Lent with Bossuet: Meditations on the Gospel (10)

Source: FSSPX News

“Ecce Homo” (1620) – José de Ribera.

In His Combat and Victory, Jesus Is Our Model

Now my soul is troubled: and what shall I say? (Jn. 12:27-28) Therein lies the problem—the mind floats as though uncertain of itself. “And what shall I say?” Behold, my Saviour, my uncertainties and my emotions which You bear.

“My Father, save me from this hour.” Shall I say that to my Father? Shall I ask Him to deliver me from this hour, from this ignominy, from these pains so frightful to human nature? “But 1 have come for this hour.” Behold the weak man who is aroused, who encourages himself.

Jesus in His weakness asked: “What shall I do?” What shall I decide to do? Shall I ask God for my personal deliverance, or for that of mankind? Shall I listen to my human nature, frail in itself, or to the glory of my Father in the salvation of men lost? “My Father,” Your glory carries the day: “Glorify Thy name”; Glorify Thy name of Father, in glorifying Thy Son. “Not my will, but Thine” (Luke 22:42). Not my rest, but Thy glory, and the redemption of the people by whom You wish to be glorified. There is the combat; there is the victory.

Jesus has confirmed His invincible soul, or rather, because it was absolutely invincible, and had only to fight for us, He has taught us to fight and to vanquish. And behold, there again in the victory of the soul of Jesus, the image of our combats, and the character of humiliation which was to accompany the Saviour.