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®to tfrntenavy (Nition.
THE COMPLETE WORKS
OF
Saint Alphonsus de Liguori,
Doctor of the Church,
Bishop of Saint Agatha, and Founder of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.
TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN.
EDITED BY
RE"V. EUGENE G- IR, I 3VH 1S/L
Priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.
THE ASCETICAL WORKS. Volume V.
The
Passion and the Death
of Jesus Christ.
«ntteitar» fEìsition.
THE COMPLETE ASCETICA! WORKS
OF
ST. ALPHONSUS DE LIGUORI
18 vols., Price, per vol., ne/, $1.25.
Each book is complete in itself, and any volume will be sold separateli/.
Volume I. Preparation for Death ; or, Considerations on the Eter- nal Truths. Maxims of Eternity— Rule of Life.
" II. Way of Salvation and of Perfection : Meditations. Pious Reflections. Spiritual Treatises.
" III. Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection : Prayer. Mental Prayer. The Exercises of a Retreat. Choice of a State of Life, and the Vocation to the Religious State and to the Priesthood.
" IV. The Incarnai ion, Birth and Infancy of Jesus Christ ; or, The Mysteries of Faith.
" V. The Passion and the Death of Jesus Christ.
" VI. THE Holy EUCHARIST. The Sacrifice, the Sacrament, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. Practice of Love of Jesus Christ. Novena to the Holy Ghost.
11 VII., VIII. GLORIES OF Mary: i. Explanation of the Salve Regina, or Hail, Holy Queen. Discourses on the Feasts of Mary. 2. Her Dolors. Her Virtues. Practices. Examples. Answers to Critics. — Devotion to the Holy Angels. Devotion to St. Joseph. Novena to St. Teresa. Novena for the Repose of the Souls in Purgatory.
" IX. Victories of the Martyrs ; or, the Lives of the Most Celebrated Martyrs of the Church.
" X., XL The True Spouse of Jesus Christ : i. The first sixteen Chapters. 2. The last eight Chapters. Appendix and various small Works. Spiritual Letters.
•• XII. Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer: Rule. Instructions about the Religious State. Letters and Circulars. Lives of two Fathers and of a Lay-brother.
" XIII. Dignity and Duties of the Priest ; or, Selva, a collection of Material for Ecclesiastical Retreats. Rule of Life and Spiritual Rules.
" XIV. The Holy Mass : Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Ceremonies of the Mass. Preparation and Thanksgiving. The Mass and the Office that are hurriedly said.
" XV. The Divine Office: Translation of the Psalms and Hymns.
" XVI. Preaching : The Exercises of the Missions. Various Counsels. Instructions on the Commandments and Sacraments.
" XVII. Sermons for Sundays.
"XVIII. Various Smaller Works: Discourses on Calamities. Reflections useful for Bishops. Seminaries. Ordi- nances. Letters. General alphabetical index.
Benziger Brothers, New York, Cincinnati, and St. Louis.
%\xt (CmXtvmxv, gdittott.
The
Passion and the Death
of Jesus Christ.
BY
St. ALPHONSUS de LIGUORI,
Doctor of the Church.
EDITED BY
REV. EUGENE GRIMM,
Priest of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.
NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, AND ST. LOUIS. BENZIGEE IBIROTHIIEIRS,
Printers to the Holy Apostolic See. R. WASHBOURNE. M- * GILL & SON,
x8 Paternoster Row. London. 50 Upper O'Conheix Street, Dublin.
1887.
917345
MHTM
I . \M I ■
APPROBATION.
By virtue of the authority granted me by the Most Rev. Nicholas Mauron, Superior General of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, I hereby sanction the publication of the work entitled " The Passion and the Death of Jesus Christ," which is Vol. V. of the new and complete edition in English of the works of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, called "The Centenary Edition."
Elias Fred. Schauer,
Sup. Prov. Baltimorensis. Baltimore, Md., October 15, 1886.
Copyright, 1886, by Elias Frederick Schauer.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Approbation ... 2
Notice 12
Invocation 13
Introduction 17
REFLECTIONS AND AFFECTIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST.
CHAPTFR
I. The love of Jesus Christ in being willing to satisfy the
divine justice for our sins 23
II. Jesus chose to suffer so much for us in order that we
might understand the great love he has for us 32
III. Jesus, for love of us, chose to suffer the pains of his Pas-
sion even from the beginning of his life 41
IV. The great desire which Jesus had to suffer and to die for
love of us 4°
V. The love of Jesus in leaving himself for our food before
his death 52
VI. The bloody sweat and agony suffered by Jesus in the
garden 62
VII. The love of Jesus in suffering so much contempt in his
Passion 60,
VIII. The scourging of Jesus Christ 3°
IX. The crowning with thorns 89
X. " Ecce Homo"— " Behold the Man." 95
XI. The condemnation of Jesus Christ and his journey to
Calvary. ... 101
Contents.
CHAPTER PAGE
XII. The crucifixion of Jesus no
XIII. The last words of Jesus upon his cross, and his death. . . 120
XIV. The hope which we have in the death of Jesus Christ 129
XV. The love of the Eternal Father in having given us his Son. 142
XVI. The love of the Son of God in having willed to die for us. 149
SIMPLE EXPOSITION OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST.
ACCORDING TO THE NARRA TI ON OF THE HOLY EVANGELISTS.
With some Reflections and Affections.
Introduction - 159
I. Jesus enters Jerusalem 164
II. The Council of the Jews and the treachery of Judas 167
III. The last supper of Jesus with his disciples. The washing
of the feet . . 169
IV. The institution of the Most Blessed Sacrament 171
V. Agony of Jesus in the Garden of Olives 174
VI. Jesus is taken and bound. Flight of the disciples 177
VII. Jesus is presented to the high priests, and is condemned
by them to death 179
VIII. Jesus is brought before Pilate, afterwards before Herod.
Barabbas is preferred to him 184
IX. Jesus is scourged at the pillar 188
X. Jesus is crowned with thorns and treated as a mock king. 192 XI. Pilate shows Jesus to the people, saying, "Behold the
man!" 0 194
XII. Jesus is condemned by Pilate 198
XIII. Jesus carries the cross to Calvary „ 200
XIV. Jesus is crucified 204
XV. Words that Jesus spoke on the cross. . . 209
XVI. Death of Jesus 214
CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST.
Introduction 221
I. The Passion of Jesus Christ in general 225
Necessity of a Redeemer, and his qualities. The In- carnation of the Word, his life. Error of the Jews.
PAGE
Contents.
CHAPTEE Prophecies, 225. Figures of the Old Testament Other prophecies. Thanks due to the Father and to the Son L The death of Jesus Christ is our salvation It is an instruction and an example; it is a motive of con-
fidence and of love ■ • • '""''' " V
II. The separate sufferings that Jesus Christ endured at his ^
Prophecy ' of Isaias. ' Abasement of the Promised Re-
Humiliations and sufferings of Jesus Christ,
i\o • Tesus ^
sufferings of Jesus were extreme, 246. Interior sufferings
ar 239. numiiiauuus «"" o -
"Tesus Christ suffered voluntarily for us, 245. Ine
J _ .e. t_^„..:^.- cnffWincrs
; ou tviouJr ,48. Patience of Jesus Chris, Fruits of his death, ,49. Prophecies of David. Various circum- stances, 25.. Jesus Christ is the true Messias. Super
abundance of his merits V 1/ ' * " " ' ';
HI. The scourging, the crowning with thorns, and the cruci-
fixion of Jesus •••■• "V
The scourging, 256. The crowning with thorns 258 Jesus carries his cross, 260. The crucifixion, 263.^ Jesus ^
upon the cross " i"'
IV. The insults offered to Jesus Christ while he was hang- ^
ins: upon the cross " " *
Agonv of Jesus on the cross, 271. " If thou be the Son of' God, come down from the cross,' 274. «« saved others, himself he cannot save," 275- " ^oa
loves him, let him deliver him now" • I
V The seven words spoken by Jesus Christ on the cross^ . . 279
' -Father forgive them, for they know not what they
do " 27Q "Amen, I say to thee, this day thou shalt be
with me in paradise," 281. " Woman, behold thy son.
. . Behold thy mother," 284. "Eli, Eli, lamma Sa-
bacthani? that is, My God, my God, why hast thou for-
v o^ "T thirst "2a<; " It is consummated, sakenme? 290. 1 tnirst, 295. „
296. " Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. . . 29»
VI. The death of Jesus Christ • ' ' * '
Jesus dies, and triumphs over death, 301. Jesus dead on the cross, 303. The fruits of the death of our Saviour 3o>
VII. The prodigies which happened at the death of Jesus ^
Mourning rf all —"Darkness. 308. The pending of the veil of the temple, 310. The earthquake, 315.
Contents.
CHAPTER PAGE
Resurrection of the dead, and conversions, 316. The Heart of Jesus is pierced, 318. Burial and resurrection
of Jesus Christ , 319
VIII. The love shown to us by Jesus Christ in his Passion , 322
God so loved men, that he gave his own Son to redeem them, 322. The Son of God offered himself for the love of us, 324. Jesus died not only for us all, but for each
one of us 326
IX. The gratitude that we owe to Jesus Christ for his Passion. 330
Jesus died for us; we ought to live and die for him,
330. What it is to live and die for Jesus 332
X. We must place all our hopes in the merits of Jesus Christ. 336
Jesus crucified is our only hope in all our wants, 336. The hope that we have in Jesus Christ that he will pardon our sins, 345. The hope that we have in Jesus Christ that he will grant us final perseverance, 353. The hope that we have in Jesus Christ that he will grant us eternal
happiness 359
XI. The patience that we must exercise in company with
Jesus Christ in order to obtain eternal salvation. . . . 364
It is necessary to suffer, and to suffer with patience, 364. The sight of Jesus crucified consoles us and sus- tains us in sufferings, 370. The Passion of our Saviour will give us strength when at the point of death, 374. Confidence in Jesus Christ and love for him 378
MEDITATIONS ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
FOR E A CH DA Y OF THE WEEK.
Sunday. The love of Jesus in suffering for us 385
Monday. The sweat of blood, and the agony of Jesus in
the garden 389
Tuesday. Jesus is made prisoner, and is led away to the
Jews 392
Wednesday. The scourging of Jesus Christ 396
Thursday. The crowning with thorns and the words " Ecce
Homo" (" Behold the Man") 399
Friday. The condemnation of Jesus and the journey to
Calvary 402
Saturday. The crucifixion and death of Jesus 405
Coutenti
MEDITATIONS DRAWN FROM THE CONSIDERATIONS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. The Passion of Jesus Christ is our consolation 409
II. The great obligations by which we are bound to love
Jesus Christ 411
III. Jesus a man of sorrows 413
IV. Jesus treated as the last of men 416
V. The desolate life of Jesus Christ 418
VI. The ignominies which Jesus Christ suffered in his Pas- sion 421
VII. Jesus on the cross 424
VIII. Jesus dead on the cross 425
MEDITATIONS FOR THE LAST FIFTEEN DAYS OF LENT.
I. Jesus makes his triumphant entry into Jerusalem 429
II. Jesus prays in the Garden 431
III. Jesus is apprehended and led before Caiphas 433
IV. Jesus is led before Pilate and Herod, and then has Ba-
rabbas preferred before him 435
V. Jesus is scourged at the pillar 437
VI. Jesus is crowned with thorns and treated as a mock king. 439
VII. Pilate exhibits Jesus to the people, saying, "Behold the
man!" 441
VIII. Jesus is condemned by Pilate 443
IX. Jesus carries the cross to Calvary 445
X. Jesus is placed upon the cross 447
XI. Jesus upon the cross 449
XII. The words spoken by Jesus upon the cross 451
XIII. Jesus dies upon the cross 453
XIV. Jesus hanging dead upon the cross 455
XV. Mary present on Calvary at the death of Jesus 457
MEDITATIONS FOR THE EASTER FESTIVAL.
I. The joys of heaven 459
II. The soul that leaves this life in the state of grace 461
III. The sight of God is that in which the happiness of the
elect consists 463
io Contents.
VARIOUS EXERCISES.
PAGE
The clock of the Passion 467
Gracilis Passionis 46S
Steps of the Passion 469
Little chaplet of the five wounds of Jesus crucified. ... 472
Prayer to Jesus crucified, to be said every day to obtain his holy
love 474
Prayers to Jesus by the merit of each particular pain which he
suffered in his Passion 476
Way of the Cross 479
Manner of practising the exercise of the Way of the Cross 481
Hymns 492
The Passion of Jesus Christ, 492. To Jesus in his Pas- sion, 492. Cantata on the Passion, 494.
Index.
499
The fifth volume of the Ascetical Works is entirely devoted to the Passion of Jesus Christ. It consists of five parts, namely: i. Reflections on the Passion. 2. The Simple Exposition of the Passion. 3. Considera- tions. 4. Meditations. 5. Other Exercises of Piety.
A short treatise on the Passion has been given in Volume II. The "Darts of Fire" has been inserted in Volume IV. — Ed.
INVOCATION
OF JESUS AND MARY.
0 Saviour of the world, O Love of souls, O Lord most lovely of all beings! Thou by Thy Passion didst come to win to Thyself our hearts, by showing us the immense love that Thou didst bear to us in accomplishing a re- demption which has brought to us a sea of benedictions, and which cost Thee a sea of pains and ignominies. It was principally for this end that Thou didst institute the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, in order that we might have a perpetual memorial of Thy Passion: " That we might have forever a perpetual memorial of so great a benefit," says St. Thomas, " He gives his body to be the food of the faithful,"1 which St. Paul had already said. As often as you shall eat this bready you shall show the death of the Lord? Oh, how many holy souls hast Thou persuaded by these prodigies of love, consumed by the flames of Thy love, to renounce all earthly goods, in order to dedicate themselves entirely to loving Thee alone, O most amiable Saviour ! O my Jesus ! I pray Thee make me always remember Thy Passion; and grant that I also, a miserable sinner, overcome at last by so many loving devices, may return to love Thee, and to show Thee, by my poor love, some mark of gratitude for the excessive love which Thou, my God and my Saviour, hast borne to
1 " Ut autem tanti beneficii jugis in nobis maneret memoria, corpus suum in cibum fidelibus dereliquit." — Off. Corp. Chr. 1. 2.
2 " Quotiescumque enim manducabitis panem hunc, et calicem bibetis, mortem Domini annuntiabitis." — i Cor. xi. 26.
14 Invocation of Jesus and Mary.
me. Remember, my Jesus, that lam one of those sheep of Thine, to save which Thou didst come down on the earth and didst sacrifice Thy divine life. I know that, after having redeemed me by Thy death, Thou hast not ceased to love me, and that Thou dost still bear to me the same love that Thou hadst for me when Thou didst die for my sake. Oh, permit me no longer to lead a life of ingratitude towards Thee, my God, who dost so much deserve to be loved, and hast done so much to be loved by me !
And thou, O most holy Virgin Mary, who didst take so great a part in the Passion of thy Son, obtain for me, I beseech thee, through the merits of thy sorrows, the grace to experience a taste of that compassion which thou didst so sensibly feel at the death of Jesus, and obtain for me also a spark of that love which wrought all the martyrdom of thy afflicted heart. Amen.
" Let my mind, O Lord Jesus Christ, I beseech Thee, be absorbed in the fiery and honeyed sweetness of Thy love, that I may die for love of the love of Thee, who wert pleased to die for love of the love of me."1
1 " Absorbeat, quaeso, Domine Jesu Christe, mentem meam ignita et melliflua vis amoris tui, ut amore amoris tui moriar, qui amore amoris mei dignatus es mori." — Prayer of St. Francis Assisi.
TO THE READER.
In my book on the Glories of Alary, I promised to write for you another that should treat of the love of Jesus Christ; but on account of my corporal infirmities, my Director would not permit me to keep my promise. I have been scarcely able to publish these short Reflec- tions on the Passion of Jesus Christ. These Reflections, however, contain the gist of what I had gathered for my subject, withholding only what had reference to the In- carnation and birth of our Saviour, as I intended to compose from it a little work for the Novena of Christmas, which I shall afterwards publish, if I obtain permission. Nevertheless, I hope that the little work that I offer you to-day will be pleasing to you, espe- cially since it will put before you, in regular order, the passages of Holy Scripture referring to the love that Jesus Christ showed us in his death; for there is nothing more apt to stimulate a Christian to the love of God than the word of God itself that is drawn from Holy Writ.
Let us, therefore, love Jesus Christ, who is our Saviour, our God, and our supreme good. This is the reason why I invite you to cast a glance at the Passion; for you will find therein all the motives that we can have to hope for eternal life and to love God; and in this our salvation consists.
All the saints cherished a tender devotion towards Jesus Christ in his Passion; this is the only means by which they sanctified themselves. Father Balthasar Alvarez, as we read in his life, used to say that one
1 6 To the Reader.
should not think of having done anything so long as one has not succeeded in constantly keeping in one's heart Jesus crucified. His method of prayer consisted in plac- ing himself at the feet of Jesus crucified, by meditating especially on his poverty, his humiliations, sorrows, and by listening to the lesson that our Lord made him hear from the height of the cross. You may also hope to sanctify yourself if you continue in like manner to con- sider what your divine Redeemer has done and suffered for you.
Ask him, without ceasing, to give you his love; and this grace you should never weary to ask from your Queen, the Blessed Virgin, who is called the Mother of beautiful love. And when you ask this great gift for yourself, ask it also for me, who have desired to contrib- ute to your sanctification in offering you this little work. I promise to do the same thing for you in order that, one day, in paradise, we may embrace each other in a holy charity, and may recognize each other as devoted servants of our most amiable Saviour, finding ourselves united there in the society of the elect to see forever, face to face, and love for all eternity, Jesus, our Saviour and our love. Amen.
INTRODUCTION.
HOW USEFUL IT IS TO MEDITATE ON THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST.
The lover of souls, our most loving Redeemer, declared that he had no other motive in coming down upon earth to become man than to enkindle in the hearts of men the fire of his holy love: I am come to cast fire on earth; and what will I but that it be kindled?1 And, oh, what beautiful flames of love has he not enkindled in so many souls, especially by the pains that he chose to suffer in his death, in order to prove to us the immeasurable love which he still bears to us!
Oh, how many souls, happy in the wounds of Jesus, as in burning furnaces of love, have been so inflamed with his love that they have not refused to consecrate to him their goods, their lives, and their whole selves, surmount- ing with great courage all the difficulties which they had to encounter in the observance of the divine law, for the love of that Lord who, being God, chose to suffer so much for the love of them ! This was just the counsel that the Apostle gave us, in order that we might not fail, but make great advances in the way of salvation : Think diligently upon Him who endureth such opposition from sin- ners against Himself, that you be not 7cearied, fainting in your minds?
Wherefore St. Augustine, all inflamed with love at the sight of Jesus nailed on the cross, prayed thus sweetly:
1 " Ignem veni mittere in terram; et quid volo, nisi ut a:cendatur?" — Luke, xii. 49.
2 " Recogitate enim eum, qui talem sustinuit a peccatoribus adversum semetipsum contradictionem, ut ne fatigemini, animis vestris deficientes." — Heb. xii. 3.
2
1 8 Introduction.
" Imprint, O Lord, Thy wounds in my heart, that I may read therein suffering and love: suffering, that I may en- dure for Thee all suffering; love, that I may despise for Thee all love.1 Write, he said, my most loving Saviour, write on my heart Thy wounds, in order that I may always behold therein Thy sufferings and Thy love. Yes, because, having before my eyes the great sufferings that Thou, my God, didst endure forme, I may bear in silence all the sufferings that it may fall to my lot to endure; and at the sight of the love which Thou didst exhibit for me on the cross, I may never love or be able to love any other than Thee.
And from what source did the saints draw courage and strength to suffer torments, martyrdom, and death, if not from the sufferings of Jesus crucified? St. Joseph of Leonessa, a Capuchin, on seeing that they were going to bind him with cords, for a painful incision that the surgeon was to make in his body, took into his hands his crucifix and said, " Why these cords ? why these cords ? Behold, these are my chains — my Saviour nailed to the cross for love of me. He, through his sufferings, con- strains me to bear every trial for his sake." And thus he suffered the amputation without a complaint; looking upon Jesus, who, as a lamb before his shearers, was dumb, and did not open His mouth. 2
Who, then, can ever complain that he suffers wrong- fully, when he considers Jesus, who was bruised for our sins?2 Who can refuse to obey, on account of some in- convenience, when Jesus became obedient unto death ? i Who can refuse ignominies, when they behold Jesus treated as a fool, as a mock king, as a disorderly person; struck,
1 " Scribe, Domine, vulnera tua in corde meo, ut in eis legam dolorem et amorem: dolorem, ad sustinendum pro te omnem dolorem; amorem, ad contemnendum pro te omnem amorem.
8 "Et non aperuit os suum." — Isa. liii. 7.
3 " Attritus propter scelera nostra." — Isa. liii. 5.
4 " Factus obediens usque ad mortem."— Z^*'/. ii. 8,
Introduction. 1 9
spit upon on his face, and suspended upon an infamous gibbet ?
Who could love any other object besides Jesus when they see him dying in the midst of so many sufferings and insults, in order to captivate our love? A certain devout solitary prayed to God to teach him what he could do in order to love him perfectly. Our Lord re- vealed to him that there was no more efficient way to arrive at the perfect love of him than to meditate con- stantly on his Passion. St. Teresa lamented and com- plained of certain books which had taught her to leave off meditating on the Passion of Jesus Christ, because this might bean impediment to the contemplation of his divinity; and the saint exclaimed, " O Lord of my soul, O my Jesus crucified, my treasure ! I never remember this opinion without thinking that I have been guilty of great treachery. And is it possible that Thou, my Lord, couldst be an obstacle to me in the way of a greater good ? Whence, then, do all good tilings come to me, but from Thee ?" And she then added, " I have seen that, in order to please God, and to induce him to grant us great graces, he wills that they should all pass through the hands of this most sacred humanity, in which his divine majesty declared that he took pleasure." '
For this reason, Father Balthasar Alvarez said that ignorance of the treasures that we possess in Jesus was the ruin of Christians ; and therefore his most favorite and usual meditation was on the Passion of Jesus Christ. He meditated especially on three of the sufferings of Jesus, — his poverty, contempt, and pain; and he exhorted his penitents to meditate frequently on the Passion of our Redeemer, telling them that they should not con- sider that they had done anything at all, until they had arrived at retaining Jesus crucified continually present in their hearts.
1 Life, chap. 22.
20 Introduction,
"He who desires," says St. Bonaventure, " to go on advancing from virtue to virtue, from grace to grace, should meditate continually on the Passion of Jesus. "J And he adds that " there is no practice more profitable for the entire sanctification of the soul than the frequent meditation of the sufferings of Jesus Christ."2
St. Augustine also said that a single tear shed at the remembrance of the Passion of Jesus is worth more than a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, or a year of fasting on bread and water. Yes, because it was for this end that our Saviour suffered so much, in order that we should think of his sufferings; because if we think on them, it is im- possible not to be inflamed with divine love: The charity of Christ presseth us,3 says St. Paul. Jesus is loved by few, because few consider the pains he has suffered for -us; but he that frequently considers them cannot live with- out loving Jesus. "The charity of Christ presseth us." He will feel himself so constrained by his love that he will not find it possible to refrain from loving a God so full of love, who has suffered so much to make us love him.
Therefore the Apostle said that he desired to know nothing but Jesus, and Jesus crucified; that is, the love that he has shown us on the cross: I judged not myself to know anything among you but Jesus Christ, and Him cruci- fied? And, in truth, from what books can we better learn the science of the saints — that is, the science of loving God — than from Jesus crucified ? That great servant of God, Brother Bernard of Codione, the Capu-
1 " Si vis, homo, de virtute in virtutem, de gratia in gratiam pro- ficere, quotidie mediteris Domini passionem."
2 " Nihil enim in anima ita operatur universalem sanctificationem, sicut meditatio passionis Christi."
3 " Charitas enim Christi urget nos. " — 2 Cor. v. 14.
4 "Non enim judicavi me scire aliquid inter vos, nisi Jesum Chris- tum, et hunc crucifixum." — 1 Cor. ii. 2.
Introduction. 2 1
chin, not being able to read, his brother religious wanted to teach him, upon which he went to consult his crucifix; but Jesus answered him from the cross, "What is read- ing ? what are books ? Behold, I am the book wherein thou mayst continually read the love I have borne thee." O great subject to be considered during our whole life and during all eternity ! A God dead for the love of us ! a God dead for the love of us ! O wonderful sub- ject !
St. Thomas Aquinas was one day paying a visit to St. Bonaventure, and asked him from what book he had drawn all the beautiful lessons he had written. St. Bonaven- ture showed him the image of the Crucified, which was completely blackened by all the kisses that he had given it, and said, "This is my book whence I receive everything that I write; and it has taught me whatever little I know."
In short, all the saints have learned the art of loving God from the study of the crucifix. Brother John of Alvernia, every time that he beheld Jesus wounded, could not restrain his tears. Brother James of Tuderto, when he heard the Passion cf our Redeemer read, not only wept bitterly, but broke out into loud sobs, over- come with the love with which he was inflamed toward his beloved Lord.
It was this sweet study of the crucifix which made St. Francis become a great seraph. He wept so continually in meditating on the sufferings of Jesus Christ, that he almost entirely lost his sight. On one occasion, being found crying out and weeping, he was asked what was the matter with him. " What ails me ?" answered the saint. " I weep over the sorrows and insults inflicted on my Lord; and my sorrow is increased when I think of those ungrateful men who do not love him, but live without any thought of him." Every time that he heard the bleating of a lamb, he felt himself touched
22 Introduction.
with compassion at the thought of the death of Jesus, the Immaculate Lamb, drained of every drop of blood upon the cross for the sins of the world. And therefore this loving saint could find no subject on which he ex- horted his brethren with greater eagerness than the con- stant remembrance of the Passion of Jesus.
This, then, is the book — Jesus crucified — which, if we constantly read it, will teach us, on the one hand, to have a lively fear of sin, and, on the other hand, will in- flame us with love for a God so full of love for us; while we read in these wounds the great malice of sin, which reduced a God to suffer so bitter a death in order to satisfy the divine justice, and the love which our Saviour has shown us in choosing to suffer so much in order to prove to us how much he loved us.
Let us beseech the divine Mother Mary to obtain for us from her Son the grace that we also may enter into these furnaces of love, in which so many loving hearts are consumed, in order that, our earthly affections being there burned away, we also may burn with those blessed flames, which render souls holy on earth and blessed in heaven. Amen.
REFLECTIONS AND AFFECTIONS
ON THE
PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
CHAPTER I.
THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST IN BEING WILLING TO SATISFY THE DIVINE JUSTICE FOR OUR SINS.
I.
We read in history of a proof of love so prodigious that it will be the admiration of all ages.
There was once a king, lord of many kingdoms, who had one only son, so beautiful, so holy, so amiable, that he was the delight of his father, who loved him as much as himself. This young prince had a great affection for one of his slaves; so much so that, the slave having committed a crime for which he had been condemned to death, the prince offered himself to die for the slave; the father, being jealous of justice, was satisfied to condemn his beloved son to death, in order that the slave might remain free from the punishment that he deserved : and thus the son died a malefactor's death, and the slave was freed from punish- ment.
This fact, the like of which has never happened in this world, and never will happen, is related in the Gospels, where we read that the Son of God, the Lord of the universe, seeing that man was condemned to eternal
24 Reflections and Affections. [chap. i.
death in punishment of his sins, chose to take upon himself human flesh, and thus to pay by his death the penalty due to man : He was offered because it was His own will} And his Eternal Father caused him to die upon the cross to save us miserable sinners: He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all} What dost thou think, O devout soul, of this love of the Son and of the Father ?
Thou didst, then, O my beloved Redeemer, choose by Thy death to sacrifice Thyself in order to obtain the pardon of my sins. And what return of gratitude shall I then make to Thee ? Thou hast done too much to oblige me to love Thee; I should indeed be most un- grateful to Thee if I did not love Thee with my whole heart. Thou hast given for me Thy divine life; I, mis- erable sinner that I am, give Thee my own life. Yes, I will at least spend that period of life that remains to me only in loving Thee, obeying Thee, and pleasing Thee.
II
O men, men ! let us love this our Redeemer, who, being God, has not disdained to take upon himself our sins, in order to satisfy by his sufferings for the chastisement which we have deserved: Surely He hath borne our infirm- ities, ana" carried our sorrows}
St. Augustine says that our Lord in creating us formed us by virtue of his power, but in redeeming us he has saved us from death by means of his sufferings : " He created us in his strength ; he sought us back in his weakness." 4
1 " Oblatus est, quia ipse voluit." — Isa. liii. 7.
2 " Proprio Filio suo non pepercit, sed pro nobis omnibus tradidit ilium." — Rom. viii. 32.
3 *' Vere languores nostros ipse tulit, et dolores nostros ipse por- tavit." — Isa. liii. 4.
4 " Condidit nos fortitudine sua, qusesivit nos infirmitate sua." — In Jo. tr. 15.
Jesus Christ Died for Us. 25
How much do I not owe Thee, O Jesus my Saviour i Oh, if I were to give my blood a thousand times over, — if I were to spend a thousand lives for Thee, — it would yet be nothing. Oh, how could any one that meditated much on the love which Thou hast shown him in Thy Passion, love anything else but Thee ? Through the love with which Thou didst love us on the cross, grant me the grace to love Thee with my whole heart. I love Thee, infinite Goodness ; I love Thee above every other good ; and I ask nothing more of Thee but Thy holy love.
"But how is this?" continues St. Augustine. How is it possible, O Saviour of the world, that Thy love has arrived at such a height that when I had committed the crime, Thou shouldst have to pay the penalty ? " Whither has Thy love reached ? I have sinned ; Thou art pun- ished." 1
And what could it then signify to Thee, adds St. Ber- nard, that we should lose ourselves and be chastised, as we well deserved to be ; that Thou shouldst choose to satisfy with Thy innocent flesh for our sins, and to die in order to deliver us from death ! " O good Jesus, what doest Thou ? We ought to have died, and it is Thou whodiest. We have sinned and Thou sufferest. A deed without precedent, grace without merit, charity without measure." 2 O deed which never has had and never will have its match ! O grace which we could never merit ! O love which can never be understood !
III.
Isaias had already foretold that our blessed Redeemer should be condemned to death, and as an innocent lamb
1 "Quo tuus attigit amor? Ego inique egi, tu poena mulctaris." — Medit. c. 7.
2 " O bone Jesu ! quid tibi est? Mori nos debuimus, et tu solvis? Nos peccavimus, et tu luis?— Opus sine exemplo, gratia sine merito, charitas sine modo: " —Apud LoJin. Biò/. tit. no, § 3.
26 Reflections and Affections. lchap. i.
brought to the sacrifice : He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter' What a cause of wonder it must have been to the angels, O my God, to behold their innocent Lord led as a victim to be sacrificed on the altar of the cross for the love of man ! And what a cause of horror to heaven and to hell, the sight of a God extended as an infamous criminal on a shameful gibbet for the sins of his creatures !
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us {for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree): that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ* " He was made a curse upon the cross," says St. Ambrose, "that thou mightest be blessed in the kingdom of God." :
O my dearest Saviour ! Thou wert, then, content, in order to obtain for me the blessing of God, to embrace the dishonor of appearing upon the cross accursed in the sight of the whole world, and even forsaken in Thy suf- ferings by Thy Eternal Father, — a suffering which made Thee cry out with a loud voice, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ? 4 Yes, observes Simon of Cassia, it was for this end that Jesus was abandoned in his Pas- sion in order that we might not remain abandoned in the sins which we have committed : "Therefore Christ was abandoned in his sufferings that we might not be aban- doned in our guilt." & O prodigy of compassion ! O ex- cess of love of God towards men ! And how can there
1 " Sicut ovis ad occisionem ducetur."— Isa. liii. 7.
2 " Christus nos redemit de maledicto legis, factus pro nobis male- dictum, quia scriptum est : Maledictus omnis qui pendet in ligno ; ut in gentibus benedictio Abrahse fieret in Christo Jesu." — Gat. iii. 13.
3 " Ille maledictum in cruce factus est, ut tu benedictus esses in Dei regno." — t.pist. 47.
4 " Deus meus ! Deus meus ! ut quid dereliquisti me?" — Matt. xxvii. 46.
5 " Ideo Christus derelictus est in pcenis, ne nos derelinquamur in culpis." — Lib. xiii. de Pass. D.
Jesus Christ Di ed for Us. 27
be a soul who believes this, O my Jesus, and yet loves Thee not ?
IV.
He hath toved us, and washed us from our sins i?i His own blood* Behold, O men, how far the love of Jesus for us has carried him, in order to cleanse us from the filthiness of our sins. He has even shed every drop of his blood that he might prepare for us in this his own blood a bath of salvation : "He offers his own blood," says a learned writer, "speaking better than the blood of Abel: for that cried for justice ; the blood of Christ for mercy." 2
Whereupon St. Bonaventure exclaims, uO good Jesus, what hast Thou done ?" 3 O my Saviour, what indeed hast Thou done ? How far hath Thy love carried Thee? What hast Thou seen in me which hath made Thee love me so much? "Wherefore hast Tiiou loved me so much ? Why, Lord, why ? What am I ?" 4 Where- fore didst Thou choose to suffer so much lor me ? Who am I that Thou wouldst win to Thyself my love at so dear a price? Oh, it was entirely the work of Thy in- finite love ! Be Thou eternally praised and blessed for it.
0 all ye that pass by the way, attend and see if there be any sorrow like to My sorrow.0 The same seraphic Doctor, considering these words of Jeremias as spoken of our blessed Redeemer while he was hanging on the cross
1 " Dilexit nos, et lavit nos a peccatis nostris in sanguine suo." — Apoc. i. 5.
9 " Offert sanguinem melius clamantem quam Abel; quia iste justi tiam, sanguis Christi misericordiam interpellabat." — Coniens. 1. io, d. 4, c. i, sp. i.
3 " O bone Jesu ! quid fecisti ?"
4 " Quid me tantum amasti ? quare, Domine, quare ? quid sum ego ?" — Slim. div. am. p. I, c. 13.
5 "O vos omnes qui transitis per viam ! attendite, et videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus." — Latn. i. 12.
28 Reflections and Affections. lchap. i.
dying for the love of us, says, "Yes, Lord. I will attend and see if there be any love like unto Thy love." ' By which he means, I do indeed see and understand, O my most loving Redeemer, how much Thou didst suffer upon that infamous tree ; but what most constrains me to love Thee is the thought of the affection which Thou hast shown me in suffering so much, in order that I might love Thee.
V.
That which most inflamed St. Paul with the love of Jesus was the thought that he chose to die, not only for all men, but for him in particular : He loved me, and deliv- ered Himself up for me* Yes, he has loved me, said he, and for my sake he gave himself up to die. And thus ought every one of us to say ; for St. John Chrysostom asserts that God has loved every individual man with the same love with which he has loved the world : " He loves each man separately with the same measure of charity with which he loves the whole world." 5 So that each one of us is under as great obligation to Jesus Christ for having suffered for every one, as if he had suffered for him alone.
For supposing, my brother, Jesus Christ had died to save you alone, leaving all others to their original ruin, what a debt of gratitude you would owe to him ? But you ought to feel that you owe him a greater obligation still for having died for the salvation of all. For if he had died for you alone, what sorrow would it not have caused you to think that your neighbors, parents, brothers, and friends would be damned, and that you would, when this life was over, be forever separated from them ? If
1 " Imo, Domine, attendam, et videbo si est amor sicut amor tuus." 0 " Dilexit me, et tradidit semetipsum pro me." — Gal. ii. 20. 3 " Adeo singulum quemque hominum pari charitatis modo diligit, quo diligit universum orbem." — In Gal. ii. 20.
Jesus Christ Died for Us. 29
you and your family had been slaves, and some one came to rescue you alone, how would you not entreat of him to save your parents and brothers together with your- self ! And how much would you thank him if he did this to please you ! Say, therefore, to Jesus :
O my sweetest Redeemer! Thou hast done this forme without my having asked Thee ; Thou hast not only saved me from death at the price of Thy blood, but also my parents and friends, so that I may have a good hope that we may all together enjoy Thy presence forever in paradise. O Lord! I thank Thee, and I love Thee, and I hope to thank Thee for it, and to love Thee forever in that blessed country.
VI.
Who could ever, says St. Laurence Justinian, explain the love which the divine Word bears to each one of us, since it surpasses the love of every son towards his mother, and of every mother for her son? " The intense charity of the Word of God surpasses all maternal and filial love ; neither can human words express how great his love is to each one of us !" l So much so, that our Lord revealed to St. Gertrude that he would be ready to die as many times as there were souls damned, if they were yet capable of redemption : " I would die as many deaths as there are souls in hell."2
0 Jesus, O treasure more worthy of love than all others! why is it that men love Thee so little? Oh! do Thou make known what Thou hast suffered for each of them, the love that Thou bearest them, the desire Thou hast to be loved by them, and how worthy Thou art of
1 " Praecellit omnem maternum ac filialem affectum Verbi Dei im- mensa charitas; neque humano valet explicare eloquio, quo circa unumquemque moveatur amore." — De Tr. Chr. Ag. c. 5.
8 "Toties morerer, quot sunt animae in inferno." — Rev. I. 7, c. 19.
30 Reflections and Affections. [chap. i.
being loved. Make Thyself known, O my Jesus, make Thyself loved.
VII.
/ ani the good shepherd, said our Redeemer ; the good shepherd gives his life for his sheep.1 But, O my Lord, where are there in the world shepherds like unto Thee? Other shepherds will slay their sheep in order to pre- serve their own life. Thou, O too loving Shepherd, didst give Thy divine life in order to save the life of Thy beloved sheep. And of these sheep, I, O most amiable Shepherd, have the happiness to be one. What obliga- tion, then, am I not under to love Thee, and to spend my life for Thee, since Thou hast died for the love of me in particular ! And what confidence ought I not to have in Thy blood, knowing that it has been shed to pay the debt of my sins ! And thou shalt say in that day, I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord. Behold, God is ?ny Saviour; I will deal confidently, and will not fear? And how can I any longer mistrust Thy mercy, O my Lord, when I behold Thy wounds? Come, then, O sinners, and let us have recourse to Jesus, who hangs upon that cross as it were upon a throne of mercy. He has appeased the divine justice, which we had insulted. If we have offended God, he has done penance for us ; all that is required for us is contrition for our sins. O my dearest Saviour, to what have Thy pity and love for me reduced Thee ? The slave sins, and Thou, Lord, payest the penalty for him. If, therefore, I think of my sins, the thought of the punishment I deserve must make me tremble ; but when I think of Thy death, I find I have
1 " Ego sum Pastor bonus. Bonus Pastor animarti suam dat pro ovibus suis." — John, x. II.
2 " Et dices in die ilia : Confitebor tibi, Domine ! . . . Ecce Deus Salvator meus ; fiducialiter agam, et non timebo." — Isa. xii. i.
Jesus Christ Dieci for Us. 3 1
more reason to hope than to fear. O blood of Jesus! thou art all my hope.
VIII.
But this blood, as it inspires us with confidence, also obliges us to give ourselves entirely to our Blessed Re- deemer. The Apostle exclaims, Know you not that you are not your own ? For you are bought with a great price?
Therefore, O my Jesus, I cannot any longer, without injustice, dispose of myself, or of my own concerns, since Thou hast made me Thine by purchasing me through Thy death. My body, my soul, my life are no longer mine; they are Thine, and entirely Thine. In Thee alone, therefore, will I hope. O my God, crucified and dead for me, I have nothing else to offer Thee but this soul, which Thou hast bought with Thy blood; to Thee do I offer it. Accept of my love, for I desire nothing but Thee, my Saviour, my God, my love, my all. Hith- erto I have shown much gratitude towards men; to Thee alone have I, alas! been most ungrateful. But now I love Thee, and I have no greater cause of sorrow than my having offended Thee. O my Jesus, give me confi- dence in Thy Passion; root out of my heart every affec- tion that belongs not to Thee. I will love Thee alone, who dost deserve all my love, and who hast given me so much reason to love Thee. And who, indeed, could re- fuse to love Thee, when they see Thee, who art the beloved of the Eternal Father, dying so bitter and cruel a death for our sake ? O Mary, O Mother of fair love, I pray thee, through the merits of thy burning heart, ob- tain for me the grace to live only in order to love thy Son, who, being in himself worthy of an infinite love, has chosen at so great a cost to acquire to himself the
1 "An nescitis quoniam . . . non estis vestri ? Empti enim estis pretio magno." — i Cor. vi. 19.
32 Reflections and Affections. [chap. n.
love of a miserable sinner like me. O love of souls, O my Jesus! I love Thee, I love Thee, I love Thee; but still I love Thee too little. Oh, give me more love, give me flames that may make me live always burning with Thy love! I do not myself deserve it; but Thou dost well deserve it, O infinite Goodness. Amen. This I hope, so may it be.
CHAPTER II.
JESUS CHOSE TO SUFFER SO MUCH FOR US, IN ORDER THAT WE MAY UNDERSTAND THE GREAT LOVE HE HAS FOR US.
"Two things," says Cicero, " make us know a lover — that he does good to his beloved, and that he suffers tor- ments for him; and this last is the greatest sign of true love."1 God has indeed already shown his love to man by many benefits bestowed upon him; but his love would not have been satisfied by only doing good to man, as says St. Peter Chrysologus, if he had not found the means to prove to him how much he loved him by also suffering and dying for him, as he did by taking upon him human flesh: " But he held it to be little if he showed his love without suffering;" 2 and what greater means could God have discovered to prove to us the immense love which he bears us than by making himself man and suffering for us ? " In no other way could the love of God towards us be shown,"3 writes St. Gregory Nazianzen.
1 " Duo sunt, quae amantem produnt: amato benefacere, et pro amato cruciatus ferre; et hoc est majus."
2 " Sed parum esse credidit, si affectum suum erga nos non etiam adversa sustinendo monstraret." — Serin. 69.
3 " Non aliter Dei amor erga nos declarari poterat."
Jesus Suffering Shows His Love. ^
My beloved Jesus, how much hast Thou labored to show me Thy love, and to make me enamoured of Thy goodness! Great indeed, then, would be the injury I should do Thee if I were to love Thee but little, or to love anything else but Thee.
II.
Ah, when he showed himself to us, a God, wounded, crucified, and dying, did he not indeed (says Cornelius à Lapide) give us the greatest proofs of the love that he bears us ? u God showed his utmost love on the cross." ' And before him St. Bernard said that Jesus, in his Pas- sion, showed us that his love towards us could not be greater than it was: "In the shame of the Passion is shown the greatest and incomparable love."2 The Apostle writes that when Jesus Christ chose to die for our salvation, then appeared how far the love of God extended towards us miserable creatures: The goodness and kindness of God our Saviour appeared?
0 my most loving Saviour! I feel indeed that all Thy wounds speak to me of the love that Thou bearest me. And who that had so many proofs of Thy love could re- sist loving Thee in return' St. Teresa was indeed right O most amiable Jesus, when she said that he who loves Thee not gives a proof that he does not know Thee.
III.
Jesus Christ could easily have obtained for us salva- tion without suffering, and in leading a life of ease and delight; but no, St. Paul says, having joy set before Him, He endured the cross* He refused the riches, the delights,
1 " Summum Deus in cruce nobis ostendit amorem!" — In 1 Cor. i. 25.
2 " In passionis rubore maxima et incomparabilis ostenditur charitas." — De Pass. c. 41.
3 " Benignitas et humanitas apparuit Salvatoris nostri Dei." — Tit. iii. 4.
4 " Proposito sibi gaudio, sustinuit crucem." — Heb. xii. 2.
3
34 Reflections and Affections. [chap. ii.
the honors of the world, and chose for himself a life of poverty, and a death full of suffering and ignominy. And wherefore? Would it not have sufficed for him to have offered to his eternal Father one single prayer for the pardon of man? for this prayer, being of infinite value, would have been sufficient to save the world, and infinite worlds besides. Why, then, did he choose for himself so much suffering, and a death so cruel, that an author has said very truly, that through mere pain the soul of Jesus separated itself from his body ? 1 To what purpose so much cost in order to save man? St. John Chrysostom answers, a single prayer of Jesus would indeed have sufficed to redeem us; but it was not suffi- cient to show us the love that our God has borne us: " That which sufficed to redeem us was not sufficient for love." 2 And St. Thomas confirms this when he says, " Christ, in suffering from love, offered to God more than the expiation of the offence of the human race de- manded." 3 Because Jesus loved us so much, he desired to be loved very much by us; and therefore he did every- thing that he could, even unto suffering for us, in order to conciliate our love, and to show that there was noth- ing more that he could do to make us love him: " He endured much weariness," says St. Bernard, " that he might bind man to love him much."4
IV.
And what greater proof of love, says our Saviour him- self, can a friend show towards the person he loves than
1 " Inter agones purus dolor animam a corpore disjunxit." — Con- tens. 1. io, d. 4, c. i, sp. r.
8 "Quod sufficiebat redemptioni, non sufficiebat amori."
3 " Christus, ex charitate patiendo, majus aliquid Deo exhibuit, quam exigeret recompensatio offensse humani generis." — P. 3, q. 48, a. 2.
4 " Multum fatigationis assumpsit, quo multae dilectionis hominem debitorem teneret." — In Cant. s. ir.
Jesus Suffering Shows His Love. 35
to give his life for his sake ? Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.'' But Thou, O most loving Jesus, says St. Bernard, hast done more than this, since Thou hast given Thy life for us, who were not Thy friends, but Thy enemies, and rebels against Thee: "Thou hast a greater charity, Lord, in giving Thy life for Thy enemies." 8 And this is what the Apostle observes when he writes, He commendeth His charity towards us, because when as yet we were sinners, accord- ing to the time Christ died for us.:>
Thou wouldst then die for me, Thy enemy, O my Jesus; and yet can I resist so much love? Behold, here I am; since Thou dost so anxiously desire that I should love Thee, I will drive away every other love from my breast, and will love Thee alone.
V.
St. John Chrysostom says that the principal end Jesus had in his Passion was to discover to us his love, and thus to draw our hearts to himself by the remembrance of the pains that he has endured for us: " This was the principal cause of the Passion of our Lord; he wished it to be known how great was the love of God for man, — of God, who would rather be loved than feared."4 St. Thomas adds that we may, through the Passion of Jesus, know the greatness of the love that God bears to man: "By this man understands the greatness of the love of
1 " Majorem hac dilectionem nemo habet, ut animarti suam ponat quis pro amicis suis." — fohn, xv. 13.
s " Tu majorem habuisti, Domine, charitatem, ponens animarci etiam pro inimicis." — S. de Pass. D.
3 *'• Commendat autem charitatem suam Deus in nobis, quoniam, cum adhuc peccatores essemus, secundum tempus Christus pro nobis mortuus est." — Rom. v. 8.
4 " Hsec prima causa passionis Domini, quia sciri voluit quantum amaret hominem Deus, qui plus amari voluit, quam timeri." — De Pass. s. 6.
36 Reflections and Affections. [chap. ii.
God to man." J And St. John had said before, In this we have known the charity of God, because He hath laid dow?i his life for us."1
0 my Jesus, Immaculate Lamb sacrificed on the cross for me! let not all that Thou hast suffered for me be lost, but accomplish in me the object of Thy great sufferings! 3 Oh, bind me entirely with the sweet chains of Thy love, in order that I may not leave Thee, and that I may never- more be separated from Thee: "Most sweet Jesus, suffer me not to be separated from Thee; suffer me not to be separated from Thee."4
VI. St. Luke relates that Moses and Elias on Mount Tabor, speaking of the Passion of Jesus Christ, called it an excess: And they spoke of his excess that he should accomplish in Jerusalem* " Yes," says St. Bonaventure, and rightly was the Passion of Jesus called an excess; for " it was an excess of suffering and an excess of love."6 And a de- vout author adds, "What more could he suffer that he has not endured? The excess of his love reached the highest point."7 Yes, indeed; for the divine law im- poses on men no other obligation than that of loving their neighbors as themselves; but Jesus has loved man more than himself: " He loved these more than himself," 8 says St. Cyril.
1 "Per hoc homo cognoscit quantum Deus hominem diligat." — P. 3, q. 46, a. 3.
2 "In hoc cognovimus charitatem Dei, quoniam ille animam suam pro nobis posuit." — ^ Jo. iii. 16,
3 " Tantus labor non sit cassus."
4 " Jesu dulcissime! ne permittas me separari a te, ne permittas me separari a te."
5 " Dicebant Excessum ejus, quem completurus erat in Jerusalem." — Luke, ix. 31.
6 " Excessus doloris, excessus amoris."
7 "Quid ultra pati potuit, et non pertulit? ad summum pervenit summits amoris excessus." — Contens. 1. 10, d. 4, c. 1, sp. I.
8 " Magis hos quam seipsum amavi t."
Jesus Suffering Shows His Love. 3 7
Thou didst, then, O my beloved Redeemer, — I will say to Thee with St. Augustine, — love me more than Thyself, since to save me Thou wouldst lose Thy divine life, — a life infinitely more precious than the lives of all men and angels put together. Thou didst love me more than Thyself, because Thou wert willing to die for me.1
0 infinite God! exclaims the Abbot Guerric, Thou hast for the love of men (if it is lawful to say so) become prodigal of Thyself. a "Yes, indeed," he adds, "since Thou hast not been satisfied with bestowing Thy gifts, but Thou hast also given Thyself to recover lost man." 3 O prodigy, O excess of love, worthy only of infinite goodness !
" And who," says St. Thomas of Villanova, " will ever be able, Lord, to understand even in the slightest degree the immensity of Thy love in having loved us miserable worms so much that Thou didst choose to die, even upon a cross, for us ?" * " Oh, how this love," continues the same saint, " exceeds all measure, all understanding!" 5
VII.
It is a pleasing thing to see a person beloved by some great man, and more so if the latter has the power of raising him to some great fortune; but how much more sweet and pleasing must it be to us to see ourselves be- loved by God, who can raise us up to an eternity of hap- piness ? Under the old law men might have doubted
1 " Dilexisti me plus quam te, quia mori voluisti pro me." — Sol. an. ad D. c. xiii.
- '"' O Deum, si fas est dici, prodigum sui prae desiderio hominis!"
3 " An non prodigum sui, qui, non solum sua, sed seipsum impen- dit, ut hominem recuperaret ?" — In Pent. s. i.
4 " Quis amoris tui vim cognosceret, quis vel suspicari posset a longe charitatis ardorem, quod sic amares, ut teipsum cruci et morti exponeres pro vermiculis ?"
5 " Excedit haec charitas omnem scientiam, omnem sensum." — In Nat. D. cone. 3.
38 Reflections and Affections. [chap, ii
whether God loved them with a tender love; but after having seen him shed his blood on an infamous gibbet and die for us, how can we doubt his loving us with infinite tenderness and affection ? O my soul, behold now thy Jesus, hanging from the cross all covered with wounds ! behold how, by these wounds, he proves to thee the love of his enamoured heart: " The secrets of his heart are revealed through the wounds, of his body," ' says St. Bernard.
My dearest Jesus, it does indeed afflict me to see Thee dying with so dreadful sufferings upon an ignominious tree; but at the same time I am greatly consoled and inflamed with love for Thee, when I see by means of these wounds the love that Thou bearest me. O heav- enly seraphs, what do you think of the love of my God, who loved me and delivered Himself for mei" 2
VIII.
St. Paul says that when the Gentiles heard it preached that Jesus was crucified for the love of men, they thought it such nonsense that they could not believe it. But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews, indeed, a stumbling- block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness.3 And how is it pos- sible, said they, to believe that an omnipotent God, who wants nothing in order to be perfectly happy as he is, would choose to become man and die on a cross to save men? This would be the same, said they, as to believe that a God had become mad for love of men : But unto the Gentiles foolishness* And thus they refused to believe it. But faith teaches us that Jesus has really undertaken and accomplished this great work of redemp-
1 " Patet arcanum cordis per foramina corporis." — In Cant. s. 61.
2 "Qui dilexit me, et tradidit semetipsum pro me." — Gal. ii. 20.
3 " Nos autem prsedicamus Christum crucifixum, Judseis quidem scandalum, Gentibus autem stultitiam." — 1 Cor. i. 23.
4 " Gentibus autem stultitiam."
Jesits Suffering Shows His Love. 39
tion which the Gentiles esteemed and called folly. "We have sjeen," says St. Laurence Justinian, "Eternal Wis^ dom, the only-begotten of God, become as it were a fool through the excessive love he bears man." ' Yes, adds Cardinal Hugo, for it seemed nothing but a folly that a God should choose to die for men: "It seemed a folly that God should die for the salvation of men." a
The Blessed Giacopone, who in this world had been a man of letters, and afterwards became a Franciscan, seemed to have become mad through the love that he bore to Jesus Christ. One day Jesus appeared to him and said, Giacopone, why do you commit these follies ? " Why," he answered, because Thou hast taught them me. If I am mad," said he, " Thou hast been more mad than I, in that Thou hast died for me. I am a fool, for Thou hast been a greater fool." :)
Thus, also, St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, being in an ecstasy, exclaimed, "O God of love! O God of love! The love that Thou bearest to creatures, O my Jesus, is too great indeed." And one day, when quite enraptured, she took an image of the Crucified, and began running about the monastery, crying, "O Love! Love' I shall never rest, my God, from calling Thee Love." Then turning to the religious, she said, " Do you not know, my dear sisters, that Jesus Christ is nothing but love ? He is even mad with love, and I will go on saying it continu- ally." And she added that she wished she could be heard by the whole universe when she called Jesus " Love," in order that the love of Jesus might be known and loved by all. And she sometimes even began to ring the bell, in order that all the people in the world should come
1 " Agnovimus Sapientiam amoris nimietate infatuatam." — Serpi. de Nat. Doni.
- " Stultitia videtur, quod mortuus fuerit Deus propter salutem hominum." — In i Cor. iv.
3 " Stultus sum, quia stultior me fuisti. "
4-0 Reflections and Affections. lchap. ii.
(as she desired, if it had been possible) to love her Jesus.
Yes, my sweetest Redeemer, permit me to say so, this Thy spouse was indeed right when she called Thee mad with love. And does it not indeed seem a folly that Thou shouldst. choose to die for love of me, for so un- grateful a worm as I am, and whose offences Thou didst foresee, as well as the infidelities of which I should be guilty ? But if Thou, my God, art thus become mad, as it were, for the love of me, how is it that I do not be- come mad for the love of a God ? When I have seen Thee crucified and dead for me, how is it that I can think of any other than Thee? Yes, O my Lord, my sovereign good, more worthy of love than every other good, I love Thee more than myself. I promise for the future to love none other but Thee, and to think con- stantly on the love Thou hast shown me by dying in the midst of so many sufferings for me. O scourges, O thorns, O nails, O cross, O wounds, O sufferings, O death of my Saviour' you irresistibly constrain me to love him who has so much loved me. O Incarnate Word, O lov- ing God! my soul is enamoured with Thee. I would fain love Thee so much that I should find no pleasure but in pleasing Thee, my most sweet Lord; and since Thou dost so earnestly desire my love, I protest that I will only live for Thee. I desire to do whatever Thou wiliest of me. O my Jesus! I pray Thee, help me, and grant that I may please Thee entirely and continually in time and in eternity. Mary, my Mother, enireat Jesus for me, in order that he may grant me his holy love; for I desire nothing else in this world and in the next but to love Jesus. Amen.
Jesus Steff ering during His Whole Life. 41
CHAPTER III.
JESUS, FOR LOVE OF US, CHOSE TO SUFFER THE PAINS OF HIS PASSION, EVEN FROM THE BEGINNING OF HIS LIFE.
I.
The divine Word came into the world and took upon him human flesh in order to make himself loved of man, and therefore he came with such a longing to suffer for our sake, that he would not lose a moment in beginning to torment himself, at least by apprehension. Hardly was he conceived in the womb of Mary, when he repre- sented to his mind all the sufferings of his Passion; and, in order to obtain for us pardon and divine grace, he offered himself to his eternal Father to satisfy for us through his dolors all the chastisements due to our sins; and from that moment he began to suffer everything that he afterwards endured in his most bitter death.
O my most loving Redeemer! what have I hitherto done or suffered for Thee ? If I could for a thousand years endure for Thy sake all the torments that all the martyrs have suffered, they would yet be nothing com- pared with that one first moment in which Thou didst offer Thyself and begin to suffer for me.
II.
The martyrs did indeed suffer great pains and igno- miny; but they only endured them at the time of their martyrdom. Jesus even from the first instant of his life continually suffered all the torments of his Passion; for, from the first moment, he had before his eyes all the horrid scene of torments and insults which he was to receive from men. Wherefore he said by the mouth of
42 Reflections and Affections. [chap. hi.
the prophet. My sorrow is continually before me? O my Jesus! Thou hast been so desirous to suffer for my sake that Thou wouldst even endure Thy sufferings before the time; and yet I am so desirous after the pleasures of this world. How many times have I offended Thee in order to please my body! O my Lord! through the merits of Thy sufferings, take away from me, I beseech Thee, all affection for earthly pleasures. For Thy love I desire to abstain from this satisfaction. [Mention it.]
III.
God, in his compassion for us, does not generally re- veal to us the trials that await us before the time when We are destined to endure them. If a criminal who is executed on a gibbet had had revealed to him from the first use of his reason the torture that awaited him, could he even have been capable of joy? If Saul from the beginning of his reign had had present to his mind the Sword that was to pierce him, if Judas had foreseen the cord that was to suffocate him, — how bitter would their life have been!
Our kind Redeemer, even from the first instant of his life, had always present before him the scourges, the thorns, the cross, the outrages of his Passion, the deso- late death that awaited him. When he beheld the vic- tims which were sacrificed in the temple, he well knew that they were figures of the sacrifice which he, the Im- maculate Lamb, would one day consummate on the altar of the cross. When he beheld the city of Jerusalem, he well knew that he was there to lose his life in a sea of sorrows and reproaches. When he saw his dear Mother, he already imagined that he saw her in an agony of suf- fering at the foot of the cross, near his dying self.
So that, O my Jesus, the horrible sight of all these
1 "Dolor meus in conspectu meo semper." — Ps. xxxvii. 18.
Jesus Suffering during His Whole Life. 43
evils kept Thee during the whole of Thy life continually tormented and afflicted before the time of Thy death. And Thou didst accept and suffer everything for my sake. O my agonizing Lord! the sight alone of all the sins of the world, especially of mine, by which Thou didst already foresee I should offend Thee, rendered Thy life more afflicted and painfnl than all the lives that ever have been or ever will be. But, O my God, in what barbarous law is it written that a God should have so great love for a creature, and yet that creature should live without loving his God, or rather should offend and displease him ? O my Lord, make me know the greatness of Thy love, in order that I may no longer be ungrate- ful to Thee. Oh, if I but loved Thee, my Jesus, — if I really loved Thee, — how sweet it would be to me to suf- fer for Thee!
IV.
Jesus appeared one day on the cross to Sister Magda- len Orsini, who had been suffering for some time from some great affliction, and animated her to suffer it in peace. The servant of God answered, " But, Lord, Thou didst only hang on the cross for three hours, whereas I have gone on suffering this pain for several years." Jesus Christ then said to her reproach ingly, " O ignorant that thou art, what dost thou mean ? From the first moment that I was in my Mother's womb, I suffered in my heart all that I afterwards endured on the cross."
And I, my dear Redeemer, how can I, at the sight of such' great sufferings which Thou didst endure for my sake, during Thy whole life, complain of those crosses which Thou dost send me for my good. I thank Thee for hav- ing redeemed me with so much love and such sufferings. In order to animate me to suffer with patience the pains of this life, Thou didst take upon Thyself all our evils. O my Lord, grant that Thy sorrows may be ever present
44 Reflections and Affections. [chap. hi.
to my mind, in order that I may always accept and de- sire to suffer for Thy love.
V.
Great as the sea is Thy destruction? As the waters of the sea are all salt and bitter, so the life of Jesus Clwist was full of bitterness and void of all consolation, as he himself declared to St. Margaret of Cortona. Moreover, as all the waters of the earth unite in the sea, so did all the sufferings of men unite in Jesus Christ; wherefore he said by the mouth of the Psalmist, Save me, O God, for the waters are come in eve?i unto my soul. I am come into the depth of the sea, and a tempest hath overwhelmed Me? Save me, O God, for sorrows have entered even the in- most parts of my soul, and 1 am left submerged in a tempest of ignominy and of sufferings, both interior and exterior.
0 my dearest Jesus, my love, my life, my all, if I be- hold from without Thy sacred body, I see nothing else but wounds. But if I enter into Thy desolate heart, I find nothing but bitterness and sorrows, which made Thee suffer the agonies of death. O my Lord, and who but Thee, who art infinite goodness, would ever suffer so much, and die for one of Thy creatures ? But because Thou art God, Thou dost love as a God alone can love, with a love which cannot be equalled by any other love.
VI.
St. Bernard says, " In order to redeem the slave, the Father did not spare his own Son, nor did the Son spare himself."3 O infinite love of God! On the one hand
1 " Magna est enim velut mare contritio tua," — Lam. ii. 13.
8 " Salvum me fac, Deus, quoniam intraverunt aquae usque ad ani- mam meam ; veni in altudinem maris, et tempestas demersit me." — Ps. lxviii. 2.
3 "Ut servum redimeret, nee Pater Filio, nee sibi Filius ipse pe- percit."— S. de Pass. D.
Jesus Suffering during His Whole Life. 45
the eternal Father required of Jesus Christ to satisfy for all the sins of men : The Lord hath laid on Him the in- iquity of usali.1 On the other hand, Jesus, in order to save men in the most loving way that he could, chose to take upon himself the utmost penalty due to divine justice for our sins. Wherefore, as St. Thomas asserts, he took upon himself in the highest degree all the suffer- ings and outrages that ever were borne.2 It was on this account that Isaias called him a man of sorrows, despised, and the most abject of men.5 And with reason; for Jesus was tormented in all the members and senses of his body, and was still more bitterly afflicted in all the powers of his soul ; so that the internal pains which he endured infinitely surpassed his external sufferings. Behold him, then, torn, bloodless; treated as an impostor, as a sor- cerer, a madman, abandoned even by his friends, and finally persecuted by all, until he finished his life upon an infamous gibbet. Know you what I have done to you ? i
0 my Lord! I do indeed know how much Thou hast done and suffered for my sake; but Thou knowest, alas! that I have hitherto done nothing for Thee. My Jesus, help me to suffer something for Thy love before death over- takes me. I am ashamed of appearing before Thee; but I will no longer be ungrateful, as I have been so many years towards Thee. Thou hast deprived Thyself of every pleasure for me; I will for the love of Thee re- nounce all the pleasures of the senses. Thou hast suf- fered so many pains for me; I will for Thy sake suffer all the pains of my life and of my death as it shall best please Thee. Thou hast been forsaken; I will be con-
1 " Posuit Dominus in eo iniquitatem omnium nostrum." — Isa. liii. 6.
2 " Assumpsit dolorem in summo, vituperationem in summo."
3 " Despectum, et novissimum virorum, virum dolorum." — Isa. liii. 3.
4 "Scitis quid fecerim vobis?" — John, xiii. 12.
46 Reflections and Affections. [chap. iv.
tent that all should forsake me, provided Thou dost not forsake me, O my only and sovereign good! Thou hast been persecuted; I accept whatever persecution may be- fall me. Finally, Thou hast died for me; I will die for Thee. O my Jesus, my Treasure, my love, my all! I love Thee. Oh, give me more love! Amen.
CHAPTER IV.
THE GREAT DESIRE WHICH JESUS HAD TO SUFFER AND TO DIE FOR LOVE OF US.
I.
Oh, how exceedingly tender, loving, and constraining was that declaration of our Blessed Redeemer con- cerning his coming into the world, when he said that he had come to kindle in souls the fire of divine love, and that his only desire was fhat this holy flame should be enkindled in the hearts of men : / am come to cast fire upon the earth; and what will I but that it should be kindled? l He continued immediately to say that he was expecting to be baptized with the baptism of his own blood — not, indeed, to wash out his own sins, since he was incapable of sinning, but to wash out our sins, which he had come to satisfy by his sufferings : " The Passion of Christ is called baptism, because we are purified in his blood."2 And therefore our loving Jesus, in order to make us un- derstand how ardent was his desire to die for us, added, with sweetest expression of his love, that he felt an im- mense longing for the time of his Passion, so great was
1 " Ignem veni mittere in terram; et quid volo, nisi ut accendatur ?" -—i.uke xii. 49.
\ " Passio Christi dicitur Baptismus, quia in ejus sanguine punfi-
camnr."
Desire that Jesus had to Suffer. 47
his desire to suffer for our sake. These are his loving- words : / have a baptism wherewith J am to be baptized; and haw am I straitened until it be accomplished f '
O God. the lover of men, what more couldst Thou have said or done in order to put me under the neces- sity of loving Thee? And what good could my love ever do Thee, that Thou didst choose to die, and didst so much desire death in order to obtain it ? If a servant of mine had only desired to die for me, he would have at- tracted my love; and can I then live without loving Thee with all my heart, my king and God, who didst die for me, and who hadst such a longing for death in order to acquire to Thyself my love ?
II.
Jesus, knowing that His hour was come that He should pass out of the world to the Father, having loved His oicn, . . . He loved them unto the end.'1 St. John says that Jesus called the hour of his Passion his hour; because, as a devout commentator writes, this was the time for which our Redeemer had most sighed during his whole life; because by suffering and dying for men, he desired to make them understand the immense love that he bore to them: "That is the hour of the lover, in which he suffers for the object beloved:"' because suffering for the beloved is the most fit way of discovering the love of the lover, and of captivating to ourself the love of the beloved.
0 my clearest Jesus, in order to show me the great
1 " Baptismo habeo baptizari; et quomodo coarctor, usquedum per- riciatur ?"
1 " Sciens Jesus quia venit hora ejus, ut transeat ex hoc mundo ad Patrem, cum dilexisset suos . . ., in finem dilexit eos." — John, xiii. 1.
a " Amantis hora ilia est, qua pro amico patitur." — Barrad. T. iv. 1. 2. c. 5.
48 Reflections and Affections. [chap, iv
love Thou nearest me, Thou wouldst not commit the work of my redemption to any other than Thyself. Was my love, then, of such consequence to Thee that Thou wouldst suffer so much in order to gain it ? Oh, what more couldst Thou have done if Thou hadst had to gain to Thyself the love of Thy divine Father ? What more could a servant endure to acquire to himself the affec- tions of his master than what Thou hast suffered in order that Thou mayest be loved by me, a vile, ungrate- ful slave ?
III.
But behold our loving Jesus already on the point of being sacrificed on the Altar of the Cross for our salva- tion, in that blessed night which preceded his Passion. Let us hear him saying to his disciples, in the last sup- per that he makes with them, With desire have I desired to eat this pasch with you.1 St. Laurence Justinian, con- sidering these words, asserts that they were all words of love: "With desire have I desired; this is the voice of love."2 As if our loving Redeemer had said. O men, know that this night, in which my Passion will begin, has been the time most longed after by me during the whole of my life ; because I shall now make known to you, through my sufferings and my bitter death, how much I love you, and shall thereby oblige you to love me in the strongest way it is possible for me to do. A certain author says that in the Passion of Jesus Christ the divine omnipotence united itself to love, — love sought to love man to the utmost extent that omnipotence could arrive at; and omnipotence sought to satisfy love as far as its desire could reach.
1 " Desiderio desideravi hoc Pascha manducare vobiscum." — Luke, xxii. 15.
8 " Desiderio desideravi; charitatis est vox haec." — De Tr. Chr. Ag. c. 2.
Desire that Jesus had to Suffer. 49
O sovereign God! Thou hast given Thyself entirely to me; and how, then, shall I not love Thee with my whole self ? I believe, — yes, I believe Thou hast died for me; and how can I, then, love Thee so little as con- stantly to forget Thee, and all that Thou hast suffered for me? And why. Lord, when I think on Thy Passion, am I not quite inflamed with Thy love, and do I not be- come entirely Thine, like so many holy souls who, after meditating on Thy sufferings, have remained the happy prey of Thy love, and have given themselves entirely to Thee?
IV.
The spouse in the Canticles said that whenever her Spouse introduced her into the sacred cellar of his Pas- sion, she saw herself so assaulted on all sides by divine love that, all languishing with love, she was constrained to seek for relief to her wounded heart: The king brought me into the cellar of urine, lie set in order charity in me. Star me up with flowers, compass me about with apples; be eause I languish with love.' And how is it possible for a soul to enter upon the meditation of the Passion of Jesus Christ without being wounded, as by so many darts of love, by those sufferings and agonies which so greatlv afflicted the body and soul of our loving Lord, and without being sweetly constrained to love him who loved her so much ?
0 Immaculate Lamb, thus lacerated, covered with blood, and disfigured, as I behold Thee on this cross, how beautiful and how worthy of love dost Thou yet appear to me ! Yes, because all these wounds that I be- hold in Thee are to me signs and proofs of the great love that Thou bearest to me. Oh, if all men did but contemplate Thee often in that state in which Thou wert
1 " Introduxit me in cellam vinariam, ordinavit in me charitatem. Fulcite me floribus, stipate me malis, quia amore langueo." — Cant.
li. 4.
4
5o Reflections and Affections. [chap. iv.
one day made a spectacle to all Jerusalem, who could help being seized with Thy love ? O my beloved Lord, accept me to love Thee, since I give Thee all my senses and all my will. And how can I refuse Thee anything, if Thou hast not refused me Thy blood, Thy life, and all Thyself ?
V.
So great was the desire of Jesus to suffer for us, that in the night preceding his death he not only went of his own will into the garden, where he knew that the Jews would come and take him, but, knowing that Judas the traitor was already near at hand with the company of soldiers, he said to his disciples, Arise, let us go; behold he that will betray Me is at hand.1 He would even go himself to meet them, as if they came to conduct him, not to the punishment of death, but to the crown of a great kingdom.
0 my sweet Saviour, Thou dost, then, go to meet Thy death with such a longing to die, through the desire that Thou hast to be loved by me ! And shall I not have a desire to die for Thee, my God, in order to prove to Thee the love that I bear Thee ? Yes, my Jesus, who hast died for me, I do also desire to die for Thee. Be- hold, my blood, my life, I offer all to Thee. I am ready to die for Thee as Thou wilt, and when Thou wilt. Ac- cept this miserable sacrifice which a miserable sinner offers to Thee, who once offended Thee, but now loves Thee more than himself.
VI.
St. Laurence Justinian, in considering this word "I thirst,"2 which Jesus pronounced on the cross when he was expiring, says that this thirst was not a thirst which
1 "Surgite, eamus; ecce, qui me tradet, prope est." — Mark, xiv. 42. * "Sitio."
Desire that Jesus had to Suffer. 51
proceeded from dryness, but one that arose from the ardor of the love that Jesus had for us: '' This thirst springs from the fever of his love." ' Because by this word our Redeemer intended to declare to us, more than the thirst of the body, the desire that he had of suffer- ing for us, by showing us his love : and the immense desire that he had of being loved by us, by the many suf- ferings that he endured for us: "This thirst proceeds from the fever of his love." And St. Thomas says, "By this 'I thirst ' is shown the ardent desire for the salva- tion of the human race.""
0 God, enamoured of souls, is it possible that such an excess of goodness can remain without correspondence on our part ? It is said that love must be repaid by iove; but by what love can Thy love ever be repaid ? It would be necessary for another God to die for Thee, in order to compensate for the love that Thou hast borne us in dying for us. And how, then, couldst Thou, O my Lord, say that Thy delight was to dwell with men, if Thou dost receive from them nothing but injuries and ill- treatment ? Love made Thee, then, change into delights the sufferings and the insults that Thou hast endured for us. O my Redeemer, most worthy of love, I will no longer resist the stratagems of Thy love ; I give Thee from henceforth my whole love. Thou art and shalt be always the only beloved one of my soul. Thou didst become man in order that Thou mayest have a life to de- vote to me; I would fain have a thousand lives, in order that I may sacrifice them all for Thee. I love Thee, O infinite goodness, and I will love Thee with all my strength. I will do all that lies in my power to please Thee. Thou, being innocent, hast suffered for me; I a
1 "Skis hsec de ardore nascitur charitatis " — De Tr. Car. Ag. c. 19.
' " Per hoc Sitio! ostenditur ejus ardens desiderium de salute gen- eris humani." — In Jo. xix. led. 5.
52 Reflections and Affections. ichap. v.
sinner, who have deserved hell, desire to suffer for Thee as much as Thou wiliest. O my Jesus! assist, I pray Thee, by Thy merits, this desire which Thou dost Thy- self give me. O infinite God, I believe in Thee, I hope in Thee, I love Thee. Mary, my Mother, intercede for- me. Amen.
CHAPTER V.
THE LOVE OF JESUS IN LEAVING HIMSELF FOR OUR FOOD BEFORE HIS DEATH.
I.
Jesus, knowing tliat His hour was come that He should pass out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.* Our most loving Redeemer, on the last night of his life, knowing that the much-longed-for time had arrived on which he should die for the love of man, had not the heart to leave us alone in this valley of tears; but in order that he might not be separated from us even by death, he would leave us his whole self as food in the Sacrament of the Altar; giving us to understand by this that, having given us this gift of infinite worth, he could give us nothing further to prove to us his love: He loved them unto the end.2 Cornelius à Lapide, with St. Chrysostom and Theophylact, interprets the words " unto the end" ac- cording to the Greek text, and writes thus: "He loved them with an excessive and supreme love."3 Jesus in
1 "Sciens Jesus quia venit hora ejus, ut transeat ex hoc mundo ad Patrem, cum dilexisset suos . . ., in finem dilexit eos." — John, xiii. I.
'2 " In finem dilexit eos."
3 " Quasi dicat : Extremo amore et summe dilexit eos."
Love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. 53
this sacrament made his last effort of love towards men, as the Abbot Guerric says : " He poured out the whole power of his love upon his friends." '
This was still better expressed by the holy Council of Trent, which, in speaking of the Sacrament of the Altar, says that our Blessed Saviour " poured out of himself in it, as it were, all the riches of his love towards us."2
The angelical St. Thomas was therefore right in call- ing this Sacrament "a Sacrament of love, and a token of the greatest love that a God could give us."3 And St. Bernard called it "the love of loves."4 And St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi said that a soul, after having communicated, might say, "It is consummated;"* that is to say. My God, having given himself to me in this Holy Communion, has nothing more to give me. This saint, one day asked one of her novices what she had been thinking of after Communion; she answered, "Of the hve of Jesus ." " Yes," replied the saint; "when we think of this love, we cannot pass on to other thoughts, but must stop upon love."
0 Saviour of the world, what dost Thou expect from men, that Thou hast been induced even to give them Thyself in food ? And what can there be left to Thee to give us after this Sacrament, in order to oblige us to love Thee? Ah. my most loving God, enlighten me that I may know what an excess of goodness this has been of Thine, to reduce Thyself unto becoming my food in Holy Communion ! If Thou hast, therefore, given Thy- self entirely to me, it is just that I also should give my- self wholly to Thee. Yes, my Jesus, I give myself en-
1 "Omnem vim amoris effudit amicis." — Serm. de Asc. D.
ì " Divitias sui erga homines amoris velut effudit." — Sess. xiii. cap. 2.
3 " Sacramentum charitatis, summae charitatis Christi pignus est."
4 "Amor amorum."
6 " Consuramatum est!"
54 Reflections and Affections. ichap. v.
tirely to Thee. I love Thee above every good, and I desire to receive Thee in order to love Thee more Come, therefore, and come often, into my soul, and make it entirely Thine. Oh that I could truly say to Thee, as the loving St. Philip Neri said to Thee when he received Thee in the Viaticum, " Behold my love, be- hold my love ; give me my love."
II.
He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, abideth in Me, and I in him.1 St. Denis, the Aieopagite, says that love always tends towards union with the object beloved. And because food becomes one thing with him who eats it, therefore our Lord would reduce him- self to food, in order that, receiving him in Holy Com- munion, we might become of one substance with him : Take ye and eat, said Jesus ; this is My body.1 As if he had said, remarks St. John Chrysostom, " Eat Me, that the highest union may take place."3 O man. feed thy- self on Me, in order that thou and I may become one substance. In the same way, says St. Cyril of Alexan- dria, as two pieces of melted wax unite together, so a soul that communicates is so thoroughly united to Jesus that Jesus remains in it, and it in Jesus. O my beloved Redeemer, exclaims, therefore, St. Laurence Justinian, how couldst Thou ever come to love us so much that Thou wouldst unite Thyself to us in such a way that Thy heart and ours should become but one heart? "Oh, how admirable is Thy love. O Lord Jesus, who wouldst incorporate us in such a manner with Thy body, that we should have but one heart with Thee." 4
1 "Qui manducat meam carnem et bibit meum sanguinem, in me manet, et ego in ilio." — John, vi 37
2 " Accipiteet comedite ; hoc est corpus meum." — Matt. xxvi. 26.
3 " Me comede, ut summa unio fiat/' — In. r Tim. horn. 15.
4 " O quam mirabilis est dilectio tua, Domine Jesu, qui tuo corpori taliter nos incorporare voluistì, ut tecum unum cor haberemus .'" — De Inc. div. cm. c. 5.
Love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. 55
Well did St. Francis de Sales say, in speaking of Holy Communion : " In no action does our Saviour show him- self more loving or more tender than in this one, in which, as it were, he annihilates himself and reduces himself to food in order to penetrate our souls, and unite himself to the hearts of his faithful ones." So that, says St John Chrvsostom, "To that Lord on whom the an- gels even dare not fix their eyes, to him we unite our- selves, and we are made one body, one flesh.'" "But what shepherd," adds the saint, " feeds the sheep with his own blood ? Even mothers give their children to nurses to feed them ; but Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament feeds us with his own blood, and unites us to himself. What shepherd feeds his sheep with his own blood ? And whv do I say shepherd ? There are many mothers who give their children to others to nurse ; but this he has not done, but feeds us with his own blood."2 In short, says the saint, because he loves us so ardently, he chose' to make himself one with us by becoming our food. « He mixed himself with us, that we might be one ; this they do whose love is ardent."'
O infinite love, worthy of infinite love, when shall I love Thee, my Jesus, as Thou hast loved me ? O divine food, Sacrament of love, when wilt Thou draw me en- tirely to Thvself ? Thou hast nothing left to do in order to make Thvself loved by me. I am constantly intend- ing to begin to love Thee, I constantly promise Thee to do so • but I never begin. I will from this day begin to love Thee in earnest. Oh, do Thou enable me to do so. Enlighten me, inflame me, detach me from earth, and i •« Huic nos unimur, et facti sumus unum corpus, una caro." i <• Quis pastor oves proprio pascit cruore ? Et quid dico, Pastor? Matres multa, sunt qua, filios aliis tradunt nutricibus. Hoc autem ipse non est passus, sed ipse nos proprio sanguine pascit. -Ad pop.
Ant. horn. 60. ' . .
3-Semetipsum nobis immiscuit, ut unum quid simus ; ardenter
enim amantium hoc est."— Mid. horn. 61.
56 Reflections and Affections. [chap.v.
permit me not any longer to resist so many enticements of Thy love. I love Thee with my whole heart, and I will therefore leave everything in order to please Thee, my life, my love, my all. I will constantly unite myself to Thee in this Holy Sacrament, in order to detach my- self from everything, and to love Thee only, my God. I hope, through Thy gracious assistance, to be enabled to do so.
III.
St. Laurence Justinian says, "We have seen the All- wise made foolish by excess of love." ' We have seen a God who is wisdom itself become a fool through the love he has borne to man. And is it not so? Does it not seem, exclaims St. Augustine, a folly of love, that a God should give himself as food to his creatures ? "Does it not seem madness to say, Eat my flesh, drink my blood?"2 And what more could a creature have said to his Creator? "Shall I make bold to say that the Creator of all things was beside himself through the excess of his loving goodness?" 3 Thus St. Denis speaks, and says, that God through the greatness of his love has almost gone out of himself ; for, being God, he has gone so far as to become man, and even to make himself the food of men. But, O Lord, such an excess was not be- coming Thy majesty. No, but love, answers St. John Chrysostom for Jesus, does not go about looking for reasons when it desires to do good and to make itself known to the object beloved ; it goes, not where it is be- coming, but where it is carried by its desire. " Love is
1 "Vidimus Sapientiam amoris nimietate infatuatam." — Serm. de Nat. D.
■ "Nonne videtur insania: Manducate meam carnem, bibite meum sanguinem ?" — In Ps. 33, en. 1.
3 " Audebimus et loqui, quod auctor omnium, prse amatoriae boni- tatis magnitudine, extra se sit?" — De Div. Norn. c. 4.
Love of Jesus in the Blessed Saer anient. 5 7
unreasoning, and goes as it is led, and not as it ought." '
O my Jesus, how ought I not to be covered with shame when I consider that, having Thee before me, who art the infinite Good and lovely above every good, and so full of love for my soul, I have yet turned back to love vile and contemptible things, and for their sake have forsaken Thee. O my God, I beseech Thee, discover to me every day more and more the greatness of Thy goodness, in order that I may every day be more and more enamoured of Thee, and may labor more and more to please Thee. Ah, my Lord, what object more beau- tiful, more good, more holy, more amiable can I love besides Thee? I love Thee, infinite goodness, I love Thee more than myself, and I desire to live only that I may love Thee, who dost deserve all my love.
IV.
St. Paul remarks also on the time which Jesus chooses to make us this gift of the most Holy Sacrament ; a gift which surpasses all the other gifts which an Almighty God could make ; as St. Clement says, u A gift surpass- ing all fulness."2 And St. Augustine says, "Although omnipotent, he could give no more." The Apostle re- marks that The Lord Jesus, t/ie same nig ht in which He was betrayed, took bread, and, giving thanks, broke and said, Take ye and eat j this is my body which shall be delivered for you.* In that same night, then, when men were thinking of preparing torments and death for Jesus, our beloved Re-
1 "Amor ratione caret, et vadit quo ducitur, non quo debeat." — Serm. 147.
2 " Donum transcendens omnera plenitudinem." 8 " Cum esset omnipotens plus dare non potuit."
4 " Dominus Jesus, in qua nocte tradebatur, accepit panem, et gratias agens fregit, et dixit : Accipite et manducate ; hoc est corpus meum, quod pro vobis tradetur. " — 1 Cor. xi. 23.
58 Reflections and Affections. [chap. v.
deemer thought of leaving them himself in the Blessed Sacrament ; giving us thereby to understand that his love was so great that, instead of being cooled by so many in- juries, it was then more than ever yearning towards us. O most loving Saviour, how couldst Thou have so great love for men as to choose to remain with them on this earth to be their food, after they had driven Thee away from it with so much ingratitude !
Let us also remark the immense desire which Jesus had during all his life for the arrival of that night in which he had determined to leave us this great pledge of his love. For at the moment of his instituting this most sweet sacrament he said, With desire I have desired to eat this pasch with you j1 words which discover to us the ardent desire which he had to unite himself to us in Communion through the love which he bore us : "Tins is the voice of most burning charity,"2 says St. Laurence Justinian. And Jesus still retains at the present time the same desire towards all the souls that love him. There is not a bee, said he one day to St. Matilda, that throws itself with such eagerness upon the flowers in order to suck out the honey, as I, through the violence of my love, hasten to the soul that desires me. 3
O lover, too full of love, there are no greater proofs left for Thee to give me in order to persuade me that Thou dost love me. I bless Thy goodness for it. O my Jesus, I beseech Thee, draw me entirely to Thyself. Make me love Thee henceforth with all the affections and tenderness of which I am capable. Let it suffice to others to love Thee with a love only appreciative and predominant, for I know that Thou wilt be satisfied with it ; but I shall not be satisfied until I see that I love
1 "Desiderio desideravi hoc Pascha manducare vobiscum." — Luke, xxii. 15.
- " Flagrantissima? charitatis est vox haec." — De Tv. Chr. Ag. c. 2. 3 " Spir. Grat. 1. 2, c. 3.
Love of Jesus in the Blessed Saerament. 59
Thee also with all the tenderness of my heart, more than friend, more than brother, more than father, and more than spouse. And where indeed shall I find a friend, a brother, a father, a spouse, who will love me as much as Thou hast loved me, my Creator, my Redee- mer, and my God ? who for the love of me hast spent Thy blood and Thy life ; and, not content with that, dost give Thyself entirely to me in this Sacrament of love. I love Thee, then, O my Jesus, with all the affec- tions of my soul ; I love Thee more than myself. Oh, help me to love Thee ; I ask nothing more of Thee.
V.
St. Bernard says that God loves us for no other reason than that he may be loved by us : " God only loved that he might be loved."1 And therefore our Saviour pro- tested that he had come upon earth in order to make him- self loved: / am come to send a fire upon the earth."1 And oh, what flames of holy love does Jesus kindle in souls in this most divine Sacrament ! The Venerable Father Francis Olimpio, a Theatine, said that nothing was so fit to excite our hearts to love the sovereign good as the most Holy Communion. Hesychius called Jesus in the Sacrament a "divine fire."3 And St. Catharine of Sienna, one day perceiving, in the hands of a priest, Jesus in the Sacrament under the appearance of a fur- nace of love, was full of astonishment that the whole world was not consumed by the fire. The Abbot Rupert, and St. Gregory of Nyssa said that the altar itself was the wine-cellar where the espoused soul is inebriated with the love of her Lord; so much so, that, forgetful of earth, it burns and languishes with holy love: The hing brought me, says the spouse in the Canticles, into the
1 " Non ad aliud amat Deus, nisi ut ametur." — In Cant. s. 83. - " Ignem veni mittere in terram." — Luke, xii. 49. 3 '' Ignis divinus."
6o Reflections and Affections. [chap. v.
cellar of wine ; he sei in order charily in me. Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples ; because I lan- guish with love}
0 love of my soul, most Holy Sacrament ; oh that I could always remember. Thee, to forget everything else, and that I could love Thee alone without interruption and without reserve ! Ah, my Jesus, Thou hast knocked so frequently at the door of my heart, that Thou hast at last, I hope, entered therein. But since Thou hast en- tered there, drive away, I pray Thee, all its affections that do not tend towards Thyself. Possess Thyself so entirely of me, that I may be able with truth to say to Thee from this day forth, with the Prophet, What have I in heaven ? and besides Thee what do I desire on earth ? The God of my heart, and my portion forever} Yes, O my God, what else do I desire but Thee upon earth or in heaven ? Thou alone art and shalt always be the only Lord of my heart and my will ; and Thou alone shalt be all my portion, all my riches, in this life and in the next.
VI.
Go, said the Prophet Isaias — go, publish everywhere the loving inventions of our God, in order to make him- self loved of men : You shall draw waters with joy out of the Saviour s fountains; and you shall say in that day, Praise ye the Lord, and call upon His name, make His inventions known among the people} And what inventions has not the love of Jesus made in order to make himself loved
1 " Introduxit me in celiarti vinariam, ordinavit in me charitatem. Fulcite me floribus, stipate me malis ; quia amore langueo." — Cant. ii. 4.
2 " Quid mihi est in ccelo ? et a te quid volui super terram ? Deus cordis mei, et pars mea, Deus, in aeternum." — Ps. Ixxii. 25.
3 " Haurietis aquas in gaudio de fontibus Salvatoris ; et dicetis in ilia die : Confitemini Domino, et invocate nomen ejus ; notas facite in populis adinventiones ejus." — Isa. xii. 3.
Love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. 61
by us ? Even on the cross he has opened in his wounds so many fountains of grace, that to receive them it is sufficient to ask for them in faith. And, not satisfied with this, he has given us his whole self in the Most Holy Sacrament.
O man, says St. John Chrysostom, wherefore art thou so niggardly, and dost use so much reserve in thy love for that God who hath given his whole self to thee with- out any reserve ? " He gave himself wholly to thee, re- serving nothing for himself." ' This is just, says the angelic Doctor, what Jesus has done in the Sacrament of the Altar, wherein " he has given us all that he is and all that he has."2 Behold, adds St. Bonaventure, that immense God, " whom the world cannot contain, become our prisoner and captive"3 when we receive him into our breast in Holy Communion. Wherefore St. Bernard, transported with love when he considered this, exclaimed, My Jesus would make himself " the insepa- rable guest of my heart."4 And since my God, he con- cludes, has chosen to "spend himself entirely for my sake," fr it is reasonable that I should employ all that I am in serving and loving him.
Ah, my beloved Jesus, tell me, what more is there left for Thee to invent in order to make Thyself loved ? And shall I, then, continue to live so ungrateful to Thee as I have hitherto done ? My Lord, permit it not. Thou hast said, that he who feeds on Thy flesh in Communion shall live through the virtue of Thy grace : He that f eateth Me, the same also shall live by Me.G Since, then, (
1 " Totum tibi dedit, nihil sibi reliquit."
2 "Deus in Eucharistia totum quod ipse est, et habet, in summo dedit." — De Beat. c. 3.
3 " Ecce, quern mundus capere non potest, captivus noster est." — Exp. Miss. c. 4.
4 " Indivisus cordis mei hospes."
6 " Totus in meos usus expensus." — In Circ. s. 3.
6 " Qui manducat me, et ipse vivet propter me." — John, vi. 58.
6 2 Reflections and Affections. [chap. vi.
Thou dost not disdain that I should receive Thee in Holy Communion, grant that my soul may always live the true life of Thy grace. I repent, O sovereign good, of having despised it in times past ; but I bless Thee that Thon dost give me time to weep over the offences that I have committed against Thee, and to love Thee in this world. During the life that remains to me, I will place all my affections in Thee, and endeavor to please Thee as much as I possibly can. Help me, O my Jesus; forsake me not, I beseech Thee. Save me by Thy merits, and let my salvation be to love Thee always in this life and in eter- nity. Mary, my Mother, do thou also assist me.
CHAPTER VI.
THE BLOODY SWEAT AND AGONY SUFFERED BY JESUS IN THE GARDEN.
I.
Behold, our most loving Saviour, having come to the Garden of Gethsemani, did of his own accord make a beginning of his bitter Passion by giving full liberty to the passions of fear, of weariness, and of sorrow to come and afflict him with all their torments : He began to fear; a?id to be heavy? to grow sorrowful, and to be sad.1
He began, then, first to feel a great fear of death, and of the sufferings he would have soon to endure. He began to fear ;3 but how? Was it not he himself that had offered himself spontaneously to endure all these torments ? He was offered because He willed it." Was it
1 "Coepit pavere et taedere." — Mark, xiv. 33.
8 " Contristari et moestus esse." — Matt. xxvi. 37.
8 " Coepit pavere."
4 " Oblatus est, quia ipse voluit." — Isa. liii. 7.
Bloody Sweat and Agony of Jesus. 63
not he who had so much desired this hour of his Pas- sion, and who had said shortly before, With desire have 1 desired to eat this Pasch with you ?l And yet how is it that he was seized with such a fear of death, that he even prayed his Father to deliver him from it ? My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me. * The Venerable Bede answers this, and says, " He prays that the chalice may pass from him, in order to show that he was truly man." 8 He, our loving Saviour, chose in- deed to die for us in order by his death to prove to us the love that he bore us; but in order that men might not suppose that he had assumed a fantastic body (as some heretics have blasphemously asserted), or that by virtue of his divinity he had died without suffering any pain, He therefore made this prayer to his heavenly Father, not indeed with a view of being heard, but to give us to understand that he died as man, and afflicted with a great fear of death and of the sufferings which should accompany his death.
0 most amiable Jesus! Thou wouldst, then, take upon Thee our fearfulness in order to give us Thy courage in suffering the trials of this life. Oh, be Thou forever blessed for Thy great mercy and love ! Oh, may all our hearts love Thee as much as Thou desirest, and as much as Thou deservest !
II.
He began to be heavy? He began to feel a great weari- ness on account of the torments that were prepared for Him.' When one is weary, even pleasures are painful.
1 "Desiderio desideravi hoc Pascha manducare vobiscum.'— Luke, xxii. 15.
2 "Pater mi ! si possibile est, transeat a me calix iste."— Matt. xxvi. 39.
3 " Orat transire calicem, ut ostendat quod vere homo erat." — In Marc. xiv.
* " Ccepit taedere."
64 Reflections and Affections. [chap, vi.
Oh, what anguish united to this weariness must Jesus Christ have felt at the horrible representation which then came before his mind, of all the torments, both ex- terior and interior, which, during the short remainder of his life, were so cruelly to afflict his body and his blessed soul ! Then did all the sufferings he was to endure pass distinctly before his eyes, as well as all the insults that he should endure from the Jews and from the Romans ; all the injustice of which the judges of his cause would be guilty towards him ; and, above all, he had before him the vision of that death of desolation which he should have to endure, forsaken by all, by men and by God, in the midst of a sea of sufferings and con- tempt. And this it was that caused him so heavy grief that he was obliged to pray for consolation to his eter- nal Father. O my Jesus! I compassionate Thee, I thank Thee, and I love Thee.
And there appeared to Him an angel, m . . . strengthening Him.1 Strength came, but, says the Venerable Bede, this rather increased than lightened his sufferings : "Strength did not diminish, but increased his sorrow."2 Yes, for the angel strengthened him, that he might suffer still more for the love of men and the glory of his Father.
Oh, what sufferings did not this first combat bring Thee, my beloved Lord! During the progress of Thy Passion, the scourges, the thorns, the nails, came one after the other to torment Thee. But in the garden all the sufferings of Thy whole Passion assaulted Thee all together and tormented Thee. And Thou didst accept all for my sake and my good. O my God! how much I regret not having loved Thee in times past, and having preferred my own accursed pleasures to Thy will! I
1 " Apparuit autem illi angelus de coelo, confortans eum." — Luke, xxii. 43.
2 " Confortatio dolorem non minuit, sed auxit."
Bloody Sweat and Agony of Jesus. 65
detest them now above every evil, and repent of them with my whole heart. O my Jesus ! forgive me.
III.
He began to grow sorrowful and to be sad.1 Together with this fear and weariness, Jesus began to feel a great melancholy and affliction of soul. But, my Lord, art Thou not he who didst give to Thy martyrs such a de- light in suffering that they even despised their torments and death? St. Augustine2 said of St. Vincent that he spoke with such joy during his martyrdom that it seemed as if it were not the same person that suffered and that spoke. It is related of St. Laurence that whilst he was burning on the gridiron, such was the consola- tion he enjoyed in his soul that he defied the tyrant, saying, " Turn, and eat." 3 How, then, my Jesus, didst Thou, who gavest such great joy to Thy servants in dy- ing, choose for Thyself such extreme sorrowfulness in Thy death ?
O delight of paradise, Thou dost rejoice heaven and earth with Thy gladness; why, then, do I behold Thee so afflicted and sorrowful ? Why do I hear Thee say that the sorrow that afflicts Thee is enough to take away Thy life ? My soul is sorrowful even unto death." O my Redeemer, why is this ? Ah, I understand it all. It was less the thought of Thy sufferings in Thy bitter Passion, than of the sins of men that afflicted Thee; and amongst these, alas, were my sins, which caused Thee this great dread of death.
IV.
He, the Eternal Word, as much as he loved his Father, so much did he hate sin, of which he well knew the 1 " Coepit contristari et mcestus esse." 8 Servi. 275, E. B.
3 "Versa et manduca."
4 " Tristis est anima mea usque ad mortem." — Mark, xiv. 34.
5
66 Reflections and Affections. [chap. vi.
malice; wherefore, in order to deliver the world from sin, and that he might no longer behold his beloved Father offended, he had come upon earth, and had made him- self Man, and had undertaken to suffer so painful a death and Passion. But when he saw that, notwith- standing all his sufferings, there would yet be so many sins committed in the world, his sorrow for this, says St. Thomas, exceeded the sorrow that any penitent has ever felt for his own sins: " It surpassed the sorrow of all contrite souls;" 1 and, indeed, it surpassed every sor- row that ever could afflict a human heart. The reason is, that all the sorrows that men feel are always mixed with some relief; but the sorrow of Jesus was pure sorrow without any relief: " He suffered pure pain without any admixture of consolation." a
Oh, if I loved Thee, my Jesus — if I loved Thee, the consideration of all that Thou hast suffered for me would render all sufferings, all contempt, and all vexations sweet to me. Oh, grant me, I beseech Thee, Thy love, in order that I may endure with pleasure, or at least with patience, the little Thou givest me to suffer. Oh, let me not die so ungrateful to all Thy loving-kindnesses. I desire, in all the tribulations that shall happen to me, to say constantly, My Jesus, I embrace this trial for Thy love; I will suffer it in order to please Thee.
V.
We read in history that several penitents being en- lightened by divine light to see the malice of their sins, have died of pure sorrow for them. Oh, what torment, then, must not the heart of Jesus endure at the sight of all the sins of the world, of all the blasphemies, sacri-
1 " Excessit omnem dolorem cujuscumque contriti."— P. 3, q. 46, a. 6.
2 " Purum dolorem absque ulla consolationis permixtione expertus est." — Contens. 1. 10, d. 4, c. 1, sp, 1.
Bloody Sweat and Agony of Jesus. 67
leges, acts of impurity, and all the other crimes which should be committed by men after his death, every one of which, like a wild beast, tore his heart separately by its own malice ? Wherefore our afflicted Lord, durine his agony in the garden, exclaimed, Is this, therefore, O men, the reward that you render me for my immeasur- able love ? Oh, if I could only see that, grateful for my affection, you gave up sin and began to love me, with what delight should I not hasten to die for you! But to behold, after all my sufferings, so many sins ; after so much love, such ingratitude; — this is what afflicts me the most, makes me sorrowful even unto death, and makes me sweat pure blood: Ami His sweat became as drops of blood trickling down upon the ground. .' So that, ac- cording to the Evangelist, this bloody sweat was so copious that it first bathed all the vestments of our Blessed Redeemer, and then came forth in quantity and bathed the ground.
Ah, my loving Jesus, I do not behold in this garden either scourges or thorns or nails that pierce Thee; how, then, is it that I see Thee all bathed in blood from Thy head to Thy feet ? Alas, my sins were the cruel press which, by dint of affliction and sorrow, drew so much blood from Thy heart. I was, then, one of Thy most cruel executioners, who contributed the most to crucify Thee with my sins. It is certain that, if I had sinned less, Thou, my Jesus, wouldst have suffered less. As much pleasure, therefore, as I have taken in offending Thee, so much the more did I increase the sorrow of Thy heart, already full of anguish. How, then, does not this thought make me die of grief, when I see that I have re- paid the love Thou hast shown me in Thy Passion by adding to Thy sorrow and suffering? I, then, have tor- mented this heart, so loving and so worthy of love,
1 " Et factus est sudor ejus sicut guttae sanguinis decurrentis in terram." — Luke, xxii. 44.
68 Reflections and Affections. [chap. vi.
which has shown so much love to me. My Lord, since I have now no other means left of consoling Thee than to weep over my offences towards Thee, I will now, my Jesus, sorrow for them and lament over them with my whole heart. Oh, give me, I pray Thee, so great sorrow for them as may make me to my last breath weep over the displeasure I have caused Thee, my God, my Love my All.
VI.
He fell upon His face} Jesus, beholding himself charged with the burden of satisfying for all the sins of the world, prostrated himself, with his face on the ground, to pray for men, as if he were ashamed to raise his eyes towards heaven, loaded as he was with such in- iquities.
0 my Redeemer, I behold Thee pale and worn out with sorrow; Thou art in the agony of death, and Thou dost pray: And being in an agony, He prayed the longer} Tell me, my Saviour, for whom dost Thou pray! Ah, Thou didst not pray so much for Thyself at that hour as for me ! Thou didst offer to Thy Eternal Father Thy all-powerful prayers, united to Thy sufferings, to obtain for me, a wretched sinner, the pardon of my sins: Who, in the days of His flesh, with a strong cry and tears,
offering up prayers and supplications to Him that was able to save Him from death, was heard for His reverence} O my beloved Redeemer! how is it possible that Thou couldst love so much one who has so grievously offended Thee ? How couldst Thou embrace such sufferings for me, fore- seeing, as Thou didst, all the ingratitude of which I should be guilty towards Thee?
1 " Procidit in faciem suam." — Matt, xxvi. 39.
2 " Factus in agonia, prolixius orabat." — Luke, xxii. 43.
3 " Qui in diebus carnis suae, preces supplicationesque, ad eum qui possit ilium salvum facere a morte, cum clamore valido et lacrymis offerens, exauditus est pro sua reverenda." — Heb. v. 7.
Jesus Humbled for Love of Us. 69
O my afflicted Lord! make me share in that sorrow which Thou didst then have for my sins. I abhor them at this present moment; and I unite this my hatred to the horror that Thou didst feel for them in the garden. O my Saviour, look not upon my sins, for hell itself would not be sufficient to expiate them, but look upon the sufferings that Thou hast endured for me ! O love of my Jesus, Thou art my love and my hope. O my Lord, I love Thee with my whole soul, and will always love Thee. I beseech Thee, through the merits of that weariness and sadness which Thou didst endure in the garden, give me fervor and courage in all works that may contribute to Thy glory. Through the merits of Thy agony, grant me Thy assistance to resist all the temptations of the flesh and of hell. My God, grant me the grace always to commend myself to Thee, and always to repeat to Thee, with Jesus Christ: Not as I will, but as Thou n'illest.1 May Thy divine will, not mine, be ever done. Amen.
CHAPTER VII.
THE LOVE OF JESUS IN SUFFERING SO MUCH CONTEMPT IN HIS PASSION.
Bellarmine says that to noble spirits affronts cause greater pain than sufferings of body: " Noble spirits think more of ignominy than of pains of body."3 Be- cause, if the former afflict the flesh, the latter afflict the soul, which, in proportion as it is more noble than the
1 " Non quod ego volo, sed quod tu." — Mark, xiv. 36.
2 " Nobiles animi pluris faciunt ignominiam, quam dolores cor- poris."
70 Reflections and Affections. lchap.vii.
body, so much the more does it feel pain. But who could have ever imagined that the most noble personage in heaven and earth, the Son of God, by coming into the world to make himself Man for love of men, would have had to be treated by them with such reproaches and in- juries as if he had been the lowest and most vile of all men ? We have seen Him despised and the most abject of men? St. Anselm asserts that Jesus Christ was willing to suffer such and so great dishonors that it could not be possible for him to be more humbled than he was in his Passion: "He humbled himself so much, that he could not go beyond it."3
O Lord of the world, Thou art the greatest of all kings; but Thou hast willed to be despised more than all men, in order to teach me the love of contempt. Be- cause, then, Thou hast sacrificed Thine honor for love of me, I am willing to suffer for love of Thee every affront which shall be offered to me.
II.
And what kind of affronts did not the Redeemer suffer in his Passion? He saw himself affronted by his own disciples. One of them betrays him, and sells him for thirty pieces. Another denies him many times, protest- ing publicly that he knows him not; and thus attesting that he was ashamed to have known him in the past. The other disciples, then, at seeing him taken and bound, all fly and abandon him: Then His disciples leaving Him, all fled away. 3
0 my Jesus, thus abandoned, who will ever undertake Thy defence, if, when Thou art first taken, those most
1 "Vidimus eum . . . despectum et novissimum virorum/' — Isa. liii. 2.
2 " Ipse se tantum humiliavit ut ultra non posset."—/;/ Phil. ii.
3 "Tunc discipuli ejus, relinquentes eum, omnes fugerunt." — Mark, xiv. 50.
Jesus Humbled for Love of Us. 71
dear to Thee depart from and forsake Thee ? But, my God, to think that this dishonor did not end with Thy Passion ! How many souls, after having devoted them- selves to follow Thee, and after having been favored by Thee with many graces and special signs of love, being- then driven by some passion of vile interest, or human respect, or sordid pleasure, have ungratefully forsaken Thee !
Which of these ungrateful ones is found to turn and lament, saying, Ah, my dear Jesus, pardon me; for I will not leave Thee again. I will rather lose my life a thou- sand times than lose Thy grace, O my God, my love, my all.
III.
Behold how Judas, arriving in the garden together with the soldiers, advances, embraces his Master, and kisses him. Jesus suffers him to kiss him; but, knowing already his evil intent, could not refrain from complain- ing of this most unjust treachery, saying, Judas, betrayest Thou the Son of man with a kiss ? ' Then those insolent ser- vants crowd around Jesus, lay hands upon him, and bind him as a villain: The servants of the Jews apprehended Jesus, and bound Him.'
Ah me! what do I see ? A God bound! By whom ? By men; by worms created by himself. Angels of paradise, what say ye to it? And Thou, my Jesus, why dost Thou allow Thyself to be bound ? What, says St. Bernard, have the bonds of slaves and of the guilty to do with Thee, who art the Holy of Holies, the King of kings, and Lord of lords? "O King of kings and Lord of lords, what hast Thou to do with chains ?" 3
1 " Juda, osculo Filium hominis tradis ?" — Luke, xxii. 48.
2 " Ministri Judaeorum comprehenderunt Jesum, et ligaverunt eum." — John, xviii. 12.
3 "O Rex regumet Dominus dominantium! quid tibi et vinculis ?" — Be Pass. c. 4.
7 2 Reflections and Affections. [chap. vii.
But if men bind Thee, wherefore dost Thou not loosen and free Thyself from the torments and death which they are preparing for Thee ? But I understand this. It is not, O my Lord, these ropes which bind Thee. It is only love which keeps Thee bound, and constrains Thee to suffer and die for us.
•' O Charity," exclaims St. Laurence Justinian, " how strong is Thy chain, by which God was able to be bound !" 1 O divine Love, thou only wast able to bind a God, and conduct him to death for the love of men.
IV.
" Look, O man," says St. Bonaventure, " at these dogs dragging him along, and the Lamb, like a victim, meekly following without resistance. One seizes, an- other binds him; another drives, another strikes him."2 They carry our sweet Saviour, thus bound, first to the house of Annas, then to that of Caiphas; where Jesus, being asked by that wicked one about his disciples and his doctrine, replied that he had not spoken in private, but in public, and that they who were standing round about well knew what he had taught. I spoke openly; to, these know what I said.6 But at this answer one of those servants, treating him as if too bold, gave him a blow on the cheek: One of the officers standing by gave Jesus a blow, saying, Answerest Thou the high-priest thus ? ' Here ex- claims St. Jerome: "Ye angels, how is it that ye are
1 " O Charitas ! quam magnum est vinculum tuum, quo Deus ligari potuit !" — Lign. Vit. de Char. c. 6.
2 " Intuere, homo, canes istos trahentes eum ad victimam, et ilium quasi agnum mansuetissimum sine resistentia ipsos sequi: alius apprehendit, alius ligat, alius impellit, alius percutit." — Med. Vii. Chr
c 75,74-
3 "Ego palam locutus sum . . : ecce hi sciunt quae dixerim ego." — -John, xviii. 20.
4 " Unus assistens ministrorum dedit alapam Jesu, dicens: Sic re- spondes Pontifici ?" — Ibid. 22.
Jesus Humbled for Love of Us. 73
silent ? How long can such patience withhold you in your astonishment ?" '
Ah, my Jesus, how could an answer so just and modest deserve such an affront in the presence of so many peo- ple ? The worthless high-priest, instead of reproving the insolence of this audacious fellow, praises him, or at least by signs approves. And Thou, my Lord, suf- ferest all this to compensate for the affronts which I, a wretch, have offered to the divine Majesty by my sins. My Jesus, I thank Thee for it. Eternal Father, pardon me by the merits of Jesus.
V.
Then the iniquitous high-priest asked him if he were verily the Son of God: / adjure Thee by the living God, that Thou tell us if Thou be the Christ, the Son of God} Jesus, out of respect for the name of God, affirmed that he was so indeed; whereupon Caiphas rent his garments, saying that he had blasphemed; and all cried out that he deserved death: But they answering said, He is guilty of death."
Yes, O my Jesus, with truth do they declare Thee guilty of death, since Thou hast willed to take upon Thee to make satisfaction for me, who deserved eternal death. But if by Thy death Thou hast acquired for me life, it is just that I should spend my life wholly, yea, and if need be lose it, for Thee. Yes, my Jesus, I will no longer live for myself; but only for Thee, and for Thy love. Succor me by Thy grace.
1 "O Angeli! quomodo siletis ? Ad quid attonitos vos tenet tanta patientia ?"
- '* Adjuro te per Deum vivum, ut dicas nobis si tu es Christus, Filius Dei." — Matt, xxvi 63.
3 "At illi respondentes dixerunt: Reus est mortis." — Ibid. 66.
74 Reflections and Affections. [Chap.vii.
vi.
Then they spat in His face and buffeted Him! After having proclaimed him guilty of death, as a man already given over to punishment, and declared infamous, the rabble set themselves to ill-treat him all the night through with blows, and buffets, and kicks, with pluck- ing out his beard, and even spitting in his face, by mocking him as a false prophet and saying, Prophesy to us, O Christ, who it is that struck Thee.'1 All this our Re- deemer foretold by Isaias: / have give?i My body to the strikers, and my cheeks to tJiem that plucked them : I have not turned away My face from them that rebuked Me and spit upon Me.3 The devout Thauler* relates that it is an opinion of St. Jerome that all the pains and infirmities which Jesus suffered on that night will be made known only on the day of the last judgment. St. Augustine, speaking of the ignominies suffered by Jesus Christ, says, " If this medicine cannot cure our pride, I know not what can." Ah, my Jesus, how is it that Thou art so humble and I so proud ? O Lord, give me light, make me know who Thou art, and who I am.
Then they spat in His face!' "Spat!" O God, what greater affront can there be than to be defiled by spit- ting ? " To be spit upon is to suffer the extreme of in-
1 "Tunc expuerunt in faciem ejus, et colaphis eum ceciderunt." — Ibid. 67.
2 " Prophetiza nobis, Christe, quis est qui te percussit." — Matt. xxvi. 68.
3 " Corpus meum dedi percutientibus, et genas meas vellentibus; faciem meam non averti ab increpantibus et conspuentibus in me." — Isa. 1. 6.
4 De Vita et Pass. Sa tv. e. 17.
5 " Haec medicina si superbiam non curat, quid eam curet, nescio." —Semi. 77, E. B.
6 "Expuerunt in faciem ejus."
Jesus Humbled for Love of Us. 75
suit," ' says Origen. Where are we wont to spit ex- cept in the most filthy place ? And didst Thou, my Jesus, suffer Thyself to be spit upon in the face ? Be- hold how these wretches outrage Thee with blows and kicks, insult Thee, spit on Thy face, do with Thee just what they will; and dost Thou not threaten nor reprove them ? When He was reviled. He reviled not ; when He suffered, He threate?ied not j- but delivered Himself io him that ju iged Him unjustly: No, but like an innocent lamb, humble and meek, Thou didst suffer all without so much as complaining, offering all to the Father to obtain the pardon of our sins: Like a lamb before the shearer, He shall be dumb, and shall not open His mouth?
St. Gertrude one day, when meditating on the injuries done to Jesus in his Passion, began to praise and bless him; this was so pleasing to our Lord that he lovingly thanked her.
Ah, my reviled Lord, Thou art the King of heaven, the Son of the Most High; Thou surely deservest not to be ill-treated and despised, but to be adored and loved by all creatures, I adore Thee, I bless Thee, I thank Thee, I love Thee with all my heart. I repent of having offended Thee. Help me, have pity upon me.
VII.
When it was day, the Jews conduct Jesus to Pilate, to make him condemn him to death; but Pilate declares him to be innocent: I find no cause in this Man? And to free himself from the importunities of the Jews who
1 "Ad extremam injuriam pertinet sputamenta accipere." — In Matt. tr. 35.
8 " Cum malediceretur, non maledicebat; cum pateretur, non com- minabatur; tradebat autem judicanti se injuste." — I Pet. ii. 23.
3 " Quasi agnus coram tondente se, obmutescet, et non aperiet os suum." — Isa. liii. 7.
4 " Nihil invenio causae in hoc nomine." — Luke, xxiii. 4.
j6 Reflections and Affections. [chap. vii.
pressed on him, seeking the death of the Saviour, he sends him to Herod. It greatly pleased Herod to see Jesus Christ brought before him, hoping that in his pres- ence, in order to deliver himself from death, he would have worked one of those miracles of which he had heard tell ; wherefore he asked him many questions. But Jesus, because he did not wish to be delivered from death, and because that wicked one was not worthy of his answers, was silent, and answered him not. Then the proud king, with his court, offered him many insults, and making them cover him with a white robe, as if de- claring him to be an ignorant and stupid fellow, sent him back to Pilate: But Herod with his soldiers despised Him, and mocked Him, putting on Him a white robe, and sent Him back toPilate.1 Cardinal Hugo, in his Commentary, says, "Mocking him as if a fool, he clothed him with a white robe."2 And St. Bonaventure, " He despised him as if impotent, because he worked no miracle; as if ig- norant because he answered him not a word; as if idi- otic, because he did not defend himself." 3
0 Eternal Wisdom, O divine Word! This one other ignominy was wanting to Thee, that Thou shouldst be treated as a fool bereft of sense. So greatly does our salvation weigh on Thee, that through love of us Thou wiliest not only to be reviled, but to be satiated with re- vilings; as Jeremias had already prophesied of Thee: He shall give His cheek to him that striketh Him; He shall be filled with reproaches? And how couldst Thou bear such love to men, from whom Thou hast received nothing but
1 " Sprevitautem ilium Herodes cum exercitusuo, et illusit indutum ireste alba, et remisit ad Pilatum." — Luke, xxiii. n.
2 " Illudens ei, quasi fatuo, induit eum veste alba."
3 " Sprevit ilium tamquam impotentem, quia signum non fecit ; tam- quam ignorantem, quia verbum non respondit ; tamquam stolidum, quia se non defensavit."
4 " Dabit percutienti se maxillam, saturabitur opprobriis." — Lam. iii. 30.
Jesus Humbled for Love of Us, 77
ingratitude and slights? Alas, that I should be one of these who have outraged Thee worse than Herod! Ah, my Jesus, chastise me not, like Herod, by depriving me of Thy voice. Herod did not recognize thee for what Thou art; I confess Thee to be my God. Herod loved Thee not; I love Thee more than myself. Deny me not I beseech Thee, deny me not the voice of Thy inspira- tion, as I have deserved by the offences that I have com- mitted against Thee. Tell me what Thou wilt have of me, for, by Thy grace, I am ready to do all that Thou wilt.
VIII.
When Jesus had been led back to Pilate, the governor inquired of the people whom they wished to have re- leased at that Passover, Jesus or Barabbas, a murderer. But the people cried out, Not this Man, but Barabbas.1 Then said Pilate, What, then, shall J do with Jesus ? 2 They answered, Let Him be crucified? But what evil hath this innocent one done? replied Pilate: What evil hath he done? 4 They repeated, Let Him be crucified?
And even up to this time, O God, the greater part of mankind continue to say, Not this Alan, but Barabbas;* preferring to Jesus Christ some pleasure of sense, some point of honor, some outbreak of wounded pride.
Ah, my Lord, well knowest Thou that at one time I did Thee the same injury when I preferred my accursed tastes to Thee. My Jesus, pardon me, for I repent of the past, and henceforth I prefer Thee before everything. I esteem Thee, I love Thee more than any good; and am willing a thousand times to die rather than forsake Thee. Give me holy perseverance; give me Thy love.
1 "Non hunc, sed Barabbam." — John, xviii. 40. '2 " Quid igitur faciam de Jesu ? — Matt xxvii. 22.
3 " Crucifigatur !" — Ibid.
4 "Quid enim mali fecit?" — Ibid. 23.
5 " Crucifigatur !" — Ibid.
6 " Non hunc, sed Barabbam T—John, xviii. 40.
7 8 Reflections and Affections. [chap. vii.
IX.
Presently we will speak of the other reproaches which Jesus Christ endured, until he finally died on the cross: He endured the cross, despising the shame.1 In the mean while let us consider how truly in our Redeemer was ful- filled what the Psalmist had foretold, that in his Passion he should become the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people: But I am a worm, and no man; the reproach of men, and the abject of the people; " even to a death of ig- nominy, suffered at the hands of the executioner on a cross, as a malefactor between two malefactors: And he was reputed with the wicked*
O Lord, the most high, exclaims St. Bernard, become the lowest among men ! O lofty one become vile ! O glory of angels become the reproach of men ! " O lowest and highest! O humble and sublime ! O reproach of men and glory of angels !" 4
X.
0 grace, O strength of the love of God ! continues St. Bernard. Thus did the Lord most high overall become the most lightly esteemed of all. " O grace, O power of love, did the highest of all thus become the lowest of all ?" And who was it (adds the saint) that did this? "Who hath done this? Love." 5 All this hath the love which God bears towards men done, to prove how he loves us, and to teach us by his example how to suffer with peace contempt and injuries: Christ suffered for us (writes St.
1 "Sustinuit crucem, confessione contempta." — Heb. xii. 2.
2 " Ego autem sum vermis et non homo, opprobrium hominum et abjectio plebis." — Ps. xxi. 7.
3 "Et cum sceleratis reputatus est." — Isa. liii. 12.
4 " O novissimum et altissimum ! O humilem et sublimem ! O op probrium hominum et gloriam angelorum !" — Serm. de Pass. D.
5 " O gratiam ! O amoris vim ! itane summus omnium imus factus est omnium ? Quis hoc fecit ? Amor !" — In Cant. s. 64.
Jesus Humbled for Love of Us. 79
Peter), leaving you an example, that you may follow Hi's steps.1 St. Eleazar, when asked by his wife how he came to endure with such peace the great injuries that were done him, answered, " I turn to look on Jesus enduring con- tempt, and say that my affronts are as nothing in respect to those which he my God was willing to bear for me." Ah, my Jesus, and how is it that, at the sight of a God thus dishonored for love of me, I know not how to suffer the least contempt for love of Thee ? A sinner, and proud! And whence, my Lord, can come this pride ? I pray Thee by the merits of the contempt Thou didst suf- fer, give me grace to suffer with patience and gladness all affronts and injuries. From this day forth I propose by Thy help nevermore to resent them, but to receive with joy all the reproaches that shall be offered me. Truly have I deserved greater contempt for having despised Thy divine majesty, and deserved the contempt of hell. Exceeding sweet and pleasant to me hast Thou rendered affronts, my beloved Redeemer, by having embraced so great contempt for love of me. Henceforth I propose, in order to please Thee, to benefit as much as possible whoever despises me; at least to speak well of and pray for him. And even now I pray Thee to heap Thy graces upon all those from whom I have received any injurv. I love Thee, O infinite good, and will ever love Thee as much as I can. Amen.
1 " Christus passus est pro nobis, vobis relinquens exemplum, ut se quamini vestigia ejus." — I Pet. ii. 21.
8o Reflections and Affections. [chap. viii.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SCOURGING OF JESUS CHRIST. I.
Let us enter into the praetorium of Pilate, one day made the horrible scene of the ignominies and pains of Jesus: let us see how unjust, how shameful, how cruel, was the punishment there inflicted on the Saviour of the world. Pilate, seeing that the Jews continued to make a tumult against Jesus, as a most unjust judge condemned him to be scourged: Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him.1 The iniquitous judge thought by means of this barbarity to win for him the compassion of his enemies, and thus to deliver him from death: I will chastise Him (he said) and let Him go.' Scourging was the chastisement inflicted on slaves only. Therefore, says St. Bernard, our loving Redeemer willed to take the form, not only of a slave, in order to subject himself to the will of others, but even of a bad slave in order to be chastised with scourges, and so to pay the penalty due from man, who had made himself the slave of sin: " Taking not only the form of a slave, that he might submit, but even of a bad slave, that he might be beaten and suffer the punishment of the slave of sin." 3
0 Son of God, O Thou great lover of my soul, how couldst Thou, the Lord of infinite majesty, thus love an object so vile and ungrateful as I am, as to subject Thy-
1 " Tunc ergo apprehendit Pilatus Jesum, et flagellavit."— John, xix. I.
2 "Corripiam ergo ilium, et dimittam."— Luke, xxiii. 22.
" Non solum formam servi accepit, ut subesset, sed etiam mali servi, ut vapularet; et servi peccati, ut poenam solverei." — Serm. de Pass. D.
The Scourging of Jesus Christ. 8 1
self to so much punishment, to deliver me from the pun- ishment which was my due ? A God scourged! It were a greater marvel that God should receive the lightest blow than that all men and all angels should be de- stroyed. Ah, my Jesus, pardon me the offences that I have committed against Thee, and then chastise me as shall please Thee. This alone is enough, — that I love Thee, and that Thou love me; and then I am content to suffer all the pains Thou wiliest.
II.
As soon as he had arrived at the praetorium (as was re- vealed to St. Bridget), our loving Saviour, at the com- mand of the servants, stripped himself of his garments, embraced the column, and then laid on it his hands to have them bound. O God, already is begun the cruel torture ! O angels of heaven, come and look on this sorrowful spectacle; and if it be not permitted you to deliver your king from this barbarous slaughter which men have prepared for him, at least come and weep for compassion. And thou, my soul, imagine thyself to be present at this horrible tearing of the flesh of Thy be- loved Redeemer. Look on him, how he stands, — thy af- flicted Jesus, — with his head bowed, looking on the ground, blushing all over for shame, he awaits this great torture. Behold these barbarians, like so many raven- ing dogs, are already with the scourges attacking this innocent lamb. See how one beats him on the breast, another strikes his shoulders, another smites his loins and his legs; even his sacred head and his beautiful face cannot escape the blows. Ah me ! already flows that divine blood from every part; already with that blood are saturated the scourges, the hands of the execution- ers, the column, and the ground. "He is wounded," mourns St. Peter Damian, " over his whole body, torn with the scourges; now they twine round his shoulders,
82 Reflections and Affections. [chap. viii.
now round his legs — streaks upon streaks, wounds added to fresh wounds."1 Ah, cruel men, with whom are you dealing thus? Stay — stay; know that you are mistaken. This man whom you are torturing is innocent and holy; it is myself who am the culprit; to me, to me, who have sinned, are these stripes and torments due. But you re- gard not what I say. And how canst Thou, O Eternal Father, bear with this great injustice ? How canst Thou behold Thy beloved Son suffering thus, and not inter- fere in his behalf? What is the crime that he has ever committed, to deserve so shameful and so severe a pun- ishment ?
III.
For the wickedness of My people have I struck Him.2 I well know, says the Eternal Father, that this my Son is innocent; but inasmuch as he has offered himself as a satisfaction to my justice for all the sins of mankind, it is fitting that I should so abandon him to the rage of his enemies.
Hast Thou, then, my adorable Saviour, in compensa- tion for our sins, and especially for those of impurity, — that most prevalent vice of mankind, — been willing to have Thy most pure flesh torn in pieces ? And who, then, will not exclaim, with St. Bernard, " How un- speakable is the love of the Son of God towards sin- ners !" 3
Ah, my Lord, smitten with the scourge, 1 return Thee thanks for so great love, and I grieve that I am myself, by reason of my sins, one of those who scourge Thee. O my Jesus ! I detest all those wicked pleasures which have cost Thee so much pain. Oh, how many years
1 " Caeditur, totoque flagris corpore dissipatur; nunc scapulas, nunc crura cingunt; vulnera vulneribus et plagas plagis recentibus ad- dunt."— De Tr. Chr. Ag c. 14.
2 "Propter scelus populi mei percuss! eum." — Isa. liii. 8.
3 " O ineffabilem Filii Dei erga peccatores charitatem!"
The Scourging of Jesus Christ. 8
ought I not already to have been in the flames of hell! And why hast Thou so patiently awaited me until now? Thou hast borne with me, in order that at length, over- come by so many wiles of love, I might give myself up to love Thee, abandoning sin. O my beloved Redeemer ! I will offer no further resistance to Thy loving affection; I desire to love Thee henceforth to the uttermost of my power. But Thou already knowest my weakness; Thou knowest how often I have betrayed Thee. Do Thou detach me from all earthly affections which hinder me from being all Thine own. Put me frequently in mind of the love which Thou hast borne me, and of the obli- gation which I am under of loving Thee. In Thee I place all my hopes, my God, my love, my all.
IV.
St. . Bonaventure sorrowfully exclaims, "The royal blood is flowing; bruise is superadded to bruise, and gash to gash." ' That divine blood was already issuing from every pore; that sacred body was already become but one perfect wound; yet those infuriated brutes did not forbear to add blow to blow, as the Prophet had foretold: And they have added to the grief of my wounds* So that the thongs not only made the whole body one wound, but even bore away pieces of it into the air, until at length the gashes in that sacred flesh were such that the bones might have been counted: The flesh was so torn away, that the bones could be numbered.2 Cornelius à Lapide says that in this torment Jesus Christ ought, naturally speaking, to have died: but he willed, by his
1 " Fluit regius sanguis, superadditur livor super livorem, fractura super fracturam." — Med. vit. Chr. c. 76.
s " Et super dolorem vulnerum meorum addiderunt." — Ps. lxviii. 27.
2 "Concisa fuit caro, ut ossa dinumerari possent." — Contens. 1. io, d. 4, e. 1, sp. 1.
84 Reflections and Affections, [chap. viii.
divine power, to keep himself in life, in order to suffer yet greater pains for love of us ; and St. Laurence Justinian had observed the same thing before: " He evidently ought to have died. Yet he reserved himself unto life, it being his will to endure heavier sufferings." ' Ah, my most loving Lord, Thou art worthy of an in- finite love; Thou hast suffered so much in order that I might love Thee. Oh, never permit me, instead of lov- ing Thee, to offend or displease Thee more! Oh, what place in hell should there not be set apart for me, if, after having known the love that Thou hast borne towards such a wretch, I should damn myself, despising a God who had suffered scorn, smitings, and scourgings for me ; and who had, moreover, after my having so often offended him, so mercifully pardoned me! Ah, my Jesus, let it not, oh, let it not be thus! O my God ! how would the love and the patience which Thou hast shown towards me be there for me in hell, another hell even yet more full of torments !
V.
Cruel in excess to our Redeemer was this torture of his scourging in the first place, because of the great number of those by whom it was inflicted; who, as was revealed to St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, were not fewer than sixty. And these, at the instigation of the devils, and even more so of the priests, who were afraid lest Pilate should, after this punishment, be minded to re- lease the Lord, as he had already protested to them, saying, / will therefoi-e scourge Him, and let Him go? aimed at taking away his life by means of this scourg- ing. Again, all theologians agree with St. Bonaventure that, for this purpose, the sharpest implements were
1 " Debuit plane mori; se tamen reservavit ad vitam, ut graviora perferret." — De Tr. Chr. Ag. c. 14.
'2 " Corripiam ergo ilium, et dimittam." — Luke, xxiii. 22.
The Scourging of Jesus Christ. 85
selected, so that, as St. Anselm declares, every stroke produced a wound; and that the number of the strokes amounted to several thousand, the flagellation being administered, as Father Crassei says, not after the manner of the Jews, for whom the Lord had forbidden that the number of strokes should ever exceed forty: Yet so, that they exceed not the number of forty; lest thy brother depart shamefully torn;1 but after the manner of the Romans, with whom there was no measure.
And so it is related by Josephus, the Jew, who lived shortly after our Lord, that Jesus was torn in his scourg- ing to such a degree that the bones of his ribs were laid bare; as it was also revealed by the most Holy Virgin to St. Bridget, in these words: " I, who was standing by, saw his body scourged to the very ribs, so that his ribs themselves might be seen. And what was even yet more bitter still, when the scourges were drawn back, his flesh was furrowed by them." 2 To St. Teresa, Jesus revealed himself in his scourging; so that the saint wished to have him painted exactly as she had seen him, and told the painter to represent a large piece of flesh torn off, and hanging down from the left elbow; but when the painter inquired as to the shape in which he ought to paint it, he found, on turning round again to his picture, the piece of flesh already drawn.
Ah, my beloved and adored Jesus, how much hast Thou suffered for love of me ! Oh, let not so many pangs, and so much blood, be lost for me !
VI. But from the Scriptures alone it clearly appears how barbarous and inhuman was the scourging of Jesus Christ.
1 "Quadragenarium numerum non excedant, ne foede laceratus ante oculos tuos abeat frater tuus." — Dent. xxv. 3.
2 " Ego quae astabam, vidi corpus ejus flagellatum usque ad costas, ita ut costae ejus viderentur. Et quod amarius erat. cum retraheren tur flagella, carnes ipsis flagellis sulcabantur." — Rev. 1. 1, c. 10.
86 Reflections and Affections, [chap. viii.
For why was it that Pilate should, after the scourging, ever have shown him to the people, saying, Behold the Man/1 were it not that our Saviour was reduced to so pitiable a condition that Pilate believed the very sight of him would have moved his enemies themselves to com- passion, and hindered them from any longer demanding his death ?
Why was it that in the journey which Jesus, after this, made to Calvary, the Jewish women followed him with tears and lamentations? But there followed Him a great multitude of the people, and women, wJw bewailed and lament- ed Him: Was it, perhaps, because those women loved him and believed him to be innocent? No, the women, for the most part, agree with their husbands in opinion; so that they, too, esteemed him guilty; but the appear- ance of Jesus after his scourging was so shocking and pitiable as to move to tears even those who hated him; and therefore it was that the women gave vent to their tears and sighs.
Why, again, was it that in this journey the Jews took the cross from off his shoulders, and gave it the Cyre- nian to carry? According to the most probable opinion, and as the words of St. Matthew clearly show, they compelled him to bear His cross; 3 or, as St. Luke says, And on him they laid the cross, that he might carry it after Jesus.* Was it, perhaps, that they felt pity for him and wished to lessen his pains? No, those guilty men hated him, and sought to afflict him to their uttermost. But, as the blessed Denis, the Carthusian, says, "they feared lest he should die upon the way,"5 seeing that our Lord,
1 "Ecce homo!" — John, xix. 5.
3 " Sequebatur autem ilium multa turba populi, et mulierum quae plangebant et lamentabantur eum." — Luke, xxiii. 27.
3 "Hunc angariaverunt ut tolleret crucem ejus." — Matt, xxvii. 32.
4 " Et imposuerunt i Hi crucem portare post Jesum." — Luke, xxiii. 26.
s " Timebant ne moreretur in via."
The Scourging of Jesus Christ. 87
after the scourging, was so drained of blood and so exhausted in strength as to be scarcely able any longer to stand, falling down as he did on his road under the cross, and faltering as he went, so to speak, at every step, as if at the point of death; therefore, in order to take him alive to Calvary and see him dead upon the cross, according to their desire, that his name might ever after be one of infamy: Let us cut him off, said they, as the Prophet had foretold, from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more.1 This was the end for which they constrained the Cyrenian to bear the cross.
Ah, my Lord, great is my happiness in understanding how much Thou hast loved me, and that Thou dosteven now preserve for me the same love that Thou didst bear me then, in the time of Thy Passion ! But how great is my sorrow at the thought of having offended so good a God ! By the merit of Thy scourging, O my Jesus, I ask Thy pardon, I repent, above every other evil, of having offended Thee; and I purpose rather to die than to offend Thee again. Pardon me all the wrongs that I have done Thee, and give me the grace ever to love Thee for the time to come.
VII.
The Prophet Isaias has described more clearly than all the pitiable state to which he foresaw our Redeemer re- duced. He said that his most holy flesh would have to be not merely wounded, but altogether bruised and crushed to pieces: But He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our transgressions.2 For, as the Prophet goes on to say, the Eternal Father, the more perfectly to
1 " Eradamus eum de terra viventium, et nomen ejus non memore- tur amplius." — Jer. xi. 19.
1 " Ipse autem vulneratus est propter iniquitates nostras, attritus est propter scelera nostra." — Isa. liii. 5.
88 Reflections and Affections, [chap. viii.
satisfy his justice, and to make mankind understand the deformity of sin, was not contented without beholding his Son pounded piecemeal, as it were, and torn to shreds by the scourges: And the Lord willed to bruise Him in in- firmity.1 So that the blessed body of Jesus had to be- come like the body of a leper, all wounds from head to foot: And we esteemed Him as a leper, and one smitten of God.2
Behold, then, O my lacerated Lord, the condition to which our iniquities have reduced Thee: " O good Jesus, it is ourselves who sinned; and dost Thou bear the pen- alty of it ?" 3 Blessed for evermore be Thy exceeding charity; and mayest Thou be beloved as Thou dost de- serve by all sinners; and, above all, by me, who have done Thee more despite than others.
VIII.
Jesus one day manifested himself under his scourging to Sister Victoria Angelini; and showing her his body one mass of wounds, said to her, " These wounds, Vic- toria, every one of them, ask thee for love." " Let us love the Bridegroom," said the loving St. Augustine, "and the more he is presented to us veiled under de- formity, the more precious and sweet is he made to the bride."4
Yes, my sweet Saviour, I see Thee all covered with wounds; I look into Thy beautiful face; but, O my God, it no longer wears its beautiful appearance, but disfigured and blackened with blood, and bruises, and shameful spittings: There is no beauty in Him, nor comeliness : and we
1 "Et Dominus voluit conterere eum in infirmitate." — Is. liii. io. - "Et nos putavimus eum quasi leprosum et percussum a Deo." — Ibid. 4.
3 " O bone Jesu ! nos peccavimus, et tu luis ! "
4 "Amemus Sponsum; quanto magis deformis nobis commenda- tur, tanto carior, tanto dulcior factus est sponsae." — Serm. 44, E. B.
The Crowning with Thorns. 89
beheld Him, a fid esteemed Him not.1 But the more I see Thee so disfigured, O my Lord, the more beautiful and lovely dost Thou appear to me. And what are these disfigurements that I behold but signs of the tenderness of that love which Thou dost bear towards me ? I love Thee, my Jesus, thus wounded and torn to pieces forme; would that I could see myself too torn to pieces for Thee, like so many martyrs whose portion this has been ! But if I cannot offer Thee wounds and blood, I offer Thee at least all the pains which it will be my lot to suffer. I offer Thee my heart; with this I desire to love Thee more tenderly even than I am able. And who is there that my soul should love more tenderly than a God, who has endured scourging and been drained of his blood for me ? I love Thee, O God of love ! I love Thee, O in- finite goodness ! I love Thee, O my love, my all ! I love Thee, and I would never cease to say, both in this life and in the other, I love Thee, I love Thee, I love Thee. Amen.
CHAPTER IX.
THE CROWNING WITH THORNS. I.
As the soldiers, however, perseveringly continued their cruel scourging of the innocent Lamb, it is related that one of those who were standing by came forward, and, taking courage, said to them, You have no orders to kill this man, as you are trying to do. And, saying this, he cut the cords wherewith the Lord was standing bound. This was revealed to St. Bridget: " Then a certain man,
1 " Non est species ei. neque decor ; et vidimus eum, et non erat aspectus." — Isa. liii. 2.
90 Reflections and Affections. [chap. ix.
his spirit being moved within him, demanded, Are you going to kill him in this manner, uncondemned ? and forthwith he cut his bonds." '
But hardly was the scourging ended, when those bar- barous men, urged on and bribed by the Jews with money, as St. John Chrysostom avers, inflict upon the Redeemer a fresh kind of torture: Then the soldiers of the governor taking Jesus i?ito the praztorium, gathered together the whole band, and stripped Him, clothed Nini in a purple robe, and platting a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head, and a reed in His right hand.'2 Behold how the soldiers strip him again; and, treating him as a mock king, place upon him a purple garment, which was nothing else but a ragged cloak, one of those that were worn by the Roman soldiers, and called a chlamys; in his hand they place a reed to represent a sceptre, and upon his head a bundle of thorns to represent a crown.
Ah, my Jesus, and art not Thou, then, true king of the universe ? And how is it that Thou art now become king of sorrow and reproach ? See whither love has brought Thee ! O my most lovely God, when will that day arrive whereon I may so unite myself to Thee, that nothing may evermore have power to separate me from Thee, and I may no longer be able to cease to love Thee! O Lord, as long as I live in this world, I always stand in danger of turning my back upon Thee, and of refusing to Thee my love, as I have unhappily done in time past.
0 my Jesus, if Thou foreseest that by continuing in life
1 should have to suffer this greatest of all misfortunes,
1 " Tunc unus, concitato in se spiritu, quaesivit: Numquid interficietis eum sic injudicatum ? Et statim secuit vincula ejus." — Rev. 1. i, e. io.
2 "Tunc milites prsesidis, suscipientes Jesum in prsetorium.congre- gaverunt ad eum universam cohortem. Et exuentes eum, chlamydem coccineam circumdederunt ei. Et plectentes coronam de spinis, posuerunt super caput ejus, et arundinem in dextera ejus." — Matt. xxvii. 27-30.
The Crowning with Thorns. 91
let me die at this moment, while I hope that I am in Thy grace ! I pray Thee, by Thy Passion, not to abandon me to so great an evil. I should indeed deserve it for my sins; but Thou dost deserve it not. Choose out any punishment for me rather than this. No, my Jesus, my Jesus, I would not see myself ever again separated from Thee.
II.
And platting a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head} It was a good reflection of the devout Lanspergius,' that this torture of the crown ot thorns was one most full of pain; inasmuch as they everywhere pierced into the sacred head of the Lord, the most sensitive part, it being from the head that all the nerves and sensations of the body diverge; while it was also that torture of his Pas- sion which lasted the longest, as Jesus suffered from the thorns up to his death, remaining, as they did, fixed in his head. Every time that the thorns on his head were touched, the anguish was renewed afresh. And the com- mon opinion of authors agrees with that of St. Vincent Ferrer,3 that the crown was intertwined with several branches of thorns, and fashioned like a helmet or hat, so that it fitted upon the whole of the head, down to the middle of the forehead; according to the revelation made to St. Bridget: " The crown of thorns embraced his head most tightly, and came down as low as the middle of the forehead." 4
And, as St. Laurence Justinian says, with St. Peter Damian, the thorns were so long that they penetrated
1 " Et plectentes coronam de spinis, posuerunt super caput ejus." — Matt, xxvii. 29.
2 De Pass. horn. 33.
3 Serm. in Parasc.
4 " Corona spinea capiti ejus arctissime imposita fuit, quae ad medium frontis descendebat." — Rev. 1. 4, c. 70.
92 Reflections and Affections. [chap. ix.
even to the brain: "The thorns perforating the brain."1 While the gentle Lamb let himself be tormented accord- ing to their will, without speaking a word, without cry- ing out, but compressing his eyes together through the anguish, he frequently breathed forth, at that time, bitter sighs, as is the wont of one undergoing a torture which has brought him to the point of death, according as was revealed to the Blessed Agatha of the Cross: " He very often closed his eyes, and uttered piercing sighs, like those of one about to die." 2 So great was the quan- tity of the blood which flowed from the wounds upon his sacred head, that upon his face there was no appear- ance of any other color save that of blood, according to the revelation of St. Bridget: " So many streams of blood rushing down over his face, and filling his hair, and eyes, and beard, he seemed to be nothing but one mass of blood." : And St. Bonaventure adds, that the beautiful face of the Lord was no longer seen, but it appeared rather the face of a man who had been scarified: " Then might be seen no longer the face of the Lord Jesus, but that of a man who had undergone excoriation." 4
0 divine love ! exclaims Salvian, I know not how to call Thee, whether sweet or cruel; seeming, as Thou dost, to have been at one and the same time both sweet and cruel too : " O love ! what to call Thee I know not, sweet or cruel. Thou seemest to be both."5 Ah, my Jesus, true, indeed, it is that love makes Thee sweet, as regards us, showing Thee forth to us as so passionate
1 " Spinae cerebrum perforantes." — De Tr. Chr. Ag. c. 14.
2 " Saepius oculos clausit, et acuta edidit suspiria quasi morituri."
3 " Plurimis rivis sanguinis decurrentibus per faciem ejus, etcrines, oculos, et barbam replentibus, nihil nisi sanguis totum videbatur." — Rev. 1. 4, c. 70.
4 " Non amplius facies Domini Jesu, sed hominis excoriati vide- retur."
6 "O amor ! quid te appellem nescio, dulcem an asperum : utrum- que esse videris." — Epist. 1.
The Crowning with Thorns. 93
a lover of our souls; but it makes Thee pitiless towards Thyself, causing Thee to suffer such bitter torments. Thou wast willing to be crowned with thorns to obtain for us a crown of glory in heaven: " He was crowned with thorns, that we may be crowned with the crown that is to be given to the elect in heaven."1 O my sweetest Saviour, I hope to be Thy crown in paradise, obtaining my salvation through the merits of Thy suf- ferings; there will I forever praise Thy love and Thy mercies: "The mercies of the Lord will I forever sing; yea, I will sing them forever."2
III.
Ah, cruel thorns, ungrateful creatures, wherefore do ye torment your Creator thus ? But to what purpose, asks St. Augustine, dost thou find fault with the thorns? They were but innocent instruments — our sins, our evil thoughts, were the wicked thorns which afflicted the head of Jesus Christ: "What are the thorns but sin- ners?"3 Jesus having one day appeared to St. Teresa crowned with thorns, the saint began to compassionate him; but the Lord made answer to her: "Teresa, com- passionate me not on account of the wounds which the thorns of the Jews produced; but commiserate me on account of the wounds which the sins of Christians oc- casion me." Thou, too, therefore, O my soul, didst then inflict torture upon the venerable head of thy Redeemer by thy many consentings to evil: Know thou and behold how grievous and bitter it is for thee to have left the Lord thy God?
1 " Coronatus est spinis, ut nos coronemur corona danda electis in patria." — In Jo. 17.
2 " Misericordias Domini in seternum cantabo, in aeternum canta- bo." — Ps. lxxxviii. 2.
3 "Spinse quid, nisi peccatores ?"
4 "Scito et vide quia malum et amarum est reliquisse le Dominum Deum tuum."— Jer. ii. 19.
94 Reflections and Affections. [chap. ix.
Open now thine eyes, and see, and bitterly bewail all thy life long the evil that thou hast done in so ungrate- fully turning thy back upon thy Lord and God.
Ah, my Jesus ! no, Thou hast not deserved that I should have treated Thee as I have done. I have done evil; I have been in the wrong; I am sorry for it with all my heart. Oh, pardon me, and give me a sorrow which may make me bewail all my life long the wrongs that I have done Thee. My Jesus, my Jesus, pardon me, wish- ing, as I do, to love Thee forever.
IV.
And bowing the knee before Him, they derided Him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews : and spitting upon Him, they took a reed, and smote Him upon the head} St. John adds, And they gave Him blows} When those barbarians had placed upon the head of Jesus that crown of torture, it was not enough for them to press it down as forcibly as they could with their hands, but they took a reed to answer the purpose of a hammer, that so they might make the thorns penetrate the more deeply. They then began to turn him into derision, as if he had been a mock king; first of all saluting him on their bended knee as King of the Jews; and then, rising up, they spit into his face, and buffeted him with shouts and jests of scorn. Ah, my Jesus, to what art Thou reduced !
Had any one happened by chance to pass that place and seen Jesus Christ so drained of blood, clad in that ragged purple garment, with that sceptre in his hand, with that crown upon his head, and so derided and ill-treated by that low rabble, what would he ever have taken him to be but the vilest and most wicked man in
1 " Et genu flexo ante eum illudebant ei, dicentes : Ave, Rex Ju- daeorum ! Et expuentes in eum, acceperunt arundinem, et percu- tiebant caput ejus." — Matt, xxvii. 29.
2 " Et dabant ei alapas." — John, xix. 3.
" Ecce Homo' — Belio Id the Man. 95
the world ! Behold the Son of God become at that time the disgrace of Jerusalem ! O men, hereupon exclaims the Blessed Denis, the Carthusian, if we will not love Jesus Christ because he is good, because he is God, let us love him at least for the many pains which he has suffered for us: " If we love him not because he is good, because he is God, let us at least love him because he has suffered so many things for our salvation." 1
Ah, my dear Redeemer, take back a rebellious servant who has run away from Thee, but who now returns to Thee in penitence. While I was fleeing from Thee and despising Thy love, Thou didst not cease from following after me to draw me back to Thyself; and therefore I cannot fear that Thou wilt drive me away now that I seek Thee, value Thee, and love Thee above everything. Make known to me what I have to do to please Thee ; wishing, as I do, to do it all. O my most lovely God, I wish to love Thee in earnest; and I desire to give Thee no displeasure more. Aid me with Thy grace. Let me not leave Thee more. Mary, my hope, pray to Jesus for me. Amen.
CHAPTER X.
"ecce homo" — "behold the man." I.
Pilate, seeing the Redeemer reduced to that condition, so moving, as it was, to compassion, thought that the mere sight of him would have softened the Jews. He therefore led him forth into the balcony; he raised up the purple garment, and, exhibiting to the people the body
1 "Si non amamus eum, quia bonus, quia Deus, saltern amemus, quoniam tanta pro nostra salute perpessus est." — In Matt. 27.
96 Reflections and Affections. [chap. x.
of Jesus all covered with wounds and gashes, he said to them, Behold the man: Pilate went forth again to them, and saith to them : Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him. Jesus, therefore, went forth, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple gar- ment; and he saith unto them, Behold the Man.1 Behold the Man! as though he would have said. Behold the man against whom you have laid an accusation before me, and who wanted to make himself a king. I, to please you, have sentenced him, innocent although he be, to be scourged: "Behold the Man, not honored as a king, but covered with disgrace."2 Behold him now, reduced to such a state that he wears the appeal ance of a man that has been flayed alive; and he can have but little life left in him. If, with all this, you want me to condemn him to death, I tell you that I cannot do so, as I find not any reason for condemning him. But the Jews on be- holding Jesus thus ill-treated, waxed more fierce: When, therefore, the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify Him! crucify Him."' Pilate, seeing that they could not be pacified, washed his hands in the presence of the people, saying, / am innocent of the blood of this just Man ; look you to it/ And they made answer, His blood be upon us, and upon our children."
0 my beloved Saviour ! Thou art the greatest of all kings; yet now I behold Thee the most reviled of all
1 " Exivit iterum Pilatus foras, et dicit eis : Ecce adduco vobis eum foras, ut cognoscatis quia nullam invenio in eo causam. (Exivit ergo Jesus portans coronam spineam et purpureum vestimentum.) Et dicit eis : Ecce homo V—fohn, xix. 4, 5.
2 "'Ecce homo,' non clarus imperio, sed plenus opprobrio." — St. Aug. In Jo. tr. 116.
'■' " Cum ergo vidissent eum pontifices et ministri, clamabant, di- centes : Crucifige, crucifige eum." — John, xix. 6.
4 " Innocens ego sum a sanguine justi hujus ; vos videritis !" — Matt. xxvii. 24.
6 "Sanguis ejus super nos et super filios nostros." — Ibid. 25.
" Ecce Homo' — Behold the Man. 97
mankind. If this ungrateful people knows Thee not, I know Thee; and I adore Thee as my true King and Lord. I thank Thee, O my Redeemer, for all the outrages that Thou hast suffered for me; and I pray Thee to give me a love for contempt and pains, since Thou hast so lov- ingly embraced them. I blush at having in time past loved honors and pleasures so much, that for their sake I have often gone so far as to renounce Thy grace and Thy love. I repent of this above every other evil. I embrace, O Lord, all the pains and ignominies that will come to me from Thy hands. Do Thou bestow upon me that resignation which I need. I love Thee, my Jesus, my love, my all.
II.
But while Pilate from the balcony was exhibiting Jesus to that populace, at the self-same time the Eternal Father from heaven was presenting to us his beloved Son, saying, in like manner, Behold the Man. Behold this Man, who is my only-begotten Son, whom I love with the same love wherewith I love myself: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' Behold the Man, your Saviour, him whom I promised, and for whom you were anxiously waiting. Behold the Man, who is nobler than all other men, become the man of sorrows. Behold him, and see to what a pitiable condition he has reduced himself through the love which he has borne towards you, and in order to be, at least out of compassion, be- loved by you again. Oh, look at him, and love him; and if his great worth move you not, at least let these sor- rows and ignominies which he suffers for you move you to love him.
Ah, my God and Father of my Redeemer ! I love Thy Son, who suffers for love of me; and I love Thee, who 1 "Hie est Filius meus dilectus, in quo mihi compiacili."— Matt. iii. 17.
7
98 Reflections arid Affections. [chap. x.
with so much love hast abandoned him to so many pains for me. Oh, look not on my sins by which I have so often offended Thee and Thy Son: Look upon the face of Thy Christ.1 Behold Thine only-begotten, all covered with wounds and shame in satisfaction for my faults; and for his merits pardon me, and never let me again offend Thee. His blood be upon us* The blood of this man, so dear unto Thee, who prays to Thee for us, and impetrates Thy mercy, let this descend upon our souls, and obtain for us Thy grace. O my Lord ! I hate and abhor all that I have done that displeases Thee; and I love Thee, O infinite goodness, more than I love myself. For love of this Thy Son give me Thy love, to en- able me to conquer every passion, and to undergo every suffering in order to please Thee.
Ill
Go forth, ye daughters of Sion, and behold King Solomon in his crown, wherewith his mother crowned him on the day of his espousals, and on the day of the joy of his heart? Go forth, ye souls redeemed, ye daughters of grace, go forth to see your gentle king, on the day of his death, the day of his joy, for thereon he made you his spouses, giving up his life upon the cross, crowned by the ungrateful synagogue, his mother, with a crown; not indeed one of honor, but one of suffering and shame: "Go forth," says St. Bernard, " and behold your king in a crown of poverty and misery." 4
0 most beautiful of all mankind ! O greatest of all monarchs ! O most lovely of all spouses ! to what a state
1 " Respice in faciem Christi tui." — Ps. Ixxxiii. 10.
2 " Sanguis ejus super nos !"
3 -' Egredimini et videte, filiae Sion, regem Salomonem in diadem- ate, quo coronavit ilium mater sua, in die aesponsationis illius et in die laetitiae cordis ejus." — Cant. iii. 11.
4 " Egredimini et videte Regem vestrum in corona paupertatas, in corona miseriae."— In Epiph. s. 2
" Ecce Homo " — Behold the Alan. 99
do I see Thee reduced, covered with wounds and con- tempt! Thou art a spouse, but a spouse of blood: To me Thou art a spouse of blood ;l it being by means of Thy blood that Thou hast willed to espouse Thyself to our souls. Thou art a king, but a king of suffering and a king of love ; it being by sufferings that Thou hast willed to gain our affections.
0 most beloved spouse of my soul ! would that I were continually recalling to my mind how much Thou hast suffered for me, that so I might never cease to love and please Thee ! Have compassion upon me, who have cost Thee so much. In requital for so many sufferings en- dured by Thee, Thou are content if I love Thee. Yes, I do love Thee, infinite loveliness, I love Thee above every- thing; yet it is but little that I love Thee. O my beloved Jesus ! give me more love, if Thou wouldst that I should love Thee more. I desire to have a very great love for Thee. So wretched a sinner as I am ought to have been burning in hell ever since the moment in which I first gravely offended Thee; but Thou hast borne with me even until this hour, because Thou dost not wish me to burn with that miserable fire, but with the blessed fire of Thy love. This thought, O God of my soul, sets me all in flame with the desire of doing all that I can to please Thee. Help me, O my Jesus; and since Thou hast done so much, complete the work, and make me wholly Thine.
IV.
But the Jews going on to insult the governor, crying out, Away with Him ! away witii Him ! crucify Him ! 2 Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your King? and they made answer, We have no king but Ccesar.* The worldly-minded,
1 " Sponsus sanguinum tu mihi es." — Exod. iv. 25.
2 " Tolle, tolle, crucifige eum." — John, xix. 15.
3 " Regem vestrum crucifigam ? Non habemus regem, nisi Caesa- rem." — Ibid.
o*T
*v\5
ioo Reflections and Affections. [chap. x.
who love the riches, the honors, and the pleasures of earth, refuse to have Jesus Christ for their king; because, as far as this earth is concerned, Jesus was but a king of poverty, shame, and sufferings.
But if such as these refuse Thee, O my Jesus, we choose Thee for our only king, and we make our prot- estation that "we have no king but Jesus."1 Yes, most lovely Saviour, Thou art my king/ Thou art and hast for- ever to be my only Lord. True king, indeed, art Thou of our souls; for Thou hast created them, and redeemed them from the slavery of Satan: Thy kingdom come.* Ex- ercise, then, Thy dominion, and reign forever in our poor hearts; may they ever serve and obey Thee! Be it for others to serve the monarchs of earth, in hope of the good things of this world. Our desire it is to serve only Thee, our afflicted and despised king, in hope only of pleasing Thee, without any earthly consolations. Dear to us, from this day forth, shall shame and sufferings be, since Thou hast been willing to endure so much of them for love of us. Oh, grant us the grace to be faithful unto Thee; and to this end bestow upon us the great gift of Thy love. If we love Thee, we shall also love the contempt and the sufferings which were so much beloved by Thee; and we shall ask Thee for nothing but that which Thy faithful and loving servant St. John of the Cross asked of Thee: "Lord, to suffer and be despised for Thee; Lord, to suffer and be despised for Thee!"4 O Mary, my Mother, intercede for me. Amen.
1 " Non habemus regem, nisi Jesum!"
2 " Tu es ipse Rex meus." — Ps. xliii. 5.
3 " Adveniat regnum tuum." — Matt. vi. 10.
4 " Domine, pati et contemni pro te."
Condemnation of Jesus. 101
CHAPTER XI.
THE CONDEMNATION OF JESUS CHRIST, AND HIS JOURNEY
TO CALVARY.
I.
Pilate was going on making excuses to the Jews, to the effect that he could not condemn that innocent One to death, when they worked upon his fears by telling him: If thou lettest this Man go, thou art no friend of Cessar* s.1 And hence the miserable judge, blinded by the fear of losing Caesar's favor, after having so often recognized and declared the innocence of Jesus Christ, at last con- demned him to die by crucifixion: Then he delivered Him up to them, that He might be crucified?
0 my beloved Redeemer (St. Bernard hereupon be- wails), what crime hast Thou committed that Thou shouldst have to be condemned to death, and that death the death of the cross ? " What hast Thou done, O most innocent Saviour, that the judgment upon Thee should be such? Of what crime hast Thou been guilty?"3 Ah, I well understand, replies the saint, the reason for Thy death; I understand what has been Thy crime: "Thy crime is Thy love."4 Thy crime is the too great love which- Thou hast borne to men; it is this, not Pilate, that condemns Thee to die. No, adds St. Bonaventure, I see no just reason for Thy death, O my Jesus, save the excess of the affection which Thou bearest to us: " I see no
1 " Si hunc dimittis, non es amicus Caesaris." — John. xix. 12. 5 " Tunc ergo tradidit eis ilium, ut crucifigeretur." — Ibid. 16.
3 " Quid fecisti, innocentissime Salvator, ut sic judicareris ? quid commisisti ? "
* " Peccatum tuum est amor tuus."
102 Reflections and Affections. [chap. xi.
cause for death but the superabundance of love." ' Ah, so great an excess of love, goes on St. Bernard, how strongly does it constrain us, O loving Saviour, to con- secrate all the affections of our hearts unto Thee ! " Such love wholly claims for itself our love."2
0 my dear Saviour, the mere knowledge that Thou dost love me should be sufficient to make me live de- tached from everything, in order to study only how to love Thee and please Thee in all things: Love is strong as death? If love is as strong as death, oh, by Thy merits, my Saviour, grant me such a love for Thee as shall make me hold all earthly affections in abhorrence. Give me thoroughly to understand that all my good consists in pleasing Thee, O God, all goodness and all love! I curse that time in which I loved Thee not. I thank Thee for that Thou dost give me time in which to love Thee. I love Thee, O my Jesus, infinite in loveliness, and infin- itely loving. With my whole self do I love Thee, and I assure Thee that I would wish to die a thousand deaths rather than ever again cease from loving Thee.
II.
The unjust sentence of death is read over to Jesus, who stands condemned; he listens to it, and humbly accepts it. No complaint does he make of the injustice of the judge; no appeal does he make to Caesar, as did St. Paul, but, all gentle and resigned, he submits himself to the decree of the Eternal Father, who condemns him to the cross for our sins : He humbled Himself, being made obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross. 4 And, for
1 " Non in te video causam mortis, nisi superabundantiam charita- tis." — Stim. div. am. p. I, c. 2.
2 " Hoc omnino amorem nostrum facile vindicat totum tibi."— In Cant. s. 20.
3 "Fortis est ut mors dilectio."— Cant. viii. 6.
4"Humiliavit semetipsum, factus obediens usque ad mortem, mor- tem autem crucis." — Phil. ii. 8.
Condemnation of Jesus. 103
the love which he bears to man, he is content to die for us: He loved us, and gave Himself up for us.1
O my merciful Saviour, how much do I thank Thee! How deeply am I obliged to Thee! I desire, O my Jesus, to die for Thee, since Thou hast so lovingly accepted of death for me. But if it is not granted me to give Thee my blood and life at the hands of the executioner, as the Martyrs have done, I, at least, accept with resignation the death which awaits me; and I accept of it in the manner, and at the time, which shall please Thee. Hence- forth do I offer it up to Thee in honor of Thy Majesty, and in satisfaction for my sins. I pray Thee, by the merits of Thy death, to grant me the happiness to die in Thy grace and love.
III.
Pilate delivers over the innocent Lamb into the hands of those wolves, to do with him what they will: But he delivered Jesus up to their will.'1 These ministers of Satan seize hold of him fiercely; they strip him of the purple garment, as is suggested to them by the Jews, and put his own raiment again upon him : They stripped Him of the purple garment, and clothed Him in His own raiment, and led Him away to crucify Him.'J And this they did, says St. Ambrose, in order that Jesus might be recognized, at least, by his apparel; his beautiful face being so much disfigured with blood and wounds, that in other apparel it would have been difficult for him to have been recog- nized as the person he was: "They put on him his own raiment, that he might the better be recognized by all; since, as his face was all bloody and disfigured, it would not have been an easy matter for all to have recognized
1 " Dilexit nos, et tradidit semetipsum pro nobis."— Eph. v. 2.
2 " Jesum vero tradidit voluntati eorum." — Luke, xxiii 25.
:i " Exuerunt eum chlamyde, et induerunt eum vestimentis ejus, et duxerunt eum ut crucifigerent." — Matt, xxvii. 31.
I04 Reflections and Affections. [chap.xi.
him." l They then take two rough beams, and of them they quickly construct the cross, the length of which was fifteen feet, as St. Bonaventure says, with St. Anselm, and they lay it upon the shoulders of the Redeemer.
But Jesus did not wait, says St. Thomas of Villanova, for the executioner to lay the cross upon him ; of his own accord he stretched forth his hands, and eagerly laid hold of it, and placed it upon his own wounded shoulders : " He waited not till the soldier should lay it upon him, but he grasped hold of it joyfully."1 Come, he then said, come, my beloved cross ; it is now three- and-thirty years that I am sighing and searching for thee. I embrace thee, I clasp thee to my heart, for thou art the altar upon which it is my will to sacrifice my life out of love for my flock.
Ah, my Lord, how couldst Thou do so much good to one who has done Thee so much evil ? O God, when I think of Thy having gone so far as to die under torments to obtain for me the divine friendship, and that I have so often voluntarily lost it afterwards through my own fault, I would that I could die of grief ! How often hast Thou forgiven me, and I have gone back and offended Thee again ! How could I ever have hoped for pardon, were it not that I knew that Thou hast died in order to pardon me ? By this Thy death, then, I hope for par- don, and for perseverance in loving Thee. I repent, O my Redeemer, of having offended Thee. By Thy merits, pardon me, who promise never to displease Thee more. I prize and love Thy friendship more than all the good things of this world. Oh, let it not be my lot to go back and lose it ! Inflict me, O Lord, with any pun-
1 " Induunt eum vestibus, quo melius ab omnibus cognosceretur ; quia cum facies ejus esset cruentata et deformata, non poterat facile ab omnibus agnosci."
2 "Non exspectavit ut imponeretur sibi a milite, sed laetus arri- puit." — De Uno Mart. cone. 3.
Condemnation of Jesus. 105
ishment rather than with this. O my Jesus, I am not willing to lose Thee any more ; no, I would sooner be willing to lose my life : I wish to love Thee always.
IV.
The officers of justice come forth with the criminals condemned ; and in the midst of these also moves for- ward unto death the King of heaven, the only-begotten Son of God, laden with his cross : And bearing His own cross, He went forth to that place which is called Calvary} Do ye too, O blessed Seraphim, sally forth from heaven, and come and accompany your Lord, who is going to Calvary, there to be executed, together with the malefac- tors, upon a gibbet of infamy.
O horrifying sight ! A God executed ! Behold that Messias who but a few days before had been proclaimed the Saviour of the world, and received with acclamations and benedictions by the people, who cried out, Hosanna to the Son of David ; blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord;* and, after all, to see him as, bound, ridi- culed, and execrated by all, he moves along, laden with a cross, to die the death of a villain ! A God executed for men ! And shall we find any man who loves not this God?
0 my Eternal Lover, late is it that I begin to love Thee : grant that during the remainder of my life, I may make amends for the time that I have lost. I know, in- deed, that all that I can do is but little in comparison with the love which Thou hast borne me ; but it is at least my wish to love Thee with my whole heart. Too great a wrong should I be doing Thee if, after so many kindnesses, I were to divide my heart in twain, and give
1 " Et bajulans sibi crucem, exivit in eum, qui dicitur Calvariae, locum." — fohn, xix. 17.
2 " Hosanna Filio David ! benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini." — Matt. xxi. 9.
io6 Reflections and Affections, [chap. xi.
a part of it to some object other than Thyself. From this day forth I consecrate unto Thee all my life, my will, my liberty: dispose of me as Thou pleasest. I beg paradise of Thee, that there I may love Thee with all my strength. I wish to love Thee exceedingly in this life, that I may love Thee exceedingly for all eternity Aid me by Thy grace : this I beg of Thee, and hope for, through Thy merits.
Imagine to thyself, O my soul, that thou meetest Jesus as he passes along in this sorrowful journey. As a lamb borne along to the slaughter-house, so is the loving Re- deemer conducted unto death : As a lamb He is led to the slaughter.1 So drained of blood is he and wearied out with his torments, that for very weakness he can scarcely stand. Behold him, all torn with wounds, with that bundle of thorns upon his head, with that heavy cross upon his shoulders, and with one of those soldiers dragging him along by a rope. Look at him as he goes along, with body bent double, with knees all of a trem- ble, dripping with blood ; and so painful is it to him to walk, that at every step he seems ready to die.
Put the question to him : O divine lamb, hast Thou not yet had Thy fill of sufferings ? If it is by them that Thou dost aim at gaining my love, oh, let Thy sufferings end here, for I wish to love Thee as Thou dost desire. No, he replies, I am not yet content : then shall I be content when I see myself die for love of you. And whither, O my Jesus, art Thou going now? I am going, he answers, to die for you. Hinder me not: this only do I ask of, and recommend to, rou, that, when you shall see me actually dead upon the cross for you, you will keep in mind the love which I have borne you ; bear it in mind, and love me.
1 " Sicut ovis ad occisionem ducetur." — Isa. liii. 7.
Condemnation of Jesus. 107
0 my afflicted Lord, how dear did it cost Thee to make me comprehend the love which Thou hast had for me ! But what benefit could ever have resulted to Thee from my love, that Thou hast been willing to expend Thy blood and Thy life to gain it? And how could I, after having been bound by so great love, have been able so long to live without loving Thee, and unmindful of Thy affection ? I thank Thee, for that now Thou dost give me light to make me know how much Thou hast loved me. O infinite goodness I love Thee above every good. Would, too, that I had the power of offer ing a thousand lives in sacrifice unto Thee, willing as Thou hast been to sacrifice Thine own divine life for me. Oh, grant me those aids to love Thee which Thou hast merited for me by so many sufferings ! Bestow upon me that sacred fire which Thou didst come to en- kindle upon earth by dying tor us. Be ever reminding me of Thy death, that I may never forget to love Thee.
VI.
His government was upon His slioulder.x The cross, says Tertulliano was precisely the n<>bl<- instrument where- by Jesus Christ made acquisition <>t so many souls; since, by dying thereon, lie paid the penalty due to our sins. and thus rescued us from hell, and made us hisown. Who His own Self bore our sins in His body upon t/ie tree*
If God, then, O my Jesus, burdened Thee with all the sins of men — The Lord laid upon Him the iniquities of us mil* — I, with my own sins, added to the weight of the cross that Thou didst bear to Calvary. Ah, my sweet-
1 " Factus est principatus super humerum ejus." — Isa. ix. 6. 1 Adv. Jud.
3 " Qui peccata nostra ipse pertulit in corpore suo super lignum." — I Pet. ii. 24.
4 " Posuit Dominus in eo iniquitatem omnium nostrum." — Isa. liii. 6.
io8 Reflections and Affections. [chap. xi.
est Saviour, Thou didst even then foresee all the wrongs that I should do Thee ; yet, notwithstanding, Thou didst not cease to love me, or to prepare for me all the mercies that Thou hast since employed towards me. If, then, to Thee I have been dear, most vile and ungrateful sin- ner as I am, who have so much offended Thee, good rea- son is there why Thou shouldst be dear to me, — Thou, my God, infinite in beauty and goodness, who hast loved me so much. Ah, would that I had never displeased Thee! Now, my Jesus, do I know the wrong that I have done Thee. O ye accursed sins of mine, what have you done? You have caused me to sadden the loving heart of my Redeemer, that heart which has loved me so much. O my Jesus, forgive me, repenting, as I do, of having done despite unto Thee. Henceforth it is Thou who art to be the only object of my love. I love Thee,
0 infinite loveliness, with all my heart; and I resolve to love none else but Thee. Pardon me, O Lord, and give me Thy love ; I ask Thee for nothing more : "Give me Thy love only together with Thy grace" ' (I say unto Thee with St. Ignatius), " and I am rich enough."
VII.
If any man will come after Me, let Jiim deny himself and follow Me? Since, then, O my Redeemer, Thou dost go before me with Thy cross, innocent as Thou art, and dost invite me to follow Thee with mine, go forwrard,for
1 will not abandon Thee. If, in time past, I have aban- doned Thee, I confess that I have done wrong. Give me now what Thou wilt, embracing it, as I do, whatso- ever it be, and willing, as I am, to accompany Thee with it even unto death : Let us go forth from the camp, bear-
"'Amorem tui solum cum gratia tua mihi dones, et dives sum satis."
2 " Si quis vult post me venire, abneget semetipsum, et tollat crucem suam, et sequatur me.'' — Matt. xvi. 24.
Condemnation of Jesus. 109
ing His reproach.' And how, O Lord, can it be possible for us not, for Thy love, to love sufferings and shame, loving them so much, as Thou hast done, for our salva- tion ? But since Thou dost invite us to follow Thee, yea, it is our wish to follow Thee and to die with Thee : give us only the strength to carry it out. This strength we ask of Thee, and hope for by Thy merits. I love Thee, O my most lovely Jesus, I love Thee with all my soul, and I will never abandon Thee more; enough for me has been the time that I have gone astray from Thee. Bind me now to Thy cross. If I have despised Thy love, I repent of it with all my heart; and I now prize it above every good.
Ah, my Jesus, and who am I that thou wishest to have me for a follower of Thine, and commandest me to love Thee, and if I will not love Thee, threatenest me with hell ? And why, I will say to Thee, with St. Augustine,* shouldst Thou hold out to me the threat of eternal mis- eries ? For what greater misery could befall me than that of not loving Thee, O most lovely God, my Creator, my Redeemer, my paradise, my all ? I see that, as a just chastisement of my offences against Thee, I should have deserved to be condemned to the inability of ever loving Thee more; but because Thou dost still love me, Thou dost continue to command me to love Thee, ever- more repeating to my heart, Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.' I thank Thee, O my love, for this sweet precept; and in order to obey Thee, I do love Thee with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind. I repent of not having loved Thee in time past. At this moment
1 " Exeamus igitur ad eum extra castra, improperium ejus portan- tes." — Heb. xiii. 13.
2 Con/. B. i, c. 5.
3 " Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et in tota anima tua, et in tota mente tua." — Matt. xxii. 37.
i io Reflections and Affections. [chap. xii.
I would rather choose to undergo every suffering than live without loving Thee, and I purpose evermore to seek Thy love. Help me, O my Jesus, to be ever mak- ing acts of love towards Thee, and to depart out of this life while making an act of love, that so I may come to love Thee, face to face, in Paradise, where I shall ever after love Thee without imperfection and without inter- ruption, with all my powers, for all eternity. O Mother of God, pray for me. Amen.
CHAPTER XII.
THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS. I.
Behold, here we are at the Crucifixion, at that last torture, which brought death to Jesus Christ ; here we are at Calvary, converted into a theatre for the display of divine love, where a God departs this life in an ocean of sufferings: And when they had come to the place which is called Calvary, they crucified Him there.1 The Lord having, with great difficulty, at length reached the top of the Mount alive, they violently, for the third time, tear his clothes from off him, sticking, as they did, to the sores upon his wounded flesh, and they throw him down upon the cross. The divine lamb stretches himself out upon that bed of torment; he reaches forth to the execution- ers his hands and his feet to be nailed; and raising his eyes to heaven, he offers up to his Eternal Father the great sacrifice of his life for the salvation of men. After the nailing of one of his hands, the nerves shrink, so that they had need of main force and ropes, as was revealed
1 "Et postquam venerunt in locum qui vocatur Calvari», ibi cruci- xerunt eum." — Luke, xxiii. 33.
The Crticifixion of Jesus. 1 1 1
by St. Bridget, to draw the other hand and the feet up to the places where they were to be nailed; and this oc- casioned so great a tension of the nerves and veins, that they broke asunder with a violent convulsion: "They drew my hands and my feet with a rope to the places of the nails, so that the nerves and veins were stretched out to the full and broke asunder;" ' inasmuch that all his bones might have been numbered, as David had already predicted: They pierced My hands and My feet, they numbered all My bones.'
Ah, my Jesus, by what power was it that Thy hands and Thy feet were nailed to this wood, but by the love Thou didst bear to men ? Thou, by the pain of Thy pierced hands, wert willing to pay the penalty due to all the sins of touch that men have committed; and, by the pain of Thy feet, Thou wert willing to pay for all the steps by which we have gone our way to offend Thee.
0 my crucified love, with these pierced hands give me Thy benediction ! Oh, nail this ungrateful heart of mine to Thy feet, that so I may no more depart from Thee, and that this will of mine, which has so often re- belled against Thee, may remain ever steadily fixed in Thy love. Grant that nothing else but Thy love, and the desire of pleasing Thee may move me. Although I behold Thee suspended upon this gibbet, I believe Thee to be the Lord of the world, the true Son of God, and the Saviour of mankind. For pity's sake, O my Jesus, never abandon me again at any period of my life; and more es- pecially at the hour of my death, in those last agonies and struggles with hell, do Thou assist me, and strengthen me to die in Thy love. I love Thee, my crucified love,
1 love Thee with all my heart.
1 " Manus et pedes cum fune trahebant ad loca clavorum.^ita ut nervi et venae extenderentur et rumperentur." — Rev. 1. i, e. io.
1 " Foderunt manus meas et pedes meos: dinumeraverunt omnia ossamea." — Ps. xxi. 17.
1 1 2 Reflections and Affections. [chap. xii.
II.
St Augustine says, there is no death more bitter than that of the cross: "Among all the different kinds of death, there was none worse." ' Because, as St. Thomas ' observes, those who are crucified have their hands and their feet pierced through, parts which, being entirely- composed of nerves, muscles, and veins, are the most sensitive to pain; and the very weight of the body itself, which is suspended from them, causes the pain to be continuous and ever increasing in its intensity up to the moment of death.