Then Conscience is led away, bound, to be judged; for there can be no
mortal sin without deliberation, and no man ever yet fell into it
without conducting first a sort of hasty mock-trial or two in which a
sham Prudence or a false idea of Liberty solemnly decide that Conscience
is in the wrong. Yet even then Conscience persists, and so He is made to
appear absurd and ridiculous, and set beside the Barabbas of a coarse
and sturdy lower nature that makes no high pretensions and boasts of it.
And so the drama proceeds and Conscience is crucified: Conscience begins
to be silent, breaking the deepening gloom now and again with protests
that grow weaker every time, and at last Conscience dies indeed. And
thenceforward there can be no hope, save in the miracle of Resurrection.

This Cross of Calvary, then, is not a mere type or picture; it is a
fact identical with that so dreadfully familiar to us in spiritual life.
For Christ is not one Person, and Conscience something else, but it is
actually Christ who speaks in Conscience and Christ, therefore, Who is
crucified in mortal sin.

Let us, then, be plain with ourselves. We are watching not only Christ's
Death but our own, since we are watching the Death of Christ _Who is our
Life_.




THE FIRST WORD

_Father forgive them, for they know not what they do_.