The Enthusiasm of Jesus

"….Furthermore, He burned to complete His Sacrifice:  'I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am constrained until it is accomplished!' (Lk 12:50) 

"If one can put it this way, there was in Jesus something like a sort of enthusiasm for His Sacrifice… 

"Christ thirsted to give His Father that glory which His Father would obtain from Christ's Sacrifice:  'no one jot or tittle shall be lost from the law till all things shall have been accomplished' (Mt 5:18).  He wished to accomplish all things, to the last iota – that is, to the final detail.  When, in His agony, anguish and sorrows pile up in His soul, He feels them so deeply that 'Father,' he says, 'if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me.'  However, He wishes to accomplish the will of His Father to the very end:  'Yet not as I will, but as you will' (Mt 26:39; Mk 14:36; Lk 22:42).  Finally, on Calvary, He completes His immolation and is able to say, before He yields up His last breath, that He has accomplished in its fullness the program His Father has given Him:  'It is consummated!' (Jn 19:30).  This final cry of the Divine Victim upon the cross corresponds to His 'Here I am' at His incarnation in the womb of the Virgin."

Bl. Columba Marmion in Christ in His Mysteries

 

 

"I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!"  ~Lk 12:49

 

Dear Lord, kindle in my heart Your divine enthusiasm for the Father's will and glory.  Amen.