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individual and freely-given discipleship. Even though He embraced crucifixion we can still go to hell!
Still, when Jesus said, when He gave up His spirit, It is accomplished - also from The Cross - did He not then acclaim, so that the entire universe would hear Him, that He had conquered, once and for all? If He had conquered once and for all, then no doubt His thirst was quenched.
His thirst was quenched because from The Cross He drank deeply from the very well of living water that He Himself created. He gave us the living water which is Truth, so that He in turn might be somewhat strengthened and consoled by all those who embraced Truth.
And we who have this living water, this Truth, are
Mary's children,
the men who keep God's commandments
and hold fast to
the truth
concerning Jesus. (Revelation 12:17)
This living water certainly is Truth as explained by Jesus to the woman at the well - when He sought to quench His thirst :
P 21 Jesus saith to her: Woman, believe me that the hour cometh, when you shall neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, adore the Father.
22 You adore that which you know not: we adore that which we know. For salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour cometh and now is,
when the true adorers shall adore the Father
in spirit and
in truth.
For the Father also seeketh such to adore him.
24 God is a spirit: and they that adore him must adore him in spirit and in truth. P
The fact that Jesus quenched His thirst at Golgotha and the fact that he drew all things up to Himself, and the fact that He said It is consummated, and the fact that He gave us Mary to be our Mother, on The Cross, all point to the one thing:-
Jesus drew to Himself
all creation - all time and space -
all those whose name is in the book of life,
and He did so
with the co-operation
first of all from His Mother
and then from all of the Mother's children,
His brothers and sisters.
It seems to me therefore, that we might consciously participate in this spiritual implosion centred at Golgotha.
Already Catholicism has produced innumerable prayers that suggest an attendance at Golgotha, or in the Life of Jesus, by us and I have mentioned some of them before.
Yet, when one is conscious of this possibility, then one looks for such suggestions in every prayer and finds them more often then not!!
But the greatest Prayer of all, Holy Mass, which is the very same Sacrifice of Golgotha, is the greatest proof that Jesus has indeed drawn all things to Himself.
For if Holy Mass is the same Sacrifice of Golgotha - and it is - then most certainly, we are present at Golgotha when we are present at Holy Mass!!
How exquisitely marvellous is this? But how fearful, too, for who amongst us would have had the courage to remain beside Mary at Golgotha, had we the chance?
Well, in participating consciously in a personal presence at Golgotha, beside Mary, with the beloved Apostle John and the Holy Women, we do so with considerable trepidation knowing that we would have been like the Disciples of Jesus in their fearful desertion of their Master and Teacher.
Had we been there at the time, that is to say, we would have been no better then His Disciples in their betrayals and probably we might have behaved much worse.
We are most fortunate therefore that we might have a presence at Golgotha which issues 2,000 years away.
I therefore yet again, recommend this prayer which came to me through communications with a real-Catholic from America:-
At Gethsemane
You transcended time and space,
my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
- God's Own Sacrificial Lamb -
and in Your agony
You surveyed the massive, glorious army
of future saints
of every nation
of every generation,
whose great sanctity
was made possible
only through the Infinite Merits
of Your Passion; of Your Cross,
and in this You were
somewhat strengthened and consoled.
With boldness and hope,
with humility and holy fear,
I place myself
in this transcendent survey of Yours, my Lord,
not as one of Your great Saints
but as a little child
of Your Immaculate Mother
who would kneel beside her
before You at Golgotha,
in the company of the beloved Apostle John
and the holy women,
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