(1) First, some consider the suffering of Christ as being angry with the Jews.
They sing and reproach poor Judas, and so leave it enough; just as they are accustomed to reproach other people, and condemn and promise their adversaries. This would not be called Christ's suffering, but Judas' and the Jews' wickedness.
2. on the other hand, some have indicated man-
The benefit and fruit that come from the contemplation of Christ's suffering. In addition, there is a saying, attributed to Alberto, that it is better to reflect on Christ's suffering once than to fast for a whole year or to pray a Psalter every day etc. They follow this blindly, and run counter to the true fruit of Christ's suffering, because they seek their own in it. That is why they carry themselves with little images and books, letters and crosses, and some go so far away that they think they can protect themselves from water, iron, fire and all kinds of dangers, and so Christ's suffering should work an affliction in them contrary to his nature.
Thirdly, they have compassion on Christ, lamenting and weeping for him as an innocent man; just as the women who followed Christ from Jerusalem and were punished by him should weep for themselves and their children. They are of this kind, who in the midst of the Passion run far away, and from the departure of Christ at Bethany, and from the Virgin Mary, bring in much pain, and get no further. That is why the Passion is delayed for so many hours, God knows whether it is meant more for sleeping or for waking. Those who have taught how great the fruit of the holy mass is also belong to this group, and according to their simplicity they consider it enough where they hear the mass; where we are led by some teachers' sayings that the mass is opere operati, non opere operantis, pleasant in itself, even without our merit and dignity, just as if that were enough; although the mass is not instituted for its own worthiness, but to dignify us, especially for the sake of the suffering of Christ. For where this is not done, the mass is made a bodily unfruitful work, however good it may be in itself. For what does it help you that God is God, if he is not a God to you? What is the use of food and drink being healthy and good in themselves, if it is not healthy for you, and it is to be feared that one does not make it better with many masses, if one does not seek the right fruit in it?
(4) Fourth, those who rightly consider the suffering of Christ, who look upon him as having a heart.
They will be terrified by it, and their conscience will sink into despair. The fright should come from the fact that you see the severe anger and unwavering seriousness of God over sin and sinners, that he did not want to give sinners to his most beloved Son, because he would do such a heavy penance for them, as he says through Isaiah Cap. 53, 8: "For the sin of my people I have smitten him. What will the sinner encounter when his dearest child is thus beaten? There must be an unspeakable, unmistakable seriousness, which such a great intemperate person goes towards, and suffers and dies for; and if you consider quite deeply that God's Son, the eternal Wisdom of the Father, suffers Himself, you will well be frightened, and the more the more deeply.
(5) Fifthly, that thou shouldest imagine and not doubt that thou art he that thus martyreth Christ: for thy sins have surely been done. So St. Peter beat and frightened Apost. 2:36, 37, struck the Jews like a thunderclap, saying to them all together, "You have crucified him," so that three thousand were terrified and trembling the same day, saying to the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do? Therefore, when you see Christ's nails piercing through his hands, believe for certain that they are your works. If you see his crown of thorns, believe that they are your evil thoughts etc.
6th Now, behold, where Christ is pricked with one thorn, thou shalt surely be pricked with more than an hundred thousand; yea, thou shalt be pricked with them for ever and ever more grievously. Wherever a nail pierces Christ's hands and feet, you should suffer such nails and even worse nails forever, as will happen to those who let Christ's suffering be lost to them. For this serious mirror, Christ, will not lie nor scold; what he displays must therefore be exuberant.
7th To the seventh, St. Bernard took such a fright from it that he spoke: I thought I was safe, knowing nothing of the eternal judgment that had passed over me in heaven, until I saw that the only Son of God had mercy on me, came forth and surrendered to the same judgment for me. Awe, it is no longer possible for me to play and be safe.
when there is such earnestness behind. So he commanded the women Luc. 23, 28: "Do not weep over me, but over yourselves and over your children"; and says v. 31: "For if you do this to the green wood, what will become of the dry? As if he should say, From my torture learn what you deserve and how you should fare. For here it is true that a small bitch (little dog) is beaten to frighten the big dog. So the prophet also said, "All the families of the earth shall complain against him"; not that they should complain against him, but that they should complain against him. So also the Apost. 2:37, as said above, that they said to the apostles, "O brethren, what shall we do?" Item, thus sings the church: I will diligently remember, and so my soul will languish within me.
Eighth, in this point one must be very careful, for the benefit of Christ's suffering is almost that man should come to his own knowledge, and be frightened and crushed before himself. And where man does not come to this, the suffering of Christ has not yet been of any real use to him. For the natural work of Christ's suffering is to conform Himself to men, so that just as Christ was miserably martyred in body and soul for our sins, so we too must be martyred after Him in conscience for our sins. Here, too, it is not a matter of many words, but of deep thought and respect for sins. Take a similitude: If an evildoer were judged for having strangled a prince's or king's child, and you were safe, and sang and played as if you were quite innocent, until you were terribly attacked and overcome, you would have been able to do this to the evildoer; behold, here the world would become too narrow for you, especially if your conscience also fell away. So you should be much more afraid when you consider Christ's suffering. For the evildoers, the Jews, even though God has now judged and cast them out, they were still servants of your sin, and you are truly the one who, through his sin, God strangled and crucified His Son, as has been said.
(9) Ninth, if anyone feels himself so hard and barren that Christ's suffering does not so terrify him and lead him into knowledge, let him fear. For there is nothing else; you must be conformed to the image and suffering of Christ, whether in life or in hell; least of all, when you die, you must fall into fright, and tremble, and quake, and feel everything that Christ suffers on the cross. Now it is cruel to wait at the deathbed of Christ; therefore you should ask God to soften your heart and let you fruitfully experience Christ's suffering. For even though it is not possible for Christ's suffering to be thoroughly considered by ourselves, let God put it into our hearts. Nor is this contemplation, nor any other teaching, given to you for this reason, that you should fall freshly from yourself to accomplish the same, but first seek and desire God's grace, that you may accomplish it by His grace and not by yourself. For this is the reason why those who are described above do not do right by Christ's suffering, for they do not call upon God for it, but invent their own way of doing it out of their own ability, dealing with it in an entirely human and unfruitful way.
(10) To the tenth, whoever therefore considers God's suffering for a day, an hour, even a quarter of an hour, of the same we will freely say that it is better than if he fasts for a whole year, prays a Psalter every day, or even hears a hundred masses. For this concern changes man essentially and completely, just as baptism in turn gives birth anew. Here the suffering of Christ works its right, naturally noble work, strangles the old Adam, drives away all pleasure, joy and confidence that one may have from creatures; just as Christ was abandoned by all, also by God.
Eleventh, because such a work is not in our hands, it happens that we sometimes ask for it and yet do not obtain it at that hour; nevertheless, one should not despair or desist. Sometimes it happens that we do not ask for it, as God knows and wills, because it wants to be free and uncaptured: then man is grieved in his conscience and displeases himself in his life, and may well be that he has nothing to do with it.
knows that Christ's suffering works in him, which he perhaps does not remember, just as others almost remember Christ's suffering and yet do not come to their own knowledge of it. With those the suffering of Christ is secret and real, with these it is apparent and deceitful; and according to God the tide is often turned, so that those do not remember the suffering who remember it, and those hear the mass who do not hear it, and those do not hear who hear it.
Twelfthly, so far we have been in the week of martyrdom, and we have rightly celebrated the Holy Friday: now we come to the Easter Day and the resurrection of Christ. When a man has thus become aware of his sins and is completely frightened within himself, care must be taken that the sins do not remain in the conscience, as this would certainly lead to despair; but just as they have flowed out of Christ and have been recognized, so they must be poured out on him again and the conscience made free. Therefore see to it that you do not do as the perverse men do, who bite and devour themselves with their sins in the heart, and strive that they may run hither and thither by good works or satisfaction, or even work themselves out with indulgences and be rid of sin; which is impossible, and unfortunately such false confidence of satisfaction and pilgrimages is widely broken down.
13. thirteenth, but then you cast your sin from you on Christ, if you firmly believe that his wounds and sufferings are your sin, that he bears it and pays for it, as Isaiah Cap. 53, 6. says: "God has laid all our sin on him"; and St. Peter 1 Ep. 2, 24. Peter 1 Ep. 2, 24: "He bore our sin in His body, on the wood" of the cross; St. Paul 2 Cor. 5, 21: "God made Him to be sin for us, that we might be justified through Him." You must rely on these and similar sayings with all your might, even more so, the harder your conscience tortures you. For if you do not do this, but fail to satisfy yourself through your repentance and satisfaction, you will never come to rest, and in the end you will have to despair. For our sin, if we can bear it in
If we act according to our conscience and let them remain with us, if we look at them in our hearts, they are much too strong for us and live forever. But when we see that they lie on Christ and that he overcomes them through his resurrection, and we believe this sincerely, then they are dead and come to nothing. For they could not remain on Christ, they were swallowed up by his resurrection, and now you see no wounds, no pain in him, that is, no evidence of sin. So St. Paul says in Romans 4:25 that Christ died for our sins and rose again for our righteousness, that is, in his suffering he made our sins known and thus strangled them; but by his resurrection he makes us righteous and free from all sins, if we believe otherwise.
Fourteenth, if you do not want to believe, you should ask God for it, as said before. For this point is also free in God's hand alone, and will also be given in a moment, sometimes publicly, sometimes secretly, as is said of the point of suffering.
(15) And may provoke thee, first, not to look more upon the suffering of Christ, for that hath done his work, and hath terrified thee: but to penetrate and look upon his kind heart, how full of love it is toward thee, which constraineth him to bear thy conscience and thy sin so hardly. So your heart will be sweet toward him, and the confidence of your faith will be strengthened. Then go on through Christ's heart to God's heart, and see that Christ could not have shown love to you if God had not wanted to have it in eternal love, to which Christ is obedient with his love for you; there you will find the divine good Father's heart and, as Christ says, thus drawn to the Father through Christ; then you will understand Christ's saying, John 3:16: "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son" etc. This means that God is rightly known when He is not grasped by force or wisdom, which are frightening, but by goodness and love; then faith and confidence can exist and man is truly born anew in God.
16. to the fifteenth, so if your heart
If you have been confirmed in Christ, and have now become hostile to sins out of love and not out of fear of punishment, then let the suffering of Christ also be an example of your whole life, and now consider it in a different way. For until now we have thought of it as a sacrament that works in us and we suffer; now we think of it also as a host, namely: if a day of sorrow or a disease weighs you down, think how small it is compared to the crown of thorns and nails of Christ. If you have to do or refrain from doing what disgusts you, think how Christ is bound and led captive to and fro. If hope offends you, see how your Lord is mocked and despised with the executioners. If unchastity and lust offend you, think how bitterly Christ's tender flesh is scourged, pierced and pierced. If hatred and envy offend thee, or if thou seekest vengeance: remember how Christ pleaded with many tears and cries for thee and for all his enemies, who would have smelled himself cheaper. If affliction or any other adversity, bodily or spiritual, distresses you, strengthen your heart and say, "Why should I not also suffer a little affliction, if my Lord sweats blood in the garden from fear and affliction? A lazy, shameful servant would be that, who on the bed
when his master has to fight in mortal danger.
(17) Behold, therefore, against all vice and unrighteousness there is strength and refreshment in Christ. And this is rightly considered Christ's suffering, these are the fruits of his suffering, and whoever practices this does better than to hear all the Passion or to read all the mass. This is also what true Christians are called, who thus draw Christ's life and name into their lives, as St. Paul says Gal. 5:24: "Those who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with all its desires with Christ." For Christ's suffering must be acted upon, not with words and appearances, but with life and truly. Thus St. Paul exhorts us to the Hebrews, 12:3: "Remember him that suffered such opposition of evil men, that ye may be strengthened, and not be weary in your mind"; and St. Peter, 1 Ep. 4:1: "As Christ hath suffered in his body, so prepare yourselves and strengthen yourselves with such thoughts." But this consideration has come out of the way and become strange, of which yet the epistles of St. Paul and Peter are full. We have turned the essence into a semblance, and painted the passion of Christ alone on the letters and on the walls.