~Luke 22:48
To men, the arrest of Jesus is the opening scene of the
Passion. In this mystery, we can feel how much the Heart of Jesus is
wounded by treason on the part of His own. What audacity to approach the
Divine Person of Jesus, under the very eyes of the Apostles, and betray Him
with a kiss! What malice and callousness to give the signal for the terrible
process of torture to begin! How cruel, to use a kiss as a sign for delivering
the Master to a terrible martyrdom and death!
Our Lord is betrayed by one of His own
Apostles. He is bound
with tight, hurting cords, struck on the face, mocked, insulted, slandered, and
beaten. The Good Shepherd, who is also the Lamb of God, allows Himself to be
led to the slaughter. The Apostles at first rise up to defend Him but...He does
not allow it. Instead, He performs one of His last Miracles – that of healing
the soldier’s ear, struck off by a sword, and He admonishes His Apostle, “Put
up again thy sword into its place: for all that take the sword shall perish
with the sword.” (Matthew 26: 52)
The Church is the Bride of Christ and the
faithful reflection of His Spirit. She always behaves in this manner to the
world, which persecutes, reviles, and despoils, always with the aim of
curtailing her freedom. She has always met its cunning and violence with the
same temper and principles. She does not resort to sword and club; her power
lies in the Will of God, in suffering and endurance. When she is fettered,
she continues to bless and do good to those who injure her. The bonds she
bears for Christ are her most beautiful, precious adornment, her sign of
ultimate victory. Her cry, when persecuted by men, is ever, “But thanks be
to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
(Corinthians 2: 15-57)
In His Passion, Jesus showed us all the degrees of charity
and humility we should imitate. Humility is a real
reparation and compensation to Our Lord for all our cowardice and meanness in
His service, and we should be careful not to miss them. Humiliation always
atones for our failures in humility – e.g., if we take correction badly, we can
humble ourselves by admitting how little virtue we have and acknowledge that
fault.
When we are constrained from doing something we wish to do, we can
remember Our Lord, put in prison and bound by ropes and chains, knowing that
more suffering is to come.
When we are mocked, and our words and actions judged wrongly,
especially by those who have no intention of being fair, we can
remember Jesus before Caiphas, His mock trial, and His unjust condemnation.
When we are tired and exhausted, we can
remember how Jesus was dragged from Annas, and then to Caiphas, and on to
Pilate, to Herod, and back to Pilate.
When we fall by sin, we can remember that
Christ fell three times, in pain and exhaustion, on the Way of the Cross. Yet
even as we take comfort in the Cross, we can never forget that we are also
the reason for the Cross.
We do not like to think that, like Judas, we can also truthfully
say, “I have sinned in betraying innocent blood.” (Matthew 27:4) Unlike Judas,
however, we should say what David said to God: “I have sinned exceedingly in
doing this: I beseech thee take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have
done foolishly.” (Paralipomenon 1: 21-8) To save us from our sins, God sent His
only Begotten Son, the Most Wonderful Counselor, the Prince of Peace.
“Ecce Homo!” – Behold the Man! Those are the words which Pilate would later say on this day, hoping that the sight of the battered man would arise compassion and mercy. But it was not to be.
On this Good Friday, let us not only watch one hour
with Jesus, not only direct our souls to stay with Him on His way to the Cross,
but wholly unite ourselves with Him on the Cross. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of His Son.” (Romans 8:29) 
