Christ assumed human nature in order to restore
fallen humanity. He had therefore to suffer and to do, according to human
nature, the things which could serve as a remedy against the sin of the fall.
Man’s sin consists in this that he so cleaves to
bodily goods that he neglects what is good spiritually. It was therefore
necessary for the Son of God to show this in the humanity he had taken, through
all he did and suffered, so that men should repute temporal things, whether
good or evil, as nothing, for otherwise, hindered by an exaggerated affection
for them, they would be less devoted to spiritual things.
Christ therefore chose poor people for his
parents, people nevertheless perfect in virtue, so that none of us should glory
in the mere rank or wealth of our parents.
He led the life of a poor man, to teach us to set
no store by wealth. He lived the life of an ordinary man, without any rank, to
wean men from an undue desire for honors.
Toil, thirst, hunger, the aches of the body, all
these he endured, to encourage men, whom pleasures and delights attract, not to
be deterred from virtue by the austerity a good life entails.
He went so far as to endure even death, lest the
fear of death might at any time tempt man to abandon the truth. And lest any of
us might dread to die even a shameful death for the truth, he chose to die by
the most accursed death of all, by crucifixion.
That the Son of God, made man, should suffer death
was also fitting for this reason, that by his example he stimulates our
courage, and so makes true what St. Peter said, Christ suffered for us, leaving
you an example that you should follow his steps (i Pet. ii. 21). (Contra Armen.
Sarac. 7) Christ truly suffered for us, leaving us an example in anxieties,
contempts, scourgings, the cross, death itself, that we might follow in his
steps. If we endure for Christ our own anxieties and suffer ings, we shall also
reign together with Christ find the happiness that is everlasting. St. Bernard
says, " How few are they, O Lord, who yearn to go after Thee, and yet
there is no one that desireth not to come to Thee, for all men know that in Thy
right hand are delights that will never fail. All desire to enjoy Thee, but not
all to imitate Thee. They would willingly reign with Thee, but spare themselves
from suffering with Thee. They have no desire to look for Thee, whom yet they
desire to find." (De humanitate Chris ti, cap. 47.)
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