(Last updated on February 22, 2012)

 

"Ecce Homo-Behold the Man"

a Lenten Meditation from

Monsignor Joseph S. Raymond

 

These words have a mysterious signification; in them is a revelation which contains precious lessons.  Behold the Man!  That is to say, behold the perfect man who offers in the sanctity of His life an image of the divine perfection.

When the Blessed Trinity created man they said: "Let us make man in Our Image and to Our Likeness."  In Jesus alone is this image found in all its perfection.

Behold the Man!  in whom rest all the iniquities of mankind.  God has placed upon Him all our iniquities, the Prophet tell us.  Every species of crime, the abomination of all sinners weigh upon His Soul, so pure and so holy; He is weighed down, crushed; He is covered with shame and confusion before the sanctity of His Father.

Our own faults also are upon Him; they tear His Heart.  Oh! at this thought they should also tear our hearts!

Let us all cast ourselves at the Feet of this God charged with our sins, let us ask forgiveness, promising to console Jesus in the future by our fidelity and our love.

Behold the Man!  Who loves us so much as to die for us!  The Prophet calls Jesus the "Man of Sorrows", we may well call Him, the "Man of Love".  His Sacred Heart burns at every instant with most ardent affection for us and each one of us can and ought to say:

"I am loved by a passionate love by my God.  I do not receive, I cannot receive a like tenderness from anyone."

Behold the Man!  The Man who shed the Blood which is the object of our adoration and our homage, the Precious Blood which is our happiness upon earth and our hope for the next life.  It is Jesus who shed It to apply Its merits to us and make It the object of our love.

Behold the Man!  Jesus is the Savior who has redeemed us.  Whatever may have been our crimes, we hope to go and see our God face to face and enjoy His love eternally; but if we have this confidence, this almost certainty, it is because this Man, our Redeemer and our Reparator, has died in expiation of our sins.  If we hope for eternal happiness, it is because Jesus has suffered to merit this for us.