Revelations of St. Bridget/Chapter 19. The Death of our Lord
CHAPTER XIX.
THE DEATH OF OUR LORD.
The Blessed Virgin speaks.
At the death of my Son, all things were disturbed. For the divinity which was never separated from him, not even in death, in that hour of his death, seemed to partake of his suffering, although the divinity could suffer no pair; or penalty, being impassible and immutable.
My Son suffered pain in all his members, and even in his heart, which, nevertheless, being divine is immortal; his soul, also, which was immortal, suffered because it left the body. The assembled angels also seemed to be, as it were, disturbed, when they saw God in humanity suffer on earth. But how could the angels, who are immortal, be troubled? Truly, like a just man, when he sees his friend suffer any thing, from which he is to reap great glory; he rejoices, indeed, for the glory he is to gain, but grieves, nevertheless, in a manner, for his suffering. So the angels grieved, as it were, for his Passion, although they are impassible. But they rejoiced at his future glory, and the benefit to result from his Passion. The elements, too, were all troubled; the sun and moon lost their splendor, the earth quaked, the rocks were rent, the graves opened, at the death of my Son. All the Gentiles were troubled wherever they were, because there came in their hearts a certain sting of grief, although they knew not whence. The heart, too, of those who crucified him, was in tribulation in that hour, but not for their glory. The very unclean spirits were troubled in that hour, and gathered together were troubled. Those, too, who were in Abraham’s bosom, were much troubled, so that they would have preferred to be in hell for eternity, rather than behold their Lord paying such a penalty. But what pain, I, who stood by my Son, a Virgin and his Mother, then suffered, no one can imagine. Therefore, my daughter, remember the Passion of my Son, fly the instability of the world, which is but as a vision, and a flower that soon fadeth. — Lib. vi., c. 11.