Exclamación III
The Ingratitude of the Human Heart
The soul laments the profound ingratitude of humanity in the face of Christ's redemptive love and divine mercy.
When I consider the glory, my God, that you have prepared for those who persevere in doing your will; how much suffering and pain it cost your Son to win it for us; how little we deserved it; and how greatly such costly love deserves not to be met with ingratitude—the love by which he taught us to love—my soul is deeply grieved. How is it possible, Lord, for all this to be forgotten, and for mortal creatures to be so forgetful of you when they offend you? O my Redeemer, how utterly forgetful they are, even of themselves! And how great your goodness is: precisely then you remember us. Though we have fallen after dealing you a mortal blow, you overlook it, reach out your hand to us again, and awaken us from such an incurable frenzy, so that we may seek salvation and ask it of you!1 Blessed be such a Lord, blessed be such great mercy, and may he be praised forever for compassion so full of tenderness. Oh, my soul! Bless such a great God forever. How can anyone turn against Him? Oh, how the greatness of the gift harms those who are ungrateful! You must set this right, my God. Oh, children of humanity! How long will you remain hard-hearted and keep your hearts set against this most gentle Jesus? What is this?
The Certainty of Judgment and the Sorrow of Repentance
Reflecting on the transience of life and the inevitability of judgment, the soul finds that true repentance is a life of continual sorrow for lost innocence.
Can our wickedness against him really last? No, because human life fades like a flower in the grass, and the Son of the Virgin will come to pronounce that terrible sentence. O my mighty God! Since you will judge us whether we want it or not, why don't we consider how much it matters that we please you when that hour comes? But who—who wouldn't want such a just Judge? Blessed are those who will rejoice with you at that fearful moment, O my God and Lord! When you have raised someone up, and that person has realized how miserably they lost themselves for one brief pleasure, and has resolved always to please you—with your favor helping them, for you never fail those who love you, dearest treasure of my soul, nor do you cease to answer anyone who calls on you—what way is there, Lord, for them to go on living except by continually dying at the memory of having lost so great a good as they would have possessed if they had remained in the innocence given them in baptism?2 The best life such a person can live is to die continually with this sorrow.3
The Wounds of Love and the Hope of Mercy
The soul contemplates the Passion of Christ as the ultimate remedy for human vanity, finding its only consolation in the promise of divine mercy.
But how can a soul that loves you tenderly bear it? But what a senseless question I’m asking you, my Lord! I seem to have forgotten your greatness and mercy: how you came into the world for sinners, bought us at such a great price, and paid for our false pleasures by enduring such cruel torments and scourging. You answered for my blindness by letting your divine eyes be covered, and for my vanity by wearing such a cruel crown of thorns.4 O Lord, Lord! All of this wounds the person who loves you even more deeply. My only consolation is that your mercy will be praised forever when my wickedness becomes known; and yet I don’t know whether that will ease this anguish before the sight of you takes away all the miseries of this mortal life.5
Read the original Latin
—Considerando la gloria que tenéis, Dios mío, aparejada a los que perseveran en hacer vuestra voluntad, y con cuántos trabajos y dolores la ganó vuestro Hijo, y cuán mal lo teníamos merecido, y lo mucho que merece que no se desagradezca la grandeza de amor que tan costosamente nos ha enseñado a amar, se ha afligido mi alma en gran manera. ¿Cómo es posible, Señor, se olvide todo esto y que tan olvidados estén los mortales de Vos cuando os ofenden? ¡Oh Redentor mío, y cuán olvidados se olvidan de sí, y que sea tan grande vuestra bondad, que entonces os acordéis Vos de nosotros, y que habiendo caído por heriros a Vos de golpe mortal, olvidado de esto nos tornéis a dar la mano y despertéis de frenesí tan incurable, para que procuremos y os pidamos salud! Bendito sea tal Señor, bendita tan gran misericordia, y alabado sea por siempre por tan piadosa piedad.
—¡Oh ánima mía! , bendice para siempre a tan gran Dios. ¿Cómo se puede tornar contra Él? ¡Oh, que a los que son desagradecidos la grandeza de la merced les daña! Remediadlo Vos, mi Dios. ¡Oh hijos de los hombres! , ¿hasta cuándo seréis duros de corazón y le tendréis para ser contra este mansísimo Jesús? ¿Qué es esto?
¿Por ventura permanecerá nuestra maldad contra Él? No, que se acaba la vida del hombre como la flor del heno y ha de venir el Hijo de la Virgen a dar aquella terrible sentencia. ¡Oh poderoso Dios mío! Pues aunque no queramos nos habéis de juzgar, ¿por qué no miramos lo que nos importa teneros contento para aquella hora? Mas ¿quién, quién no querrá Juez tan justo? ¡Bienaventurados los que en aquel temeroso punto se alegraren con Vos, oh Dios y Señor mío! Al que Vos habéis levantado, y él ha conocido cuán míseramente se perdió por ganar un muy breve contento y está determinado a contentaros siempre, y ayudándole vuestro favor (pues no faltáis, bien mío de mi alma, a los que os quieren ni dejáis de responder a quien os llama), ¿qué remedio, Señor, para poder después vivir, que no sea muriendo con la memoria de haber perdido tanto bien como tuviera estando en la inocencia que quedó del bautismo? La mejor vida que puede tener es morir siempre con este sentimiento.
Mas el alma que tiernamente os ama, ¿cómo lo ha de poder sufrir?
—¡Mas qué desatino os pregunto, Señor mío! Parece que tengo olvidadas vuestras grandezas y misericordias y cómo vinisteis al mundo por los pecadores, y nos comprasteis por tan gran precio, y pagasteis nuestros falsos contentos con sufrir tan crueles tormentos y azotes. Remediasteis mi ceguedad con que tapasen vuestros divinos ojos, y mi vanidad con tan cruel corona de espinas. ¡Oh Señor, Señor! Todo esto lastima más a quien os ama. Solo consuela que será alabada para siempre vuestra misericordia cuando se sepa mi maldad; y, con todo, no sé si quitarán esta fatiga hasta que con veros a Vos se quiten todas las miserias de esta mortalidad.
Notes
- 1 ↩Spanish “salud” can mean both healing and salvation; “salvation” best preserves the spiritual sense while retaining the passage’s imagery of sickness and recovery.
- 2 ↩The phrase refers to the state of innocence received in baptism and subsequently lost through sin.
- 3 ↩Here sentimiento refers to the preceding grief and compunction over lost baptismal innocence, not merely to a neutral feeling.
- 4 ↩Here the verb presents Christ’s sufferings as the remedy or reparation corresponding to the speaker’s sins.
- 5 ↩The implied subject is contextually uncertain; the translation takes it to refer to the knowledge and praise of God’s mercy just mentioned.
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