Regarding the scene of the crowning with thorns, the Bavarian stigmatist, Theresa Neumann, gives a detail which, if it is exact, is of such a revolting nature that one scarcely dare mention it. Of course, regarding all private revelations of the same kind, nothing need be believed...but if it is true, what horror!
While Our Lord submitted to the outrages of His tormentors during the crowning with thorns, each time He opened His parched lips to breathe more deeply, the drunken brutes made sport of spitting into His mouth.
Is it possible! The gall of the Crucifixion is honey in comparison with this! Nothing could be more foul.
O Mary, when you kissed the lips of your little Jesus, did you foresee this horror? When you gave Him your milk to appease His childish thirst, could you even guess at this ignominy of Ignominies?
And if I shudder in merely thinking of this infamous deed and feel indescribable disgust, You, O my Jesus, You who have truly lived through the scene, what must have been Your anguish! This was indeed the dregs of the chalice You had to drink.
Oh, how I understand Your disgust and how I pity You! If, only, I were able to love You as much as You were offended, but my will is not attuned to my compassion, for after I have left chapel I find myself as cowardly as ever.
I must have compassion, oh! yes, and deep compassion, but more than that, I must make compensation. I must bring You a love equal to Your loathing for sin.
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
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