Charles Williams : The New Christian Year

5th Tuesday in Lent (March 31st, 2009)

As He was uplifted above others in gifts of graces, so was He lowered beneath others by the ignominy of His sufferings.

Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologica.

The will maketh the beginning, the middle, and the end of everything; it is the only workman in nature, and everything is its work.  It has all power, its works cannot be hindered, it carries all before it, it creates as it goes and all things are possible to it.  It enters whenever it wills and finds everything that it seeks, for its seeking is its finding.  The will overrules all nature, because nature is its offspring and born of it; for all the properties of nature, whether the be good or evil, in darkness or in light, in love or in hatred, in wrath or in meekness, in pride or humility, in trouble or birth of the will; as that liveth so, they live, and as that changeth, so they change.

William Law: Divine Knowledge.

And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.

Matthew 27:35

  It is part of righteous living not to stand in fear of things which ought not to be feared. . . .  In order that no kind of death should trouble and upright man, the cross of this Man had to be set before him, because, of all kinds of death, none was more execrable, more fear-inspiring than this.

St. Augustine: Questiones.

  Thus on the tree of life the salvation and life of all is suspended.

St. Hillary of Poitiers: quoted by  St. Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea.

  Its breadth lies in the transverse beam, on which the hands of the Crucified are extended; and signifies good works in all the breadth of love: its length extends from the transverse beam to the ground, and is that where to the back and feet are affixed; and signifies perseverance through the whole length of time to the end: its height is in the summit, which rises upward above the transverse beam; and signifies the supernal goal, to which all works have reference, since all things that are done well and perseveringly, in respect of their breadth and length, are to be done also with the due regard to the exalted character of the divine rewards: its depth is found in the part that is fixed into the ground; for there it is both concealed and invisible, and yet from thence spring up all those parts that are outstanding and evident to the senses; just as all that is good in us proceeds from the depths of the grace of God, which is beyond the reach of human comprehension and judgment.

St. Augustine: On the Gospel of John.

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.

Luke 23:34

  All bodies together and all minds together and all their products are not equal to the least motion of love; that belongs to an order higher by infinity.

Pascal: Pensées, 793.

  You see, beloved, how great and wonderful a thing love is, and how unspeakable its perfection.

St. Clement, Epistles.

  It is important to consider in what condition he ascends to the cross; for I see him naked.  Let him then who prepares to overcome the world, so ascend that he seeks not the appliances of the world. . . . He ascends such as nature formed us, God being our creator.

St. Ambrose: quoted by St. Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea.