[Meditationes seu Contemplationes devotissimae]

but the mouth in whom no guile was found 1 Peter 2:22 abounded in iniquity toward the unjust mouth. You applied it sweetly, and this was of your kindness, Lord, so that you might show him everything that the stubbornness of a depraved heart could soften. For you also reminded him of old friendship, saying: "Friend, for what have you come?" Matthew 26:50. You wished to strike the impious heart at the hour of his crime when you said: "Are you betraying the Son of man with a kiss?" Who could hear without groaning how, in that hour, the murderers laid hands on you and bound your innocent hands, good Jesus? They dragged you, the most gentle lamb, to the slaughter like a thief. Yet even then your mercy did not cease to distill the honeycomb of your sweetness upon your enemies. For you touched and healed the ear of your enemy that had been mutilated by your disciple, and you restrained the zeal of your defender from harming those who were leading you away. O well-cursed fury! O stubbornness that neither the majesty of the miracle nor the piety of the benefit could break! Consider also, faithful soul, through this as well, what adds to the greatness of the ignominy of this capture of Christ: that he was abandoned by his friends, disciples, and acquaintances who had been exhorted to die for him, because then all the disciples left him and fled, terrified by fear, leaving him here to the thieves. Where that word of Job concerning Christ was fulfilled: "My acquaintances have retreated from me as if they were strangers," Job 19:13 and that which is read: "All my friends have abandoned me, and they who laid wait for me have prevailed" Psalm 37:12.

Concerning the leading of Christ to Caiaphas and the elders of the Jews

Let your eyes, faithful soul, produce tears; let your spirit melt with the fire of compassion, considering how ignominiously, how shamefully, how cruelly your Savior was led to Caiaphas and the elders of the Jews. How much he endured in the council of those evildoers from his own people! They wish to judge him—he who is honorable, upon whom the angels desire to look, who fills all the heavens with joy, whom all the rich of the people entreat—they defiled him with the spittle of their lips, they struck him with sacrilegious hands, they covered him with a veil, and they buffeted the Lord of all creatures like a contemptible slave. Where that word of Isaiah was fulfilled: "We have seen him, and there was no beauty or comeliness, because the malice of the wicked had disfigured his countenance with blows." Isaiah 53:2 Who, finally bound, is accused before Pilate with false testimonies and is sought to be crucified like one guilty of death. Before whom Jesus stood with bowed head, peaceful countenance, rare speech, subdued voice, and eyes fixed on the earth, prepared for insults and ready for blows, he who was finally seized.