| The bonds of love |
|---|
| Saint Catherine of Siena, virgin |
My
sweet Lord, look with mercy upon your people and especially upon the
mystical body of your Church. Greater glory is given to your name for
pardoning a multitude of your creatures than if I alone were pardoned
for my great sins against your majesty. It would be no consolation for
me to enjoy your life if your holy people stood in death. For I see that
sin darkens the life of your bride the Church – my sin and the sins of
others.
It is a special grace I ask for, this pardon for the
creatures you have made in your image and likeness. When you created
man, you were moved by love to make him in your own image. Surely only
love could so dignify your creatures. But I know very well that man lost
the dignity you gave him; he deserved to lose it, since he had
committed sin.
Moved by love and wishing to reconcile the human race
to yourself, you gave us your only-begotten Son. He became our mediator
and our justice by taking on all our injustice and sin out of obedience
to your will, eternal Father, just as you willed that he take on our
human nature. What an immeasurably profound love! Your Son went down
from the heights of his divinity to the depths of our humanity. Can
anyone’s heart remain closed and hardened after this?
We image your divinity, but you image our humanity in
that union of the two which you have worked in a man. You have veiled
the Godhead in a cloud, in the clay of our humanity. Only your love
could so dignify the flesh of Adam. And so by reason of this
immeasurable love I beg, with all the strength of my soul, that you
freely extend your mercy to all your lowly creatures.
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