The Passion of Christ
(See what it is to love)

The Passion of Christ

by Saint Alphonsus Liguori

Descent from the Cross - by REMBRANDT Harmenszoon van Rijn - from the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg (He has loved us even unto death, and came not down from the Cross till after having left His life thereon.)

"See what it is to love". It seems as though our Redeemer from the Cross said to us all, "See what it is to love," whenever, in order to avoid something that is troublesome, we abandon works that are pleasing in His sight, or at times even go so far as to renounce His grace and His love. He has loved us even unto death, and came not down from the Cross till after having left His life thereon.

Saint Laurence Justinian says that the death of Jesus was the most bitter and painful of all the deaths that human beings ever died; since the Redeemer died upon the Cross without any, even the slightest, alleviation: "He was crucified wholly without any alleviation of suffering". In the case of other sufferers, the pain is always mitigated, at all events, by some consoling thought; but the pain and sorrow of Jesus in His sufferings were pure pain, pure sorrow, without mitigation: "The extent of the suffering of Christ appears to us from the purity of its pain and sorrow," says the Angelic Doctor. And hence Saint Bernard, when contemplating Jesus dying upon the Cross, utters this lamentation: O my Jesus when I behold You upon this Tree, I find nothing in You from head to foot but pain and sorrow.

God has given us His Son; and why? For love alone. Pilate, for fear of the people gave Jesus up to the Jews: "[He] delivered Jesus up to their wishes" (Luke 23:25). But the Eternal Father gave His Son to us for the love which He bore us: "[He] handed Him over for the sake of us all" (Romans 8:32). Saint Thomas says that "love has the nature of a first gift". When a present is made us, the first gift that we receive is that of the love which the donor offers us in the thing that he or she gives; because, observes the Angelic Doctor, the one and only reason of every voluntary gift is love; otherwise, when a gift is made for some other end than that of simple affection, the gift can no longer rightly be called a true gift. The gift which the Eternal Father made us of His Son was a true gift, perfectly voluntary, and without any merit of ours; and therefore it is said that the Incarnation of the Word was affected through the operation of the Holy Spirit: that is, through love alone; as the same holy Doctor says: "Through God's supreme love it was brought to pass, that the Son of God assumed to Himself flesh".

But not only was it out of pure love that God gave unto us His Son, He also gave Him to us with an immensity of love. This is precisely what Jesus wished to signify when He said: "God so loved the world" (John 3:16). The word "so" (says Saint John Chrysostom) signifies the magnitude of the love wherewith God made us this great gift: "The word 'so' signifies the vehemence of the love". And what greater love could One Who was God have been able to give us than was shown by His condemning to death His innocent Son in order to save us miserable sinners? "[He] did not spare His own Son, but handed Him over for the sake of us all" (Romans 8:32).

"Oh, if you would know the mystery of the Cross," said Saint Andrew to the tyrant. O tyrant (it was his wish to say), were you to understand the love which Jesus Christ has borne you, in willing to die upon a Cross to save you, you would abandon all your possessions and earthly hopes, in order to give yourself wholly to the love of this your Savior.

The same ought to be said to those Catholics who, believing as they do, the Passion of Jesus, yet do not think of it. Ah, were all people to think upon the love which Jesus Christ has shown forth for us in His death, who would ever be able not to love Him? It was for this end, says the apostle, that He, Our Beloved Redeemer, died for us, that, by the love He displayed toward us in His death, He might become the possessor of our hearts: "That is why Christ died and came to life again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living" (Romans 14:9).

Christ before Pilate - by MAES, Nicolaes - from Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest (Pilate says on earth, Let Jesus die. And the eternal Father from heaven confirms the sentence, saying, Let My Son die.)

Whether, then, we die or live, it is but just that we belong wholly to Jesus, Who has saved us at so great a cost. Oh, who is there that could say, as did the loving martyr Saint Ignatius, whose lot it was to give his life for Jesus Christ, "Let fire, cross, beasts, and torments of every kind come upon me; let me only have fruition of You, O Christ".  Let flames, crosses, wild beasts, and every kind of torture come upon me, provided only that I obtain and enjoy my Jesus Christ.

As Jesus and Barabbas were proposed to the people, so it was proposed to the Eternal Father to save His Son or sinful people. The Eternal Father answered, Let My Son die, and let sinful people be saved. This the apostle has declared: "[He] did not spare His own Son but handed Him over for the sake of us all" (Romans 8:32). The Father would not spare His own Son, but consigned Him to death for us all. Yes, said Our Savior, God has so loved the world that for its salvation He delivered up His only-begotten Son to torments and death.

Behold the unjust sentence of death is read in the presence of our condemned Lord. He listens to it, and, with entire resignation to the just decree of His Eternal Father, Who condemns Him to the Cross, He humbly accepts it, not for the crimes falsely imputed to Him by the Jews, but in atonement for our real sins, for which He offered to make satisfaction by His death. Pilate says on earth, Let Jesus die. And the Eternal Father from heaven confirms the sentence, saying, Let My Son die. The Son Himself answers, Here I am; I obey; I accept death, and the death of the Cross. "He humbled Himself, obediently accepting even death, death on a Cross" (Philippians 2:8).

My soul, raise your eyes, and behold that crucified man-God. Behold that divine lamb sacrificed on that altar of pain; consider that He is the beloved Son of the Eternal Father, and consider He has died through the love He has borne you. See how His arms are stretched out to embrace you; His head bowed down to give you the kiss of peace; His side opened to receive you. What do you say? Does a God so good and so loving deserve to be loved? Listen to what the Lord says to you from the Cross: My son, see if there is any one in this world who has loved you more than I, your God, have loved you.

Ah, my God and my Redeemer, You, then, have died, and died the most infamous and painful death. And why? To gain my love.

When the divine Word offered Himself to redeem humankind, there were before Him two ways of redemption:

the one of joy and glory,

the other of pains and insults.

At the same time, it was His will, not only by His coming to deliver humanity from eternal death, but also to call forth the love of all the hearts of people, and therefore He rejected the way of joy and glory, and chose that of pains and insults: "For the sake of the joy which lay before Him, He endured the Cross" (Hebrews 12:2). In order that He might satisfy the divine justice for us, and, at the same time, inflame us with His holy love, He was willing to endure this burden of all our sins; that, dying upon a Cross, He might obtain for us grace and the life of the blessed. This is what Isaiah intended to express when he said: "Yet it was our infirmities that He bore, our sufferings that He endured" (Isaiah 53:4).

The Scapegoat - by William Holman Hunt - from National Gallery, London (A pre-figurement of Christ)

Of this there were two express figures in the Old Testament; the first was the annual ceremony of the scapegoat, which the high-priest represented as bearing all the sins of the people, and therefore all, loading it with curses, drove it into the desert, to be the object of the wrath of God. This goat was a figure of Our Redeemer, Who was willing to load Himself with all the curses deserved by us for our sins; being made a Curse for us, in order that He might obtain for us the divine blessing. Therefore the apostle wrote in another place, "For our sakes God made Him Who did not know sin, to be sin, so that in Him we might become the very holiness of God" (2Corinthians 5:21). That is, as Saint Ambrose and Saint Anselm explain it, He made Him to be sin Who was innocence itself; that is, He presented Himself to God as if He had been sin itself. In a word, He took upon Himself the character of a sinner, and endured the pains due to us sinners, in order to render us just before God.

And Jesus accepted such a death. He died to pay the price of our sins; and therefore, as a sinner, He desired to be circumcised (a pre-figurement of Baptism); to be redeemed with a price when He was presented in the temple; to receive the Baptism of repentance from the Baptist; and lastly, in His Passion: to be nailed upon the Cross to atone for our guilty wanderings; to atone for our avarice, by being stripped of His garments; for our pride, by the insults He endured; for our desires of power, by submitting Himself to the executioner; for our evil thoughts, by His crown of thorns; for our intemperance, by the gall He tasted; and by the pangs of His Body, for our sensual delights.

Hence Saint Paul says, "No, I determined that while I was with you I would speak of nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1Corinthians 2:2). The apostle well knew that Jesus Christ was born in a cave; that, for thirty years, He inhabited a carpenter's shop; that He had risen from the dead, and had ascended into heaven. Why, then, did he say that he would speak of nothing but Jesus crucified? Because the death suffered by Jesus Christ on the Cross was that which most moved him to love Him, and induced him to exercise obedience toward God and love toward his neighbor, which were the virtues most specially inculcated by Jesus Christ from the chair of His Cross. Saint Thomas, the Angelic Doctor, writes: "in whatever temptation we fall, in the cross is our protection; there is obedience to God, love to our neighbor, patience in adversity; when Saint Augustine says, 'The cross was not only the instrument of death to the Sufferer, but His chair of teaching' ".

To form a conception of what Jesus Christ suffered in His life, and still more in His death, we must consider what the same apostle says in his letter to the Romans: "God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, thereby condemning sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:3). Jesus Christ being sent by the Father to redeem humanity clothed Himself with that flesh which was infected with sin; and though He had not contracted the pollution of sin, nevertheless He took upon Him the miseries contracted by human nature, as the punishment of sin; and He offered Himself to the Eternal Father, to satisfy the divine justice for all the sins of humanity by His sufferings; He was offered because He Himself willed it; and the Eternal Father, as Isaiah writes, "laid upon Him the guilt of us all" (Isaiah 53:5). Behold Jesus, therefore, laden with all the blasphemies, all the sacrileges, trespasses, thefts, cruelties, and abominable deeds which people have committed and will commit. Behold Him, in a word, the object of all the divine curses which people have deserved through their sins: "Christ has delivered us from the power of the law's curse by Himself becoming a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13).

Therefore Saint Thomas writes that both the internal and outward pains of Jesus Christ exceeded all the pains which can be endured in this life.

And thus Jesus voluntarily, through His own goodness, making Himself the debtor for our debts, chose to sacrifice Himself altogether, even to death in the pains of the Cross, as He Himself says in the Gospel of Saint John: "That I lay down My life to take it up again. No one takes it from Me; I lay it down freely" (John 10:17-18).

Finally, to speak of all alike, both the just and sinners, everyone has his own cross. The just, though they enjoy peace of conscience, yet all have their vicissitudes; at one time they are comforted by visits of divine mercy, at another they are afflicted by bodily vexations and infirmities, and especially by desolation of spirit, by darkness and weariness, by scruples and temptations, and by fears for their own salvation.

Much heavier are the crosses of sinners, through remorse of conscience, through the terrors of eternal punishment, which from time to time affright them, and through the pains they suffer when things go wrong with them. The saints, when adversities befall them, unite themselves with the divine will, and suffer them with patience; but how can sinners calm themselves by recollecting the divine will, when they are living at enmity with God? The pains of the enemies of God are unmixed pains, pains without relief. Wherefore Saint Teresa was wont to say "who loves God embraces the cross, and thus does not feel it; while who does not love Him, drags the cross along by force and thus cannot but feel it".

Crucifixion - by FERRARI, Gaudenzio - from Saint Maria delle Grazie, Varallo Sesia (Jesus upon the Cross was a spectacle which filled heaven and earth with amazement, at the sight of an Almighty God, the Lord of all, dying upon an infamous gibbet condemned as a malefactor between two other malefactors.)

Jesus upon the Cross was a spectacle which filled heaven and earth with amazement, at the sight of an Almighty God, the Lord of all, dying upon an infamous gibbet condemned as a malefactor between two other malefactors. It was a spectacle of justice, in displaying the Eternal Father, in order that His justice might be satisfied; punishing the sins of humanity in the Person of His only begotten Son, loved by Him as Himself. It was a spectacle of mercy, displaying His innocent Son dying a death so shameful and so bitter, in order to save His creatures from this punishment that was due to them. Especially was it a sight of love, in displaying a God Who offered and gave His life to redeem from death His slaves and enemies.

It is this spectacle which ever was and ever will be the dearest object of the contemplation of the saints, through which they have counted it little to strip themselves of all earthly pleasures and good, and to embrace with desire and joy both pain and death, in order to make some return of gratitude to a God Who died for love of them.

They said, "Save yourself". O ungrateful people! If this great Son of God, when He was made Man, had chosen to save Himself, He would not voluntarily have chosen death.

"If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross" (Matthew 27:40); yet, if Jesus had come down, He would not have accomplished our Redemption by His death; we could not have been delivered from eternal death. "He would not come down," says Saint Ambrose, "lest when He came down, I should die".

The afflicted Mother thus was standing close to the Cross; and as the Son sacrificed His life, so she offered her pangs for the salvation of humanity, sharing with perfect resignation all the pains and insults which her Son suffered in His death. A writer says that they who would describe her fainting at the foot of the Cross dishonor the constancy of Mary. She was the strong woman, who neither fainted nor wept, as Saint Ambrose writes: "I read of her standing, but not of her weeping".

The pain which the Holy Virgin endured in the passion of her Son exceeded all the pains which a human heart can endure; but the grief of Mary was not a barren grief, like that of other mothers who behold the sufferings of their children; it was a fruitful grief, since through the merits of her so-great grief, and through her love (according to the opinion of Saint Augustine), as she was the natural mother of our Head Jesus Christ, so she then became the spiritual mother of us who are His faithful members, in cooperating with Him by her love in causing us to be born, and to be the children of the Church.

God said to the serpent, "I will put enmities between you and the woman" (Genesis 3:15). This shows that after the fall of humanity through sin, notwithstanding all that would be done by the Redemption of Jesus Christ, there would be two families and two posterities in the world:

the seed of Satan signifying the family of sinners, his children corrupted by him,

and the seed of Mary signifying the holy family, which includes all the just, with their Head Jesus Christ.

Hence Mary was destined to be the mother both of the Head and of the members, namely the faithful. The apostle writes: "All are one in Christ Jesus. Furthermore, if you belong to Christ you are the descendants of Abraham" (Galatians 3:28-29). Thus Jesus Christ and the faithful are one single Body, because the Head cannot be divided from the members, and these members are all spiritual children of Mary, as they have the same Spirit of her Son according to nature, Who was Jesus Christ. Therefore, Saint John was not called John, but the disciple beloved by the Lord, that we might understand that Mary is the mother of every good Christian who is beloved by Jesus Christ, and in whom Jesus Christ lives by His Spirit. This was expressed by Origen, when he said, "Jesus said to Mary, Behold your son, as if He had said, This is Jesus, Whom you have borne, for he who is perfected lives no more himself, but Christ lives in him".

Saint Leo writes that this cry of the Lord was not a lamentation, but a doctrine, because He thus desired to teach us how great is the wickedness of sin, which, as it were, compelled God to abandon His beloved Son without a comfort, because He had taken upon Him to make satisfaction for our sins. At the same time, Jesus was not abandoned by the divinity, nor deprived of the glory which had been communicated to His blessed soul from the first moment of His creation; but He was deprived of all that sensible relief by which God is wont to comfort His faithful servants in their sufferings; and He was left in darkness, fear, and bitterness, pangs which were deserved by us. This deprivation of the sensible consciousness of the Divine Presence was also endured by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane; but that which He suffered on the Cross was greater and more bitter.

We must understand that Jesus had taken upon Himself the sins of the world, although He was Himself the most holy of all beings, and even sanctity itself; since He had taken upon Himself to satisfy for all our sins, He seemed the greatest of all sinners; and having thus made Himself guilty for all, He offered Himself to pay the price for all. Because we had deserved to be abandoned forever in hell to eternal despair, therefore He chose to be given up to death deprived of every relief, that thus He might deliver us from eternal death.

Therefore, let us give thanks to the goodness of our Savior for having been willing to take upon Himself the pains which were due to us, and thus to deliver us from eternal death; and let us labor henceforth to be grateful to this our Deliverer, banishing from our hearts every affection which is not for Him. And when we find ourselves desolate in spirit, and deprived of the sense of the Divine Presence, let us unite our desolation to that which Jesus Christ suffered in His death. Sometimes He hides Himself from the souls that He most loves, but He does not really leave their hearts; He aids them with His inward grace. He is not offended, if in such an abandonment we say, as He Himself said in the garden to His Divine Father, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass Me by" (Matthew 26:39). But at the same time we must add, "Still, let it be as You would have it, not as I" (Matthew 26:39). And if the desolation continues, we must continue the same acts of conformity to the divine will, as He Himself repeated them for the three hours during which He prayed in the garden. Saint Francis de Sales says that Jesus is as worthy of love when He hides Himself as when He makes Himself seen. Further, who has deserved hell, and finds himself out of it, should say only, "I will bless the Lord at all times" (Psalm 34:2).

To obtain perseverance in good, we must not trust in our resolutions and in the promises we have made to God; if we trust in our own strength, we are lost. All our hope of preserving the grace of God must be placed in the merits of Jesus Christ, and thus, trusting in His help, we shall persevere till death, though we were attacked by all our enemies in earth and hell. Sometimes we find ourselves so cast down in mind, and so assaulted by temptations, that we seem almost lost; let us not then lose courage, nor abandon ourselves to despair, let us go to the Crucified, and He will hold us up.

The Lord permits His saints sometimes to find themselves in tempests and fears. Saint Paul says that the afflictions and terrors which he suffered in Asia were so overpowering that he became weary of life; meaning that he was so, so far as he depended on his own strength, in order to teach us that God, from time-to-time, leaves us in desolations, in order that we may know our misery, and, distrusting ourselves, may humbly have recourse to His goodness, and gain from Him strength not to fall. More clearly he expresses the same in another place, "We are afflicted in every way possible, but we are not crushed" (2Corinthians 4:8). We find ourselves oppressed with sadness and passions, but do not abandon ourselves to despair, we are tossed about on the water, but do not sink, because the Lord, by His grace, gives us strength against our enemies. But the apostle exhorts us ever to bear before our eyes that we are weak, and prone to lose the treasure of divine grace, and that all our strength for preserving it comes not from ourselves but from God: "This treasure we possess in earthen vessels, to make it clear that its surpassing power comes from God and not from us" (2Corinthians 4:7).

Let us, then, be firmly persuaded that in this life we must ever beware of placing any confidence in our own works. Our strongest armor with which we shall ever win the victory over the assaults of hell is prayer. This is the Armor of God of which Saint Paul speaks: "Put on the Armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. Our battle is not against human forces but against the principalities and powers, the rulers of this world of darkness, the evil spirits in regions above. You must put on the Armor of God if you are to rest on the evil day; do all that your duty requires, and hold your ground. Stand fast, with the truth as the belt around your waist, justice as your breastplate, and zeal to propagate the gospel of peace as your footgear. In all circumstances hold faith up before you as your shield; it will help you extinguish the fiery darts of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, the word of God" (Ephesians 6:11-17).

Let us pause and weigh well these various expressions:

"Stand fast with the truth as the belt around your waist". There the apostle alludes to the military girdle with which soldiers gird themselves as a token of the fidelity which they have sworn to their sovereign. The girdle which the Christian must put on is the possession of the truth of the doctrine of Jesus Christ, in accordance with which we must repress all inordinate passions, especially those of impurity, which are the most dangerous of all.

"Justice as your breastplate". The Christian's breastplate is a good life, without which he will have little strength to resist the assaults of his foes.

"And zeal to propagate the gospel of peace as your footgear". The military shoes which the Christian ought to wear, in order that he or she may go speedily where it is necessary, unlike those whose feet are bare and who walk slowly, is the possession of a mind prepared to embrace in practice, and to teach by example, the holy maxims of the gospel.

"In all circumstances hold faith up before you as your shield". The shield with which the soldier of Christ must defend himself against the fiery darts (that is, darts which pierce like fire) of the enemy is a steady faith, strengthened with holy hope, and especially with divine charity. "Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit". The helmet, as Saint Anselm teaches us, is the hope of eternal salvation; and, lastly, the sword of the Spirit, our spiritual sword, is the divine word, by which God repeatedly promises to hear those who pray to Him. "Seek, and you will find" (Matthew 7:7). "Whoever seeks, finds" (Luke 11:10). "Call to Me and I will answer you" (Jeremiah 33:3). "Then call upon Me in time of distress; I will rescue you" (Psalm 49:15). "At every opportunity pray in the Spirit, using prayers and petitions of every sort. Pray constantly and attentively for all in the holy company" (Ephesians 6:18). Thus, prayer is the most powerful of the arms with which the Lord gives us victory over our evil passions and the temptations of hell; but this prayer must be made in the spirit, that is, not with the mouth only, but with the heart. Moreover, it must last through our life - "at all times"; for as the struggle endures, so must our prayers. It must be urgent and repeated; if the temptation does not yield at the first prayer, we must repeat it a second, third, or fourth time; and if it still continues, we must add sighs, tears, importunity, vehemence, as if we would do violence to God, that He may give us the grace of victory. This is what the apostle's words, "with all instance and supplication" mean. The apostle adds, "for all saints" which means that we are not to pray for ourselves alone; but for the perseverance of all the faithful who are in the grace of God, and especially of priests, that they may labor for the conversion of unbelievers and all sinners, repeating in our prayers the words of Zechariah, "To shine on those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death" (Luke 1:79).

It (prayer) is of great use for resisting our enemies in spiritual combats and to anticipate them in our meditations, by preparing ourselves to do violence to them to our utmost power, on all occasions when they may suddenly come upon us. Thus the saints have been able to preserve the greatest mildness, or at least not to reply by a single word, and not to be disturbed when they have received a great injury, a violent persecution, a severe pang in body or in mind, the loss of property of great value, the death of a much-loved relative. Such victories are ordinarily not acquired without the aid of a life of long discipline, without frequenting sacraments, and a continual exercise of meditation, spiritual reading, and prayer. Therefore these victories are with difficulty obtained by those who have not taken great heed to avoid dangerous occasions, or who are attached to the vanities or pleasures of the world, and practice very little the mortification of the senses; by those, in a word, who live a soft and easy life. Saint Augustine says that in the spiritual life, "first, pleasures are to be conquered, then pains"; meaning that a person who is given to seek the pleasures of the senses will scarcely resist a great passion or temptation which assails him or her, a person who loves too much the esteem of the world will scarcely endure a grave affront without losing the grace of God.

It is true that we must look for all our strength to live without sin, and to do good works, not from ourselves, but from the grace of Jesus Christ; but we must take great care not to make ourselves weaker than we are by nature through our own fault. The defects of which we take no account will cause the divine light to fail, and the devil will become stronger against us. For example, a desire to display to the world our learning, rank, or vanity in dress, or the seeking of any superfluous pleasure, or resentment at every inattentive word or action, or a wish to please everyone, though at the loss of our spiritual profit, or neglect of works of piety through the fear of people or little acts of disobedience toward our superiors, little murmurings, trifling but cherished aversions, trivial falsehoods, slight attacks upon our neighbor, loss of time in gossip, or the indulgence of curiosity - in a word, every attachment to earthy things, and every act of inordinate self-love, can serve as a help to our enemy to drag us over some precipice; or, at least, this defect deliberately consented to will deprive us of that abundance of divine help without which we may find ourselves fallen into ruin.

To speak of patience and suffering is a thing neither practiced nor understood by those who love the world. It is understood and practiced only by souls who love God. "O Lord," said Saint John of the Cross to Jesus Christ, "I ask nothing of You but to suffer and to be despised for Your sake". Saint Teresa frequently exclaimed, "O my Jesus, I would either suffer or die". Saint Mary Magdalene of Pazzi was wont to say, "I would suffer and not die". Thus speak the saints who love God, because a soul can give no surer mark to God of love for Him, than voluntarily to suffer to please Him.

Thomas à Kempis writes, "The cross everywhere awaits you; it is needful for you everywhere to preserve patience, if you want to have peace. If you willingly bear the cross, it will bear you to your desired end". In this world, we all go about seeking peace; and would want to find it without suffering; but this is not possible in our present state; we must suffer; the cross awaits us wherever we turn. How, then, can we find peace in the midst of these crosses? By patience, by embracing the cross, which presents itself to us. Saint Teresa says that "who drags the cross along with ill-will feels its weight, however small it is; but who willingly embraces it, however great it is, does not feel it".

The same Thomas à Kempis says, "Which of the saints is without a cross? The whole life of Christ was a cross and a martyrdom, and do you seek for pleasure?" Jesus, innocent, holy, and the Son of God, was willing to suffer through His whole life, and shall we go about seeking pleasures and comforts? To give us an example of patience He chose a life full of ignominies and pains within and without; and shall we wish to be saved without suffering, or to suffer without fruit, and with increase of pain? How can we think to be lovers of Jesus Christ, if we will not suffer for love of Him Who has so much suffered for love of us? How can those glory in being followers of the Crucified, who refuse or receive with ill-will the fruits of the Cross, which are sufferings, contempt, poverty, pains, infirmities, and all things that are contrary to our self-love?

Thus the apostle goes on to encourage us, saying, "In your fight against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood" (Hebrews 12:4). Think, he says, that Christ poured forth for you all His Blood in His Passion through torments, and that the holy martyrs, after the example of Him, their King, have courageously endured hot plates, and iron nails, which have torn open their very bowels; but you have not shed a single drop of blood for Jesus Christ, while we ought to be ready to give our life rather than offend God, as Saint Oddment said, "I would rather leap into a burning pile than commit a sin against my God". And thus Saint Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, said, "If I must either endure all the bodily pains of hell, or else commit a sin, rather than commit it I would choose hell".

The infernal lion ceases not through all our life to go about seeking to devour us; therefore Saint Peter tells us that, by thinking of the Passion of Christ, we ought to arm ourselves against his attacks. Saint Thomas says that the mere recollection of the Passion is a great defense against all the temptations of hell. And Saint Ambrose, or some other saint, says, "If there had been any better way of salvation for people than the way of suffering, Christ would have shown it to us both by word and example".

Crucifixion - by LIEFERINXE, Josse - from Musée du Louvre, Paris (There stood, it is true, below the Cross, Mary, assisting with love, her dying Son.)

Let us, then, give ourselves, O souls that love the Crucified, for the life that remains to us, to love this loving Redeemer, so worthy of love, to our utmost power, and also to suffer for Him, because He has been willing to suffer for love of us; and let us not cease to ask Him continually to grant us the gift of His holy love.

Whilst hanging on the Cross, Jesus has no one who can console Him. Among those who stand around Him, some are blaspheming, some are deriding Him; some say, "Come down off the cross if You are God's Son" (Matthew 27:42).

And He receives no compassion even from those who are His very companions in punishment; nay, rather, one of them joins those others in blaspheming Him: "One of the criminals hanging in crucifixion blasphemed Him" (Luke 23:39).

There stood, it is true, below the Cross, Mary, assisting with love, her dying Son. But the sight of this mother in her sorrows, so far from consoling Jesus, afflicted Him so much the more, at seeing the pain which she endured for love of Him. So, then, our Redeemer, finding no comfort here on earth, turned Himself to the Eternal Father in heaven above. But the Father, seeing Him covered with all the sins of humankind, for which He was making satisfaction, said, No, My Son, I cannot console You. It is meet that even I too should abandon You to Your pains, and leave You to die without comfort. And then it was that Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46) .

The Redeemer, now nigh to expiring, with dying breath said, "Now it is finished" (John 19:30). As if He had said, O humans, all has been completed and done for your redemption. Love Me, then, since I have nothing more that I can do to make you love Me.

Prayer