The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus ChristEmmerich, Anna Katharina
Religion
The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Emmerich, Anna Katharina
Jesus Christ -- Passion -- Devotional literature
The procession proceeded at a good pace; when they left the road
which runs between the Garden of Olives and that of Gethsemani, they
turned to the right, and soon reached a bridge which was thrown over
the Torrent of Cedron. When Jesus went to the Garden of Olives with the
Apostles, he did not cross this bridge, but went by a private path
which ran through the Valley of Josaphat, and led to another bridge
more to the south. The bridge over which the soldiers led Jesus was
long, being thrown over not only the torrent, which was very large in
this part, but likewise over the valley, which extends a considerable
distance to the right and to the left, and is much lower than the bed
of the river. I saw our Lord fall twice before he reached the bridge,
and these falls were caused entirely by the barbarous manner in which
the soldiers dragged him; but when they were half over the bridge they
gave full vent to their brutal inclination, and struck Jesus with such
violence that they threw him off the bridge into the water, and
scornfully recommended him to quench his thirst there. If God had not
preserved him, he must have been killed by this fall; he fell first on
his knee, and then on his face, but saved himself a little by
stretching out his hands, which, although so tightly bound before, were
loosened, I know not whether by miracle, or whether the soldiers had
cut the cords before they threw him into the water. The marks of his
feet, his elbows, and his fingers were miraculously impressed on the
rock on which he fell, and these impressions were afterwards shown for
the veneration of Christians. These stones were less hard than the
unbelieving hearts of the wicked men who surrounded Jesus, and bore
witness at this terrible moment to the Divine Power which had touched
them.
I had not seen Jesus take anything to quench the thirst which had
consumed him ever since his agony in the garden, but he drank when he
fell into the Cedron, and I heard him repeat these words from the
prophetic Psalm, 'In his thirst he will drink water from the torrent'
(Psalm 108).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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