REFLECTIONS AND AFFECTIONS ON THE
PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST
Taken from
The
Passion and the Death
Of Jesus Christ
BY St. ALPHONSUS de
LIGUORI
THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST IN BEING
WILLING TO SATISFY THE DIVINE JUSTICE FOR OUR SINS.
We
read in history of a proof of love so prodigious that it will be the admiration
of all ages. There was once a king, lord of many kingdoms, who had one only
son, so beautiful, so holy, so amiable, that he was the delight of his father,
who loved him as much as himself. This young prince had a great affection for
one of his slaves; so much so that, the slave having committed a crime for
which he had been condemned to death, the prince offered himself to die for the
slave; the father, being jealous of justice, was satisfied to condemn his
beloved son to death, in order that the slave might remain free from the
punishment that he deserved: and thus the son died a malefactor's death and the
slave was freed from punishment. This fact, the like of which has never happened
in this world, and never will happen, is related in the Gospels, where we read
that the Son of God, the Lord of the universe, seeing that man was condemned to
eternal death in punishment of his sins, chose to take upon himself human
flesh, and thus to pay by his death the penalty due to man: He was offered
because it was His own will And his Eternal Father caused him to die upon the
cross to save us miserable sinners: He spared not His own Son, but delivered
Him up for us all. What dost thou think, O devout soul, of this love of the Son
and of the Father?
Thou didst, then, O my beloved Redeemer,
choose by Thy death to sacrifice Thyself in order to obtain the pardon of my
sins. And what return of gratitude shall I then make to Thee? Thou hast done
too much to oblige me to love Thee; I should indeed be most ungrateful to Thee
if I did not love Thee with my whole heart. Thou hast given for me Thy divine
life; I, miserable sinner that I am, give Thee my own life. Yes, I will at
least spend that period of life that remains to me only in loving Thee, obeying
Thee, and pleasing Thee.
O
men, men! let us love this our Redeemer, who, being God, has not disdained to
take upon himself our sins, in order to satisfy by his sufferings for the
chastisement which we have deserved: Surely He
hath borne our infirmities, and carried our sorrows.
St. Augustine says that our Lord in
creating us formed us by virtue of his power, but in redeeming us he has saved
us from death by means of his sufferings: "He created us in his strength;
he sought us back in his weakness."
How much do I not owe Thee, O Jesus my
Saviour! Oh, if I were to give my blood a thousand times over, — if I were to
spend a thousand lives for Thee,—it would yet be nothing. Oh, how could any one
that meditated much on the love which Thou hast shown him in Thy Passion, love
anything else but Thee? Through the love with which Thou didst love us on the
cross, grant me the grace to love Thee with my whole heart. I love Thee,
infinite Goodness; I love Thee above every other good; and I ask nothing more
of Thee but Thy holy love.
"But how is this?" continues
St. Augustine. How is it possible, O Saviour of the world, that Thy love has
arrived at such a height that when I had committed the crime, Thou shouldst
have to pay the penalty? "Whither has Thy love reached? I have sinned;
Thou art punished.
And what could it then signify to Thee,
adds St. Bernard, that we should lose ourselves and be chastised, as we well
deserved to be; that Thou shouldst choose to satisfy with Thy innocent flesh
for our sins, and to die in order to deliver us from death! “O good Jesus, what
doest Thou? We ought to have died, and it is Thou who diest. We have sinned and
Thou sufferest. A deed without precedent, grace without merit, charity without
measure." O deed which never has had and never will have its match! O grace
which we could never merit! O love which can never be understood!
Isaias had already foretold that our
blessed Redeemer should be condemned to death, and as an innocent lamb brought
to the sacrifice: He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter' What a cause of
wonder it must have been to the angels, O my God, to behold their innocent Lord
led as a victim to be sacrificed on the altar of the cross for the love of man!
And what a cause of horror to heaven and to hell, the sight of a God extended
as an infamous criminal on a shameful gibbet for the sins of his creatures!
Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us (for it
is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree): that the blessing of
Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. "He was made a curse upon the
cross," says St. Ambrose, "that thou mightest be blessed in the
kingdom of God."
O my dearest Saviour! Thou wert, then,
content, in order to obtain for me the blessing of God, to embrace the dishonor
of appearing upon the cross accursed in the sight of the whole world, and even
forsaken in Thy sufferings by Thy Eternal Father,—a suffering which made Thee
cry out with a loud voice, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Yes,
observes Simon of Cassia, it was for this end that Jesus was abandoned in his
Passion in order that we might not remain abandoned in the sins which we have committed:
"Therefore Christ was abandoned in his sufferings that we might not be
abandoned in our guilt." O prodigy
of compassion! O excess of love of God towards men! And how can there be a soul
who believes this, O my Jesus, and yet loves Thee not?
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