Alphonsus Liguori

“ Hence the saints, considering the death of Jesus Christ, have thought that it was little to do, to give life and all things for the love of a God so loving. How many nobles and princes have left parents, riches, country, and even kingdoms, to seclude themselves in the cloister, and to live for the love of Jesus Christ alone I How many martyrs have sacrificed their lives! How many virgins, renouncing splendid nuptials, have gone rejoicing to death, so to render some recompence of affection to the God who died for their sakes! ”

“ I must be baptized with the baptism of My own Blood; and I feel Myself dying with the desire that My passion and death may speedily come, since by this, man may quickly know the love that I bear to him. ”

“ Consider further the especial love that God had towards you in causing you to be born in a Christian land, and in the bosom of the true Church. How many are born amongst idolaters, Jews, Mahometans, or heretics, and are lost! How few have it their lot to be born amongst men, where the true faith reigns, and of the number of those few, the Lord has elected you. How many millions of persons are deprived of the Sacraments, of sermons, of the example of good companions, and of all the other helps to salvation, which are in the true Church! ”

“ O Sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, Infinite Good, Infinite Majesty, Who hast so loved men, how is it then that Thou art so disregarded of men? But amongst these men, Thou, my God, hast so particularly loved me and bestowed upon me such special grace, that Thou hast not granted to others, and I seem to have despised Thee more than others. ”

“ Excess of sorrow, excess of love." If the Redeemer had not been God, but our simple friend or parent, what greater proof of affection would He be able to give us than to die for us? " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (S. John xv. 13.) If our Blessed Lord had to save His own Father, what more could He have done by His love? If, my brother, thou hadst been God and the creator of Jesus Christ, what more could He have done for you than to have sacrificed His life in the midst of taunts and sorrows? ”

“ And how long before the creation of the world did God love you? Perhaps a thousand years or ages. There is no need to reckon years and ages. Know, that God has loved you from eternity. " I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn Thee." (Jer. xxxi. 3.) In short, God has loved you since He has been God; as long as He has loved Himself, He has loved you. Therefore S. Agnes had good reason to say, " I am prevented by another love." When the world and the creature demanded her love, she answered, " No, O world; no, O creature, I cannot love you. ”

“ We see the wise infatuated through excess of love." Who could ever believe, had not faith assured us, that the Creator had willed to die for His creatures? When the death of Jesus Christ was preached to the heathen, they regarded it as folly, which they could never believe, as the Apostle testifies, " We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness." ”

“ And how could it be, they would say, that a God, most happy in Himself, Who has no need of anything, should have come down to earth, should have become man, and should have died for the love of men, His own creatures. But yet it is an article of faith, that Jesus Christ, the true Son of God, for His love to us, was given to death. ”

“ But God has not only given to us so many beautiful creatures, He cannot be said to be satisfied until He has arrived at the giving us, even Himself. " Who loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Gal. ii. 20.) ”

“ God cannot be satiated by His love for men."
Ah, my Jesus, men do not love Thee, because they do not consider the love that Thou hast borne for them. O God, a mind that reflects that God died for this, and had such a desire to die, that He might show His affection, how can such a mind live without loving Hun? ”