Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/444

 JESUS

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JESUS

(ii) Preparation of Jesiis. — Jesus must have found an indirect preparation for His Passion in all He did and said to strcnfctlu-ii His Apostles. But the prepara- tion tliat was peeiiiiurly His own consisted in His prayer in the grotto of His Agony where the angel came to strengthen Him. The sleep of His favoured Apostles during the hours of His bitter struggle must have prepared Him too for the complete abandonment He was soon to experience.

(iii) Preparation of the Enemies. — Judas leaves the Master during the Last Supper. The chief priests and Pharisees hastily collect a detachment of the Roman cohort stationed in the castle of Antonia, of the Jewish temple-watch, and of the officials of the Temple. To these are added a number of the servants and depend- ants of the high-priest, and a miscellaneous multitude of fanatics with lanterns and torches, with swords and clubs, who were to follow the leadership of Judas. They took Christ, bound Him, and led Him to the high-priest's house.

(b) Trial of Jesus. — Jesus was tried first before an ecclesiastical and then before a civil tribunal.

(i) Before the Ecclesiastical Court. — The ecclesias- tical trial includes Christ's appearance before Annas, before Caiphas, and again before Caiphas, who ap- pears to have acted in each case as head of the San- hedrin. The Jewish court found Jesus guilty of blasphemy, and condemned Him to death, though its proceedings were illegal from more than one point of view. During the trial took place Peter's triple denial of Jesus; Jesus is in.sulted and mocked, especially be- tween the second and third session; and after His final condemnation Judas despaired and met his tragic death.

(ii) Before the Civil Court. — The civil trial, too, comprised three sessions, the first before Pilate, the second before Herotl, and the third again before Pilate. Jesus is not charged with blasphemy before the court of Pilate, but with stirring up the people, forbidding to give tribute to Csesar, and claiming to be Christ the king. Pilate ignores the first two charges; the third he finds harmless when he sees that Jesus does not claim royalty in the Roman sense of the word. But in order not to incur the odium of the Jewish leaders, the Roman governor sends his prisoner to Herod. As Jesus did not humour the curiosity of Herod, He was mocked and set at naught by the Tetrarch of Galilee and his court, and sent back to Pilate. The Roman procurator declares the prisoner innocent for the sec- ond time, but, instead of setting Him free, gives the people the alternative to choose either Jesus or Baral> bas for their paschal freedman. Pilate pronounced Jesus innocent for the third time with the more solemn ceremony of washing his hands; he had recourse to a third scheme of ridding himself of the burden of pro- nouncmg an unjust sentence against his prisoner. He had the prisoner scourged, thus annihilating, as far as human means could do so, any hope that Jesus could ever attain to the royal dignity. But even this device miscarried, and Pilate allowed his political ambition to prevail over his sense of evident justice; he condemned Jesus to be crucified.

(c) Death of Jesus. — Jesus carried His Cross to the place of execution. Simon of Cyrene is forced to assist Him in bearing the heavy burden. On the way Jesus addresses His last words to the weeping women who sympathized with His suffering. He is nailed to the Cross, His garments are divided, and an inscription is placed over His head. While His enemies mock Him, He pronounces tlic wcll-knuwn "Seven Words". Of the two robbers crucified with Jesus, one was con- verted, the other died impenitent. The sun was dark- ened, and Jesus surrendered His soul into the hands of His Father. The veil of the Temple was rent in two, the earth <]uaked, the rocks were riven, and many bodies of the .saints that had slept arose and appeared to many. The Roman centurion testified that ./esus

was indeed the Son of God. The Heart of Jesus was pierced so as to make sure of His death. The Sacred Body was taken from the Cross by Joseph of Arima- thea and Nicodemus, and was buried in the new sepulchre of Joseph, and the Sabbath drew near.

(.5) The Cilory of Jesus. — After the burial of Jesus, the Holy Women returned and prepared spices and ointments. The next day, the chief priests and Phari- sees made the sepulchre secure with guards, sealing the stone. When the Sabbath was passed, the Holy Women brought sweet spices that they might anoint Jesus. But Jesus rose early the first day of the week, and there was a great earthquake, and an angel de- scended from heaven, and rolled back the stone. The guards were struck with terror, and became as dead men. On arriving at the sepulchre the Holy Women found the grave empty; Mary Magdalen ran to tell the Apostles Peter and John, wliile the other women were told by an angel that the Lord had risen from the dead. Peter and John hasten to the sepulchre, and find everything as Magdalen has reported. Magdalen too returns, and, while weeping at the sepulchre, is approached by the risen Saviour Who appears to her and speaks with her. On the same day Jesus appeared to the other Holy Women, to Peter, to the two disci- ples on their way to Emmaus, and to all the Apostles excepting Thomas. A week later He appeared to all the Apostles, Thomas included; later still He ap- peared in Galilee near the Lake of Genesareth to seven disciples, on a mountain in Galilee to a multitude of disciples, to James, and finally to His disciples on Mount Olivet whence He ascended into heaven. But these apparitions do not exhaust the record of the Gospels, according to which Jesus showed Himself alive after His Passion by many proofs, for forty days appearing to the disciples and spea;king of the kingdom of God.

IV. The Character of Jesus. — The surpassing eminence of the character of Jesus has been acknowl- edged by men of the most varied type: Kant testifies to His ideal perfection; Hegel sees in Him the union of the human and the Divine; tlie most advanced sceptics do Him homage; Spinoza speaks of Him as the truest symbol of heavenly wisdom; the beauty and grandeur of His life overawe Voltaire; Napo- leon i, at St. Helena, felt convinced that " Between him [Jesus] and whoever else in the world there is no possible term of comparison" (Montholon, "R('>cit de la Captivit6 de I'Empereur Napoleon"). Rou.s- seau testifies: "If the life and death of Socrates are those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a god." Strauss acknowledges: "He is the highest object we can possibly imagine with respect to religion, the being without whose presence in the mind perfect piety is impossible." To Renan "The Christ of the Gospels is the most beautiful incarnation of God in the most beautiful of forms. His beauty is eternal; his reign will never end." John Stuart Mill spoke of Jesus as " a man charged with a special, express, and uniipie commission from God to lead mankind to truth and virtue". Not that the views of the foregoing wit- nesses are of any great importance for the theological student of the life of Jesus; but they show at least the impression made on the most different classes of men by the history of Christ. In the following paragraphs we shall consider the character of Jesus as manifested first in His relation to men, then in His relation to God.

A. Jesus in His Relation to Men. — In His relation to men Jesus manifested certain qualities which were perceived by all, being subject to the light of reason; but other cpialities were reserved for those who viewed Him in the light of faith. Both deserve a brief study.

(1) In the Light of Reason. — There is no trust- worthy tradition concerning the bodily appearanc(> of Jesus, but this is not needed in order to obtain a picture of Ilis character. It is (rue that at first sight