steps forward, who had been His friend, His disciple, and imprints the terrible kiss of treachery upon His sacred forehead. : And they bind the innocent Lamb, the incarnate Son of God, and lead Him away to Jerusalem; they mock and blaspheme Him, they scourge Him and crown His head with cruel thorns. Now He climbs the steep ascent of Mount Golgotha. With a heavy cross pressing upon His lacerated shoulders, the Man of Sorrows totters along. Having reached the summit, they tear off His clothes, throw Him down upon the cross, stretch His mangled limbs, drive huge nails through His hands and feet, and then set up the cross. Behold the charity of thy God!
4. Lift up your heart to the cross! There hangs the Lamb of God, suspended upon the tree of shame between heaven and earth. The blood flows from a hundred wounds and trickles down upon the cross. To all this physical torture add the mental anguish which rends His soul at the sight of His beloved Mother standing at His feet. His heart is ready to break with compassion! Furthermore, there is the mockery and blasphemy of the godless bystanders, whose obstinacy, as He knows only too well, will cause all His sufferings to be of no avail as far as they are concerned. And finally, there is the inexpressibly painful dereliction which wrings from His lips the agonizing cry: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Now consider all that we have been passing in review and see “whether there be any sorrow like to this sorrow”; see whether there be any charity like to this divine charity!
5. But lift up your heart still higher, lift it up to heaven. If with mortal eyes you are sot
