HOW SINNERS CRUCIFY OUR LORD,
Christ speaks.
I am God, who created all things for man’s use, that they might all serve and edify man. But man abused, to his own destruction, every thing that I created for his good. And what is more, he cares less for God, and loves him less than he loves creatures. The Jews made made me undergo three kinds of torment in my Passion. First, the wood to which I was bound, scourged, and crowned. Second, the iron with which they pierced my hands and feet. Third, the draught of gall that they gave me. Then they blasphemously called me a fool, on account of the death which I freely met, and called me a liar on account of my doctrine. Such are now multiplied in the world, and few give me consolation. For they fasten me to the wood by the will of sinning; they scourge me by impatience, for not one can bear a single word for me. They crown me with the thorn of their pride, for they wish to be higher than I. They pierce my hands and feet with the iron of hardness, because they glory in sin, and harden their hearts so as not to fear me. For gall they
