791 discourse iv: the crown of thorns are to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter that he may live” (Est 4:11). Jesus fled, when the people desired to choose our Savior as king, as they had been fed by Him to satiety. Indeed, He was alone in solitude. Now, however, He rejoices to be crowned with thorns, and to take up the scepter of reeds, and “love sustained Him in His intense zeal for new punishments.” So that to each sinner who approaches Him as a beggar, He stretches out this scepter of reeds as a sign of clemency, and accepts him completely absolved by grace. May our most gentle King live forever! Long live Jesus! He who desired to be disdained, that He may restore us to honor; to be clothed with a tattered purple cloak, so that He may adorn us with vestments of glory; to be encircled with the diadem of thorns, so that He would give the undying laurels; to be adorned with the reed scepter so that through His humility, we, having been mercifully raised, may inherit the kingdom prepared for us from the beginning of the world. He turns His own contempt into honor for us, His own punishment into our pardon, His fear into our security, His torments inflicted by us into our beatitude. Therefore, hail! However abject is the purple that clothes You, Although the head is covered with thorns, with the reed in the hand, Hail, King of Kings! Let the Jews be for Caesar, Besides You, Jesus, no one will be my King!
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==