The
Desire that Jesus Had to Suffer for Us
Baptismo habeo baptizari; et quomodo coarctor,
usquedum
perficiatur?
"I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized; and how am I
straitened until it be accomplished?" ---Luke, xii. 50.
I.
Jesus could have saved us without suffering; but He chose rather to
embrace a life of sorrow and contempt, deprived of every earthly
consolation, and a death of bitterness and desolation, only to make us
understand the love which He bore us, and the desire which He had that
we should love Him. He passed His whole life in sighing for the hour of
His death, which He desired to offer to God, to obtain for us eternal
salvation. And it was this desire which made Him exclaim: I have a
baptism wherewith I am to be baptized; and how am I straitened until it
be accomplished?
He desired to be baptized in His Own Blood, to wash out, not, indeed,
His Own, but our sins. O infinite Love, how miserable is he who does
not know Thee, and does not love Thee!
II.
This same desire caused Him to say, on the night before fore His death,
With desire I have desired to eat this pasch with you.
By which words He shows that His only desire during His whole life had
been to see the time arrive for His Passion and death, in order to
prove to man the immense love which He bore him. So much, therefore, O
my Jesus, didst Thou desire our love, that to obtain it Thou didst not
refuse to die. How could I, then, deny anything to a God Who, for love
of me, has given His Blood and His life?
III.
St. Bonaventure says that it is a wonder to see a God suffering for the
love of men; but that it is a still greater wonder that men should
behold a God suffering so much for them, shivering with cold as an
infant in a manger, living as a poor boy in a shop, dying as a criminal
on a Cross, and yet not burn with love to this most loving God; but
even go so far as to despise this love, for the sake of the miserable
pleasures of this earth. But how is it possible that God should be so
enamoured with men, and that men, who are so grateful to one another,
should be so ungrateful to God?
Alas! my Jesus, I find myself also among the number of these ungrateful
ones. Tell me, how couldst Thou suffer so much for me, knowing the
injuries that I should commit against Thee? But since Thou hast borne
with me, and even desirest my salvation, give me, I pray Thee, a great
sorrow for my sins, a sorrow equal to my ingratitude. I hate and
detest, above all things, my Lord, the displeasure which I have caused
Thee. If, during my past life, I have despised Thy grace, now I value
it above all the kingdoms of the earth. I love Thee with my whole soul,
O God, worthy of infinite love, and I desire only to live in order to
love Thee. Increase the flames of Thy love, and give me more and more
love. Keep alive in my remembrance the love that Thou hast borne me, so
that my heart may always burn with love for Thee, as Thy heart burns
with love for me. O burning heart of Mary, inflame my poor heart with
holy love.
Source:
THE INCARNATION, BIRTH, AND INFANCY OF JESUS CHRIST,
St. Alphonsus Liguori
Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur, 1927
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