"The executioners expected Jesus to cry, for everyone pinned to the gibbet of the Cross has done it before him. Cicero recorded that at times it was necessary to cut out the tongues of those who were crucified to stop their terrible blasphemies. Hence the executioners expected a word, but not the kind of word that they heard. Like some fragrant trees which bathe in the very axe which gashes them, the great Heart of the Tree of Love poured out from its depths something less a cry than a prayer-the soft, sweet, low prayer of pardon and forgiveness." Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Life of Christ)