Page:PassionDeathOfJesusChristV5.djvu/41

 love  of  a miserable  sinner  like  me. O love of  souls,  O my  Jesus! I love Thee,  I love  Thee,  I love  Thee;  but  still I love Thee  too  little. Oh, give  me  more  love,  give  me flames  that  may  make  me  live  always  burning  with  Thy love! I do not  myself  deserve  it;  but  Thou  dost  well deserve it,  O infinite  Goodness. Amen. This I hope, so may  it  be.

“Two things,”  says  Cicero,  “ make  us  know  a lover — that he  does  good  to  his  beloved,  and  that  he  suffers  torments for  him;  and  this  last  is  the  greatest  sign  of  true love.” 1 God has  indeed  already  shown  his  love  to  man by many  benefits  bestowed  upon  him;  but  his  love would not  have  been  satisfied  by  only  doing  good  to man,  as  says  St.  Peter  Chrysologus,  if  he  had  not  found the means  to  prove  to  him  how  much  he  loved  him  by also  suffering  and  dying  for  him,  as  he  did  by  taking upon him  human  flesh:  “ But  he  held  it  to  be  little  if  he showed  his  love  without  suffering;”  and  what  greater means could  God  have  discovered  to  prove  to  us  the immense love  which  he  bears  us  than  by  making  himself man and  suffering  for  us? “ In no  other  way  could  the love of  God  towards  us  be  shown,”  writes  St.  Gregory Nazianzen.