Who has reduced Thee to such misery? Love has done it: "Thus would He be born Who willed to be loved and not feared."
Love then, love, O souls, exclaims St. Bernard, love now this little Child, for He is exceedingly to be loved "Great is the Lord, and exceedingly to be praised. The Lord is a little One, and exceedingly to be loved." Yes, says the Saint, this God was already existing from eternity, as He is now worthy of all praise and reverence for His greatness, as David has sung: Great is the Lord all exceedingly to be praised. [Ps. 144:3] But now that we behold Him become a little Infant, needing milk, and unable to stir Himself, trembling with cold, moaning and weeping looking for some one to take and warm and comfort Him; ah, now indeed does He become the most cherished one of our hearts! "The Lord is a little one, and exceedingly to be loved!"
We ought to adore Him as our God, but our love ought to keep pace with our reverence towards a God so amiable, so loving.
St. Bonaventure reminds us that "a child finds its delight with other children, with flowers, and to be in the arms." The Saint's meaning is, that if we would please this Divine Infant, we too must become children, simple and humble; we must carry to Him flowers of virtue, meekness, of mortification, of charity; we must clasp him in the arms of our love.
And, O man, adds St. Bernard, what more do you wait to see before you will give yourself wholly to God? See with what labor, with what ardent love, your Jesus has
