O Christian soul, soul raised from a sad death, soul which the blood of a God has redeemed from a miserable slavery, stir up your thoughts, remember your restoration from death, meditate on your deliverance, ask yourself by what power you were saved.
O hidden force! A man — Christ — hung on the cross, raised up all the human race which was crushed by an everlasting death; a man nailed to wood broke the bonds which bound the world to an endless death. O hidden strength! One man, condemned with two thieves, saved all men, condemned with the devils; a man stretched on a gibbet drew all things to himself. O mysterious virtue! The life which one man lost in torments snatches innumerable multitudes from hell; one man, in submitting to the death of the body, annulled the power of death over souls!
But why, good Master, tender Redeemer, powerful Savior, why have you hidden such power under such abasement? Is there any necessity that obliged the Almighty to humble himself in this way and to impose such toil on himself?
No, he only acted thus through free will and since he only wanted what was good, he did it solely out of pure kindness. He who had no need to suffer this death and might have avoided it without any violation of justice, willingly underwent it for justice' sake when inflicted on himself. No necessity obliged him to suffer. He did not succumb to violence, but out of a spontaneous goodness for the honor of God and the benefit of other men, gloriously and mercifully, he bore all the malice of men. He did not act under compulsion: he obeyed a disposition of the all-powerful wisdom. For the Father did not compel him to die by an express order; it was he himself, who, freely, did what he knew would please his Father and profit mankind. How could the Father impose upon him by force what he could not exact from him by right? But also, how could the Father not receive with joy this incomparable honor freely given him by his Son with such love? This was the way he showed a willing obedience to his Father; was obedient to the Father even unto death, conformed to the commandment of his Father; and thus he drank the chalice which the Father gave him.
Such is, indeed, for human nature, perfect and supremely free obedience: to submit voluntarily our free will to the will of God, to translate this good disposition of the will into action and to bring it to its full effect, with entire and continual liberty.
Behold, O Christian soul, the power which has saved thee; this is the cause of thy freedom, this is the price of thy redemption. You were a captive, but you have been redeemed. You were a slave and behold you are made free; you were an exile and now you have returned home; lost, you have been found; dead, you are restored to life! O man, let thy heart meditate, taste and ponder over these thoughts, when your lips receive the body and blood of your Redeemer.
Grant, Lord, that I taste them, not only by thought but also by love.
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