From the height of His gibbet, the dying Savior could see mentally, if not actually, Judas hanging on the main branch of an olive tree not far from Calvary.
And Mary, meeting Jesus ascending Calvary, must have understood this great suffering of her Son. It was not His physical suffering, but that breaking of the soul caused by the resistance of those who all along the centuries would refuse redemption. If this miserable Judas were the only one, but how many others will probably imitate him? And then what will the sufferings of the Savior avail? Why a sacrifice as great as that of Golgotha? Why this excruciating effort? Why this outpouring of love of which so much is but a heart-breaking loss?
And Mary saw the shadow of the traitor's gibbet stretch out over the centuries to come, as an immense threatening rent in the seamless robe of the Church of Christ. This picture is taken almost as it is given in Isaias. Why the need for the gibbet that bears her Son if the gibbet of Judas remains upright? How true it is that "The way of the cross did not begin for Mary at the home of Pilate but at the infamous gibbet of the Apostle of despair."
"Blessed Mother, Sorrowful Mother, how I would like to offer you a heart so rich in love that it might be for you generous and abundant compensation for the indifference of sinners."_________________
Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
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