Consider thou also, o man that art redeemed, Who it is that hangeth for Thee upon the Cross, how great He is and what is His nature, Whose death giveth life to the dead, at whose passing both heaven and earth mourn, and the very stones are cloven as if it were in their nature to suffer. O for the heart of man, that art harder than the hardness of any stone, if at the memory of so great an atonement thou art not struck with terror, nor moved to compassion, nor rent unto remorse, not softened with devotion!
 |
| The Crucifixion, by Taddeo Gaddi, ca 1360; from the Sacristy of the church of the Holy Cross in Florence. |
Moreover, that the Church might be formed from the side of Christ as He slept, and the Scripture fullfilled that saith, “They shall look upon Him that they pierced,” it was granted by a divine command that one of the soldiers should pierce the side of that holy body, so that, as blood came forth with water, the price of our salvation might be poured forth. And so this blood, being shed from this hidden source, namely, His Heart, might give to the Sacraments of the Church their power to confer the life of grace, and for those that now live in Christ, be the drought of the living fountain that spingeth up unto eternal life. (
From St Bonaventure’s Book on the Tree of Life
; the second part of this is the read in the third Nocturn of the Office of the Sacred Heart promulgated by Pope Pius XI in 1928.)
