the entire Sanhedrin, as likewise the impious crowd that remained on Calvary, and the many who came and went, in their greater number ceased not to inveigh against Christ with the wounding and blasphemous phrases related by the Evangelists, and with others no less cruel, amidst striking mirth. With refined fury the Sanhedrists endeavoured to round off their much longed -for disparagement of Christ before those present and those gathering there, and so erase from their minds any secret conviction they might have about His Messiahship and Divinity, sufficiently proven by His example, teaching and miracles. To that end they hurled imprecations at the Omnipotent Nazarene to descend from the Cross, for by not doing so the crowd would consider it clear proof that He lacked divine power and therefore that He was an imposter. Annas and Caiphas well knew that despite their provocations Christ would not move from the Cross, since it was the moment to consummate the Redemption, and that the manifestation of His glory and splendour was reserved for other times. Neither the two High Priests nor the Sanhedrin were ignorant of all these mysteries, being well acquainted with Sacred Scripture and the truth of the Messias they had crucified; neither was the Jewish People unaware that Jesus, the Promised Messias, with His Death on the Cross would redeem mankind, Redemption they openly rejected. Despite their defamatory posture in slandering the defenseless and Divine Culprit, not a few pilgrims who until then had been ignorant of the events, greatly astonished, could contrast the most serene patience of Jesus nailed to the Cross with the unrestrained wickedness of the High Priests and Sanhedrin, completely opposed to their priestly mission and ecclesiastical dignity. That is why Christ on the Cross was a stumbling block, since at the same time as that immense mass of the Jewish People rejected Him with the greatest insults, there were pilgrims, and even some from Jerusalem, who came to feel compassion for the Most Divine Victim, and even proclaimed Him righteous.

116. During His three hours of agony on the Cross, Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke publicly on seven different occasions, recorded in the Gospels and venerated by Holy Mother Church as the Seven Words. But we make clear that He spoke on other occasions, though privately, as we shall see also. Furthermore, as has already been stated in this Treatise, He recited all of Psalm XXI (verses 2-31) of David. Let us now make a profound study of these sublime mysteries. Only from the magnanimity of the infinitely merciful Onlybegotten of God could be expected an entreaty to His Father to forgive the populace that had crucified Him and that obstinately continued to insult Him. As we see in the sacred texts, the First Word or sentence that came from the lips of The Divine Word made Man hanging from the Cross was of clemency for His enemies. It is Saint Luke who, with striking simplicity, in the following words of his Gospel describes this important event: «And Jesus said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do» (Luke XXIII, 34a). These words chronologically come after verse 35, previously mentioned, in which the Evangelist sketches the imprecatory scene surrounding the crucified Christ, as we have seen. We now proceed to arrange the texts, citing that verse again: «And the people stood beholding. And the rulers with them derided Him, saying: He saved others; let Him save Himself, if He be Christ, the Elect of God. And Jesus said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do» (Luke XXIII, 35 and 34a); which words He uttered at 12.17 p.m. on that Good Friday. From the Mystical Doctor Saint Maria Cecilia Baij we know that the deicide People, in its refined obstinacy, on hearing His most sweet words answered Christ: <> The Mystical Doctor Saint Mary of Jesus of Agreda says, according to our interpretation, that the Divine Master, to confirm His teaching with His example, addressed to the father those words, a summary of paramount charity and perfection, not only loving and forgiving His enemies, but also excusing them for ignorance when their malice had reached the very depths possible to man - to have crucified their very God and Redeemer. For, as already taught by this Holy Council, both the Sanhedrin that condemned Jesus and the people that endorsed the deicide were aware of the crime they committed, knowing full well that they were putting to death the Promised Messias and Onlybegotten of God. That is why, when Our Lord Jesus Christ with the words «for they know not what they do», excused His enemies for ignorance, it must be understood that: (a) Although they were fully conscious of the enormous gravity of their crime, because of natural human limitation they could never appreciate the full extent of the malice of the sin, because infinite; and Christ, clement and merciful, saw in that limitation a motive to excuse their ignorance before the Father; (b) Although they were fully conscious that the heinousness of their crime, if unrepented, would bring in its wake, among other punishments, their eternal condemnation, nevertheless, because of natural human limitation they were incapable of appreciating the full extent of the intensity of eternal punishment; wherefore Christ also saw in that limitation a motive to excuse their ignorance before the Father; (c) Christ asked the Father’s forgiveness for the soldiers taking part in the bloody proceedings of the deicide. They were less to blame, being uncultured pagans without clear knowledge of the facts, and therefore more to be excused than the Sanhedrin and the Jewish People; (d) Christ, moreover, asked the Father’s forgiveness for all fallen mankind, for our sins also contributed to His Death; (e) Due to Christ’s intervention before the Father requesting forgiveness, the mass conversion of the Jewish People at the end of time will be possible; (f) Thanks, also, to Christ’s merciful entreaty to the Father, some received the grace of conversion on Calvary itself, and others later; (g) Christ’s plea to the Heavenly Father to forgive His enemies was a public manifestation of the splendour of His infinite charity and mercy, enough to have converted all of them were it not for the perfidy of their hearts. In harmony with the aforementioned must also be interpreted the following words of Saint Peter included in the Acts of the Apostles: «But the Author of life you killed, Whom God hath raised from the dead; of which we are witnesses unto you. And in the faith of His Name, He hath confirmed His Name to this man, whom you have seen and do know: and the faith which is by Him hath given this man perfect soundness in the sight of you all. And now, brethren, I know that you did it through ignorance: as did also your rulers» (Acts III, 15-17).

117. Added to the ignominious insults directed against Christ by the Sanhedrin and the populace, were those of the two evil-doers executed there. Saint Mark says: «And they that were crucified with Him reviled Him» (Mark XV, 32b); and Saint Matthew that «the selfsame thing the thieves also that were crucified with Him reproached Him with» (Matt. XXVII, 44), Dismas and Gestas knew that the famed Culprit crucified between them and scorned by His people was He Who previously had often been acclaimed as the Onlybegotten of God and the promised Messias, particularly at His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. Both had heard His teaching on more than one occasion, and had even seen some of His portentous miracles. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the Via Dolorosa they had not recognized Christ because of His great disfigurement, but they were not slow in doing soon hearing His Most Holy Name vituperated by the wretched populace and seeing His infinite patience and meekness. Since from then on the two evil-doers hoped that they would be freed from death by a prodigy of the powerful Victim, when they saw that on Calvary He docilely allowed Himself to be crucified, and that afterwards He hung fixed on the Cross although the mob urged Him to come down and thereby prove that He was the Christ, both were angered with Him, and with curses and insults incited Him to come down from the Cross and to free them as well. It was in this utterly aggressive atmosphere that Christ, as we know, pronounced the First Word from the Cross asking the Father to forgive His enemies, which for sinful humanity implied a crucial moment of grace that profited not a few. With the Nazarene’s display of mercy, Dismas, being better disposed than his perverse companion, was of a sudden deeply moved by Christ’s sufferings and felt sincere repentance for his sins. Saint Mary of Jesus of Agreda is most correct in saying that Mary Most Holy interceded in Dismas’ conversion, illuminating him inwardly to acknowledge Jesus as his Saviour and Master in the First Word He spoke from the Cross. We add that Gestas received also from the Most Sorrowful Mother superabundant graces for his conversion, but obstinately resisted divine inspiration. As we interpret from the Gospel, the Good Thief, with sorrow for his sins, at the same time as he praised Christ, reproached his companion in crime, who ceased not to curse the Divine Crucified. Referring first to Gestas, Saint Luke says: «And one of the robbers who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying: If Thou be the Christ, save Thyself and us» (Luke XXIII, 39). Then, speaking of Dismas the Evangelist adds: «But the other answering, rebuked him, saying: Neither dost thou fear God seeing thou art under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly: for we receive the due reward of our deeds. But this Man had done no evil» (Luke XXIII, 40-41). St. Anne Catherine Emmerich further enriches the Gospel text when she relates that the Good Thief, in Christ’s defence also said to his wicked companion: <>. The Mystical Doctor goes on to relate that when the perverse multitude heard Dismas’ courageous public confession, a great tumult was raised amongst the onlookers and they even wished to stone him. But he, addressing Christ, confessed his guilt, stating moreover that if He were to condemn him to Hell it would be in justice. We add that the Good Thief, at the same time as he acknowledged his sins, implored God’s mercy, for Saint Luke relates that «he said to Jesus: Lord, remember me when Thou shalt come into Thy Kingdom» (Luke XXIII, 42); a contrite plea that was heard magnanimously, for «Jesus said to him: Amen I say to thee: This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise» (Luke XXIII, 43). With this Second Word or sentence publicly pronounced by Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross, at 12.30 p.m., Dismas was not only publicly forgiven all his sins but also was fully freed from the temporal punishment due to them, in virtue of Sanctifying Grace received through that baptism of blood; for we teach that when he was converted, he offered his sufferings on the cross to die for love of His Saviour. From the Mystical Doctor Saint Maria Cecilia Baij we select this most inspired teaching on Dismas’ interior transformation on hearing Jesus’ reward proposed to him. The Good Thief’s soul was filled with unspeakable consolation on being freed from its great weight of guilt. Filled with divine grace he burst into ceaseless praise, blessing his generous Saviour and from then on suffering his deserved pains to satisfy for his past sins. Besides, his penetration of Christ’s sufferings was such that he comprehended their reparative and redemptive grandeur. This Holy Council teaches that the two thieves died at the same instant that Christ’s Deific Heart was transpierced by the lance of Longinus. After the particular judgement of each, Dismas’s soul began at once to enjoy the beatific vision or Paradise promised, and the soul of Gestas became eternally condemned. Behold the mystery of salvation in vivid contrast! While some are saved by their correspondence with grace, others by rejecting it are condemned.

118. Saint John presents us the comforting and moving Gospel passage in which Our Lord Jesus Christ, from the Cross and with most vehement love, officially confided the Church He had founded to the Divine Mary, moreover giving His very own Mother to us as our own. The Evangelist begins by relating: «Now there stood by the Cross of Jesus, His Mother and His Mother’s sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen» (John XIX, 25). As befitted Her sublime mission of Co-Victim on Calvary, Mary Most Holy was to the right of the Cross, close beside the feet of Her Divine Son, since they were nailed at the same distance from the ground as the height of His Mother. Although the Evangelist does not refer to Mary Salome or to Martha, we know that both also accompanied the Queen of Sorrows. Because of the elevation on which stood the invincible Cross of Redemption, the immense crowd could easily see not only Christ crucified but also His Divine Mother, majestically upright, as the strong Woman par excellence, She thereby giving testimony of Her fidelity to the mission that was Hers in those supreme hours in which was consummated the Work of Reparation to the Father and the Redemption of mankind. Mary’s dignity and grandeur, then, did not go unnoticed. She was closely observed by many, who expressed their admiration when they saw Her unchanging magnanimity, integrity and patience in the face of the sufferings of Her Son. This heroic conduct of Mary was the sublime manifestation of Her continued and necessary fiat in order that the Cross should have its Most Divine Victim, Christ Jesus, Who, as His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII defines: <>. For She, in Her unrenounceable mission as Co—Reparatrix and Co-Redemptrix, and in Her most vehement zeal to make reparation to the Father and to redeem mankind, would even with Her own hands have been willing to crucify Her Most Divine Son, had there been nobody else to do so. That is why none are saved without Mary, Who is the Gate of Heaven since She is the Mystical City of God. The Evangelist goes on to say: «When Jesus therefore had seen His Mother and the disciple standing whom He loved, He saith to His Mother: Woman, behold Thy son. After that, He saith to the disciple: Behold thy Mother. And from that hour, the disciple took Her to his own» (John XIX, 26-27). Jesus gave that two fold pronouncement, which constitutes the Third Word or sentence publicly uttered by Him from the Cross, at 1 p.m. on that Good Friday. The sacred text confirms that Saint John was at the summit of Calvary, as we said before: and we teach that he was to the left of the Cross, at Jesus’ feet, as befitted his role of third victim of that bloody Sacrifice, in virtue of his ministerial priesthood. At all times the Apostle also displayed the dignity and grandeur that his ministry and indispensable cooperation in that salvific work required; his fortitude and steadfastness in the face of the sufferings of his Master surprising and even causing the adoration of many. The sacred text of Saint John encloses, among others, the following sublime mysteries: using kind and tender words Christ, before He died, placed the Church under the direct custody of His Divine Mother, which in turn implied the gift of His own Mother to the Church, the latter represented there in Saint John, and the acceptance of Her motherhood by the Apostle in the name of the members of the Mystical Body. Although we know that Mary is Mother of the Church from the instant of the creation of Her Divine Soul, since She is Mother of Christ and therefore of all members incorporated in Him, nevertheless it was necessary that from the Cross, God’s Onlybegotten officially and solemnly should proclaim Mary’s Universal Maternity over the Church of all times, that is, before and after Calvary. This is one of the great mysteries contained in the above verses of Saint John. In the sacred text we see that when Christ addressed His holiest Mother, He called Her `Woman’, so that publicly there be thus exalted and identified on Calvary the same Woman announced in Genesis to crush the infernal serpent (Gen. III, 15). For Herself, that Divine Mary crushed Satan because She was Irredeemed; and moreover, on Calvary, with Her Spiritual Death She gave birth to the Church on giving us Her Immaculate Drop of Blood, this being bearer of the Deific Blood of Salvation, in order that the infernal head thus be crushed as well through the power proper to Christ’s Mystical Body, whose flow of grace is inexhaustible, and against which the Gates of Hell shall never prevail; although, concerning her wayfarer members, the Church is subject to the vicissitudes stemming from the attacks of Hell, until her complete and absolute triumph at the Coming of Christ. But we add that Christ also did not wish to call the Divine Mary `Mother’ but addressed Her as `Woman’, to deprive Himself of the ineffable consolation that uttering that sublime motherly term would bring Him; and at the same time so that She, as was Her desire, share the suffering of Her Son. Concerning Jesus’ words to His Mother, we expound, according to our interpretation, the following teaching of Saint Mary of Jesus of Agreda, of unquestionable truth and beauty. Using the word `Woman’ the Onlybegotten of God proclaimed Her tacitly to be the Woman blessed amongst all women, the most prudent of the children of Adam, the strong and steadfast Woman, never conquered by sin, the most faithful in loving Him, indefectible in serving Him, and Whom the manifold sufferings of the Passion could neither perturb nor dismay. Despite the members of the Church having always acknowledged Mary as Mother, this sublime mystery was universally and dogmatically proclaimed in these last times by the reigning Palmarian Pontiff, His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII, on the 12th of August 1978, in the following words: <> (Doc.2).

119. Christ’s words to Saint John: ‘Behold thy Mother’, also enclosed for the Apostle the grave obligation to care for the Divine Mary painstakingly while She yet lived on earth. As that new and special commission of the Divine Master penetrated to the innermost depths of Saint John’s heart, from that moment his concern for the afflicted Mother increased almost to anxiety: for the ambient was so hostile that he even came to fear that the enraged mob might commit an outrage against the Divine Woman Who shortly before had been publicly extolled for Her sublime virtues. The Eternal Father, nevertheless, did not permit any of those present to attempt any public harm to His most beloved Daughter, since the divine plan was that Her sufferings, albeit bloody, were neither to be received directly from the executioners nor to be manifested outwardly. Seeing the beloved disciple’s alarm at the possibility of danger to Mary Most Holy in view of the increasingly hostile attitude of the impious multitude, Christ wished to make evident to him the sovereign and infinite power that He as God retained, though seemingly helpless; and moreover, to guarantee him divine protection in respect to the physical inviolability enjoyed by the Great Lady. That is why Our Lord Jesus Christ, from the Cross, reproached His enemies in the following words, not heard by them, and which belong to the message of the 11th of January 1970 received by the then Clemente Dominguez y Gomez, now His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII: <>. The Lord then told that seer of El Palmar: <>. With Christ’s words, which we teach He pronounced at 2.30 p.m. on that Good Friday, the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary was sublimely consoled to see the strength and comfort Saint John received from them.