A Little Book of Eternal Wisdom [32]
such a grasp!
Eternal Wisdom.--The way to make such a grasp is this. Let a man often
and seriously weigh with a penitent heart the greatness and multitude of his
evil deeds, by which he has so wantonly incensed the eyes of his Heavenly
Father; in the next place, let him account as nothing the works of his own
satisfaction, since, reckoned against his sins, they are but as a little
drop in the deep ocean; and then, let him confidently weigh the immeasurable
greatness of My satisfaction; for the least drop of My precious Blood, which
everywhere flowed without measure out of My body, would alone suffice to
atone for the sins of a thousand worlds. Every man, therefore, appropriates
so much of My satisfaction to himself, in proportion as he assimilates
himself to Me by sympathetic participation in My sufferings. Moreover let a
man humbly and modestly merge the smallness of his works in the greatness of
My satisfaction or atonement. And to tell it thee in a few words, know then,
that all the masters of numbers and measures would be unable to calculate
the immeasurable benefit which lies hidden in the zealous meditation of My
Passion.
CHAPTER XV. From The Fond Caresses Which The Soul Has Has With God Beneath
The Cross, She Returns Again To His Passion
The Servant.--Thou hast revealed to me the measureless sufferings which
Thou didst suffer in Thy exterior Man on the gibbet of the cross, how
cruelly tormented Thou wast, and encompassed about with the bands of
miserable death. Alas! Lord, how was it beneath the cross? Or was there not
one at its foot whose heart was pierced by Thy woeful death? Or how didst
Thou bear Thyself in Thy sufferings towards Thy sorrowing Mother?
Eternal Wisdom.--Oh, listen now to a woeful thing, and let it sink into
thy heart. When, as thou hast heard, I hung suspended in mortal anguish
before them, behold, they stood over against Me, and, with their voices,
called out scoffingly to Me, wagging their heads contemptuously, and
scorning Me utterly in their hearts, as though I had been a loathsome worm.
But I was firm amidst it all, and prayed fervently for them to My heavenly
Father; behold, I, the innocent Lamb, was likened to the guilty thieves; by
one of these was I reviled, but by the other invoked. I listened to his
prayer and forgave him all his evil deeds. I opened to him the celestial
paradise. Hearken to a lamentable thing. I gazed around Me and found Myself
utterly abandoned by all mankind, and those very friends who had followed
Me, stood now afar off; yea, My beloved disciples had all fled from Me. Thus
was I left naked, and stripped of all My clothes. I had lost all power Andes
without victory. They treated Me without pity, but I bore Myself like a meek
and silent lamb. On whichever side I turned I was encompassed by bitter
distress of heart. Below Me stood My sorrowful Mother, who suffered in the
bottom of her motherly heart all that I suffered in My body. My tender heart
was, in consequence, deeply touched, because I alone knew the depth of her
great sorrow, and beheld her distressful gestures and heard her lamentable
words. I consoled her very tenderly at My mortal departure, and commended
her to the filial care of My beloved disciple, and gave the disciple in
charge to her maternal fidelity.
The Servant.--Ah, gentle Lord, who can here refrain from sighing
inwardly, and weeping bitterly? Yes, Thou beautiful Wisdom, how could they,
the fierce lions, the raging wolves, be so ungentle to Thee, Thou sweet
Lamb, as to treat Thee thus? Tender God, oh, that Thy servant had but been
there to represent all mankind! Oh, that I had stood up there for my Lord,
or else had gone to bitter death with my only Love; or, had they not chosen
to kill me with my only Love, that I yet might have embraced, with the arms
of my heart, in sorrow and desolation, the hard stone socket of the cross,
and, when it burst asunder for very pity, that my wretched heart, too, might
have burst with the desire to follow my Beloved.
Eternal Wisdom.--The way to make such a grasp is this. Let a man often
and seriously weigh with a penitent heart the greatness and multitude of his
evil deeds, by which he has so wantonly incensed the eyes of his Heavenly
Father; in the next place, let him account as nothing the works of his own
satisfaction, since, reckoned against his sins, they are but as a little
drop in the deep ocean; and then, let him confidently weigh the immeasurable
greatness of My satisfaction; for the least drop of My precious Blood, which
everywhere flowed without measure out of My body, would alone suffice to
atone for the sins of a thousand worlds. Every man, therefore, appropriates
so much of My satisfaction to himself, in proportion as he assimilates
himself to Me by sympathetic participation in My sufferings. Moreover let a
man humbly and modestly merge the smallness of his works in the greatness of
My satisfaction or atonement. And to tell it thee in a few words, know then,
that all the masters of numbers and measures would be unable to calculate
the immeasurable benefit which lies hidden in the zealous meditation of My
Passion.
CHAPTER XV. From The Fond Caresses Which The Soul Has Has With God Beneath
The Cross, She Returns Again To His Passion
The Servant.--Thou hast revealed to me the measureless sufferings which
Thou didst suffer in Thy exterior Man on the gibbet of the cross, how
cruelly tormented Thou wast, and encompassed about with the bands of
miserable death. Alas! Lord, how was it beneath the cross? Or was there not
one at its foot whose heart was pierced by Thy woeful death? Or how didst
Thou bear Thyself in Thy sufferings towards Thy sorrowing Mother?
Eternal Wisdom.--Oh, listen now to a woeful thing, and let it sink into
thy heart. When, as thou hast heard, I hung suspended in mortal anguish
before them, behold, they stood over against Me, and, with their voices,
called out scoffingly to Me, wagging their heads contemptuously, and
scorning Me utterly in their hearts, as though I had been a loathsome worm.
But I was firm amidst it all, and prayed fervently for them to My heavenly
Father; behold, I, the innocent Lamb, was likened to the guilty thieves; by
one of these was I reviled, but by the other invoked. I listened to his
prayer and forgave him all his evil deeds. I opened to him the celestial
paradise. Hearken to a lamentable thing. I gazed around Me and found Myself
utterly abandoned by all mankind, and those very friends who had followed
Me, stood now afar off; yea, My beloved disciples had all fled from Me. Thus
was I left naked, and stripped of all My clothes. I had lost all power Andes
without victory. They treated Me without pity, but I bore Myself like a meek
and silent lamb. On whichever side I turned I was encompassed by bitter
distress of heart. Below Me stood My sorrowful Mother, who suffered in the
bottom of her motherly heart all that I suffered in My body. My tender heart
was, in consequence, deeply touched, because I alone knew the depth of her
great sorrow, and beheld her distressful gestures and heard her lamentable
words. I consoled her very tenderly at My mortal departure, and commended
her to the filial care of My beloved disciple, and gave the disciple in
charge to her maternal fidelity.
The Servant.--Ah, gentle Lord, who can here refrain from sighing
inwardly, and weeping bitterly? Yes, Thou beautiful Wisdom, how could they,
the fierce lions, the raging wolves, be so ungentle to Thee, Thou sweet
Lamb, as to treat Thee thus? Tender God, oh, that Thy servant had but been
there to represent all mankind! Oh, that I had stood up there for my Lord,
or else had gone to bitter death with my only Love; or, had they not chosen
to kill me with my only Love, that I yet might have embraced, with the arms
of my heart, in sorrow and desolation, the hard stone socket of the cross,
and, when it burst asunder for very pity, that my wretched heart, too, might
have burst with the desire to follow my Beloved.