The following lines are offered with all reverence in an attempt at understanding some of the implications of S. Thomas’s teaching on the sufferings of our Lord, They are meant to suggest the apparent ineffectualness of the theologian’s doctrine in face of the bitter experience of the disciple.

You speak to me of the sufferings of Christ; you tell me to think of them in my pain; to bear my own, and’to offer them up with his. They are the penalty of my sins, and Christ's Passion has given them meaning and purpose, if only I accept them as he did for me. Yet what consolation is that to me, for his sufferings cannot compare with mine? You pretend the Passion was a sortof Epiphany : a manifestation of the realityof Christ’s Humanity. But Christ was not like us, not equal to us in all things ! A very human God would be a consolation and a help. Why was not Christ like us in all things: subject to suffering, pain, ignorance, temptation and sin? You have to draw the line because your Saviour was not merely man but God. It seems to me that the Incarnation has failed to reach me in my suffering, just at those points where I need it most—give me my comrade who is mere man and not this pale Sufferer!

You tell me to think of the bodily suffering of the Christ upon his Cross: the hanging body, the riven members, the wounds, the thorns, the burning thirst.

Before treating of the means of obtaining love for God, it would be well to speak of the fruits and excellence of this love, that those who strive to gain it may know for what a precious jewel they labour and may be encouraged. For when it is won, we shall exclaim with the bride in the Canticles, “ If a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing “ (Cant. 8, 7); and like the strong woman in the Proverbs of Solomon, we may taste and see that the traffic is good and be willing to pay what is asked of us. (Prov. 31.)

Let no one suppose- that it is possible to say in a few words all that this virtue deserves for as St. Paul says, “ The end of the commandment is charity “ (Tim. 1,-5); for nothing that has been or might be written could exhaust the ocean of its grandeurs. Therefore we will only write briefly of how it excels all other virtues.

The first excellence of charity is that, speaking theologically, it is the queen of virtues and the greatest of them all. Faith, hope and charity, called the theological virtues, surpass all the rest, for they honour and regard God as the supernatural end of man and regulate his dealings with God though in different ways.