Chapter 19. Treating Upon the Seven Other Meditations on the Sacred Passion, and on the Manner of Making Them

1.—After the preceding meditations others follow upon the sacred passion and resurrection of Christ, and on the different stages of his holy life.

2.—Here we may remark that there are six points to be borne in mind in meditating on the passion of Christ: the immensity of his sufferings, to awaken our compassion; the heinousness of our offences, which is the cause of them, to excite our detestation for sin; the greatness of the benefit conferred, to stimulate our gratitude ; the excellence of the divine love and charity, to inflame our love; the special appropriateness of the mystery, to stimulate our admiration of it; the many divine virtues there exhibited, to prompt our imitation of them. Accordingly, whilst we are engaged in dy the meditation we should at times incline our hearts to compassionate the sufferings of our Saviour, which were the most bitter in the world, whether we regard the delicate tenderness of his frame, the intensity of his love for us, or the fact that they were all endured unrelieved by any sort of consolation.

3.—At other times we should study to draw from them motives of sorrow for our sins, inasmuch as they were the cause of his great sufferings. At other times we should strive to extract reasons for love and gratitude, considering the greatness of the love here shewn to us and the greatness of the benefits conferred upon us by our most plentiful redemption, at such cost to him, and of such profit to us.

4.—At other times we should raise up our eyes to the contemplation of the wonderful means adopted by God to deliver us from our miseries; that is, to satisfy our debts, to relieve our necessities, to enable us to deserve his favours, to humble our pride, to inspire us with contempt for the world, love of the cross, of poverty, of hardships, of injuries, and of all other virtuous and honest sufferings. *

5.—At other times we should direct our attention to the examples of virtue displayed in his most holy life and death, to his meekness, patience, obedience, mercy, poverty, charity, humility, benignity, and modesty, and to every other virtue which in all his deeds and words shone forth more brilliant than the stars of heaven, to induce us to imitate what we see in him, in order that the spirit and grace which by this means we derive from him may not be unproductive, and that we may thus advance to him, by means of him. This is the highest and the most profitable mode of meditation upon the sacred passion of Christ, viz. by way of imitation, because by imitating his example, we arrive at that transformation spoken of by the apostle, and are able to say with him; ‘I live, rather not 1, but Christ liveth in me.”

6.—Furthermore it is well at every stage to keep Christ present before our eyes, and to take care that he is present before them in his sufferings; and to pay attention not only to the history of his passion, but also to all the attendant circumstances, particularly those four upon which we have already touched. Who is he who suffers? The omnipotent, infinite, and immense God. For whom does he suffer? For the most ungrateful creature in the world. How does he suffer? With the greatest humility, charity, benignity, meekness, mercy, patience and modesty.. Why does he suffer? For no interest of his own, through no desert of ours, but through the bowels of his infinite compassion and mercy. We must not only regard his external, but much more his internal sufferings; for the soul of Christ is a much wider field for contemplation than his body, both for sympathy in its sufferings as well as all the other affections and considerations incident thereto.

With this short preface, we now proceed to divide and arrange the mysteries of the sacred passion.