Amore

Consider

Your eyes will see your Master (Is 30,20). Men were promised to see their divine Master with their own eyes. The whole life of Jesus was a continuous example and school of perfection. But it was above all on the cross that he taught us his most beautiful virtues. On the cross he taught us well on patience, especially in times of sickness. In fact, on it Jesus infirm suffered with great patience the pains of his most bitter death. On the cross with his example he taught us an exact obedience to the divine precepts, a perfect resignation to God, and above all taught us how to love. Paolo Segneri Junior told one of his penitents to write these words at the foot of the Crucifix: "Here's how you love".

"Thus we love", it seems that the Redeemer tells us from the cross when we, in order not to suffer any harassment, abandon the works of his liking, and sometimes even come to renounce his grace and his love. He loved us to death, and did not come down from the cross until after he left his life.

When I am lifted up from the ground, I will draw everyone to me. He said this to indicate what death he should die.
(Jn 12: 32-33).

Jesus said that when he was raised on the cross, with his merits, with his example and with the strength of his love, he would have drawn men to his love. "O redeemed souls, the holy Church exhorts us, look at your Redeemer on the cross, where all his aspect inspires love and invites us to love him". St. Augustine adds: "He has bowed his head to give us the kiss of peace, his arms outstretched to embrace us, the heart open to love us"

O Master of love, the masters of the earth teach with the voice, but you, on this bed of death, teach with pain; they teach by interest, you by affection, asking no other reward than my salvation. My Jesus, save me, giving me the grace to love you and to always be content with you. To love you is my salvation.

While Jesus was dying on the cross, the men continued to torment him with sarcasm and jokes. Some said to him: He saved others, he can not save himself! Others: If he is the king of Israel, come down now from the cross! And while they insult him, Jesus on the cross prays the eternal Father not to punish them, but to forgive them: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Lk 23:34). He asked for his forgiveness for his persecutors and he obtained it, because they, after seeing him dead, repented of their sin: They came back beating their breasts (Lk 23:48).

Fire that inflames
In the Old Testament, God commanded that fire should burn on your altar. St. Gregory the Great says that the altars of God are our hearts, in which the fire of his divine love must always burn. Therefore, the eternal Father, not content with having given us his Son Jesus, who saved us with his death, also wanted to give us the Holy Spirit, so that he might dwell in our hearts and keep the fire of his love continually on him. Jesus himself declared that he had come to earth to inflame our hearts with this holy fire, and that he wanted nothing more than to see him alight. Therefore he, forgetting the insults and ingratitudes received on earth by men, ascended into heaven, sent us the Holy Spirit. Thus our Redeemer, after having loved us among the sufferings and the earthly ignominies, has loved us even in his glory!

The Holy Spirit wanted to appear in the upper room in the form of tongues of fire to inflame our hearts with love. In fact, the Holy Church makes us pray: "We pray, Lord, to infiamm that Spirit, which the Lord Jesus sent to the earth and wanted it to be lightened strongly".
This holy fire lit the saints to do great things for God, to love their enemies, to desire scorns, to strip themselves of all earthly goods and to joyfully embrace torments and death. Love can not be idle and never says enough. The soul that loves God the more it does for the beloved, the more he wants to do, to please him and deserve his love.