2. That of Isaias (Is. 53, 7): “He was offered because it was His own will, and He opened not His mouth. He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be as dumb as a lamb before his shearer.”
3. That of our Lord Himself (Mat. 20, 19): “They (the Gentiles) shall crucify Him.”
Types fulfilled by our Lord crucified: 1. The tree of knowledge of good and evil (Old Test. III). 2. Isaac, who himself, going up the hill, carried the wood on which his father bound him, to sacrifice him (Old Test. XIII). 3. The paschal lamb (Old Test. XXXII). 4. The brazen serpent (Old Test. XLII).
The Compassion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Even as it was with our Lord, when He made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, so was it with Him in the midst of His sufferings, when He was being led out to death; He did not think of Himself, but of the dreadful judgment which would ere long overtake Jerusalem and all its people. On the former occasion, He wept over the blindness and inevitable overthrow of the holy city; and now again He thinks with sorrow and compassion of the misery of the people. “Weep not for Me,” He exclaimed to the weeping women of Jerusalem, “but weep for yourselves and for your children.” Having on the first occasion warned ungrateful Jerusalem in vain, He now, in the midst of His Passion, strove to save His very tormentors from the coming judgments. He bore no rancour in His Heart at the ingratitude of His people, who had loaded Him with injuries and were dragging Him to a shameful death, but mourned over the temporal and eternal woe of those who were so blinded by their passions. There could be no heart so noble and loving as the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
God's judgments on impenitent sinners. Our Blessed Lord’s words: “If in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry?” have a deep meaning. If God thus punished His beloved Son for the sins of others, how will He punish men for their own sinsl What will those suffer who are rejected by God, if He whom He loves suffered so much! The bitter Passion of our Lord Jesus is a practical warning of the terrible judgments which will overtake sinners.
The two mysteries of the holy Rosary, the Carrying of the Cross and the Crucifixion, serve to remind us of the indescribable agony of Soul and Body which our Blessed Lord suffered on His way to Calvary.
The compassion and courage of the pious women. The vast crowd which was following Jesus was chiefly composed of His enemies, who were hooting, scoffing at Him and blaspheming, as He passed along. There were, however, among them some few pious women, who, in their great compassion for Him, pressed through the yelling crowd, so as to be near Him. They paid no heed to the abusive words of the furious crowd, they did not fear the violence of the soldiers, but let nothing keep them back from showing their compassion for their
