Chapter 9. The first fruit to be drawn from the consideration of the third word spoken by Christ upon the Cross

If we examine attentively all the circumstances under which this third word was spoken, we may gather many fruits from its consideration. First of all, we have brought before us the intense desire which Christ felt of suffering for our salvation in order that our redemption might be copious and plentiful. For in order not to_increase the _pain_and sorrow they feel, some men _take measures _to—prevent their_relatives-beine—present at their death, particularly if their death is to be a violent one, accompanied by disgrace and infamy. But Christ was not satiated with His own most bitter Passion, so full of grief and shame, but wished also that His Mother-and-the-disciple whom He loved, should be present, and should even stand near the Cross in order that the sight ofthe sufferings of those most dear to Him might augment His-own_grief. Four streams of blood were pouring from the mangled Body of Christ on the Cross, and He wished that four streams of tears should flow from the eyes of His Mother, of His disciple, of Mary His Mother’s sister, and of Magdalene, the most cherished of the holy women, in order that the cause of His sufferings might be due less to the shedding of His own Blood, than to the copious flood of tears which the sight of His agony wrung from the hearts of those who were standing near. I imagine that I hear Christ saying to me: “The sorrows of death surround Me,’* for the sorrow of Simeon rends and mangles My Heart, as cruelly as it passes through the soul of My most innocent Mother. It is thus that a bitter death should separate not only the soul from the body,

48 On the First Three Words but a mother from a son, and such a Mother from such a Son! For this reason He said, “ Woman, behold thy

son,” for His love for MARY would not permit Him at , such a moment to address her by the endearing name

of Mother. Gop has so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son for its redemption, and the - onlybegotten Son has so loved the Father as to shed profusely His very Blood for His honour, and not satisfied with the pangs of His Passion, has endured the agonies of compassion, so that there might be a plentiful redemption for our sins. And that we may not perish but may enjoy life everlasting, the Father and the Son exhort us to the imitation of their charity by portraying it in its most exquisite beauty; and yet the heart of man still resists this so great charity, and consequentiy deserves rather to feel the wrath of Gop, than to taste tae sweetness of His mercy, and fall into the arms of divine love. We should be indeed ungrateful, and should deserve everlasting torments, if we would not for His love endure the little purging which is necessary for our salvation, when we behold our Redeemer loving us to that extent, as to suffer for our sakes more than was necessary, to endure countless torments, and to shed every drop of His Blood, when one single drop would have been amply sufficient for our redemption. The only reason that can be assigned for our sloth and folly is, that we neither meditate on the Passion of Christ, nor consider His immense love for us with that earnestness and attention we ought to do. We content ourselves with reading the Passion hastily, or hearing it read, instead of securing fitting opportunities to penetrate ourselves with the thought cof at! On that’ account the holy Prophet admonishes us: “Aztend and see of there be sorrow like unio my sorrow,”* And the Apostle says: “Consider him

On the First Three Words. 49 that endureth such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.’* But the time will come when our ingratitude towards GOD and listlessness in the affair of our own salvation will be a subject of sincere sorrow to us. For there are many who at the last day “wll groan for anguish of spirit,’ and will say: “ Therefore we have erred from the way of truth, and the light of justice hath not shined upon us.’+ And they will not feel this fruitless sorrow for the first time in hell, but before the Day of Judgment, when their mortal eyes shall be shut in death, and the eyes of their soul shall be opened, will they behold the truth of those things to which during their life they were wilfully blind.