The desire Jesus had to suffer for us

What a subject of wonder to the Angels must not the great love of God have been when they saw the Eternal Word become Man for the Redemption of fallen man! How is it possible, indeed, that God should be so enamoured of men and that men, who are so grateful to one another, should be so ungrateful to God?

I. Jesus could have saved us without suffering; but He chose rather to embrace a life of sorrow and contempt, deprived of every earthly consolation, and a death of bitterness and desolation, only to make us understand the love He bore us, and the desire He had that we should love Him. He passed His whole life in sighing for the hour of His death, which He desired to offer to God to obtain for us eternal salvation. And it was this desire which made Him exclaim: I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized; and how am I straitened until it be accomplished? (Luke xii. 50). He desired to be baptized in His own Blood, to wash out, not indeed His own sins, but ours. O infinite Love, how miserable is he who does not know Thee, and does not love Thee!

This same desire caused Jesus to say, on the night before His death: With desire I have desired to eat this pasch with you. By which words He shows that His one desire during His whole life had been to see the time arrive for His Passion and Death, in order to prove to man the immense love He bore him. So much, therefore, O my Jesus, didst Thou desire our love, that to obtain it Thou didst not refuse to die. How can I, then, deny anything to a God Who has given His Blood and His life for the love of me?

II. St. Bonaventure says that it is a marvel to see a God suffering for the love of men; but that it is a still greater marvel that men should behold a God suffering so much for them, shivering with cold as an Infant in a manger, living as a poor boy in a shop, dying as a criminal on a Cross, and yet not burn with love for this most loving God; and even go so far as to despise this love for the sake of the miserable pleasures of this earth. But how is it possible that God should be so enamoured of men, and that men who are so grateful to one another, should be so ungrateful to God?

Alas, my Jesus, I find myself also among the number of these ungrateful ones. Tell me, how couldst Thou suffer so much for me, knowing the injuries I would commit against Thee? But since Thou hast borne with me, and even desirest my salvation, give me, I pray Thee, a great sorrow for my sins, a sorrow equal to my ingratitude. I hate and detest, above all things, the displeasure I have caused Thee. If, during my past life, I despised Thy grace, now I value it above all the kingdoms of the earth. I love Thee with my whole soul, O God, worthy of infinite love, and I desire only to live in order to love Thee. Increase the flames of Thy love, and give me more and more love. Keep alive in my remembrance the love Thou hast borne me, so that my heart may always burn with love for Thee, as Thy Heart burns with love for me. O burning heart of Mary, inflame my poor heart with holy love.