So they threw Him out of their city, pronouncing by their action their own condemnation. Their violence was irrational and their envy untamed. Leading Him to the brow of the hill, they sought to throw him from the cliff. But He went through the midst of them. Now, he did not refuse to suffer – he had come to do that very thing, but to wait for a suitable time. Now, at the beginning of his preaching, it would have been the wrong time to have suffered before He had proclaimed the Word of truth. But suffer He would, not just at the hands of the people long ago, but also our sins injured Christ. Now, we can’t imagine being among those who struck Jesus’ face during His passion, but by our sins, we have caused him terrible pain all the same. Contemplate this awful fact with me: Imagine Christ standing before you and imagine yourself lifting up your hand and striking Him. You will say: It is impossible. I could not do that. But, yes, we have done that. When we have sinned willfully, then we have done that. He is beyond pain now; still, we have struck him, and had it been in the days of the flesh, He would have felt pain. Turn back in memory, and recall the time, the day, when by willful mortal sin, or by scoffing at sacred things, or by profane behavior, or by dark hatred of a brother, or by acts of impurity, or by deliberate rejection of God’s love, we have struck the all Holy one. But, our hope lies in gazing on his injured face and beholding his forgiveness. For His contenance is our only life, our only hope, and health lies on looking on Him whose Holy Face of Jesus we have pierced. If our sins have injured Him, dare we hesitate to confess then and ask for his forgiveness? Behold the door of Mercy. Lord Jesus, how can we bear to look you in the face? The same face we have disfigured through our sins? Those who treated you cruelly were acting on our behalf. Have mercy on us and the whole world!