the suffering christ 804 Let us recall here the fragment from the Sacred Scriptures, which is most deserving of admiration and particularly relevant to our topic. The Almighty God commanded the Hebrews to smear the doorpost and lintels of their houses with the blood of a lamb (which they were to slaughter and eat as a sign and token of God’s passage through Egypt). What was it for? “When I see the blood,” He Himself says, “I will pass over you, and no plague shall fall upon to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt” (Ex 12:13). O, what a mystery! The angry Lord of hosts passed over, and treated with respect, as it were, the homes of the Hebrews, marked by the blood of a lamb. Does He not venerate and honor even more so the Cross, anointed with the Blood of His own Son? This very Cross, the one, “which the holy blood shed from the body of the Lamb thoroughly anointed?” Not any lamb, but the true, heavenly, and immaculate Lamb: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter” (Is 53:7), among those who were killing Him. And will not this Wood be sacred to us, thanks to which benefit we would escape free from the edict of eternal damnation that struck the unfaithful Egyptians? Would this Wood not be most glorious to us, which the King of glory by His ascension [upon it], [and] which the Lamb of God by His Blood ennobled and consecrated? 4. We learned from the holy historiographers of our Savior that He was hanged in the middle cross between two thieves. “There they crucified [H]im,” says the beloved Evangelist, “and with [H]im two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them” (Jn 19:18). O Lord of infinite majesty! Are You so despised that You are to die between two thieves? O most Holy of Holies! Are You hanged among evildoers and criminals? Are You “reputed to be among sinners?” (cf. Mk 15:28). You decided to be born among beasts of burden and to exhale the sacred Spirit among men inferior to beasts? Are Your honor, glory, and majesty nearly forgotten?
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