Qualiter in Christo tempore sue mortis fides, spes et caritas fuerint perfectibiliter et in nobis miseris sunt defectibiliter.
The Three Virtues of the Passion
Christ explains how faith, hope, and charity were perfected in His death to open the way to glory.
I had three things in my death. First, faith, when I knelt and prayed, knowing that the Father could rescue me from the passion. Second, hope, when I waited so steadfastly and said, 'Not as I will.' Third, charity, when I said, 'Your will be done!' I, too, endured bodily anguish from the natural fear of suffering when sweat of blood came forth from my body. Therefore, so that my friends wouldn't fear they'd been abandoned when trouble presses in on them, I showed them in myself that weak flesh always shrinks from hardship. But you might ask how a sweat of blood came from my body. Just as the blood of a sick person dries up and is consumed in their veins, so my blood was consumed by the natural agony of death. Finally, the Father, wanting to show the way by which heaven might be opened and humanity, once shut out, might enter, handed me over out of love into the passion, so that my body, once the passion was finished, might be glorified in glory. My humanity couldn't have reached glory through justice without the passion, even though I could have done so by the power of my divinity.
The Failure of the Lukewarm
Christ contrasts His perfect sacrifice with the weak faith, vain hope, and cold love of those who seek glory without following His path.
How, then, do those deserve to enter into my glory who have only a little faith, a vain hope, and no love at all? If they truly had faith in eternal joy and in the horror of punishment, they would desire nothing but me. If they truly believed that I see and know everything, that I am all-powerful, and that I demand an account of all things, the world would lose its appeal for them, and they would be more afraid of sinning in my presence out of reverence for me than they are of what other people think. If they had a firm hope, then their whole mind and every thought would be fixed on me. If they had divine love, they would at least consider in their hearts what I have done for them: how much I labored in my preaching, how much I suffered in my passion, and how great my love was in my death—that I chose to die rather than abandon them. But their faith is weak and hangs by a thread, ready to collapse at any moment; they believe when there's no pressure from temptation, but they lose heart as soon as any opposition arises. Their hope is in vain, because they expect sin to be forgiven without justice and the truth of judgment. They trust that they'll obtain the kingdom of heaven for free. They desire to obtain my mercy without the tempering of justice. Their love for me is completely cold, because they’re never stirred to seek me unless they’re forced to by trouble. How can I be warmed by such people, who have neither a right faith, nor a firm hope, nor a burning love for me?
The Necessity of Humility
True mercy is not granted to those who refuse to follow the Lord in suffering, for one must show humility to be restored to favor.
So, when they cry out to me and say, 'Have mercy on me, O God!' they don't deserve to be heard or to enter into my glory, because they are unwilling to follow their Lord to his passion; therefore, they won't follow him to his glory. No soldier can please his master and be restored to his favor after a fall, unless he first shows him some humility for his defiance.1
Read the original Latin
"Ego habui tria in morte mea. Primo fidem, quando flectebam genua mea et orabam, sciens, quia posset me pater eripere de passione. Secundo spem, quando tam constanter expectabam et dicebam 'Non sicut ego volo'. Tercio caritatem, quando dicebam 'Fiat voluntas tua!'
Ego eciam habui angustias corporis ex timore naturali passionis, quando sudor sanguinis exiuit de corpore. Ideo, ne amici mei trepidarent se relictos, cum instat eis tribulacio, ego ostendi eis in me, quod caro infirma semper refugit molestias.
Sed potes querere, quomodo sudor sanguinis exiuit de corpore meo. Utique, sicut sanguis infirmi in omnibus venis siccatur et consumitur in venis, sic ex dolore naturali mortis sanguis meus consumebatur.
Pater denique volens ostendere viam, per quam aperiretur celum et homo exclusus ingrederetur, tradidit me ex caritate in passionem, ut corpus meum consumata passione glorificaretur in gloria. Non enim sine passione humanitas mea in gloriam venire posset ex iusticia, licet potuissem ex potencia deitatis mee fecisse.
Quomodo ergo illi merentur intrare in gloriam meam, qui modicam habent fidem, spem vanam et caritatem nullam? Si denique haberent fidem gaudii eterni et supplicii horribilis, nichil concupiscerent nisi me.
Si crederent, quod ego omnia video et scio et in omnia potens sum et de omnibus iudicium requiro, vilesceret eis mundus et timerent magis coram me peccare propter timorem mei quam pro hominibus.
Si haberent spem firmam, tunc tota mens et cogitacio eorum esset ad me. Si haberent caritatem diuinam, cogitarent saltem in animo, quid feci pro eis, quantus michi labor in predicacione, quantus dolor in passione, quanta michi caritas in morte, scilicet quod prius volui mori quam eos relinquere.
Sed fides eorum est infirma et quasi pendet in eis, cicius minans casum, quia credunt absente temptacionis impulsu, diffidunt autem accedente aliquo contrario.
Spes eorum est vana, quia sperant peccatum sine iusticia et veritate iudicii dimitti. Regnum celorum confidunt optinere gratis. Misericordiam meam absque temperamento iusticie optinere cupiunt.
Caritas eorum ad me tota est frigida, quia numquam accenduntur ad querendum me, nisi tribulacione cogantur. Quomodo cum talibus possum calefieri, qui nec fidem habent rectam nec spem firmam nec caritatem ad me feruentem?
Ideo, cum clamauerint ad me et dixerint 'Miserere mei, Deus!' , non merentur audiri nec intrare in gloriam meam, quia nolunt sequi Dominum suum ad passionem, ideo nec sequentur eum ad gloriam.
Nullus enim miles placere potest domino suo et in graciam eius post lapsum recipi, nisi prius aliquam humilitatem fecerit ei pro contemptu suo."
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin 'contemptu' here carries the sense of a deliberate slight or act of rebellion against authority, fitting the military metaphor.
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