ship of our Lord, who rendered you so perfect; and may I never forget his mercies. Happy Citizens of heaven, who are filled with blessings in assurance never to lose them, have compassion on the inconstancy and dangers wherein we live, in this place of miseries; obtain me a continual remembrance, and an earnest desire of the happiness which ye possess, that, being for ever disgusted with the pleasures of this world, I may sigh no longer after anything but what renders you eternally happy. Amen.

TWENTY-FIFTH SUFFERING OF CHRIST.-The earnest Desire he had of his Passion, and the human Fear he had thereof.

I. The Son of God, in becoming man, chiefly proposed to himself three things, as the end of all his labours: his Father's glory; the establishment of the law of grace; and the redemption of mankind. But because that the glory of God was to be made known to the whole world, by the death of our Saviour; that the law of grace, which he had published, was to be confirmed by his sufferings; and that the redemption of mankind was to be consummated by the effusion of his blood: the desire he had of seeing his Father glorified, the new law established, and man redeemed, was so ardent that it exceeded all his other torments.

The zeal of God's house, with which Christ was devoured, urged him interiorly to accomplish his work; represented continually to him what he had to suffer; and gave him no repose. True it is, our Saviour was pleased it should be so, that that pain continuing the longer with him, it might be more full of grace and merit for us: but he was pleased also to make us comprehend thereby, that so painful a death, far from being the effect of chance, or of the sole malice of men, proceeded from a profound wisdom, and a charity which could suffer no delay.

For we must not judge of the length of Christ's sufferings by the time of his passion, which lasted only about twenty hours. He not only felt the pain and ignominy thereof at that time, but they were present to his mind during the whole course of his life; and his sacred humanity was continually possessed therewith.

II. He expressed his desire and fear of it, by these words, so full of love (Luke xii. 50): I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized; and how I am straitened until it be accomplished! He also calls his passion a baptism, when he asked the children of Zebedee, who desired to have the first place in his kingdom, saying: Can you drink of the chalice that I drink of? or be baptized with the baptism wherewith I am baptized?-Mark x. 38. If these terms of chalice and baptism, denote anything agreeable, it is because our Saviour's love could find no comfort, but in that chalice, and in that bath of blood, where he was to wash away our iniquities.

The holy Scripture is full of the praises of that precious blood: it says, it is the blood of the New Testament (Matt. xxvi. 28), in which we shall be purified, and that intercedes for us with God; that it was by his own blood Christ entered once into the Holies having obtained eternal redemption: that as in the old law without shedding of blood there was no redemption, so in the new law how much more shall the blood of Christ-cleanse our consciences from dead works, to serve the living God.-Heb. ix. 12, 22, 13. And as Christ was pleased to be baptised in the Jordan, in order to give to the waters the virtue of sanctifying our souls, he was also pleased to be washed in his own blood, to teach us, that that blood is not a sign of wrath and death, but a fountain of life and grace.

III. When he healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, speech to the dumb, life to the dead, and saw the people full of joy and surprise, he wished that all nations of the world would receive in their souls, by the virtue of his blood, in a spiritual manner, the graces that so small a number of people had received in their bodies and his heart desired, with a holy impatience, that those blessings might be communicated to all men. He spoke thereof continually, and on every occasion, because he was wholly taken up about it.

Considering the ingratitude of the Jews, he foretold, that the Gentiles should take possession of those blessings, which the Jews had refused. Speaking of drinking and eating, he commonly fell upon the participation of his body and blood, which was to give life to all the world. Sometimes he discoursed of the sheep, which he was to bring into his fold, from all parts of the world; sometimes of those who were to come from the east and west to sit down at his table. He exorted his disciples to lift up their eyes, to view the fields already white and ready for harvest. He affirmed, that when he should be elevated on the cross he would draw all to him, and neglected no opportunity of expressing his extreme desire of our salvation.

IV. Thus when he said, I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled? (Luke xii. 49), he knew very well that that fire could only be kindled by the baptism of his blood; and seeing that baptism delayed, he cried out with a sigh, How am I straitened until it be accomplished? What zeal! what love! what tenderness! What do men think of, not to converse continually with a God so good, a friend so affectionate, and a father so charitable, who forgetting himself, is wholly taken up with our necessities.

Behold here the mirror, in which we may discover, whether we be far from or near to God, and whether our views be pure and disinterested. For the ardour with which he desired the accomplishment of our salvation, rendered every moment he had to wait

painful and tedious to him, although there were none of them but what were full of an infinite treasure of merits for us. This thought urged him continually; and we, for whom he endured those anguishes, allow ourselves to be carried away by quite contrary desires, though we know how much they displease him, and that it was for plucking them out of our hearts, that he was pleased to suffer death. I even presume to say, that if the greatest part of men would look back upon their past lives, they would scarcely find, in so great a number of years, one single day, wherein they have laboured for their eternal salvation with as great application as they have every day for what occasions the loss of their souls.

How foolish are those, that put off all the care of their eternity to the last moments of their life, and who imagine, that, amidst the terrors of God's judgments, before whom they must shortly appear, at the sight of the punishments of hell, into which they will be ready to fall, amidst the pains which separate soul and body, they can think as they ought, on the affair of their salvation! How shall they, at their death, love him with all their heart, whom they have not loved during their life, and without the love of whom they cannot be saved? Christ, the faithful friend of our souls, did not act in this manner; he had appointed an hour wherein he was to die for us; thought of it every moment; and died daily, because that hour came not sooner. We are no less obliged to him for the good will he had to die, than for his death itself. We ought to consider the desires, with which his heart was oppressed, as so many deaths suffered for us.

V. That love of the cross occasioned him also another pain, which was the natural fear and continual sense of those sufferings he was to undergo. The same love, which made him choose them, rendered them always present to his mind; and, in spite of the horror nature had thereof, he earnestly desired them.

Men of courage seek the most dangerous posts, to show their valour and the natural fear with which they are often seized, at taking up arms, does not hinder them from fighting bravely, nor from overcoming that enemy; our Saviour's humanity always experienced that fear: for he was all his life divided, as one may say, between the terror of torments, which he foresaw even to the least circumstance, and the desire of accomplishing the work of our redemption, by the death of the cross. Which made him say, after having complained of the delay of that bloody baptism, I came not to send peace, but a sword (Matt. x. 34), to cut off everything that might soften my pain, and to fight amongst the pains and ignominies of a cruel death. I came to send fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled? (Luke xii. 49) and that it may increase in the hearts of men, by the endeavours they shall make for resisting everything that can deprive them of the true blessings?

Thus they will follow the ways I have shown them, and they will express their love to me in the same manner as I have expressed mine to them.

VI. Behold here an excellent instruction for the servants of God, who, interiorly urged by his love to undertake great things, grieve to see themselves stopped by the infirmity of nature. Our Lord, who designs to erect a great edifice upon so weak a foundation, has ordained, that natural infirmity, to which the will does not consent, cannot hurt the perfection of love, but serves even sometimes to augment it; because the sense of human misery, pains and afflictions, when the mind preserves its vigour, makes us sigh more earnestly after the freedom of God's children, and desire continually to be able, without impediment, to give ourselves to him, as he has given himself to us.

Of the Transfiguration.-The fear and desire which the Son of God had of suffering, clearly appeared in the mystery of his transfiguration; wherein he was pleased to show those that love him, and are crucified for his love, a ray of that glory which he prepares for them. For eight days after he had declared to his disciples, that the royal way of the cross was that whereby it behoved him to walk; and that he would only acknowledge those for his disciples, that should bear their cross after him; burning with the desire of being soon fastened to it, he transfigured himself before them, in order to dilate their hearts by a view of his glory, and to give them a taste beforehand of the blessings which are hidden in the cross. He chose for the witnesses of that mystery, three of his apostles: James, who was to be the first in suffering martyrdom; Peter, who was to die on the cross; and John, who after seeing his master expire, was to live only by pure love. He retired with them unto Mount Thabor; and, being arrived there, he prayed; to teach us, that there is more force in prayer, for making us bear the cross, than weakness in the human heart, for fearing it; that prayer purifies our love, and renders the earthly man wholly spiritual and celestial. Our Saviour, during his prayer, allowed a ray of the glory of his soul, which he had restrained till then, that he might be capable of suffering, to spread itself over his body for some time: and his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow.- -Matt. xvii. 2. If a mortal body be capable of so great a splendour, what will be the glory of a soul that had has lived on earth in the continual practice of divine love?

II. There appeared on each side of him Moses and Elias, whom he had chosen amongst all the saints of the old law, to be witnesses of his love and sufferings. He chose Elias, who after being persebuted all his life by the wicked for God's cause, was assumed into heaven in a fiery chariot, to teach those that suffer, that they shall not find the end of their sufferings, and their true consolation,

but in the fire of the divine love, which alone can elevate them above the thoughts and miseries of this world. And he chose Moses, who being accustomed to converse familiarly with God, and to live in his presence, despised the delights of Pharaoh's house, and chose rather to be afflicted with God's people, than to enjoy the pleasures of so corrupt a court. Behold what the divine love performs in a faithful soul! it deprives him by degrees of the pleasure of everything that can fix him to the world, and accomplishes his purification by sufferings.

III. Christ then being thus placed between those two faithful lovers of the cross, who can express what their sentiments were when they beheld him clothed with our flesh whom they had so ardently desired. They saw with their corporeal eyes, the beauty of his countenance, and with the eyes of faith, the purity and beatitude of his soul, totally burning with love, and full of the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

But though they were charmed with the wonders they discovered in him, they spoke to him only of the excess of his passion and of his decease, which he was to undergo at Jerusalem (Luke ix. 31), being persuaded they could speak of nothing more agreeable to him. And as our Saviour himself often entertained his disciples about his reproaches and cross, which were the objects of his most ardent desires; so those two prophets, being charmed with his interior and exterior beauty, and with his infinite charity, spoke to him of nothing but the thorns, wherewith he was to be crowned, the wounds, with which he was to be disfigured, the reproaches, with which he was to be loaded, the tears he was to shed, the torments he was to undergo, and the triumph of his love. death on the cross. They observed the earnestness of his heart after sufferings, and the perfect submission of his holy humanity to his Father's eternal will in all things; knowing that our Saviour had called them to him, that by speaking to them he might moderate a little the ardour which consumed him; for his disciples were not yet capable of relishing so great a mystery. Behold what was the subject of this conversation, after which our Saviour dismissed Moses and Elias full of consolation.

IV. Here are three things to be considered: first, the voice of the eternal Father, which came from a bright cloud, in these words: This is beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear my him. ye Matt. xvii. 5. The eternal Father declares thereby, that he not only approves of the designs of his Son, and of the love he has for men, but also, that no man shall be agreeable to the Father, unless he hears and imitates the Son. For, as in giving his Son to us, he has given us all things in him; so we ought to find in him everything that is necessary for us, and look upon him at the same time, as the remedy of our sins, and the model of our virtues.