SUFFERINGS

OF OUR

LORD JESUS CHRIST

DURING HIS HIDDEN LIFE.

FIRST SUFFERING OF CHRIST.-Acceptance of whatever he suffer.

I. Our Lord made use of such efficacious remedies for res human nature, corrupted by the sin of the first man, and so p for the cure of our wounds, that it may be truly said, b redeemed us after the most perfect manner. For, beside being born and living in sin, and subject to all the punishme has brought upon us, it also caused in our nature so great order, and such a violent inclination to evil, that Christ was n necessary for the re-establishment of order than for the exp of our sins and we equally stood in need of reformation redemption. It was for this reason that the Son of God, h vouchsafed by his infinite mercy to redeem the world, wa satisfied with meriting for us the remedy of our evils by action of this mortal life, but he has left us the example and of all those virtues that are to serve for the regulation o manners which makes St. Paul say (1 Cor. xv. 49), that the sins in which we are born, and wherein we live, we have the image of the earthly Adam, so we ought to endeavour to bea the image of the heavenly one, by a life altogether new; espe since we are become one and the same body with him by the of baptism and the same apostle advises us also (Rom. xiii. to put on our Lord Jesus Christ; and to live as having been red by his blood, and instructed by his examples.

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II. Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Master both, has observ the reformation of man, the same order which had been pursu his destruction; but he has practised therein the virtues dir opposite to those vices which had destroyed us. For, first, in place of Eve, he made choice of the Blessed Virgin Mary companion of his labour, endued with an angelic purity of soul body, perfectly subject to God, and the instrument of all our g as Eve had been that of all our evil. Secondly, Adam was cre with great advantages of nature, and most plentiful helps of g whereby it was easy for him to have continued in that happy st and, notwithstanding, he sinned almost immediately after

creation. The second Adam, in order to repair the fault of the first, was pleased that his body should be formed, and his soul and divinity united thereto, in an instant; being unable to wait the ordinary term of man's formation, through his impatience of beginning the work of our redemption

III. As disobedience had been the first sin, the first action of Christ was an act of obedience. A perverse will, and a pleasure delighted in, contrary to the prohibition of the Creator, were the origin of our ruin the sense of pain suffered in submission to the order of God, was the beginning of our reparation. So that our Saviour in descending on earth was united to our nature; and at the instant of his conception, in which he might have been truly adored as Man-God, he began his first labour and our first remedy. He could not suffer the least delay, nor that there should be one moment in his life but what was full of mercy and grace for sinners. The Eternal Father represented to him, at the first instant of his life, the labours, troubles, ignominies, sorrows, derelictions, torments, death-and, in fine, all the punishments he had to suffer, with all their circumstances, their weight, number, and measure. Our Lord, who was full of light and grace, from whom nothing could be hid, and who beheld all these things as if they had been present, submitted himself joyfully and entirely to his Father's command; and accepted of everything that was ordained for him to suffer from his conception till his death, with a will as ready and complete, as if nothing had been proposed to but him glory and pleasures.

IV. But, as by all the actions of his life, he put in execution every particular of the will of God his father, however adverse they were to nature; so we ought to believe that he was not content with accepting in general of everything he was to suffer; but that he then resigned and delivered up in particular his head to thorns, his eyes to tears, his cheeks to buffettings, his face to affronts, and his mouth to gall and vinegar; and that he offered his body, life, honour, and whatever was in him capable of suffering, for the glory of his Father, and the salvation of men. This was a most sensible pain to his sacred humanity, which was then so tender and delicate for as our Lord never spared it in the smallest matter that might afflict it, it cannot be doubted but this representation was most grievous to it; because his infinite knowledge supplied what he wanted of the experimental part; and though this sense made a greater appearance exteriorly in his prayer in the garden; yet it may be said, that it was not more violent than in that first moment of which we speak.

V. This voluntary obedience of the Word incarnate was accompanied with a profound humility, an ardent love, an extreme зorrow, and an infinite merit; it was so agreeable to God, that it

was sufficient for the redemption of all men; and the eternal Father could then have revoked the sentence and command which he had given to his Son, taken him up into heaven, and made him sit at his right hand: for the merit of that single action was capable of taking away all the sins of the world, of chaining down the powers of hell, of filling the whole world with treasures of grace, and of opening to all men the gates of heaven: because Christ being a divine and infinite person, and the value of actions corresponding always to the merit of the person, the least of his actions was more than sufficient for redeeming a hundred thousand worlds. This is what Isaiah (viii. 3) foretold of him in these words, Call his name, hasten to take away the spoils, make haste to the preys: for before the child knows how to call his father and mother, the strength of Damascus shall be taken away; that is, the power of the devil and sin, to which the whole world were slaves. The prophet foresaw that the Messiahs would not delay our remedy one moment, and that he would be so impatient to accomplish his Father's designs, that in the first instant of his life he would abundantly merit for us, by his obedience, all the favours of the divine mercy, not only before he could speak, but even before he was born. Such was the charity which drew Christ down on earth; one single action of his was sufficient for our salvation, but not for his love. Behold what a redeemer, what a Lord, and what a friend we have!

VI. What more salutary instruction can we, therefore, desire, for the reformation of our manners, than that which this divine Master gave us in the beginning of his life? The want of obedience, says the holy Scripture, was the cause of our misery; and this virtue having been in Christ, as it were the foundation of all those graces he merited for us; he was pleased to manifest to us thereby, that we ought, like him, to establish the whole fabric of Christian perfection upon obedience; and as he did not spend one single moment of his life without obeying God his father, so we ought also to account all those for lost which we do not consecrate to obedience. Let us consider, then, how much of our time we lose in sleep, in eating, in idleness, and what is still more to be regretted, in criminal actions, irregular pleasures, and in all other things which separate us from God; with what faintness and remissness do we seek him, with what facility do we quit his service, and with what negligence do we labour for our own salvation, which cost him so much? If we compare the coldness in which we live, and the reasons which prevent us from loving Christ with our whole heart, with the ardour that he had to suffer for us and the rigour he exercised over himself in satisfaction for our sins, we shall be equally covered with confusion and filled with gratitude in his presence.

VII. So much has been written upon obedience and submission to the will of God, that I shall content myself with saying here,

that Christ, by teaching us in what manner we ought to pray, has taught us also how to obey, in these words: thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.-Matt. vi. For the blessed in heaven not only desire and do nothing but what God wills, but they cannot even think anything contrary to what he ordains. So we ought not to be satisfied with keeping our wills always conformable to that of God, but we must aspire to the perfection of obedience, and submit our understandings also to him. There are so many maxims in the world, established, approved, and even consecrated, as one may say, by the specious pretences of honour, necessity, and duty, which nevertheless are contrary to the law of God; and the corruption of our hearts makes us daily find out so many reasons for dispensing ourselves from obedience, under colour of the glory and service of God, that it is very easy to be deceived therein, if we are not strictly upon our guard. Let us, therefore, pray to the Lord with David, to turn away our eyes that they may not see vanity (Psalm cxviii. 37), nor take it for the truth; to illuminate us with his light in order to discover his will to us; and that the purity of his doctrine, and the perfection of his examples, may be the only object of our thoughts and esteem. For he that shall fix his eyes on Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master, who is the spotless mirror, and perfect image of the divine goodness, with a sincere desire of imitating him, and of submitting his understanding to him, shall immediately be free from a multitude of errors.

CONTEMPLATION.-I. O Son of the living God! O my Saviour and Redeemer! O the comfort of my miseries, and the only remedy my evils! Thou art come into the world to save our lost souls, to show how much thou lovest sinners, and the desire thou hast of saving them. Thou burnest with such an ardent thirst after torments and the cross, that thou wouldst not live one single moment without suffering: I even presume to say, O my God! that had it been required, thou wouldst have suffered upon the cross from thy first instant to the last breath of thy life; so incomprehensible is the excess of the love thou bearest us. But, at least, if you were not always upon the cross whereon you died, you never lived without suffering; thou didst not spare thy holy humanity in a body extremely delicate, and but newly formed. How pure, how great, and how divine is thy love! As thou didst never judge that body too small to be without the blessed soul that was to animate it, or without the divinity that was to be united to it; so thou didst always think it big enough to suffer; even to make it feel at once, in the moment of its formation, all the pains it was to suffer at different times, in the whole course of its life. You showed it at that time the tears, sorrows, hunger, inconveniences, Doverty, fatigues, injuries, and contempts which it was to undergo; the fetters wherewith it was to be bound, the stripes with which

it was to be torn, the thorns it was to be pierced with, the cross whereon it was to be fastened, the gall and vinegar that were to be presented to it, the extreme desolation whereto it was to be reduced, and, in fine, the cruel death that was to consummate its sacrifice.

II. If at the age of thirty-three years, only the thought of those torments, which were prepared for thy holy humanity, occasioned it such a profound sorrow, that it was cast thereby into an agony, and bathed in a sweat of blood; what must its grief have been, when, at its entrance into the world, everything it was to suffer during the whole course of its life, was represented to it in so clear, so lively, and so certain a manner? I comprehend, O my God! that that punishment was one of the greatest thou didst ever endure; since you were then man to feel its whole extent, and God to foresee it in all its circumstances. Thou didst at the same time foresee all, accept of everything, and wast sensible of all; because thy love permitted thee not to spare thyself in the smallest part of thy labours. O divine love! always active, how many artifices hast thou employed, and how many means hast thou invented, to gain our hearts? There was no place, time, nor age, which thou hast not thought proper for the execution of thy designs; and when the age and place rendered thee incapable of suffering exteriorly, thou procured for thyself interior crosses, in order to bestow continually upon us the treasures of thy grace; to maintain that fire with which you were consumed; and to make those sensible of its heat whom you love and desire to draw to thee.

III. Miserable creature that I am! when I consider thy eagerness of suffering for my salvation at so tender an age! What can I say, and how dare I appear before thee? For, alas! in what time of my life soever I look upon myself, I see nothing but sin; and methinks there is no part of myself but what is infected therewith, as there was no part of thee but what was pierced with sorrow. In my mother's womb, though I was incapable of action, I was already like the old Adam by original sin, wherewith my soul was defiled; being born, and unable as yet to sin, because I had not the use of reason, I felt violent inclinations to anger, lying, pride, gluttony, disobedience, and to many other disorders, which showed sufficiently at that time what the corruption of my heart was. When I was arrived at the age of discretion, and, capable of knowing thee, O my God! instead of producing those fruits thou hadst reason to expect from me, into what disorders did I not fall? O infinite mercy! who hast borne with me till now, do not confound me! Pardon me the eagerness wherewith I pursued the bent of my corruption. What vanity, what deceit, and what presumption; how many bad thoughts, criminal desires,