Book V, Chapter VII

If thou hadst but once perfectly entered into the secrets of the Lord Jesus, and tasted a little of His ardent love, &c

(On these words) — “ If thou hadst but once perfectly entered into the secrets of the Lord Jesus, and tasted a little of His I ardent love,” &c. B. ii. c. 1.

Question. — How can we enter into the secrets of the Lord Jesus?

Answer. — By penetrating and learning experimentally what is most inward in Him. Three things are most particularly so. 1st. The tender love which He has always felt for His Father and for us. 2nd. The moral precepts which He has most recommended to us, and on which He dwelt the most. 3rd. His inward pains and sorrows.

Question. — What are the tenderest feelings in the heart of Jesus?

Answer. — Towards His Father they are a generous love for that Father so worthy of love, a constant waiting for His orders, an ardent desire to see His whole will done. I do always, said He, those things that please Him. John viii. 29. And elsewhere, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me. John iv. 34. Towards us they are paternal affection, and a most ardent thirst for our salvation. One who desires to enter into the secrets of the Lord Jesus must be acquainted with His feelings, and try to produce some resembling them, that thus he may be bound very closely to Him, and that, according to the Apostle’s precept, this mind may be in him, which was also in Christ Jesus. Phil. ii. 5.

192 TO SHARE THE LORD*S SUFFERINGS

Question. — What are the moral precepts most proper for Christian souls?

Answer. — The principal points of our Saviour’s teaching, in which He has comprised its spirit. They may be reduced to a thorough practice of humility and gentleness, patience in the evils of this life, love of the Cross and of mortification, charity towards our neighbour, evangelic poverty, and a desire above all of being despised and humiliated as He was during His Passion; for this is to be His, to wear His livery, to enter even into His secrets. This mystery is hidden in Him, and is known but to very few.

There are many who have a regard for Jesus; they adore Him, they bow the knee before Him as before their Lord, and yet they retain a secret aversion to the most essential parts of His system. They know the exterior of Jesus, His Sovereign Power, His Greatness, His Majesty, His design of saving men, and other such things, but not the more hidden things, and those which are nearest His Heart. Therefore we might say to them with our Author, “ If thou hadst but once perfectly entered into the secrets of the Lord Jesus,” &c. And as He says in another place, “ He that hath the Spirit of Jesus will find an hidden manna.” B.i. c. 1. This heavenly manna is nothing else than the abundance of graces, illumination, comforts, and spiritual delights, which Jesus bestows on those who enter into the full meaning of His precepts.

Question. — What is the third thing to be observed among the secrets of the Lord Jesus?

Answer. — His Sufferings, which we must try to impress on our minds, by constantly meditating on them with tenderness and affection. If any man, 1 then, desires to know and feel what passes within Jesus, oppressed with sadness and grief, he must l have His Passion constantly before his eyes, and!

THE DOOR OF HIS SECRETS. 193 dwell thereon, not only in thoughts, but also by a feeling of sympathy which penetrates his heart.

2. Another and more efficacious means of feeling the Sufferings of Christ is, in some measure to experience them. “ No man,” says our Author, “ has so cordial a feeling of the Passion of Christ, as he who hath suffered the like himself.” B. ii. c. 12. St. Bonaventure teaches us, that this is done by looking to this Divine Model of patience, and trying to feel in ourselves the rigour of His Tortures; and thus, that we may know in ourselves what He suffered at the pillar, we must, says this holy Doctor, discipline ourselves to blood. One who sincerely loves our Lord, and who desires nothing so much as to participate in His Sufferings, can thus best judge how cruel His Scourging was, and how great the pain caused by the nails which pierced His Hands and Feet. Many pious persons of the present day, falsely persuaded that it is enough to care for the interior, might learn by such experience that the exterior exercises of virtue are of no little service to the soul which desires to be hid with Christ in God a. I may add, that very many in the religious life, who have not much outward occupation, and who have but too much leisure to spend in their cells, ought to think themselves happy to have it in their power to hold familiar converse with Jesus Crucified, instead of losing their time in reading curious books or profane histories, or in thinking of their health, and of the means of preventing and curing imaginary infirmities. This would be infinitely more useful to them; their mind would become more fervent, and their body more healthy and vigorous.

3. It is very sweet also to the soul to share in the inward Sufferings of Christ. If she sometimes feels that desertion, that pain and anguish, of which we

194 HOW THE SAINTS SUFFERED WITH JE8US.

have elsewhere spoken, she should profit by them, and believe that they are as doors to enter into the secrets of the Lord Jesus, Who suffered in Soul as well as in Body; and that in this way the union is formed between the holy soul and her Divine Spouse. For this reason also, St. Bernard had constantly before his eyes Christ on the Cross, and never lost the recollection of His Death, as he testifies in many parts of his writings, particularly on Solomon’s Song.

The same is told us of Saint Francis, and it is related in the Chronicles of his Order, that a passerby once hearing him cry aloud, imagined that a murder was being committed, and ran hastily towards the place from whence the voice came; but when he arrived there, he was much surprised to see St. Francis lying on the ground covered with tears. He knew him, and asked him why he wept. “ My Saviour has died,” replied he; “ He suffered so much, and you ask me the cause of my tears!” This vehement grief proceeded from the love with which he burned, and by which he had entered far into the secrets of the Lord Jesus. All those who, after the example of these Saints, make the sufferings of their Master the subject of their meditations, will, like them, be much affected byfthe evils which this Man- God deigned to suffer, when He immolated Himself for their salvation and for that of all sinners.!