Three Books on the Death of Christ and Self-Reflection, and Two Books on the Study of Divine and Human Philosophy

Christ as head

Jesus reigns / Head whence things endure?

If we do not despair

The cross must be carried / with Simon the Cyrenaean

The least

What is this meditation

marginalia: "Christ as head", "Jesus reigns / Head whence things endure?", "If we do not despair", "The cross must be carried / with Simon the Cyrenaean", "The least", "What is this meditation"

...we are drawn to the goodness of God. For God himself draws the soul, as if to the principle from which it flowed and to the end in which it finds blessing, and by the natural order and by grace, in such a way that we do not reject it by clinging to vices. He does not only draw us, but also grants an inclination and an aptitude to tend toward our proper place so that we may obtain the desired rest. It is given to us to see that nature, the imitator of God, has brought this about even in inanimate things; for example, in fire, which, when it converts some element of mixed things or anything else into its own nature by burning, grants to it an aptitude for seeking the sky and helps it reach that which, having attained, it may rest. But because of the incentive of sins and the law of the flesh—which the apostle also saw reigning in his members and opposing the law of the mind—we are rendered sluggish in performing this duty, and are hindered as if by sleep. For this reason, we have a necessity to imagine and love Christ, each of which brings forth the other. For he who loves must necessarily imagine the beloved quite often, a matter of which every man is a judge to himself unless he is void of mind. On the other hand, love follows constant imagination, especially that which is directed toward the thing that is the best among others, namely, Christ, who also, insofar as he is man (as Thomas teaches), loves through all creatures. Yet, by the intention of divine love, the goodness of things is intended. For every thing is good because it is loved by God, just as, conversely, we love some thing because it is good. Moreover, since it is agreed among all theologians that all good things, whether of nature or of grace, are given to us by God himself, and that Christ is the door (as he says of himself) through which one goes to God, and from whom all graces and virtues flow down to us from that Father of Lights (as the blessed Jacobus James says), it follows that by the frequent knocking at that door—which is accomplished through pious and assiduous prayer and thought—the way that leads to life may be opened to us. This is the love by which, when we are perfectly held, the strenuousness of morals (as Bernardus Bernard says) will arise, as will the purity of affections, the subtlety of intellects, the holiness of desires, the clarity of works, the fecundity of virtues, the dignity of merits, and the sublimity of rewards. That this is so will be established by this argument: if we look at the morals and acts of those who frequently think of Christ as dead and who love him.