One of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side (John 19:34)

So the world made its last gesture to its Saviour; and yet his Sacred Heart was pierced more by his compassionate love for mankind than it was by the soldier’s spear.

“Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (RSV, John 15:13) was what he had said to his Apostles the evening before as he defined the limit of natural human love.

But as St Paul has reminded us, the Divine love in the Heart of Jesus was of a higher and a different order altogether, for he laid down his life for his enemies – for Caiaphas and for Judas, no less than for Peter and for John.  And in his limitless love he gave himself not just for particular individuals but for all mankind in every age.

Yet such is his all-embracing and infinite love that it does not become diffused by being bestowed on so many millions of persons.  On the contrary, it is concentrated in all its fullness and intensity on each individual.  Just as God in his love has created each single soul, and as each single soul has sinned and rebelled against him, so also in his love did he die for each single soul – for you and for me: infinite love bestowed in infinite measure.

And the character of that love is revealed by Christ's life and by his death.  In his love there was no element of self.  It was not for his own advantage that he came to our world, but only out of love for his Father who sent him and love for us to whom he was sent.

His love was totally free from any of those private, selfish, ulterior motives which invade and spoil our love for God.

He did not come to receive attention, or, as he put it, “…to be served…”; “…but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (RSV, Mark 10:45).

He did not come to win popularity, but to be rejected and condemned to a shameful death by the ruling class and the city mob as one unfit to live among them.

Nor honour and esteem – but the sneers of the chief priests, the insults of the passers-by, and the curses of the dying thief.

Nor riches – he was stripped of what little he had.  Even his clothes were parcelled out as the perquisites of the soldiers on guard.

Nor comfort – his first bed was a manger, his deathbed the Cross.

No, there was no self-love in his love for you.  For remember, it was all for you, and all for love of God in obedience to whom he came to save you.

And that is the pattern for our love for God – true and unspoilt, so that whatever we do, we seek to please, not ourselves, but him only, who alone is the adorable source of all goodness and love; who alone has created us and died for us so that we might have the joy of being his for ever; who preserves us hour by hour and day by day; and who, in return for all his generous love, asks us for one thing and one thing only – that we should love him truly for himself alone, just because he is God.

But in order to love him like that, we have to do the most difficult thing which the Lord requires of us – we have to put ourselves right out of the picture.  For what counts with God is not just what we do as why we do it.

There is all the difference between people who obey God because they love him, and those who obey God because they want to get to Heaven; between people who serve the Church for the Lord’s sake, and those who serve in order to secure a position of influence or standing in the Christian community of which they are a member.

This insidious self-interest is a dangerous and destructive enemy in the life of the Christian.  It can infect everything, including our prayers.  Instead of seeking what God wants for us, we seek what we want for ourselves.  Instead of desiring, honestly and without qualification, that he should do his will in us and for us and by us, we hope to persuade him to give effect to our own personal wishes.

Or, we make our Communion, not with the intention that we may become more worthy of God and more useful as his agent, but just for our own spiritual comfort.  It can even infect the worship we give God so that we praise him because he is good to us and not because he is good in himself.

In a word, we have one eye on self instead of both eyes on God.

Let St Francis Xavier sum up our response to our Crucified Lord and Saviour this Good Friday:

“So would I love thee, dearest Lord,
and in thy praise will sing,
solely because thou art my God
and my most loving King”. (1)

Prayer

Teach us, good Lord, in all things to seek your blessed will; and ever to love and serve you for yourself alone.  Amen.

Reference

1. Caswall, E. (1849) My God, I love thee; not because.  Available from: http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/m/m115.html (Accessed 15 March 2013) (Internet).