That acute and burning thirst of his body, however, had its even greater counterpart in the thirst of his soul for the souls of human beings.

It was for them, it was for us, that he hung and suffered there.  He had come from the Father’s brightness into the moral and spiritual darkness of this world because his love for us could never rest until he had done all he could to rescue us from everything that can keep us from God, and to bring us to share his own eternal light.

He came to change his enemies into penitents and the penitents into Saints, so that his murderers might become like the Good Thief, and the Good Thief be like St John and his Blessed Mother.

Those are the stages, too, by which his thirst for your soul and mine can alone be satisfied.  What point have we reached?  Though not like the Saints, are we like the Good Thief in the fullness and depth of our personal sorrow for our sins of thought and of word and of act?  Or, if it is not as complete as his, is it at any rate sufficient to distinguish us significantly in God’s eyes from those to whom his Son’s Crucifixion means little or nothing?

For remember, the sincerity of our sorrow at the Crucifixion of Christ may be gauged by the depth and sincerity of our personal penitence.  Let us pray then, that this Good Friday, on which we contemplate the immensity of Our Lord’s sufferings for us, may be a new beginning on the road that leads to holiness and to him.

References

1. Blosius, F-L (1506-1566) cited by Avancini, R.P.N. (1854) Vita et doctrina Jesu Christi, page 140, para 2, Deiters.  Available from:
http://books.google.com/books?id=_3RLAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false (Accessed 11 April 2011) (Internet).

2. Keble, J. (1886) 'The Christian year: Tuesday before Easter', In Lacey May, G. (1937) English religious verse, London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd.