Chapter 79

Of the burning Love, wherewith Christ jesus loved God, and men for God; from which love, as from a fountatine that did spring which he suffered in the exterior; and that also which he suffered in the interior; which was much more, than the other.

IF the hart of man be so wicked (as jeremy¹ said) as that God only can tell how to sift it; & that the more deep a man digs in that rotten wall, the more abominable filthiness is discovered (as was showed in figure, to² Ezechiel;) with how much more reason may we say, that since the hart of Jesus Christ our Lord, is more good, than any other can be wicked; there is none who can wholly dive into it, but only the same Lord, whose it is. It is worthy of admiration, and which, in reason, ought to rob us, even of our very souls, and to bind us as slaves to God to consider the excessive love of his hart, which did express itself, in suffering the whole course of that Passion, and death for us, as we have showed. But if thou dig yet deeper, with the light of heaven in thy hand, and do look near, into this³ Reliquary of God, which is so full of unspeakable secrets; thou wilt discern such effects of love; as will cast thee into more wonder, than any outward thing belonging to the passion.

For this purpose, thou art to remember, how in the town of Bethsaida, our Lord, being in the cure of a deaf man, the Gospel saith, That he cast up his sacred eyes to heaven, and he sighed deeply, and that then he cured the patiented. That groaning sigh, which carried an exterior sound, was but one; and it might pass in a short time; but it was a witness, of another sigh; yea and of many profound internal sighs; and which lasted not only for a short time, but for months, & years. For thou art to understand, how that most holy soul, in being created, and infused into the body, in that virgineall womb of our Blessed Lady, did then behold the divine essence, (which for the height thereof, is called heaven, with great reason) as clearly as now it doth. And in seeing it, it did judge that it was worthy of all honour, and service; and so it desired all honour to it; with that unspeakable force of love, wherewith it was endued. And although the ordinary law, for such as see God clearly, be this, that they must be blessed both in body and soul; and be subject to no kind of pain; yet, to the end that we might be redeemed by the precious afflictions of our Lord; it⁴ was ordained, that felicity, and joy, should remain in the superior part of his soul; & should not redound into the inferior part, or into his body; renouncing all that sense of happiness, which so justly was due unto it; for the accepting, and suffering of that pain, to which we, were liable.

Now, if that most holy soul, who cast the eyes of the understanding up to the heaven of the divinity, had not had any other thing but that, to look upon; it could not have been capable of pain, since God is such a Good; that nothing can grow from the sight of him, but love, and joy. But, for as much as he saw all the sins, which then had been committed by men, from the beginning of the world; and⁵ those also which would be committed even to the end of it; his grief was fully as internal, and as profound, to see, that heaven of the Divine Majesty, offended, as his desire was, that it should be served. And⁶ as no man is able to reach to the greatness of that desire, so neither can any man arrive to the greatness of that grief. For the holy Ghost, which is figured in⁷ fire, which was given him beyond all measure, did inflame him to love God with an incomprehensible⁸ love; and the same Holy Ghost, which is also figured in a⁹ Dove, did make him bitterly lament, to see him offended, whom he loved after such an ineffable manner.

But to the end that thou mayst see, how this knife of grief, which passed through the hart of our Lord, did not only wound him, on the one side, but that it was doubly, and most sharply edged; remember that the same Lord, who (looking up to heaven, did deeply sigh) did also weep, both over Lazarus, and over Jerusalem. And then, (as S. Ambrose saith) it is not to be wondered at, that he grieved for all since he wept for one. So that to see God offended, and to see men destroyed by sin, was a¹⁰ knife, with a double edge; which did most lamentably pierce his hart; through the inestimable love which he bore to God, as God; and to men for his sake; desiring to make satisfaction to the honour of God, and to obtain a remedy for men, how dear soever it should cost him.

O¹¹ most blessed Jesus, to see thee tormented exteriorly in thy body, doth even break the hart of a Christian; but to see thee so tormented, and defeated inwardly, with such deadly grief, there is no eye, there is no force, that can endure it. Three nails, O Lord, did break through thy hands, and feet, with excessive pain; and more than seaventy thorns, they say, did pierce thy divine head; thy buffets and thy affronts, were very many; and the cruel scourget, which that most delicate body of thine, received, they say, did pass the number of five thousand. By occasion of these, and many other grievous torments, which concurred in thy passion, (which no man arriveth to understand, but thou that feltest them), it was said in thy person, long before, O all you that pass by the way, observe, and see, if there be any grief, like mine. And yet, nowithstanding all this, thou, whose love hath no limit, didst both seek and sinned, new inventions, for the drawing, and feeling within thy selfe, certain pains, which exceeded those nails, and scourges, and torments, which exteriorly thou didst endure; and which continued a longer time, and which had sharper points, wherewith to hurt thee. Isay¹² saith; Every one of us did lose himself, in his own way; and God, did lay the sins of us all, upon the Messiah. And this sentence of the divine justice, being so rigorous, thy love, O Lord, did find to be both just, and good; and thou didst take upon thine own shoulders, and didst make a burden for thyself, of all the sins (without the want of so much as one), which all the men, in the whole world, either had committed, or then did commit, or would commit, from the beginning thereof, until the end; That thou O Lord, and our true loner, mightst pay for them all, with the sorrows of thy hart.

Who then shallbe able to count the number of thy sores; since¹³ there is no means to count the number of all our sins which caused them, but only thou O Lord, who didst endure them. Thou being made for us, the man of sorrow, and who knowest indeed, what affliction is, by sad experience. One man alone doth say of himself¹⁴

Into what affliction didst thou cast thyself, O thou lamb of God, to take away the sins of the world; in whose person it was said,¹⁵ Many calves have come round about me; and the great bulls have circled me about; they have opened their mouth against me, as a roaring lion, who is feasting upon his prey. But although, into that garden of Gethsemani, there went a full company of soldiers of the secular power, (besides them, who were sent by the high Priests, & Pharisees, who with much cruelty came about to take thee, and did take thee) yet he that should have beheld the multitude, and grievousness of all the sins, of the world, which did hedge in that hart of thine; will think, that the people who went that night to take thy person, were very few in comparison of these others, who came to seize upon thy hart. What¹⁶ horrible spectacle O Lord? What ugly representation & how painful would it be for thee, to be compassed in, by our great sins, which are signified by those Calves, and those others which are you more grievous, and which are signified, by those Bulls? Who, O Lord, shall be able to recount, what ugly sins have been committed in the world? Which being set before thy unspeakable purity, and sanctity, would put thee upon astonishment; and like Bulls, with open mouths, set upon thee; demanding at thy hands, O Lord, the payment of that torment, which so great impiety had deserved. With how much reason is it said afterward, That thou wert spilt like water, by those exterior torments, and, That thy hart, was melted a way like wax, by that fire of inward anguish. Who O Lord will say, that the number of thy sorrows may be told, since the number of our sins is past-telling.

Footnotes

1. jerem. 17. ↩

2. Ezech. 8. ↩

3. The hart of our Lord jesus, is the Reliquary, & the love, is the Relic. ↩

4. See the inventions of the love the God. ↩

5. So that then, he saw all and every of my sins and all thy sins. ↩

6. The infinite desire, which our Lord jesus had, that God should be served; & as infinite grief that he is offended. ↩

7. Note this grief & love. ↩

8. joan. 11. ↩

9. Luc. 19 ↩

10. Our Lord grant us one touch of this knife upon our hearts, by the merits of his. ↩

11. The unspeakable affliction of our Lord jesus, in his sacred Passion. ↩

12. Psal. 53. ↩

13. Consider and know by this, what our Lord suffered for thee; or rather know, that thou canst never know so much of it, as is to be known. ↩

14. Psalm. 3●. , That he had more sins, then bayres upon his head; and besides that, he desireth God to forgive him those other sins, which he had committed, though be knew them not. If then one man, which was David, had so many sins; who shallbe able to reckon up all the sins of all men, amongst whom there were many, who committed both more, & more grievous sins, than David did. ↩

15. Psal. 3●. ↩

16. This is that, which gave our Lord more torments, a million of times, than the pains, which exteriorly he suffered. ↩