Not the Hands alone that did for man those works of love, but also the Feet, that went about doing good, were pierced by the cruel nails. It seems as if men were bent on requiting with evil the very limbs that were employed for the good of man. They not only hated Jesus without a cause, but they hated Him for His love to them. Such is man when he is in Satan's power. Such have I too often been; so ungrateful to God, rebelling against the means, which He employed to heal my soul and deliver me from sin.

What must have been the unutterable agony of those Three Hours during which the Sacred Body of our Lord was hanging with all its weight on the Wounds in His Hands and Feet! Who can describe it? The agony that racked each nerve, so that there was no sound part in His Body; the utter exhaustion; and, worst of all, the agonizing thirst that was the effect of the continual streams which drained His Sacred Body of the Precious Blood. Who can imagine it? "Behold and see, all who pass by the way, whether there is any sorrow like to My sorrow?"

Yet these Wounds, inflicted by man's malignity, are now employed by Jesus as arguments, pleading for mercy for sinners at His Father's hands. O Jesus, when shall I forgive, as Thou didst forgive me? When shall I learn that it is a privilege and a glory to return good for evil, and so to resemble Thee?