earth. Although I was possessor of glory even in my Body, yet I repressed what would otherwise have overflowed from my Soul to my Body; and this I did that my Passion, from the absence of all comfort, might be the more bitter and the more abundant. Hence it was that, when praying in the garden, from horror of death and sorrow of heart, poured forth my Sweat of Blood, and cried out on the Cross as though I had been forsaken by God the Father. And wilt thou be seeking everywhere for carnal joys and comforts? Wilt thou pamper thy flesh with softness and delicacy? Reflect rather on my life, and when thou findest how unlike thine is to mine, be confounded in thyself; as that servant of mine not unreasonably counsels you, who says, in exhorting you to imitate me, Well may est thou be ashamed upon looking into the life of Jesus Christ, that thou hast not yet striven more to conform thyself to him, long as thou hast been in the way of God. Oh, how ill agreed are carnal comforts and the contemplation of my Passion! And yet they who confine their attention to the desires of the flesh often wonder why they do not feel their souls affected when they meditate on my Passion. Be sure that if they would be partakers of my sufferings, they would partake also of my consolation.
Behold, when David ascended barefoot the Mount of Olives, he was followed in the same manner by all his servants.[1] Urias would not go into his own house to rest upon a soft bed, because Joab, his leader, with the ark and the rest of his fellow-soldiers, were under tents; and wilt not thou be ashamed to fight under the banner of the Cross, and yet devote thy time to the carnal pleasures of eating and drinking, and revelling every day? to have thy Captain and Head crowned with thorns, and thyself to be an effeminate member of his Body?
Man. Confusion has covered my face, because I have so long hitherto been absent from thy paths. Oh, that the same mind might henceforward be in me which I see, O good Jesus, to have been in thee; that I might strive to entertain the same affection to the good things of this life and all created things, which I know was thine. For thou art the Truth and the eternal Wisdom itself; he whose judgment is what thine is cannot mistake; for thou canst neither deceive nor be deceived. He who follows thee, O eternal Way! cannot wander. He that adheres to thee, O immortal Way! will become
- ↑ 2 Kings xv. 30.
