795 discourse v: the light burden When the Son of God was carrying the Cross, on which He was to be lifted up, He was then carrying the dominion upon His shoulders, as the prophet (Isaiah) alluded to quite well. For would it be appropriate for the Son of God to be sad under the weight of the Cross, on which, lifted up as if on a royal throne, He was to draw all things to Himself. “He therefore rejoiced as a champion to run the course carrying the cross, carrying the dominion [that came from it]. He would have walked slower, if not for the beam, which — like a feather of feathers and a wing of charity fastened to His most holy shoulders — was carrying the weight of the tortured body, instead of being carried [by Him]” (Lawrence Justinian, De triumphali agone, 16).50 3. Although we see that the Son of God, proceeding to the place of execution, exults under the most heavy burden of the Cross, nevertheless, it is an abomination for us to be in the midst of such a horrible and cruel spectacle without tears: Especially because we are precisely those who have constructed such a dreadful and cruel gibbet, which we hurled on His most sacred shoulders without mercy. “The plowers plowed upon my back” (so complains our most meek Lamb to each one of us through the mouth of David), “they made long their furrows” (Ps 129:3). Every crime already committed and yet to be committed since the expulsion of man from Paradise to the present day, to the moment of which I speak, everything has been placed upon the shoulders of the most holy and courageous Atlas. All of this is embodied in the Cross that He carries; all of this is placed on a triumphant chariot, which He is guiding. All of our sins have been placed together on Him. We are the builders of His most savage gibbet; we are the murderers of this gentlest Prince. “All we like sheep have gone astray,” testifies the prophet Isaiah, “we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Is 53:6). Will we not expiate such a great crime through the sincere renunciation of our sins? But if we are 50 Cf. Laurentius Iustinianus, De triumphali agone mediatoris Christi: Divi Laurenti Iustiniani Protopatriarche Veneti Opera Omnia, Venetiis 1606.
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