It was not necessary that the Son of Man suffer to attain our salvation. Yet, in His abundance of love for souls, Our Lord took on the weight of our sinfulness–choosing to suffer in our stead. Join St. Alphonsus Liguori in this impassioned meditation on the love that drove Christ to suffer for men.
What Makes a Lover?
“Two things,” says Cicero, “make us know a lover—that he does good to his beloved and that he suffers torments for him, and this last is the greatest sign of true love.” God has indeed already shown His love to man by many benefits bestowed upon him, but His love would not have been satisfied by only doing good to man, as says Saint Peter Chrysologus, if He had not found the means to prove to him how much He loved him by also suffering and dying for him, as He did by taking upon Him human flesh: “But He held it to be little if He showed His love without suffering,” and what greater means could God have discovered to prove to us the immense love which He bears us than by making Himself man and suffering for us? “In no other way could the love of God towards us be shown,” writes Saint Gregory Nazianzen.
My beloved Jesus, how much have You labored to show me Your love and to make me enamored of Your goodness! Great indeed, then, would be the injury I should do You if I were to love You but little, or to love anything else but You.
The Greatest Love of All
Ah, when He showed Himself to us, a God wounded, crucified, and dying, did He not indeed (says Cornelius à Lapide) give us the greatest proofs of the love that He bears us? “God showed His utmost love on the cross.” And before him, St. Bernard said that Jesus, in His passion, showed us that His love towards us could not be greater than it was: “In the shame of the Passion is shown the greatest and incomparable love.” The Apostle writes that when Jesus Christ chose to die for our salvation, then appeared how far the love of God extended towards us miserable creatures: The goodness and kindness of God our Savior appeared.
O my most loving Savior! I feel indeed that all Your wounds speak to me of the love that You bear me. And who that had so many proofs of Your love could resist loving You in return? Saint Teresa was indeed right, O most amiable Jesus, when she said that he who loves You not gives a proof that he does not know You.
It Was Not Necessary That Christ Suffer
Jesus Christ could easily have obtained for us salvation without suffering, and in leading a life of ease and delight, but no, Saint Paul says, having joy set before Him, He endured the cross. He refused the riches, the delights, the honors of the world, and chose for Himself a life of poverty and a death full of suffering and ignominy. And wherefore? Would it not have sufficed for Him to have offered to His eternal Father one single prayer for the pardon of man? For this prayer, being of infinite value, would have been sufficient to save the world, and infinite worlds besides. Why, then, did He choose for Himself so much suffering, and a death so cruel, that an author has said very truly that through mere pain the soul of Jesus separated itself from His body? To what purpose so much cost in order to save man? Saint John Chrysostom answers, a single prayer of Jesus would indeed have sufficed to redeem us, but it was not sufficient to show us the love that our God has borne us: “That which sufficed to redeem us was not sufficient for love.” And Saint Thomas confirms this when he says, “Christ, in suffering from love and obedience offered to God more than the expiation of the offence of the human race demanded.” Because Jesus loved us so much, He desired to be loved very much by us, and therefore He did everything that He could, even unto suffering for us, in order to conciliate our love and to show that there was nothing more that He could do to make us love Him: “He endured much weariness,” says Saint Bernard, “that He might bind man to love Him much.”
And what greater proof of love, says our Savior Himself, can a friend show towards the person he loves than to give his life for his sake? Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends. But You, O most loving Jesus, says Saint Bernard, have done more than this, since You have given Your life for us, who were not Your friends, but Your enemies and rebels against You: “You have a greater charity, Lord, in giving Your life for Your enemies.” And this is what the Apostle observes when he writes, He commends His charity towards us, because when as yet we were sinners, according to the time, Christ died for us.
You would then die for me, Your enemy, O my Jesus, and yet can I resist so much love? Behold, here I am; since You so anxiously desire that I should love You, I will drive away every other love from my breast and will love You alone.
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This article is taken from a chapter in The Road to Calvary by St. Alphonsus Liguori which is available from TAN Books.
