News Item: : Remembering the Victorious Wounds of Easter
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
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Friday 28 April 2017 - 12:14:19
This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.1631 )
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Friday 28 April 2017 - 12:14:19
As we mark another Friday in the season of Eastertide, it seems appropriate to contemplate afresh the Sacred Wounds of Jesus.
St. Alphonsus de Liguori drew from Zechariah 13:6 to ask, ''What are those wounds in the middle of Thy hands?''
He expressed the answer in the words of the Abbot Rupert, who answered for Jesus: ''They are the memorials of charity, the price of Redemption.''
Still speaking on behalf of the Saviour, St. Alphonsus himself added that those Sacred Wounds of Jesus are tokens of the great love which Christ bears towards us; the payment by which He set us free from both the hands of our enemies and the eternal death deserved by our sins.
St. Alphonsus continued,
Do Thou, then, O faithful soul, love thy God, Who hath had such love for thee; and if thou dost at any time feel doubtful of His love, turn thine eyes (says St. Thomas of Villanova) - turn thine eyes to behold that Cross, those pains, and that bitter death which He has suffered for thee; for such proofs will assuredly make thee know how much thy Redeemer loves thee: ''The Cross testifies, the pains testify, the bitter death which He had endured for thee testifies this.'' And St. Bernard adds that the Cross cries out, every wound of Jesus cries out, that He loves us with a true love: ''The Cross proclaims, the wounds proclaim, that He truly loves.''
Oh my Jesus! How do I behold Thee weighed down with sorrow and sadness! Ah, too much reason hast Thou to think that while Thou dost suffer even to die of anguish upon this wood, there are yet so few souls that have the heart to love Thee!
O my God! How many hearts are there at the present moment, even among those that are consecrated to Thee, who either love Thee not, or love Thee not enough!
O beautiful flame of love, Thou that didst consume the life of a God upon the Cross, consume me too; consume all the disorderly affections which live in my heart, and make me live burning and sighing only for that loving Lord of mine, Who, for love of me, was willing to end His life, consumed by torments, upon a gibbet of ignominy! O my beloved Jesus! I wish ever to love Thee, and Thee alone; my only wish is to love my love, my God, my all.
May such considerations move our hearts on this particular Friday in Eastertide to love Jesus ever more; and to prove that love by concrete acts of conversion, genuine kindness and growth in Christian virtue.
Words of Jesus to the 20th-Century Carmelite Mystic, Sr. Maria of the Crucified Love:Â Where will you turn to, when in the coming time, the difficulties grow still greater? My Sacred Wounds will be your surest refuge. Nowhere are you better protected.
This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.1631 )