Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He narrates, in verse 1, Christ's scourging, crowning, the purple robe, the slaps, His being shown to the people who cried out: Crucify Him, because He made Himself the Son of God; and in verse 12: If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar — by which cry Pilate, overcome, handed Jesus over to the Jews. They therefore crucified Him at Golgotha, with this title: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews; soon the soldiers divided His garments. Then, verse 25, Jesus assigns John as a son to His mother; verse 28, He cries out: I thirst; verse 30: It is finished, and He expires; verse 34, His side is opened with a lance, and from it came out blood and water. Finally, verse 38, Joseph and Nicodemus anoint Jesus and bury Him in a new tomb.
Vulgate Text: John 19:1-42
1. Then therefore Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. 2. And the soldiers, plaiting a crown of thorns, placed it on His head; and clothed Him with a purple garment. 3. And they came to Him and said: Hail, King of the Jews; and they struck Him. 4. Pilate therefore went out again and said to them: Behold, I bring Him out to you, that you may know that I find no cause in Him. 5. (Jesus therefore came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.) And He says to them: Behold the Man. 6. When therefore the chief priests and ministers saw Him, they cried out, saying: Crucify, crucify Him. Pilate says to them: Take Him yourselves and crucify Him; for I find no cause in Him. 7. The Jews answered him: We have a law, and according to the law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God. 8. When therefore Pilate heard this saying, he was the more afraid. 9. And he entered the praetorium again and said to Jesus: Whence are you? But Jesus gave him no answer. 10. Pilate therefore says to Him: Do you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to crucify you, and power to release you? 11. Jesus answered: You would have no power against Me whatsoever unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin. 12. And from then on Pilate sought to release Him. But the Jews were crying out, saying: If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. For everyone who makes himself a king contradicts Caesar. 13. Pilate therefore, when he had heard these words, brought Jesus out; and he sat down on the tribunal, in the place called Lithostrotos, and in Hebrew Gabbatha. 14. Now it was the Preparation of the Passover, about the sixth hour, and he says to the Jews: Behold your King. 15. But they cried out: Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him. Pilate says to them: Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered: We have no king but Caesar. 16. Then therefore he handed Him over to them to be crucified. And they took Jesus and led Him away. 17. And bearing His own cross, He went out to the place called Calvary, in Hebrew Golgotha: 18. where they crucified Him, and with Him two others, one on each side, and Jesus in the middle. 19. And Pilate also wrote a title, and he put it upon the cross. And the writing was: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. 20. This title therefore many of the Jews read; because the place where Jesus was crucified was near to the city. And it was written in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin. 21. Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate: Write not, King of the Jews; but that He said: I am King of the Jews. 22. Pilate answered: What I have written, I have written. 23. The soldiers therefore, when they had crucified Him, took His garments (and they made four parts, to every soldier a part) and also His coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. 24. They said then one to another: Let us not cut it, but let us cast lots for it, whose it shall be. That the Scripture might be fulfilled, saying: They have parted My garments among them, and upon My vesture they have cast lots. And the soldiers indeed did these things. 25. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother's sister Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. 26. When Jesus therefore had seen His mother and the disciple standing whom He loved, He says to His mother: Woman, behold thy son. 27. Then He says to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own. 28. Afterwards, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said: I thirst. 29. Now there was a vessel set there full of vinegar. And they, putting a sponge full of vinegar about hyssop, put it to His mouth. 30. Jesus therefore, when He had taken the vinegar, said: It is consummated. And bowing His head, He gave up the spirit. 31. 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 their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32. The soldiers therefore came; and they broke the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with Him. 33. But after they had come to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs; 34. but one of the soldiers with a spear opened His side, and immediately there came out blood and water. 35. And he that saw it has given testimony; and his testimony is true. And he knows that he says true, that you also may believe. 36. For these things were done, that the Scripture might be fulfilled: You shall not break a bone of Him. 37. And again another Scripture says: They shall look on Him whom they have pierced. 38. And after these things, Joseph of Arimathaea (because he was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews) besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. 39. And Nicodemus also came, he who at the first came to Jesus by night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. 40. They took therefore the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. 41. Now there was in the place where He was crucified a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein no man yet had been laid. 42. There, therefore, because of the Parasceve of the Jews, because the sepulchre was at hand, they laid Jesus.
Verse 1: Then Therefore Pilate Took Jesus and Scourged Him
1. THEN THEREFORE PILATE TOOK JESUS, AND SCOURGED HIM. — "Then," that is, after he had said to the Jews, in order to quench their fury against Jesus: "I will chastise Him therefore and release Him," as Luke supplies, chapter xxiii, verse 22, "he scourged Him." The inhabitants of the Holy Land hand down that Jesus was scourged: first with thicker ropes; secondly with knotted cords to which were added iron scorpions; thirdly with chains; fourthly with thorny rods. But Ribera replies that the traditions of the inhabitants of the Holy Land have little credit, since Christians have not remained there from the time of the Passion down to us, so that the tradition might come through their hands from the ancients: rather all are newcomers, and they often change their dwelling place, and therefore do not retain the traditions of the ancients.
Verse 2: And With a Purple Garment They Clothed Him
2. AND WITH A PURPLE GARMENT (Syriac, scarlet) THEY CLOTHED HIM. — See what has been said on Matthew xxvii, 30, to which add St. Athanasius, who, in his treatise On the Cross and Passion, asserts that Christ in the scarlet cloak bore the blood of men with which the devil had polluted the earth by murders; in the thorns, our sins; in the reed, the bond by which the devil had written us down as his own: all of which Christ took away by His passion. "Moreover," he says, "the Lord took the reed, while the devil did not know that he was giving Him a sword against himself: for the reed is said to be deadly to serpents and that they are most readily killed by it; so Christ took the reed to free us from the cunning of the serpent."
Verse 7: He Ought to Die, Because He Made Himself the Son of God
7. HE OUGHT TO DIE, BECAUSE HE MADE HIMSELF THE SON OF GOD, — as though a blasphemer, a sacrilegious man, nay a greedy one. Hear St. Augustine: "Behold, another and greater envy; that former charge seemed to be that He had aspired to kingship; and yet Jesus had falsely claimed neither of these things for Himself: for He is the only-begotten of God, and the king appointed by God over mount Sion, and He would now demonstrate both, except that, the more powerful He was, the more He preferred to be patient."
Verse 11: Thou Shouldst Not Have Any Power Against Me, Unless It Were Given Thee From Above
11. THOU SHOULDST NOT HAVE ANY POWER AGAINST ME, UNLESS IT WERE GIVEN THEE FROM ABOVE. THEREFORE HE THAT HAS DELIVERED ME TO THEE HAS THE GREATER SIN. — The connection which the word "therefore" demands here is difficult; but leaving aside the various explanations of various authors, the exposition of Jansenius, Cajetan and Ribera is plain, as if He said: You have no power against Me, both because I am innocent and because I could snatch Myself away if I wished; but My Father wills that I deliver Myself over to you and submit Myself, so that the work of human redemption may be accomplished, and to this end He has permitted that you acquiesce in the accusation and will of the Jews and exercise your power upon Me — a power you would in no way exercise unless those men had accused Me. Therefore those who put you forward and press you to exercise this permitted power sin more than you.
Verse 12: And From Thenceforth Pilate Sought to Release Him
12. AND FROM THENCEFORTH PILATE SOUGHT TO RELEASE HIM. — Already before this he had been seeking the same thing, but now especially, after he had heard that He was the Son of God and was reproaching him for sin, he feared that he might incur God's vengeance if he condemned His Son. But the fear of Caesar overcame the fear of God, as follows. Pilate was suspecting Jesus to be a son of Jupiter, Hercules, Apollo or some other god: for the Gentiles counted many sons of the gods and worshipped them as demi-gods. So Cyril.
Verse 13: In a Place That Is Called Lithostrotos, but in Hebrew Gabbatha
13. IN A PLACE THAT IS CALLED (in Greek) LITHOSTROTOS (that is, paved with stone), BUT IN HEBREW GABBATHA, — that is, lofty; for גבה (gaba) signifies lofty, because it was in a high place, as tribunals are wont to be, so that the judge could be seen and heard by the surrounding crowd. John says this to mark that Jesus voluntarily underwent this public and dreadful judicial sentence of condemnation and disgrace for our public sins. To Gabbatha one ascended by many marble steps, which, having been translated to Rome, are visited with great devotion by the faithful beside the Lateran basilica, and obtain the name of the Holy Stairs.
Verse 14: And It Was the Parasceve of the Pasch, About the Sixth Hour
14. AND IT WAS THE PARASCEVE OF THE PASCH, — that is, of the Paschal sabbath: for this, because it fell within the octave of the Pasch, was more solemn than other sabbaths, and therefore was called "great," as appears from verse 31. The sense therefore is, as if he said: It was Friday, on which was taking place the παρασκευή, that is, the preparation of food and of the things necessary for the following sabbath day; for on that day, being most holy, it was lawful neither to cook food nor to do anything else. Hence the sabbath alone had its preparation day, which other feasts lacked. Wherefore the Greeks wrongly interpret the Parasceve of the Pasch as the day before the Pasch, on which they sacrificed the lamb. For from Matthew, Mark and Luke it is clear that Christ was crucified on the first day of unleavened bread, that is, the day after the Pasch on which they had sacrificed the lamb: therefore John here calls the first day of unleavened bread the Parasceve of the Pasch, that is, the day before the Paschal sabbath.
About the sixth hour. — The Arabic: "and it was six hours," namely from sunrise. You will say: Mark, xv, 25, says: "And it was the third hour, and they crucified Him." Various authors reply variously: First, some in Theophylact think that John should be corrected from Mark, and that it should be written here, "about the third hour." But all codices, Greek, Latin, Syriac and Arabic, stand against this, which in John have, "about the sixth hour."
Secondly, St. Jerome, on Psalm lxxvii, on the contrary, wishes Mark to be corrected from John, so that there may be read in him: "And it was the sixth hour." He thinks the error to have arisen from the similarity of the numerals for three and six, one of which slipped in for the other. For among the Greeks γ is the mark for three, but ϛ for six. But all copies of Mark have: "And it was the third hour"; none has "sixth."
Thirdly, Euthymius on Mark xv judges that Mark says Christ was crucified "at the third hour," because at that hour the Jews demanded that He be crucified, crying out: "Crucify Him, crucify Him"; but it is one thing to demand the cross, another actually to crucify.
Fourthly, St. Augustine, tract 117, and on Psalm lxiii, and in book III Of the Consent of the Evangelists, ch. xiii, answers that it was the third hour when Pilate condemned Jesus to the cross, but that this is called by John the sixth, if one counts from the beginning when Jesus was being prepared (for this is what Parasceve means) for death, which was the ninth hour of the preceding night, when He was declared guilty of death by Caiphas: for from this ninth hour of the night to the third hour of the day there intervene six hours, in which Christ, who is truly the Pasch, that is, the paschal lamb, was sacrificed on the cross. But St. Augustine himself acknowledges this to be forced. Hence he himself
Fifthly, answers that Jesus was crucified by the tongues of the Jews at the third hour, at which they shouted: "Crucify Him, crucify Him"; but by the tongue and sentence of Pilate, at the sixth hour. But I have already rejected this in treating Euthymius.
Sixthly, therefore, the interpreters commonly answer that Christ was crucified at the third hour, as Mark says, but at its ending, that is, at the beginning of the sixth hour, as John says. For the hours of the Romans and Hebrews embraced three of ours; for they divided the day as also the night into four military watches, which they called hours: wherefore each one of them contained three of our hours.
Seventhly, Ribera with probability judges that Christ is said to have been crucified at the third hour, because at that hour, when the Jews were crying out "Crucify," Pilate publicly assented to avoid a tumult of the people; whence he ordered Him to be scourged, as though preparing Him for the cross (for the condemned were wont to be scourged beforehand), hoping however that by the atrocity of the scourging the minds of the Jews would be softened. But when he saw them persevering in their cries against Jesus, at the sixth hour, sitting in the judgment seat, he pronounced the judicial and irrevocable sentence of crucifixion against Him. Luke favors this, xxiii, 14, where Pilate says: "I find no cause of death in Him; I will chastise Him therefore, and release Him. But they pressed with loud voices, demanding that He should be crucified, and their voices grew louder; and Pilate gave sentence that their petition should be granted. And he released to them him who had been cast into prison for murder and sedition." It is also clear from Matthew xxvii, where, when Pilate had seen the Jews asking for Barabbas and not Christ, "taking water, he washed his hands before the people, saying: I am innocent, etc., look you to it; and all the people, answering, said: His blood be upon us": therefore, before Barabbas was released, he decreed that Christ should be crucified. It is confirmed by blessed Clement, book V of the Apostolic Constitutions, chapter xvi, or according to the more recent translation, chapter xiii, where he says: "They affixed Him to the wood of the cross at the sixth hour indeed, but at the third hour they received the sentence pronounced against Him." And in book VIII, chapter xl, according to the new translation chapter xxxiv, he says: "The third (hour), because at that hour Pilate pronounced judgment against the Lord; the sixth, because at that hour He was driven upon the cross; the ninth, because then all things were moved and trembled at the Lord's crucifixion." Finally St. Ignatius, in his fifth epistle to the Trallians, says thus: "Therefore on the day of the Parasceve, at the third hour, He received sentence from Pilate with the Father's permission; but at the sixth hour He was crucified; and at the ninth He gave up the spirit." Therefore at the third hour Pilate pronounced sentence, that is, consented to the people that He should be crucified; but at the sixth hour he dictated the formal and irrevocable sentence of the cross against Him. Hence also Pope Telesphorus in his epistle: "At the remaining times, the celebrations of Masses are not to be celebrated before the third hour of the day, because at the same hour the Lord was crucified," that is, was ordered — or rather permitted — to be crucified by Pilate. Wherefore, when Mark says: "And it was the third hour, and they crucified Him," the word "they crucified" signifies an action begun, not completed, as if to say: At the third hour the Jews began to act concerning Christ's crucifixion, crying out, "Crucify, crucify Him"; and Pilate consented to them, and therefore ordered Him to be scourged, as though preparing Him for the cross and for death; but at the end of the third hour, when the sixth was now beginning, Pilate judicially condemned Jesus, and immediately they crucified Him. Mark therefore indicated the origin and beginning of the crucifixion by the third hour; but John assigned its execution and completion to the sixth hour.
Verse 15: We Have No King But Caesar
15. WE HAVE NO KING BUT CAESAR. — "They rejected the Lamb," says Cassiodorus here, "and chose the fox," namely Herod, who had been made king for them by the Romans and by Caesar. For concerning Herod Christ says: "Say to that fox," Luke xiii, 32.
Verse 17: And Bearing His Own Cross
17. AND BEARING HIS OWN CROSS, — according to the law and custom of the Romans. Hear St. Augustine, tract 117: "A great spectacle; but if impiety gazes upon it, a great mockery; if piety, a great mystery: if impiety gazes upon it, a great proof of ignominy; if piety, a great monument of faith: if impiety gazes upon it, it derides a king bearing, in place of a royal sceptre, the wood of His own punishment; if piety, it sees a king bearing the wood on which He Himself was to be fixed, and which He was to fix upon the foreheads of kings, in this despised by the eyes of the impious, but in this the glory of the hearts of the Saints." And he brings forth that passage of Gal. vi: "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Verse 23: Now the Coat Was Without Seam, Woven From the Top Throughout
23. NOW THE COAT WAS WITHOUT SEAM, WOVEN FROM THE TOP (ἐκ τῶν ἄνωθεν, that is from the highest, that is from the top down to the bottom) THROUGHOUT. — as if to say: The whole, from neck to heels, was woven in a continuous series without any seam or split, just as in Belgium they are accustomed to weave undergarments and hose whole from top to bottom, with a double needle and threads in netted work. Hence the Arabic and Syriac render, "the coat was without seam from above, but woven throughout." Origen's translator, tract 35 on Matthew, "woven from above throughout." So too Nonnus. They report, says Euthymius, that it had been woven by the blessed Virgin. On the same I have said more at Matthew xxvii, 35.
Allegorically: The seamless tunic of Christ is the Church, which it is not lawful to rend, and if you rend it, you will make a schism.
Tropologically, St. Bernard, sermon 1 On the Annunciation: "The seamless tunic, he says, I judge to be the divine image; which, namely, not being sewn on but implanted and imprinted upon nature, cannot be divided or rent."
Verse 25: Now There Stood By the Cross of Jesus His Mother, and His Mother's Sister Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene
25. NOW THERE STOOD BY THE CROSS OF JESUS HIS MOTHER, AND HIS MOTHER'S SISTER (cousin), MARY OF CLEOPHAS (namely the wife, and the mother of the holy apostles Jude and James the Less), AND MARY MAGDALENE, — who burned far more with love for Jesus when she saw Him washing away her sins with His blood, which she herself had lately washed with her tears. Christ willed this, both that He might suffer more at the sight of His sorrowing mother, and that she, by compassion with Him, might give us a perfect example of patience and charity. Behold, here is fulfilled that saying: "And thy own soul a sword shall pierce," Luke ii, namely, as Damascene says, book IV, chapter xv: "The pangs of childbirth, which she escaped in giving birth, she endured at the time of the passion from the maternal compassion of her inmost parts, as though bearing again her torn one." For the holier a person is and the nearer to Christ, the greater the cup of the passion which Christ offers him. Euthymius asserts that the blessed Virgin stood closer to the cross, the burning of her inward affection overcoming her fear of the Jews.
She stood therefore erect and lofty of body, and loftier still of mind, beholding and wondering at this great sacrament of piety, namely God upon the cross. Hence Sophronius in St. Jerome, in the sermon On the Assumption, calls the blessed Virgin a martyr, nay more than a martyr: "Because, he says, she suffered in mind, she was more than a martyr. For indeed her love was stronger than death, because she made Christ's death her own." So also St. Ildephonsus, sermon 2 On the Assumption: "She was more than a martyr, because in her soul there was no less love than sorrow: she was wounded within by a sword; for she stood ready, if only the hand of the executioner had not been wanting. The blessed Mother of God is rightly more than a martyr, since, wounded by exceeding love, she stood forth as a witness of the Saviour, and through her grief of mind she endured the torment of His passion." Thus Ildephonsus.
St. Anselm, in the book On the Excellence of the Virgin, chapter v: "Whatever of cruelty, he says, was inflicted on the bodies of the Martyrs was light, or rather nothing in comparison with thy passion, which indeed by its immensity pierced through all thy inmost parts and the depths of thy most gentle heart; and assuredly, loving Lady, I could not believe that thou couldst in any way have borne the goads of so great a torment without losing thy life, unless the very Spirit of life, the Spirit of consolation, namely the Spirit of thy most sweet Son, for whose dying thou wast tormented, had taught thee within that He who was departing was not death consuming Him, but rather a triumph subjecting all things to Him — which thou didst see come to pass in Him as He lay dying before thy eyes." St. Bernard, in the Lamentation of the blessed Mary: "Neither tongue, he says, will be able to speak, nor mind to conceive, with what sorrow the loving heart of Mary was afflicted. Now thou payest back, O Virgin, with usury, what in childbirth thou hadst not from nature. Thou didst not feel sorrow in bearing thy Son, whom, multiplied a thousandfold, thou didst suffer when thy Son was dying."
St. Mechtild, in her Revelations, book I, chapter lvi, relates that she saw a certain Seraph saluting the Virgin "for the love by which, he said, she loved God above every creature on earth, because love so prevailed in her at the passion of her only Son that it utterly overcame and extinguished every human affection; for while every creature grieved at the death of the Son of God, she alone, immovable with His divinity and rejoicing, willed that her Son should be sacrificed for the salvation of the world."
John Gerson, writing on the Magnificat, asserts that the blessed Virgin, standing by the cross, performed a most lofty act of obedience, offering her Son to the Father and conforming herself in His most bitter death with the divine will; nor was she endowed with less fortitude than that mother of the seven Maccabees, of whom it is written in II Machabees vii: "But the mother was exceedingly wonderful and worthy of the memory of the good, who, seeing her seven sons perishing in the space of one day, bore it with a good courage because of the hope she had in God, and encouraged each of them in her native tongue, filled bravely with wisdom, and joining to a woman's thought a manly courage, she said to them," and what follows. Nor with less constancy than St. Felicitas, at whose exhortation her seven sons, persevering in the faith, were put to death in various ways for Christ, and than St. Symphorosa, who likewise for her seven sons was a mistress of faith and a leader unto martyrdom.
How great the Virgin's grief was at that time, St. Bridget has described from her own revelation, Revelations book I, chapters x, xxvii, xxxv, and book IV, chapters xxiii and lxx, where among other things she says: "The sorrow of the Son was my sorrow, because His heart was my heart."
Finally Adrichomius, in his Description of Jerusalem, following Saligniacus, Breidenbach and others, graphically depicting and measuring out each of the places of Christ's passion, asserts that the blessed Virgin, together with John, Magdalene and the other women, stood with firm constancy of mind and faith at a distance of fifteen ells — which are now measured as eighteen paces — from the cross of Christ, and that this place is still adorned with devout veneration by the faithful.
You will ask, what should be thought concerning the swoon of the blessed Virgin. I answer: That the blessed Virgin suffered a swoon, that is, a fainting of the soul, and thereupon fell to the earth from her immense sorrow when she first saw Jesus hanging on the cross, is handed down by St. Bridget, Revelations book I, chapter x, and book IV, chapter lxx; St. Bonaventure, in the Meditations on the Life of Christ, chapters lxxvii and lxxix; St. Bernard, in the little work On the Lamentation of the Virgin. In favor of this are St. Augustine, epistle 58; Laurentius Justinian, On Christ's Triumphal Contest, chapter xxi; Dionysius the Carthusian here; Daniel Mallonius, On the Stigmata of the Sacred Shroud, chapter xvii, near the end. They confirm the same: first, from the fact that several chorographers of the Holy Land write that on the way to Calvary there is a church, now in ruins — now a stable for Turkish horses — which is called S. Maria-de-Spasmo, because the Virgin there fell fainting when she saw her Son on the cross in that street which is commonly called the Street of Bitterness. Secondly, because Cajetan, in his little work On the Swoon of the Virgin Mary, at the end of volume II of his opuscula, reports that the feast of the Virgin's swoon was celebrated with an Octave, and those who celebrated it sought indulgences from the Supreme Pontiff.
On the contrary, Maldonatus here denies that the blessed Virgin suffered a swoon, and asserts that to say the opposite borders on error; and so do Cajetan, Jansenius, Toletus, Christophorus a Castro in his On the Mother of God, chapter xvi; Medina, III part, Question xxvii; Molanus, book IV, chapter viii, On Images; Suárez, III part, Question xxvii, disputation IV, section 3. They prove it, first, by reason of the conformity of her will with the divine will, by which she willed her Son to die for the redemption of the human race; secondly, by reason of the constancy and fortitude of soul with which she was endowed; thirdly also by a certain fittingness, which it behoved the Virgin to preserve: for it was not fitting, say Cajetan, Suárez and Toletus, that the Mother of God should have certain bodily defects, or anything in her reason that was discordant or unbecoming: for it was more pleasing. This opinion is truer and more worthy of the Blessed Virgin. If, however, anyone prefers to follow the former opinion, let him say with Salmeron, book X, tract 41, that at the beginning, when the cross was raised, the Blessed Virgin collapsed to the ground out of the vehemence of her grief, but afterwards, having regained her spirit, always stood, as John here says. Let him say further that this swoon did not alienate her from herself, so as to make her lose the use of reason — for this would have been unbecoming — but only drew her mind away from the senses, so that through failure of strength she sank to the ground; and this happened not against her will, but with her permission, so that she might testify her surpassing love for Christ and the grief it caused her before men. For in a similar way Christ, in the garden, took upon Himself the passions of fear, weariness, and anguish, so that He sweated blood. These passions, therefore, in Christ and in the Blessed Virgin were voluntary and freely assumed, or permitted. For each of them was free from concupiscence, and had full dominion over their passions, just as Adam had through original justice in the state of innocence.
Hear St. Ambrose, sermon On the Instruction of a Virgin, chapter VII: "The mother stood before the cross, and when men were fleeing she stood undaunted. See whether the mother of Jesus could change her modesty, she who did not change her courage. She gazed with pious eyes upon the wounds of her Son, through whom she knew redemption would come to all: the mother stood at no degenerate spectacle, she who did not fear the slayer: her Son hung on the cross, the mother offered herself to the persecutors; she was not ignorant of the mystery, that she had borne One who would rise again." And St. Anselm here: "Mary stood most constant and most patient in the faith of Jesus: for while the disciples fled and all the men withdrew, to the glory of the whole female sex, amid so many afflictions of her Son she alone stood firm in the faith of Jesus, and beautifully she stood, as befits virginal modesty: she did not tear herself in such bitterness, she did not curse, did not murmur, nor seek from God vengeance upon the enemies; but she stood disciplined, the modest Virgin, most patient, full of tears, plunged in sorrow."
Indeed the Blessed Virgin, gazing on the cross at the pious wounds of Christ, was so strengthened that she herself was even prepared to die for the salvation of the world, says St. Ambrose on Luke chapter XXIII: for she was not inferior to Abraham in faith, fortitude, and the ardor of charity, who was willing with his own hand to immolate his only son Isaac at God's command, Genesis XXII. There was added sure faith and hope of the resurrection, which greatly lightened her grief and strengthened the Virgin's soul. For she firmly believed that Christ, as He had foretold, would rise gloriously on the third day.
Verse 26: When Jesus Therefore Had Seen His Mother and the Disciple Standing Whom He Loved, He Said to His Mother: Woman, Behold Thy Son
26. WHEN JESUS THEREFORE HAD SEEN HIS MOTHER AND THE DISCIPLE STANDING WHOM HE LOVED, HE SAID TO HIS MOTHER: WOMAN, BEHOLD THY SON. — Christ strikes the mother's heart with the dart both of love and of grief, as if to say: Behold, mother, I am dying on the cross, as you see; henceforth I shall not be able to be with you, to provide for you and assist you bodily, as I have done until now. Behold, in My place I assign John to you as a son; that is, for God-made-man a man, for a master a disciple, for a natural son an adopted one, so that here, as it were, as My vicar, as a most loving son of the Virgin Mother of God, he may render every consolation, every service which both your dignity and advancing age deserve, and which John's eagerness and charity promise and pledge. Christ therefore here teaches that children ought to take care of their parents to the last breath, says Theophylact from Chrysostom. Hear St. Augustine: "A moral point is here insinuated: by His own example the good Teacher instructed His own, that pious children should give care to their parents: as if that wood, where the members of the dying One were fixed, had also been the chair of the teaching Master…" For, as Cyril says: "It was fitting that we should first learn from Him and through Him that even when intolerable afflictions press upon us, parents are not to be neglected." But marvel with Theophylact, "how on the cross He does all things without disturbance, caring for His mother, fulfilling prophecies, opening paradise to the thief: while before the cross He was laboring, sweating, anxious." For, as Euthymius says, "there the infirmity of nature, but here the force of patience appears."
Christ commends His mother to John, whom He substitutes in His own place as her son, so that He may provide for the mother such a son, and for John such a mother. The reasons why He did this are given by St. Cyprian, or whoever is the author, in the tract On the Passion of Christ: The first is that He might provide for His now-aging mother the care and service of a son, as if to say: I am Thy son, O mother; and because I am dying, I cannot take care of Thee: therefore I resign and transfer that care to John.
The second, that He might commend a virgin to a virgin; for "a pure one is entrusted to a pure one," says Theophylact. Hence Nonnus' paraphrase runs: "He said: Woman, mother loving virginity, behold thy virgin son; and in turn He said to the disciple: Zealous of virginity, behold thy virgin parent without childbirth." And Ambrose, chapter VII On the Instruction of a Virgin, says: "With whom should the Virgin dwell but with him whom she knew to be made the heir of her Son and the guardian of her integrity?" And by this very act Jesus, as a son anxious for His mother's modesty, willed that the perseverance of His mother's virginity be confirmed, as Ambrose writes in the same book, chapter VI: "Lest anyone should besmirch her with the reproach of violated integrity."
The third, that He might show that Joseph was not His father; hence, setting him aside, He substituted John to take care of His mother. But hear Cyprian himself: "Thou carefully providest for her blessed among women the apostolic patronage, and deliverest the service of the Virgin to a virgin disciple; so that Joseph should no longer be burdened with the presidency of so great a mystery, but John, since reason now demanded that the supposition of a husband be removed, and that he who until then had held the place of father and spouse should no longer be reckoned the father of Christ."
He then meets a tacit objection, saying: "Joseph would have had reasonable grounds for contradiction in this arrangement of Christ, when Mary was being commended to another, if he had known himself to be her carnal husband; but because the mystery of that union was performed in the spirit, Joseph bore with equanimity the preferring of this man over himself in this service — one whom he judged more worthy than himself; and most of all because the Master's choice so ordered the matter."
Note here that the author (whether Cyprian or someone else) holds that Joseph was surviving and alive at the time of Christ's Passion, the contrary of which is held by most interpreters, and this seems more probable… indeed Christ seems to have entrusted His mother to John for the reason that Joseph had already departed this life: for had he been alive, He would surely have entrusted His mother to him as His most beloved spouse, as He had originally entrusted her to him when He was incarnated and born, and had always experienced his faithfulness and diligence, both in the flight into Egypt and on other occasions.
The fourth reason why Christ commended His mother to John rather than to the other Apostles was that John alone, with the mother, stood by the crucified Christ even to death, undaunted and constant, amid so many hatreds and reproaches of the Jews: therefore he deserved to be adopted by Jesus as it were for a brother, and to be substituted as a son to the virgin mother in His own place. Furthermore, in John Christ assigned and commended the other Apostles, indeed all the faithful, as sons to His mother, especially those who are virgins and chaste, and who most closely follow Christ in His cross; for thus they become the dearest and most intimate friends of Christ and His mother, as was St. John, who on that account is called by St. Cyprian in the place cited "the chamberlain of Christ."
WHOM HE LOVED, — to whom He outwardly showed greater signs of love, because he was younger than the others, more bashful, more modest, more chaste, and a virgin, and loved Jesus above the others, and therefore, while the others fled, he alone stood with the mother at the cross, as I said above.
WOMAN, BEHOLD THY SON. — Christ says "woman," not "mother," lest by naming her mother He afflict her soul with greater grief, or, as Baptista Mantuanus sings, "lest the maternal name should lacerate her pious heart;" secondly, lest He stir up the Jews and Scribes standing by against her; thirdly, to show that He had put off human affections towards His parents; fourthly, because, going to death and heaven, He renounced the human kinships of this life and willed to teach that they are to be renounced; fifthly, to rouse His mother to fortitude and loftiness of soul for bravely enduring all these things, and to make her mindful that she was the one of whom Solomon had foretold: "Who shall find a valiant woman!" Prov. XXXI, 1. For the Blessed Virgin suffered more than Christ. For Christ's passion ceased in death, but then the Blessed Virgin's passion and compassion did not cease, but grew: for she received the dead body of Christ, taken down from the cross, with renewed grief, and then for the three days of burial the torments of the crucified Christ, which she had beheld with her own eyes, clung vivid in her imagination and tormented her, until the risen Christ wiped them away by His appearance, consolation, and glory. Moreover the Blessed Virgin was left behind by Christ, that she might be the mother of those Apostles and faithful, to gather them up when fallen, console them when afflicted, strengthen them when tottering, counsel the doubting and anxious, and in all things direct, instruct, and encourage them. Whence she at once gathered the Apostles who had scattered when Christ was seized, raised up Peter with hope when he was dispirited because of his denial of Christ, and confirmed all those troubled by Christ's death in the faith of His soon-to-come resurrection. Then, when the rulers of the Jews imprisoned, scourged, and killed the Apostles, she felt all these persecutions keenly, as if inflicted on herself, but overcame them with lofty soul and taught the Apostles to overcome them by word and example.
Christ, foreseeing all these things, said: "Woman," as if to say: O mother, be henceforth a valiant and generous woman, to be in My place the foundation, rock, and pillar of My Church, to support it with thy strength, and to break and scatter by thy constancy, counsel, and prayer all the storms of temptation against it, not only now, but also in all ages to come, until the end of the world. Wherefore she is called and continually invoked by the faithful and the whole Church in the Litanies: "Consoler of the afflicted, Refuge of sinners, Health of the sick, Tower of David, Ark of the covenant, Help of Christians, Morning star, Gate of heaven, Mother most admirable, Virgin of virgins, Queen of Apostles, of Martyrs, of Confessors, and of all Saints."
Hear St. Bernard, sermon 4 On the Assumption: "Let thy mercy be silent, blessed Virgin, if there is anyone who remembers that thou, having been invoked in his necessities, hast been lacking to him." And shortly after: "Who then, O blessed one, could search out the length and breadth, the height and depth of thy mercy? For its length reaches to the last day, succoring all who invoke her. Its breadth shall fill the round of the earth, so that thy mercy also fills the whole earth; thus its height too has found the restoration of the supernal city, and its depth has obtained redemption for those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death. For through thee heaven is filled, hell is emptied, and the ruins of the celestial Jerusalem restored. To this abundance of mercy let our misery flee with all solicitude." The same, homily 4 on Missus est: "On thy lips (O Virgin) hang the consolation of the wretched, the redemption of captives, the liberation of the damned, and finally the salvation of all the sons of Adam, of all thy race." The same, sermon 2 on Pentecost: "To her (the Blessed Virgin), as to the mean, as to the ark of God, as to the cause of things, as to the business of the ages, look both those who dwell in heaven and those who are in hell, both those who have gone before us, and we who are, and those who shall follow, and the children of our children, and those who shall be born from them. Those who are in heaven, that they may be restored; those in hell, that they may be rescued; those who went before, that they may be found faithful Prophets; those who shall follow, that they may be glorified. Therefore all generations call thee blessed, Mother of God, Lady of the world, Queen of heaven. For in thee the angels find gladness, the just find grace, sinners find pardon for eternity. Rightly do the eyes of every creature look to thee, because in thee, and through thee, and from thee the kind hand of the Almighty has re-created whatever He created."
For, as he himself says in sermon 3 On Missus est, in the Blessed Mary dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily, namely θεάνθρωπος (God-man), as St. Dionysius says, from which flowed the theandric, that is the God-manly actions by which He reconciled men to God. The same, sermon 3 "among the little ones": "Hail Mary, full of grace, because pleasing to God and to angels and to men: to men through fruitfulness, to angels through virginity, to God through humility." The same, sermon On the blessed Mary: "Eve was a thorn, who pricked her husband unto death, and fixed the sting of her sin in her posterity; Mary is the rose, Eve the thorn wounding; Mary the rose soothing the affections of all. Eve the thorn fixing death on all; Mary the rose restoring to all a saving lot."
Verse 27: Then He Saith to the Disciple: Behold Thy Mother
27. THEN HE SAITH TO THE DISCIPLE: BEHOLD THY MOTHER. — as if to say: Love, reverence, and help her as a mother, and in turn have recourse to her as to a mother in every difficulty, temptation, persecution, and affliction. She will receive thee with motherly affection, will cherish, console, protect thee, will seek aid for thee from her Son, etc. Moreover Christ's words are not like those of men, merely oral and ineffectual, but like those of God, real and effectual, and they accomplish what they say: wherefore they impressed on St. John a filial affection and spirit toward the Blessed Virgin, as toward his own mother. "Oh marvel!" exclaims Theophylact, "how He honors the disciple, making him His brother! So great is the good of standing beside the cross, and remaining with the suffering Christ." And Chrysostom: "Oh, the honor He bestows on the disciple! For as He was now departing, He left the care of His mother to the disciple: for since it was fitting for the mother to grieve and to seek protection, He rightly commends her to the beloved disciple, to whom He also says: Behold thy mother; that they might be bound together by love."
BEHOLD THY MOTHER, — and of thy fellow Apostles and the rest of the faithful, whose person John here represents: wherefore all the faithful ought to fly to her as to a mother with great confidence and love, as St. Bernard teaches, whose words I have already recited. She therefore is the true Eve of the faithful, that is, the mother of the living. Thus do all the wise and the Saints of every age have recourse to her.
Hear St. Augustine, sermon On the Passion: "Behold thy mother; take care, He says, of her, I commend her to thee, receive thy mother. While He was saying these few words, those two beloved ones did not cease to pour out tears; both those Martyrs were silent, and from excessive grief could not speak; these two virgins heard Christ speaking with His voice, and saw Him slowly dying; they wept bitterly, who grieved bitterly; for the sword of Christ's grief passed through the souls of them both."
And (this is therefore, because Jesus had commanded it) FROM THAT HOUR THE DISCIPLE TOOK HER UNTO HIS OWN. — So it is to be read with the Greeks and the Romans; the Syriac and the Arabic read "to himself." Some read in suam ("into his own"), namely dwelling or house. Whence Nonnus paraphrastically renders: "The disciple had the Virgin happy in her childbearing as a fellow-dweller within his own house." For sons are accustomed to receive and support their aged parents in their own home; and those whom we take into our care, these we also take into our house. Hear Bede: Another reading has "into his own," namely "mother," as some wish; but it is more fittingly understood "into his own care." And St. Augustine: "He took her unto his own, not the estates which he possessed as his own, but the offices which he attended to by his own stewardship." All these therefore come to the same thing. Hence St. John, when going to Ephesus, took the Blessed Virgin with him. Whence in the Council of Ephesus, chapter XXVI, in the synodical letter, it is said that the Blessed Virgin and St. John once dwelt in the city of Ephesus. See Christopher a Castro in his History of the Mother of God.
This therefore was the testament of Christ, of which St. John was the testamentary witness and executor: "For He was making His testament from the cross," says St. Ambrose on Luke chapter XXIII, "and John was sealing His testament, a witness worthy of so great a Testator."
Hence again gather that Joseph, the spouse of the Virgin, was already dead. "For a wife would not be taken away from her husband," says St. Ambrose in the place already cited, "but she who for the sake of the mystery had used the pretext of marriage, once the mysteries were completed, no longer needed marriage." And Epiphanius, heresy 78, says thus: "The Gospel says: And from that day he received her unto his own (or with himself); but if she had had a husband, if she had had a house, if she had had sons, she would have withdrawn to her own, and not to a stranger's." Hence see how poor and devoted to poverty the Blessed Virgin was.
Verse 28: Afterwards Jesus, Knowing That All Things Were Now Accomplished, Said: I Thirst
28. AFTERWARDS JESUS, KNOWING THAT ALL THINGS WERE NOW ACCOMPLISHED, THAT THE SCRIPTURE MIGHT BE FULFILLED, SAID: I THIRST. — "Afterwards," about three hours later: for before the darkness, at the beginning of the crucifixion, He had commended His mother to John; but at the end, a little before His death, He said: "I thirst," that the Scripture might be fulfilled, Psalm LXVIII, 22: "And in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink," as if to say: That I may suffer this torment also of being given vinegar to drink, I cry out that I am thirsty, as Augustine says: "This you have done with less than you are, give what you are:" namely, you are sour and bitter, give therefore vinegar, not wine. Christ thirsted, first because He had neither eaten nor drunk anything since the previous supper; then because He had sweated out all His moisture and had poured out His blood in the scourging and crucifixion; then because the most bitter pains stirred up an enormous thirst. For, as Cyril says, "pains agitate the innate heat, and either consume the moisture that lies in the depths, and burn the sufferer's inwards with fiery heat." Hence the throat dries up and withers from thirst; then therefore was fulfilled in Christ that of Psalm XXI, 6: "My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and My tongue has cleaved to My jaws." Which words of Christ the Chancellor of Louvain took upon himself, dying in my presence forty years ago, saying that he had never understood them so vividly as he then understood them, when he felt himself afflicted with a like dryness of throat and thirst, and measured from that how great must have been Christ's thirst and dryness. Mystically, Christ thirsted for the salvation of souls. See Bellarmine, On the seven words of Christ on the cross. Namely, "God thirsts to be thirsted for," says Nazianzen in his Tetrastichs, so that we may love and long for Him insatiably, and say with the Psalmist: "My soul has thirsted (like the panting stag, as He went before) after the strong living God: when shall I come and appear before the face of God?"
Verse 29: Now There Was a Vessel Set There Full of Vinegar
29. NOW THERE WAS A VESSEL SET THERE, FULL OF VINEGAR. AND THEY, PUTTING A SPONGE FULL OF VINEGAR ABOUT HYSSOP, OFFERED IT TO HIS MOUTH. — I have explained this verse at Matthew XXVII, 48.
Verse 30: When Jesus Therefore Had Received the Vinegar, He Said: It Is Consummated
30. WHEN JESUS THEREFORE HAD RECEIVED THE VINEGAR, HE SAID: IT IS CONSUMMATED. AND BOWING HIS HEAD, HE GAVE UP THE GHOST. — as if to say: Now are all torments consummated, as well as the mysteries which the Father from eternity decreed that I should endure or accomplish, and commanded Me at My birth to endure and accomplish, which therefore He willed to be foretold about Me by the Prophets. There remains therefore the catastrophe of death, that by death I may consummate My course and My Passion, and by My death expiate the guilt of death which Adam by sinning brought in, and so restore men to life. Death therefore I embrace, and into the hands of the Father I resign My spirit. See what was said at Matthew XXVII, 48 and following.
Note: Christ uttered seven words on the cross, four of which are recounted by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but three by John. The first was: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." The second, to the thief: "This day thou shalt be with Me in paradise." The third, to His mother: "Woman, behold thy son;" and to John: "Behold thy mother." The fourth: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" The fifth: "I thirst." The sixth: "It is consummated." The seventh: "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit."
Verse 31: The Jews Therefore (Because It Was the Parasceve), Besought Pilate That Their Legs Might Be Broken
31. THE JEWS THEREFORE (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 THEIR LEGS MIGHT BE BROKEN, AND THAT THEY MIGHT BE TAKEN AWAY. — It had been enacted by the Law, Deuteronomy XXI, 22: "When a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and being adjudged to death, has been hanged on a gibbet, his body shall not remain on the tree, but shall be buried the same day." The reason follows: "Because he is accursed of God who hangs on a tree, and thou shalt in no wise defile thy land." See what is said there. But most of all was this to be done on the parasceve of the Sabbath, lest the bodies of those hanged, if they remained on the gibbet, should disfigure, sadden, and pollute with the horror of their torture the Sabbath, which was the most solemn feast, says St. Augustine. The condemned had therefore to die and be buried before sunset; for the Sabbath began at evening and sunset, "lest the sun should set upon the punishment of a man," says Theophylact.
FOR THAT WAS A GREAT SABBATH DAY. — Namely because it was the Paschal Sabbath, or one falling within the octave of the Pasch, and therefore more solemn than others, since it was a feast on two counts: first, the Sabbath; secondly, the Pasch.
THAT THEIR LEGS MIGHT BE BROKEN, — that is, shattered by heavy blows of the hammer or iron bar. Nonnus: "that they might be severed:" namely, to this end, "that they might die the sooner;" then "on account of the greatness of the pain," as Cyril says; then because of the quantity of blood that would flow out; then because "there is vitality in the legs and knees," says Pliny, book XI, chapter XLV; "for in the very joint of each knee, on the right and on the left from the front, there is a certain twin hollow like little pouches, which, when pierced as a jugular, the spirit flees through."
But why did they not transfix the heart with a lance or sword? For this was easier and brought the condemned a swifter death. I answer that they used leg-breaking as a greater torment for thieves, just as even now thieves infamous for many murders are punished on the wheel by leg-breaking. It is likely that the Jews did this out of hatred for Christ, and wished to inflict leg-breaking upon Christ in order to torment Him the more; indeed Baronius holds that they gave Christ vinegar to drink for this very reason, that by its force He might live longer and be kept alive for the leg-breaking. But Christ died the sooner, not because He dreaded and fled the leg-breaking, but both for the sake of the mystery, of which presently; and because He had been so tortured by scourgings, blows, and torments that His strength and life failed Him. On the punishment of leg-breaking, see Lipsius, book II On the Cross, chapter XIV.
AND THAT THEY MIGHT BE TAKEN AWAY — from the cross, and buried. The Jews seem to have pressed for Jesus to be taken from the cross not so much out of the religion of the Sabbath and of the law of Deuteronomy XXI, just cited, as out of fear, shame, and consciousness of their crime. For they saw, at His death, the sun darkened, the veil of the temple rent, the earth tremble, the rocks split, etc., and from all these their own judgment against Christ condemned. Wherefore they feared lest either God, or the people favoring Jesus, should rise up against them as Christ-killers: they therefore ordered Him to be taken down from the cross, as from His triumph, and buried. So Franciscus Lucas.
Verse 33: But When They Were Come to Jesus, When They Saw That He Was Already Dead, They Did Not Break His Legs
33. BUT WHEN THEY WERE COME TO JESUS (hence it is clear that they intended to inflict leg-breaking upon Christ as well. Hear Euthymius: "Last of all they came to Him, with greater insult, to please the Jews, wishing to afflict Him—)
Verse 34: But One of the Soldiers with a Spear Opened His Side
34. But one of the soldiers with a spear opened His side. — He did this being somewhat doubtful whether He was dead, says Cyril; namely, that he might know whether He had really died, and, if He had not died, that by this wound he might hasten and actually inflict death upon Him. For it was the office of these soldiers, as guards, to see that the sentence of judge Pilate was carried out, and that the condemned should not be released until it was certain that they had paid with death. Chrysostom adds: "To curry favor with the Jews, they opened His side and insult Him even though dead. O most wicked and most criminal will!" Some think this soldier was a Centurion named Longinus, who, seeing the miracles of the dying Christ, exclaimed: "Indeed this was the Son of God," Matthew XXVII, 54. He pierced Christ's side, they say, to show that He was already dead; for it was his duty to see that Christ should not be taken down alive from the cross, lest otherwise he himself would risk his head. But who would believe that he would have dared this upon One whom he had already proclaimed the Son of God? Nazianzen, in his poem On the Suffering Christ, suggests that he was blind and was here enlightened by Christ. Others tell other things, which Barradius collects here, but uncertain and apocryphal, says Baronius.
Note first: This soldier who pierced Christ's side seems to have been one of the guards who had already broken the legs of the thieves, and who would also have broken the legs of Christ if He had still been alive; but when they saw Him dead, they pierced His side, so that all might plainly see that He was dead, and that therefore they had not broken His legs.
Secondly, for "lance" the Greek has λόγχη, that is, the point of a spear. Nazianzen calls it ξίφος, that is, a sword; Nonnus, a machaera; Theophylact, a rhomphaea, which among the ancients signifies a kind of iron weapon which inclines to neither side, for ῥέπω means "to incline, lean."
Thirdly, for "opened" the Greek has ἔνυξε, that is, pricked, pierced through; but our version reads ἤνοιξε, that is, "opened": which comes to the same thing.
Fourthly, this opening and wound of Christ's side was so great and vast that a hand could be inserted into it: this is clear from Christ's words to Thomas, John XX, 27: "Put in thy finger hither, and see (touch) My hands, and bring hither thy hand, and put it into My side." Just as therefore the wounds of the nails in Christ's hands were so great that Thomas' finger could be inserted into them, so the wound in the side was so great that Thomas' hand could be inserted into it.
Fifthly, that this wound was in the right side the ancients and the painters teach, and some think it was foretold by Ezekiel, chapter XLVII, 2: "And behold waters overflowing from the right side, when the man went forth toward the East." Whence also St. Francis, receiving from the crucified Christ the five stigmata, received a stigma in his right side, just as in his hands and feet, as St. Bonaventure testifies in his Life, and Ribadeneira, and Lucas of Tuy, book II Against the Albigensians, chapter XI, and from him Lucas Wadding in the Annals of the Friars Minor, in the year of Christ 1224, n. 19.
Sixthly, hence it is clear that Christ had five wounds, namely two in His hands, two in His feet, and one in His side.
Seventhly, this wound seems to have pierced all the way through Christ's side, namely so that this lance, driven through the right side of Christ, passed through the heart and the pericardium, and its point came out through the left side near the breast. For Prudentius teaches that both sides of Christ were pierced through, in three places, namely in the Passion of Christ:
Transfixed through either side, Christ drives forth fluid and blood:
the blood is victory, the water is the laver.
And Peristephanon, hymn 8:
He is the Lord of the place, from whose twin wound in either side
thence the gore flowed forth poured out, and from the other the water.
And Cathemerinon, hymn 9:
O new miracle of a wound in His astounding death!
Hence the wave of gore flowed, the water from the other side.
The water indeed gives the laver, and the crown is from the blood.
The same is suggested by Cyprian, tract On the Passion of Christ, when he says: "From Thy side, O Christ, with divided bounds water and blood flow forth." Hence also Theophylact calls this wound of the side τύπους, in the plural, and this is confirmed from the fact that the wound of the right side was so great that Thomas could put in his hand: as for what Prudentius notes, that blood flowed through one wound and water through the other, this seems to signify that through the greater or more powerful wound (which no doubt was in the right side), because of its capacity, so much blood burst forth that the water could not be discerned by itself; but through the left, being smaller and nearer the pericardium, the water burst forth: for the pericardium contains the said liquid, and in Christ it contained water: whence, pierced by the lance, it poured this out through the nearer side, namely the left. So Prudentius. But because this wound of the left side was small, it is not counted, and Christ is said to have had not six, but five wounds.
Furthermore, St. Bridget, book IV of Revelations, chapter XL: "When the side was opened," she says, "and the lance drawn out, the blood on the point appeared as if of a brown color, so that from this it might be understood that the heart had been transfixed." And book VII, chapter XV: "He drove the lance into His right side." And book II, chapter XXI: "He was pierced in the heart so bitterly and unmercifully that he who pierced did not cease until the lance reached the rib, and both sides of the heart were on the lance."
And Immediately There Came Out Blood and Water. — Not blood first and then water, as Nonnus renders; but blood and water at the same time, yet not mingled, so that one could be distinguished from the other. This could not have happened naturally, first because in a dead body blood is condensed and congealed by cold, and therefore cannot flow out, as physicians teach, and St. Ambrose on Luke chapter XXIII, and daily experience; then because water cannot flow out from the same source: for this water was pure and real water, not phlegm nor serum of blood, as Innocent III defines, book III Decretals, title 41 On the Celebration of the Mass, chapter VIII. Calvin therefore errs in saying that water is contained in the pericardium, from which, when Christ was pierced by the lance, water flowed out naturally. For physicians teach this to be false, who assert that this liquid of the pericardium is not water but a bilious humor.
Wherefore that this flow of blood and water was miraculous, St. Ambrose teaches on Luke chapter XXIII, along with Euthymius and Theophylact, whom hear: "The insult is turned into a miracle, and that blood came forth from a dead body is wonderful; yet some sycophant might say that it is likely that some vital force was still in the body: but the water flowing out takes away all controversy by a miracle." And a little after: "Let the Armenians be confounded, who do not mix water with wine in the mysteries. For they do not believe (as it seems) that the water came out of the side, which is more wonderful, but only the blood. And in this place they destroy a great miracle. Therefore the blood is the symbol of the crucified Man; the water, that He is above man, that is, God." See our Adam Contzen, and Franciscus Lucas here.
This was done for the sake of the mystery, not for merit; for Christ consummated His merit in death, nor could He, being already dead, merit anything further. To what mystery then? I answer: First, to signify the truth of the human body in Christ, composed of four elements in the manner of other men. This is what John says, 1 John, chapter V, verse 7: "There are three who give testimony on earth: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three are one." See what is said there.
Secondly, that it might be signified that from the death and side of Christ, as of the second Adam sleeping on the cross, the Church was formed as the Eve-spouse of Christ. Understand this not properly and precisely, but symbolically and figuratively, namely that through the death and blood of Christ the Church was redeemed, instituted, and sanctified. Whence St. Ambrose, on Luke chapter XXIII: "From that dead body," he says, "life flowed forth. For water and blood flowed out, the one to cleanse, the other to redeem;" and, as Cyril and Chrysostom say, the water signifies baptism, which is the beginning of the Church and of the other Sacraments; the blood represents the Eucharist, which is the end and completion of all the Sacraments, to which two, as to a beginning and an end, all the other Sacraments are reduced. Whence St. Augustine, tract 120, says that all the Sacraments flowed from Christ's side; which understand not by merit, but by mystery, as I said. Hear St. Augustine: "He did not say: He struck, or Wounded, but: He opened, that there in some way a gate of life might be thrown open, whence the Sacraments of the Church have flowed, without which one does not enter into true life." And Chrysostom: "Because hence the sacred mysteries have their origin, when you approach the dread chalice, approach as if you were about to drink from Christ's very side."
The reason is that, as St. Chrysostom and Theophylact after him say, "the Church is both made and subsists through the Sacraments." For by Baptism it is born, by Confirmation it is strengthened, by the Eucharist it is fed and perfected, by Penance it is healed, by Extreme Unction it is armed, by Orders it is governed, by Matrimony it is propagated. Finally, as a symbol of this matter, that in the consecration of the Eucharistic chalice water is to be mixed with wine, so that this effusion of blood and water from Christ's side may be represented, is taught by St. Cyprian, tract On the Passion; Rufinus, in his Exposition of the Creed, and others.
Tropologically: Tertullian, in his book On Baptism, says that Christ by the effusion of blood and water intimated a twofold baptism, namely of water and of blood, that is, of Sacrament and of martyrdom.
Anagogically: this unbarring of Christ's side in death foreshadowed that by His death heaven was now unbarred, which had been closed through four thousand years. Leontius, in his Exposition of the Creed, says: "He brought forth water," he says, "which believers might wash away; and He also brought forth blood, to condemn unbelievers." See more in Suarez, part III, Question LI, disputation XLII, section 1, where however he is of the opinion that only the left side of Christ, in which the heart is, was pierced by the lance, and that blood flowed out first, and then water, which are likewise probable views.
Verse 35: And He Who Saw It Has Borne Witness
35. And he who saw it has borne witness, — that is, I myself John, who saw it, testify that it is so. He speaks of himself in the third person out of modesty.
Verse 36: For These Things Were Done That the Scripture Might Be Fulfilled
36. For these things were done that the Scripture might be fulfilled (in the allegorical sense, not the literal, for the literal sense concerns the paschal lamb): You shall not break a bone of Him. — God had commanded, Exodus XII, 46, that in eating the paschal lamb they should break no bones. The literal reason was that, being in haste, they had to eat it, so they would have no time to break the bones and suck out the marrow from them. The allegorical reason was that that lamb was a type of Christ to be sacrificed on the cross, of whom God willed that no bone should be broken; and this because it was fitting that the holy and divine body of Christ, about to rise again, should remain intact, as I have already said. The symbolic reason is that by this was signified, first, that the divinity of Christ (which was as it were the bone sustaining the flesh of Christ) remained whole and unharmed in His Passion. So Rupert in chapter XII of Exodus. Second, that the bones, that is, the strength and vigor of Christ as man (for bones are the symbol and cause of these), were not diminished by His Passion but rather increased; for both the mind of Christ remained steadfastly fixed on God, and His will remained strongly and constantly united to the will of God. So St. Hippolytus the martyr in Theodoret, Dialogue III.
The allegorical reason was that it might be signified that the bones of the body of Christ, that is, the holy Apostles, would not be broken. So St. Augustine on Psalm XXXIV; St. Jerome on Psalm XXI; and St. Gregory, book XXIV of the Moralia, chapter XXX.
To this point belongs St. Hilary on Psalm XL, when he says: The bones of Christ were not broken, because the Church, formed from a bone, ought not to be weakened by the breaking of bones.
For the tropological meaning, see St. Bernard, sermon On the Skin, Flesh, and Bones of the Soul, where he teaches that the skin of the soul is good thoughts, the flesh is pious affections, and the bones are holy intentions and purposes; which intentions, even when pious thoughts and affections fail, are to be kept intact and firm; for if they are broken, the man is broken and falls.
Verse 37: And Again Another Scripture Says: They Shall Look on Him Whom They Have Pierced
37. And again another Scripture says: They shall look on Him whom they have pierced. — The Syriac has, they pierced through. He quotes Zechariah XII, 10, where I have explained that passage.
Verse 38: Joseph of Arimathea Asked Pilate That He Might Take Away the Body of Jesus
38. And after these things, Joseph of Arimathea (because he was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews) asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate permitted him. He came therefore and took away the body of Jesus. — I have explained these things at Matthew XXVII, 58. "He took the body of Jesus" to bury it, says Chrysostom, not as a condemned man, but as the body of a great and admirable Prophet. For Joseph did not yet believe Him to be God, and that He would rise again on the third day. There was therefore in him faith in Jesus, but imperfect. So Chrysostom. See here how God exalts the humble. For as ignominious as was the Passion and death of Christ, so glorious was His burial, according to that text of Isaiah XI: "And His sepulchre shall be glorious." See what has been said there.
Verse 39: And Nicodemus Also Came, Bringing a Mixture of Myrrh and Aloes
39. And Nicodemus also came, who at the first came to Jesus by night. — The word "at first," says St. Augustine, is to be joined with "by night"; and it is signified that he not only came then, but then for the first time; and that he came also afterward, to become a disciple by hearing Him.
Bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds' weight, — that he might magnificently embalm and bury Jesus, so great a Prophet. For great was the quantity of ointment, which weighed a hundred pounds; but Nicodemus willed not only to pour it out abundantly all around the whole body of Jesus (which was tall and large) and fill it, but also to submerge and bury Him, as it were, in this embalming ointment, so that He seemed in it not so much to be preserved as to float. Perhaps also he did not use up all these hundred pounds, but took from them only as much as was necessary and useful. For this office of charity and Christ's burial Nicodemus received an ample reward from Him; for by His grace he became not only a Christian, but also a confessor and semi-martyr. Hear what Gamaliel, in Lucian, in the epistle On the Finding of the Body of St. Stephen, relates about him: "The Jews, recognizing that he was a Christian, removed him from his rank, anathematized him, and drove him into exile from the city. Then I, Gamaliel, took him as one suffering persecution for Christ, brought him into my estate, and nourished and clothed him to the end of his life, and when he died I buried him honorably next to the lord Stephen." Hence Nicodemus too is enrolled among the Saints in the Martyrology, together with St. Stephen, on the 3rd of August.
Verse 40: They Took the Body of Jesus and Bound It in Linen Cloths with the Spices
40. They therefore took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths (namely, the shroud on which are imprinted the marks of the wounds of Christ, which today is religiously preserved at Turin in Piedmont, concerning which see Paleotti) with the spices, as is the custom of the Jews to bury. — I recounted this custom at Matthew XXVII, 59. The early Christians imitated this burial of Christ, sparing no expense in burying the dead and embalming them with spices, as is clear from Tertullian in the Apologeticum; Prudentius in the Cathemerinon, hymn at the Funerals of the Dead; Gregory of Nyssa, oration at the funeral of Meletius; Gregory Nazianzen, epistle 18, and others. Moreover, Christians received this rite from the Jews, and the Jews from the Egyptians, as Tacitus testifies in book XXI of the Annals; who by that art so desiccated the bodies of the dead that they made them as it were of bronze and called them in the Egyptian tongue Gabbaras, as St. Augustine relates in sermon 120 On Divers Subjects, chapter XII.
Verse 41: Now There Was in the Place Where He Was Crucified a Garden, and in the Garden a New Sepulchre
41. Now there was in the place where He was crucified a garden (for where should Jesus, the Author of all verdure and vigor, be buried except in a garden? I gave the reasons at Matthew XXVII, 60), and in the garden a new sepulchre, in which no one had yet been laid. — Hear St. Augustine: "As in the womb of the Virgin Mary no one was conceived before Him, no one after Him; so in this sepulchre no one before Him, no one after Him has been buried."
Verse 42: There Therefore, Because of the Jews' Parasceve, They Laid Jesus
42. There therefore, because of the Jews' Parasceve (the approaching Sabbath, on which no work was permitted nor anyone to be buried. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius), since the sepulchre was near at hand (namely, because this sepulchre was near Golgotha, where Jesus had been crucified), they laid Jesus. — "They wished," says Euthymius, "to place Jesus in another more worthy monument that was farther from the city." But God did not will it, and willed that He be buried near Golgotha and Jerusalem. St. Chrysostom gives the reason: "So that the disciples might easily betake themselves there, and observe what happened nearby; and so that the witnesses of the burial might not be themselves alone, but His enemies also. For the seal and the guards set upon the sepulchre were evidence of the burial. Christ willed His death to be made manifest no less than His Resurrection; for if His death had then been in doubt, the argument for the Resurrection would not stand. Nor did He will to be buried nearby only for these reasons, but also lest any one be able to pretend falsely that He had been stolen."