4th Sunday Of Advent: ON THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST FOR US, & ON OUR OBLIGATIONS TO LOVE HIM

THE Saviour of the world, whom, according to the prediction of the prophet Isaias, men were
one day to see on this Earth “and all flesh shall see the salvation of God,” has already come.
We have not only seen him conversing among men, but we have also seen him suffering and
dying for the love of us. Let us, then, this morning consider the love which we owe to Jesus
Christ at least through gratitude for the love which he bears to us. In the first point we shall
consider the greatness of the love which Jesus Christ has shown to us; and in the second we
shall see the greatness of our obligations to love him.

First Point. On the great love which Jesus Christ has shown to us.

1 . ”Christ,” says St. Augustine, ”came on Earth that men might know how much God loves
them.” He has come, and to show the immense love which this God bears us, he has given
himself entirely to us, by abandoning himself to all the pains of this life, and afterwards to
the scourges, to the thorns, and to all the sorrows and insults which he suffered in his
passion, and by offering himself to die, abandoned by all, on the infamous tree of the cross.
”Who loved me, and delivered himself for me.” (Gal. ii. 20.)

2. Jesus Christ could save us without dying on the cross, and without suffering. One drop of
his blood would be sufficient for our redemption. Even a prayer offered to his Eternal Father
would be sufficient; because, on account of his divinity, his prayer would be of infinite value,
and would therefore be sufficient for the salvation of the world, and of a thousand worlds.
”But” says St. Chrysostom, or another ancient author, ”what was sufficient for redemption
was not sufficient for love.”

This may be inferred from the
words which he used on the night before his death: “This is my blood of the new testament,
which shall be shed for many. ” (Matt. xxvi. 28.) The words shall be shed show that, in his
passion, the blood of Jesus Christ was poured forth even to the last drop. Hence, when after
death his side was opened with a spear, blood and water came forth, as if what then flowed
was all that remained of his blood. Jesus Christ, then, though he could save us without
suffering, wished to embrace a life of continual pain, and to suffer the cruel and ignominious
death of the cross. ”He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross.” (Phil. ii. 8.)

3. ”Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John
xv. 13.) To show his love for us, what more could the Son of God do than die for us? What
more can one man do for another than give his life for him? “Greater love than this no man
hath.” Tell me, my brother, if one of your servants if the vilest man on this Earth had done
for you what Jesus Christ has done in dying through pain on a cross, could you remember his
love for you, and not love him?

4. St. Francis of Assisium appeared to be unable to think of anything but the passion of Jesus
Christ; and, in thinking of it, he continually shed tears, so that by his constant weeping he
became nearly blind. Being found one day weeping and groaning at the foot of the crucifix,
he was asked the cause of his tears and lamentations. He replied: ”I weep over the sorrows
and ignominies of my Lord. And what makes me weep still more is, that the men for whom
he has suffered so much live in forgetfulness of him.”

5. O Christian, should a doubt ever enter your mind that Jesus Christ loves you, raise your
eyes and look at him hanging on the cross. Ah! says St. Thomas of Villanova, the cross to
which he is nailed, the internal and external sorrows which he endures, and the cruel death
which he suffers for you, are convincing proofs of the love which he bears you: “Testis crux,
testes dolores, testis amara mors quam pro te sustinuit.” (Conc. 3.) Do you not, says St.
Bernard, hear the voice of that cross, and of those wounds, crying out to make you feel that
he truly loves you?”Clamat crux, clamat vulnus, quod vere dilexit.”

6. St. Paul says that the love which Jesus Christ has shown in condescending to suffer so
much for our salvation, should excite us to his love more powerfully than the scourging, the
crowning with thorns, the painful journey to Calvary, the agony of three hours on the cross,
the buffets, the spitting in his face, and all the other injuries which the Saviour endured.
According to the Apostle, the love which Jesus has shown us not only obliges, but in a certain
manner forces and constrains us, to love a God who has loved us so much. ”For the charity
of Christ presseth us.” ( 2 Cor. v. 14.) On this text St. Francis de Sales says: ”We know that
Jesus the true God has loved us so as to suffer death, and even the death of the cross, for our
salvation. Does not such love put our hearts as it were under a press, to force from them love
by a violence which is stronger in proportion as it is more amiable?”

7. So great was the love which inflamed the enamoured heart of Jesus, that he not only
wished to die for our redemption, but during his whole life he sighed ardently for the day on
which he should suffer death for the love of us. Hence, during his life, Jesus used to say: ”I
have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized; and how am I straitened until it be accomplished.” (Luke xii. 50.)

In my passion I am to be baptized with the baptism of my own
blood, to wash away the sins of men. ”And how am I straitened!” How, says St. Ambrose,
explaining this passage, am I straitened by the desire of the speedy arrival of the day of my
death? Hence, on the night before his passion he said: ”With desire I have desired to eat this
pasch with you before I suffer.” (Luke xxii. 15.)

8. ”We have,” says St. Lawrence Justinian, ”seen wisdom become foolish through an excess of
love.” We have, he says, seen the Son of God become as it were a 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.”
(Hom vi.) But, whatever infidels may say or think, it is of faith that the Son 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. Ixxxiii., in Cant.) The Redeemer said: ”I am come to cast
fire upon 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 be kindled ?” God wishes nothing else from us than to be loved. Hence the holy Church
prays in the following words: ”We beseech thee, Lord, that thy Spirit may inflame us with
that fire which Jesus Christ cast upon the Earth, and which he vehemently wished to be
kindled. ”Ah! what have not the saints, inflamed with this fire, accomplished! They have
abandoned all things delights, honours, the purple and the sceptre that they might burn with
this holy fire. But you will ask what are you to do, that you too may be inflamed with the
love of Jesus Christ. Imitate David: ”In my meditation a fire shall flame out. ” (Ps. xxxviii).
Meditation is the blessed furnace in which the holy fire of divine love is kindled. Make
mental prayer every day, meditate on the passion of Jesus Christ, and doubt not but you too
shall burn with this blessed flame.

11. St. Paul says, that Jesus Christ died for us to make himself the master of the hearts of all.
“To this end Christ died and rose again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.” (Rom. xiv. 9.)

12. Ah! to correspond to the love of this God, it would be necessary that another God should
die for him, as Jesus Christ died for us. ingratitude of men! A God has condescended to give
his life for their salvation, and they will not even think on what he has even done for them!
Ah! if each of you thought frequently on the sufferings of the Redeemer., and on the love
which he has shown to us in his passion, how could you but love him with your whole
hearts? To him who sees with a lively faith the Son of God suspended by three nails on an
infamous gibbet, every wound of Jesus speaks and says: ”Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.”
Love, man, thy Lord and thy God, who has loved thee so intensely. “Who can resist such
tender expressions?”The wounds of Jesus Christ,” says St. Bonaventure, ”wound the hardest
hearts, and inflame frozen souls.”

13. ”Oh! if you knew the mystery of the cross! said St. Andrew the Apostle to the tyrant by
whom he was tempted to deny Jesus Christ. tyrant, if you knew the love which your Saviour
has shown you by dying on the cross for your salvation, instead of tempting me, you would
abandon all the goods of this Earth to give yourself to the love of Jesus Christ.

14. I conclude, my most beloved brethren, by recommending you henceforth to meditate
every day on the passion of Jesus Christ. I shall be content, if you daily devote to this
meditation a quarter of an hour. Let each at least procure a crucifix, let him keep it in his
room, and from time to time give a glance at it, saying: “Ah! my Jesus, thou hast died for me,
and I do not love thee. ” Had a person suffered for a friend injuries, buffets, and prisons, he
would be greatly pleased to find that they were remembered and spoken of with gratitude.
But he should be greatly displeased if the friend for whom they had been borne, were
unwilling to think or hear of his sufferings. Thus frequent meditation on his passion is very
pleasing to our Redeemer; but the neglect of it greatly provokes his displeasure. Oh! how
great will be the consolation which we shall receive in our last moments from the sorrows
and death of Jesus Christ, if, during life, we shall have frequently meditated on them with
love! Let us not wait till others, at the hour of death, place in our hands the crucifix; let us not
wait till they remind us of all that Jesus Christ suffered for us.