Evening Devotions: Spy Wednesday

"It is consummated."

When Jesus had taken the vinegar, he said: "It is consummated." The holocaust is consumed in the fire of my love and sufferings. The will of my Father is accomplished. The Gospel is announced. The prophecies are fulfilled. The ransom of mankind is paid. Mens sins are forgiven. The captives are delivered. Paradise is opened. The sacraments are instituted. Fountains of grace flow forth to the uttermost ends of the earth. The devil is vanquished. The sins of the world are atoned for! I have nothing more to say, to do, or to suffer.

II.

What consummation is more full of joy and peace than that of the faithful servants of God! What consummation more replete with misery and anguish than that of sinners!

"It is consummated!" the dying sinner exclaims. My pleasures are vanished, my amusements are over, my beautiful and joyous days are eclipsed, my hopes are for ever gone, my time is irrevocably lost, my life is near its close, my malice is consummated and at an end! In a little while I will enter into a life of suffering that will never end and know a misery of my own doing that will be eternal!

III.

"It is consummated!" says the dying Christian. My evil days are over, my sufferings are ended, my combats finished, my troubles are calmed and dispersed, my griefs are soothed, my infirmities healed, my tears all wiped away, and my miseries for ever ended. "It is consummated!" There is nothing more for me to do. The cross is laid down at the portals of death, there are no more evils for me to fear or endure, no sins to avoid, no more penance to perform. I shall soon enter into a life of peace and rest where my joy will be full and eternal.

IV.

Christian soul, you must choose one or the other of these two consummations. An hour rapidly approaches, when you will be obliged to say, "It is consummated." Will you say it with Lazarus or will you say it with Dives? Will you say it with Jesus or will you say it with Pilate? In that hour you will discover that all you have loved in the world and all that it has promised is only deceit and vanity.

Resolution: As a sign of my choice to live for eternal life I will go to confession before Easter even if I have recently done so that I may receive Communion free of all sin, mortal and venial.

Prayer: Oh Jesus, author and finisher of our salvation, I offer thee my life and the consummation thereof as thou hast given thine for me! Give me grace to do thy will, to sacrifice myself to thy glory, to be consumed with divine love, to make my body a victim of suffering, to fulfil all thy designs, and acquit myself of all my duties, that I may say with my last breath: "It is done: All is accomplished: It is consummated!"