Priest of all priests, Jesus Christ, on the altar of the cross, in the midst of countless angels. You have seen fulfilled to the letter all that the patriarchs and prophets have, by word and deed, foretold and prefigured for thousands of years. All that a merciful God had decreed from all eternity, all that He promised to our first parents in Eden, has been fully realized. All that the souls of the just in limbo, and the pious and good on earth had prayed and longed for, has been happily accomplished; namely, the redemption and eternal salvation of the human race. It is consummated. CHAPTER XX MIRACULOUS EVENTS AT THE DEATH OF JESUS. Matt. xxvii. 51-66; Mark xv. 38-47; Luke xxiii. 45-56; John xix. 31-42 "AND behold the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top even to the bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were rent. And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints, that had slept, arose; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, came into the holy city and appeared to many." (Matt. xxvii. 51.) "The centurion who stood over against Him, seeing what was done, that Jesus, crying out in this manner, had given up the ghost, glorified God, saying: Indeed this was a just man; indeed He was the Son of God. And they that were with him watching Jesus, having seen the earthquake and the things that were done, were sore afraid, saying: Indeed this was the Son of God. And all the multitude of them that were come together to that sight, and saw the things that were done, returned striking their breasts. All His acquaintance, and many women who had followed Jesus from Galilee, stood afar off, looking on and beholding these things. Among whom were Mary Magdalen, Mary the mother of James the less and of Joseph, and Salome the mother of the sons of Zebedee, who also, when He was in Galilee, followed Him and ministered to Him, and many other women that came up with Him to Jerusalem." Before proceeding onward, let us consider the five wonderful events which took place at the death of Jesus. The first of these, namely, the three hours' darkness during our Lord's agony, has been already described. The second event was the tearing asunder into two parts the veil of the temple. This veil or curtain concealed the holy of holies; and only once a year, on the day of the great atonement, the high-priest, and he only, was permitted to venture behind this veil, when he went to sacrifice the victim of expiation. According to Jewish accounts, this curtain was forty yards long and twenty wide, embroidered heavily with golden and purple threads, and so artistically wrought that it required a whole year's work at the hands of several thousand young girls to finish it. And now, at the very instant when the veritable High-Priest on Golgotha is entering, with His own sacrificial blood, into the Sanctuary, and offering up the only efficacious sin-atonement, this veil of the temple is rent in twain from top to bottom. This was a sign that admission to the Most High, that is to say, to reconciliation in and through Christ, was now granted to all men; that the ancient figurative sacrificial worship of the Old Law had been abolished, and that the Jewish temple had lost its use and meaning forevermore. But few hours previous, the chief-priest Caiphas had rent his garments in a fit of hypocritical indignation, thereby rejecting, in the name of the whole nation, the Messias as a blasphemer of God. Now, the Almighty, in just anger, tears the garments of the Sanctuary, and thereby rejects forever the Jewish nation. The third miraculous occurrence was the terrible earthquake during the agony of Jesus. Reliable annalists assure us that mountains and valleys were agitated fearfully, not only in Palestine, but throughout Asia Minor, and away to the west as far as Spain. On Calvary the very rocks were rent. Thus did inanimate, irrational nature manifest its horror at the death of its Creator. A thrill of mingled terror and protest ran through its inmost recesses of existence, when it witnessed the crime perpetrated against their Lord and Master by reasonable and intelligent human beings. The fourth miraculous event was the resurrection from their graves of many dead persons. These are called, in the Scripture, holy persons. This strange resurrection of such deceased persons is variously commented upon by holy and learned writers, and variously explained. It is commonly held that these servants of God did not go through the mys tery of their real and final resurrection in glorified and impassible bodies; that they were not permitted, on the day of the Ascension, to go up with Christ into heaven with bodies and souls. Theirs was rather a temporary resurrection; and after they had appeared to many of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, comforting the faithful, encouraging the doubtful, exhorting the unbelieving to conversion, and giving testimony to all that the crucified Christ was really the Conqueror of death and the Lord of life, their bodies returned to their silent graves, whilst their souls were led up into heaven by Christ on the day of His ascension. Lastly, the fifth miraculous occurrence was the spiritual resurrection, or the conversion of many of those persons who were present at the death of Christ. They witnessed the preternatural disturbances in the heavens and on the earth; they heard Christ cry out, with a loud voice, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit," thereby proclaiming that this was an act of His own free will, and not of coercion, as is the case with other dying mortals, but that He was going to His death voluntarily. All these circumstances touched the heart of many spectators, who thereupon professed the truth, and with contrite hearts acknowledged: Surely this is the Son of God. Here again discover and acknowledge the blessed fruit of that intercessory prayer of our great High-Priest: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." How inscrutable are the decrees of the Lord, how mysterious and hidden the ways of divine justice and mercy! The Jewish priesthood, in blindness and perversity, rushed forward to dark destruction, while the pagan Centurion of heathen Rome discovered the light, followed it and believed. Several learned annalists inform us that this centurion's name was Longinus, and that he suffered martyrdom for the faith of Christ, in Cappadocia. "Then the Jews (because it was the parasceve) that the bodies might not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath-day (for that was a great Sabbath-day), besought Pilate that the legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. The soldiers therefore came, and they broke the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with Him. But after they were come to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear opened His side, and immediately there came out blood and water. And he that saw it hath given testi mony,' and his testimony is true. And he knoweth that he saith true, that you also may believe. For these things were done that the Scripture might be fulfilled: You shall not break a bone of Him. And again another Scripture saith: They shall look on Him whom they pierced." (John.) As in the slaughter of the figurative paschal lamb of the Old Testament, the bones were to remain unbroken, in order that the appearance might be preserved of a victim sacrificed in perfect entirety and soundness, so was the adorable body of our Lord, the true paschal lamb, to be spared such a ruthless desecration after death. But why was that dreadful rent of the lance permitted to be made in His right side, and so near to His sacred heart? The holy doctors of the Church assign a threefold reason for this piercing of the side of Jesus. In the first place, this lance-thrust, which pierced the side and heart of Jesus with such unerring certainty that the blood spurted forth mingled with water, was to afford proof to all doubters that Christ was not feigning death, but that death had really taken place, and that decomposition of the blood had already set in. In the second place, our loving Redeemer wished to impress all future generations with the dignity and excellence of His holy Church. For, as of old, in the garden of paradise, Eve, the mother of the human family, came forth from the side of father Adam, during his sleep, so from out of the side of the second and spiritual Adam, Jesus Christ, whilst He slept in death on the cross, the new Eve and spiritual mother of all redeemed humanity, the holy Catholic Church, came forth figuratively. For the Church, with all her spiritual riches and precious graces, is but the fruit of the bitter sufferings and cruel death of Christ. The blood and the water flowing from the wounded side of the Lord are the symbols of these precious graces, especially of such as are contained in the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. In the third place, the lacerated side and pierced heart of Jesus constitute at once a figure and an evidence of His boundless love toward mankind. Hence His precious blood was to be poured out for us to the very last drop, and His adorable heart to be opened as a place of secure refuge and rest for the distressed, weary and sin-laden souls of men. 'St. John the Evangelist here alludes to himself, who had been an eyewitness to the crucifixion, and had stood under the cross during our Lord's agony and death. "After these things, and when evening was come (because it was the parasceve, that is, the day before the Sabbath), there came a certain rich man named Joseph of Arimathea, a city in Judea, who was a noble counsellor, a good and a just man and had not consented to their counsel and doings, who also himself looked for the kingdom of God, and was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews. This man came and went in boldly to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus." "But Pilate wondered that he should be already dead, and sending for the centurion, he asked him if he were really dead. When he had understood it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph, and commanded that the body should be delivered." "He came therefore and took away the body of Jesus. And Nicodemus also came, he who at first came to Jesus by night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundredpound weight. Joseph buying fine linen, and taking Jesus down, wrapped Him up in the fine linen; they bound the body in linen cloths with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury." All these marks of respect and love shown to the body of Jesus by these devoted friends, had been foretold by the prophet Isaias, when he said: "His sepulcher shall be glorious, and His rest shall be glorified." Nicodemus, a prince among the Jews, and Joseph of Arimathea, a rich and influential member of the high council, now touched the body of Jesus with gentle and reverent hands, whereas only a few hours previous the most degraded of men had vented their low malice against that same body. A very wealth of costly spices and other preservatives were lavished upon the remains of Him to whom gall and vinegar had been offered. The finest linens now enclosed those limbs which the executioners had exposed to the vulgar gaze. At the crucifixion, no one, save the penitent thief, was brave enough to speak a word in defense of the Son of God; but now, those men who, through fear of the Jews, had concealed their love for Christ, openly acknowledged themselves to be His friends. Thus was the prophecy of Isaias verified. The solemn ceremony of taking down from the cross the precious body of Jesus, was carried out with a religious reverence indescribably touching, and amid a sad and sorrowful silence, whilst countless throngs of heavenly spirits hovered about unseen. Those engaged in this sacred duty moved slowly, and gently, and carefully, as though they dreaded to |