II. The church, when she shows us Jesus Christ crucified, exclaims: His whole figure breathes forth love; his head bowed down, his arms extended, his side opened. She cries out: Behold, O man, behold thy God, who has died for thy love; see how his arms are extended to embrace thee, his head bowed down to give thee the kiss of peace, his side opened to give thee access to his heart, if thou wilt but love him. Assuredly I will love thee, my treasure, my love, and my all. And whom shall I love, if I love not God who has died for me?
III. The charity of Christy saith the Apostle, presseth us. 2 Cor. v. 14. Ah! my Redeemer, thou hast died for the love of men; yet men do not love thee, because they live unmindful of the death which thou hast suffered for them. Did they bear it in mind, how could they live without loving thee? Knowing, says St. Francis of Sales, that Jesus being really God, has so loved us as to suffer the death of the cross for us, do we not on this account, feel our hearts as it were in a press, in which they are forcibly held, and love expressed from them by a kind of violence, which is the more powerful as it is the more amiable? And this is what St. Paul says in these words: The charity of Christ presseth us; the love of Jesus Christ forces us to love him. Ah! my beloved Saviour, heretofore I have despised thee, but now I esteem and love thee more than my own life, nothing afflicts me so much as the remembrance of the many offences I have committed against thee. Pardon me, O Jesus, and draw my whole heart to thyself, that so, I may neither desire, nor seek, nor sigh after any other besides thee. O Mary, my mother, help me to love Jesus.
