Fr. Dehon's meditations on the passion of Jesus.
Because of love, Christ was scourged and crowned with thorns; it was love that nailed Him to the cross and caused His death. “Becom ing obedient to death, even to death on a cross” (Philippians 2: 8).
On the cross Jesus finally realized His complete oblation of love and im molation which He had made in the beginning of His life when He uttered His ecce venio: “Be hold I come.” His love was so great that no amount of suffering could exhaust it; in fact, He would have suffered even more. He loved us unto the end, even to folly.
Souls who love the Sacred Heart remain, so to say, in ecstasy before such love. They are no longer satisfied with exterior sufferings; they welcome and love them but prefer to lose them selves in Jesus’ love whence springs the cross, and they exclaim: “O Love that has loved so much, what do You ask as a price of so much suffering? Oh, that I might love Thee a little: that I might offer you my whole heart, small as, and so limited in its capacity for love. How can I refuse it to You? Finally this liv ing remembrance would enlighten this poor small heart.
(Fr. Dehon,The love of the Sacred Heart II, 1905)
