the bad thief. Another suffered according to his deserts, but he bore his pains with patience, and this was the good thief. But the third, viz., Christ, was tormented without deserving it, and these torments He bore with unexampled patience and fortitude. Endeavor to be one of the last two kinds of sufferers: at least suffer as the good thief did, and confess with holy Job, " I have sinned, and indeed I have offended, and I have not received what I have deserved. (Job xxxiii. 27.)
SATURDAY.
Third Word, "Woman, behold thy Son!"
I. " And there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother." (John xix. 25.) View His blessed mother and other devout persons standing under the cross; and learn thence that the lovers of Christ always love His cross, and that the nearer they stand to it the more they show their love towards Him who hung on it. Reflect on the feelings of the blessed Virgin when she saw her Son, the deserving delight of her heart, so barbarously treated. "Your Son, O Virgin," says St. Bonaventure, "suffered in His body, but you in your mind; the various wounds, which were inflicted over all His body met in one in your heart." Nevertheless, she gave no signs of impatience, nor did she do anything unbecoming her character and person in order that you might learn to compassionate Christ together with her, and to suffer your own adversities with fortitude.
II. "Woman, behold thy son." He does not call her Mother, but woman, in order to teach His followers that those who are wholly employed in doing the will of His Father must pay no regard to flesh and blood. He did not wish, besides, to inflict a deeper wound in her heart
