And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet,
They parted my garments among them, and for my clothing did they cast lots.
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
But after they had crucified Him (see Vulg.). S. Matthew here studies brevity (as usual), and partly shrinks with horror from the crucifixion, not speaking of it as an actual occurrence, but only by the way. It is a doctrine of the faith that Christ was nailed, not merely tied, to the Cross. (See John xx25 , and Ps. xxii16.) But it is possible that ropes were used as well, so says S. Hilary (Lib. x. de Trin.). The ropes are to be seen in the Church of Santa Croce at Rome. Nonnus, in his paraphrase of S. John , says that Christ"s hands were fastened to the Cross with an iron band as well as by nails. The Cross, he says, was first raised up, and then a huge nail driven through both feet, laid one over the other. Some writers speak of a support for the feet to rest on, or a space hollowed out for the heels; and questions, too, are raised as to the number of the nails, whether three or four (or, as S. Bernard suggests, six), and the direction in which they were driven so as to cause the greatest torture.
The anguish of the crucifixion was very great; because the tenderest parts of the body were pierced by the nails, and the whole weight hung from the hands. The pain was lasting Christ hanging on the Cross for three hours. Mystically, the words spoken of Jerusalem ( Lamentations 1:12) are applicable to Christ. Very great pain, too, was caused by the racking and stretching out of His limbs. S. Catharine of Sienna said she had practically experienced this when she had been made by Christ a partaker of all His sufferings. His bones were able to be counted when He was thus stretched out. It is in the Hebrew, "I will tell all My bones," that Isaiah , I am able to do so. But the Vulgate has it, "they counted," since Christ, while suffering such torture, was not able to count them Himself.
He was crucified with the crown of thorns, and between two robbers, as though He were the chief of them; and naked too, after the Roman custom. Some suppose that He was entirely naked, though others consider that this would have been too unseemly before a crowd of both sexes. This, then, was the greatest shame and pain to One who was so pre-eminently modest and chaste. S. Ambrose (in Luke xxiii.) says, "Naked He ascends the Cross. I behold Him naked. Let him who is preparing to conquer the world ascend in like manner, not seeking worldly supports. Adam, who sought to get clothing, was a conquered person. But He who laid aside His garments, and went up on the Cross just as nature had made Him, was a conqueror." "Adam," said Tauler (Excerc. Vit. Christi, cap. xxxiii.), "hasted to clothe himself because he had lost his innocence, but Christ was stripped naked because He had preserved His innocence, and needed no other covering." S. Francis, wishing to follow Christ"s example, threw himself, when dying, naked on the ground. See notes on S. Matthew 5:3.
S. Flavia, a noble virgin and martyr, when she was exposed naked at the command of the tyrant Manucha, to make her deny Christ, said, "I am ready to endure not merely the stripping of my body, but also the fire and the sword, for Him who was willing to suffer all this for me" (see Acta S. Placidi, art5).
It is generally thought that Christ was nailed to the Cross when lying on the ground, as was the case with those who carried their own cross. S. Anselm, S. Laur. Justiniani, and others hold this view; S. Bonaventura, Lipsius, and others, the contrary, which is supported by the text ( Song of Solomon 7: 8), "I will go up to the palm-tree," on which passage see the notes. But it is quite an open question.
But why was Christ crucified rather than put to death in any other way? The obvious reason was, that the Jews wished to inflict on Him a most ignominious death, and thus bring discredit on His name and followers. They wished Him also to bear the punishment which was due to Barabbas, whom they preferred before Him. But on God"s part the reason was to save by the foolishness of the Cross those that believed (see 1 Corinthians 2:23).
Besides which, victims of old time were lifted up as offerings, and afterwards burnt. And Song of Solomon , too, Christ, who offered Himself as a burnt-offering for our sins, was raised up on the Cross, and burnt and consumed there, not so much with pain as with love for men; just as the paschal lamb was stretched on the spit in the form of a cross, and then roasted.
There were various moral causes on the part of Christ and of men1st. That as Adam and Eve sinned by stretching forth their hands to the forbidden tree, so Christ might atone for their sin by stretching forth His hands to the wood of the Cross (so Augustine in Append. Serm. de Diversis iv.). Whence the Church sings, "By a tree we were made slaves, and by the holy cross have we been set free" (in the Office for Sept14); and "that life might spring from that from which death arose, and that he who conquered by the tree might be conquered by the tree." And S. Greg. Naz. (in Orat. de Sepsio), "We are by the tree of disgrace brought back to the tree of life which we had lost." And S. Ambrose (in Luke 4), "Death by the tree, life by the cross." Nay, Christ Himself says, "I raised thee up under the apple-tree; there was thy mother defiled, there was she defiled that bare thee." The Cross, again, is the remedy and expiation of the concupiscence which came from Adam"s sin, itself the fount and origin of all sins. Christ therefore teaches us by the pattern of His Cross continually to crucify and mortify our evil affections, if we wish to avoid sin and save our souls (S. Ath. de Incarn. Verbi).
2d. That by hanging between Heaven and earth He might reconcile those in Heaven and those on earth. So S. Ambrose (in Luc. xxiii.), "That He might conquer not for Himself only, but for all, He extended His arms on the Cross to draw all things to Himself, to free from the bands of death, raise aloft by the balances of faith, and associate with things in Heaven the things that before were earthly." So too [Arnoldus apud] Cyprian, "I see Thee victorious over sufferings, with uplifted hands triumphing over Amalek, bearing up into the heavens the standard of Thy victory, and raising up for those below a ladder of ascent to the Father."
Hence S. Jerome teaches that Christ on the Cross embraces the four quarters of the world with its four arms. In its very shape does it not resemble the four quarters? The east shines from the top, at the right is the north, the south on the left, the west firmly planted beneath His feet. Whence the Apostle says, "that we may know the height and breadth, and length and depth." Birds fly in the form of a cross; we swim or pray in the same form. The yards of a ship resemble a cross. And S. Greg. Naz. says (Carm. de Virg.),—
"For stretching forth to earth"s remotest bounds
His sacred limbs, He brought the human race
From every clime, and gathering them in one,
He placed them in the very arms of God."
As Christ said, "I, if I be lifted up from the earth," &c.
S. Athanasius (de Incarn. Verbi) says, "If He came to bear our sins and curse, how could He have done so but by takinog on Himself an execrable death? But the Cross is that very death, as it is written, "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree"" ( Deuteronomy 21:25; Galatians 3:13).
Besides this, all kinds of suffering concur in the Cross, and Christ embraced them all in His own, to set the martyrs an example of every kind of endurance. For the Cross wounds the hands and feet as a sword, it stretches out the body as a rack, lacerates it as a hoof, mangles it as a beast, burns and tortures it as a flame, and kills the whole Prayer of Manasseh , as it were, with a slow fire. He experienced, then, the torments of all the Martyrs, and brought them before Himself, and was evil-entreated for their sakes, that He might obtain for all of them the power of over-coming them. As the blessed Laurence Justiniani says (de Triumph. Christi Agone, cap. xix.), "He was stoned in S. Stephen, burnt in S. Laurence, and bore the special sufferings of each several Martyr."
S. Augustine says further (Serm. lxix. de Diversis), "He refused to be stoned, or smitten with the sword, because we cannot always carry about stones or swords to defend ourselves. But He chose the Cross, which is made with a slight motion of the hand, and we are protected thereby against the craft of the enemy." As S. Paul says, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse," &c. ( Galatians 3:13).
S. Anselm (in Phil. ii.) says, "He chose the worst kind of death, that He might overcome all death." As S. Augustine says (in Ps. cxl.), "That His disciples should not only not fear death itself, but not even this kind of death." And (de Ag. Christi, cap. xi.), "Fear not insults, and crosses, and death, for if they really were hurtful to men, the man whom the Son of God took upon Him would not have suffered them" (see S. Thomas, Par. iii. Qust48 , art4).
S. Athanasius (de Incarn. Verb.) says, "The Lord came to cast down the devil, to purify the air, and to make for us a way to Heaven." It was therefore requisite for Him to be crucified in the air (see S. Chrysost. de Cruce). S. Thomas (par. iii. Qust46 , art4) gives many other reasons. Lastly, S. Basil (Hom. de Humil.) says, "The devil was crucified in Him whom he hoped to crucify, and was put to death in Him whom he had hoped to destroy." And S. Leo (Serm. x. de Pass.), "The nails of Christ pierced the devil with continuous wounds, and the suffering of His holy limbs was the destruction of the powers of the enemy."
Moreover, in the Cross that ancient reading of Ps. xcvi. was made good, "God hath reigned from the tree;" for, as S. Ambrose says (in Luke xxiii.), "though He was on the Cross, yet He shone above the cross with royal majesty." And as S. Augustine says, "He subdued the world not by the sword, but by the tree" (Serm21 , Ben.). The Cross was the triumphal car of Christ, in which He triumphed over the devil, sin, death, and hell. S. Ambrose accordingly calls it "the chariot of the Conqueror, and the triumphal Cross."
The Cross is said to have been made of the cypress, cedar, palm, and olive:—
"Cedar the trunk, tall cypress holds His frame,
Palm clasps His hands, and olive boasts His name."
(Dr. LITTLEDALE"S Version in Song of Solomon 7:8.)
For Christ was on the Cross exalted as a cedar, beauteous as the leafy cypress, poured forth the oil of grace as the olive, triumphed over death as the victorious palm. So says [Arnold. apud] S. Cyprian, "Thou hast gone up unto the palm tree, because the wood of thy Cross foretold Thy triumph over the devil, Thy victory over principalities, and powers, and spiritual wickednesses," &c.
In short, God willed the Cross to be the price of our redemption, a book of heavenly Wisdom of Solomon , a mirror of every virtue and perfection. The book, I say, of the wisdom of God; for in the sufferings of the Cross Christ set forth His supreme love for Prayer of Manasseh , for whom He was so cruelly and ignominiously crucified; the heinousness of mortal sin, which could not be atoned for in any other way; the awfulness of hell-torments (for if God punished so heavily the sins of others in Christ His Song of Solomon , how will He not punish in hell-fire the personal guilt of sinners themselves?); the value of each single soul, for which so great a price has been paid; the care which should be had for the salvation of souls, lest the Blood of Christ should be shed for them in vain; the great happiness in store for the blessed, as having been purchased by Christ on the Cross. Rightly, therefore, S. Augustine says (Tract. cxix. in S. John), "The tree on which were fastened the limbs of the sufferer was the seat also of the Master and Teacher."
It is also the mirror of all virtue and perfection, for Christ on the Cross exhibited humility, poverty, patience, fortitude, constancy, mortification, charity, and all other virtues in their highest perfection. Look on Him, therefore, 0 Christian, and live "according to the pattern showed thee in the Mount " ( Exodus 25:40). This, too, is the teaching of the Apostle ( Ephesians 3:17), "That ye being rooted and grounded in love," &c. And accordingly the Martyrs strengthened themselves to bear all their sufferings by meditating on the Cross of Christ. As, e.g, S. Felicitas, S. Ignatius (whose saying it was, "Jesus, My Love, is crucified"), the Brothers Marcus and Marcellinus (who said that "they were never so glad at a feast as in enduring this for Christ"s sake; we have now begun to be fixed in the love of the Cross, may He permit us to suffer as long as we are clothed in this corruptible body"): and, among others, the Martyrs of Japan. S. Francis, too, counted himself happy in receiving the Stigmata, and being thus conformed to Christ crucified. Those in "religion" should also rejoice, as having been crucified with Christ by their three vows, which are, as it were, three nails they have taken to bear for Christ"s sake (see Pintutius apud Cassian, lib. iv. de Instit. Renunc. cap34 , &c.). In a word, how holy, tender, and true was that couplet of S. Francis de Sales—
"Or love or madness slew Thee, Saviour mine:
Ours was the madness, Lord; the love was Thine!"
But, next, on what day was Christ crucified? I answer, on March25 , the day of His conception, on which day S. Dismas, the penitent thief, is commemorated. So say, too, S. Augustine (de Civ. lib. xviii. ad fin.), S. Chrysostom, Tertullian, S. Thomas, and others, whom Suarez follows (par. iii. disp. xl. sect5 , ad fin.). This was the completion of His thirty-fourth year, the day, too of the sacrifice of Isaac, and the passage of the Red Sea (both eminent types of Christ on the Cross), and of the victory of Michael the Archangel. Hence it is inferred that the world and the angels were created on the same day, and that they began from the very first to war with each other.
The hour was mid-day. "The sixth hour," says S. John ( John 19:14), i.e, from sunrise. S. Mark says "the third hour" ( Mark 15:25), meaning the end of the third and the beginning of the sixth; for these hours with the Jews and Romans contained three of ours. S. Mark clearly means this when he says (ver33), "And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land." Theophylact speaks of the fitness of this: "Man was created on the sixth day, and on the sixth hour he ate of the tree. At the same hour that the Lord created Prayer of Manasseh , did He heal him after his fall. On the sixth day, and on the sixth hour, was Christ nailed to the Cross." Bede, among the Latins, takes the same view. "At the very hour when Adam brought death into the world did the second Adam by His dying destroy death."
Many suppose that Adam was created on the same day of the year, and ate the forbidden fruit at the same hour, when Christ expiated his sin on the Cross. Tertullian (lib. i. contra Marcion) gives it in verse- ""Twas on the day and place where Adam fell,
As years rolled on the mighty athlete came
And battle gave, where stood th" accursed tree;
Stretched forth His hands, sought pain, despising praise,
And triumphed over death."
Procopius says (in Gen. iii.), "It was at the same hour in which Adam ate of the tree."
But, observe, He was crucified with His back to Jerusalem, as though He were its enemy, and unworthy to look on it; but in truth, as being about to reject the Jews, and choose the Gentiles. He thus looked on the west (Rome and Italy). Christians accordingly, by Apostolic usage, pray towards the east, as if looking at Christ crucified; and as the Crucifix in a Church looks west-ward, so must they who look towards and adore it necessarily look eastward. (See S. J. Damasc. de Fide, iv13; S. Jerome, &c.) Jeremiah prophesied this ( Jeremiah 18:17), "I will show them the back," &c.; and David ( Psalm 66:7), "His eyes look upon the Gentiles."
S. Bridget speaks of the details of the Crucifixion as revealed to her by Christ ( Revelation 7:15) and by the Blessed Virgin ( Revelation 1:10).
To conclude, Lactantius (iv26) says, "Since he who is hung upon a cross is raised high above all about him, the Cross was chosen to signify that He would be raised so high that all nations would flock together to acknowledge and adore Him," &c. Hebrews , therefore, stretched forth His hands, and compassed the world, to show that from the rising to the setting sun a mighty people from all languages and tribes would come under His wings, and receive on their brows that noblest of all signs. On other points relating to the Cross, its various forms, its oracular answers, &c, see Gretser, i29 seq.; S. Thomas, par. iii. Q46; and Suarez in loc. On the Moral Cross, i.e, the patient, resolute, and firm endurance of all tribulations, see Gretser, lib. iv. de Cruce.
Tropologically: S. Chrysostom (Hom. de Cruce) thus recounts its praises: "It is the hope of Christians, the resurrection of the dead, the leader of the blind, the way to those in despair. It is the staff of the lame, the consolation of the poor, the restrainer of the rich, the destruction of the proud. It is the punishment of evil-livers, the triumph over evil spirits, the victory over the devil. It is the guide of the young, the support of the destitute, the pilot to those at sea, the harbour of those in peril, the bulwark of the besieged, the father of orphans, the defender of widows, the counsellor of the righteous, the rest of the troubled, the guardian of the young, the head of men, the closing act of the old." And so on at great length. See, too, S. Ephr. de Cruce; and S. J. Damasc. iv12.
Seven holy affections (especially) should be excited by meditating on Christ crucified,—compassion, compunction, gratitude, imitation, hope, admiration, love and charity.
Here comes in from S. Luke 33:34 our Lord"s first word on the Cross, "Father, forgive them," &c. He forgets entirely the pains and injuries He had received, and, kindled with the glow of charity, prayed for their forgiveness. And He was "heard for His reverence" ( Hebrews 5:7). For many repented at S. Peter"s preaching, and were converted to Christ at Pentecost. He Himself taught us to pray for our persecutors, to do good to those who do us wrong, and to overcome evil with good. S. Stephen, too, imitated His example ( Acts 7:59). "They know not what they do." They know not I am the Christ the Son of God, for else they would not dare to commit this monstrous sacrilege, the murder of God. They know not that I am the Saviour of the world, and that I am dying for their salvation. "So does the gentleness and tenderness of Christ triumph over the cruelty and malice of the Jews" (de Passione apud S. Cyprian).
The flint is the emblem of the love of our enemies, and has this motto, "Fire comes from flint, but not without a blow." The flint is popularly called a "living stone" from the living fire within. The flint, then, here is Christ, the corner-stone. For He poured forth on the Cross the latent fire of His Godhead and His boundless charity. But yet not without a blow, for it was while smitten by His persecutors that He prayed for them so ardently. He had Himself said before, "I came to send fire upon the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?" ( Luke 13:49). Let the Christian, then, imitate Christ, and make himself a flint, which is full of fire itself, and ignites others; and when he is wrongfully smitten, let him shoot forth sparks of Divine love, as Christ did against His smiters.
They parted His garments, casting lots. S. John relates this more fully ( John 19:23). S. Cyril observes on this, "They claim the garments as being theirs by the law of inheritance, as the reward for their services." S. Chrysostom says also, "This was generally done in the case of mean and utterly destitute criminals." And again, "They part those garments wherewith miracles were wrought. But at that time they wrought none since Christ did not display His unspeakable power." It was a great affront and distress to Christ to see His garments insolently torn by the soldiers before His very eyes, and divided by casting lots. But He doubtless wished to die and suffer for us in the utmost poverty, in nakedness and disgrace, and to lay aside not merely His garments, but also His body and His life; that so His ignominy might clothe and hide the ignominy both of our and Adam"s nakedness, and restore to us thereby the garments of immortality; "that He might clothe us with immortality and life" ([Pseudo-] Athanasius, de Cruce).
Tropologically: He would teach us to strip off the superfluities of this world.
Now, here observe Christ had a coat without seam. It was a kind of under-garment, worn next to the body, says Euthymius. And he adds, approvingly, that it was woven for Him (as ancient writers held) when a child by the Blessed Virgin. If Song of Solomon , it appears to have grown with His growth, like the garments of the Hebrews in the wilderness. It is religiously preserved, and is to be seen at Treves.
Symbolically: [Pseudo-]Athanasius says, This coat was without seam, "that the Jews might believe who and whence He was who ware it; that He was the Word, who came not from earth,but from Heaven; that He was the inseparable Word of the Father; and that when made man He had a body fashioned of the Virgin alone by the grace of the Spirit." And again, "This was not their doing, but that of the Saviour as He hung on the Cross. He spoiled principalities, and led the devil captive, and terrified the soldiers so that they rent not the coat, but that as long as it remained it might be a standing testimony against the Jews. For the veil was rent, but not the coat, no not even by the soldiers, but remained entire. For the Gospel ever remains entire when the shadows pass away." The soldiers rent Christ"s other garments, and divided them into four parts for the four soldiers who crucified Him, and they again cast lots what each should take. It is supposed He had three garments, the stainless coat, another one over it like a soutane, and the upper coat, which covered the whole body.
Symbolically: [Pseudo-]Athanasius says, "They divided His garments into four parts, because He wore them for the sins of the four quarters of the world. And when the Baptist saw Him clothed therein, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world."""
