- 37 - I want to dwell a little longer, however, on the first stage of this battle, the most important that was ever fought. I want to review with you those hours of Christ’s human suffering that you call the ‘Passion’. You mortals appreciate far too little the unspeakable agony this Divinely sent Bearer of the Cross had to endure in order that mankind might be saved. On the evening before his death, Jesus was in the guest chamber of a house in the company of his disciples to observe the feast of the Passover. It was to be his last supper with them. Who among you can measure and realize the anguish of his soul? He knew from the Divine spirit messengers that all preparations for his arrest and speedy execution had already been made. He knew that one of his disciples had had dealings with the high priests and had, for a traitor’s reward of 30 pieces of silver, declared himself ready to deliver his Master to them. At that very moment, his betrayer was lying at table with him. They were not seated about a long table, as you think, and as they are shown in your paintings, but were reclining upon the skins of animals whose heads were elevated as cushions, gathered in groups of three about small, low tables, one arm resting on the cushions, the other reaching for the foods before them. At the same table with Christ reclined John and Judas, John on his left, his head close to his Master’s breast, Judas on his other side. Judas dared not meet his Master’s eye and was anxiously awaiting the moment when he could leave the room without attracting attention. The Master’s heart bled on seeing before him this Apostle who was his betrayer, and whose terrible end he foresaw. ‘It would have been better for him if he had never been born.’ As he looked at him over and over again, Christ’s eyes filled with tears, for his heart was filled with love for even this lost brother. In his mind's eye arose the picture of what within a very few hours was to be reality: Judas, in realization of his monstrous deed and with despair in his soul, standing rope in hand before the tree on which he would end his own life, and beside him Lucifer, ready to take the spirit of him whom he had led astray away with him into the depths. Horrified by this vision, the Master trembled. As for the other Apostles? Would they stand by him in the hour of his martyrdom, offering help and comfort? The fateful events of the coming 12 hours passed like a film before his mind’s eye. He could see them all fleeing in terror for their own lives, and Peter, shaking with dread before a maid, swearing he had no connection with his Master. He saw the devils crowding about the door of the room, ready to seize upon his disciples as they went out, and to fill their minds on this very night with doubt of their Master, in order that they might offer no support or help to the one who was doomed to die. ‘Satan has asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat.’ Why had Satan demanded this? – • Only now had God revealed to him what he had at stake in this battle. God’s sense of justice did not permit Him to conceal any longer from Lucifer the fact that the battle that was now to begin between him and Christ was to decide the sovereignty of hell over the fallen spirits. God revealed to Lucifer that Christ, should he remain steadfast throughout the imminent death agony, would thereafter as a spirit launch an attack upon hell at the head of the heavenly hosts, and that he, the Prince of Hell, would be overcome and would be deprived of a considerable part of his sovereign rights. At this news, Satan trembled.
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