St. Robert Bellarmine: The Seven Words on the Cross

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CHAPTER XI: The fourth fruit to be drawn from the consideration of the fifth Word spoken by Christ upon the Cross.

There remains one fruit more, and that the sweetest of all, to be gathered from the consideration of this word. St. Austin, in his explanation of the word “I thirst,” which is to be found in his treatise on the sixty-eighth Psalm, says that it shows not only the desire which Christ had for drink, but still more the desire with which He was inflamed that His enemies should believe in Him and be saved. We may advance a step further than St. Austin, and say that Christ thirsted for the glory of God and the salvation of men, and we ought to thirst for the glory of God, for the honour of Christ, for our own salvation, and the salvation of our brethren. We cannot doubt that Christ thirsted for the glory of His Father, and the salvation of souls, for all His works, all His preaching, all His sufferings, all His miracles proclaimed it. We must consider what we have to do not to show ourselves ungrateful to such a Benefactor, and what means we must take to become so inflamed as really to thirst for the glory of that God Who “so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son;[1] and fervently and ardently thirst for the honour of Christ, Who “loved us, and delivered Himself for us an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness,”[2] and so feelingly compassionate our brethren as zealously to desire their salvation. Still the most necessary thing for ourselves is so cordially and earnestly to long for our own salvation, that this desire should compel us, according to our strength, to think and speak and do everything that can help us to save our souls. If we care nothing for the honour of God, or the glory of Christ, and feel no anxiety for our own salvation or that of others, it follows that God will be deprived of the honour which is His due, that Christ will lose the glory which is His own, that our neighbour will not reach Heaven, and that we ourselves shall perish miserably for eternity. And on this account I am often filled with astonishment when I reflect that we all know how sincerely Christ thirsted for our salvation, and we, who believe Christ to be the Wisdom of the living God, are not moved to imitate His example in a matter so intimately connected with ourselves. Nor am I less astonished to see men hunt after worldly goods with such avidity, as though there were no Heaven, and so little trouble themselves about their salvation, that, far from thirsting for it, they scarcely give it a passing thought, as though it were a trivial matter of light importance. Moreover temporal goods, which are not unmixed pleasures, but are accompanied with many misfortunes, are sought after with earnestness and anxiety; but eternal happiness, which is an unalloyed pleasure, is cared for so little, longed for so unconcernedly, as though it possessed no advantage whatever. Enlighten, O Lord, the eyes of my soul, that I may find the cause of such a hurtful indifference!

Love produces desire, and desire, when it is excessive, is called a thirst. Now who is there that cannot love his own eternal happiness, particularly when that happiness is free from everything that can mar it? And if so great a prize cannot but be loved, why cannot it be ardently desired, eagerly sought after, and with all our strength thirsted for ? Perhaps the reason is that our salvation is not a matter that falls under the senses, we have never had any experience of what it is like, as we have had in matters that regard the body, and so we are solicitous for the latter, and coldly indifferent to the former. But if such is the case, why did David, who was a mortal man like ourselves, so eagerly long for the vision of God, and the happiness of heaven consists in the vision of God, as to cry out: “As the hart panteth after the fountains of water, so my soul panteth after Thee, O God. My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?”[3] David is not the only one in this vale of tears who has desired with such a burning desire the sight of the vision of God. There have been several others also, who were distinguished by their holiness, by whom the things of this world were regarded as mean and insipid, and to whom the thought and the remembrance of God were alone agreeable and most charming. The reason then why we do not thirst for our eternal happiness is not because heaven is invisible, but because we do not think of what is before us with attention, with assiduity, with faith. And the reason why we do not regard heavenly things as we ought is that we are not spiritual, but sensual men; “The sensual man perceiveth not those things that are of the Spirit of God.”[4] Wherefore, my soul, if you desire for your own salvation, and that of your neighbour, if you have at heart the honour of God and the glory of Christ, listen to the words of the blessed Apostle St. James: “If any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God, Who giveth to all men abundantly, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.”[5] This sublime wisdom is not to be acquired in the schools of this World, but in the school of the Holy Spirit of God, Who changes the sensual man into the spiritual one. But it is not enough to ask for this wisdom once only and with coldness, but to demand it with much groaning from our heavenly Father. For if a father according to the flesh cannot refuse his son when he asks for bread, “how much more will your Father from heaven give the Good Spirit to them that ask Him.”[6]


ENDNOTES

1. St. John iii. 16.
2. Ephes. v. 2.
3. Psalm xli. 2, 3.
4. 1 Cor. ii. 14.
5. St. James i. 5.
6. St. Luke xi. 13.