ready to help, as thou, most gracious mother of all who are in need of comfort.
CHAPTER XXVII
☙ Of the lonely dereliction of the Lord Jesus on the Cross
I BLESS Thee, and give thanks to Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, most loving Son of the Father's Love, for Thy awful and lonely dereliction on the Cross, when, at the moment of Thy direst need, as if Thou hadst been an alien and of no account; as if Thou hadst not been the very Son of God; as if Thou hadst no power or merit of any kind soever, Thou wast forsaken of God the Father, by the host of Heaven, and by every creature upon earth — at which time Thy most sorrowful Mother, attended only by a few poor women and by the disciple to whose care Thou hadst committed her, alone stood by Thee; and she, by reason of the grief and anguish of her soul, could scarce speak to Thee one word.
I praise and glorify Thee for that strong cry which burst from Thy lips, when, in the hearing of all those that stood by. Thou didst utter those woeful words: " Eli, Eli, lamma sabachthani." By those words, O my Lord, Thou didst make abundantly plain the intensity of Thy anguish, and the withdrawal from Thee of consolation of every kind. Thou didst declare by them the measure of what Thou wast enduring for the salvation of us men, by whom Thou wast in return being set at nought, nay, rather wast being treated as the vilest of malefactors, and as one quite unworthy to live.
