| Chapter 19. On The Taking Down From the Cross | ||||
The Servant. Ah, pure Mother and tender Lady! When did your great and bitter affliction of heart which you hadst for your Son, come to an end? | ||||
Answer. Listen to my words with sorrowful compassion. When my tender Child had expired, and when He hung suspended before me, and all the strength of my heart was utterly broken, though I could do nothing else, I yet cast many a glance up at my dead Child. And when they came to take Him down, it was as if I had been roused from the dead. With what motherly love did I not press them to my blood-stained cheeks, and when He was lowered down to me, how affectionately beyond measure did I not embrace Him, dead as He was in my arms; how did I not strain to my heart my only love elect, and kiss again and again the fresh bleeding wounds of His face! And yet, with what revishing beauty His entire body was transformed, all hearts could not sufficiently contemplate. Then did I take my tender Child on to my lap, and look at Him. I looked at Him, and He was dead! I looked at Him again and again, but He had neither voice nor consciousness. Then did I fetch many a deep and heart-rending sigh, my eyes shed many tears, my whole figure was deplorable to see, scarcely had my doleful words reached my lips, when they were choked by grief, and only half expressed. Alas, alas, cried I, whenever was anyone so cruelly used on earth as You, my innocent and beloved Child! | ||||
Alas, my Child, my only consolation, my only joy, how are You changed for me into a source of much bitterness! Where is now the joy I experienced at Your birth? Where the delight I had in Your childhood? Where the honour and dignity I had in Your presence? Whither is all gone that could ravish my heart? Oh sorrow! Oh anguish! Oh bitterness! Oh desolation of heart! truly is everything transformed into an unfathomable desolation of heart, into a mortal agony! Alas, You Child of mine, how am I so shorn of all love, how has my heart become utterly disconsolate! Such, and many such words of lamentation did I utter, because of my deceased Child. | ||||
The Servant. Oh, pure and beautiful Mother, permit me once more to console my heart in this moment with your dear Child, my Lord, the Eternal Wisdom, before the hour of separation comes, before He is snatched away from us to the grave. Immaculate Mother! however unfathomable your heart's affliction way, however strongly it may touch all other hearts, you didst yet, methinks, find some pleasure in the affectionate embracing of your deceased Child. Oh, pure and gentle Lady, I desire that you would offer me your dear Child, as He appeared in death, on the lap of my soul, so that I may experience, according to my ability, in spirit and meditation, what you didst in your body. Lord, my eyes are turned to You in the most rapturous joy and in deepest, heart-felt love, such as no only love was ever regarded with by the beloved. Lord, my soul expands to Your embrace even as the tender rose expands to the pure sun's brightness. Lord, my soul stretches out her arms to You with infinite desire. Oh, my loving Lord, with ardent desire I embrace You today, and press You to the bottom of my heart and soul, and put You in mind of the loving hour of Your death, that You mayest never allow it to be lost in me; and I request that neither life, nor death, nor joy, nor sorrow, may ever separate You from me. Lord, my eyes contemplate Your dead countenance, my soul kisses again and again all Your fresh bleeding wounds, all my senses are fed with this sweet fruit beneath the living tree of the cross; and it is reasonable, for this person consoles himself with his innocent life, the other with his great exercises and strict conduct; the one with this, the other with that; but, as for me, all my consolation, all my trust, are lodged wholly in Your Passion, in Your satisfaction and merited reward, and therefore, I shall at all times carry Your Passion joyfully in the bottom of my heart, and show the image of it outwardly, in words and deeds, to the utmost of my ability. | ||||
Oh, enchanting brightness of eternal light, how are You now for me utterly extinguished! Extinguish in me the burning lust of all vice. | ||||
Oh, pure transparent mirror of divine majesty, how are You now defiled! Cleanse away the great stains of my evil deeds! | ||||
Oh, beautiful image of paternal goodness, how are You befouled and utterly defaced! Restore the defaced and faded image of my soul! | ||||
Oh, You innocent Lamb, how wretchedly are You used! Amend and atone for my guilty, sinful life! | ||||
Oh, You King of all kings, and Lord of all lords, how does my soul see You lying here in so lamentable and ghastly a plight! Grant, that since my soul now embraces You with sorrow and lamentation in Your dereliction, she may be embraced by You with joy in Your everlasting glory. Amen. | ||||