Homily by S. Bonaventura, On the Tree of Life
SO that the Church might be formed from Christ as
he slept, it was allowed by divine dispensation that one of the soldiers should
pierce that sacred side with a spear, and that, in the tide of blood and water,
the price of our salvation should be poured forth. This tide, flowing from the
secret fountain of the Heart, was to provide the power for the Church's
Sacraments for the conferring of the life of grace; and to all who would live
in Christ that draught was to be a well of water springing up into everlasting
life.
ARISE, therefore, O soul that loves Christ , and
be ye like to a nesting bird: be ye like to the sparrow who has found her an
house, and watch without ceasing: be ye like to the swallow, and lay here the
young of thy chaste love: place here thy mouth, that thou mayest draw water
from the wells of the Savior. For this is the river that went out of Eden and
was parted into four heads, for streaming out of that Sacred Heart, it irrigates
the whole world and makes it fertile.
On
the Mystical Life: or A Treatise on the Passion of Our Lord.
SINCE we have already come to the most sweet Heart
of the Lord Jesus, and it is good for us to be here, we shall not easily be
torn away from it. O how good and pleasant it is to dwell in this Heart. A
noble treasure, a precious pearl is thy Heart, O most excellent Jesus, which we
find in the ploughed field of thy Body: who would throw away this pearl? Nay,
rather will I give all pearls, I will change my thoughts and affections and I
will provide myself with it; casting all my thoughts and intentions into the'
Heart of our good Jesus, so that by it I may be truly nourished.
THEREFORE, as thy Heart and mine are united, most
sweet Jesus, I pray thee, my God receive my prayers in the holy place of thy
gracious audience: yea, rather, bring me wholly into thy Heart. For therefore
was thy side pierced, that an entrance therein might be made open to us.
Therefore, was thy Heart wounded, that by the visible wound we might behold the
invisible wound of love. For in what way could this burning love be better
manifested than by allowing, not thy body only, but thy very Heart to be
wounded by this spear? Thus, the wound of the flesh showed forth the spiritual
wound.
WHO would not love a Heart thus wounded? Who would
not give back love to one so loving? Who would not lovingly embrace one so spotless?
Therefore while we yet abide in the flesh we return love for love as far as we
are able: we embrace our wounded one, whose hands and feet, whose side and
Heart were ploughed by the impious husbandmen: and we pray that our heart,
hitherto hard and impenitent, may be constrained by the bond of his love, and
be held worthy to be wounded by this dart.
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