130. But let us consider how cruelly and with what derision the executioners endeavoured to quench Jesus’ consuming thirst. As we read in Saint John’s Gospel, «there was a vessel set there, full of vinegar. And they, putting a sponge full of vinegar about hyssop, put it to His mouth» (John XIX, 29). The first three Evangelists narrate as follows: Saint Matthew: «And immediately one of them running took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on a rod and gave Him to drink» (Matt. XXVII, 48); Saint Mark: «And one running and filling a sponge with vinegar and putting it upon a rod, gave Him to drink» (Mark XV, 36); Saint Luke: «And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming to Him and offering Him vinegar» (Luke XXIII, 36). It must needs be stated that, although not mentioned in the sacred texts, the sponge was soaked in gall as well as in vinegar. This has been recounted by not a few mystics and confirmed by His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII. Moreover, as is gathered from the sacred texts, correctly arranged and interpreted, in reply to Christ’s thirst the executioners tied a sponge to the point of a lance, soaked it in the above concoction and then raised it to the mouth of the Most Divine Victim athirst, Who tasted the bitter and pungent liquid. Hence we see that Saint Matthew and Saint Mark give a more exact description of the type of instrument used for the purpose, while the text of Saint John is confusing since it cites the much debated word `hyssop’, which we teach to be due to an error of a copyist of the original Greek text of Saint John, wherein appears the word `hysso’ which means `lance’ - made up of a shaft of wood with a long metallic point. We add that the executioners had the sponge for allaying the thirst of those condemned. The ignominious offering of gall and vinegar made to Christ in reply to His thirst, was also, on Calvary, the expression of all human ingratitude, above all the obstinate perfidy of those who definitively reject grace and thus frustrate His most ardent desire to save them. The fact that Jesus tasted the repugnant mixture was in order now to suffer, in the passible state of His Most Sacred Body, the bitterness He previously had felt in His Soul on account of those who reject salvation, and in order for the suffering to be of benefit to those who avail themselves of His Deific Blood shed. One of the most evident proofs of refined contempt of grace was to be found in that perfidious Jewish People present on Calvary and led by Annas and Caiphas. The two High Priests were the principal offenders in this further vexation of Christ, when they suggested to the soldiers that He be offered gall and vinegar, and also the fomenters of the taunts and ridicule that continued to be made by many; for, as we interpret from Saint Mark and Saint Luke, while the soldiers offered Him that revolting liquid to quench His thirst, they taunted Him thus: «Stay, let us see if Elias come to take Him down» (Mark XV, 36); «If thou be the King of the Jews, save Thyself» (Luke XXIII, 37). Many of the populace also insulted Him, as we interpret from Saint Matthew: «And the others said: Stay, let us see whether Elias will come to deliver Him» (Matt. XXVII, 49).

131. After Our Lord Jesus Christ, in His most vehement desire for greater suffering, had tasted the bitter drink offered Him by the executioners, He majestically and solemnly proclaimed His imminent Death, the end of His expiatory life on earth and the fulfillment of His messianic labour, nothing remaining to Him of His most sorrowful Passion. That is why Saint John in his Gospel relates: «Jesus therefore, when He had taken the vinegar, said: It is consummated» (John XIX, 30a). That public sentence or Sixth Word, spoken by Christ eight seconds before pronouncing the words with which He gave up His Most Divine Soul to the Father, was the forthright manifestation of His glorious triumph on the Cross. For with His Death the Work of Reparation and Redemption would then essentially be consummated; though, as we know, for that Work to be complete, there were required Mary’s Spiritual Death and the immolation of Saint John, and in him that of the whole Church, as we shall see.

132. According to the dogmatic Definition of His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII, the most majestic and most glorious Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross occurred at the hour of none on that 15th of Nisan, that is, at exactly 3 p.m. on Good Friday the 25th March of the year 34 of the Christian era, mystery venerated in the Church as the 12th Station of the Way of the Cross. The four Evangelists allude to this transcendental episode, the Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, with peculiar details. Coordinating and interpreting the sacred texts we teach that once Jesus had exclaimed «it is consummated», He lifted up His most sovereign and serene Countenance to Heaven, and in a powerful voice uttered the Seventh Word or final sentence from the Cross, as Saint Luke relates: «And Jesus crying with a loud voice, said: Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit» (Luke XXIII, 46a). The Most Divine Lamb ended these words with a death cry, resounding and stirring, identified in the Gospel when Saint Matthew says: «And Jesus again crying with a loud voice, yielded up the Ghost» (Matt. XXVII, 50), since the term `again’ distinguishes this crying with a loud voice from that with which He commended His Spirit, related by Saint Luke. Saint Mark coincides with Saint Matthew, referring to the same expiratory cry, when he says: «And Jesus, having cried out with a loud voice, gave up the Ghost» (Mark XV, 37). Saint Luke completes as follows his aforementioned verse: «And saying this, He gave up the Ghost» (Luke XXIII, 46b), indicating that Jesus, after pronouncing the words with which He commended His Spirit to the Father, expired giving the tremendous cry referred to by the first two Evangelists. Lastly, Saint John says: «And bowing His Head, He gave up the Ghost» (John XIX, 30b), by which it must be understood that after Jesus died, His most Sacred Head under its own weight inclined to the right side of His then lifeless Body. We teach that the Deific Body of Christ in Its passible state, essentially glorious by nature, could not die. But to be able to carry out to Work of Reparation and Redemption, from the beginning of His Most Sacred Passion the Divine Nature miraculously deprived that deific passible state of the gift of immortality, It being subject to death from then on. But as at the same time the Divine Nature sustained the life of the passible Humanity of Christ in order for Him to drink the Chalice of His Passion to the bitter end, death did not befall Him until the moment decreed by the Father, to Whose ordinance He submitted freely and willingly. That is why Saint Paul says that Christ, «humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the Cross» (Phil. II, 8). That is the reason why in previous pages, when we related some of Christ’s ignominious sufferings, we said that they would have sufficed to cause His death were it not that the Divinity sustained His Most Sacred Humanity. But it is necessary to point out that the obedience of Christ’s Most Sacred Humanity was not merely passive, but rather a most complete surrender for love of the Father and of fallen mankind. Hence the death of Christ was a true miracle, since His Most Sacred Humanity was by nature immortal. Christ’s majestic and victorious last cry from the Cross, with which He sweetly expired, penetrated and encompassed the incommensurable space of the Universe, and had greater or lesser impact on all creatures. As is gathered from the already mentioned and interpreted text of Saint Luke, «And there was darkness over all the earth until the hour of none. And the sun was darkened» (Luke XXIII, 44b-45a), it came to pass that the phenomenon of the darkness, increasingly evident during the three hours of agony, reached its peak at Christ’s Death. For at the very moment He expired, the heavenly body of the sun was of a sudden utterly extinguished, and for eight seconds the most absolute darkness reigned over all the earth, without any possible visibility, resulting in the panic of men and material turmoil. After this brief interval, the sun suddenly shone again, and with such admirable brilliance as to make the most vivid impression on all, so much so that the majority on Calvary inwardly could not deny that God had thus exalted the innocence and virtue of His crucified Onlybegotten. The miraculous extinguishing of the sun and its most luminous revival occurred in all the solar systems of the Universe, which latter, following the Death of Christ, was invigorated as it participated thus in the triumph of the Redemption; for we teach that in virtue of the Infinite Sacrifice of Christ and Mary on Calvary, and therefore on the great Cross of the Universe, the energetic-soul, weakened by sin, was in part restored. Before ending this paragraph we complete the previously commenced dogmatic Definition of His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII, who teaches that Christ’s Death occurred on the anniversary of His Incarnation, which had taken place on the 25th of March of the year 0 of the Christian Era or what is the same, the year 5199 of the creation of the world. We add that the Incarnation of the Divine Word occurred at 3 p.m. and that the Angelic Salutation to Mary had taken place at the wellspring of Nazareth three hours previously, that is at 12 o’clock midday.

133. The glorious triumph of the Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby His Most Divine Soul was freed from the passible state, was celebrated with ineffable joy and jubilation by the angelic hosts, who on this occasion received special increments of the accidental glory they possessed. In this way must be understood the glorious manifestation of the Most Divine Soul in Heaven when Christ expired on the Cross. Great also was the exultation of the inhabitants of the Limbo of the Just. For those that enjoyed essential or beatific glory were favoured with an increase of the same, which corresponded to their transition from the state of glorious expectation to that of Heaven; and those that only possessed the imperfect state of justification received, when Christ expired, Sanctifying Grace, and with it the beatific vision proper to the Blessed. In this way must be understood the descent of the Most Divine Soul of Christ to the Limbo of the Just and His glorious manifestation to its members. As for the Holy Souls of Purgatory, those that lacked Sanctifying Grace received It when Christ expired. At the same time countless Holy Souls were freed from that expiatory state to enjoy eternal bliss, and those that yet remained to be purified were comforted, and their pains in part remitted when they briefly contemplated a glimmer of the glory of the Most Divine Soul of Christ. Under these different aspects must be understood the descent of the Divine Soul of Christ to Purgatory. Also when Christ expired, the inhabitants of Children’s Limbo, who until then only possessed a perfect natural joy, were favoured with the supernatural joy corresponding to the imperfect state of justification they received at that moment, and proper to the Church Expectant which they came to constitute. Thus must be considered the descent of the Soul of Christ to Children’s Limbo. Hell, on the contrary, felt as never before the imperious and crushing force of the Most Divine Crucified; for at the moment Christ expired, His Most Divine Soul manifested part of His glory to the reprobates, for their greater torment, with the following consequences: (1) It was then that the demons knew with full certainty that the Man ignominiously nailed to the Cross was the Onlybegotten of God, and thus saw their presumptuous and hellish audacity - until then confused and vacillating as to that truth - ridiculed and humiliated; (2) Since at Christ’s victorious Death Satan was sentenced to defeat, the power of Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness, was perceptibly diminished, for his greater confusion and torment; so that, until these last times, he has not been allowed to seduce the nations in any extraordinary way; (3) All the inhabitants of Hell felt upon themselves, as never before, the mysterious force of the Mystical Body of Christ; (4) Also, all the demons and the other condemned received, when Christ expired, an increase in the essential pains of loss and of sense. Under all these aspects must be understood the Soul of Christ’s descent into Hell. We conclude by saying that when Christ expired, all the members of the Church who possessed or received, as the case may be, Mary’s Drop of Blood, received the Particle of Deific Heart, since the official and solemn Conception by Christ of His Mystical Body took place at that moment. Also the members of the constituted Church Expectant received, together with the reflection of Mary’s Drop of Blood, the reflection of the Deific Particle of Christ’s Heart.

134. Saint Matthew, Saint Mark and Saint Luke at once cite for us new and mysterious occurrences that also prove the manifest repercussion in the wide Universe of Our Most Divine Saviour’s Death. Let us consider the different events. St. Matthew first states: «And behold the veil of the Temple was rent in two from the top even to the bottom» (Matt. XXVII, 51a). And the two other Evangelist (Mark XV, 38; Luke XXIII, 45b) refer to it in like terms, although in Saint Luke it is narrated before the Death of Christ. The first extraordinary happening to which the Gospel now alludes, took place in the Temple of Jerusalem, which as the religious centre of worship of the Mosaic religion, represented the faith of the Jewish People. Inside this majestic edifice there was a spacious hall called Tabernacle, divided into two sections - one, the Holy Place; the other, deemed more sublime and secret, the Holy of Holies. The Tabernacle was entered by an ornate door, behind which there hung a great veil or curtain so that the objects of worship kept there could not be seen from outside, and wherein only the priests could enter. The lax and corrupt levitical hierarchs had already done away with this first veil some years previously. In like fashion a second veil, larger and more sumptuous, divided the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies, to which latter section only the High Priest had access once a year; remaining hidden from the other priests the replica deposited there of the ancient Ark of the Covenant, inferior to the original which, as we know, had been concealed on Mount Nebo by the Prophet Jeremias prior to the Babylonian captivity, and will not reappear until the conversion of the Jewish People at the end of time (2 Mac. II, 4-7). According as we interpret, at the very instant Christ expired, the veil of the Holy of Holies was suddenly and miraculously rent from top to bottom, revealing everything hidden therein. Another of the memorable events to occur at Christ’s Death was the extinguishing of the Sacred Fire conserved on the altar of holocausts, which was outside the Tabernacle. With the already mentioned expression `and the sun was darkened’ (Luke XXIII, 45a), besides indicating the portentous natural phenomenon of the sun, Saint Luke is also expressing the Death of Christ, Most Luminous Sun, as too the extinguishing of the Sacred Fire of the Temple. That Fire was the Most Divine Soul of Christ under igneous appearance, and which disappeared from the Temple when He expired, as has been defined, leaving no trace behind either of flames or of embers. Both events, which were simultaneous, were God’s manifestation in the Temple of His complete and definitive rupture with the Jewish Church, which for some time now had been apostate, leaving an unmistakable sign that: the Tabernacle, previously a sacred place, was now profane and open to all; future sacrifices would not be pleasing to Him; and its priests and ceremonies were bereft of grace. Saint Matthew then speaks of another extraordinary phenomenon when he says: «And the earth quaked and the rocks were rent» (Matt. XXVII, 51b). The earthquake that occurred when Our Lord Jesus Christ expired was so great that the entire Universe was very noticeably affected. Many mountains came tumbling down, their former site and appearance being changed. Also, many of the earth’s plains became mountainous under the impulse of volcanoes and other upheavals of the earth. A strange fissure, still visible, was rent in the rock of Calvary itself. If all this happened in nature’s solid and stable things, much greater was the repercussion on buildings, for some completely collapsed and others were severely damaged, and in general none escaped visible signs that failed not to arouse in men at least the conviction that they were due to something very extraordinary. The animal and vegetable kingdoms likewise shared, according to their respective natures, in the general upheaval that affected the Universe as a result of Christ’s Death, in suchwise that in these kingdoms there were also evident signs of that supreme event on Calvary. We accept as true the assertion of various ancient historians, that there were those who, not present at Calvary, were convinced that such strange phenomena could only be the result of the death of a great God, thus alluding to the God of Israel. Saint Dionysius the Areopagite himself, when yet a pagan, exclaimed: <>.

135. One of the prodigious events that most impressed the Jews was the resurrection of the dead, related by Saint Matthew, and which, as we interpret, occurred in two phases. The first, at the very moment Christ expired, is contained in the following Gospel expression: «And the graves were opened: and many bodies of the saints that had slept arose» (Matt. XXVII, 52). As we interpret from the sacred text, in that first phase the Evangelist is referring to the resurrection of the essential bodies which became united to, and animated and glorified by, their respective glorious souls. In that way these primogenital substances attained original justice, possessing henceforth the essentially glorious natural state, and beatific joy forever in Heaven. The privilege of resurrection was granted to many of the inhabitants of the Limbo of the Just, among them the presanctified as also those sanctified in life directly by the Soul of Christ through the Triple Benediction. On referring to that first phase of the resurrection of the dead Saint Matthew says that «the graves were opened» (Matt. XXVII, 52), by which it must be understood that at the same time as the essential bodies - -inert in space - of those privileged persons arose on reuniting to their souls, the graves containing the remains of their accidental bodies miraculously opened. But it is necessary to stress that on this occasion, by divine disposition, the souls and essential bodies reunited did not attract their respective accidental bodies. When the graves opened, the human remains deposited there became visible to passers-by, as a sign that the Deific Body of God’s Onlybegotten was dead on the Cross, and as announcement of their proximate resurrection with Him. Saint Matthew refers to the future resurrection of those accidental bodies when he says: «and coming out of the tombs after his Resurrection, came into the holy city and appeared to many» (Matt. XXVII, 53), matter we will treat in more detail at the opportune moment.

136. On Calvary there could not be wanting the sublime intervention of Joseph Most Holy, since he was the Divine Mary’s Co-Priest. That is why the most just and virginal Man, at the very moment of Christ’s Death, appeared at the foot of the Cross by the side of his Divine Spouse, to offer Her his company and consolation in those moments of terrible loneliness and bitterness; and also to fulfil the mission that corresponded to him in that bloody Sacrifice, as we shall see. Saint Joseph’s presence was with Soul united to essential Body, both glorified. As we know, his essential Body had not died, since from presanctification it possessed the essentially glorious natural state; therefore in the Limbo of the Just it had been immersed in gentle dormition and thus, united to his glorious Soul - although this enjoyed the beatific vision - his essential Body was insensible to beatific or to any other joy, until the moment Christ expired on the Cross, when it awoke to share from then on and forever more in the joy of the soul. For that reason, when His Holiness Pope Gregory XVII teaches that Saint Joseph appeared risen on Calvary after Christ’s Death, he is referring to the glorious awakening of the essential Body of the Most Chaste Patriarch, for his accidental Body was not to rise until the Resurrection of Christ. We teach that Saint John, Saint Mary Cleophas and Saint Mary Salome all witnessed Saint Joseph’s appearance.

137. The first three Evangelists give us an overall picture of the great impact that the prodigious phenomena occurring at the Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ had on many of those present at Calvary. Let us consider the sacred texts: «Now the centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus, having seen the earthquake and the things that took place, were sore afraid, saying: Indeed this was the Son of God» (Matt -XXVII, 54); «And the centurion who was facing Him, seeing that crying out in this manner He had given up the Ghost, said: Indeed this Man was the Son of God» (Mark XV, 39); «Now, the centurion, seeing what took place, glorified God, saying: Indeed this was a Just Man» (Luke XXIII, 47). According to our examination, the sacred texts give prominence to the conversion of the centurion who, as we said, had secretly borne the `INRI’ from the Praetorium to Calvary. He had been expressly entrusted with the custody of the crucified Christ, and for that end had under his command a body of soldiers. As we interpret from the Gospel, during Jesus’ final minutes of agony, the Roman centurion stood before and close up to the Cross, his gaze fixed on the Divine Victim, contemplating His unprecedented sufferings. This made a vivid impression on the pagan and filled him with pious sentiments, since never before had he seen a condemned man with sweet and heroic patience amid such atrocious torments. And as divine grace delights in the compassionate, Abenadar, for that was the centurion’s name, not only discerned the innocence of the Most Divine Executed, but also the mystery of His Person, the truth of which he afterwards came to be convinced of, in view of the prodigious phenomena, which produced in him so great a fear of God that he fell on his knees before the Cross, and gave at the same time courageous and public testimony with the following words spoken in a voice both powerful and tremulous: «Indeed this was a Just Man, indeed this Man was the Son of God». We teach that the convert Abenadar, of the Arab race, was later to join the disciples, and receive in Baptism the Christian name of Ctesiphon, and that he was one of the seven Apostolic Missionaries who came to Spain during the preaching of James the Greater. Also, the other soldiers at Calvary, terrified at the earth movements and seeing the centurion’s testimony, felt impelled to confess Christ in similar terms, and to acknowledge each his own guilt, as we interpret from Saint Matthew (XXVII, 54). And not only they, since Saint Luke says: «And all the multitude of them that were come together to that sight and saw the things that took place returned, striking their breasts» (Luke XXIII, 48), thereby confirming that many of the bystanders who had been witnesses to the Crucifixion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ and other onlookers that came and went at Calvary, filled with fear, reacted by beating their breasts and displaying other signs of remorse, but without feeling true contrition on that account, with the exception of some who, being better disposed, were converted. But as Annas and Caiphas saw the awe of the multitude and, besides, that not a few were inclined in favour of the Messias’ cause, at 3.25 p.m. they left Calvary, for they sensed that for the moment their contrary arguments would be unavailing in the face of the obvious supernatural character of the events. The other members of the Sanhedrin followed suit, though some stayed a while longer. Nevertheless the deicide and apostate Jewish People soon forgot the portentous signs that proved the Death of God’s Onlybegotten, so that their blindness and impiety became yet more consummate and irreversible.

138. The sequence of Gospel events, as we interpret, leads us to speak again of the two Carmelite religious communities which, as we said, were present at Calvary from the beginning, having followed Christ along His Via Dolorosa. Here we cite the sacred texts to be duly studied: «And there were there many women afar off, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto Him: Among whom was Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee» (Matt. XXVII, 55-56); «And there were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joseph, and Salome, who also when He was in Galilee followed Him and ministered to Him, and many other women that came up with Him to Jerusalem» (Mark XV, 40-41); «And all His acquaintances and the women that had followed Him from Galilee, stood afar off beholding these things» (Luke XXIII, 49). Firstly, we reaffirm our previously explained teaching that the Divine Mary, Her two sisters Mary Cleophas and Mary Salome, the Apostle Saint John, and Mary Magdalen and her sister Martha, at no time left the foot of the Cross, and therefore of these the Evangelists do not speak when, referring to the women serving Jesus and to His `acquaintances, they say «there were many...afar off» or «looking on a far off». Hence the intention of the three Evangelists, when narrating these events, was to place on record that both the male and female Carmelite communities, as well as some tertiaries, were present on Calvary: some at the feet of the Most Divine Lamb, namely the five that accompanied His Divine Mother; and others further away from the Cross, namely the other Apostles and the disciples, indicated in the term `acquaintances’, as also the other holy women; with the exception of Obed and his wife Mary who, as we know, had remained at the Cenacle keeping watch over the sacred mysteries reserved there. Hence when Saint Matthew (XXVII, 56) and Saint Mark (XV, 40) say «among whom», they are indicating that, besides the women further away, at the foot of the Cross were the Divine Mary and Her five companions. After speaking of Mary Magdalen, Mary Cleophas and Mary Salome, Saint Mark points out the others making up the female Carmelite community when he says: «and many other women that came up with Him to Jerusalem» (Mark XV, 41), here referring to the community’s change of residence from Galilee to Bethany in September of the year 33 on the occasion of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast of Tabernacles. The Apostles’, disciples’ and holy women’s contemplation of the three hours of agony and majestic Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross, as also of the sorrows of His Divine Mother, produced in them sublime effects of grace, they becoming further penetrated with the mysteries of the Redemption when they received the Particle of Deific Heart, and therefore more intimately united to the Mystical Body of Christ which had just been officially conceived by Him when He expired on the Cross, and which later would be born.

139. The Divine Mary, as Mother of the Most Divine Victim, at the moment Christ expired, experienced the first manifestation of Her Spiritual Death on Calvary, that which corresponded to Her bloody maternal participation in the Death of Her Divine Son, by virtue of the mysterious and most perfect mutual compenetration that always existed between Them. This first phase of Mary’s Spiritual Death consisted in Her being deprived for seven seconds of all supernatural and human joy in the passible state of Her Soul and in Her accidental Body, this being Her greatest suffering until then; although at the same time She continued to conserve the beatific state in Her Soul. After this first phase of Her Spiritual Death, there began Mary Most Holy’s terrible agony, preparation for Her Spiritual Death in the strict sense; namely that which would correspond to Her most dolorous giving birth as Co-Victim of Calvary at the moment of the Lance-thrust. The Most Sorrowful Mother’s unspeakable sufferings during Her spiritual Agony at the feet of Her Son dead on the Cross were principally: (1) Profound affliction on contemplating the lifeless Body of Her Son, ignominiously ill-treated in the Passion and held in contempt by the perfidious Jewish People; (2) sentiments of most bitter solitude on being deprived of the consolation of Her most beloved Son, now dead; (3) dread contemplation of the great multitude of the eternally condemned, of the immeasurable ingratitude and indifference of many sons of the Church, and of sins of all kinds, principally sacrilegious against the Eucharist, sacred images, priests and all else sacred; and, in general, the persecutions of the Mystical Body to which She was to give birth; (4) most painful revival of the stigmata of the Passion of Her Divine Son impressed on Her motherly and immaculate Body, being as She is Queen of the stigmatized. The Holy Prophet Jeremias marvelously sums up the solitude of Mary agonizing at the feet of Her dead Son in these words: «Therefore do I weep and My eyes run down with water, because the Comforter, the relief of my Soul, is far from Me: My children are lost because the enemy hath prevailed» (Lam. I, 16).

140. The Evangelist Saint John continues the Gospel narrative now with these words: «Then the Jews (because it was the Parasceve), that the bodies might not remain upon the Cross on the Sabbath day (for that was a great Sabbath day), besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. The soldiers therefore came: and they broke the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with Him. But after they were come to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs» (John XIX, 31-33). Annas and Caiphas had no desire that the Most Divine Body of Christ should remain hanging on the Cross any longer. On the one hand, so that they might appear before the Jews as zealous observers of Mosaic Law, which commanded that the cadaver of one condemned to death on the gibbet for his crimes should not remain hanging thereon, but be buried the same day; since he was accursed of God, and the sight of the executed brought a malediction on the land (Deut. XXI, 23). On the other hand, little more than two hour remained until the end of that year’s Parasceve or `day of preparation’, since as we know the principal feast had been moved to the Jewish Sabbath, which began at 6 p.m. on Friday. Hence they were in haste to take down the three executed from their respective crosses and to bury them before that hour, since it would not be possible to do so afterwards due to the Sabbath rest. It was also urgent to conceal Jesus’ Body, since the sight of Him would move people to pity, particularly because of the prodigies - which vouched for His innocence and virtue - that had occurred at His Death. But, as we interpret from the Gospel, in their iniquitous plans the aspiration of both High Priests was also to conceal the Death of Christ, and consider Him as still living, and thus nullify before the people the miraculous phenomena, attributing them to the Crucified’s magic and sorcery and not to the virtue of His omnipotence manifested at the moment He expired. For all these reasons, when the rabidly indignant Annas and Caiphas left Calvary to return to Jerusalem, their greatest concern was to have Jesus’ Body taken down from the Cross with all possible haste. Wherefore they sent several Sanhedrists to petition this of Pilate, whom they even deceitfully told that, since Christ was still alive, it was necessary first to break His legs, according to the Roman custom, and also those of the other two thieves; with which the people would think that Christ had not died at 3 p.m. as evidenced by the signs of His Body and the prodigies that had occurred. To please the two High Priests and to appear before the people as a protector of the observance of the Law of Moses, Pilate commanded that what they had requested be done quickly. As we see in Saint John, when they saw that Jesus was dead, they did not break His legs. That Evangelist adds: «For these things were done that the scripture might be fulfilled: You shall not break a bone of Him» (John XIX, 36; Exod. XII, 46; Num. IX, 12).