“Ecce Homo”.
“Behold The Man”.
Artist: Antonio Ciseri (1821–1891).
Date: 1860-1880.
Source: http://www.most-famous-
paintings.org/Ecce-Homo-large.html
Author: Antonio Ciseri (1821–1891).
(Wikimedia Commons)
By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 6.
Passion-Tide and Holy Week.
The Sun has risen upon Jerusalem.
But the Priests and Scribes have not waited all this time without venting their rage upon Jesus.
Annas, who was the first to receive the Divine Captive, has had Him taken to his son-in-law Caiphas, the High Priest.
Here, He is put through a series of insulting questions, which, disdaining to answer, He receives a blow from one of the High Priest’s servants.
False witnesses had already been prepared: They now come forward, and depose their lies against Him Who is the Very Truth; but their testimony is contradictory.
Then, Caiphas, seeing that this plan for convicting Jesus of blasphemy is only serving to expose his accomplices, turns to another plan. He asks Him a question, which will oblige Our Lord to make an answer; and, in this answer, he, Caiphas, will discover blasphemy, and blasphemy will bring Jesus under the power of the Synagogue.
This is the question: “I adjure Thee, by the living God, that Thou tell us, if Thou be the Christ, the Son of God !
Our Saviour, in order to teach us that we should show respect to those who are in authority, breaks the silence, He has hitherto observed, and answers: “Thou hast said it: I am: And hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the Right-Hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of Heaven”.
Hereupon, the impious pontiff rises, rends his garments, and exclaims: “He hath blasphemed ! What further need have we of witnesses ? Behold ! Now ye have heard the blasphemy: What think ye ?” The whole place resounds with the cry: “He is guilty of death !”
The Son of God has come down upon the Earth in order to restore Man to life; and yet, here we have this creature of death daring to summon his Divine Benefactor before a human tribunal, and condemning Him to death !
And Jesus is silent, and bears with these presumptuous, these ungrateful, blasphemers ! Well may we exclaim, in the words wherewith the Greek Church frequently interrupts today’s reading of the Passion: “Glory be to Thy patience, O Lord !”
Scarcely have the terrible words, “He is guilty of death”, been uttered, than the servants of the High Priest rush upon Jesus. They spit upon Him, and, blindfolding Him, they strike Him, saying: “Prophecy, who is it that struck Thee ?”
Thus does the Synagogue treat the Messias, Who, they say, is to be their glory ! And yet, these outrages, frightful as they are, are but the beginning of what Our Redeemer has to go through.
But there is something far more trying than all this to the heart of Jesus, and it is happening at this very time. Peter has made his way as far as the Court of the High Priest’s Palace. He is recognised by the bystanders as a Galilean, and one of Jesus’s disciples.
The Apostle trembles for his life; he denies his Master, and affirms with an oath that he does not even know Him. What a sad example is here of the punishment of presumption ! But Jesus has mercy on His Apostle. The servants of the High Priest lead Him near to the place where Peter is standing; He casts upon him a look of reproach and pardon; Peter immediately goes forth, and weeps bitterly.
From this hour forward, he can do nothing but lament his sin; and it is only on Easter morning, when Jesus shall appear to him after His Resurrection, that he will admit any consolation to his afflicted heart.
Let us make him our model, now that we are spending these hours, with our holy mother The Church, in contemplating the Passion of Jesus. Peter withdraws, because he fears his own weakness; let us remain to the end, for what have we to fear ?
May Our Jesus give us one of those looks, which can change the hardest and worst of hearts !
