As we have seen, since the disobedience of Adam and Eve, humanity had been condemned and deprived of Heaven. An expiatory victim was necessary to appease the justice of God and repair the offense committed against Him. Then the Son of God Himself, moved by an infinite love, offered Himself in sacrifice to bear the punishment we had deserved, thus restoring our bond of love with God the Father.
At about the age of thirty, Jesus began His public life, traveling throughout Palestine to preach the Gospel, surrounded by twelve Apostles and a number of disciples. Declaring Himself the Son of God, He proved His divinity by countless miracles: healings, resurrections, and words that stirred hearts and converted crowds.
Welcoming children with tenderness, He said:
“Let the little children come to Me, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.”
Therefore, to know the Spirit of Jesus, we must study the Holy Gospel.
After three years spent evangelizing the crowds, the time came for Jesus to redeem humanity. Just before His Passion, He instituted the Holy Eucharist as the means of giving Himself entirely to us and of perpetuating His presence among us until the end of time. (We will speak later of the beautiful dogma of the Eucharist.)
Jesus, filled with love for mankind, willed to suffer the most cruel of deaths – the death on the Cross – in order to atone for our sins: this is the great mystery of Redemption.
The Passion of our divine Savior unfolded as a long and cruel sequence of events. Betrayed by a treacherous Apostle, Judas, and delivered to unjust judges, Caiaphas and Pilate, Jesus, though innocent, was condemned to death. He was scourged; a crown of thorns was pressed upon His head; He was overwhelmed with insults and blows. At last, He was nailed to a Cross.
The sky grew dark, and the earth trembled before such a crime. On the hill called Golgotha stood three crosses, three condemned men. At the center was Jesus, in the throes of agony, given over to infinite suffering. Driven by a diabolical hatred, the priests and the crowd overwhelmed Him with bitter insults and mocking scorn.
The torment of the Cross is beyond anything we can imagine. Since the scourging, the body of Jesus Christ had already become as one open wound. Lifted above the ground and suspended by heavy nails, it sagged under its own weight. Each breath renewed His suffering: His outstretched arms strained against the wounds, and His blood flowed down upon the earth. The divine Condemned was scorched by the sun; His sweat mingled with His blood.
And yet, from His parched lips came words of forgiveness. He prayed for those who crucified Him, asking the Father not to punish them for this deicide. One of the two criminals crucified beside Him mocked and insulted Him. Then his heart was touched, and though he was a criminal, he implored the mercy of Jesus, in Whom he recognized God made man. Jesus promised to take him that very day into Paradise with Him.
At the foot of the Cross stood the Blessed Virgin Mary, upright and motionless; Her pale face revealed something of Her infinite sorrow. Yet She gazed upon Her beloved Son with complete resignation. All within Her suffered, yet not a shadow of rebellion crossed Her soul.
The offering of this Mother of God poured forth in silence; She gave Her full consent to the ultimate sacrifice of Her Son.
Near Her stood John, the beloved disciple, the only one among the Apostles who had neither abandoned nor betrayed Jesus. In the midst of His sufferings, Jesus saw His Mother and His Apostle. His gaze first rested upon Mary – a gaze of infinite tenderness, the last ray of filial love before the great silence of death.
Then His lips opened, and His voice, weak yet firm, came down from the height of the Cross:
“Woman, behold Your son.”
Mary lowered Her eyes toward John. In that solemn moment, he represented all souls – those of the past, the present, and the future. The Blessed Virgin Mary understood the mission Jesus was entrusting to Her. She received us as Her own children – even us, who had put to death Her divine Son, Her only Son. At that moment, when Her sorrow reached an unfathomable depth, She became the Mother of all those redeemed by the blood of Her Son.
Then Jesus turned to His beloved disciple:
“My son, behold your Mother.”
Around Them, darkness descended upon Golgotha, and the wind carried away the last echoes of the Crucified. Mary remained there, standing by the Cross, guardian of the greatest mystery of love the world has ever known. From that day onward, each of us may lift our eyes to Her and invoke Her by a name that will never fade: Our Mother.
About the ninth hour –three o’clock in the afternoon– a cry rang out, deep and heartrending, echoing across all of Calvary. Jesus cried out to His Father, before whom He had become as an object of horror, for He had taken upon Himself all our sins to atone for them:
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Then He said with sorrow, “I thirst.”
Certainly, He suffered an extreme thirst in the state in which He was; yet He thirsted above all for the salvation of our souls.
The thought that, despite His infinite sufferings, so many souls would refuse His love and choose hell for all eternity tormented Him even more than all His physical pains.
Then our Savior declared that He had accomplished His mission on earth:
“All is accomplished.”
After this, He cried out in a loud voice,
“Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit.”
Having spoken these final words, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. It was three o’clock in the afternoon. This is the moment we commemorate each year on Good Friday.
The centurion, struck by such peace in the midst of such extreme suffering, was touched by grace and exclaimed, “Truly this Man was the Son of God.”
One day, long before the coming of Jesus upon the earth, God willed to put the faith of His faithful servant Abraham to the test. He said to him:
“Take with you your beloved son, the one you love – your Isaac. Go to the land of Moriah, and there, on a mountain that I will show you, offer him to Me as a holocaust.”
Obedient to God’s command, Abraham rose early in the morning. He saddled his donkey and set out with two of his servants and his son Isaac. The wood needed for the sacrifice had been gathered, and burning coals were also brought. Abraham went toward the place that the Lord had indicated to him, which he reached only after three days of travel.
A short distance from the mountain, he ordered his servants to stay with the donkey and wait for his return. He laid the wood for the holocaust on his son Isaac, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. Together, the two of them went up the mountain in silence.
Isaac felt his father’s unspoken anguish, which he could not understand. Breaking the silence, he said to him:
“Father?
– What is it, my son?
– I see the fire and the wood, but where is the victim for the holocaust?”
Abraham’s heart tightened. He answered softly:
“Do not worry, my dear son; God Himself will provide.”
And they resumed their ascent, side by side, in a heavy silence.
When they reached the summit, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood upon it. He then revealed to his son the command he had received from God.
Isaac, worthy son of such a father, accepted with love the will of God. Abraham bound the arms and legs of his beloved son and laid him upon the altar to sacrifice him to God.
At last he took the fatal knife, and was already raising his arm to immolate his son, when the voice of the Angel of the Lord was heard:
“Abraham! Abraham!
– Here I am, Lord.
– Do not lay your hand upon the child; do not do him the least harm. Now I know that you fear the Lord, since you have not refused Me your only son.”
Abraham lowered the knife, trembling with emotion and relief. He turned and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. He seized it and offered it as a holocaust to God in place of his son.
One day, a woman, hearing the account of the sacrifice of Isaac, exclaimed:
“Ah! God would never ask such a sacrifice of a mother!”
She was mistaken. There was indeed a Mother –the most tender of all mothers– from whom the Heavenly Father asked the sacrifice of Her only Son in order to save a sinful world. This Mother is the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Sorrows, who beheld Her Son dying upon the Cross. Through Her immeasurable sacrifice, She was blessed to cooperate actively in the redemption of the human race.
Jesus is the Redeemer. At His side, His Mother is Coredemptrix. Every grace that God grants us passes through Her hands.
Isaac was only an image of Jesus, the true Victim, who carried the wood of His own sacrifice. He ascended the mountain of Calvary, obedient and silent, and offered Himself with infinite love as a holocaust to His Father, in atonement for all the sins of the world.