First, therefore, as regards the leading of Christ to the gibbet, he says: And as they led him, they seized a certain Simon of Cyrene coming from the country, and they laid upon him the cross to carry after Jesus.
But the contrary of this seems to be said in John 19, where it is said: "They took Jesus and led him out. And bearing his own cross, he went forth to the place which is called Calvary."
Nevertheless, there is no contradiction, because both things occurred, but what Luke passes over in silence, John expresses. Whence the Gloss: "First the Lord carried the cross, but afterwards it was laid upon Simon, whom they met as they went out."
Now Luke carefully expresses this on account of the mystery of its signification. This Simon, by reason of his name and nation, since he was from Cyrene, designates the obedience of the Gentile people in bearing the cross after Christ. Whence the Gloss: "Because Simon was not an Israelite but a Cyrenean, the Gentiles are designated through him," who bear the cross when the peoples of the nations, having abandoned pagan rites, obediently embrace the footsteps of the Lord's passion. And to such Peter speaks in First Peter 2: "Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example," etc.; and to such Paul speaks in the last chapter of Hebrews: "Christ suffered outside the gate. Let us therefore go out to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach."
But because this Simon was compelled to carry the cross, as is said in Mark 15: "They compelled Simon the Cyrenean, who was passing by," therefore by reason of the compulsion he designates hypocrites, who bear the cross for human praise; whence Gregory: "Simon, who carries the cross under compulsion, is he who labors for human praise; for men submit to this labor whom neither the fear nor the love of God compels." Or he designates the slothful, who bear the cross with murmuring, pain, and reluctance. Against such Bernard says: "WOE to those who bear the cross, not as the Savior bore his own, but as that Cyrenean bore another's!" Against which, above in chapter nine: "If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily," etc.; because every day the love of doing penance ought to be renewed in us.
31. (Vers. 27.). Second, as to the lamentation of the women accompanying him, it is added: There followed him a great multitude of the people and of women, who bewailed and lamented him. The multitude indeed followed out of wonder, but the women out of compassion; whence the Gloss says: "The wicked follow, so that they might joyfully watch him die; the women, so that they might weep for him whom they desired to live—about to die, dying, and dead." Whence also after death it is said of Magdalene in John 20: "Mary stood at the tomb outside, weeping." Now this lamentation was made over Christ by women, not by men, not because women were more fervent or more steadfast in their love of Christ, but because they are by nature more prone to tears and of a more compassionate nature, as is said of Anna in Tobit 10: "Her mother therefore wept with irremediable tears"; and of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, in 1 Kings 1: "Since she was bitter in soul, she prayed to the Lord, weeping abundantly, etc."; and because they could do this more safely. Whence the Gloss says: "The weeping of women alone is not introduced as if men did not also grieve, but because the female sex, being regarded as more contemptible, could more freely display, in the presence of the chief priests, what they felt against them." Whence can be said that of Isaiah 32: "Gird your loins; beat upon your breasts; lament over the desirable land": truly desirable was he above all the kings of the whole earth. And therefore this mourning and this lamentation could be signified by the lamentation made over Josiah, according to that of 2 Chronicles 35: "All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And Jeremiah especially, whose singers, both men and women, repeat lamentations over Josiah." Now lamentations of this kind were both made and foretold for the Savior, and therefore they are read during his passion. At the same time the death of Christ and the ruin of Jerusalem are depicted: whence in the prayer of Jeremiah: "The joy of our heart has ceased; our dancing has been turned into mourning. The crown has fallen from our head: woe to us, for we have sinned! Therefore our heart has become sorrowful; therefore our eyes have been darkened."
32. (Vers. 28.). Third, with regard to the reproof of the lamenting women, he adds: But Jesus, turning to them, said: Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep over me. Now he forbids such women from weeping, not because they would do wrong in compassionating Christ, since the pious and holy man Job says in chapter thirty: "I wept once over him who was afflicted, and my soul had compassion on the poor"; whence also holy David said in figure in 2 Kings 1: "I grieve for you, my brother Jonathan, exceedingly comely and lovable beyond the love of women." Whence also Christ, who is poor, afflicted, lovable, and most beautiful, is to be compassionated with the most pious affection, according to that passage in Zechariah 12: "They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him with mourning as for an only-begotten son, and they shall grieve over him as one is accustomed to grieve at the death of a firstborn." Therefore this is not what is reproved by Christ, but rather because they were sorrowing from dejection of mind: against which 1 Thessalonians 4 says: "Do not be sorrowful as others who have no hope; for if we believe" etc. Whence the Gloss: "Do not lament me who am about to die, whose swift resurrection can dissolve death, whose death will destroy both death and the very author of death"; also because they were sorrowing with a certain carnal affection, namely over the withdrawal of the desired countenance, as he said to the disciples in John 16: "You shall weep and lament" etc.; also because they were thus weeping over Christ as though he were dying for himself, not for human transgression. Whence the Gloss: "They were saddened about mortal life, which was to be ended by death, not about the blind who were killing their physician."
33. But whenever we recall the passion of Christ, we ought to weep not for him, who is already glorified, but with regard to our own sin; therefore he adds: But weep for yourselves and for your children. He does not deny, therefore, that one ought to weep, but that the consideration of the one weeping ought to return upon the crime of the human race, for whose transgression Christ died. Since therefore Christ died for our sins, the day of his passion ought to be celebrated with many tears; whence it is said in Lamentations 1: "For this reason I am weeping, and my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who restores my soul is far from me; my children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed." But it is otherwise with the other Saints, such as Peter and Paul, who died for the advancement of virtue and for attaining the palm of martyrdom. Every Christian, therefore, ought to weep over himself and over the human race, because it was the cause of the slaying of its Lord. Therefore Jeremiah 9: "Who will give water to my head and a fountain of tears to my eyes? And I will weep for the slain of the daughter of my people." From the remembrance of this spiritual death one must weep, as long as we are in Babylon as in a valley of tears and weeping; whence the Psalm: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, when we remembered you, O Zion." Everyone ought also to weep, because the multitude of men does not recognize so great and so noble a devotion: Lamentations 2: "Pour out tears like a torrent day and night; give yourself no rest." One ought also to weep, because from this one is prepared for eternal calamity; on account of which Jesus wept over them; above in chapter 19: "Seeing the city, he wept over it, saying: If you also had known"; and Lamentations 2: "My eyes have failed with tears, my bowels are troubled; my liver is poured out upon the earth for the destruction of the daughter of my people."
34. (Verse 29). Fourth, as regards the prediction of imminent calamities, he adds: For behold, the days shall come in which they shall say: Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the breasts that have not nursed. And this can be referred to the destruction of Jerusalem, on account of which it is stated above in chapter 21: "Woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse in those days!" And again in the same chapter below: "There shall be great distress and wrath upon this people, and they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led captive into all nations."
Or better, it is referred to the final judgment, from the consideration of which man ought to weep over himself and over other sinners, lest it be necessary to lament at his coming, according to that passage in Matthew 24: "The sign of the Son of Man shall appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth shall mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man sitting," etc.
35. (Vers. 30.). And with this understanding what follows is more consonant: Then they will begin to say to the mountains: Fall upon us, and to the hills: Cover us. This will be at the appearance of the Judge, according to that passage in Revelation 6: "They hid themselves in caves and in the rocks of the mountains and say to the mountains and rocks: Fall upon us and hide us from the face of him who sits upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come." And similarly Isaiah 2: "They will enter the clefts of rocks and the caverns of stones from the face of the dread of the Lord and from the glory of his majesty, when he shall rise to strike the earth," etc.
36. (Vers. 31.). But that such horrible days are to be awaited without doubt, dreaded, and anticipated with weeping, he shows from the consideration of his own passion, when he adds: For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry? As if to say: if a living, fruitful, and beautiful tree is cut down, what then will become of the dry and unfruitful one? Now Christ is the green wood, because living: whence Proverbs 3, "She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her," is said of Wisdom; and therefore he is designated by the tree of life, of which Genesis 2 says: "God brought forth from the ground every tree beautiful to behold and pleasant to eat, and the tree of life in the midst of paradise." Because also fruitful; Revelation 22: "On either side of the river, the tree of life bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit each month." Because powerful: Revelation 22: "The leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations," etc.
On the contrary, the sinful man is dry wood, because he lacks the life of grace, the fruit of justice, and the strength of constancy: on account of which Sirach 6 says to the sinner: "Do not exalt yourself in the thought of your soul, lest perhaps your strength be crushed through folly, and it devour your leaves and destroy your fruits, and you be left like a dry tree in the desert." If therefore the supreme Planter of the trees of paradise on account of sin permitted the tree of life and delight to suffer so cruel a death, what then will he do with the dry and thorny trees? Whence the Gloss says: "If I, who committed no sin, who am rightly called the tree of life, bear twelve fruits of grace each month, and do not depart from the world without the fire of the passion, what torments await those who are empty of fruits and moreover do not fear to give the tree of life to the flames?" And therefore Proverbs 11: "If the just man receives his due on earth, how much more the impious and the sinner"; and 1 Peter 4: "It is time for judgment to begin from the house of God. But if first from us, what will be the end of those who will not believe the Gospel?"
Concerning the crucifixion of Christ, two things are said.
37. And there were also two others led etc. After having described Christ's arrest, mocking, accusation, and condemnation, here in the fifth place he describes his crucifixion; which he describes in two ways, namely from the standpoint of the aggravating conditions and from the standpoint of the surrounding circumstances , at the passage: And there was also an inscription written etc.
Regarding the description of the aggravating conditions, six things are introduced, namely the dishonor of the company, the atrocity of the punishment, the benignity of the crucified one, the rapacity of the soldiers crucifying him, the malignity of the rulers mocking him, and the cruelty of the deriding crucified ones.
38. (Verse 32). First, therefore, regarding the dishonor of the company, he says: And there were also two other malefactors led with him to be put to death ; two others, namely, who were malefactors, so that from the iniquity of those put to death with Christ they might pretend that Christ suffered as a reprobate; but the Lord preordained this to happen, according to that passage of Isaiah fifty-three: "He was reckoned among the wicked"; both on account of the example of humility, by reason of which it is said in the Psalm: "But I am a worm and not a man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people"; and Isaiah fifty-three: "We esteemed him the lowest of men"; and on account of the mystery of signification. For by the two thieves, according to the allegory, are understood the peoples among whom and for whom and by whom he suffered, one of the Jews and the other of the Gentiles, who are rightly called thieves, because both through pride in Adam wished to seize from God his proper dignity; whence, on that passage of Philippians two: "He did not consider it robbery to be equal to God," the Gloss says: "Adam and Eve wished to seize Divinity and lost felicity." And on this account the sign of circumcision was given as a remedy, which was as it were a branding of thieves, so that through it we might be freed from the punishment of theft. But the Jewish people, like the thief on the left, still blasphemes, while the Gentile confesses and prays. — According to Augustine, however, by the two thieves is signified the whole human race fixed to the cross of tribulation and present misery; but one part on the right, as those who suffer for celestial glory, the other on the left, as those who suffer for temporal glory. And on this Ambrose says: " Execrable in deed is the impiety of the Jews, which fixes to the cross the Redeemer of all as though a thief; yet good in mystery is the thief, who laid an ambush for the devil so as to carry off his vessels." Therefore Job forty: "In his eyes, as with a hook, he will catch him"; on which account the Lord compares himself to a thief above in chapter twelve: "If the master of the house knew at what hour the thief was coming," etc.
39. (Verse 33.). Second, as to the atrocity of the punishment, it is added: And after they came to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him. This place is called Calvary, as some say, because Adam lay there, and the skull of his head was there; and Ambrose seems to say this in his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. But this is not said by Ambrose the Doctor, but by Ambrosius Adopertus. For, as Jerome says, Adam was buried in Hebron, as is stated in Joshua fourteen. It is therefore called the place of Calvary because the skulls of the condemned were kept there, those who were beheaded and hanged there. Now this place was outside the city, because this custom had grown up from ancient times, that criminals were killed outside the camp: Leviticus twenty-four, "Bring forth the blasphemer outside the camp, and let all the people stone him." This was done for the sake of a spectacle, but now it was for the sake of a mystery, to signify that the passion of Christ profited those who were outside Jerusalem; hence Hebrews, last chapter: "Jesus, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside the gate." Now this leading forth was prefigured in the leading forth of Abel, Genesis four; in the leading forth of Isaac, Genesis twenty-two; in the leading forth of Joseph, Genesis thirty-seven; in the going forth of David from Jerusalem, Second Kings fifteen. In this place of punishments, therefore, he was crucified with the most bitter punishment of the cross, according to that of Zechariah twelve: "They shall look upon me, whom they have pierced"; and Malachi three: "Shall a man pierce God, for you pierce me?"
Then was fulfilled the figure of the serpent raised upon a pole, Numbers twenty-one; then was fulfilled that of Deuteronomy twenty-eight: "Your life shall be as it were hanging before you." Then was fulfilled the prophecy of David: "They have pierced my hands and my feet"; then was fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah eleven: "Let us put wood into his bread"; and that of Daniel nine: "And after sixty-two weeks Christ shall be slain"; then also the prophecy of Zechariah thirteen: "What are these wounds in the midst of your hands?"; then also that of Isaiah fifty-three: "He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter." Then were fulfilled all the things foretold concerning the passion of Christ; hence above, eighteen: "All things shall be accomplished which were written by the Prophets concerning the Son of Man."
40. Now this was the punishment of robbers; therefore he adds: And the robbers, one on the right and the other on the left: which was done not only as a reproach but also, by God's disposing, for our instruction. For by the two robbers are understood the flesh and the world, which must be crucified, so that our spirit may be offered to the Lord on the cross, as Jesus was. The flesh must be crucified like the right robber, according to that passage in Galatians 5: "And they that are Christ's have crucified their flesh," etc.; the world like the left robber: Galatians last chapter: "The world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." And then the spirit in the middle is crucified with Christ, so that it may say with the Apostle in Galatians 2: "I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."
Now the cross of the flesh is the rigor of discipline, whose four arms are, namely, vigils, abstinence, roughness of clothing, and the discipline of scourging.
The cross by which the world is crucified is poverty of spirit, whose four arms are, namely, contempt of glory, of wealth, of homeland, and of kindred.
The cross of the spirit is the fervor of devotion, whose four arms are likewise, namely, hope and love, fear and sorrow: hope above, fear below, love on the right and sorrow on the left. And concerning these, Ephesians 3: "Rooted and grounded in charity, that you may be able to comprehend," etc.
41. (Verse 34). Third, with respect to the kindness of the Crucified One, he adds: But Jesus was saying: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do: in which is fulfilled that word of Isaiah fifty-three: "He bore the sins of many and interceded for the transgressors." Now this prayer was for a remedy, because even to his crucifiers his passion was profitable through his prayer. Hence in Acts two it is read that three thousand were converted in one day, and on another five thousand, Acts four, because, as it is said in Hebrews five, "he was heard in all things for his reverence." Hence also in this it appeared that he was a pious and merciful high priest, offering himself and interceding for the salvation of the people. And for this reason Luke alone, who treats especially of Christ's priesthood, describes and narrates this prayer; hence Bede: "Because Luke resolved to describe the priesthood of Christ, rightly does the Lord in his account intercede for his persecutors by the right of a priest." And this was prefigured in Numbers sixteen in Aaron, praying for the people rising up against him; of whom it is said in the same place that "Aaron, standing between the dead and the living, prayed for the people, and the plague ceased." Hence also Wisdom eighteen: "A blameless man hastened to pray for the people, bringing forth prayer as the shield of his ministry, and pleading entreaty through incense, he withstood the wrath." And for this reason Christ gave an example to all high priests and also to all Christians, who are "a royal priesthood," and especially to the perfect, to pray for their persecutors, according to that word of Matthew five: "Pray for those who persecute and calumniate you," as Christ did and the protomartyr Stephen; Acts seven: "Do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep."
42. Fourth, with respect to the rapacity of the soldiers crucifying him, it is added: Dividing his garments, they cast lots; which is stated more expressly in John nineteen: "The soldiers, when they had crucified him, took his garments and made four parts, to each soldier a part, and the tunic"; and afterwards it is added concerning the seamless tunic, that they cast lots whose it should be. Now this was done, as John says, for the fulfillment of prophecy; for the Prophet David says in the Psalm: "They divided my garments among themselves, and upon my vesture they cast lots." And in this appeared the rapacity of the soldiers, who stripped Christ on account of their rapacity. And therefore the passion of Christ is signally signified by Noah, of whom it is said in Genesis nine that "drinking wine, he was made drunk and was naked in his tent." Now by this division of the garments into four parts is understood the spread of the Church into the four parts of the world; whence Bede: " The fourfold garment signifies the Church spread throughout the whole world, which consists of four parts. The tunic allotted by lot signifies the unity of all parts, which is held together by the bond of charity." By the casting of the lot is understood the conferral of grace, which is given not according to human distribution but rather according to divine disposition, because, Proverbs sixteen, "lots are cast into the lap, but they are governed by the Lord"; and Acts one: "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show whom you have chosen." "And they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias."