The Love of Christ Crucified
THE WAY OF SALVATION AND OF PERFECTION BY ST. ST. ALPHONSUS DE LIGUORI
Who could have conceived that the Son of God, the Lord of the universe, to show his love for us, would suffer and die upon the cross, if he had not really done so? With reason therefore did Moses and Elias on Mount Tabor speak of the death of Jesus Christ as of an excess of love. And what could be greater excess of love than for the Creator to die for his creatures? To make Thee an adequate return for Thy love, my dear Redeemer, it would be necessary for another God to die for Thee. It would therefore be but little, it would be nothing, were we poor miserable worms of the earth to give up our whole lives for Thee, who hast given Thine for us.
What should still more excite us to love him is the ardent desire with which, through the course of his life, he longed for the hour of his death. By this desire he indeed proved how great his love was for us. I have a baptism, said he, wherewith I am to be baptized; and how am I straitened until it be accomplished. I must be baptized with the baptism of my own blood, to wash away the sins of men, and how am I dying with the desire of my bitter Passion and death! My soul, lift up your eyes, and behold thy Lord hanging upon a disgraceful cross; behold the blood which trickles down from his wounds; behold his mangled body, all inviting you to love him. Your Redeemer in his sufferings would have you love him at least through compassion. O Jesus! Thou didst not refuse me Thy life and precious blood, and shall I refuse Thee anything that Thou requirest of me? No, Thou hast given Thyself to me without reserve. I will give myself to Thee in like manner?
St. Francis de Sales, speaking of these words of the Apostle, The charity of Christ presseth us says: "Knowing that Jesus Christ, being true God, has loved us even to the laying-down of his life for us, and this upon a cross, do we not feel our hearts as it were in a press, forcibly straitened, and love expressed from them by a violence which is the more powerful as it is the more amiable?" And he adds: "Why, therefore, do we not cast ourselves upon Jesus Christ crucified, to die on the cross for the love of him who has willingly died upon the cross for the love of us? I will adhere to him, should we say, and will never abandon him; I will die with him, and be consumed in the fire of his love. My Jesus has given himself entirely to me, and I will give myself entirely to him. I will live and die upon his bosom; neither life nor death shall ever separate me from him. O eternal love! my soul seeks Thee and espouses Thee forever." O Mary, Mother of God, obtain that I may belong entirely to Jesus Christ.
