REFLECTIONS
ON
THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST.
There is no subject of reflection more fitted for persons of every degree, than the Passion and Death of Jesus our Redeemer. Therein sinners find trust and encouragement for their conversion, and just souls assistance and strength for their progress in virtue. Therein all find consolation amid their efforts, patience in adversities, refuge in temptations, and every good for their souls. Here, then, is the passion and death of our Redeemer presented in a few brief reflections, which may be used for each day of the week.
FIRST REFLECTION.
Jesus' Suffering merits our Love and Compassion.
A GOD dies amid boundless sufferings and pains for mankind. How powerful a motive to oblige us to the tenderest compassion, to the strongest love! Who is this God who submits to so many racking tortures? And men, what are they, that a God should suffer for them thus? My soul, this thought should absorb your affections. God is greatness itself, infinite majesty itself, he is infinite Omnipotence. Man is misery itself, baseness itself, a most vile nothing. And yet, for love of this wretched nothingness, Jesus, the Son of God, sacrifices his precious life, and with agony expires transfixed upon a cross. Ah, how should we not love a God so loving and compassionate! God so greatly desires the heart of man, that to it he spends the infinite treasure of his blood.
