793 discourse v: the light burden made it lighter still, if we acknowledge that it has been fashioned from our sins. We will support Jesus when He stumbles under the Cross, by stirring up a sincere disgust for our sins, and by making a firm intention not to commit them anymore. 1. David, the King of Jerusalem, reflecting in spirit what we consider now, sang of these considerations about Christ carrying the Cross: “He has exulted as a giant to run [His] way; His going out [is] from the end of heaven” (Ps 18:6-7) [LV]. Truly, we ought to admit that the Lord had the shoulders of a giant, given that He was decidedly carrying the most burdensome, lethal wood. It was recorded to be heavy to such an extent that, I believe, two men would have fallen under that Cross. “Certainly that cross was a heavy burden to Him,” (Marchant48 piously reflects) “on account of the weakness of His body, which was completely exhausted from so many gashes, and from which such a copious amount of blood poured forth. [It was heavy] secondly, on account of the length and width of the cross and its roughness because it was unfinished due to the haste with which it was fashioned. The weight was also producing a wound more serious than all the wounds of the entire body. The cross was like a wine press, under which His flesh was once more pressed as grapes, so that the streets of Jerusalem might be spotted with His bloodstained footprints.”49 Therefore, when such a heavy cross, so described, has been cast upon the Lord, why or how is He said to have rejoiced beneath it? The reason is in [His] willingness. A burden taken up for another is carried most eagerly; therefore, He does not feel its weight. For all labor seems light, which is voluntarily taken up; lighter still, if it is taken up for the sake of friends; lightest, if for rewards. All these [reasons] transformed the weight of the Cross upon our Savior to make it very light. In that Cross (according to the testimony of Isaiah), “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our 48 Cf. Škarvada, Jaroslav, Marchant (Marchantius), Jacques († 1648), ECat VIII, 20. 49 Marchantius, Iacobus, Opusculum VI: Lilium inter Spinas sive De Passione Domini nostri Iesu Christi, Lectio X: De Christo crucem baiulante, in Iacobi Marchantii Opuscula Pastoralia sive CommistumMigma Pascendis animabus…, Coloniae Agrippinae 1642, p. 366.
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