Meditation for March 19, The Eve of Suffering

A meditation on the Feast of St Joseph can be read here.
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Do I realize the full meaning of the words read immediately before the consecration of the Mass, beginning Pridie quam patere­tur, "The night before He suffered..."?

Recall the Last Supper of Jesus with His disciples: In a few hours all will be consummated. The Master took the bread in His holy and venerable hands; He is going to break it, to consecrate it, to distribute it to His apostles and through them to the whole world. He is filled with joy at the great gift He is giving us. But after more thoughtful contempla­tion, it is evident that a cloud of infinite sadness overshadows His superabounding serenity.

He is not unaware of what awaits Him! In a little while, in the garden...tonight... and all tomorrow morning...then noon and an eternity of sorrow crowded into one supreme act, the frightful crucifixion - from noon until three o'clock.

But the searching eye of Jesus reaches still further. His Pas­sion, He knows well, will endure to the end of time. He, the Savior, once risen will suffer no longer; but we, His loved crea­tures, will always be on the eve of our suffering. Christ can no longer be reviled in His person; He will be forever the Head im­mune to suffering, but the Passion will be perpetuated in us, His members, throughout the centuries.

Although it will take on every conceivable guise - discouragement, agony of soul, physical suffer­ing, persecutions - it will always manage to treat the disciples as it has treated the Master.

"This is My body which is the viaticum, the support in the fatigues of the way. And if some day, it is no longer just the ordinary every day suffering which comes but a true Passion of sinister proportions then grant, O Jesus, that I may recall the many Masses I have heard and the moving words so often repeated: Pridie quam pateretur, 'the night before He suffered,' that I may have courage to unite my sacri­fice with Yours."

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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)