“It is over now, O Lord, as with Thy sufferings, so with our humiliations.”
Image: “Jesus is Placed in the Tomb”, Cuypershuis, Wiki Commons, (source)
1. IT is over now, O Lord, as with Thy sufferings, so with our humiliations. We have followed Thee from Thy fasting in the wilderness till Thy death on the Cross. For forty days we have professed to do penance. The time has been long and it has been short; but whether long or short, it is now over. It is over, and we feel a pleasure that it is over; it is a relief and a release. We thank Thee that it is over. We thank Thee for the time of sorrow, but we thank Thee more as we look forward to the time of festival. Pardon our shortcomings in Lent and reward us in Easter.
2. We have, indeed, done very little for Thee, O Lord. We recollect well our listlessness and weariness; our indisposition to mortify ourselves when we had no plea of health to stand in the way; our indisposition to pray and to meditate—our disorder of mind—our discontent, our peevishness. Yet some of us, perhaps, have done something for Thee. Look on us as a whole, O Lord, look on us as a community, and let what some have done well plead for us all.
3. O Lord, the end is come. We are conscious of our languor and lukewarmness; we do not deserve to rejoice in Easter, yet we cannot help doing so. We feel more of pleasure, we rejoice in Thee more than our past humiliation warrants us in doing; yet may that very joy be its own warrant. O be indulgent to us, for the merits of Thy own all-powerful Passion, and for the merits of Thy Saints. Accept us as Thy little flock, in the day of small things, in a fallen country, in an age when faith and love are scarce. Pity us and spare us and give us peace.
O my own Saviour, now in the tomb but soon to arise, Thou hast paid the price; it is done—consummatum est—it is secured. O fulfil Thy resurrection in us, and as Thou hast purchased us, claim us, take possession of us, make us Thine.
– Composed by John Henry Cardinal Newman in his private journal, published posthumously in Meditations and Devotions (UK: here). Available free online: here.
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Further Reading:
The Silence of the Passion
The Composure and Agony of the Passion
Sacrifice and triumph – How does the passion reconcile us to God?
The Triumph of the Passion
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It is interesting to note that Mary’s spiritual suffering continued after Jesus had died, and that suffering was so great that she had to be miraculously preserved in life.
Thes revelation below given to the holy nun, Venerable Mary of Agreda shows why the Blessed Virgin Mary is rightly called Co-Redemptrix by saints and popes. Although only Christ’s redemptive sacrifice has infinite value, Mary’s sharing in Her Divine Son’s sufferings was immeasurably more than we can imagine.
We also see the truth in Mary’s participating in the infinite redemptive value of Christ in one of the prayers the angel taught the Fatima children in 1916 before Our Lady’s apparitions in 1917: “…and by the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners.”
From the book, The Mystical City of God:
“…{Mary] begged the eternal Father to suspend in Her all human alleviation and comfort, both in the sensitive and in the spiritual part of her being, so that nothing might hinder Her from suffering to the highest degree in union with her divine Son. She prayed that She might be permitted to feel and participate in her virginal body all the pains of the wounds and tortures about to be undergone by Jesus. This petition was granted by the blessed Trinity and the Mother in consequence suffered all the torments of her most holy Son in exact duplication…. Although they were such, that, if the right hand of the Almighty had not preserved Her, they would have caused her death many times over; yet, on the other hand, these sufferings, inflicted by God himself were like a pledge and a new lease of life. For in her most ardent love She would have considered it incomparably more painful to see her divine Son suffer and die without being allowed to share in his torments.” (The Mystical City of God (Abridged Version), Part 6, Ch. 4)
https://www.ecatholic2000.com/agreda/mystical/city.shtml#__RefHeading___Toc338962795
A similar revelation was given to St Bridget of Sweden, and a few others, I believe.