The Passion of Our Lord should
inspire us with a lively hatred of sin.
(Saint John Baptiste De La Salle)
1-Can we contemplate Our Lord in His Passion without
having a lively hatred of sin,and great sorrow for those we have committed, since we
cannot be unaware that our sins have been the cause of so many sufferings and His death?
Not to wish to cease sinning is not to wish that HE cease suffering. Do we not know that
as many sins as we commit,so mnay torments do we cause HIM?
We crucify Him anew, according to St.Paul, and inflict on HIM another species of death,
which is more painful to HIM than the first.(Med.27)
2-We who have been born and live in sin should become
conformable to Our Lord as a victim and suffer with HIM, if we wish to have Him for our
head, to be one of HIS members, and destroy sin in ourselves.
It is therefore necessary, as St.Paul tells us, that neither tribulation nor distress, nor
famine, nor nakedness, nor danger, nor persecution should separate us from the love of
Christ.
If like unto Him, continues the Apostle Paul, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter,
we must, in the midst of these sufferings remain victorious, animated, by the example of
Him who has loved us even to dying for love of us. (Med.152)
3-Adore the five wounds of Our Lord, and bear in mind that He has preserved them in His sacred body only as glorious marks of the victory which He has gained over hell and sin, from which He has withdrawn the human race by His sufferings and death.
Often cast your eyes upon so holy an object; consider
the wounds of the body of Our Lord as so many mouths which reproach you for your sins, and
which recall the memory of all that He suffered to efface them.
(Meditation 28)