Exclamación X
The Agony of Sin and the Call to Fidelity
The author laments the audacity of sin and the suffering it inflicts upon the heart of God.
O God of my soul, how quickly we rush to offend you—and how much more quickly you rush to forgive us! Lord, what could cause such senseless audacity? Is it because we've come to understand your great mercy, yet have forgotten that your justice is just? The pains of death surrounded me. Oh, oh, oh—how terrible sin is, when it was enough to put God to death in such agony!1 And how completely they surround you, my God! Where can you go without their tormenting you? Mortals wound you from every side.
A Plea for the Wandering Soul
A call for Christians to remain loyal to their King and a prayer for the conversion of those who have strayed.
Oh, Christians! It's time to defend your King and stand beside him in his profound loneliness, because very few loyal subjects remain with him, while a great multitude follows Lucifer. And worst of all, they present themselves as his friends in public but betray him in secret; he can hardly find anyone he can trust. Oh, true Friend, how badly your betrayer repays you! Oh, true Christians! Help your God weep, for those compassionate tears were not shed for Lazarus alone, but for those who would refuse to rise even when His Majesty called out to them. Oh, my greatest Good, how clearly you saw the sins I would commit against you!2 Let them end now, Lord; let them end—mine and everyone else's.
The Power of Divine Mercy to Raise the Dead
The author implores God to use His powerful voice to raise the spiritually dead, even when they do not ask for life themselves.
Bring these dead back to life; may your voice, Lord, be so powerful that even if they don't ask you for life, you give it to them, so that afterward, my God, they may rise from the depths of their self-indulgence. Lazarus didn't ask You to raise him from the dead. You did it for one sinful woman; here before You, my God, is a far greater sinner. Let Your mercy shine forth. Miserable as I am, I ask it for those who refuse to ask You for it themselves. You already know, my King, how it torments me to see them so oblivious to the terrible sufferings they will endure forever if they don't turn back to You. Oh, you who are accustomed to pleasures, comforts, indulgence, and always having your own way—have pity on yourselves!3 Remember that you'll be subject to the powers of hell forever—forever, without end.4 Look—look! The Judge who will condemn you is pleading with you now, and your life isn't secure for a single moment. Why won't you choose to live forever? Oh, the hardness of human hearts! May your boundless mercy soften their hearts, my God.
Read the original Latin
—¡Oh Dios de mi alma, qué prisa nos damos a ofenderos y cómo os la dais Vos mayor a perdonarnos! ¿Qué causa hay, Señor, para tan desatinado atrevimiento? ¿Si es el haber ya entendido vuestra gran misericordia y olvidarnos de que es justa vuestra justicia? Cercáronme los dolores de la muerte. ¡Oh, oh, oh, qué grave cosa es el pecado, que bastó para matar a Dios con tantos dolores! ¡Y cuán cercado estáis, mi Dios, de ellos! ¿Adónde podéis ir que no os atormenten? De todas partes os dan heridas los mortales.
—¡Oh cristianos! , tiempo es de defender a vuestro Rey y de acompañarle en tan gran soledad; que son muy pocos los vasallos que le han quedado y mucha la multitud que acompaña a Lucifer. Y lo que peor es, que se muestran amigos en lo público y véndenle en lo secreto; casi no halla de quién se fiar. ¡Oh amigo verdadero, qué mal os paga el que os es traidor! ¡Oh cristianos verdaderos! , ayudad a llorar a vuestro Dios, que no es por solo Lázaro aquellas piadosas lágrimas, sino por los que no habían de querer resucitar, aunque Su Majestad los diese voces. ¡Oh bien mío, qué presentes teníais las culpas que he cometido contra Vos! Sean ya acabadas, Señor, sean acabadas, y las de todos.
Resucitad a estos muertos; sean vuestras voces, Señor, tan poderosas que, aunque no os pidan la vida, se la deis para que después, Dios mío, salgan de la profundidad de sus deleites.
—No os pidió Lázaro que le resucitaseis. Por una mujer pecadora lo hicisteis; véisla aquí, Dios mío, y muy mayor; resplandezca vuestra misericordia. Yo, aunque miserable, lo pido por las que no os lo quieren pedir. Ya sabéis, Rey mío, lo que me atormenta verlos tan olvidados de los grandes tormentos que han de padecer para sin fin, si no se tornan a Vos. ¡Oh, los que estáis mostrados a deleites y contentos y regalos y hacer siempre vuestra voluntad, habed lástima de vosotros! Acordaos que habéis de estar sujetos siempre, siempre, sin fin, a las furias infernales. Mirad, mirad, que os ruega ahora el Juez que os ha de condenar, y que no tenéis un solo momento segura la vida; ¿por qué no queréis vivir para siempre? ¡Oh dureza de corazones humanos!
Ablándelos vuestra inmensa piedad, mi Dios.
Notes
- 1 ↩“God” refers christologically to Christ’s death; the source’s deliberately stark wording has been preserved.
- 2 ↩The Spanish literally says that the speaker's future sins were present to God; the translation expresses this as divine foreknowledge.
- 3 ↩The older Spanish form means accustomed or habituated, not displayed.
- 4 ↩Literally “infernal furies”; rendered as “the powers of hell” to preserve the threatening personal force without importing the classical Furies too narrowly.
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