WEDNESDAY.
Behold the Man.— II.
I. Having represented Christ to the eyes of your soul, crowned with thorns and clad in a robe of scorn, covered with wounds and fainting under them, imagine you hear the words " Behold the man" addressed to you by the Holy Ghost. Believe that the divine Spirit thus addresses you, in order that you may more attentively contemplate the Man-God. He whom you behold clothed in the semblance of man is the Supreme God, the Lord of all things, the long-expected Messias, your Saviour, the teacher and shepherd of your soul. For love of you He has thus debased Himself beneath the condition of a slave.
II. Next imagine that these same words, " Behold the man!" are addressed to you by the eternal Father, proposing his Son to you as an example of every virtue which you ought to imitate. "Behold the man, behold the servant whom I have chosen, My beloved, in whom My soul hath been well pleased." (Matt. xii. 18.) My Son suffers Himself to be contemned and insulted, to heal your pride; He is naked, in order that He may correct your covetousness; He endures excessive torments, to atone for your sensualities; "He turns His cheek to him that striketh Him" (Lament, iii. 30), to teach you how to annihilate your angry passions. Examine in what you can imitate Him.
III. These words, " Behold the man," may be addressed by you and by the whole Church to the eternal Father, offering Christ as a peace offering for all our sins. O eternal God, behold the man who in the name and on behalf of all mankind offers Himself as an atonement
