Robert Bellarmine, The Seven Words on the Cross

According to the practice we have so far pursued, we will gather a few fruits from the consideration of the last word spoken by Christ on the Cross, and from His Death, which immediately followed. And first we will show the wisdom, the power, and the infinite charity of God from the very circumstance which seems attended with such weakness and folly. His power is clearly shown in this, that our Lord died whilst He was crying out with a loud voice. From this we conclude that had it been His will He need not have died, but He died because He willed. As a rule, people at the point of death gradually lose their strength and voice, and at the last gasp are not able to articulate. And so it was not without reason that the Centurion, on hearing such a loud cry proceed from the lips of Christ, Who had lost almost every drop of blood in His veins, exclaimed, "Indeed, this was the Son of God."[1]

Christ is a mighty Lord, inasmuch as He showed His power even in His Death, not only by crying aloud with His last breath, but also by making the earth tremble, by splitting rocks asunder, by opening graves, and rending the veil of the Temple. We know, on the authority of St. Matthew, that all these things happened at the Death of Christ, and each and all of these events has its hidden meaning wherein is manifested His Divine wisdom. The earthquake and the splitting of the rocks showed that His Death and Passion would move men to penance, and would soften the hardest hearts. St. Luke gives this interpretation to these mysterious omens, for after having mentioned them he adds, that the Jews returned from the sight of the Crucifixion, "striking their breasts."[2] The opening of the graves foreshadowed the glorious resurrection of the dead, which was one of the results of the Death of Christ. The rending of the veil of the Temple, whereby the Holy of Holies could be seen, was a pledge that Heaven would be opened by the merits of His Death and Passion, and that all the predestined should there behold God face to face. Nor was His wisdom exhibited merely in these signs and wonders. It was exhibited also by producing life out of death, as was prefigured by Moses producing water from the rock,[3] and by the simile in which Christ compared Himself to a grain of wheat.[4] For as it is necessary for the seed to be crushed in order to produce the ear of corn, so by His Death on the Cross Christ enriched a countless multitude of all nations by the life of grace. St. Peter expresses the same idea when he speaks of Jesus Christ as "swallowing down death that we might be made heirs of life everlasting."[5] As though he would say: The first man tasted the forbidden fruit and subjected all his posterity to death; the Second Man tasted the bitter fruit of death, and all who are born again in Him receive everlasting life. Lastly, His wisdom was manifested in the manner of His Death, as from that moment the Cross, than which previously nothing was more ignominious and disgraceful, became an emblem so dignified and glorious that even kings consider it an honour to wear it as an ornament. In her adoration of the Cross the Church sings--

"Sweet are the nails, and sweet the wood, That bears a weight so sweet and good."

St. Andrew, on beholding the cross on which he was to be crucified, exclaimed: "Hail, precious cross, that hast been adorned by the precious limbs of my Lord. Long have I desired thee, ardently have I sought thee, uninterruptedly have I loved thee, and now I find thee ready to receive my longing soul. Secure and full of joy I come to thee, and do thou receive me into thy embrace, for I am the disciple of Christ my Lord, Who redeemed me by hanging upon thee."

Now what shall we say of the infinite charity of God. Previously to His Death our Lord said, "Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends."[6] Christ literally laid down His life, for against His will no one could deprive Him of it. "No man taketh it away from Me; but I lay it down of Myself."[7] A man cannot show greater love for his friends than by giving his life for them, since nothing is more precious or dearer than life, as it is the foundation of every happiness. "For what doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?"[8] that is, his life. Each one instinctively repels with all his strength an attack made upon his life. We read in Job: "Skin for skin, and all that a man hath will he give for his life."[9] So far, however, we have looked upon this fact in a general way; we will now descend to particulars. In many ways, and in an ineffable manner, Christ showed His love towards the whole human race, and to each individual, by dying on the Cross. In the first place, His life was the most precious of all lives, since it was the life of the Man-God, the life of the most mighty of Kings, the life of the wisest of Doctors, the life of the best of men. In the second place He laid down this life for His enemies, for sinners, for ungrateful wretches. Moreover, He laid down His life in order that at the price of His own Blood, these sinners, these ungrateful wretches, should be snatched from the flames of hell. And lastly, He laid down His life to make these enemies, these sinners, these ungrateful wretches, His brothers, co-heirs and joint possessors with Him of eternal happiness in the kingdom of heaven. Shall there now be one soul so callous and so ungrateful as not to love Jesus Christ with its whole heart? Shall there be one Christian soul unwilling to bear any affliction to secure His grace and live? O God, turn our hardened stony hearts to Thee, and not our hearts only, but the hearts of all Christians, the hearts of all men, even the hearts of infidels who have never known Thee, and of atheists who have denied Thee.

ENDNOTES

1. St. Matt. xxvii. 54.

2. St. Luke xxiii. 48.

3. Numb. xx. 11.

4. St. John xii. 24.

5. 1 Peter iii. 22.

6. St. John xv. 13.

7. St. John x. 18.

8. St. Matt. xvi. 26.

9. Job ii. 4.