Chapter 18. How It Was With Him At That Hour in Regard of His Interior (A Little Book of Eternal Wisdom) (Suso, Henry)

Man

The Servant. Eternal Wisdom! the more one reflects on Your measureless Passion, the more unfathomable it appears. Your extremity was so very great under the cross, but still more so on the cross, according to Your exterior powers which, at that hour, felt all the pangs of bitter death. But, gentle Lord, how was it with Your interior Man, with Your noble Soul? Had it no consolation, no sweetness like other martyrs souls, so as to mitigate its cruel sufferings? Or, when did Your sufferings come to an end?

Eternal Wisdom. Now, listen to a misery of miseries, such as you never yet didst hear of. Although My soul, according to her highest powers, was at that time wrapt in the vision and enjoyment of the pure divinity, noble as, in truth, she is, behold, the lower powers of My exterior and interior nature were yet wholly abandoned to themselves, even to the very last drop of infinite bitterness of suffering, without any consolation, so that no torment was ever equal to it. And as I was thus left entirely helpless and forsaken, with running wounds, with weeping eyes, with extended arms, with the veins of My body on the rack, in the agony of death, then it was that I lifted up My voice in lamentation, and cried out miserably to My Father: My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? And still in all this, My will was united in eternal conformity with His will. And when all My blood was poured out, and all My strength exhausted, behold, I was seized by a bitter thirst, because of My mortal agony. But I thirsted still more for the salvation of man. Then did they reach Me vinegar and gall to quench the burning thirst of My parched mouth. And when I had accomplished the work of human redemption, I cried out: It is finished! I was entirely obedient to My Father, even to death. My Spirit I commended into His hands, saying: Into Your hands I commend My Spirit. And then My noble Soul separated from My body, both of which yet remained unseparated from the divinity! After this a sharp spear was thrust into My right side; forthwith a stream of precious blood gushed out, and with it a fountain of living water. Behold, My child, in an extremity so pitiable as this did I redeem you, and all the elect, and did save you by the living sacrifice of My innocent blood from everlasting death.

The Servant. Alas! tender and loving Lord and Brother, with what sorrowful, what bitter toil didst You not reap me in! Alas! noble Lord, how ardently didst You love me, how generously didst You redeem me! Woe is me,

You fair Wisdom, how shall I ever be in a condition to acknowledge Your love, and Your sufferings? If I had Samson's strength, Absalom's beauty,

Solomon's wisdom, and the riches and greatness of all kings, my only wish would be to devote them to Your praise and service. But, Lord, I am nothing, and therefore can do nothing. O Lord, how am I to thank You?

Eternal Wisdom. If you hadst the tongues of all the angels, the good works of all mankind, and the powers of all created beings, you yet could not thank Me, nor requite Me, for the least pang which I suffered for the love of you.

The Servant. Tender Lord, inform and teach me, then, how I may become pleasing to You by means of Your grace, since no one is able to make You a return for the tokens of Your love.

Eternal Wisdom. You should often set My sorrowful cross before your eyes, and let My bitter torments penetrate to your heart, and shape your own sufferings after them. If I allow you to pine and wither in disconsolate affliction and dryness, without any sweetness, you should not seek after strange consolation. Let your cry of misery rise to your heavenly Father with a renunciation of yourself and all your desires, according to His Fatherly will. The bitter your suffering is from without, and the more resigned you are from within, the more like are you to Me, and the more dear to My heavenly Father, for herein the most pious are put to the strongest proof.

What though your desires may have a thirsty craving to seek satisfaction and delight in something that might be pleasant to them, yet should you forego it for My sake, and thus will your thirsty mouth be steeped with me in bitterness. You should thirst after the salvation of men. Your good works you should direct to a perfect life, and persevere to the end. Your will must be subject, your obedience prompt to your superiors; your soul, and all that belongs to it, you must surrender into your heavenly Father's hands, and your spirit must ever be dying out of time into eternity, in prefiguration of your last journey. Behold, thus will your cross be shaped after My miserable cross, and worthily accomplished in it. You should wholly lock yourself up with My love-wounded heart in My open side, and dwell there, and seek there your resting-place. Then will I wash you with the waters of life, and deck you out with My precious blood, in purple. I will associate Myself to you, and unite you with Myself eternally.

The Servant. Lord, never was there any magnet so powerful in attracting hard iron to itself, as Your love-fraught Passion, thus presented to my soul, is powerful to unite to itself all hearts. Alas! You loving Lord, draw me now by means of love and sorrow away from this world to You on Your cross, fulfill in me the closest resemblance to Your cross, so that my soul may enjoy You in Your highest glory.