ORATIO XXIII. AD CHRISTUM. Pro amicis.
The Immeasurable Love of Christ
The soul contemplates Christ's boundless love shown on the cross and confesses its utter inability to repay such divine generosity.
Sweet and kind Lord, Jesus Christ, you showed a love greater than anyone has, and no one can match it; you owed nothing to death, and yet you laid down your devoted soul for your servants and sinners, and you prayed for your very killers themselves, so that you would make them your brothers and righteous, and reconcile them to your merciful Father, and to yourself.✦✦ You, Lord, who showed such great love to your enemies — you yourself commanded love to your friends.✦✦ Good Lord, with what feeling can I ponder your immeasurable love? What can I repay for your immense kindness?✦ Indeed, the sweetness of your kindness surpasses every feeling. The greatness of your gift surpasses all repayment. What, then, can I repay my Creator and Restorer? What can I repay my Merciful One and Redeemer?
The Only Possible Return: Obedient Love
Acknowledging God's self-sufficiency and his own poverty, the speaker finds that heartfelt obedience to the command of mutual love is the only fitting response.
Lord, you are my God; you have no need of anything good I possess. For the world and everything in it is yours.✦ What then can I — a beggar, a poor man, a worm, and dust — what can I give back to my God, except to obey his command from the heart? And yet your command is that we love one another.✦
Desire for Love and the Hesitation of Guilt
The soul ardently desires to fulfill the command of love and to pray for friends, yet its own sense of unworthiness and guilt holds it back from intercession.
Good man, good God, good Lord, good friend — whatever you are, you are wholly good — your humble and lowly servant longs to obey this command of yours. You know, Lord, that I love the love you command, I cherish love itself, I desire charity with all my heart.1 This is what I ask for, this is what I seek — for this your poor and beggarly servant knocks and cries out at the door of your mercy. And inasmuch as I have already received the sweet alms of your free generosity — loving every person in you and for your sake, though not as much as I ought, nor as much as I desire — I beg your clemency for all. There are, however, certain ones whose love your own love has imprinted especially and intimately upon my heart — and so I desire their good all the more ardently, and I choose to pray for them all the more devoutly. He wants to — yes, he wants to, merciful Lord — your servant wants to pray to you for his friends; but his own guilt calls him back from those he loves. How can I, who am not sufficient to beg forgiveness for myself, presume to ask your grace on others' behalf? And when I anxiously seek out intercessors for myself, with what confidence can I intercede for others?
Obedience as Healing for Presumption
Torn between the command to pray and the cry of a guilty conscience, the soul resolves to obey, trusting that love may cover the multitude of sins.
What should I do, Lord God, what should I do? You command me to pray for them, and love itself longs for it, but my conscience cries out against me, so that I am anxious over my own sins, and I tremble to speak on behalf of others. So should I neglect what you command, because I have done what you forbid? No — since I have dared what was forbidden, I will embrace what is commanded, in case obedience might heal my presumption, in case love might cover the multitude of my sins.
Prayer for Friends and Surrender to Divine Love
The soul prays earnestly for those it loves in Christ, confesses the lukewarmness of its own devotion, and entrusts its friends entirely to God's surpassing mercy and will.
I pray to you, then, merciful and good God, for those who love me on your account, and whom I love in you; and all the more earnestly for those whose love toward me, and toward whom my own love, you know to be more sincere. I don't do this, my Lord, as though I were righteous and untroubled about my own sins, but with whatever love I can muster, anxious on behalf of others. Love them yourself, then — you who are the fount of love, who command me to love and give me the grace to do so. And if my prayer doesn't deserve to benefit them, because it is offered to you by a sinner, let it avail them nonetheless, because it is made at your command, with you as its author. For your sake, then — you who are the author and giver of love — for your sake, not for mine, love them; and bring it about that they themselves may love you with all their heart, all their mind, and all their soul, so that they may desire, speak, and do only what pleases you and is good for them.✦ Too lukewarm, my Lord — too lukewarm is my prayer, because my love burns too faintly.✦ But don't measure out your gift to them, you who are rich in mercy, according to the sluggishness of my devotion; but just as your kindness surpasses all human love, so may your hearing transcend the feeling of my supplication. Do for them and concerning them, Lord, what is good for them according to your will, so that they may thus be ruled and protected by you always and everywhere, and may arrive at glorious and eternal safety.
Doxology
The prayer concludes with a brief ascription of praise to the living and reigning God.
You who live and reign.
Read the original Latin
Dulcis et benigne Domine, Jesu Christe, qui exhibuisti charitatem, qua majorem nemo habet, et cui parem nemo habere potest; qui nihil debebas morti, et tamen piam animam tuam pro servis tuis et peccatoribus posuisti, et pro ipsis interfectoribus tuis orasti, ut eos fratres tuos et justos faceres, et reconciliares misericordi Patri tuo, et tibi. Tu, Domine, qui tantam charitatem fecisti inimicis tuis, tu ipse charitatem praecepisti amicis tuis. Bone Domine, quo affectu recogitabo inaestimabilem charitatem tuam? Quid retribuam immenso beneficio tuo? Transcendit enim omnem affectum dulcedo tuae benignitatis. Vincit omnem retributionem magnitudo tui beneficii. Quid ergo retribuam Creatori et recreatori meo? Quid retribuam miseratori et redemptori meo?
Domine, Deus meus es tu, bonorum meorum non eges. Tuus est enim orbis terrae, et plenitudo ejus. Quid ergo ego mendicus et pauper, ego vermis et cinis, quid retribuam Deo meo, nisi ut ex corde obediam praecepto ejus? Est autem praeceptum tuum ut diligamus invicem.
Bone homo, bone Deus, bone Domine, bone amice, bonum totum quidquid es, huic praecepto tuo desiderat obedire humilis et contemptibilis servus tuus. Tu scis, Domine, quia dilectionem quam jubes amo, amorem diligo, charitatem concupisco. Hanc peto, hanc quaero, propter hanc pulsat et clamat hic pauper et mendicus tuus ad januam misericordiae tuae. Et in quantum jam accepi dulcem eleemosynam gratuitae largitatis tuae, diligens omnem hominem in te et propter te, quamvis non quantum debeo, nec quantum desidero, omnibus exoro clementiam tuam. Sunt tamen plures quorum dilectionem sicut specialiter et familiaribus cordi meo impressit amor tuus; ita ardentius bene desidero illis, et devotius opto orare pro illis. Vult, vult, pie Domine, vult servus tuus orare te pro amicis suis; sed revocatur reus tuus a dilectis suis. Qui enim mihi veniam exorare non sufficio, quia fronte gratiam tuam aliis rogare praesumo? Et qui anxius intercessores quaero, qua fiducia pro aliis intercedo?
Quid faciam, Domine Deus, quid faciam? Tu jubes me orare pro illis, et dilectio concupiscit, sed clamante mihi conscientia ut pro meis peccatis sollicitus sim, pro aliis loqui contremisco. Dimittam ergo quod jubes, quia feci quod prohibes? Imo quia praesumpsi prohibita, amplectar imperata, si forte obedientia sanet praesumptionem, si forte charitas operiat multitudinem peccatorum meorum.
Oro ergo te, pie et bone Deus, pro iis qui me diligunt propter te, et quos ego diligo in te; et pro illis devotius quorum erga me dilectionem, et erga quos meam tu nosti sinceriorem. Non hoc ago, Domine mi, quasi justus securus de peccatis meis; sed qualicunque charitate sollicitus pro alienis. Dilige ergo eos tu, fons dilectionis, qui praecipis et das mihi ut diligam eos. Et si oratio mea non meretur prodesse illis, quia tibi offertur a peccatore; valeat illis, quia fit te jubente auctore. Propter te ergo, tu auctor et dator charitatis, propter te, non propter me dilige eos; et fac ut ipsi te toto corde, tota mente, tota anima diligant; ut sola quae tibi placent, et illis expediunt, velint, loquantur et faciant. Nimis tepida, Domine mi, nimis tepida est oratio mea, quia parum fervida est charitas mea. Sed ne metiaris eis, tu dives in misericordia, beneficium tuum secundum torporem meae devotionis; sed sicut tua benignitas superat omnem humanam charitatem, ita tua exauditio transcendat affectum meae supplicationis. Fac illis et de illis, Domine, quod ipsis expedit secundum tuam voluntatem, ut sic a te regantur et protegantur semper et ubique, quatenus et ad gloriosam et ad aeternam perveniant securitatem.
Qui vivis et regnas.
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.15.13 — No one has greater love than this: that someone lay down his life for his friends.
- ↩Luke.23.34 — Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided his garments by casting lots.
- ↩Matt.5.44 — But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
- ↩John.13.34 — A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
- ↩Ps.116.12 — What shall I return to the LORD, for all his benefits toward me?
- ↩Ps.23.1 — A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I lack nothing.
- ↩John.13.34;John.15.12 — A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. John.15.12 — This is my commandment: that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
- ↩Deut.6.5;Matt.22.37 — And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Matt.22.37 — And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'
- ↩Rev.3.16 — So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin plays on three near-synonyms — dilectio, amor, caritas — each rendered here as 'love' or 'charity' to preserve the theological weight of caritas as the virtue of charity.
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