"_Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried._"--Let us here meditate on the dolorous mysteries of our dear Redeemer's passion, crucifixion, death and burial. To show the greatness of his love for us, and the plenteous redemption which he brought us, he was pleased to suffer every kind of torment with which human nature could be afflicted. "What was sufficient for our salvation," says St. Bernard, "was not sufficient for his charity." When he could have saved us with a single drop of his blood, he redeemed us with a deluge thereof, after a painful life of thirty-three years. His passion began in the garden of Gethsemani, at the foot of Mount Olivet, near Jerusalem, and ended only on Mount Calvary; Tiberius being then emperor of Rome, and Pontius Pilate governor, or president, of Judea. He suffered in his soul, and in his body, in his senses, and in all his members, from the sole of his foot, to the crown of his head. He was buffet ted and spit upon; he was mocked and insulted; he was scourged; he was crowned with thorns; and at length his hands and feet were pierced and fastened with gross nails to an ignominious cross; and after hanging alive thereon, between two thieves, in the most excruciating pain, for the space of three long hours, he expired, and gave up his blessed soul into the hands of his eternal Father. { 216} After his death, his sacred body being taken off the cross on Good-Friday, in the afternoon, and being embalmed, according to the custom of the Jews, by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, it was wrapped up in linen cloth, and laid in a new monument, hewn out of a rock, near Mount Calvary. O let us not then repay the boundless love of our crucified Redeemer with sin and ingratitude, but let us rather make the best return we are able, of love and gratitude to him, who suffered so much for our sake; devoutly saying, "Our Father," &c. "Hail, Mary," &c.
"_He descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead_."--Here let us meditate how our blessed Saviour's soul, when separated from his body, descended into hell, or the dreary prison, where the souls of the holy patriarchs and saints of the Old Testament were detained, until he had paid the price of their redemption, and opened for them the gates of heaven, which had remained shut against mankind from the fall [of] Adam until that time. { 217} We may judge how the presence and sight of their so long wished-for Redeemer turned their gloomy prison into a paradise of delights, and occasioned unspeakable joy to the holy souls to whom he came to preach the gospel of redemption, release from their tedious captivity, and carry up with him to heaven at his ascension, as the first fruits of his victorious triumph over sin and death. Having comforted them by these happy tidings, his blessed soul, after remaining part of three days subject to the laws of death, returned from this prison to the sepulchre, and being re-united to his body, he arose early on the morning of the third day from the bowels of the earth, by his own divine power, and was the first who from death rose to a glorious and immortal life. His resurrection is a perfect model for us to copy after. Let us endeavour to imitate it by a spiritual resurrection from the death of sin, to a new life of grace, so as to continue for ever to live with him, and to return no more to the death of mortal sin. For this end, let us implore his divine assistance; saying with devotion, "Our Father," &c. "Hail Mary," &c.