Copiosa apud eum Redemptio . . .
With Him There is Plentiful Redemption
by Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Doctor of the Church
The Motto Saint Alphonsus Ligouri chose for his beloved Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer
(Redemptorist Fathers) was: "Copiosa apud eum Redemptio" -- from the Latin Bible,
Verse 7 of Psalm 130 (the "de profundis"). With
Christ there is Plentiful Redemption!
Saint Alphonsus was a Voice announcing the Glad Tidings of the Infinite
Love of God for Humanity, especially for Sinners, at a time when
Jansenism had spread a Coldness and
Rigorism over so many Sectors of the Church.
Saint Alphonsus' Heart beat with the Heart
of Christ, the Compassionate and Good
Shepherd, Who leaves the Ninety-nine
to search out the Lost-one .... thus Alphonsus' commitment to Preach the
Gospel to "the most Abandoned".
Below is just One (1) Selection from the Immense Body of Writings of this great
Doctor of the Church, yet it is very typical in its Clarion Proclamation of a Love beyond
all Expectation, beyond the Wildest Dreams of our own Minds and
Hearts. This Selection is taken from the Opening Page of his Classic Jewel, The
Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ.
The Practice of the Love of Jesus Christ
(Based on the Words of Saint Paul: "Charity is Patient, is Kind"
(1Corinthians 13:4)
The Whole Sanctity and Perfection of a
Soul, consists in Loving Jesus Christ, our
God, our Sovereign Good, and our
Redeemer. Whoever Loves Me, says Jesus Christ Himself,
shall be Loved by My Eternal Father: My
Father Loves you, because you have Loved Me (John 16:27).
Some, says Saint Francis de Sales, think Perfection means an
Austere Life, others Prayer, others Frequenting the Sacraments,
others Works. But they Deceive themselves. Perfection means
Loving God with our Whole Heart. The Apostle wrote, "
Above all things have Charity, which is the Bond of Perfection" (Colossians 3:14).
It is Charity which keeps United and
Preserves all the Virtues that render a Man Perfect.
Hence Saint Augustine said: "Love God, and do whatever you please", because a
Soul that Loves God is Taught by that same Love never to do
anything that will Displease Him and to leave nothing
Undone that may Please Him.
But perhaps God does not Deserve all our Love?
He has Loved us with an Everlasting Love
(Jeremiah 31:3). Oh Man, says the Lord, behold I was the
First to Love you. You were not yet in the World, the World itself was not
Created, and I already Loved you. As long as I am
God, I Love you; as long as I have
Loved Myself, I have also Loved you.
As Almighty God knew that Man is Won by
Kindness, He determined to Lavish His Gifts upon him and so to
Take-captive the Affections of his Heart. For this reason
He said, "I will draw them with the Cords of Adam, with the Bands of
Love".
I will catch Men by those very Snares by which they are Naturally Caught, the Snares of
Love. And such exactly are all the Favors of
God to Man ......
"Heaven and Earth, and all things, tell me to Love Thee", says Saint Augustine.
"My Lord", he said, "whatever I behold on the Earth, or above the Earth,
all speak to me, and exhort me to Love Thee, because all assure me that Thou hast made them for the Love of me".
.... But God was not Satisfied with giving us so many Beautiful Creatures.
He has gone to such lengths to gain our Love as to give Himself
to us. The Eternal Father did not hesitate to give us even His only-begotten
Son: "For God so Loved the World, as to give His only begotten Son" (John 3:16).
When the Eternal Father saw that we were all Dead and
Deprived of His Grace by Sin, what
did He do? For the Immense Love, as the Apostle writes, for the too-great
Love He bore us, He sent His beloved Son
to make Atonement for us, and so to Restore to us that Life which
Sin had Robbed us of, Who
"for His exceeding Charity wherewith He Loved us, even when we were Dead in Sins, hath quickened us together in
Christ" (Ephesians 2:4-5).
And in Granting us His Son (not Sparing His Son, that
He might Spare us), He has Granted us every
Good, together with Him, His Grace,
His Love, and Paradise, since assuredly all these Gifts are
much less than that of His Son.
And so, likewise, the Son through His Love for us has given
Himself Wholly to us. In order to Redeem us from Everlasting
Death and to Recover for us the Divine Grace and
Heaven which we had Forfeited, He
became Man and put on Flesh like our own. Behold then a God,
Reduced to Nothingness. Behold the Sovereign of the World Humbling Himself
so low as to assume the Form of a Servant and to subject Himself to all the
Miseries which the rest of Men endure.
But what is more astonishing still, is that He could very well have
Saved us without Dying and without Suffering at all.
But no, He chose a Life of Sorrow and
Contempt, and a Death of Bitterness and
Ignominy, even to Expiring on a Cross -- the
Gibbet of Infamy, the Award of Vilest Criminals. But why, if
He could have Ransomed us without Suffering, why should
He choose to Die, and to Die
on a Cross? To show us how He Loved us.
He Loved us, and because He Loved us, He delivered
Himself up to Sorrows and Ignominies
and to a Death more Cruel than ever any Man endured in this World.
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