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At Noon on Calvary

© Bachrach, Inc.

BY
BERNARD A FULLER, SJ.

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At Noon on Calvary

By

BERNARD A. FULLER, SJ.

THE AMERICA PRESS
New York, N. Y.



Imprimi Potest:

Nihil Ohstat:

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Provincial Maryland-New York.

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Imprimatur

:

January 13, 1930.

+Patrick Cardinal Hayes,
Archbishop of New York

Copyright, 1930

THE AMERICA PRESS



PREPARATORY SERMON

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Ghost, Amen. Eternal and most august Trinity, Fa-
ther, Son and Holy Ghost, we stand before You in the
wretched misery of our own sins and nothingness, and hum-
bly pray that every thought and word and action of ours
during these three most sacred hours of prayer may be
wholly devoted to Your greater honor and glory. Amen,

Jesus of Nazareth, having loved His own and loving
them to the end, at the supper table last night took in His
sacred hand the bread and gave thanks and blessed and
broke and gave to His disciples saying: “Take ye and eat;
This is My Body which is given for you.’’ And in like
manner taking the chalice after He had supped. He gave
thanks and gave to them, saying: “Drink ye all of this for
this is My Blood of the New Testament which shall be
shed for you, and for many, for the remission of sins. This
do ye as often as you shall drink for a commemoration of
Me.” And bidding them farewell in the most sincere words
that have ever fallen from human lips. He went up from
the city to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. There He
struggled with the agony of death until His sweat became
as drops of blood trickling down upon the ground. With
garments red in His own blood and betrayed by a traitor
Apostle’s treacherous kiss, He was seized and dragged be-
fore the assembled Council of the High Priest. Condemned
by the priests of His Father’s Temple, as a criminal and
an outcast. He was reviled and blasphemed during the long
hours of the night in His prison dungeon. This morning He
was hurried from Pilate to Herod and back again to Pilate,

^
and hooted at as a fool through the streets of the city He
loved so well. And Pilate, finding no cause against Jesus,
took Him and scourged Him. Mocking His claim as a King,
they clothed Him in the white garment as the King of Fools
and crowned Him with a crown of thorns. He was con-
demned to death, as His own people preferred Barabbas, a

3



4 AT NOON ON CALVARY

murderer, to Him, and called down His Blood upon them-
selves and upon, their children. Carrying His own Cross
He is led to this hill of Calvary, the place of execution, and
is about to be crucified here between two thieves.

“Greater love than this no man hath than that a man
lay down his life for his friend.” Jesus of Nazareth is
laying down His life for you. Draw near in reverence and
in loye to the death scene of the truest friend you have.
A vast throng is already here on Golgotha. Some of them
know not Jesus of Nazareth arid are mere curious lookers-
on. I trust that none of you is among this group this after-
noon. If mere curiosity has brought you here, God grant
that you will return home when the third hour has passed,
changed in heart and changed in soul, striking your breast
and saying: “This is indeed the Son of God.”

Others are here and many, indeed, who know Jesus of
Nazareth. They have heard His wondrous teachings, and
have seen the marvelous workings of His Divine power and
love. Some are here whose eyes He opened to the light of
day. Some to whose ears He gave back the music of their
loved ones’ voices. Some have climbed this hill to whose
palsied limbs He gave health and strength. Some are here
who saw Him raise the dead to life. They know Him and
once loved Him, but are here today, fickle followers of the
mob, to jeer and to blaspheme and to call down His Blood
upon them.

There close to the Cross with the instruments of torture
in their hands are the soldiers of Rome, the hired execu-
tioners, and with them all the Judases of the world who sell
their souls for worldly pleasure, and their God for gold.
Over to the left, chuckling in their triumph, are the false
Priests of God’s Temple. And, with them today, all those
who find Christ and Christ’s principles in the way of their
own greed and gain, their pride and selfish, cowardly sen-
suality, and cry: “Away with Him! Crucify Him! Crucify
Him!”

This is a world’s tragedy and the whole world has a part
in it. Every man, woman and child is standing in one of the
groups on Calvary today. Where do you stand? “He who
is not with Me is against Me.” There can be no compromise.



AT NOON ON CALVARY 5

We are not against Christ and so have not as yet found
our place. Far over to the right, just at the brow of the hill,

at the edge of the crowd, stand the holy women and Mag-
dalene and John and Mary the Mother of Jesus. There is
our place! We may feel like cowards and hypocrites, but
Magdalene the sinner bids us come, and Mary, our Mother,

holds out her arms to welcome us. Standing next to the

Mother of Jesus we will watch and listen and pray during
these three sacred, solemn hours: “Mary, help us to realize

that your Son Jesus is doing all this for love of us. Teach

us Mother what we can do for love of Him.’’
“This is, indeed, the Son of God.” “Yes, we believe

that Thou art Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And be-
cause of this belief since all time is ever present to God,

we know, Jesus of Nazareth, that as You hang on Calvary’s
cross we today are as vividly present to You as the jeering
crowd and the hireling soldiers and the traitorous Priests
and the faithful group about your Blessed Mother. We
know that every sigh of ours will soothe Your Sacred Heart,
that every prayer of burs will make reparation for the jeers
and the insults and the blasphemies, that every pain of ours
will soften the burden of Your sorrow, and every tear of
ours will sweeten the bitterness of Your grief. Oh! Mary,
Mother of Sorrows, let us stand close to you and see what
you see, hear what you hear and feel what you feel here on
Calvary. Oh! make us realize and be crushed at the malice
of bur sins that can inflict such sufferings on your sinless
Son, that we may sorrow with Him as you do, that we may
mingle our tears with yours. “Mary kept all these things,
pondering them in her heart! ” So will we spend these most
precious and most sacred hours, pondering with Mary the
Mother of Jesus, pondering over every wound and every sor-
row and every dying word of our best and truest Friend, her
Son and our Lord, until they sink deep down in our hearts,
that, learning what He has done for love of us, we may be
inflamed to do all we can for love of Him and dedicate and
consecrate ourselves forever to Jesus of Nazareth, King of
our hearts.



FIRST WORD

^^Father forgive them, for they know not what they do^

The executioners gather around Jesus. He is stripped
of His garments and, as Isaias pictures Him, like a lamb,
the Lamb of God, before His murderers meekly lies upon
the cross. Oh! Mother Mary, help us to pray with you
and to sorrow with your suffering Son as we look down upon
the wounds and the deep holes left by the scourging, on the
rugged bruise on His shoulder from the weight of the cross,
on His thorn-crowned Head with the blood still oozing and
clotting over His sacred face. The worst torment of all is
about to be inflicted on Him. One of these brutes grabs His
hand, and bringing it over the hole in the cross, with well-
aimed blows drives the nail through sinew and muscle and
flesh. A tremor of most intense pain passes through our
Saviour’s Body and the fingers contract convulsively around
the nail. Then the left hand is affixed. And now the feet,
which had been drawn up in pain, are violently pulled down,
and with a splitting sound the nail is driven through the in-
step into the wood. Jesus of Nazareth is nailed to the
Cross. A look of horror and of anguish comes over Mary’s
face. ^^And Mother Mary, this is your Boy! There lies
your Babe of Bethlehem and He is doing all this for love of
me! Oh! tell me Mother, what can I do for love of Him?”

Before Pilate and Herod, Christ was silent. In the
dungeon last night as the servants of the High Priest
mocked Him, Christ was silent. During the scourging and
the crowning with thorns, Christ was silent. While carry-
ing His cross to Calvary He spoke but once when He told
the women of Jerusalem not to weep for Him but for them-
selves and their children. The Son of God is being mur-
dered. He is silent no longer but turns to His Father to
make His last request. All Heaven is listening for the dying
wish of the only begotten Son of God. Hell’s minions are

leagued against Him, pride and jealousy, avarice and lust,
anger and hatred, like ravenous wolves are gathered around
Him, devouring His Flesh and drinking His Blood. But
there is no cry for vengeance. There is no cry to Heaven

6



AT NOON ON CALVARY 7

for justice. No cry for pity on Himself or for freedom
from pain. The dying wish of the Son of God is a plea
of infinite love and of mercy: Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do.” And the great Heart of
Christ is not satisfied with asking once. He is repeating
this same prayer all the time that He is lying there on the
cross with His eyes fixed on Heaven. For every blow of

the hammer: “Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do.” He looks towards Annas and Caiaphas and
the Pharisees and, turning His eyes to Heaven, even for

these He prays: “Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do.” The same refrain and the same prayer for
mercy on the souls of men.

The cross is roughly raised and cruelly let down into
the hole in the rock with a thud that sends an agony of
pain through every nerve of His sacred Body and makes
our Blessed Mother shudder and almost faint away. There
He hangs, the Lamb of God, being slain for the sins of the
world. He sees beyond the circle of His executioners, be-
yond the crowd gathered on Calvary, beyond the city of
Jerusalem. He sees down the ages into every country, into
every city, into every home, into every human heart. He
sees the sins of all the world.

You are present here before Him; every deed and
thought and word of yours in all their mean, selfish, un-
grateful and heinous details. He sees all your sins of sloth
and of ingratitude and of selfishness, all your lies and your
deceits, all your intemperance, and your self-indulgence, all
your thefts and all your lusts. Your sins are murdering
Jesus Christ. Your sins nailed Him to the cross. He opens
wide the hands your sins have so brutally mangled and as
the blood trickles down He pleads with His Father in
Heaven for mercy on your soul: “Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they do.” For very shame we hang
our heads. Knew not what we did! Only too well we knew
it. Lord Jesus Christ! Base ingrates we were! We knew
not what we did simply because we deliberately turned
our backs on You and tried to forget what You have done
for us.

Last night. Lord Jesus, at the Supper Table, You left



8 AT NOON ON CALVARY

us a memorial of Your Passion. “Do this in memory of
Me.” Lest we forget, Lord Jesus, You instituted the
Blessed Sacrament of the Altar that every morning in the
history of the world this great sacrifice of Calvary might

be repeated; that as the Divine words, “This is My Body,”
reecho ceaselessly around the world. You might be there.
Lord Jesus our Saviour, ever reminding us of what Your
sacred Body is suffering for us. Looking out from the
Calvary of our altars on a world steeped in Your own most
precious Blood, yet sunk in jealousy and hatred and selfish-
ness and lust, blaspheming You by giving to pleasure and
to honor and pride the glory and homage that belong to
Your Heavenly Father alone^—from the whiteness of the
Host ever holding out to Your Father the deep wounds in
Your hands and Your feet and Your side. Your Sacred
Heart is ever pleading for mercy on the souls of men:
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Ohl all ye sinners of the whole world, hearken to the prayer
of your bleeding, suffering Saviour. Lose not courage!

Lose not hope! Christ is bleeding for you! Christ is

pleading for you! His Blood will not be shed in vain. The
Father will forgive for His dying Son’s sake. If only you
want to be forgiven. “Body of Christ, be my salvation.
Blood of Christ, fill all my veins. Lest I forget! Lest I
forget! ” We will not forget; we will not crucify our loving
Saviour, if the Sacred Body and Blood of Christ is our
daily food and drink. Jesus of Nazareth has done all this
for love of me. What am I doing for love of Him?



SECOND WORD

^^This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise^

There are three executions on Golgotha today. High
on the ^^hill of skulls” three crosses stand out against the

dark, angry sky. On two of them hang Judea’s most noted
criminals. They were caught red-handed in their .crimes
and were justly tried and condemned. Pilate in trying to
hide his own weakness and lack of justice ordered Jesus
to be crucified between these two criminals that He might
appear like them to be paying the just punishment of crime.
Thus another prophesy is being fulfilled: ^^And with the
guilty was He reputed.” There stand the High Priests
and the Pharisees gloating over their victory and enjoying
their full revenge: the Prophet of Galilee, the Wonder-
worker, He who gloried in last Sunday’s triumph when the
people greeted Him with waving palms and the children
sang ^^Hosanna to the Son of David,” He who boasted that
He could destroy the temple and build it up in three days,
He who said that He was the Son of God—hangs there in
the place of honor among thieves, the most despised of
the three.

In the strange darkness that is settling over Calvary

Jesus is deaf to the insults of the mocking Priests and the
Pharisees. He is pleading for His companions in torture.
He wants their souls ! His Sacred Heart is crushed as one
of the robbers blasphemes Him, saying: ^Tf Thou be Christ,
save Thyself and us.” Christ’s answer is a whispered prayer,
as though He did not hear: ^^Father, forgive him, he knows
not what he says.” But the other thief would not stand
the insult and answering, ^ ^rebuked him, saying: ‘Neither
dost thou fear God seeing that thou art under the same
condemnation. And we, indeed, justly, for we receive the
rewards of our deeds. But this Man hath done no evil.’ ”

—

The only words of kindness spoken to Jesus on the Cross,
As He hears them He turns His thorn-crowned head and
looks into the eyes of the thief. From the grateful Heart
of the Good Shepherd in return for one little word of kind-
ness there goes forth into the soul of the sinner God’s own

9



10 AT NOON ON CALVARY

gift of faith and of hope and of love. And in the light of
that faith, where thousands of eyes are blind a murderer
and a thief sees with the clear vision of an angel of God
and makes his act of heroic faith, undaunted hope and
devoted love: ^Xord, remember me when Thou shalt come
into Thy Kingdom.^’ A prayer that comes from the very
depth of love.

‘Xgrd, remember me—^just remember me, for Your
thought of me will be my joy and my sufferings will be as
nothing if only I know that You are thinking of me.’’ And
the Heart of Jesus is moved. His ears do not hear the
blasphemers, they only hear these words of one who in a
moment has learned to love Him. It is worth all Calvary’s
pains to hear him say, ^‘Remember me,” and Christ in answer
looks in love on the thief and His sacred lips utter the
words that bring the light of Heaven into the gloom of
Calvary, that bring joy and hope into every sinner’s heart,
that teach the secret power of trusting prayer of faith and
the blessing of suffering with Christ: ^‘Amen I say to thee,
this day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.”

Mary looks up. Her tears of sorrow are mingled with
those of joy. For the Good Shepherd, all bleeding, has
found a lost sheep. Christ’s first victory is won. Her heart
sings her love song of triumph: ^^My soul doth magnify the
Lord.” Magdalene looks up into the eyes of the Master
and into the face of the thief. She knows the thrill of a
forgiven soul and blesses God and the lips that bade her go
in peace. The thief looks into the eyes of Christ. He had
asked but to be remembered. He is given Heaven in return.

Oh! ye sinners and sufferers of all the world, hearken
to the lesson of mercy Christ is preaching to you from the
Cross. A man went out from Jerusalem this morning ac-
cursed and condemned, was tortured and crucified as a
criminal. Day has hardly passed its noon hour when it
finds him a saint—canonized by God Himself. Every trial
God sends, every suffering with which He blesses you, even
your very sins, can bring you nearer to Calvary and to
Christ. The most marvelous promise ever made by God
to man was made to a crucified murderer: ^^This day thou
shalt be with Me in Paradise.” Learn from the Good



AT NOON ON CALVARY 11

Thief to acknowledge your sins and in your trials and afflic-

tions not to try to tear out the nails but to look into the

face of your crucified Saviour and say: ‘T deserve it—He
hath done no evil—Xord remember me/

Today a stranger, an outcast, Dismas the thief, hangs
on a tree and is saved. Today a friend, a consecrated
Bishop of God, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, Judas Iscariot,

hangs on a tree and is probably damned. It is the

mystery of God^s mercy and man’s perversity. Christ is
dying for Judas and is pleading with the Father to forgive
him. The loss of Judas’ soul is breaking the Heart of the
Master. The Apostle is damned because he is resisting
grace and despairs of mercy. The thief is saved, because
he hopes and asks for mercy.

Look! there is another hanging on a tree today. He is
hanging on Christ’s left, just as near as the one to the right.

Both hear Christ’s prayer for mercy: ^Tather, forgive
them, for they know not what they do.” Both see His
infinite love and patience, both are sprinkled with His
precious Blood and yet one blasphemes and the other loves.
Christ wants them both. Christ loves them both. Christ
is dying for both. How can their bodies suffer the same
torments so near to Christ and their souls be so infinitely
far apart? Suffering can sanctify or suffering can damn our
souls. Happiness can sanctify or happiness can damn our
souls. The issue depends on us. It all depends on whether
in our joy and in our sorrow, in our smiles and in our tears
we curse or bless the God who sends us both. One thief
thinks only of his body and in his pain becomes so selfish
that he blasphemes his God. The other humbly accepts
his pain as the punishment of his crime and thinks only of
Christ and of his soul.

Oh! Saint Dismas, for thus we can salute you, since
Jesus Christ has canonized you, teach us poor sinners in
the midst of our sufferings to pray: “Lord, remember me.”
Teach us even in the very darkness of our sin to whisper:
“Lord! remember me.” Teach us to place our joy and our
hope and our strength in the loving remembrance we hold
in the Heart of Christ. Teach us in the trials and the
temptations and the sorrows of life to look into the eyes of



12 AT NOON ON CALVARY

our crucified Saviour and to place all our trust in Him and
His Kingdom: ^‘Lord, remember me when Thou shalt come
into Thy Kingdom.” Teach us in all the poverty, injustice
and miseries of life to trust Jesus of Nazareth to make up
for it all when the crucifixion of life is over. Teach us to be
unselfishly kind and thoughtful of others. Oh! Mother
Mary, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death
that we may hear your Son say to us: ^^This day thou shalt
be with Me in Paradise.”

Jesus of Nazareth has done all this for love of me. What
can I do for the love of Him? For the love of Him I can
trust Him in the vivid remembrance of sin and spend
each day of my mortal life so living that His Kingdom may
come in my heart and in the hearts of others.



THIRD WORD

^‘Woman, behold thy SonI Son behold Thy Mother

T

It is drawing near the final hour. The silence of death
is oyer the city. A solemn stillness rests over the hill. In
the deep darkness of this noon-day night all nature is con-

vulsed at the death of its God. ^The wages of sin is death.’’
And the sinless Son of God is paying the penalty for the
sins of men. Agony of soul and suffering of body are tell-
ing on Him. His head is drooped in weakness and His
breath is coming fast. Jesus of Nazareth is dying. Fear
has seized upon the crowd. They are dispersing and moving
slowly toward the city. Christ’s prayer for forgiveness is

Still ringing in their ears and they cannot forget His words
to the thief. But it is well that they are going. Mary can
come closer now and Magdalene can take her place at the
blood-stained feet of Christ and there shed her tears of
repentance and of love.

“There stood by the Cross of Jesus, Mary His Mother.”
If our hearts shudder at the thought of Christ’s sorrow,
how can Mary His Mother stand and look at Him suffer?
You mothers know what it means to be at the bedside of a
sick, suffering child. But the agony of your hearts is satis-
fied by being able to soothe a bit of the suffering, to ease
the pain and dry the tears of your loved one. But what
mother could stand and see her boy murdered? “There
stood by the Cross of Jesus, Mary His Mother.”—Where
else would Mary be? In the sacred days of Nazareth Christ
had revealed this day to her and she had yearned for it,
as He did, out of love for us. For almost three hours she
has been standing here in the silence of her heartbroken
anguish.

She can come closer now and can look up into the face
of her Boy. Oh! for the days when in the silence of rap-
tured love she spent hour after hour looking into His baby
face. “And Mary kept all these things, pondering them in

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14 AT NOON ON CALVARY

her heart/’ So now at the foot of the Cross she ponders
these things in the bitter sorrows of her heart. She can
feel the pain of every wound and bruise and sore. She
looks at His hands and His feet torn and bleeding from the
nails, His whole Body quivering in pain.

She sees the Blood oozing out on the crown of thorns,
and oh! how she yearns to take the poor aching head of
her Boy, to soothe its pains, to wipe the Blood and dirt
and spittle from His eyes, to bathe His parched lips. Yes,
He suffered in the manger, but there she could take His
cold, quivering little Body and wrap it closely to her own,
and warm it at her very heart, and kiss away His tears and
wreathe His baby face in smiles. But now—she can only
stand and look.

If that were all it would not be so bad. But the Mother
must listen to the blasphemous insults heaped upon her
Boy. In the secret of her heart she adores Him. She
hears the curses and the blasphemies, and she bows her
head and joins her prayer with His: ‘Tather, forgive them,
for they know not what they do.” Oh! At Bethlehem,
my Boy, you had the Angels sing Your lullaby and Your
glorious song of triumph. Now You only hear insults and
curses. At Bethlehem You had the simple shepherd folk
kneel at Your manger-crib and adore. Here Your own
people, the people whom You loved and served and healed
and fed, passing under Your cross revile You as an imposter
and a malefactor. In Bethlehem You saw the strange
Kings from the East lay their treasures at Your crib. Here
the Priests of Your own country see You given gall and
vinegar to drink, see You crowned as a mock King and
blaspheme Your Kingship—and are glad.”

But now all is quiet. Many of the crowd have gone
and only a few soldiers remain as guards; Mary draws
even closer to the Cross. We have sinned and in as much
as we have sinned we have brought this sorrow and agony
to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. We stand back! We
dare not draw any nearer to Mary our Mother and the
Cross, for our sins are murdering her Boy. Our presence
would only add to her torture and to His.

During the days that followed the armistice a young



AT NOON ON CALVARY 15

American officer was billeted in the house of a Catholic
family. From the very start they made him feel at home.
Orders came one day for review and dress parade and when
the good mother heard of it she began to clean and press
one of his uniforms. The young officer was playing with
the children at the table nearby, The mother was busy
at her work when the iron struck something hard in one
of the pockets. Removing it she found a medal with three
initials scratched in the corner. She looked at it for a
moment, pressed it to her lips and bowed her head. The
young officer looked up in surprise and asked: ^Why,
mother, what is the matter?” She held out the medal and
asked: ^Where did you get this?” “Oh! I took it from
the body of the last lad I killed.” “And that was my boy,”
she said and kissed it again in a heart-burst of tears. She
placed the medal lovingly on the mantle and went back to
her pressing.

“There stood by the Cross of Jesus, Mary His Mother.”
When we see her and realize what we have done our impulse
is to run away and hide ourselves in shame. That is what
Judas did in his despair. But Mary is looking from us to
Jesus ahd is praying for us. She bids us, the murderers of
her Boy, to come and stand by her side. One sinner is
there already—Mary Magdalene; and another hangs on a
cross. It is a solemn moment. The dying Son is about to
speak to His Mother. He looks on Mary and as her eyes
lovingly follow His, He turns and looks on John, the be-
loved disciple—and on you. His parched lips open, and we
hear the whisper of these words of love: “Woman, behold
thy Son, Son behold Thy Mother.” Christ’s dying gift to
His Mother. Christ’s dying gift to the world. “Woman,
behold thy Son.” And Mary stands forth the Mother of
Sorrows, the Mother of sinners. She brought forth Christ
in Bethlehem without pain; she has brought us forth on
Calvary in the agony of death. Jesus of Nazareth has done
all this for love of you. He has so loved you and has so
stamped the image of God His Father on your soul with
His precious Blood that His own dear Mother will look on
you the sinner and see in you her children and the agony
of Calvary will make you all the dearer to her. “Woman,



16 AT NOON ON CALVARY

behold thy son’^ and her arms are open wide to receive you
—you who murdered her Boy.

Jesus is whispering to you from the Cross. He has done
all this for love of you. He is going to ask you now to do
something for love of Him. It is His dying wish: ^^Son,
behold thy Mother.’’ “And from that hour the disciple
took her unto his own.” So standing here under the Cross
of Jesus take His Blessed Mother for your own. In His
sight dedicate and consecrate yourself to her: “Lord Jesus,
my dying Saviour, I will take her unto my own; I will
honor her and I will love her. She will be my Mother. No
word or deed of mine will ever wound her heart or bring
the blush of shame to her cheeks.”

This is Christ’s dying wish, and you can do nothing that
will please Him more. “If I be lifted up, I will draw all
things to Me”; and lifted up on the Cross of Calvary, He
knows that the surest way of coming to His love is through
Mary His Mother. He knows that through Mary’s love
human love will be kept pure and manly and divine. He
knows that if you love her your little ones will love her
and in her love their hearts will be pure and their faith
will be strong. Calvary and all its pains and insults and
blasphemies are worth the love of a pure boy’s and a pure
girl’s heart. Oh! He knows that it is hard to bring up
children and to train them in the love and the fear of
God. He knows what it costs—all the toil, all the anxious
prayers, all the daily sacrifices. But, oh! you devoted
mothers and fathers of the children of God, looking down
on His Blessed Mother, Jesus sees you. From the Cross of
Calvary the bleeding hand of your dying Saviour is blessing
you and your homes.

He sees this great country of ours; how all the powers
of Hell are trying to rob His little children of the priceless
gem of their purity and their faith and in the love of His
Heart he is calling to them from the Cross: “My children,
behold your Mother.” He sees them gathering around Mary
His Mother in the person of you self-sacrificing. God-fearing
parents, in the person of those pure-hearted, courageous

women who clothed in the habit of His Mother have conse-
crated their lives to His little ones. And as the dying eyes



AT NOON ON CALVARY 17

of Jesus see the pure eyes of little children looking up to
Him and their pure little hearts throbbing in love for Him,
His own Heart is glad in the agony of Calvary. His wounds
become sweet and there is music in His dying ears—the
music of your sinless children’s voices singing of Mary and
of Him.



FOURTH WORD

God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

A TERRIBLE silence is hanging over Calvary. Deep, dark
clouds have gathered over the city and are rolling up the
valley. The sun is eclipsed in the very brilliancy of its
noon-d^y glory. The crowd moving toward the city stops
its murmuring and hurries to seek shelter and protection.
For there is a distant rumbling in the heavens and bursts
of lightning, and the very earth is quaking. Strong soldiers
of the legion of Rome standing guard beneath the Cross
grow faint and afraid. Christ, too, seems afraid. There is
a look of agony on His face and His body is trembling and
twitching. Magdalene clasps His quivering feet and shakes
with fear as she looks into His agonized Face livid and pale
against the dark lowering sky. ^^Oh, Mother Mary, what
does it mean? Your face is pale, too. There is a look of
death in your eyes and your lips are quivering. Oh, Mother
Mary, what does it mean? Draw near to the Mother of
Sorrows. She of all others knows the sufferings of her Boy.
She looks up at His mangled Body. She points out blood-
stains there, not made by the scourging or the weight of the
Cross or the thorns or the nails. They are the red marks
of Gethsemane, made there last night in the agony in the
Garden when His soul was crushed with sorrow, and His
breaking Heart pumped His life’s Blood through every
pore of His Body until it trickled to the ground.

Many think only of what Christ suffered in His Body.
But Christ’s Soul is as human as His Body and it suffers
more. His agony of Soul began in the Garden and is being
completed here on the Cross. Agony of soul would have
killed Him in Gethsemane, had not the Divinity sustained
His human Soul. Agony of soul is actually killing Him
here on Calvary simply because He is withdrawing from
His soul the sustaining power of the Divinity. Jesus of
Nazareth is dying. He who could not despair is letting the
bitterness of despair wound Him. He who could not doubt
is dying of a broken Heart. ^‘He hath suffered because He
willed it.” Hanging on the Cross He still is God. Through

18



AT NOON ON CALVARY 19

the wonderful mystery of the Incarnation and the mysterious
bond of the human nature and the Divine He has it within
His right to fill His human Soul with the strength and the
consolation and the hope and the joy of the Vision of God.
Hovering around Him in adoration are the twelve legions of
Angels waiting for the word to confound His enemies and
to comfort Him. But of His own choice, looking down the
ages into all the broken hearts of all the world, looking

down into all the eyes cold and icy in despair, looking down
into souls in their anguish, cursing their God for the evils
sins have brought, looking down on prayers unanswered and
hopes of a lifetime shattered, looking down into homes
wherein the shadow of death lies and into other homes
wherein are heard the sighs and the moans of helpless little
children and of parents in whose hearts the fire of love is
quenched—seeing all this anguish of human minds and
yearning to suffer every pang that any human soul will ever
have to bear, of His own choice, because He loves us. He
shuts off the flood-gates of the Divinity and opens wide
the gates of Hell and makes His poor human Soul, already
weary with the sufferings of His Body, be so overwhelmed
with the flood of the filth of sin and with the darkness of
despair and of doubt, that in its human weakness it feels
as if the very God of Heaven has abandoned it. “My God!
My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me?’’

Angels sang to that human Soul of His amid the tears
and the loneliness of Bethlehem. Angels comforted that hu-
man Soul of His last night in the Garden. But the Angels
are held back now and the very demons of Hell are let loose
at it and are wilder in their fury than the human demons
who have covered His Body with sores and stripes and
spittle and mud.

From the blue sky over the River Jordan and from the
full effulgence of Heaven at Thabor the voice of His Father
called to the four corners of the earth: “This is My Beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased.” In the darkness of Cal-
vary, when He needs a Father most and the strong, sustain-
ing power of a Father’s love. He shuts out the light of
God’s Heaven and hides the Face of His Father until His
human Soul, crushed and overcome, cannot stand the strain



20 AT NOON ON CALVARY

and a heart-rending cry pierces the darkness of Calvary,
makes the earth quake and reechoes in the vaults of Heaven
until the very Angels tremble,—the most piteous cry of a
human soul that ever reached the ears of God: ^^My God!
My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

“Jesus knowing that His hour had come . . . having loved
His own loved them to the end.” He wants to feel every pain
of body, every anguish of mind and every agony of soul that
human nature is capable of. He does not want any single
human being to suffer any pain of body or anguish of soul
that He has not suffered before him. He suffers all this
agony of soul for love of me, and for my strength and con-
solation in the hour of trial and despondency. On Calvary
Christ our Lord out of love for me is concentrating in His
soul all the anguish and the despair of every human heart.

I was passing down the long wooden corridor of one
of our large base hospitals during the World War when the
Captain in charge of the ward sent one of the ward-masters
to call me. A mother had just arrived after a day and a
night of weary travel only to find that her son had died
several hours before and that his body had been already
taken to the morgue. After the fatigue of the long journey

this shock was more than she could stand and the Captain
felt that she was losing her mind. The wild blank stare
was already glaring in her eyes. Not a sound. Not a tear.
I then placed a small crucifix in her hands, and at the sight
of Jesus crucified she heard the priest’s voice where all
others had failed to rouse her. “Oh! dear Lord. Father,
give me some hope! My boy is gone! The joy of my life
is dead!” I then pointed to the crucifix in her hands, tell-
ing her that I carried the Blessed Sacrament with me, bade
her make her act of resignation to Our Lord and to leave
her boy in the hands of His Blessed Mother. As the Cap-
tain timidly opened the door he stood there filled with won-
der at the picture. The mother’s head was bowed towards
me in reverence for our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and
her tears were flowing down over the image of her crucified
Saviour as she pressed it resignedly to her lips. That after-
noon a mother began a sad journey home, but in her heart
was a joy that conquered death. Our record book had shown



AT NOON ON CALVARY 21

that her boy had received the Sacraments. The Heart
of the Son of Mary, broken on Calvary and still beating
within the Host, had soothed the agony of her despair.

And so all of us in our deepest desolation can hear from
Calvary the voice of Christ: “My God! My God! Why
hast Thou forsaken me?’’ Groping in the darkness of our
mental anguish and our disappointment and our despair
we shall feel the gentle touch of a Mother’s hand, who will
lead us to where Magdalen, once crushed in soul and an out-
cast in despair, kneels in comforting tears at the Master’s

bleeding feet.

Christ letting His Soul feel the bitterness of despair calls
to you from Calvary when the very lights of Heaven are
quenched and hope is dead in your soul; when after years
of prayers you give up in despair: “Oh! why doesn’t God
hear me,” an echo comes from Calvary; another “Why, my
God, my God! why hast Thou abandoned me?”; when, un-
der the burden of an unending sorrow and in the torrent of
your ceaseless tears, your human powers of endurance give
way and you cry, “Oh why does God treat me thus?”

—

a voice full of tears and of sorrow and of anguish joins your
own: “My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
Jesus of Nazareth knows how you feel. His heartbroken
cry from Calvary is the only answer to the humanly unan-
swerable “Why” that goes up unceasingly from heartbroken,
sorrow-driven mortals to the ears of God. Christ knows
how you feel. He has felt it Himself. Jesus of Nazareth
has done all this for love of me. I will do all this for love
of Him. I will trust Him even in my despair. I will bear
agony of soul for Him who bore agony of soul for me and
who for me died of a broken Heart,



FIFTH WORD

^7 thirsr

Standing here under the Cross, our Mother Mary is pon-
dering in her heart. She is pondering over every sore and
wound and bruise. Whispering words of consolation as
only a mother can, she is asking where the pain is most
severe. “Do the nails hurt worst. Lord Jesus, my Boy?
I see that the flesh is torn away and You are hanging by the
bare and bruised bone. Oh, no! Then it must be the crown
of thorns that is tearing into Your very brain and will not
let You rest Your head. Oh! tell me, my Boy! Tell
mother where you are suffering most?”

Jesus opens His mouth to speak to His Blessed Mother.
His tongue is all parched and swollen. He can hardly
speak and is barely able to whisper the words: “I thirst.”
That is His greatest physical torture. He has lost blood
in the scourging and the nailing to the Cross. He has been
weakened by the long journey to Calvary. Nothing has
passed His lips since the Supper last night. He has been
hanging here for almost three long hours and, with fester-
ing wounds, a violent fever is devouring His whole Body.
It inflames His lips, parches His throat, consumes His lungs
and is like a fire feeding on the very marrow of His bones.
And all this pain and agony is centered in a consuming
thirst, a thirst that is so intense that the Body seems in-
sensible to all other pain. “Mother Mary, and this is all
for love of me. Tell me. Mother, what can I do for your
Boy and my dear Lord Jesus?”

It is not impatience that makes Our Lord complain of
His thirst. One more suffering is possible. One more in-
sult can still be added. And so weakened unto death, with
eyes blood-shot and weary. He whispers in a feeble voice:
“I thirst,” knowing that the vinegar would be given Him to
burn into the wounds about His Face and to corrode His
throat and that the more bitter vinegar of insult and de-

22



AT NOON ON CALVARY 23

rision would be hurled at Him by those He loved. But lov-
ing to the end and yearning to suffer everything for us, He
whispers: thirst.”

Oh God! at whose word there sprang up the rivers and
the sparkling fountains, You thirst and there is no one to
give You a drop of water. Oh God! who gave Your peo-
ple water from the rock in the desert and gave Moses the
wonderful rod that made the bitter waters sweet, they are
giving You vinegar in return. Oh Christ our Saviour! You
can see before You some of those whom You fed on the
mountain and to whom You had said in loving kindness: “If
any man believe in Me, he shall not thirst forever.” You
thirst—and they are thanking you with the bitterness of jeers
and of insults.

Our Blessed Mother stands helpless. Her Boy is burn-
ing up with fever and dying of thirst and she cannot even
moisten His burning lips. Oh! why should He suffer thus!
oh! why should His Mother’s heart be broken! Every pain
is a love token to us. Every word bears a message of love
to us. Draw near to Mary and watch and listen, ponder
and pray.

Coming to Calvary this morning Christ had said to those
who wept for Him: “If in the green wood they do these
things, what shall be done in the dry?” If sin has wrought
such an agony of suffering on the sinless Body of the Son of
God, what will the fires of Hell be to the sinner himself?
To save us from the consuming fires of Hell, He thirsts. To
quench in us the devouring flames of passion. He thirsts.
He is the victim of sin. He is atoning for every sin of every
human heart. His innocent Body is suffering for all our sins
of sensuality and self-indulgence; He thirsts to redeem us
from the slavery of our senses and to save us from the
tyranny of our passions,—to teach us to conquer ourselves.
Jesus of Nazareth, You have thus treated Your sinless
Body for love of me. I will not indulge the passions of my
body against You, but for love of You I will conquer my-
self, my unruly appetites, my lower cravings and baser
passions.

But there is another thirst that Christ is suffering that
all the waters of the world cannot quench. It is a thirst



24 AT NOON ON CALVARY

of soul and it is really this thirst that makes Him complain.
He looks down from His Cross into the hearts of all men.
He is dying for love of them and by few is He loved in re-
turn. His Sacrfed Heart yearns to be loved. He is giving
His life’s Blood for love and from most men, even from
those who know Him and pretend to love Him, He receives
coldness and indifference and ingratitude in return. Hearken
to the' call of the Heart of Jesus in the deep, dark silence of
Calvary: “I thirst,”—yes, thirst for the love of your hearts.

A little boy, 6 years and 8 months old, was taken seri-
ously sick at his play. He was rushed to the hospital and
had to be operated on immediately. As the little one was
coming out of the ether he was twitching and writhing in
pain. A terrible fever was devouring his little body and
with piteous, dilated eyes he looked up at the good Sister
and begged for a cup of water. His lips were parched, his
tongue was thickly coated and dark and dry. No word of
the good Sister could soothe him; the moistening of the lips
and the washing of the mouth did not satisfy him. Bitter
were his tears and pitiful his pleading for a cup of water.
The Sister asked me to try to calm him. Leaning over his
bed I said: ^‘Now Jimmie, Sister can’t let you drink any
water for an hour or so.” His little hands clenched the
counterpain and his wide open little eyes looked up to me
in an agony of pleading: ^^Oh Father! Please get me a drink
of water.” On the wall there in the children’s ward, right
opposite Jimmie’s bed, was a large Crucifix. I pointed to it
and said: Jimmie, who is that?” He turned his eyes to
the Crucifix, and looking for a moment, said: “Jesus.”
“Wasn’t Jesus thirsty, Jimmie, when He was hanging on
the Cross?” He bowed his little head in reply. “Well,
Jimmie, you tell Jesus now that you know what He must
have suffered and that you will offer up your thirst to Him.”
And that little mite of a child fixed his eyes dimmed with
tears on the image of his crucified Jesus, and with his little
body twitching in pain and his little hands clenching the
coverlet, he uttered no word of complaint and never once
asked for a drink of water. He was doing it for Jesus cruci-
fied. “I thirst”—and in answer a little baby waif of a
child in the ward of one of our city hospitals is stretching



AT NOON ON CALVARY 25

his little hand away back to Calvary and quenching the
thirst for love in the Heart of his Saviour.

Jesus of Nazareth is doing all this for love of him. A
mite of a child can do all this for love of Him. What am /
going to do for love of Jesus crucified?



SIXTH WORD

Is Finished!^

Three years ago, as the sun was setting over the hills
near Bethany, beyond the Jordan, John the Baptist stood
talking with his disciples. Just at the brow of the hill over
against the sunset, a tall white-robed figure was passing.
The Baptist pointed Him out with the strange words of
Isaias the Prophet: “Behold the Lamb of God! Behold Him
who taketh away the sins of the world.” In this dismal
noon-day twilight of the darkest day that ever settled over
this earth, the same Figure stands out ghastly white against
the angry sky high on Judea’s hill.

Jesus of Nazareth from Calvary calls back through the
centuries to Isaias and back to John the Baptist on the
Jordan’s banks. “It is finished”—the Lamb of God has paid
the price. From Calvary’s cross He then looks down the
centuries that are to come. Out against the glow of each
morning’s dawn the same white-robed Figure is passing
across the margin of the world, keeping pace with the rising
sun: “Behold the Lamb of God,” clothed in the whiteness
of the Host. Behold Him who takes away the sins of the
world. Jesus of Nazareth, having loved His own has loved
them to the end. “It is finished.” He can do no more.

“It is finished.” The Lamb of God has paid the price!
The work of Redemption is finished. All that the Prophets
foretold has been accomplished. What God promised in the
Garden is fulfilled. There a human hand stretched out to
the forbidden tree in proud defiance against its God, closed
the gates of Heaven and called down the curse of God on
every human soul. Here the Divine Hand of God stretched
out in humblest obedience on the tree of sacrifice, opens the
gates of Heaven and stamps in its own Blood every soul
that wills it with the seal of salvation and with the mark
of the Living God. “It is finished.” The Lamb of God is
taking away the sins of the world.

“It is finished.” His enemies are conquered. “Have
confidence, I have conquered the world.” He looks to Mary

26



AT NOON ON CALVARY 27

His Mother and through the merits of His death He sees
the serpent of Hell crushed and conquered under her heel.

^Tt is finished”—His mangled Body has conquered the lust
of the flesh. ^^Body of Christ, save me.” ^Tt is finished”

—

with a stable for His birth and a borrowed grave waiting to
receive His murdered Body He has conquered the lust of the
eyes for pleasures and for gold and for the good things of
earth. ^Tt is finished”—He has conquered the pride of life
by “humbling Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even
to the death of the Cross.” “It is finished.” All enemies

—

the devil, the flesh and the world are conquered. Jesus
turns to Mary: “It is finished. Mother,”—all is finished that
I revealed to you in the sacred days of Nazareth ^s boyhood
home. Jesus lifts His eyes to His Father in Heaven: “It is
finished—Father, I have finished the work Thou gavest Me
to do.”

Jesus looks down the valley to the city. There in all its
splendor stands the Temple, but it is gruesomely white in
the darkness that envelopes the city, white like the ghost of

a past that is forever gone. The Holy of Holies is holy
no longer. The blood of lambs flowing in Solomon’s Tem-
ple will no longer appease the living God for the sins of
man. “It is finished.” Behold the Lamb slain on Calvary’s
mound. He takes away the sins of the world!

And Jesus turns from Solomon’s Temple and the Holy
City and sees spread out before Him the cities and the ham-
lets and the wide stretches of country over the face of the
earth. He sees His Cross of Calvary multiplied a thousand-
fold as on as many altars His sacred Body and Blood are of-
fered for the sins and the souls of men. “It is finished.
This is My Body that shall be delivered for you. This
is My Blood that shall be shed for you.” “It is fin-
ished”—never more will sin cry unanswered to Heaven for
vengeance, for from our altars His Blood will ever cry for
mercy on the souls of men. “It is finished”—the Sacrifice
is offered that will never end, but ceaselessly from the rising
to the setting of the sun the Sacrifice of Calvary’s Cross
will be offered as a clean oblation to God on our altars, until
Jesus of Nazareth comes in glory with that same Cross to
judge the living and the dead.



28 AT NOON ON CALVARY

Jesus turns His eyes towards His executioners. ^Tt is
finished.” Malice can devise no new torture. There is no
spot on His sacred Body free from wound or pain. And all
this for love of me. “What is there I ought to do more for
my vineyard and have not done?” Is there anyone can say
that Christ could do more for him? “Greater love than
this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his
friend.” “It is finished.” Love has gone its limit. It can
do no more. And all this for love of me.

Oh! come close to Mary and the Cross. Put your hand
there over the Sacred Heart of your dying Saviour before It
has ceased to beat and learn from the last throb of the
Heart of Jesus how much He loves you. And as you draw
back your hand, red with the Blood of Jesus Christ, raise
it to the Father in Heaven and before the world, standing
beneath the Cross of Christ, repeat with Him: “It is fin-
ished.” I am finished with sin that is crucifying my loving
Saviour. “It is finished”—red with the Blood of Jesus Christ,
this hand of mine never will be stretched out to do Him
harm, or to lead me or others into the occasion of sin. “If
I be lifted up I will draw all things to Me.” Draw me to
Thee Lord Jesus with the strongest bonds of love and of
Blood and in the strength of Your love, bid me to be per-
fect as Your Heavenly Father is perfect, that believing
in You I may do the works that You have done, that ever
partaking of the unending Sacrifice of Calvary, eating Your
Flesh and drinking Your Blood in the most Holy Sacrament
of the Altar, “I may ever live in You and You in me.”
Each day of my mortal life I will look to You dying for
me and say “It is finished”; Christ, this day I have lived
for You, there is no sacrifice neglected, there is no mark
of love passed over, there is no enemy of soul unconquered.
“I have finished today. Lord Jesus, the work Thou gavest
me to do.” Jesus of Nazareth, Thou hast done all this for
me. I can. Lord Jesus, do all this for Thee.



SEVENTH WORD

Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit.

The final moment has come, the moment promised in
the Garden, the moment foretold by the Prophets, the
moment longed for by the great Heart of Christ. All earth
is wrapt in the horror of the noon-day darkness; birds are

screeching and animals are running mad in fright. The
three crosses stand out like specters against the blackened

sky. Jesus our Saviour is dying! Draw up close to Mother
Mary in all reverence and love, and watch her dying Son.
He is dying for you. He is loving you unto the end. The
struggle of death is upon Him. He is in His agony. His
bloodshot eyes gaze fixedly into space. His Body droops
and sags. The centurion says: ^^He is dead!’’ But Mother
Mary answers:—-“No! not yet!” For lo! by some tre-
mendous effort He is lifting His head! A Divine light is
coming into His eyes! He looks from thief to thief and
then straight up into the dark Judean sky and with a voice
that can be heard ringing in the valley and reechoing along
the distant hills. He cries: “Father, into Thy hands I com-
mend My Spirit.” Those were His last words and “bowing
His head He gave up the ghost.”

This loud voice pierces the heavens and is the cry of
triumph over sin and over death and over Hell. It is a
cry to the Father that His Son is coming. The golden star
that the Angels fixed over Bethlehem the night the Father
gave His only Son for the freedom of the world is shining
behind the dark clouds over Golgotha where the Angels
are waiting to welcome Him home. He is coming battle-
scarred and victorious—the Good Shepherd red with the
Blood He shed in seeking His sheep and with the lost sheep
upon His shoulder—the penitent thief of Calvary and
the penitent sinners of all the world. He cries out with
a loud voice that rings down the valley of despair to
Judas and to all those souls who think that God will
not pardon them, that Christ’s all-merciful Heart can-

29



30 AT NOON ON CALVARY

not love them. He cries out in a loud voice! It is His
last cry to the impenitent thief, the last pleading call of

God’s mercy, the last anxious plea of God’s love to those

who will not listen, to those who will not understand.
At the sound of Your cry. Lord Jesus, the graves around

Jerusalem are opening and giving up their dead. Oh!
Jesus, from Your cross today before You die let Your
cry carry down the streets and into the homes of our city
and pierce the hard rocky tombs of the hearts of those we
love but in whom all love of You is dead. Make them,
Jesus, love You, and in Your dying power and the grace of
Your most precious Blood call them forth to a new life
that the peace You came to give may reign in our homes.
^Xamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world,
give us peace.”

Jesus of Nazareth is calling out in a loud voice to every
human heart. We are all sentenced to death. We air must
go through this agony. Christ is calling to us all to teach

us how to die, even as He has taught us how to live.
“Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.” Thus
death since Jesus died is but the home-coming of a child
to its Father’s arms. “In the hour of my death call me
and bid me come to Thee that with Thy Saints I might
praise Thee for ever and ever. Amen.” “Holy Mary,
Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour
of our death.”

Jesus has lowered His eyes. A tremor is passing over
His Body. The end is near. But as last night in the
Garden the soldiers could not approach until He gave them
leave, so now death dare not lay its cold hand upon Him
until He bows His consent. “He was delivered because He
willed it.” He bows His head to His Father in Heaven

—

“obedient unto death.” He bows His farewell to Mary His
Mother.—There is a gasp! His arms are extended convul-
sively, the whole Body sinks down, the knees fall in. He
bows His head and lets it sink to His breast. Jesus of
Nazareth is dead. Mary is childless. We are saved.

At the foot of the Cross beneath the mangled Body of
Jesus kneel John the Beloved Disciple and Mary Magdalene
and Mary His Mother. They are the first adorers of the



AT NOON ON CALVARY 31

Holy Cross: ‘We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless
Thee, because by Thy holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the
world.” They rise and Magdalene leads Mary to a little
mound near the Cross. Silently and reverently St. John
and Joseph of Arithmathea and Nicodemus and the centu-
rion lower the Body of Jesus and place It in His Mother^s
arms.

“And Mary the Mother of Jesus kept all these things,
pondering them in her heart.” Back over thirty-three years
her ponderings go. The stars are shining softly in the
clearest sky that ever mirrored God’s beauty. She stands

by an empty manger, when lo! the solemn silence of earth’s
most peaceful night is broken by the whispered songs of
Angel choirs^—as Mary holds up her Babe on Bethlehem’s
hill to bless the world He had just come to save. So Mary
ponders now in this most horrible darkness as amid the
thunder of Heaven and the rumble of earth she sits child-
less by a bloody Cross. And Mary on Calvary’s hill holds
out the lifeless arms of her murdered Boy to bless the world
He has just died to save.

Oh! Mother Mary! What does it mean? Is this
what my sins have done to your Sweet Babe of Bethlehem?
Ask Him to bless me. Mother, as you bathe His eyes and
ears and mouth and tongue and hands. Pray for me,
Mother, for it was my hands with their greed and lust that
drove in the nails. It was my tongue and its impatience,
unkindness and blasphemies that made Him thirst. It was
my ears, encouraging scandal and full of pride that made
Him bear the insults and the blasphemies. It was my eyes,
seeking self and pleasure that made His all bloodshot and
sore. It was my sensual body that crucified the sinless
Body of your Boy.

Jesus of Nazareth has done all this for love of me.
What can I do. Lord Jesus, for love of Thee?—^As in the
thunder of Sinai the Father gave His Ten Commandments to
Moses, so now in the thunder of Calvary comes Christ’s
answer from His Mother’s arms—a silent challenge from
the open wounds in His hands and His feet and His side, a
silent pleading from His lifeless eyes:—^“If you love Me
keep My commandments”—“If any man will come after



32 AT NOON ON CALVARY

Me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and
follow Me.”

At noon today, Jesus of Nazareth, You climbed this hill
of Calvary crowned with thorns and carrying Your cross.
At this third hour, kneeling at Your Mother’s feet, I bow
my head to be crowned with Your blood-stained crown of
thorns and, in the strength of the Holy Eternal Spirit, I
take up Your cross daily to follow You, in a blameless,
spotless Christian life. You have done all this for love of
me. If You have thus treated Your sinless Body for love
of me, I will be done with my sinfulness for love of You.
With Mary Mother as my witness, I here and now con-
secrate and dedicate myself to You, Jesus of Nazareth, King
of my heart.

Eternal and most august Trinity, Eather and Son and
Holy Ghost, ^^it is well for us to be here.” I thank Thee
that Thou hast revealed these things to the little ones and
the weak ones. Father glorify Thy Son that Thy Son may
glorify Thee. As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh
that He may give everlasting life to all whom Thou hast
given Him, and this is everlasting life that they may know
Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast
sent.



Famous Writers Appearing in

AMERICA
THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY

G. K. Chesterton Fulton J. Sheen 1
Hilaire Belloc Brother Leo

|

Wilfrid Parsons Katherine Bregy
j

John Wiltbye Mark 0. Shriver
!|

Elizabeth Jordan D. M. O’Connell
C. W. Thompson W. F. Cunningham
W. I. Lonergan Francis Carlin
Myles Connolly William T. Walsh
John M. Stuart E. A. Fitzpatrick
Daniel A. Lord Eugene Weare
David Goldstein Paul L. Blakely
P. F. Scanlan F. McCullagh
Paul H. Furfey John LaFarge
Thos. F. Coakley A. H. Atteridge
Philip H. Burkett Enid Dinnis

Dr. J. J. Walsh Agnes Repplier
F. M. Crowley G. H. Sherwood
F. X. Talbot Joseph Husslein
Thos. F. Meehan A. W. McCann
Ronald Knox George Barton
T. F. Woodlock E. F. Garesche
Austin O’Malley Sr. M. Eleanore
C. L. O’Donnell Michael Earls
Charles Phillips George Johnson
R. C. McGoldrick P. J. Carroll
Peadar O’Donnell John Gibbons
J. W. Fitzpatrick Leonard Feeney
Richard Reid Theo. Maynard
G. C. Heseltine E. J. Cooley
Masie Ward Thos. O’Hagan

It is interesting to note the very large percentage of lay writers
among the contributors, which proves—if any proof were needed

—

that it is a weekly wherein one may find the layman equally at
home with cleric and Religious. Though the editorial staff is Jesuit,
the number of articles by non-Jesuit writers, in 1928 totaled 7lV2
per cent of the whole and the individual non-Jesuit authors^ 77 per
cent of the whole. Such cooperation from the lay scholarship of the
world makes America a splendid clearing-house of Catholic thought.

Write for Sample Copy

1

THE AMEEICA PRESS, 461 Eighth Avenue, New York, N. Y.



For Lent
At Noon on Calvary
By BERNARD A. FULLER, SJ.

The Death Watch of Our Saviour
By JOHN CONWAY, SJ.

Christ Suffering
By PHILIP H. BURKETT, SJ.

The Sacred Heart
By JOSEPH HUSSLEIN, S.J.
10 cents each—$7.00 per 100

Lessons for Lent
(Reprinted from the Catholic Mind)

5 cents each—$4.00 per 100

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