Matthew 27:45-50

“Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over the whole earth, until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying: ‘Eli, Eli, lamma sabacthani?’ That is, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ And some that stood there and heard, said, “This man calleth Elias.’ And immediately one of them running took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar; and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. And the others said: ‘Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to deliver him.’ And Jesus again crying with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.”

Creation, made in love,every individual thing itself being embodied love: “How great are thy works, O Lord? Thou hast made all things in wisdom: the earth is filled with thy riches” (Psalm 103:24), weeps and displays its outrage at the loss of its loving Maker. The Word fashioned all things as expressions of His love, as an artist displays himself through his art: “All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made” (John 1:3), and so at the crucifixion of the source of its being and Architect of all that it is, the sun withdraws its light from those that crucified their Maker. So too, when one crucifies the image of Christ in themselves: “Having tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, and are fallen away: to be renewed again to penance, crucifying again to themselves the Son of God” (Hebrews 6:5-6), love withdraws itself, the darkness of the lack of love overshadowing their souls: “For the whole world was enlightened with a clear light, and none were hindered in their labours. But over them only was spread a heavy night, an image of that darkness which was to come upon them. But they were to themselves more grievous than the darkness” (Wisdom 17:19-20). This takes place after those that hated Him had exhausted all of their mockery and taunts, that, emptied of all their expressions of hatred, something wondrous may take place to make them see what they had done, that when the pleasure gleaned from nursing hatred had run its course, the darkness may testify to their lack of love and what love truly looks like. Jesus then cries out using the Scriptures, so to show that weaving them into one’s being replaces the tattered fabric of old conversation and thinking with the gold of the Gospel: “The priest… shall put off his former vestments, and being clothed with others, shall carry them forth without the camp, and shall cause them to be consumed to dust in a very clean place” (Leviticus 6:11); “They shall take gold, and violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine linen. And they shall make the ephod of gold, and violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen, embroidered with divers colours” (Exodus 28:5-6). Now, there is a place in the spiritual life where God seems crushingly absent, and while this can happen throughout one’s spiritual journey, it takes particular form when love is at its zenith, with the beloved soul not encountering God because they have become, in totality, Jesus Christ, not by substance but by participation in His nature, which is love: “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, and should be the sons of God” (1 John 3:1). Making radical acts of faith at every passing second, when God seems to be entirely alien, they are a clear window through which He shines through them to their fellow man with beauty, rather than on themselves to be enjoyed: “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). This also takes place that, with the extremely heavy weight of spiritual purification, they can exercise heroic virtues of faith, hope, and love, that when He returns in fullness to their perception, the things they practiced while under this darkness may then be easy and delightful, rather than toilsome and terrifying, thus does the Psalmist say for the one that emerges from this darkness: “He heard my prayers, and brought me out of the pit of misery and the mire of dregs. And he set my feet upon a rock, and directed my steps” (Psalm 39:3). With this in mind, Jesus here is a perfect window of the Father’s love in His crucifixion, Himself displaying the Father’s unbreakable love for humanity by grave spiritual, emotional, and physical suffering, but with none of these deterring Him from perfect love: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why dost thou disquiet me? Hope thou in God, for I will still give praise to him: the salvation of my countenance, and my God” (Psalm 41:12), but with all of this being to His glory in the resurrection: “Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands; and bring hither thy hand, and put it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing” (John 20:27). It is also a participation in human nature, that man, when overcome by suffering: “Save me, O God: for the waters are come in even unto my soul. I stick fast in the mire of the deep: and there is no sure standing. I am come into the depth of the sea: and a tempest hath overwhelmed me” (Psalm 68:2-4) believes himself to be abandoned by God, and the ultimately compassionate Jesus, not wishing to miss a drop of the human experience, Himself takes part in this: “For we have not a high priest, who can not have compassion on our infirmities: but one tempted in all things like as we are, without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). At His cry, “Eli,” the Romans that did not know Hebrew thought He was crying out for the prophet Elijah, at which He is offered vinegar. St. Hilary defines vinegar as wine that has turned sour from neglect or the fault of the vessel; and if one takes the symbolism of wine as devotion: “He brought me into the cellar of wine” (Canticle 2:4), this means that the poor, crucified Savior receives a bitter drink from those whose devotion has spoiled, and thus is offered bitter prayer: “But if you have bitter zeal, and there be contentions in your hearts; glory not” (James 3:14) from a sponge, that is a heart that is full of holes, that is, openings to vanities: “They have digged to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jeremias 2:13) from a reed, which represents feebleness, that is, with a bitter, feeble devotion that still longs for worldly things, is lifted up sour prayer rather than the sweet wine of an interaction of love: “Behold thou art fair, O my love, behold thou art fair, thy eyes are as those of doves. Behold thou art fair, my beloved, and comely. Our bed is flourishing” (Canticle 1:14-15). Or, to know divine truths and not live in accord with them is to offer wine mixed with gall, for truth is in the heart but an ugly life makes it bitter to the King, whereas to offer vinegar is to take the reed of the Scriptures and place upon it a theology that does not do justice to the divine majesty, which is represented by the leaky sponge, whereas heavenly wisdom deserves a golden chalice: “Then were the golden and silver vessels brought, which he had brought away out the temple that was in Jerusalem” (Daniel 5:3). Thus, bitter, poor wisdom is lifted up to the mouth of Jesus, that is, His words are taken as something less than the perfect expression of perfect love and all the glories that He brings with Him. With this, Jesus cries in a loud voice, and dies. O divine marriage, that comes from the loving repose of the bosom of the Father to be united to mankind in all his sufferings, including that of death! “Wherefore a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Like a mother that would rather suffer than see her children suffer, or a lover that does all for his infirm beloved, so too does Jesus go to the most extreme measures to show you how loved you are: “Whatsoever thy soul shall say to me, I will do for thee” (1 Kings 20:4). For Jesus lowered Himself to even the destitution of a horrifying death on the cross that you may not fear Him, but love Him, to be appreciated by one that loves you rather than terrorized to follow commands under threat of punishment: “’Hath no man condemned thee?’ Who said: ‘No man, Lord.’ And Jesus said: ‘Neither will I condemn thee. Go, and now sin no more” (John 8:10-11). This was not, however, a destruction of soul or divinity, both of which are indestructible, but bodily death, for had His divinity ceased to be, so would existence itself: “For with thee is the fountain of life; and in thy light we shall see light” (Psalm 35:10). He cries out in a loud voice before His death in sorrow, that even by going to such an extent as to die for man’s sin, there would be many that would not place their sins upon Him, that He may dissolve them in the endless ocean of merciful love that is the Sacred Heart: “He will put away our iniquities: and he will cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea” (Micheas 7:19) to begin a relationship of love, but rather stay exiled from His love. Thus, hold onto no sin, Theophila: “I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12), but cast them all into the furnace of mercy, that you may love and be loved, rather than held down under the yoke of guilt: “Let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with clean water” (Hebrews 10:22).

Matthew 27:39-44

“And they that passed by, blasphemed him, wagging their heads, and saying: ‘Vah, thou that destroyest the temple of God, ,and in three days dost rebuild it: save thy own self: if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.’ In like manner also the chief priests, with the scribes and ancients, mocking, said: ‘He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the king of israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him now deliver him if he will have him; for he said: ‘I am the Son of God.’’ And the selfsame thing the thieves also, that were crucified with him, reproached him with.”

To the one that does not understand the mystery of love that brims from the Scriptures or the truth within: “The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves. More to be desired than gold, and many precious stones: and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb” (Psalm 18:10-11), it all seems like foolishness, and both Jesus and those that suffer for His love are held in low regard by those that do not know the truth of love: “In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure was taken for misery” (Wisdom 3:2). As the temple of Jesus’ body was being torn down into death, He is mocked for His powerlessness, whereas it was the power of His love that upheld Him: “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it” (Canticle 8:7) and kept Him nailed to the cross, even through the piercing agony of it. The chief priests, scribes, and elders then confess that He saved others from their afflictions, not realizing that if He wanted, He could have saved Himself: “Thinkest thou that I cannot ask my Father, and he will give me presently more than twelve legions of angels? How then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that so it must be done?” (Matthew 26:53-54), but rather than lessen the pain that comes with love, Jesus drank it to the dregs: “Can you drink the chalice that I drink of?” (Mark 10:38). For those that had read the scriptures and referenced them often: “Search the scriptures, and see, that out of Galilee a prophet riseth not” (John 7:52), it shows the blindness of heart that they did not realize that: “He was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed” (Isaias 53:5), and mockingly claimed they would believe in Him if He came down from the cross, whereas it says nowhere in the scriptures that the King of Israel would come down from His sufferings, but rather that “They have dug my hands and feet” (Psalm 21:17). To the opposite effect, it is a great service to your soul, Theophila, to read the Book of Life, which are the scriptures, and you’re your Beloved constantly through them, drinking in every word like the finest wine, smelling the perfumes of love that come from every passage: “His throat most sweet, and he is all lovely” (Canticle 5:16). Now, it is a greater glory to God to rise from the dead than to come down in the midst of suffering, which Jesus did: “Some of the guards came into the city, and told the chief priests all things that had been done” (Matthew 28:11), yet even here the chief priests did not believe. There is also a look here, that you do not need miracles or wonders to prove God’s infinite love for you, but rather meditate on the Passion, make it your thought before sleeping: “If I have remembered thee upon my bed, I will meditate on thee in the morning” (Psalm 62:7), that your every waking moment may be filled with thoughts of how loved you are. Alternatively, singing Psalms or the Marian antiphons are lullabies by which the beloved soul is softly laid to sleep: “In peace in the self same I will sleep, and I will rest: for thou, O Lord, singularly hast settled me in hope” (Psalm 4:9-10). He then receives more mockery, that He suffers as an imposter, claiming to be the Son of God, but not reigning as a mighty earthly King as they anticipated: “But all Israel and Juda loved David, for he came in and went out [of battle] before them” (1 Kings 18:16). St. Matthew then relays that the thieves reviled Him, whereas Luke mentions one professing Him: “But the other answering, rebuked him, saying: ‘Neither dost thou fear God, seeing thou art under the same condemnation?” (Luke 23:40), which can be explained by intimating that both mocked Him at first, but when the earth began to display its sorrows over its Maker’s suffering: “And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole earth until the ninth hour” (Mark 15:33), one repented of his crimes and of his reviling, turning to Christ for mercy: “Lord, remember me when thou shalt come into thy kingdom” (Luke 23:42), for all sin before the infinite mercy of Jesus is as drops of water thrown into a burning fire: “Behold the Gentiles,” which can represent one’s sins, “are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the smallest grain of a balance: behold the islands are as a little dust” (Isaias 40:15). That both thieves spoke against Christ Crucified shows the horror and foolishness of the cross: “For the word of the cross, to them indeed that perish, is foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:18), which only the eyes of faith can see as beautiful rather than scandal. While the thief captures heaven with his dying breath, this is not to delay beginning on the way of love, for while some authors mention the possibility of dying before one can make right their souls with God: “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2), in truth, one misses out on entering into a love story with their God, which is the most beautiful thing a human being can enjoy: “The Lord… is clothed with beauty” (Psalm 92:1), which comes through an encounter of love rather than through a hearing about: “With the hearing of the ear, I have heard thee, but now my eye seeth thee” (Job 42:5). Therefore, Theophila, pray urgently for the gift of the Holy Spirit, which will inflame you with the love, joy, and enjoyment of God and His gifts, that you may be one that burns with love, and radiates love to all you see: “And all that sat in the council, looking on him, saw his face as if it had been the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15).

Matthew 27:31-38

“And after they had mocked him, they took off the cloak from him, and put on him his own garments, and led him away to crucify him. And going out, they found a man of Cyrene, named Simon: him they forced to take up his cross. And they came to the place that is called Golgotha, which is the place of Calvary. And they gave him wine to drink mingled with gall. And when he had tasted, he would not drink. And after they had crucified him, they divided his garments, casting lots; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: ‘They divided my garments among them; and upon my vesture they cast lots.’ And they sat and watched him. And they put over his head his cause written: This is Jesus the King of the Jews. Then were crucified with him two thieves: one on the right hand, and one on the left.”

After the crowning of Jesus with thorns, He is removed of the mock garments of a worldly king and instead clothed with His own garments, which is indicative of your removal of all that is fine and lavish in this world: “Adorning themselves not with modesty and sobriety, not with plaited hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly attire, but… with good works” (1 Timothy 2:9-10), and instead being clothed with the garments of Christ, which are His acts of love, virtues, and heavenly wisdom, “And he took his ring from his own hand, and gave it into his hand: and he put upon him a robe of silk” indicating grace, “and put a chain of gold about his neck” (Genesis 41:42), which indicates wisdom, of which there are two kinds, the first is mystical, which is represented by gold and constitutes knowing how loved you are by God, the second is theological, which is represented by silver, thus does the Bridegroom say: “We will make thee chains of gold, inlaid with silver” (Canticle 1:10), and the Psalmist: “You shall be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and the hinder parts of her back with the paleness of gold” (Psalm 67:14), that is, speaking with great wisdom, while hidden in your heart is your deep love of God. Therefore, to clothe yourself with Christ is to take on what is simple and lowly, rather than in the purple and scarlet of kings, both literally and metaphorically: “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscences” (Romans 13:14). He was cast out of the city, that it may not appear that He died for Jerusalem, but for the world, for in God’s presence being thrown out of the temple, it is offered to the world: “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23), but while God may certainly be found in nature: “The heavens shew forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands” (Psalm 18:2), it is more so in the sacraments and in the Scriptures: “The voice of my beloved, behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping over the hills” (Canticle 2:8), the mountains being the pages of Sacred Scripture, through which His presence leaps, though many can be hard to climb and reach to lofty heights, the hills being the sacraments, which are not lesser in dignity, but are rather more easily accessed, for even the illiterate can climb to the heights of love from the simplicity of reception of the Eucharist: “Man ate the bread of angels: he sent them provisions in abundance” (Psalm 77:25). During the carrying of the cross, Jesus collapses under the gravity of His suffering, and Simon is called to help Jesus carry His cross. “Simon,” as was mentioned in chapter 10, means “obedience,” and he bears the affliction of the cross, but does not carry it to the end, to being crucified with Jesus, and this represents those who may do what they’re told and do many great penances or acts of virtue, but in pride of spirit live to the world in desiring recognition, speaking grandly of their devotions, asceticism, wisdom, and virtues: “And Ezechias rejoiced at their coming, and he showed them the house of his aromatical spices, and the gold and the silver, and divers precious odours, and ointments, and the house of his vessels, and all that he had in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominions that Ezechias shewed them not” (4 Kings 20:13). Thus, to bear the cross to the end with Jesus is to so bind yourself to His love that you lose yourself in Him, with body and spirit tamed by the calm voice of love: “If any man have ears to hear, let him hear” (Mark 4:23). He is led to Calvary, or Golgotha, a place where criminals were executed, which carries from the previous point; for Jesus even consented to the loss of His good name for the sake of love, the God and Architect of all things counted as a common criminal. He is offered wine mixed with gall, a mixture of herbs and bitter myrrh, which has two meanings: The first is that this was a painkiller, which Jesus refused, knowing that in your gravest suffering such a luxury was absent, with one translation of Psalm 87 saying, “Friend and neighbor you have taken away: my one companion is darkness” (Psalm 87:19), and, to be united to you all the more deeply, accepts His most intense suffering plainly and without alleviation. The second is that, when one suffers from love, wanting only the Beloved and the fulness of His glory: “Shew me thy glory” (Exodus 33:18), all other topics of conversation become bitter and uninteresting, and so when doctrine, represented by the wine, is mixed with the bitterness of sin or untruth, it is refused as repulsive, or as the Psalmist says: “In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (Psalm 68:22), that is, in thirsting for love and the Beloved, what is vain and empty is given instead: “Shun profane and vain babblings: for they grow much towards ungodliness” (2 Timothy 2:16). Jesus is then hung upon the cross, and all that Adam lost through reaching out to the tree is restored in greater abundance in Jesus reaching for the wood of the cross: “And the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning” (Job 42:12), for you do not simply enjoy companionship with God: “They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise at the afternoon air” (Genesis 3:8), but a relationship of spousal love: “My beloved to me, and I to him who feedeth among the lilies” (Canticle 2:16). His hands were pierced with nails that your hands may be free to do what is loving: “My hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers were full of the choicest myrrh” (Canticle 5:5), His arms spread on the broad beam of the cross that you may know the comfort of being held: “His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me” (Canticle 8:3), His head rests upon the coarse wood of the cross, crowned in thorns, that you may rest your head upon His breast and hear His Heart beat and burn for you: “Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23), His body is stretched out and hung, covered in scourges, that your body may be a temple: “Your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost” (1 Corinthians 6:19), a pure vessel of devotion and purity, a lily among the thorns of those that use their bodies as objects: “As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters” (Canticle 2:2), and His feet fixed fast in the wood, that you may be free to walk in newness of life, a life of freedom and love. The soldiers then divide His garments, which was only done for the most abject and worthless, which Christ endured that you may never feel that way with Him, but rather that He may lift you into knowing that there is no treasure more precious to Him than you: “For thus saith the Lord of hosts… he that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of my eye” (Zacharias 2:8); “Thou becamest honourable in my eyes, thou art glorious” (Isaias 43:4); “He will rejoice over thee with gladness, [he will renew thee in His love], he will be joyful over thee in praise” (Sophonias 3:17). The accusation over His head was the lone reason for His crucifixion, which was also set up in mockery, and that even in putting Him to death, the Jews could not avoid having Him for their King. Likewise, those in the world that resist His Kingship do not avoid it, but merely set themselves against it, like a rebel within a secure kingdom, whereas to you it is given to eat at the table of the King: “But Miphiboseth,” which means end of shame, “dwelt in Jerusalem: because he ate always of the king’s table: and he was lame of both feet” (2 Kings 9:13). The cross shows His royal dignity, that He is enthroned as the King of Love, doing the greatest act of love human history has ever known, offering Himself as High Priest and victim purely for the sake of your heart: “Give me thy heart” (Proverbs 23:26). Finally, it is said that two thieves were crucified with Him; “All have sinned, and do need the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and thus the thieves represent all of humanity, crucified in the human condition, and where some, in their fallenness, reach out with love to Jesus for one final act of thievery: The heart of God: “’Lord, remember me when thou shalt come into thy kingdom.’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise’” (Luke 23:42-43), others will lambast Him, helpless upon their own cross and not uniting it with His: “And one of those robbers ho were hanged blasphemed him, saying: ‘If thou be Christ, save thyself and us’” (Luke 23:39). Or, there can be a second meaning to those crucified with Him, which are those that live strictly: “Every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things… I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection” (1 Corinthians 9:25-27), with those on the right simply seeking to live like Christ in a desire to make Him manifest to the world through them without any blot of their own indulgences: “To whom God would make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ, in you the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27); “Without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing” (Ephesians 5:27), whereas those on the left afflict themselves with no eye to love, treating themselves as sacks of meat rather than spouses of God: “For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth the church: because we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones” (Ephesians 5:29-30), which can be done either out of imprudence or ignorance, or for human praise, all of which soil any attempt to be saintly: “If I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3).

Matthew 27:27-30

“Then the soldiers of the governor taking Jesus into the hall, gathered together unto him the whole band; and stripping him, they put a scarlet cloak about him. And platting a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand. And bowing the knee before him, they mocked him, saying;’ Hail, King of the Jews.’ And spitting upon him, they took the reed, and struck his head.”

After Jesus is flogged, covered in blood, He is taken before the soldiers. He had been charged by the scribes and priests for taking charge of the Jewish nation: “He seduceth the people” (John 7:12), and Rome seeks to display its might by reducing the King of Israel to a tortured mockery. In His Passion, no outrage was omitted, for His body was ripped, His face spat upon and slapped, mockery and abandonment were His drink: “In my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (Psalm 68:22), and your vocation, Theophila, is to love Him in this place, to be the hand He may hold in His darkness, that lovers may stand together in unity. Now, there are multiple spiritual meanings to be accessed in the crowning with thorns: The first is that Jesus suffered horrendously that you may live a life more beautiful than Adam and Eve before the Fall: “And the Lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of pleasure” (Genesis 2:15), not by an excess of pleasures, but in the fulness of knowing His love, thus does St. Paul say: “The things that were gain to me, the same I have counted loss for Christ” (Philippians 3:7), for all that occupies the soul that is not Christ, takes away from His presence of love in you: “But one thing is necessary” (Luke 10:42). Thus, by meditating on the scourges of His body, the scourges on your heart will be healed, and what hinders His love to you will fall before the ocean of His love: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty to God unto the pulling down of fortifications, destroying counsels, and every height that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). The scarlet robe is the dignity of martyrdom, in which He shares, for dying for love is the pinnacle of romance: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13), The crown of thorns is the agonizing prick of sin upon His most holy conscience, for seeing His people choose venialities over His loving Heart causes this wound, yet, to the one that sins and then is reconciled to Him, their sins become a crown of victory, a sign of the great things that Jesus did for them through grace: “You thought evil against me: but God turned it into good, that he might exalt me, as at present you see, and might save many people” (Genesis 50:20). The reed then is the gentle scepter of His rule, for despite being the source of all might, glory, and grandeur, it is written: “Send forth, O Lord, the lamb, the ruler of the earth, from Petra of the desert” (Isaias 16:1), that is, a gentle lamb rather than a roaring lion, one that does not rule by force, threat, or punishment, but by the bonds of love, compassion, and kindness: “The bruised reed he shall not break” (Isaias 42:3). This Lamb is sent from Petra, which means “rock,” meaning that He is not spineless in His gentleness, but is strong against fallen angels and worldly powers: “Judge thou, O Lord, them that wrong me: overthrow them that fight against me. Take hold of arms and shield: and rise up to help me” (Psalm 34:1-2), while being kindly and wonderful to you: “Thou hast given me the protection of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath held me up” (Psalm 17:36). Now, they crown Him with thorns who outwardly mock His divine kingship, such as belligerent atheists or those who follow demons: “For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils” (Psalm 95:5), but they smite Him with a reed who think Him to be a demigod, a teacher, or a political figure, particularly when using the words of Sacred Scripture, signified by the reed, to bring the image of Him down from the rightful titles of Most High and That Than Which Nothing Greater Can Be Imagined: “His power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away: and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed. My spirit trembled” (Daniel 7:14-15). They spit in His face that reject His presence by grace in Christians: “Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to me” (Matthew 25:45) and in the Holy Eucharist: “Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you” (John 6:54), for He promised” I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Matthew 28:20), and to leave the sublime source of all good, and receive it less than as often as possible, is to close the wells of grace: “Wherefore the Palestines envying him, stopped up at that time all the wells, that the servants of his father Abraham had digged, filling them up with earth” (Genesis 26:14-15). Finally, He receives mock adoration from those who attend mass and receive communion without belief in His sacred presence in the Eucharist: “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:29), or that attend and then despise Him in the rest of their lives: “This people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify me, but their heart is far from me” (Isaias 29:13). Finally, they remove His own garment and clothe Him with a scarlet and purple robe who downplay the difficulty of the Christian life: “Christ therefore having suffered in the flesh, be you also armed with the same thought: for the that hath suffered in the flesh, hath ceased from sins” (1 Peter 4:1), instead giving room to leniency: “Now it happened one day, that being wearied with burying” sin in the habits of acts of love “he came to his house, and cast himself down by the wall” of relaxation “and slept. And as he was sleeping hot dung out of a swallow’s nest” which is sin coming from the enemy’s stronghold “fell upon his eyes, and he was made blind” (Tobias 2:10-11). All of this, Theophila, is to encourage you to go against the grain in all these ways, to feast on truth: “Therefore let us feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:8), letting it adorn your lips as doors plated with gold: “And two doors of olive tree: and he carved upon them figures of cherubims,” which are the wisdom, prayers, and lives of the saints, “and figures of palm trees,” which denote thoughts that stretch into heavenly realities, “and carvings very much projecting,” that is, not hidden within oneself, “and he overlaid them with gold: and he covered both the cherubims and the palm trees, and the other things with gold” (3 Kings 6:32) in reparation for all the sins against truth; to honor your King with fervent prayer and affection for all the hatred He bears in the world today: “Behold thou art fair, my beloved, and comely” (Canticle 1:14); to reverence Him in your neighbor: “Put ye on therefore, as the elect of God, holy, and beloved, the bowels of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience: bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if any have a complaint against another: even as the Lord hath forgiven you, so do you also” (Colossians 3:12-13), and make the reception of Holy Communion as reverent and fiery as it is frequent: “Behold I will rain bread from heaven for you: let the people go forth, and gather what is sufficient for every day: that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law, or not” (Exodus 16:4), appreciating the utter magnificence of what is taking place when God’s body, soul, and divinity reside in your body, soul, and humanity, becoming one even more intricately than the union of lovers, and that all that is good and holy is now in your heart: “And he fed them with the fat of wheat, and filled them with honey out of the rock” (Psalm 80:17); while also making all that you do outside of the mass an act of love for God and others, no matter the cost, for love is the river that then divides into four rivers of virtue: “And a river went out of the place of pleasure to water paradise, which from thence is divided into four heads” (Genesis 2:10), for one gathers wisdom, penance, and active and contemplative virtues from living entirely on love. Thus does David say: “His will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he shall meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:2), both by meditating on the Scriptures and by loving outside of prayer, that you may gather the wisdom of love and practice the art of love in your every deed: “Above all things have love, which is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:14). Thus, you will remove the crown of thorns and the garments and reeds of mockery, and move the mind of the Savior from those that detest Him to you, on whom His eyes are lovingly set day and night.

Matthew 27:15-26

“Now upon the solemn day the governor was accustomed to release to the people one prisoner, whom they would. And he had then a notorious prisoner, that was called Barabbas. They therefore being gathered together, Pilate said: ‘Whom will you that I release to you, Barabbas, or Jesus that is called Christ?’ For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. And as he was sitting in the place of judgment, his wife sent to him, saying, ‘Have thou nothing to do with that just man; for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.’ But the chief priests and ancients persuaded the people, that they should ask Barabbas, and make Jesus away. And the governor answering, said to them: ‘Whether will you of the two be released unto you?’ But they said, ‘Barabbas.’ Pilate saith to them: ‘What shall I do then with Jesus that is called Christ?’ They say all: ‘Let him be crucified.’ The governor said to them: ‘Why, what evil hath he done?’ But they cried out the more, saying: ‘Let him be crucified.’ And Pilate seeing that he prevailed nothing, but that rather a tumult was made; taking water washed his hands before the people, saying: ‘I am innocent of the blood of this just man; look you to it.’ And the whole people answering, said: ‘His blood be upon us and upon our children.’ Then he released to them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him unto them to be crucified.”

Pilate, not being given a good reason to acquit Jesus due to His silence, then tries to release Him by means of a different practice; this is because Pilate saw the justice of Jesus, with the perfect measure of justice being known by human nature: “For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made” (Romans 1:20), though this is clouded by sin and concupiscence: “But your iniquities have divided between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he should not hear” (Isaias 59:2), the latter being a result of original sin that takes shape based on the ways one went unloved in their life. Jesus Himself, being God, is the aforementioned measure of justice, and is put alongside a notorious criminal, Barabbas, whose name means “the son of their master,” for the one who seeks freedom from the gentle law of Christ’s love: “My yoke is sweet and my burden light” (Matthew 11:30) instead gets slave driven by the devil and sin, following base desires through life like cargo, rather than being the driver themselves: “Amen, amen I say unto you: that whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin” (John 8:34). This move by Pilate was to measure Jesus, whom the Jews did not see as innocent, against a hardened, dangerous criminal, and he asks them if he would release Barabbas or Jesus, who is called Christ, the King of the Jews: “Will you that I release to you the king of the Jews?” (Mark 15:9), indicative of the sacred anointing Jesus received: “He arose, and went into the chamber: and he poured the oil upon his head, and said: ‘Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: I have anointed thee king over Israel, the people of the Lord’” (4 Kings 9:6); “And forthwith coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit as a dove descending, and remaining on him” (Mark 1:10), and by joining in the divine life by the sacraments, you participate in His kingship: “To him that shall overcome, I will give to sit with me in my throne: as I also have overcome, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Apocalypse 3:21), meaning that any internal voice that does not treat you with regal dignity and reverence comes from the enemy, who thinks you something despicable: “They have spoken against me with deceitful tongues; and they have compassed me about with words of hatred” (Psalm 108:3), whereas, because you are the Father’s child, the Son’s spouse, and the Holy Spirit’s dwelling place, He approaches you as something beautiful and sacred: “For the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5); “Open to me, my love, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled” (Canticle 5:2), with the wonder and joy of one in love and mesmerized by the beloved: “Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse” (Canticle 4:9). Then, added to Pilate’s awareness of the justice of Jesus is added the admonishment of his wife, who “suffered much” because of a dream about Him, to draw compassion from the heart of Pilate. The message has no effect, which is indicative of the proper approach to discernment of spirits, that dreams, visions, locutions, and such like are best ignored: “For Satan himself transformeth himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14), whereas what takes your breath away from an abundance of love is what you should desire, with ecstasy not being light, silence, sense consolation, or vision, but in the love of Jesus Christ no longer seeming like a foreign reality: “And she called the name of the Lord that spoke unto her: Thou the God who hast seen me. For she said: ‘Verily here have I seen the hinder parts of him that seeth me’” (Genesis 16:13), which is a love greater than all love in the world: “For I have known that the Lord is great, and our God is above all gods” (Psalm 134:5). Returning to the text, the enemies of Jesus, foaming at the mouth with hatred, poison the minds of the people, showing the necessity of caution in finding a spiritual guide: “Beware of a counsellor. And know before what need he hath: for he will devise to his own mind” (Ecclesiasticus 37:9), for the one that is not educated, wise, and madly in love with Jesus can easily lay a snare for your feet, doing damage to your soul rather than bringing you deeper into His love, thus does Wisdom say: “Be in peace with many, but let one of a thousand be your counsellor” (Ecclesiasticus 6:6); your soul is the most precious treasure you have, Theophila, and to leave it to your own keeping or anything less than the best spiritual guide you can find is to treat it with less respect than it deserves: “Is there not here some prophet of the Lord, that we may inquire by him?” (3 Kings 22:7). The people then clamor for His death, for where Jesus is not, there is affliction: “Fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury, idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, emulations, wraths, quarrels, dissensions, sects, envies, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like” (Galatians 5:19-21), whereas the voice of Jesus is one of profound peace, a whisper of love that calms the heart: “A whistling of gentle air” (3 Kings 19:12), and the extraordinary goods that arise from this love. To love well, then, is to bind Barabbas and take Jesus unto yourself: “I perceive that this is a holy man of God, who often passeth by us. Let us therefore make him a little chamber” in your heart “and put a little bed in it for him” (4 Kings 4:9-10), but to consent to what is evil is to loose Barabbas in yourself and leave Jesus behind, who weeps, not solely for being forgotten, but that you miss out on the delicacy of His presence: “I sat down under his shadow, whom I desired: and his fruit was sweet to my palate” (Canticle 2:3). Pilate then, confounded, asks what to do with Jesus, less out of seeking instruction but rather being indignant with their grave injustice, a net through which they tear with the rabidity of hate, calling for His crucifixion, the worst of deaths given its slow, agonizing nature. Pilate presents the infallible nature of Jesus’ life once more, asking what He had done, which is a lesson to the Christian, Theophila, to live a life that is spotless: “Wherefore, dearly beloved, waiting for these things, be diligent that you may be found before him unspotted and blameless in peace” (2 Peter 3:14), not out of a fear of punishment, for this wearies the soul and was the heaviness of the Law of Moses: “And Moses’ hands were heavy: so they took a stone, and put under him, and he sat on it: and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands on both sides” (Exodus 17:12), but from an abundance of love. Now, “Aaron” means “Mountain of strength” and is indicative of Christ, who can be found in the reinforcement of mutual charity: “For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20), and “Hur” means “fire,” showing that it is a burning heart and the bonds of mutual love that can uphold the commands of the Lord, with fallen nature being too feeble to carry them on its own: “It is enough for me, Lord, take away my soul: for I am no better than my fathers” (3 Kings 19:4). The reason for a life free of blemish is that none may bring a testament against you and the faith, but rather that you may be a champion of Christ’s infallible love: “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14), without a chink in your armor: “He must have a good testimony of them who are without: lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil” (1 Timothy 3:7). The people clamor all the harder: “Many calves have surrounded me: fat bulls have besieged me. They have opened their mouths against me, as a lion ravening and roaring” (Psalm 21:13-14). The people override all of Pilate’s efforts to do what is just, and in a vain gesture, he washes his hands, which in ancient tradition was a sign of refusing to participate in a crime: “My son, walk not thou with them, restrain thy foot from their paths” (Proverbs 1:15), but with a tumult arising and the charge of treason being levied against him: “If thou release this man, thou art not Caesar’s friend. For whosoever maketh himself a king, speaketh against Caesar” (John 19:12), he convicts the accusers as doing what is unjust. Fiery passion, including that of hatred, clouds the eye of prudence, and the people curse themselves and their children, but God in His love does not accept the curse on the children, for the sins of the parent are not placed on the head of the child: “The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father” (Ezechiel 18:20), but rather each person’s love story is their own. Pilate’s acquiescence keeps him from guiltlessness, for concession to injustice is itself injustice: “If any man come to you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him, ‘God speed you.’ For he that saith unto him, ‘God speed you,’ communicateth with his wicked works” (2 John 1:10-11). Jesus is then beaten; a man through which every good thing shines like a kaleidoscope of spiritual beauty is taken to be whipped like a criminal. God Himself is punished as a miscreant, the source of all that is wonderful is treated worse than a dog. While you may not encounter His physical sufferings, Theophila, everyone has a heart that resembles the back of Jesus upon His scourging, being deeply affected and wounded by the lack of love in the lives of others: “Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest before God, that he might be a propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17), for love ever desires greater oneness with the beloved, and Jesus, seeing you scourged physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, then joins with you in your suffering, that He may be compassionate to your sufferings, that you may in turn be one with His love.

Matthew 27:11-14

“And Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying: ‘Art thou the king of the Jews?’ Jesus saith to him: ‘Thou sayest it.’ And when he was accused by the chief priests and ancients, he answered nothing. Then Pilate saith to him: ‘Doest not thou hear how great testimonies they allege against thee?’ And he answered him to never a word; so that the governor wondered exceedingly.”

Jesus, who in His divinity is so vast, so glorious, that all things created seem to be as if they were not in comparison to His glory, as the stars are not seen when the sun shines: “Thou shalt no more have the sun for thy light by day, neither shall the brightness of the moon enlighten thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee for an everlasting light, and thy God for thy glory” (Isaias 60:19), is given the title of the Judge of all: “For neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22), then lowers Himself to a mocking, Roman judge, who is unimpressed with this King of the Jews before him. You have been given an extraordinary dignity, Theophila, in being not just a Christian, but becoming Christ by your participation in the divine nature through the sacraments: “That by these you may be made partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4); “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, and should be the sons of God” (1 John 3:1), which then calls you to the lowest of places: “Go, sit down in the lowest place” (Luke 14:10), to reverence all before you as something precious, and to serve them that they may reach their fullest life, which is the life most closely connected to that of Christ by sacrament and imitation: “He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also to walk, even as he walked” (1 John 2:6). The title “King of the Jews” was a title that the religious leaders placed, for, with Pilate’s lack of care for matters of the Law: “Am I a Jew?” (John 18:35), a title that would seemingly set Jesus against Rome was a crafty manner of trying to have Him executed for sedition. Jesus affirms His kingship before Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36), weaving His way through this snare, saying that He would not rise against Rome, while still acknowledging the truth of His place as the Almighty King: “But I am appointed king by him over Sion his holy mountain, preaching his commandment” (Psalm 2:6). Now, Pilate had an inclination of curiosity regarding Jesus: “Pilate wondered” (Mark 15:5), and for this, Jesus is willing to give Him crumbs of truth, that he may be drawn into the mystery of God: “For this was I born, and for this came I into the world; that I should give testimony to the truth. Every one that is of the truth, heareth my voice” (John 18:37), but before the chief priests, He says nothing, knowing that their hearts were too hardened against Him to receive any of His words: “He that teacheth a scorner, doth an injury to himself” (Proverbs 9:7). Thus, Theophila, to open your heart to His love and His truth is something He will not spurn: “Knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7), for just as light enters through a door when it is opened to illuminate a dark room, so too do your mind and heart become filled with Him when you allow Him to enter, for delightful is His presence, and He would share this delight with you until you are perpetually rejoicing: “A cheerful and good heart is always feasting” (Ecclesiasticus 31:27). Being lambasted by those that had seen His many acts of love, Jesus answers nothing, for He knows what He is, and so too, Theophila, when you know how loved you are by God, do insults and mockery mean nothing and do not wound the spirit, for they do not detract from what your heavenly Father thinks of you: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17), which is what truly matters: “He that feareth man, shall quickly fall: he that trusteth in the Lord, shall be set on high” (Proverbs 29:25). Jesus answered nothing, not lowering His dignity by begging to be let go or arguing against those that would not listen, but in tranquil acceptance embraces what is set before Him, that the plan of the Cross may find its fulfillment. Pilate wonders at Him, that before such assaults on His character, still His peace remains, that even death is not the least bit feared, for He knows the beauty that will come of it, and in this is a lesson, Theophila, that the gift of life should be perpetually enjoyed as the gift it is: “For thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which thou hast made: for thou didst not appoint, or make any thing hating it… Thou sparest all: because they are thine, O Lord, who lovest souls” (Wisdom 11:25-27), yet still the deep lover of God sees death as a good as well, that there may be a full possession of Christ and a beholding of His majesty and beauty: “We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Thus, while many are terrified of death and run from it as a snuffing out of everything they are: “[He] might deliver them, who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to servitude” (Hebrews 2:15), to you it is given, as a Christian, to die of love and thereby run to enjoy your Beloved: “But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die… but they are in peace” (Wisdom 3:1-3).

Matthew 27:1-10

“And when morning was come, all the chief priests and ancients of the people took counsel against Jesus, that they might put him to death. And they brought him bound, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor. Then Judas, who betrayed him, seeing that he was condemned, repenting himself, brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and ancients, saying: ‘I have sinned in betraying innocent blood.’ But they said: ‘What is that to us? Look thou to it.’ And casting down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed: and went and hanged himself with an halter. But the chief priests having taken the pieces of silver, said: ‘It is not lawful toput them into the corbona, because it is the price of blood.’ And after they had consulted together, they bought with them the potter’s field, to be a burying place for strangers. For this cause that field was called Haceldama, that is, The field of blood, even to this day. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying: ‘And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was prized, whom they prized of the children of Israel. And they gave them unto the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed to me.’”

The chief priests then, not wanting to kill Jesus secretly that they may destroy His reputation: “A good name is better than great riches” (Proverbs 22:1). Thus, they lead to the pagan governor the King of Israel, that all wonder and joy in His name may be stamped out: “They are multiplied above the hairs of my head, who hate me without cause. My enemies are grown strong who have wrongfully persecuted me” (Psalm 68:5). Judas then takes the money back to the chief priests, wrongfully thinking that, by this, he could turn the minds of men rabid with hate. Now, in this is an insight into the inherent goodness of human nature; despite man’s fallenness, he is not totally depraved, but simply tarnished, like a beautiful gem that has been scratched and muddied: “Thou wast in the pleasures of the paradise of God: every precious stone was thy covering: the sardius, the topaz, and the jasper, the chrysolite, and the onyx, and the beryl, the sapphire, and the carbuncle, and the emerald: gold the work of thy beauty: and thy pipes were prepared in the day that thou wast created” (Ezechiel 28:13). This is clear in the case of Judas, who, though he was so darkened in mind as to willingly betray Jesus after seeing His ministry: “But there are also many other things which Jesus did; which if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written” (John 21:25), still possessed a mind that was good insofar as it was human, and therefore is stung with contrition upon seeing Jesus condemned, which could refer either to the chief priests or to Pilate. Judas, however, still continues in the error of either not seeing or affirming Jesus’ divinity, calling Him “innocent blood” rather than “God,” and thus he looks for a salve for his heart in the chief priests rather than in God: “Put not your trust in princes: in the children of men, in whom there is no salvation” (Psalm 145:2-3), which meets with a grossly unsatisfying answer for one that was in shambles, such as the case of holy Job: “Thy words have confirmed them that were staggering, and thou hast strengthened the trembling knees: but now the scourge is come upon thee, and thou faintest: it hath touched thee and thou art troubled. Where is thy fear, thy fortitude, thy patience, and the perfection of thy ways?” (Job 4:4-6). The devil, then, is a tactical, cruel worker, that draws one into temptation by downplaying the gravity of the sin: “[Man] drinketh iniquity like water” (Job 15:16) before screaming in the ear of the one that falls, attempting to drown them in despair: “Many say to my soul: ‘There is no salvation for him in his God’” (Psalm 3:3). Such is the case of Judas, whose heart did not find solace in God, and having been rejected by men, was open to the shredding of the enemy: “With all watchfulness keep thy heart, because life issueth out from it" (Proverbs 4:23) and was so consumed with sorrow that he took his own life. A heart entirely devoid of love, Theophila, is in hell, the sentencing to hell is simply following the course that was led in life, and this hell so overcame this Apostle that he did not go to his brothers: “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity” (Psalm 132:1), being unable to face them, or wait for the resurrection, which had been promised: “And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the ancients and by the high priests, and the scribes, and be killed: and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31), instead killing a man that could still be saved in himself. The chief priests then take the silver, and knowing that they had purchased a murder, call it blood money, and then feel it unlawful to put in the treasury: “Blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:24). They then buy a potter’s field, which was to be a burial place for foreigners, showing that even the physical price of His passion was to be a haven for the dead: “Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord. From henceforth now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; for their works follow t hem” (Apocalypse 14:13). The field can also be representative of the whole world, for Jesus is the potter that formed you as you are: “And now, O Lord, thou art our father, and we are clay: and thou art our maker, and we all are the works of thy hands” (Isaias 64:8), and He bought the world with the price of His blood for the sake of those who wander in a country that is not their own, that is, in a world in which their hearts are not set, instead being captivated by the Divine Lover who is in heaven: “For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also” (Matthew 6:21). This is particularly so in the remembrance of His holy Passion, to consider the price by which you were redeemed: “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold or silver… but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled” (1 Peter 1:18-19), thus does St. Raphael exhort: “Take out the entrails of this fish and lay up his heart, and his gall, and his liver for thee: for these are necessary and useful medicines… And the gall is good for anointing the eyes, in which there is a white speck, and they shall be cured” (Tobias 6:5-9), that is, take the gruesomeness of the Passion, represented by the bitter gall, from the fish of Jesus and apply it to the eyes of your mind frequently, that any blindness of heart may be cured by the greatest act of love in human history. Finally, the prophecy that St. Matthew references is a combination found in Jeremiah: “And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle’s son, that is in Anathoth: and I weighed him the money, seven staters, and ten pieces of silver” (Jeremias 32:9), and in Zechariah: “And they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me: ‘Cast it to the statuary, a handsome price, that I was prized at by them” (Zacharias 11:12-13). This is to indicate that the Holy Spirit speaks through all of the Prophets, and thus by reading them you can pay attention to what He is speaking to you in the moment that you read them. There is finally one more connection, that the Field of Blood was where Jeremiah had smashed a pot: “And thou shalt break the bottle in the sight of the men that shall go with thee” (Jeremias 19:10), which prophesied the smashed vessel of Judas’ soul, which had been so lovingly sculpted by the divine craftsman, but by hardening it with thoughts of malice against Jesus and smashing it by suicide, he destroys what God had made simply for love.

Matthew 26:69-75

“But Peter sat without in the court: and there came to him a servant maid, saying: ‘Thou also wast with Jesus the Galilean.’ But he denied before them all, saying: ‘I know not what thou sayest.’ And as he went out of the gate, another maid saw him, and she saith to them that were there: ‘This man also was with Jesus of Nazareth.’ And again he denied with an oath: ‘I know not the man.’ And after a little while they came that stood by, and said to Peter: ‘Surely thou also art one of them; for even thy speech doth discover thee.’ Then he began to curse and to swear that he knew not the man. And immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus which he had said: ‘Before the cock crow, thou wilt deny me thrice.’ And going forth, he wept bitterly.”

While the blows the Lord endured at the hands of the chief priests bruised His face, the denial of St. Peter struck deep in His Heart, for a grave wound of betrayal by a spouse or a dear friend cuts far deeper than rejection from someone that one barely knows: “Will a virgin forget her ornament, or a bride her stomacher? But my people hath forgotten me days without number” (Jeremias 2:32). St. Peter rapidly begins to buckle, he who had drawn a sword to defend Jesus before, upon seeing what Jesus was enduring at the hands of the chief priests, then cannot stand up even to a servant girl: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak: heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled” (Psalm 6:3). He denies Jesus, showing that he was not in fact ready to die for love: “Yea, thou I should die with thee, I will not deny thee” (Matthew 26:35), which was permitted that you can see to never trust in your own strength, instead trusting in the loving hand of God, which is the Holy Spirit: “His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me” (Canticle 2:6), for the child that tries to be the head of the family is cute at best and therefore can only receive, but on the other hand insults their parents’ love by not trusting in their aid, and thus it is with your heavenly Father: “Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3), that you should always rely on His help to carry you, that love will be your anchor and guide: “And seeing the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy” (Matthew 2:10). After this first denial is the first cock crow: “But he denied, saying: ‘I neither know nor understand what thou sayest.’ And he went forth before the court; and the cock crew” (Mark 14:68), which is indicative of the sting of conscience, a pinprick that brings the Beloved and His tastes to mind that you may turn back to Him and His merciful love: “Return to me, saith the Lord, and I will receive thee” (Jeremias 3:1). He then rises and returns, with the people at the fire discussing his presence before confirming him to be one of Jesus’ disciples, whereupon Peter takes an oath and denies Him yet again, with an outright separation from the person of Jesus, which is representative of those that deny Christ or their Christian title before others, which in truth is a crown of dignity for the soul: “Come from Libanus, my spouse, come from Libanus, come: thou shalt be crowned from the top of Amana, from the top of Sanir and Hermon” (Canticle 4:8), but is treated as worthless by those that are scared to profess or live their faith before others: “The crown is fallen from our head woe to us, because we have sinned” (Lamentations 5:16). An hour passes: “And after the space, as it were of one hour” (Luke 22:59) before a man notes his accent and native pronunciation and proclaims him to be one of Jesus’ followers. Now, St. Peter at this time was not among the other Apostles, but rather among strangers, and in this is a lesson, that just as sugar is an excellent preservative for fruit, so too is good, holy company the best preservative of purity of heart: “Be continually with a holy man, whomsoever thou shalt know to observe the fear of God” (Ecclesiasticus 37:15), whereas immodest company can quickly sink the heart, which so desires communion and to be among peers, into immodest behavior, words, and thinking: “He that toucheth pitch, shall be defiled with it: and he that hath fellowship with the proud, shall put on pride” (Ecclesiasticus 13:1). Minister to those without, Theophila: “Teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 29:19), but make your strengthening company those who are zealous for God as well: “If thou wouldst get a friend, try him before thou takest him, and do not credit him easily” (Ecclesiasticus 6:7), for mutual lovers of God plant flames of love in each other’s hearts, raising each other higher and climbing the mountain of divine love in pairs or groups: “And he called the twelve; and began to send them two and two” (Mark 6:7), whereas the lone coal quickly grows cold, not strengthened by the love that is found in community, which is the greatest guard of chastity: “For where there are two or three gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). There is an escalation in St. Peter’s denials, rising from a dismissal to an oath to a bevy of cursing, wherein is seen that sin grows like cancer, and to willfully commit small sins can weaken the will into greater ones, whereas to always seek the greatest act of love you can do in any given moment keeps your blade sharp: “If the iron be blunt, and be not as before, but be made blunt, with much labour it shall be sharpened” (Ecclesiastes 10:10). There can also be a threefold escalation in the dragging down of your soul from its lofty perch in the Heart of Jesus, for following desire rather than the glory of God is the first denial: “If any man will follow me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34), which then weakens the will into delighting in nonspiritual things: “Forsake [wisdom] not, and she shall keep thee: love her, and she shall preserve thee” (Proverbs 4:6); “I say then, walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16), at which point the soul is an open door to the infiltrations of the enemy: “Then he goeth and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and entering in they dwell there. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first” (Luke 11:26). Or, the threefold denial of Jesus can be seen in erroneous doctrines, who either deny or do not appreciate the divinity of Jesus, instead thinking Him to be a guru, a teacher, or anything less than the most sublime of all beings become man, or are in error about His humanity, for in trying to reach for the sublimity of the divinity without His sacred humanity is error: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me” (John 14:6), for the person of Jesus is infinitely loveable, being Himself Infinite Love, and to pass around Him for another way is to leave the narrow bridge that leads to life: “If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha” (1 Corinthians 16:22), and the third error is both of these together. Finally, the cock crow, in addition to being the aforementioned sting of conscience, can be the teaching of the Doctors of the Church, for if Sacred Scripture is the greatest of treasures, itself containing the words of God: “If thou shalt seek her as money, and shalt dig for her as for a treasure: then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and shalt find the knowledge of God” (Proverbs 2:4-5), then the Doctors are the chest that keep it from spilling over the floor in a mess to be trodden on: “Stand in the multitude of ancients that are wise, and join thyself from thy heart to their wisdom, that thou mayst hear every discourse of God, and the sayings of praise may not escape thee” (Ecclesiasticus 6:35). It was not just the rooster, however, that pulled forth tears of contrition from St. Peter, and it is not just the teaching of the Doctors that draw one to true contrition, but he looked on the face of Jesus: “And the Lord turning looked on Peter” (Luke 22:61), and so too are the Doctors not the end of the life of grace, but a true love of the Savior, and thus they help turn your heart back to Him and bind yourself to Him all the more perfectly: “I held him: and I will not let him go” (Canticle 3:4). Furthermore, it is painful to Jesus to see you wandering in darkness, be it of sin, denial, or error, and thus He calls you to repentance by a look of love, which spurred St. Peter to leave the company of sinful men and wash his heart with tears: “I have laboured in my groanings, every night I will wash my bed: I will water my couch with my tears” (Psalm 6:7). Finally, in this is a lesson in mercy, Theophila, that to weep in contrition is for a short time, just as the mass contains three mea culpa’s before moving into the sacred celebration, and so too did St. Peter not remain in his weeping, but after mending His relationship with Jesus quickly bloomed as a bright beacon for the early Church and is one of the greatest, most loving, most courageous, most fruitful saints in Church history: “They therefore that received his word, were baptized; and there were added in that day about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41). Therefore, be like a child, Theophila, who may fall and scuff the knee, but after a kiss and a Band-Aid is back up and running with joy.

Matthew 26:59-68

“And the chief priests and the whole council sought false witness against Jesus, that they might put him to death: and they found not, whereas many false witnesses had come in. And last of all there came two false witnesses: and they said: ‘This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God, and after three days to rebuild it.’’ And the high priest rising up, said to him: ‘Answerest thou nothing to the things which these witness against thee?’ But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest said to him: ‘I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us if thou be the Christ the Son of God.’ Jesus saith to him: ‘Thou hast said it. Nevertheless I say to you, hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven.’ Then the high priest rent his garments, saying: ‘He hath blasphemed; what further need have we of witnesses? Behold, now you have heard the blasphemy: what think you?’ But they answering, said: ‘He is guilty of death.’ Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him: and others struck his face with the palms of their hands, saying: ‘Prophesy unto us, O Christ, who is he that struck thee?’”

Where the Holy Spirit of truth is, there is peace: “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing” (Romans 15:13), but where there is an absence of love, there is discord, noise, and confusion, such as is seen in this mockery of a trial of Jesus. Concerning the first, it is good, Theophila, to read gently, and when your heart sings with affection, let it sing and be swept up in love: “I rejoiced at the things that were said to me” (Psalm 121:1), for reading is merely an instrument to bring the heart deeper into devotion. Concerning the second, if you read something that makes you bristle and fills you with noise and chaos, that is the enemy wearing the mask of saintly sayings to make you act in a way that is contrary to your individual nature: “In this way wherein I walked, they have hidden a snare for me” (Psalm 141:4). By the power of their office, the chief priests called in false witnesses against Jesus, who had lived and spoken so gracefully and without fault, that the armor of His life repelled the arrows of lies that were fired at Him: “In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one” (Ephesians 6:16). Then, false witnesses come in and repeat something close to what Jesus had said, but repeated it in a way different from His intention, for Jesus had spoken of the temple He was and is: “But he spoke of the temple of his body” (John 2:21), but the false witnesses interpreted it as a threat against the Jerusalem temple. Therefore, Jesus did not say that He would destroy the temple of His body, for to lay hands on oneself is contrary to love, and this can be by actions: “Saul took his sword, and fell upon it” (1 Kings 31:4), but it is also true of words: “By it we bless God and the Father: and by it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God” (James 3:9); “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Mark 12:31), for no spouse enjoys hearing negative things about their beloved, and Jesus would not have you tear down the beautiful heart He died to capture: “If any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy For the temple of God is holy, which you are” (1 Corinthians 3:17). Now, Jesus did not say that He would build a new temple, but raise it, indicating a living, breathing, temple, which is you: “Your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost” (1 Corinthians 6:19), raising you from the earth: “Thou hast brought forth, O Lord, my soul from hell” (Psalm 29:4) to heavenly realities: “And I saw another angel flying through the midst of heaven, having the eternal gospel, to preach unto them that sit upon the earth” (Apocalypse 14:6). Before the impenetrable goodness of Jesus, Caiphas arises in anger looking to trap Jesus in words, as was often seen by others under him: “And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and of the Herodians; that they should catch him in his words” (Mark 12:13), but Jesus holds His peace, knowing that His words would have no impact on hearts so hardened against Him: “To day if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts” (Psalm 94:8). To bear the harsh words of others with a resolute silence, knowing that the malice others say is a wound upon their own souls: “[Punishment] is the work of them who detract me before the Lord; and who speak evils against my soul” (Psalm 108:20) is a strong, loving action for the one that knows that man was made for more beautiful things than mouths full of poison: “The venom of asps is under their lips” (Romans 3:13). The high priest then invokes a solemn adjuration towards Christ, whereas to live by the Gospel is to not even swear, using the sublimity of the Lord as a crutch, and therefore to invoke Him to bring something out of another follows the same path. Jesus acquiesces to the office of high priest out an abundant humility, and so too, Theophila, is obedience a sterling virtue, that by letting yourself be a servant to all: “He that is the greatest among you shall be your servant” (Matthew 23:11), all may find a compassionate heart in you. Or, this can be that by letting a wise, holy confessor: “Let one of a thousand be your counsellor” (Ecclesiasticus 6:6) be the director of your soul, you can open the secrets of your heart, trusting that through him Jesus will speak and show you the way forward: “Be continually with a holy man, whomsoever thou shalt know to observe the fear of God, whose soul is according to hy own soul: and who, when thou shalt stumble in the dark, will be sorry for thee” (Ecclesiasticus 37:15-16). Jesus then gives a picture of His glory, seated at the right hand of power, which is indicative of the might of God that created and upholds all things: “O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is thy name in the whole earth!” (Psalm 8:2), and coming on the clouds of heaven, which is indicative of the great saints who watered the earth abundantly with acts of love: “My little children, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth” (1 John 3:18), heavenly doctrine: “For if it shall please the great Lord, he will fill him with the spirit of understanding: and he will pour forth the words of wisdom as showers” (Ecclesiasticus 39:8-9), and prayer: “I desire therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men” (1 Timothy 2:1). The high priest then rends his garments, which was intended to give weight to what he interpreted as blasphemy by showing extreme distress and his following accusation, but spiritually, it indicates the stripping of the Levitical priesthood of glory, that the glory of God may instead rest in the loving hearts of those who offer a living sacrifice of a life of love and praise: “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise always to God, that is to say, the fruit of lips confessing to his name” (Hebrews 13:15). Those who had heard His point that the Christ would not be the Son of David, but the Lord of David and co-equal with the Father: “’What think you of Christ? Whose son is he?’ They say to him: ‘David’s.’ He saith to them: ‘How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit on my right hand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool?’’ If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?’” (Matthew 22:42-45), set aside this sublime argument and instead accuse Him of blasphemy, then commit the most grievous of errors, and condemn the Supreme Truth, the First Principle, the True Good, the Form of Beauty, the Fount of Life, the Source of Grace, the Architect of All, Love Itself to death before treating Him worse than a dog, spitting in His face: “I have given my body to the strikers, and my cheeks to them that plucked them: I have not turned away my face from them that rebuked me, and spit upon me” (Isaias 50:6), which indicate that, even when they were committing such atrocities, still He loved them. How great, o Theophila, is the merciful love of God, who as God came down to be spat upon, that He may know your suffering and be one with you when others mistreat you. The final mystery here is that, in modern times, when people spit on Jesus, they hear the message of His love but reject it willfully, turning away the Divine Bridegroom who knocks at the door of their hearts: “Behold, I stand at the gate, and knock. If any man shall hear my voice, and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Apocalypse 3:20). They beat Him who seek their own good, putting down His invitations to a sublime love and walking together hand in hand: “For I am the Lord thy God, who take thee by the hand” (Isaias 41:13) for attaining their own goals, and in this is a lesson, Theophila, that bodily penances are useless without taming the spirit to love and be loved, which is seen in Balaam, who represents a restless spirit, and the donkey, which represents the body, which is to be loved, not beaten: “And when the ass saw the angel standing, she fell under the feet of the rider: who being angry beat her sides more vehemently with a staff. And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said: ‘What have I done to thee? Why strikest thou me, lo, now this third time?” (Numbers 22:27-28), for as a man will not put his daughter on a bucking horse, so too will grace not fall on the one that shirks the love story, instead following an unquiet heart: “Turn, O my soul, into thy rest: for the Lord hath been bountiful to thee” (Psalm 114:7). They cover His face and strike Him, who, sitting in ignorance and not seeking the true depth of the divine mystery through an assiduous pursuit of the truth: “The childish shall posses folly: and the crafty man is hateful” (Proverbs 14:18), then disown the person of Jesus. When one seeks truth, Truth is seeking them in turn: “You shall seek me, and shall find me: when you shall seek me with all your heart” (Jeremias 29:13), but to not lift a finger and wonder why Jesus is not acting is folly: “And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and will visit upon the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their hearts: ‘The Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil’” (Sophonias 1:12);

Matthew 26:47-58

“As he yet spoke, behold Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the ancients of the people. And he that betrayed him, gave them a sign, saying: ‘Whomsoever I shall kiss, that is he, hold him fast.’ And forthwith coming to Jesus, he said: ‘Hail, Rabbi.” And he kissed him. And Jesus said to him: ‘friend, whereto art thou come?’ Then they came up, and laid hands on Jesus, and held him. And behold one of them that were with Jesus, stretching forth his hand, drew out his sword: and striking the servant of the high priest, cut off his ear. Then Jesus saith to him: ‘Put up again thy sword into its place: for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot ask my Father, and he will give me presently more than twelve legions of angels? How then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that so it must be done?’ In that same hour Jesus said to the multitudes: ‘You are come out as it were to a robber with swords and clubs to apprehend me. I sat daily with you, teaching in the temple, and you laid not hands on me.’ Now all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then the disciples all leaving him, fled. But they holding Jesus led him to Caiphas the high priest, where the scribes and the ancients were assembled. And Peter followed him afar off, even to the court of the high priest. And going in, he sat with the servants, that he might see the end.”

Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus’ closest followers, to whom was revealed the great depths and secrets of God: “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 13:11). One interpretation of the gift of Apostleship: “God indeed hath set some in the church: First apostles” is the possession of the other gifts: “secondly prophets, thirdly doctors; after that miracles; then the graces of healings, helps, governments, kinds of tongues, interpretations of speeches” (1 Corinthians 12:28), and with this in mind, Judas was one that was given an incredible abundance of heavenly gifts: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). Thus, all of these blessings, wrapped in the divine intimacy of a life of following Jesus and seeing His love, the extraordinary nature of His doctrine: “The queen of the south shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold a greater than Solmon here” (Matthew 12:42), and the magnificence of His many miracles: “I speak to you, and you believe not: the works that I do in the name of my Father, they give testimony of me” (John 10:25), all make his betrayal all the more monstrous. He comes with a great multitude, because those who thought He was using magic or demons: “This man casteth not out devils but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils” (Matthew 12:24), and He had evaded capture before: “They took up stones therefore to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple” (John 8:59), and Judas then goes to Jesus with a kiss. This is to show that many that betray the truth may have an emotional pull towards Jesus, or in the case of philosophers an eagerness for truth, whom Jesus answers mildly, wanting to draw the former into the fulness of the Christian life; “Then shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift thee up above the high places of the earth, and will feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father” (Isaias 58:14), and the latter into the realization that the Supreme Truth and True Good is a person, calling them to a relationship of love: “I am… the truth” (John 14:6). Jesus knows the intent of Judas, and allows Himself to be handed over; and yet with this same mildness and humility He is given to you, that you may possess Him fully and carry Him with you, for wherever you are, God is: “That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened by his Spirit with might unto the inward man, that Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts” (Ephesians 3:16-17). St. Peter, with his usual reckless love, then draws a sword and strikes the one called Malchus: “And the name of the servant was Malchus” (John 18:10). This has a spiritual meaning; the one that serves the Law without uncasing the love within like a pearl from a clam, which was the sword of truth given to St. Peter and his successors, hears only with the left ear, being void of understanding: “Man when he was in honour did not understand: he hath been compared to senseless beasts, and made like to them” (Psalm 48:21), that is, restraining the desires with the bit and whip of discipline, rather than following the sweet invitations of love: “I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee” (Jeremias 31:3), for the greatest guard against pleasures and vanities is the greater pleasure and good of heart and mind in divine love and truth: “[Love] rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6), that rather than suffocating your desires: “In a desert land, and where there is no way, and no water” (Psalm 62:3), you may instead renew them by fulfilling the deeper desires of every human soul, which is a heart loved and a mind set in truth, which will in turn push out the lesser desires like washing a glass with warm water: “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind: and put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth” (Ephesians 4:23-24), rather than scratching it with the steel wool of rigor. Jesus then rebukes His disciple, for by participating in a worldly fight, He would be restrained from mounting the heavenly throne of the cross: “And his throne as the sun before me: and as the moon perfect for ever, and a faithful witness in heaven” (Psalm 88:38). The source of grace and love, then, teaches to endure adversity before taking up self-defense: “I say to you not to resist evil: but if one strike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other” (Matthew 5:39), but there is an interesting connotation here, that those who took up the sword through an abundance of love and justice were in turn greatly rewarded: “In those days after Moses was grown up, he went out to his brethren: and saw their affliction, and an Egyptian striking one of the Hebrews his brethren. And when he had looked about this way and that way, and saw no one there, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand” (Exodus 2:11-12); “And behold one of the children of Israel went in before his brethren to a harlot of Madian, in the sight of Moses, and of all the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle. And when Phinees the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest saw it, he rose up form the midst of the multitude, and taking a dagger, went in after the Israelite into the brothel house, and thrust both of them through together” (Numbers 25:6-8), sinning through love rather than ferocity. To be slain by the sword for taking up the sword, then, is to be slain by the sword guarding paradise: “And he cast out Adam; and placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubims, and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24, which is the sword of truth, that gauges the manner in which one loved in their life: “And from his mouth came out a sharp two edged sword” (Apocalypse 1:16), which is the true weapon of the Christian, rather than the arms of men: “For I will not trust in my bow: neither shall my sword save me” (Psalm 43:7).. Or, this can be look at that the true harm of iniquity is against one’s own soul, and to take up the sword against another man is, while doing damage to their body, doing a greater damage to one’s own soul, which is made to love and be loved: “Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved; but give place unto wrath, for it is written: ‘revenge is mine, I will repay,’ saith the Lord” (Romans 12:19). Jesus, then, shows that He doesn’t need the help of Apostles, being able to call down twelve legions of angels, amounting to seventy-two thousand of the angelic hosts, which even before His infinite might would not be necessary: “Great is our Lord, and great is his power” (Psalm 146:5), for the angels themselves are upheld by Him, He being more than a captain and king of angels, but being the very source and sustainer of their existence: “Bless the Lord, all ye his angels” (Psalm 102:20). He then invokes the word of Scripture, for even when matters are bleak and desperate, the word of God and promises of God are greater, with the memory’s true cleansing being hope: “Expect the Lord, do manfully, and let thy heart take courage, and wait thou for the Lord” (Psalm 26:14). Jesus then heals the servant’s ear: “And when he had touched his ear, he healed him” (Luke 22:51) and invokes both His past teaching and work and His present acts and teaching of mercy before those that would treat Him as a bandit and a sleuth, as if He had not been constantly before the people, His life and teaching open to all. It is then portrayed as ludicrous to come with an army and a traitor to infiltrate into the circle a man who is perpetually available for any and all: “Him that cometh to me, I will not cast out” (John 6:37), for love does not close itself in on itself, but the marriage chamber: “Our bed is flourishing” (Canticle 1:15) extends into the rest of the house, which is open for guests and children, that they may encounter the atmosphere of love that lover and beloved have built: “When thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind; and thou shalt be blessed” (Luke 14:13-14). Jesus then cites the scriptures in a broad sense, for the eye that looks for Him in the Old Testament will find Him everywhere, with His passion found frequently: “They have dug my hands and feet” (Psalm 21:16); “He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter” (Isaias 53:7); “But if we offer of the flock a victim for his sin, to wit, an ewe without blemish” (Leviticus 4:32). Before this, however, the Apostles break, having promised to die with Him, but overwhelmed with fear, they flee. In this is a lesson, Theophila, not to overestimate what you can undertake, but if you fail, to rise again with the Apostles in newness of spirit. Jesus is then led to Caiaphas and the elders, where there is study of the letter, being either dry theology or morose rule-following: “For the letter killeth, but the spirit quickeneth” (2 Corinthians 3:6), and this can mean that when the sublime love of Jesus is brought to those who are academically wrapped in analyzing text, it is harder for them to move to a heart-to-heart relationship with Him: “Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones” (Matthew 11:25), or to the one that is enslaved to rule-following doesn’t know the freedom of a love relationship with God: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision: but faith that worketh by love” (Galatians 5:6), and in both of these, the loving presence of Jesus is suffocated by treating Jesus as a science or a slave master. St. Peter then follows from afar, for if He had been near the burning Heart of love, He would have been warmed by it and stood by Jesus, but in following afar, he is left in the cold: “Now the servants and ministers stood at a fire of coals, because it was cold, and warmed themselves. And with them was Peter also, standing, and warming himself” (John 18:18). So it is with all Christians, Theophila, that to follow the Lord from afar, expecting someone else to do the work, or letting oneself cool off in devotion for a moment is to invite danger, but to sit at the fire of His love, warming oneself at His fire and letting your heart bloom and intertwine with His, like candlelight and sunlight blending into one light, this is to keep yourself far from denial or regression: “From his loins and upward, and from his loins downward, I saw as it were the resemblance of fire shining round about” (Ezechiel 1:27).

Matthew 26:39-46

“And going a little further, he fell upon his face, praying, and saying: ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me. Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.’ And he cometh to his disciples, and findeth them asleep, and he saith to Peter: ‘What? Could you not watch one hour with me? Watch ye, and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh weak.’ Again the second time, he went and prayed, saying ‘My father, if this chalice may not pass away, but I must drink it, thy will be done.’ And he cometh again, and findeth them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. And leaving them, he went again: and he prayed the third time, saying the selfsame word. Then he cometh to his disciples, and said to them: ‘Sleep ye now      and take your rest; behold the hour is at hand, and the Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go: behold he is at hand that will betray me.’”

Jesus goes and prostrates Himself before the Father, abandoning Himself to His will, not trying to direct the Father and promising things like St. Peter: “Why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thee” (John 13:37). So too is it good to hold the hand of the Father, Jesus, or Mary throughout your day, letting yourself work lightly with your heart wrapped in devotion, like a child going happily through the day directed by their parents, enjoying the beautiful time together: “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, and should be the sons of God” (1 John 3:1). To pull yourself from their hands and run off is to invite trouble, but to be led into the beautiful things they desire for you is to live a deeply spiritual life: “I will give thee understanding, and I will instruct thee in this way, in which thou shalt go” (Psalm 31:8). To afflict yourself is not the way of a lover: “Afflict not thyself in thy own counsel” (Ecclesiasticus 30:22), but rather to put aside all that does not make your heart sing sweet hymns to your beloved, letting yourself be swept along in life through love: “I say then, walk in the spirit” (Galatians 5:16) is to walk joyfully in love. However, this may lead through thickets and brambles, and the lover does not go around these, but with hand joined to the beloved’s hand, walks bravely through the trials brought upon them: “When thou shalt pass through the waters, I will be with thee” (Isaias 43:2). Now, if there was a way to prove the depths of God’s love without the Passion, it would have been done, but by letting love alone uphold Him through the horrors of what He endured, He showed the unwavering nature of His love: “[Love] beareth all things” (1 Corinthians 13:8). He also prays this in your place, Theophila, knowing that it is hard not to buckle beneath the afflictions of life, and He can sympathize with your sufferings when you find yourself before the crucible of affliction: “And all mount Sinai was on a smoke: because the Lord was come down upon it in fire, and the smoke arose from it as out of a furnace: and all the mount was terrible… And he called Moses unto the top thereof” (Exodus 19:18-20). The Father’s will, then, is for the strength of love to pass from Jesus to you, that you may overcome the antics of the devil, that you too may say, “Thy will be done,” when hatred, temptation, and all that would break apart your love swirls around you: “And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that the ship was filled” (Mark 4:37). Now, when Jesus goes forward by a bit, the Apostles quickly give into sleep, and so too is it important to keep Him near in your thoughts at all times, filling your mind with His love, that you may be overwhelmed with love and watchfulness becomes not a command but natural: “In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth” (Canticle 3:1). St. Peter had most intently boasted that he would not fall away from Christ, and immediately falls into weariness, rather than staying with the Bridegroom of his soul in His hour of affliction. His followers had said they would die with Him, but do not stay with Him in His time of need; so too, Theophila, is the grand design that is dreamed of less import than simply being faithful to times of prayer, to stay by Him in little things and in these times, that He may always find you at His side: “Who is this that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved?” (Canticle 8:5). Jesus then exhorts them to watch and pray, because to wrap your life and the world in prayer is necessary, for filling your heart with love will keep the jabs of the enemy from having any appeal, and by being close to your Beloved and His ways, you may identify what Origen calls “dark doctrine” and avoid the snares of the enemy: “They dug a pit before my face, and they are fallen into it” (Psalm 56:7). While temptations will inevitably arise, it is important to be so in love that you could not fathom doing something to wound the heart of your Beloved, for it is sin that drives the spear that pierces His Heart: “But one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side” (John 19:34). It is not what you believe that you can do, for you cannot force love, and God knows your limits better than you do, therefore, let yourself be guided by righteousness, counsel, and inspirations from prayer and the aforementioned attentiveness to any of the divine persons or saints, and humbly accept when you are turned from something, for you are being protected from what you may not realize is harmful for you: “Turn ye to me, saith the Lord of hosts: and I will turn to you, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zacharias 1:3). The more you grow in love and righteousness, the more careful and attentive you must be, for the venial sin of a spouse of God can be more painful to the Sacred Heart than a mortal sin from one that has never particularly cared, for the one that has drunk deeply of the love of God and knows His goodness: “A land of wheat, and barley, and vineyards, wherein fig trees and pomegranates, and oliveyards grow: a land of oil and honey. Where without any want thou shalt eat thy bread, and enjoy abundance of all things: where the stones are iron, and out of its hills are dug mines of brass: that when thou hast eaten, and art full, thou mayst bless the Lord thy God for the excellent land which he hath given thee” (Deuteronomy 8:8-10), should be more entranced by love and hold more fastidiously to this love, for great is the fall of the bride that is toppled: “But trusting in thy beauty, thou playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and thou hast prostituted thyself to every passenger, to be his” (Ezechiel 16:15). Jesus then returns to His prayer, overwhelmed by the distress of how little people would count His eternal sacrifice, but consoled, Theophila, by you and your love, for just as a parent is strengthened while in the depths of the struggles of life when their child does something to show their gratitude and love, so too does Jesus see your every little act of love with a deep appreciation: “God loveth a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). The eyes of the disciples draw heavy, and they cannot stay awake, because the Holy Spirit had not been given to them; without the burning heart of love, it is impossible for you to be vigilant and live the Christian life to its fullest demands: “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me” (John 15:4), thus, pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit, that you may be swept up in love and be the love that the Church and the world need: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13). Do not wait for others to step up, Theophila, but imitate your Savior, and be fervent, loving much, praying much, doing much, but all with a harmonious rather than agitated and excited mind: “Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid” (John 14:27). Now, there is a mystery in Jesus’ threefold prayer, first that He prays for your past, present, and future, that what is past may be handed to Him: “He will put away our iniquities: and he will cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea” (Micheas 7:19), in the present you may be aware of His merciful love, that love is within you, around you, upholding you, speaking sweet words to you like the wind: “Thou art beautiful, O my love, sweet and comely as Jerusalem” (Canticle 6:3), and that rather than worrying about the future, you may instead enjoy the love that is in the present: “Behold, now you that say: ‘To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and there we will spend a year, and will traffic, and make our gain.’ Whereas you know now what shall be on the morrow” (James 4:13-14). Or, it can be that it is good to make your prayer Trinitarian, praying to the Father in the Holy Spirit in persona Christi: “But you, my beloved, building yourselves upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost” (Jude 1:20), or addressing every person in the Trinity: “When he had lifted up his eyes, there appeared to him three men standing near him: and as soon as he saw them he ran to meet them from the door of his tent, and adored down to the ground” (Genesis 18:2). He then comes to His disciples, He bids them to take their rest, because the coming horrors would be more than they could bear, and rather than acting, they would need time simply to grieve: “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). There can also be a lesson in this exhortation to rest, Theophila, that you cannot keep your bow pulled at all times, because you will wear yourself out, but joyful rest and mirth is itself a virtue that keeps you fresh: “I commended mirth, because there was no good for a man under the sun, but to eat, and drink, and be merry” (Ecclesiastes 8:15). It is also a look into the three appearances of the Lord after His resurrection, at the first He rebukes them for their unbelief, typified by His first visit, wherein He rebukes them for not watching: “He upbraided them with their incredulity and hardness of heart, because they did not believe them who had seen him after he was risen again” (Mark 16:14), in the second, when they are heavy with uncertainty after His Ascension, He says nothing, but gives them the Holy Spirit: “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting” (Acts 2:2), the third, which is His welcoming them into the heavenly kingdom, they are to enter the rest of perfect love: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more, for the former things are passed away” (Apocalypse 21:4). After a short interval, where He looks upon His beloved Apostles, too fragile to be vigilant with Him with love, and lets His Heart drink deep of the sight of them before going to His Passion. He then sees, by His divine wisdom, Judas coming, wherein He will be handed over to those that wanted to destroy Him. Consider, Theophila, the great humility of Jesus, who gives the gift of Himself to all that would come to Him, including those who would tear apart His image in their souls by malice and sin: “I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the Gentiles, which you have profaned in the midst of them” (Ezechiel 36:23). He refuses His Heart to no one, including those who would abuse His love: “He will not deprive of good things them that walk in innocence: O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee” (Psalm 83:13), so reckless and abounding is His love. He bids them to arise, that they may not be seen to be trembling and afraid, but by clinging to their Master, may be strengthened, and so too, Theophila, does a constant thought towards Jesus give you the strength of heart to walk through your every day: “My eyes are ever towards the Lord” (Psalm 24:15).

Matthew 26:36-38

“Then Jesus came with them into a country place which is called Gethsemani; and he said to his disciples: ‘Sit you here, till I go yonder and pray.’ And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to grow sorrowful and to be sad. Then he saith to them: ‘My soul is sorrowful even unto death: stay you here, and watch with me.’”

Jesus then leads His Apostles to Gethsemane, which means both “the rich valley” and “the oil press,” for it is a place fit for prayer, and the practice of mental prayer is a rich valley, from which you pick the fruits of love: “I sat down under his shadow, whom I desired: and his fruit was sweet to my palate” (Canticle 2:3), but can also be an oil press, for when it grows difficult, this is the pressing of your olive, which yields what is health-giving and fuel for the fire when it blooms once more, though these difficulties can be quite distressing: “Have you seen him, whom my soul loveth?” (Canticle 3:3); “Sir, if thou hast taken him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away” (John 20:15). However, to turn from it is to turn from the battle for your soul as well as from the source of all that is good: “Israel was overthrown, and every man fled to his own dwelling: and there was an exceeding great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. And the ark of God was taken” ( 1 Kings 4:10-11). Or, the “rich valley” can indicate that in the valley of humility, wherein you are emptied of all your concerns, desires, and thoughts of passing things, you can turn instead to your Beloved, to be filled with the abundance of His love: “Every valley shall be exalted” (Isaias 40:3). It is an urgency, Theophila, to drink daily from this stream: “He that shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not thirst for ever” (John 4:13), because to have your heart dry up is to die: “Why didst thou make us go forth out of Egypt, to kill us and our children, and our beasts with thirst?” (Exodus 17:3), but to drink abundantly and let your cup brim with the wine of devotion is the source of the the Christian life: “My chalice which inebriateth me, how goodly it is!” (Psalm 22:5). Jesus then tells the Apostles to sit, while He went ahead, for when the Lord exhorts earlier: “When thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret” (Matthew 6:6), this is because prayer with God requires deep vulnerability, that His love may trickle into every part of your being: “And it came to pass in the morning, when the sacrifices used to be offered, that behold, water came by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water” (4 Kings 3:20). This experience yields a fountain of tears: “Who in the days of his flesh, with a strong cry and tears, offering up prayers and supplications to him that was able to save him from death, was heard for his reverence” (Hebrews 5:7), which do not flow as naturally among others, even those that are close friends: “My soul shall weep in secret” (Jeremias 13:17). Thus, it is best to go someplace quiet and peaceful for your prayer, that you may taste the delicate savor of the Lord without distraction, letting your intimacy with the divine be free and without an intrusive eye: “Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come” (Canticle 2:10). Now, Jesus had no need of this, for prayer is a lifting up of the mind and heart to God: “To thee have I lifted up my eyes, who dwellest in heaven” (Psalm 122:1), but His understanding was always wrapped in the love of the Father: “Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?” (John 14:11), and He needed to ask for nothing, Himself being the author of all things: “All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made” (John 1:3), but rather like a parent showing a child how to live by example rather than by simple command, He goes forward in prayer alone, that you may know the benefit of prayer from the heart when you are alone with God: “And he retired into the desert, and prayed” (Luke 5:16). What follows is the wrapping of the Lord in sorrow, which draws the question, He had told others not to fear death: “Fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28), and rewards those that suffer for the sake of goodness: “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for there is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10), and He had come for the sake of His passion and death, which would do Him the greatest of honors: “He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names” (Philippians 2:8-9). Rather, it is a lamentation over the woeful state of Jerusalem, which was about to kill its own God, and His Apostles, who were going to forsake Him: “How is the gold become dim, the finest colour is changed, the stones of the sanctuary are scattered in the top of every street?” (Lamentations 4:1). Or, this can be that the Lord, by partaking of human nature, experienced even the natural disinclination from death and the separation of body and soul: “For we have not a high priest, who can not have compassion on our infirmities: but one tempted in all things like as we are, without sin” (Hebrews 4:15), that even in the walk towards death, your Lord can walk with you with an understanding love. Jesus was not a stoic that did not experience emotion, but felt deeply: “And Jesus hearing this, marvelled” (Matthew 8:10); “And Jesus wept” (John 11:35); “And looking round about on them with anger, being grieved for the blindness of their hearts” (Mark 3:5); “In that same hour, he rejoiced in the Holy Ghost” (Luke 10:21); for it is not in an absence that holiness rests, but in a full existence, with emotion and love running deeply as you plunge into the divine mysteries: “Deep calleth on deep” (Psalm 41:8). While Jesus was not ruled by His emotions, He was also not dry and emotionless, rather being infinitely vulnerable and tender due to the fullness of His humanity: “For he knoweth the secrets of the heart” (Psalm 43:22) by experience. When Jesus says to His closest followers that He is sorrowful unto death, this is to say that sorrow will pierce His soul for the remainder of His earthly life as He watches His loved ones do unspeakable harm to their souls as they damage His body to unrecognizability, but upon His death, so too would He die to sorrow: “Drive sadness far from thee” (Ecclesiasticus 30:23). For you, Theophila, this is an instruction for you to turn from the crucifixion of your old self: “Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer” (Romans 6:6), to the resurrection of yourself in love, joy, and beauty: “Thou hast cut my sackcloth, and hast compassed me with gladness” (Psalm 29:12), that you may live the festive, beautiful life of love, rather than remaining in penance and compunction: “I will turn their mounting into joy, and will comfort them, and make them joyful after their sorrow” (Jeremias 31:13), for you are in a wedding feast, a cause for celebrating and constant happiness, and just as Jesus worked a miracle to make an earthly wedding more joyful: “The mother of Jesus saith to him: ‘They have no wine’” (John 2:3), so too will he fill your mouth with praise because of the extraordinary love and happiness He wishes to bestow on you: “Thou hast kept the good wine until now” (John 2:10). He then asks the three to watch with Him, calling them from sleep to greater watchfulness, for while many Catholics sleep from the labors of love and attentiveness to the Bridegroom’s desires, not mortally sinning but not drawing near to Jesus: “He who soweth sparingly, shall also reap sparingly” (2 Corinthians 9:6), but to the fervent, those struck by the incurable illness of love, He asks to uphold the Church by prayer: “When Moses lifted up his hands, Israel overcame” (Exodus 17:11), and to be those He can rely on to always be swept up in love and doing all things for love’s sake: “So also the Lord ordained that they who preach the gospel, should live by the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:14). Therefore, Theophila, do not sleep by letting anything drag you from your love: “I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love” (Apocalypse 2:4), but rather watch with your Beloved, be the bride at His side that stays faithful through all things: “Be thou faithful unto death: and I will give thee the crown of life” (Apocalypse 2:10).

Matthew 26:30-35

“And a hymn being said, they went out unto mount Olivet. Then Jesus said to them: ‘All you shall be scandalized in me this night. For it is written: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be disperesd.’ But after I shall be risen again,   will go before you into Galilee.’ And Peter answering, said to him: ‘Although all shall be scandalized in thee, I will never be scandalized.’ Jesus said to him: ‘Amen I say to thee, that in this night before the cock crow, thou wilt deny me thrice.’ Peter said to him: ‘Yea, though I should die with thee, I will not deny thee.’ And in like manner said all the disciples.”

After partaking of the unspeakable graces of the sacrament of the Lord’s Body and Blood, they join with the Lord in a hymn, for the heart of a lover is always singing: “Speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19). Or, this may be a hymn of thanksgiving to the Father: “Give praise to the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever” (Psalm 117:1). Thirdly, the hymn could be the entirety of John 17, which could be read in the context of a song which pours out from an abundance of love in the Sacred Heart: “These things Jesus spoke, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said: ‘Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee” (John 17:1). Sing in your heart in the moments after receiving your Lord, Theophila, for this is a precious time, the heights of divine intimacy, and the prayer after communion in the mass is to secure the graces you received in you: “Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1), while also representing this hymn found in the gospels. Then, by proceeding from the sacraments to the mountain, Jesus shows His desire for you to go out from the mass to grasp the highest gifts: “Be zealous for the better gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:31), that you may be a sparkling, blindingly beautiful pearl of love in the heart of the Church: “Having the glory of God, and the light thereof was like to a precious stone, as to the jasper stone, even as crystal” (Apocalypse 21:11); “Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee” (Canticle 4:7). This can also mean that, after your labor and toil, you are to come and be drunk with love: “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I languish with love” (Canticle 5:8), climbing the mountain of the Lord from virtue to love: “Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord: or who shall stand in his holy place?” (Psalm 23:3), drinking deeply of the truths and sublimity offered in the mass: “The king hath brought me into his storerooms” (Canticle 1:3). The hymn of gladness draws up your heart into heavenly joy, for letting your heart rejoice and sing as one that love has found is holy joy, whereas to be weighed down sickens the heart: “Grief in the heart of a man shall bring him low, but with a good word he shall be made glad” (Proverbs 12:25). Jesus then foretells the scattering of the Apostles, that they may not despair of returning to Him upon his resurrection: “Peace be to you” (John 20:19). He takes from the prophet Zachariah: “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered” (Zacharias 13:7), to show the attendance to finding Him in all of the Scriptures: “Till I come, attend unto reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine… Meditate upon these things, be wholly in these things: that thy profiting may be manifest to all. Take heed to thyself and to doctrine: be earnest in them. For in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee” (1 Timothy 4:13-16), secondly to show that His crucifixion was in the hand of God: “Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted” (Isaias 53:4), thirdly to encourage them, in outright proclaiming the resurrection, and that He would lead them to Galilee. Now, love can be bold and even reckless, and such is seen in the life of St. Peter: “Lord, if it be thou, bid me to come to thee upon the waters” (Matthew 14:28). Trusting in this boldness and the love he felt, but not regarding his own weakness or the truth of the Lord’s words, proclaims that he would never fall away. The Lord prophecies through His knowledge of all things by His divinity, St. Peter stands on his love, which is laudable indeed, but in this is a lesson that the two hands of discipline and bold love are to make sweet harmonies together, for following the warmth of love can go astray: “For which of you having a mind to build a tower, doth not first sit down, and reckon the charges that are necessary, whether he have wherewithal to finish it: lest, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that see it begin to mock him” (Luke 14:28-29), but to focus entirely on discipline is to direct your attention to yourself and dries up the joys and delights of love: “A joyful mind maketh age flourishing: a sorrowful spirit drieth up the bones” (Proverbs 17:22). In this could also be a lesson that St. Peter trusted in his own virtue and goodness, thus why he separated himself from the others in his self-defense, and therefore was suffered to deny Jesus three times, that he may take this trust in himself and place it entirely in the hands of Jesus: “Have confidence in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not upon thy own prudence” (Proverbs 3:5). A confident zeal is an excellent virtue, Theophila: “I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13), but is all the more beautiful when tempered by caution and attentiveness to detail and the way Jesus likes things to be done: “Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths” (Psalm 118:105). Jesus then replies that Peter would deny Him three times before cock crow, that he needed a deep lesson to trust in the words of Jesus more than his own self-knowledge, for while self-knowledge is an excellent spiritual tool, greater than this is a deep trust in the love, power, goodness, and words of Jesus: “You believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14:1). The Apostles had a marvelous zeal, but without the aid of God, nothing comes to be: “Unless the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Unless the Lord keep the city, he wathceth in vain that keepeth it” (Psalm 126:1). This could also come from a great bravado, for even in the intimacy of the Last Supper, they discussed their own greatness: “And there was also a strife amongst them, which of them should seem to be the greater” (Luke 22:24), and to teach them to turn their eyes from glory and comparison and instead pay attention to the Beloved, he delivers them to abandoning Him, which also teaches them to no longer resist His words: “The Lord bringeth to nought the counsels of nations; and he rejecteth the devices of people, and casteth away the counsels of princes. But the counsel of the Lord standeth for ever: the thoughts of his heart to all generations” (Psalm 32:10-11). Rather than boldly proclaiming the unbreakable nature of your faith, Theophila, it is better to ask for the grace to remain faithful: “Deliver me not over to the will of them that trouble me; for unjust witnesses have risen up against me; and iniquity hath lied to itself” (Psalm 26:12), trusting that you will receive this grace and much more: “I will please the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 114:9). While you may be filled with a bevy of good desires, it is good to bring them to the Lord in prayer: “In all thy ways think on him, and he will direct thy steps” (Proverbs 3:6) and to take counsel: “In all thy works let the true word go before thee, and steady counsel before every action” (Ecclesiasticus 37:20), that the enemy may not slip in a snare, or you deceive yourself, and rather go forward with security, with spontaneous acts of love providing the seasoning for this choicest of meats, for this is the fine myrrh of the Wise Men and the the Song of Songs: “I arose up to open to my beloved: my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers were full of the choicest myrrh” (Canticle 5:5). Then you can pray, Theophila: “Delight in the Lord, and he will give thee the requests of thy heart” (Psalm 36:4).

Matthew 26:26-29

“And whilst they were at supper, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke: and gave to his disciples, and said: ‘Take ye, and eat. This is my body.’ And taking the chalice, he gave thanks, and gave to them, saying: ‘Drink ye all of this. For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins. And I say to you, I will not drink from henceforth of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink it with you new in the kingdom of my Father.’”

In the sacred sanctuary of the Upper Room, Jesus institutes the august sacrament. Where Melchizedek was a figure of what was to come: “Melchisedech the king of Salem, bringing forth bread and wine, for he was the priest of the most high God” (Genesis 14:18), Jesus takes on His role as high priest in the order of Melchizedek by offering a paschal sacrifice of the bread and wine of His Body and Blood: “Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech” (Psalm 109:4). Because of its utter sublimity, Jesus gave this sacrament as the last thing He would give to His Apostles before His passion, for in it He communicates His very self, a gift of His body, blood, soul, and everything that His divinity entails: beauty, love, truth, joy, that all of these may abide in you when you communicate: “Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth” (Canticle 1:1), for kisses are imparting of the spirit of one into another from a sheer abundance of love, and so does Jesus give you the sweet kiss of His very being in Holy Communion, that you may receive His Spirit and all that comes with it: “The fruit of the Spirit is, love, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity” (Galatians 5:22-23). This imparting is through the simple hosts of bread and wine, which are not difficult to attain, that He may be approached eagerly and frequently by as many as possible. When you receive Him in this most exalted sacrament, with a heart burning with the fires of love to receive more love: “And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them” (Acts 2:3), you receive God and all that He entails due to His radical self-gift, if only your heart is open to Him to receive Him in all this fulness: “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled, for my head is full of dew, and my locks of the drops of the nights” (Canticle 5:2), that is, with all the graces conceivable, which are beautiful gifts, but the true gift is the love of God: “One thing I do: forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before, I press towards the mark, to the prize of the supernal vocation of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). He gives His entire Heart to you, Theophila, holding nothing back of Himself because He is so in love with you: “Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse, thou hast wounded my heart with one of thy eyes, and with one hair of thy neck” (Canticle 4:9). Some Apostles received this mystery with incredible wonder, that they should be made one with God through this communal sacrament, while Judas received it with his heart far from God, like a man in intimacy with his wife with his heart set elsewhere, which is a revolting insult: “He that is an adulterer, for the folly of his heart shall destroy his own soul” (Proverbs 6:32), and so while some had life imparted to them, Judas receives unto spiritual death: “For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:29). Now, many are those that receive Him either not in communion with the Church, in a state of mortal sin, or carelessly, but you, Theophila, step in to be enraptured by love: “Thou hast turned for me my mourning into joy: thou hast cut my sackcloth, and hast compassed me with gladness: to the end that my glory may sing to thee, and I may not regret: O Lord my God, I will give praise to thee for ever” (Psalm 29:12-13), that your heart may be given to His Heart which is given to your heart, His love in you and you in His, His beauty in your beauty and your beauty in His beauty, an utter intertwining of you with God: “The glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, as we also are one: I in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one: and the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast also loved me” (John 17:22-23). Let your mind’s eye take deep pleasure in His sight, His life, and in contemplating His attributes: “My heart hath said to thee: ‘My face hath sought thee:’ thy face, O Lord, will I still seek” (Psalm 26:8). Let your ears hear His words of love and tingle with delight: “How beautiful art thou, my love, how beautiful art thou” (Canticle 4:1). Let your spiritual nose be filled with every fragrance of love: “Smelling sweet of the best ointments” (Canticle 1:2), your sense of touch burning with love and gentleness: “There came in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones, and I was wearied, not being able to bear it” (Jeremias 20:9), trusting that, no matter how intense the love, the Holy Spirit will hold you intact. Taste the sweetness of His presence in your heart: “O taste, and see that the Lord is sweet” (Psalm 33:9). Thus, with your senses enlivened by sheer affection: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4), you can take Him everywhere, His beauty shining through your beauty and your souls, more tightly woven than that of earthly lovers, will shine on every face that you see. While the blood of the lamb protected the Israelites from the angel of death: “And the blood shall be unto you for a sign in the houses where you shall be: and I shall see the blood, and shall pass over you: and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I shall strike the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:13), this blood delivers from a loveless life, from sin, from vice, from snare, from all that holds back your gift of yourself from reaching its fulness, for you are a gift, a precious treasure to Him, and He wants to receive you as He gives Himself to you, and therefore you are called to always hope in His grace: “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing; that you may abound in hope, and in the power of the Holy Ghost” (Romans 15:13), “For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of affliction” (Jeremias 29:11). This blood is then given as a covenant, an agreement by which He binds Himself to you, never to part from you, never to withdraw His love from your spiritual marriage: “The Lord is faithful in all his words: and holy in all his works” (Psalm 144:13). He points towards the blood shed in His passion for your sake, Theophila, but this blood is also present in the sacrament of the altar, a living testament to how unfathomably loved you are, that God Himself would become man and suffer the most horrifying of deaths purely because you were not His, and He wanted you to be: “Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob and formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, and called thee by thy name: thou art mine” (Isaias 43:1). That you may always be close to this perfect, unspeakable gift of love, He takes up the mantle of Moses: “Thou shalt keep this thing as a law for thee and thy children for ever” (Exodus 12:24), and tells His Apostles: “Do this for a commemoration of me” (Luke 22:19). This is the food and drink, Theophila, that bring righteousness: “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill” (Matthew 5:6), for in being utterly transformed by love into love, you will become righteous and holy by a natural growth in love and gentle conversion: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin” (Matthew 6:28). It is fitting also that the Body and Blood are separated under two different species, for His Blood was utterly shed on the cross and separated from His Body, and while either contain both the Body and the Blood, it stands as a testament to the entirety of Christ’s self-gift to you, that not a drop of blood He kept for Himself, but poured Himself completely for your sake: “Who his own self bore our sins in his body upon the tree: that we, being dead to sins, should live to justice: by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Jesus then tells His closest followers that He would drink again with them: “Even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he arose again from the dead” (Acts 10:41). Or, there can be a spiritual meaning, that the fruit of the vine is the love of His people: “I will give thee a cup of spiced wine and new wine of my pomegranates” (Canticle 8:2), for what He would face in the rest of His earthly life was rejection, torment, mockery, abandonment, and hate: “Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not” (Isaias 53:3), but in His resurrection, He would see them happy and loving Him again: “The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord” (John 20:20). Therefore, Theophila, welcome with a lover’s heart, for few are His sanctuaries and many are His enemies: “She brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7), and rejoice in His presence, for joyful is the one that is truly in love: “The joyfulness of the heart, is the life of a man, and a never failing treasure of holiness: and the joy of a man is length of life” (Ecclesiasticus 30:23).

Matthew 26:17-25

“And on the first day of the Azymes, the disciples came to Jesus, saying: ‘Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the pasch?’ But Jesus said: ‘Go ye into the city to a certain man, and say to him: ‘The master saith, ‘My time is near at hand, with thee I make the pasch with my disciples.’’’ And the disciples did as Jesus appointed to them, and they prepared the pasch. But when it was evening, he sat down with his twelve disciples. And whilst they were eating, he said: ‘Amen I say to you, that one of you is about to betray me.’ And they being very much troubled, began every one to say: ‘Is it I, Lord?’ But he answering, said: ‘He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, he shall betray me. The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed: it were better for him, if that man had not been born.’ And Judas that betrayed him, answering, said: ‘Is it I, Rabbi?’ He saith to him: ‘Thou hast said it.’”

With the dawn of the evening, which in Jewish culture was the start of the new day, was the putting away of leaven: “In the first day there shall be no leaven in your houses” (Exodus 12:15). This was the day of the killing of the Passover lamb, wherein Jesus instituted the sacraments of His Body and Blood, and began the Passion by the willing surrender of Himself to the religious leaders: “Then they did spit in his face, and buffeted him: and others struck his face with the palms of their hands” (Matthew 26:67). The disciples then come asking about the place to celebrate the Passover, for neither Jesus nor the disciples had a home or lodging: “And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting” (Matthew 19:29), for many lovers that are newly married have very little, but are content, because they have each other, and the poverty of Jesus in this regard shows that, if He has you and you have Him: “I to my beloved, and my beloved to me” (Canticle 6:2), all else will be well, for love is enough. Jesus sends them to “such a man,” being a stranger to the disciples. Though Jesus gave more specific instructions, for the sake of brevity St. Matthew writes “such a man,” and this man, with love piercing through the clouds of hatred that were brewing in Jerusalem towards Him, welcomes Jesus: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4:6). The man is kept anonymous that you may substitute yourself into the story, that Jesus sends His disciples in the form of other Catholics and saints to you, to prepare a place in your heart that you may welcome Him: “He shall build a house to my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever” (2 Kings 7:13). Jesus declares His time to be at hand: “For this cause I came unto this hour” (John 12:28), and bows His head to the Passover, keeping the Law perfectly, fulfilling all righteousness of the Old Covenant, while renewing it in love for those that would come after: “Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you” (John 6:54). Jesus then enters, and lays out the treachery of Judas to give him a place to turn from the designs of his heart: “Six things there are, which the Lord hateth, and the seventh his soul detesteth… A heart that deviseth wicked plots” (Proverbs 6:16-18). Now, it is noted that it was evening, both in the literal sense, but also because it was the evening of Jesus’ life, with the sun setting on His earthly ministry to set into the night of His passion: “His going out is from the end of heaven, and his circuit even to the end thereof” (Psalm 18:7). Upon His saying that one of them would betray Him, they believe His words more than their consciences, and so too do faith, hope, and love surpass feeling, circumstance, or internal disposition, always clinging to the love and words of Jesus: “The words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and life” (John 6:64). Fallen human nature is fickle and prone to thinking incorrectly about itself: “Have confidence in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not upon thy own prudence” (Proverbs 3:5), and is under assault from the enemies of souls: “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world, of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Ephesians 6:12), but to cling to the words of love is to cling to true life. There is another lesson in the uncertainty of the Apostles maintaining their faithfulness, for when the mind wanders to the future, it is afraid, but in the present moment is God: “If I ascend into heaven, thou art there: if I descend into hell, thou art present” (Psalm 138:8), who is not looking down to see if you are doing wrong, but rather looks like a father watching his child with wonder and joy to see every little thing that they do: “One is my dove, my perfect one is but one” (Canticle 6:8). However, holy fear does provide for greater prudence, that, rather than running recklessly forward, you may discern the will of the Lord in your decisions by being supported by those that walk with you: “Where there is no governor, the people shall fall: but there is safety where there is much counsel” (Proverbs 11:14). He soothes their uneasy hearts by specifying one, though not identifying him by name, to avoid drawing him out in humiliation before the others: “But if thy brother shall offend against thee, go, and rebuke him between thee and him alone” (Matthew 18:15). Now, the Christian call is to repay good for evil and love for hate: “Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you” (Luke 6:27), whereas Judas does evil to the One who had only done him good, providing him with an abundance of spiritual riches: “We will make thee chains of gold, inlaid with silver” (Canticle 1:10). He then demonstrates that God’s extraordinary providence uses even the sins of others for one’s own growth: “We know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints” (Romans 8:28), saying that the Son of man goes as it was written in the Prophets. When Jesus prophecies woe to the one that betrays Him, this is, in extension, a prophecy against any that bear the name of Christian and defile that name with grave sin: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification… that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4), for the one that commits mortal sin kills the image of Jesus in their soul: “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and to never have been is preferable to being without the love of Jesus, for the human person was created to experience love and the joys of it: “Let us make man to our image and likeness” (Genesis 1:26), and a life without love is hollow and empty: “Henceforeward… walk not as also the Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts” (Ephesians 4:17-18). Now, where the other Apostles had addressed Him as Lord, Judas merely addresses Him as Rabbi, which is simply a great teacher, and in this is an insight that all error misses on the true sublimity of who Jesus is, either not recognizing Him as God, or having a narrow view of God, who is the author of beauty, truth, goodness, and being itself: “And God said: ‘Be light made.’ And light was made” (Genesis 1:3), thinks Him to be less incredible than He is. In Jesus’ response, which He says quietly so as to not alert the others, He does not affirm the truth of Judas’ statement, but leaves room for repentance to the end.

Matthew 26:6-16

“And when Jesus was in Bethania, in the house of Simon the leper, there came to him a woman having an alabaster box of precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he was at table. And the disciples seeing it, had indignation, saying: ‘To what purpose is this waste? For this might have been sold for much, and given to the poor.’ And Jesus knowing it, said to them: ‘Why do you trouble this woman? For she hath wrought a good work upon me. For the poor you have always with you: but me you have not always. For she in pouring this ointment upon my body, hath done it for my burial. Amen I say to you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which she hath done, shall be told for a memory of her.’ Then went on of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, to the chief priests, and said to them: ‘What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you?’ But they appointed him thirty pieces of silver. And from thenceforth he sought opportunity to betray him.”

Jesus then goes to the house of Simon the leper, who was not presently leprous, but had been healed by Jesus, keeping the title “leper” to show what he had been before encountering Jesus. So too, Theophila, do your previous sins stand as a testament to the workings of grace, that on encountering Jesus and basking in His love, they fade in the background, supplanted by the sunshine of love: “The light is sweet, and it is delightful for the eyes to see the sun” (Ecclesiastes 11:7). Now, there are three different occasions in which women that poured themselves out on Jesus out of an abundance of love: The first is Mary the prostitute, which many consider to be St. Mary Magdalene: “And behold a woman that was in the city, a sinner, when she knew that he sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment; and standing behind at his feet, she began to wash his feet, with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment” (Luke 7:37-38). This is representative of penance, of being drawn by grace from sin into the loving arms of Jesus, with sorrow for one’s sins filling the soul with tears of contrition: “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:5). Second is this woman, who represents being illuminated by truth and love, for this woman, while not freshly taken from the throes of sin, still sees many maladies within her spirit; such are the habits of imperfection that reside after the thorns of sin are burned away. Thus, armed with the confidence that sprang from what Jesus did for the leper, she comes forward for spiritual healing: “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed: save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise” (Jeremias 17:14), for by many acts of love, the habits that were not love are reversed and supplanted. The third is the same Mary as the first: “And Mary was she that anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair: whose brother Lazarus was sick” (John 11:2), and acts in a grander, more confident fashion than her penitential weeping: “Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of right spikenard, of great price, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment” (John 12:3). In this instance, she is drunk with love, and acts from a sheer abundance of love, and such is the way of the one perfected in charity, for they drink from the love of God often and deeply: “Drink, and be inebriated, my dearly beloved” (Canticle 5:1), then spread it out of habit, almost helpless, for the one deeply in love acts from being love’s captive, writing poetry and other such works of near madness because love has grasped them so firmly: “I languish with love” (Canticle 2:5), However, returning to this instance, this woman anoints the head of Jesus, and the disciples were indignant, and while Judas, in reacting to Mary, is motivated by avarice: “Now he said this, not because he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and having the purse, carried the things that were put therein” (John 12:6), the others have a genuine concern for the poor, and think that Jesus would refuse this wasteful offering: “I will have mercy and not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:13). However, what seems wasteful in the eyes of the prudent can be a wondrous overflow of love in the eyes of the lover: “Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be taken up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ, into the air, and so shall we be always with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16), that is, taken up by the fiery chariots of love into the sublimity of the love of Christ: “And as they went on, walking and talking together, behold a fiery chariot, and fiery horses parted them both asunder: and Elias went up by a whirlwind into heaven” (4 Kings 2:11). For the Most Magnificent Trinity smells the sweet savor not necessarily of the action done, but with the love with which it is done, typified the seemingly unpleasant offering of entrails on the Old Covenant altar emitting a sweet smell: “The entrails and feet being washed with water: and the priest shall burn them upon the altar for a holocaust, and a sweet savour to the Lord” (Leviticus 1:9). Thus, when the disciples turn against her, Jesus rises to her defense, for her overflow of love and devotion is a good work, and though it may not look the way others expect it to, it is beautiful in His eyes: “Since thou becamest honourable in my eyes, thou art glorious” (Isaias 43:4). Let no one, Theophila, be it others, the enemy, or your inner critic tell you that your votive offering of love is not beautiful or good enough, for all that is done in love is done well: “As long as thou livest, and hast breath in thee, let no man change thee” (Ecclesiasticus 33:21). You are woven in love in your own particular fashion: “My bone is not hidden from thee, which thou hast made in secret: and my substance in the lower parts of the earth” (Psalm 138:15), and offer a sweet sacrifice in your own particular manner: “She of her want, hath cast in all the living that she had” (Luke 21:4), for Jesus wants all of you, nothing more, nothing less. Therefore, rejoice in every beautiful act of love that you see, rather than criticizing it being done without your own manner of doing things, for all souls express their love differently, but in their own magnificent way. It is not becoming the Christian to tear down the acts of love of another: “Remove from thee a forward mouth, and let detracting lips be far from thee” (Proverbs 4:24), but to encourage each other to even more love: “For which cause comfort one another; and edify one another, as you also do” (1 Thessalonians 5:11). When Jesus says that the poor will always be present, but He will not always be had, this seems in contrast to His saying later: “Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Matthew 28:20). One interpretation is that this means that to the one that falls away, such as Judas, He would not always be possessed, but rather lost through a lack of perseverance. Another is that opening your heart to Jesus in mass and private prayer, letting Him smell the sweet smell of your affections and cover Him with words of affection and pious deeds, is to anoint His head: “He is the head of the body, the church” (Colossians 1:18), but one cannot stay in mass and adoration at all times, and therefore drink the graces you can in these times, that, enlivened by love, you may put flower petals of beauty and love on His feet, which represent His people, thus does the bride in the Song of Songs say: “I will take hold of thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house” (Canticle 8:2), that is, take hold of Him in prayer, and bring the devotion and grace from those times out with you with you into the Church and the world. He then elevates her to a magnificent standing, that wherever the gospel goes, so too will her example of piety and devotion: “Be ye followers of me, brethren, and observe them who walk so as you have our model” (Philippians 3:17). Consider, Theophila, how many grand, valiant, wise, virtuous, successful, wealthy people are now utterly forgotten, but throughout the world this woman’s act of love still resonates in churches and hearts, for this is where true greatness lies. Now, oil on its own it may smell wonderful, but does not give forth light; it only fuels the fire: “Command the children of Israel that they bring thee the purest oil of the olives, and beaten with a pestle: that a lamp may burn always” (Exodus 27:20), and so too does the oil of wisdom, marvelously aromatic and a true good on its own, need love to shine brightly rather than fall into a cold, stale, academic state: “Knowledge puffeth up; but love edifieth” (1 Corinthians 8:1). Or, the oil can be representative of good works, for natural kindness is a flavorless oil, something that anyone can practice and most people, in some degree, do: “Unless the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it” (Psalm 126:1), whereas a deep love of God that brims over into acts of love for Him, and loving one’s neighbor for His sake, is a precious ointment, and one rarely found: “Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee the finest and clearest oil of olives, to furnish the lamps continually” (Leviticus 24:2). Judas, then, one of the twelve, denoting the closeness He enjoyed with the Lord and the gifts showered upon him: “For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance” (Romans 11:29), then turns from these, the desire for money swallowing up his affections for Christ, which reached a head in the face of the woman despising money and precious things for the sake of affection: “If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come follow me” (Matthew 19:21). Judas then goes and does not demand a high price, but as handing over something worthless, leaves it up to the chief priests. So it is with the one who, not appreciating the goodness of the Lord, the extraordinary gift of God become lover: “I will espouse thee to me for ever” (Osee 2:19), exchanges the gift of intimacy with God for anything else, trading away the heart of God offered to them in prayer and in the sacraments for whatever else their hands can grasp: “Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood” (Isaias 1:3). Or, this can mean that, while the Lord’s words are the finest silver: “The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried by the fire, purged from the earth, refined seven times” (Psalm 11:7), taking them academically, historically, prophetically, or morally, the first three multiplied by the ten of the commandments equaling thirty, without coming to know the person within and loving Him is to exchange His expressing Himself to you through in love for intellectual work, which, though certainly a good, is not the highest object of the scriptures, which is to bring you into an encounter with your Beloved: “And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge… and have not love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2); “His throat,” that is, His words and the voice that animates them, “most sweet, and he is all lovely: such is my beloved, and he is my friend, O ye daughters of Jerusalem” (Canticle 5:16). Judas then seeks an opportunity to betray Jesus out of the sight of others: “And he sought opportunity to betray him in the absence of the multitude” (Luke 22:6), showing that a removal from the word of truth and the reinforcement of brethren: “If one fall he shall be supported by the other: woe to him that is alone, for when he falleth, he hath none to lift him up” (Ecclesiastes 4:10) is to seek to betray Christ, for He is present in His words, His sacraments, and in His people, and to depart from these is to leave the city of God, in which there is safety: “In that day shall the Lord protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (Zacharias 12:8) for “The great and terrible wilderness, wherein there was the serpent burning with his breath, and the scorpion and the dipsas, and no waters at all” (Deuteronomy 8:15).

Matthew 26:1-5

“And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended all these words, he said to his disciples: ‘You know that after two days shall be the pasch, and the Son of man shall be delivered up to be crucified:’ then were gathered together the chief priests and ancients of the people into the court of the high priest, who was called Caiphas: and they consulted together, that by subtilty they might apprehend Jesus, and put him to death. But they said: ‘Not on the festival day, lest perhaps there should be a tumult among the people.’”

Having discoursed on the rewards of one’s love, Jesus then announces the cost of this magnificent life: “But God commendeth his love towards us; because when as yet we were sinners, according to the time, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Jesus had not entirely finished His sayings, but “all these” to the people, for there was a distilling of the message to remain for the Apostles: “This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15:12); “The words which thou gavest me, I have given to them; and they have received them, and have known in very deed that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me” (John 17:8). He then announces the Passover, and while there was a celebration of the Jewish paschal feast: “The blood shall be unto you for a sign in the houses where you shall be: and I shall see the blood, and shall pass over you: and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I shall strike the land of Egypt. And this day shall be for a memorial to you: and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord in your ugenerations with an everlasting observance” (Exodus 12:13-14), more importantly is the Passover of the Lamb: “Christ our pasch is sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). It is the passing over of the world, and your soul, from the hands of the enemy into His gentle, loving, caring hands: “And I give them life everlasting; and they shall not perish for ever, and no man shall pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28). Or, it can be a passing over from the Old Covenant and the Law to the New Covenant of love: “This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord: I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremias 31:33). He then foretells His crucifixion to His disciples, that they may be, in some way, braced for the horrifying death of their beloved Lord. This delivering over to Judas, the priests, and the devil was to accomplish far more than His teaching and miracles, and in it is the draw to meditate on His passion, for this was a greater display of His love for you than any of the other mysteries, for the others draw you in to know Him, but the passion show the lengths to which He would go for love of you: “He that spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how hath he not also, with him, given us all things?” (Romans 8:32). The chief priests, scribes, and elders then conglomerate against the true High Priest: “We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of majesty in the heavens, a minister of the holies, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord hath pitched, and not man” (Hebrews 8:1-2), the original scribe: “And the Lord, when he had ended these words in Mount Sinai, gave to Moses two stone tables of testimony, written with the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18), and the one older than all things: “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature” (Colossians 1:15). They discussed their plan against Jesus not in fear of God: “Fit you in all goodness, that you may do his will; doing in you that which is well pleasing in his sight” (Hebrews 13:21), but rather feared the people, and in this is a lesson, Theophila, in that a bride primarily concerns herself with the good pleasure of her husband: “She that is married thinketh on the things of the world, how she may please her husband” (1 Corinthians 7:34), and, while not dismissing others, puts their concerns lower than his: “For do I now persuade men, or God?” (Galatians 1:10). Their heeding the festival was not out of love for the worship of God, but rather that the people may rise against them. However, when Judas came to them, they were overwhelmed with hate and acted during the festival regardless: “The bowels of the wicked are cruel” (Proverbs 12:10), but even this was in the hand of God: “And this he spoke not of himself: but being the high priest of that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation” (John 11:51), that the signs that prefigured Him may find their fulfillment in His perfect sacrifice, that He may give His life for yours, such was His abundant love for you.

Matthew 25:31-40

“And when the Son of man shall come in his majesty, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit upon the seat of his majesty: and all nations shall be gathered together before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand: ‘Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in: naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me.’ Then shall the just answer him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see thee hungry, and fed thee; thirsty, and gave thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger, and took thee in? Or naked, and covered thee? Or when did we see thee sick or in prison, and came to thee?’ And the king answering, shall say to them: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.’”

Jesus then forsakes parables and speaks vividly, and what His actions would be upon coming in His majesty: “And his head and his hairs were white, as white wool, and as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet like unto fine brass, as in a burning furnace. And his voice as the sound of many waters” (Apocalypse 1:14-15). He will come n His humanity: “This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as you have seen him going into heaven” (Acts 1:11), but unveil the utter magnificence of His divinity to those that believed, that loved Him, and that conformed themselves to Him in love: “For whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son; that he might be the firstborn amongst many brethren” (Romans 8:29), while being a terror to those that did not know Him: “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23). His majesty, then, refers to this divinity, by which He is equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit, being that than which nothing greater can be conceived, and the essence of love, the foundation of all being, will be seen plainly by those that loved in their lives: “We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). His bringing His angels is to show the fruits of their ministry; which pertains to you, Theophila, in that you will see everything that your guardian angel, and any other angels, ever did for you, what they kept you from, what they provided, that you may be able to weep with thanksgiving over the goodness of your angel guardian: “The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear him: and shall deliver them” (Psalm 33:8). Upon the resurrection, all people returning to their fullness in their bodies, the angels will also do the ministry of gathering the people: “Gather ye together his saints to him: who set his covenant before sacrifices” (Psalm 49:5). This gathering will take the lovers of God, made docile, meek, and innocent by the gentle touches of the Holy Spirit: “And after the fire a whistling of a gentle air” (3 Kings 19:12), to be conformed to their Bridegroom: “Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls” (Matthew 11:29), and separate them from the goats, so called due to their location in coarse places and their ability to consume. Consider, then, this magnificent sentence given to those whom He takes unto Himself, to be blessed by Love Itself as one who loved well, to “possess” the kingdom, not “receive” the kingdom, for the true lover of God has been gradually escalating in love throughout their life: “Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18), receiving the kingdom more and more until they die of love, knowing themselves to be loved by God as if they were the only person in the world, which will come to a fullness in the resurrection, where they will no longer doing battle with the enemy: “The life of man upon earth is a warfare” (Job 7:1). He then lays out six works of mercy, beginning with feeding the hungry. While this can be taken in a literal sense, and this is not to be discounted, it can also refer to the delicious bread of the gospel: “[He] gave loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes” (Matthew 14:19), and the sweet drink of wisdom: “Drink the wine which I have mingled for you” (Proverbs 9:5), for many are starving, despite having their fill of the body’s bread: “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35). Or, to feed someone with heavenly wisdom and slate their thirst for love with beautiful acts of love will in turn admit into the house of the Church the soul that is astray, and thus they are taken into a loving household to which they were previously strangers: “If a stranger dwell in your land, and abide among you, do not upbraid him: but let him be among you as one of the same country: and you shall love him as yourselves: for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 19:33-34). From their nakedness of a lack of understanding and virtue they can be clothed by a community that welcomes them and builds each other up with encouragement, good example, and mutual counsel: “A threefold cord is not easily broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12). The sickness of their sin can then be addressed with love, and by grace and devotion expelled: “And Jesus stretching forth his hand, touched him, saying: ‘I will, be thou made clean.’ And forthwith his leprosy was cleansed” (Matthew 8:3), those in the Church not fearing the sinner, but wanting him to be free: “He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (Psalm 129:8). This comes in a particular way through frequent communion, for in the Blessed Sacrament is all grace, the source of all love being present, and the divine life within the communicant will flow through the heart and set it free for love: “A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, he shall abide between my breasts” (Canticle 1:12). In the spiritual life, when a snag arises that keeps one from their Beloved, this can feel like a prison or a massive cord keeping a little bird from flight, but mutual understanding and gifts can set them free, that, turning from oneself and one’s desires, they may be free to fly to the Bridegroom: “Our soul hath been delivered as a sparrow out of the snare of the fowlers” (Psalm 123:7). In aiding in these spiritual conquests, as well as doing the corporal acts of mercy, there is a sweet reward. Overwhelmed with heavenly glory, one can ask what they did to deserve such a beautiful prize. Now, there is a mystery that He says, “whatever you have done to the least of my brethren,” for the Savior says elsewhere: “Whosoever shall do the will of my Father, that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Matthew 12:50). St. Paul exhorts: “Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the faith” (Galatians 6:10), for some gifts may fall on deaf ears, or be used poorly: “Do good to the humble, and give not to the ungodly: hold back thy bread, and give it not to him, lest thereby he overmaster thee. For thou shalt receive twice as much evil for all the good thou shalt have done to him” (Ecclesiasticus 12:7), whereas to invest one’s love and gifts into those that are filled with divine life, is to give to those who are united with Jesus and carry Him in their hearts. To the one that has received the gift of baptism and maintains it by a sacramental life, and has even an introductory knowledge of sacred realities, no matter how poor, hungry, lowly, and outcast he may be is due the reverence of the Son of God, for in them He dwells: “You are the temple of the living God; as God saith: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people’” (2 Corinthians 6:16). This is despite temperamental difference, emphases on different devotions or virtues, different ways of expressing one’s love; in that person is Christ, and they are due the love and reverence thereof: “I give thanks to my God always for you, for the grace of God that is given you in Christ Jesus, that in all things you are made rich in him” (1 Corinthians 1:4-5).

Matthew 25:14-30

“For even as a man going into a far country, called his servants, and delivered to them his goods; and to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to every one according to his proper ability: and immediately he took his journey. And he that had received the five talents, went his way, and traded with the same, and gained other five. And in like manner he that had received the two, gained other two. But he that received the one, going his way digged into the earth, and hid his lord’s money. But after a long time the lord of those servants cacme, and reckoned with them. And he that had received the five talents coming, brought other five talents, saying: ‘Lord, thou didst deliver to me five talents, behold I have gained other five over and above.’ His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.’ And he also that had received the two talents came and said: ‘Lord, thou deliveredst two talents to me: behold I have gained other two.’ His lord said to him: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant: because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.’ But he that had received the one talent, came and said: ‘Lord, I know that thou art a hard man; thou reapest where thou hast now sown, and gatherest where thou hast not strewed. And being afraid I went and hid thy talent in the earth: behold here thou hast that which is thine.’ And his lord answering, said to him: ‘Wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strewed: thou oughtest therefore to have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with usury. Take ye away therefore the talent from him, and give it thim that hath ten talents. For to every one that hath shall be given, and he tshall abound: but from him that hath not, that also which he seemeth to have shall be taken away. And the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

Jesus then turns to a parable to those that do not assist their neighbor in any way, hiding all that they have, be this money: “He that despiseth the poor, reproacheth his maker” (Proverbs 17:5), knowledge: “Wisdom that is hid, and treasure that is not seen: what profit is there in them both?” (Ecclesiasticus 20:32), or ability: “Neglect not the grace that is in thee” (1 Timothy 4:14). At the outset, He speaks of a man travelling into a far country, which is Himself, who ascended into heaven, which is a far country to human, material nature, but He lifts this up into heaven: “And he saw in his sleep a ladder standing upon the earth, and the top thereof touching heaven: the angels also of God ascending and descending by it” (Genesis 28:12), the love that is His divinity present everywhere, yet He in the flesh being lifted from earth into heaven. This can also mean that He walks with you into a far country, that your heart and mind may walk by faith among saints and divine realities: “And therefore we also having so great a cloud of witnesses over our head, laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us” (Hebrews 12:1). He then gives a multitude of talents, some more, some less, not based on some defined capacity, but on the capacity of the receiver, who can always ask for a greater heart: “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Psalm 80:11); “Ask, and it shall be given you” (Matthew 7:7), for some are content with a glass of water, but the grand heart that will only be satisfied with the fullness of God’s love, this is the bold heart that He so enjoys: “Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth” (Canticle 1:1). Now, any of these gifts are extraordinary gifts, for it is the love of God, and the one with little is still perfectly content, but deeper is the joy, Theophila, of the one who has loved incredibly. Therefore, the five talents are given to the grand heart that can weave through the Scriptures like a master: “The wise man will seek out the wisdom of all the ancients, and will be occupied in the prophets. He will keep the sayings of renowned men, and will enter withal into the subtilties of parables. He will search out the hidden meaning of proverbs, and will be conversant in the secrets of parables” (Ecclesiasticus 39:1-3), knowing not just their intellectual meaning, but their heart is grasped by the affection within and resonates, which is then pulled from them and given to God: “My son, give me thy heart: and let thy eyes keep my ways” (Proverbs 23:26). Or, the one talent can be an understanding of the Scriptures, the two can be an understanding that then leads to action, the five when the Scriptures and the love within permeate one’s being, sacred scripture coming from the mouth with affection, and the words stored up in the heart: “I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremias 31:33). He then takes His journey, to leave you to your own free will; which is mortified by love and doing the greatest act of love that you see in front of you. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Now, it may not be given you to be a mystic, Theophila, but many are the saints who had dry, seemingly unimpressive spiritual lives, who still received five talents, such as St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Teresa of Calcutta, or St. Paul of the Cross. Therefore, use the gifts that you do receive: Love radically: “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12); teach beautifully: “Thy lips are as a scarlet lace: and thy speech sweet” (Canticle 4:3); and live justly, keeping yourself from all that does not pertain to divine love: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Now, to invest your talents and reap five more is to always love, letting no one leave you without happiness and love: “And they came to the foresaid hill, and behold a company of prophets met him: and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he prophesied in the midst of them” (1 Kings 10:10), prophecy in this instance meaning the joyful praises of God. This is to be done while your conversation is heavenly and joyful, for many were magnetically drawn to St. Teresa of Avila for her loving, deep, honest conversations about God: “It shall be as a sign in thy hand, and as a memorial before thy eyes: and that the law of the Lord be always in thy mouth, for with a strong hand the Lord hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt” (Exodus 13:9). Or, to invest your talents and bring back double is to teach others by words and actions, not letting yourself be put into a box, but rather letting your love flow out into a twofold profit of word and deed: “He that believeth in me, as the scripture saith, ‘Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:38). To receive two talents is to confess the twofold nature of Jesus Christ as God and man, and to receive His substance in the Eucharist into oneself, and then understand and work, but a meager faith is the less exciting way. Then, the one talent is to take what is precious about you and hide it away, and this can have two meanings. The first is to take the brilliant reality that is your mind and give it to occupations that are not worth its application, for in the vision of St. John it says: “In the sight of the throne was, as it were, a sea of glass like to crystal” (Apocalypse 4:6); the sea was a large bowl of water in the temple, and crystal, when illuminated, shines brilliantly, and so too, when your mind is filled with heavenly truth, this shines forth as something sparkling. To mix what is earthly into this heavenly sea is to place mud in the sacred waters, and hide it for one’s own pleasure: “I saw among the spoils a scarlet garment exceeding good, and two hundred sicles of silver, and a golden rule of fifty sicles: and I coveted them, and I took them away, and hid them in the ground in the midst of my tent” (Josue 7:21). The second application is to have the knowledge and grace to teach for the benefit of souls, but rather harbor it for oneself. Now, it is of great benefit to bury oneself from worldly cares for the sake of contemplation: “Thou shalt enter into the grave in abundance, as a heap of wheat is brought in its season” (Job 5:26), but the greatest imitation of the Apostolic life is one of contemplation, prayer, and teaching: “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4), picking the highest fruits of love and wisdom: “Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples: because I languish with love” (Canticle 2:5) to share with those that cannot reach as high, while not leaving works of mercy unattended to: “And when they had known the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship: that we should go unto the Gentiles, and they unto the circumcision: only that we should be mindful of the poor: which same thing also I was careful to do” (Galatians 2:9-10). The Lord then says He will come after a long time, for His desire is for you to be perfect, to achieve the work He wishes you to do, and to reach the greatest heights of sanctity to which you are called, and He will be patient in this: “Love is patient” (1 Corinthians 13:4). Now, do not doubt or suppress your talents, Theophila, for self-doubt hinders divine action by a lack of confidence: “Do not therefore lose your confidence, which hath a great reward” (Hebrews 10:35), and with this confidence, the servant with ten talents comes forward, to receive a sentence of joy: “Thou shalt fill me with joy with thy countenance: at thy right hand are delights even to the end” (Psalm 15:11). Those who love do not go to purgatory, Theophila, and to use your gifts faithfully and for the sake of love is to use them well, to receive this same commendation. There is no greater reward than to work solely to make your Beloved loved and happy, and to enter eternal life to hear Him say, “Greatly have you loved me,” and enter into the wonders of the Most Blessed Trinity. The servant who hid his talent comes forward, offering excuses: “Incline not my heart to evil words; to make excuses in sins” (Psalm 140:4), for looking to defend his actions, he speaks against the Master, who is the source of all goodness, with no admixture of evil: “The Lord our God is righteous, and there is no iniquity in him” (Psalm 91:16). It is regarding Jesus as hard and austere and impossible to please, rather than that He is so gracious that He reaps among great philosophers and Gentiles who lived good lives, and lived according to right reason, or the Word: “The hour cometh, wherein all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they that have done good things, shall come forth unto the resurrection of life” (John 5:28-29). To be afraid and bury talents is to fear the demands of the Christian life: “For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake” (Acts 9:16), without appreciating the love that upholds the whole thing, for it is love that upholds martyrs, love that adorns virgins, love that is the form of the virtues, love that makes for true wisdom, and all that must be suffered in the Christian life is worth the love that is within it: “In this is love: not as though we had loved God, but because he hath first loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Or, it can refer to not letting your heart take flight, because it is too preoccupied in different commandments: “Stand fast, and be not held again under the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1), and this fear stifles the heart and hides it in the earth of itself, rather than letting it rejoice ceaselessly: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). The Lord then calls him wicked for speaking against Him and slothful for not doubling the talent, and the precious words of the Gospel: “The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried by the fire, purged from the earth, refined seven times” (Psalm 11:7) would have been better in the hands of a pure academic, which is what is meant by the bankers, who, though they would not use these gems to fall in love, would still bring forth theology that may lead someone else into the love story. The one talent is then taken and given to the one with ten talents, that the deep lover of God, by seeing the errors others fall into, may take greater caution to avoid them: “His truth shall compass thee with a shield: thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night. Of the arrow that flieth in the day, of the business that walketh about in the dark: of invasion, or of the noonday sun” (Psalm 90:5-6), walking nimbly in love rather than stepping into snares: “But a net is spread in vain before the eyes of them that have wings” (Proverbs 1:17). The Lord then says that to the one that has, more will be given, for the one that possesses the gift of love, a heart on fire for God and His love, will be given the other gifts as well: “Follow after love, be zealous for spiritual gifts” (1 Corinthians 14:1), but to be without love is to be entirely without, for knowledge, possessions, and good works fade, but love alone remains: “Love never falleth away: whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed” (1 Corinthians 13:8). It can also mean that without the loving relationship of Christ, rooted in truth, the gifts one has are misused, spoiling the natural goods that one has by wasting them on erroneous doctrines, oneself, or useless occupations. Thirdly, it can mean that many cultivate much virtue and toil, but do not cultivate a happy heart that rejoices in its Beloved and a will that follows this, and the graces that are refused by these will be given to the one that drinks from the fount of love that is the Sacred Heart: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation, in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your heart enlightened” (Ephesians 1:18), for He longs to pour His merciful love into hearts, but few are those that will receive this love, even amongst the faithful: “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). To this absence, then, is the condemnation of the exterior darkness, that is, to be entirely without the light of love, to those that did not fasten their hearts to His Heart and do all things for love. Pope St. Gregory then, in light of this parable, exhorts the wise not to stifle their wisdom: “For Sion’s sake I will not hold my peace” (Isaias 62:1), not to turn from merciful deeds, but bring the art of love from concept to the canvas: “My little children, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth” (1 John 3:18), not to refuse gentle correction from the one wandering: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly, in all wisdom: teaching and admonishing one another” (Colossians 3:16), and to put every grain of sand in one’s hourglass to the joyful service of the Lord, for “Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16). Let every fiber of your being, then, Theophila, be radiant and vibrating with the sweet music of love, putting your every thought, affection, and action into the happy, loving service of God: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind” (Matthew 22:37).

Matthew 25:1-13

“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like to ten virgins, who taking their lamps went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. And five of them were foolish, and five wise. But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps. And the bridegroom tarrying, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made: ‘Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet him.’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise: ‘Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out.’ The wise answered, saying: ‘Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you, go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.’ Now whilst they went to buy, the bridegroom came: and they that were ready, went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. But at last, came also the other virgins, saying: ‘Lord, Lord, open to us.’ But he answering said: ‘Amen I say to you, I know you not.’ Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour.”

Jesus then turns from the impatient to those who do not gather grace in abundance, those who do not let their cups be filled to overflowing with love: “I will give thee a cup of spiced wine and new wine of my pomegranates” (Canticle 8:2). Now, while some may equate this to those who have embraced consecrated life, it applies to the Christian faithful in that the five senses can be equated with the five virgins, with some using their bodies in a way that is foolish, others in a way that is pure and magnificent, not in repressing themselves, but letting themselves be filled with the gift of divine love: “Furthermore I count all things to be but loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord” (Philippians 3:8). However, He uses the figure of virginity to show that if virginity or consecration is not paired with works of love: “Let all your things be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14), it is hollow and lifeless. Or, in the application to all Catholics, it is that the word of God and the magnificent love therein imparts purity, for the figures of St. Mary Magdalene, St. Mary of Egypt, and St. Augustine are not remembered for their lasciviousness, but for the love of God that captivated them and transformed their lives, which they then harbored: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much” (Luke 7:47). The lamp, then, is the soul and its faculties, which, cleaned from vice can let light shine through. They go to meet the bridegroom and the bride, which is the Word in His divinity wedded to human nature, that in Jesus the two are one, Himself being fully God and fully man. Now, the wise virgins are those that drank plentifully from the Sacred Heart, being filled to overflowing with love: “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury; but be ye filled with the holy Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), their lights shining bright not by their own efforts, but by the love that was gifted to them that they received plentifully. One definition of wisdom is knowledge with delight, and so your five senses can be called into rejoicing and delight from your Beloved: To hear the voice of His love in the Scriptures with tranquility and eagerness: “Sion heard, and was glad” (Psalm 96:8); to see Him in the Sacrament or in holy images and let your heart be stirred to praise: “Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, and comely” (Canticle 1:15), to feel the warmth of His love by imaging yourself near Him in His humanity: “That which was from the beginning… our hands have handled, of the word of life” (1 John 1:1); taste the sweetness of His truth: “O taste, and see that the Lord is sweet” (Psalm 33:9); and to follow the fragrance of love, like the smell of roses being borne through the wind: “Arise, O north wind, and come, O south wind, blow through my garden, and let the aromatical spices thereof flow” (Canticle 4:16), this is to delight in the Lord. The gift the Lord gives to your senses, then, is greater than the vanities on which many set their soul’s beautiful faculties, reducing them to husks that consume and discard mindlessly: “They shall be scattered abroad to eat, and shall murmur if they be not filled” (Psalm 58:16). The invitation is wonderful and gentle, Theophila, for the Lord does not wish to rip things out of your hands, but invites you to hand over what is of the earth for the sweet ambrosia of heavenly delights, that you may be happier and more full of love, joy, and sweetness: “Wisdom hath built herself a house, she hath hewn her out seven pillars. She hath slain her victims, mingled her wine, and set forth her table” (Proverbs 9:1-2). It is not an idle mortification of the senses to which you are called, but rather a turning of them to what is better, to what is infinitely more delightful: “His fruit was sweet to my palate” (Canticle 2:3). Now, the lamp is a following of the commandments, but when this is done drearily and without devotion, it is an intact lamp, but does not burn bright, but the oil of devotion and love in the heart enkindles all one’s actions, that they may be done with love: “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). A continent life, a cavalcade of good works, a mind filled with knowledge, all of these are so much straw when the fires of God’s love, gathered eagerly in mental prayer, are not present: “If I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries… and have not love, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2-3), for without this love, there is no joy in the works that are done, or the state in life, but all are seen as exercises, done without understanding. When the heart does not receive the inflow of grace from the Sacred Heart, which is the fire of the Holy Spirit, but is attempting to operate under its own power, which the human heart is too feeble and broken to be able to do: “I am the vine; you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5), it is nothing, but when the heart receives its light and life from Him: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4), the Holy Spirit operates with freedom, leading the soul in love, grace, and beauty. However, an unlit lamp remains in darkness, and so the oil of devotion needs the spark of acts of love, for upon the tree of good works does the vine of a life of love grow, to shelter you from the heat of condemnation: “And the Lord God prepared an ivy, and it came up over the head of Jonas, to be a shadow over his head, and to cover him” (Jonas 4:6), which is aided by the guiding hand of heavenly doctrine, for love done wisely and with devotion is man’s true art: “He hath done all things well” (Mark 7:37). The sleep of the virgins is then the sleep of death in the metaphorical sense, but can also be representative of earthly sleep, which is a gift that energizes the body: “He shall give sleep to his beloved” (Psalm 126:2). There is a Jewish tradition that Christ will come at midnight, and thus the devotion of praying the Office at midnight, to greet the Lord while the world sleeps and consecrate the silence of night with the fire of love, is a watchful, beautiful tradition: “I rose at midnight to give praise to thee; for the judgments of thy justification” (Psalm 118:62). To “go out and meet him” is to let the two become one, to join to your humanity the divinity of God, which happens in an introductory way in baptism, grows through the reception of Jesus in Holy Communion and encountering Him in prayer, in a living foretaste in the soul of the one perfected in love, and in its fullest sense in the world to come. Or, your senses rest when you use them idly, at which time an angel calls you to the Bridegroom, arousing you to union with Jesus by greater vigilance, for He commanded: “Do not possess gold… nor shoes” (Matthew 10:9-10), the leather sandals representing dead works, for idleness is a great enemy of the soul, and thus it is of great importance and benefit to let the Lord always find you praying or working: “Whatsoever you do, do it from the heart, as to the Lord, and not to men: knowing that you shall receive of the Lord the reward of inheritance. Serve ye the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:23-24), not worrying about growing fatigued, for the Lord exhorts: “He hath brought you forty years through the desert: your garments are not worn out, neither are the shoes of your feet consumed with age” (Deuteronomy 29:5), for acts of love are wood to the fire of the one in love, but burn out the one who does not gather the oil of devotion. The virgins then trim their lamps, and some go out, their hearts recoiling from the love of Jesus, even though their lamps of good works were sound: “Abide in my love” (John 15:9). Because they were empty within, rather than nourished by the love that comes from a healthy sacramental life and mental prayer: “Come to me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you” (Matthew 11:28), and so those without turn to others for love, rather than the Lord Himself, having not built a relationship of love with Him: “Put not your trust in princes: in the children of men, in whom there is no salvation” (Psalm 145:2-3). Others cannot inflame your heart with the Holy Spirit, Theophila, only Jesus can do that, and this will not come by deep theology, but by a genuine encounter that leads to a genuine relationship: “And immediately he saw, and followed him in the way” (Mark 10:52), and one cannot stand as a patron for another, but one’s own love story with God must be read. “Those that sell,” then, are the poor, and to give to the poor faithful, for wisdom says, “If thou do good, know to whom thou dost it, and there shall be much thanks for thy good deeds” (Ecclesiasticus 12:1), gives a return of prayer, thanksgiving, and a good conscience. Or, those that sell can be teachers of wisdom, for in knowing the scriptures properly, you can then understand them when you go to mental prayer, and from this understanding of the mind, ask God for an understanding of the heart, that the words of scripture may fill your heart with love rather than remaining simply as knowledge: “Was not our heart burning within us, whilst he spoke in the way, and opened to us the scriptures?” (Luke 24:32). However, for these virgins, the poor and the teachers have entered their rest, doctrine, charity, and devotion no longer able to be gathered. It could also mean that, not knowing the sweet interior joys of God, they turn to outward things to settle their hearts, rather than to letting themselves love and be loved by Christ, asking those with devotion: “What manner of one is thy beloved of the beloved, O thou most beautiful among women? What manner of one is thy beloved of the beloved, that thou hast so adjured us?” (Canticle 5:9). They then call to Him, “Lord, Lord,” marking a profession of faith, but by pushing Him out of their hearts entirely with evil works, or keeping Him on the fringes by a life focused on worldly things, He says, “I do not know you.” Your vocation, Theophila, is to love Him dearly: “The Lord knoweth who are his” (2 Timothy 2:19), in heart, word, and deed, and when your entire life becomes a long act of love, then you are vigilantly watching with a lamp trimmed with oil.