Crucify Him!

[Phil. 4:4–9; John 12:1–18] Who did not meet the Lord when He, as a king, tri­um­phant­ly en­ter­ed in­to Je­ru­sa­lem; and who did not cry out then, Ho­san­na to the Son of Da­vid! (Matt. 21:15)? But on­ly four days pass­ed, and the same crowd with the same tongues cried, Cru­ci­fy Him, cru­ci­fy Him! (John 19:6). An a­maz­ing change! But why should we be surprised? Do we not do the very same thing, when up­on re­ceiv­ing the ho­ly Mys­ter­ies of the Bo­dy and Blood of the Lord, we bare­ly leave the church be­fore for­get­ting ev­ery­thing — both our rev­er­ence and God’s mer­cy to­ward us. We give our­selves over as be­fore to self-pleas­ing deeds — at first small and then al­so large. Per­haps even be­fore four days have pass­ed, al­though we do not cry, “Cru­ci­fy Him!” we will cru­ci­fy the Lord with­in our­selves. The Lord sees all of this, and suf­fers. Glo­ry to Thy long­suf­fer­ing, O Lord!