Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/52

 fool, through, the excessive love which he bore to men. Such, too, was the language of the Gentiles when they heard the apostles preaching that Jesus Christ suffered death for the love of men. " But we," says St. Paul, " preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumbling block, unto the Gentiles foolishness." (1 Cor. i. 23.) Who, they exclaimed, can believe that a God, most happy in himself, and who stands in need of no one, should take human flesh and die for the love of men, who are his creatures ? This would be to believe that a God became foolish for the love of men. " It appears folly," says St. Gregory, " that the author of Life should die for men." (Horn vi.) But, whatever infidels may say or think, it is of faith that the Sou of God has shed all his blood for the love of us, to wash away the sins of our souls. " Who hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." (Apoc. i. 5.) Hence, the saints were struck dumb with astonishment at the consideration of the love of Jesus Christ. At the sight of the crucifix, St. Francis of Paul could do nothing but exclaim, love ! love ! love !

9. " Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end/ (John xiii. 1.) This loving Lord was not content with showing us his love by dying on the cross for our salvation ; but, at the end of his life, he wished to leave us his own very flesh for the food of our souls, that thus he might unite himself entirely to us. " Take ye and eat, this is my body." (Matt. xxvi. 26.) But of this gift and this excess of love we shall speak at another time, in treating of the most holy sacrament of the altar. Let us pass to the second point.

Second Point. On the greatness of our obligations to love Jesus Christ.

10. He who loves wishes to be loved. "When," says St. Bernard, " God loves, he desires nothing else than to be loved." (Ser. lxxxiii., in Cant.) The Redeemer said: " I am come to cast fire the Earth, and what will I but that it is kindled (Luke xii. 49.) I, says Jesus Christ, came on earth to light up the fire of divine love in the hearts of men, "and what will I but that it