St. Bonaventure: Liber de ligno
vitae, n. 30: Sacred Heart
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.
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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