The Twenty-Four Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ

The 24 Hours of the Bitter Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ by Luisa Piccarreta, the Little Daughter of the Divine Will

† Fifteenth Hour: From 7 to 8 AM †

Jesus in the Courthouse of Pilate and at the Court of Herod

Preparation before Each Hour

My bound Jesus! Your enemies, priests and high priests, present You before Pilate. By feigning holiness and conscience, they remain outside the courtroom. They do not want to “defile themselves” as they are to celebrate Easter the following day. And You, my Jesus, who know their deep wickedness, atone for all the hypocrisy of the priesthood. I also want to atone with You.

While You have the good of Your enemies in mind, they begin to accuse You before Pilate. They spew out against You all the poison they carry in their hearts. Pilate, however, is not satisfied with the accusations they make against You. In order to condemn You with reason, he takes You aside, interrogates You alone and asks You questions:

“Are you the king of the Jews?”

And you, true king, answer:

"My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight so that I would not be handed over to the Jews."

Surprised, even moved, by the gentleness and dignity of your speech, Pilate speaks to You:

“So you are a king?” But you reply:

“You said it, I am a king. That is why I was born and came into the world, to bear witness to the truth.”

Pilate asks you: “What is truth?” but makes no effort to get to know it.

Convinced of Your innocence, he goes out onto the terrace and speaks to the assembled Jews:

“I find no guilt in him.”

Enraged by this statement, Your enemies now accuse You of other things. You, however, remain silent, do not defend Yourself and thereby atone for those judges who become weak when confronted by the powerful. You also pray for the innocent who are oppressed and for the abandoned. Pilate, seeing the fury of Your enemies, sends You to Herod to pull himself out of embarrassment.

My divine King! I will repeat Your prayers and acts of atonement and accompany You to Herod. I see that Your enemies want to devour You in their rage and drag You to Herod with mockery and derision. He, who is glad to see You, asks You many questions. But You do not answer, do not even look at him. Angered because he does not see his curiosity satisfied and feels humiliated by Your persistent silence, he declares to his courtiers that You are a fool and orders You to be treated as a fool. To mock You, he has You clothed in a white cloak and leaves You in the hands of the soldiers to be abused and humiliated as much as they can.

My innocent Jesus! No one finds fault with You, only the Jews, because in their hypocritical piety they do not deserve the light of truth to shine in their minds. Jesus, You infinite wisdom, what does it cost You to be declared a fool! The soldiers make mischief with You, throw You to the ground, kick You, despise You, defile You with spittle, beat You with sticks and give You such blows that someone other than You would have died from them. The suffering, the shame, the humiliations they inflict on You are such that “the angels of peace weep” and cover their faces with their wings so as not to see You mistreated in this way¹.

So far does the excess of Your love go that, instead of feeling offended, You pray and atone for those kings who, in their ambition to win kingdoms, become the ruin of nations; for so many slaughters of men that they cause; for so much blood that they shed out of arbitrariness. You atone for all sins of criminal curiosity, as well as for all offenses committed in politics and war.

My Jesus! What a moving spectacle to see You showered with insults while You pray and atone in steadfast meekness and faithfulness. Your plea echoes in my heart and I follow what You are doing. Allow me now to go to Your side, to share in Your sufferings and to comfort You with my love. To keep Your enemies away from You and to refresh You, I take You in my arms, gaze in awe at Your majestic forehead and ask You to purify my thoughts for the sake of the love with which You have endured Your torments.

I lower my gaze into Your beautiful eyes, which radiate with light, and ask You that this light may surround me everywhere, permeate my thoughts, my looks, my words and my heart, so that I may move and move entirely in this light. I adore Your face, whose beauty captivates me and all creatures, in order to make reparation to You for all the indignities and insults inflicted on You in Herod's palace. I also ask You to grant me the grace never to utter words that could offend Your most holy person, and to make it my opinion to do enough also for those sins of the tongue that others commit. I want to embrace You, press You to my heart and ask You to imprint Your image on my mind, my heart, my works and everything I do.

I kiss Your right hand. Grant to all sinners efficacious graces for their conversion, and to me and to all men the salutary fruit of Your most holy works. I kiss Your left hand. Instill in me Your virtues and especially love. I kiss Your left foot. O give me the knowledge of myself. I kiss Your right foot. Give me the grace of immediate obedience. I finally adore Your purest heart in spirit with the plea: O let me be consumed in the glowing flames of Your love!

My sweet love! I see that those wicked ones give you no rest and Herod sends You back to Pilate. If Your coming was painful, Your return is even sadder. The Jews, even angrier than before, are determined to condemn You to death at any cost. Before You leave Herod's palace, allow me to show You the love of my heart in the midst of so much suffering. Strengthen my soul with the mystical kiss of Your love. Give me Your blessing and I will follow You all the way to Pilate.

Reflections and Practices

by St. Fr. Annibale Di Francia

Presented to Pilate, in the midst of many insults and scorns, Jesus is always sweet; He disdains no one, and tries to make the Light of Truth shine in everyone. Do we feel the same with everyone? Do we try to conquer our natural evil if someone does not sympathize with us? In dealing with creatures, do we always try to make Jesus known, and to make the Light of Truth shine in them?

O Jesus, sweet Life of mine, place Your Word on my lips, and let me always speak with Your tongue.

Clothed as a madman before Herod, Jesus remains silent, suffering unheard-of pains. And we—when we are slandered, mocked, insulted or derided, do we think that the Lord wants to give us a Divine Likeness? In the pains, in the scorns, and in all that our poor heart may feel, do we think that it is Jesus Who gives us sorrow with His touch, Who transforms us into Himself with His touch, and gives us His Likeness?²

And as suffering returns to us, do we think that Jesus, in looking at us, is not satisfied with us, and therefore gives us another squeeze in order to render us completely like Him? Following the example of Jesus, can we say that we have dominion over ourselves; that, in adversities, we prefer to remain silent instead of answering? Do we ever let ourselves be won by curiosity? In every pain that we may suffer, we must place the intention that it be a life that we give to Jesus in order to plead for souls.³ And placing souls in the Will of God, our pain becomes a circle, in which we enclose God and the souls in order to join them to Jesus.

My Love and my All, You alone, take dominion over this heart of mine and keep it in Your Hands, so that in any encounter I may copy within me Your Infinite Patience.

¹ Catherine Emmerich reports in her visions of the Passion of Christ that the abuse Jesus had to endure in Herod's palace was such that He would have died from the wounds if angels had not given Him divine healing remedies. The seer also reports that the Jews had pushed the adorable head of the Savior against the pillars and cornerstones and struck Him with knotty sticks so that He sank to the ground three times.

² Jesus is the sculptor who continues to use the chisel to remove our imperfections until we have attained the greatest likeness to Him.

³ The meaning is: through the merit of our suffering, Jesus is to give the life of grace to souls in the state of mortal sin.

Sacrifice and Thanksgiving