Teresa Higginson on Calvary

Another extract from the Passion of Our Lord that Teresa wrote to Fr. Edward Powell:

As Jesus is raised on the cross His Sacred Eye takes in at a glace every sinner from the first even to the last; then that the seamless robe is a figure of the unity of the Church, and Jesus saw every schism and heresy, every sin that should arise, every sacrilege that should be committed in or against His holy Catholic Church.  Then the vast numbers of souls lost to Him for ever, many and many of them often dyed deeply in that same most Precious Blood which He was shedding for them in vain...

Then an impetuous wave of infinite love swept over that sorrowful soul and rent it to pieces (as I may say) with an insatiable desire for souls...

...Then the sacred mind drank in that bitter torrent of doubt, caused by the sight of the impenitent thief and the incredulous Pharisees.  Will all this bitter Passion be of no avail?  Will all this love be in vain?  For so many?  And His Sacred Heart felt the keen smart of our cold indifference and ingratitude which pierced It far more deeply than the lance of Longinus.  Of course it was the human nature alone that was suffering or could suffer and His Holy Soul, Sacred Heart and adorable mind were all the time suffering an agony too awful for our puny minds to conceive..

...How can we picture the intense agony - the annihilation that Jesus suffered when He was forced as it were to cry aloud in anguish of soul: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"  This desolation commenced in the Garden of Olives and had been growing in intensity...

...This annihilation is the finger of God touching the soul and afflicting it beyond description.  Besides making atonement for mortal sins Jesus had to purchase grace to overcome temptations to each mortal sin.  He had an infinite atonement to make.  He had great heights of perfection to win, and each act of virtue must be purchased by distinct suffering of Jesus.  Here all consolations were cut off from the soul of our dear crucified Lord.  We speak of this as darkness, but it is not; the Light of lights could not for an instant be extinguished.  As we are blinded by looking at the sun, so it is here.  It is the perfect knowledge of clear light that is the cause of this excess of suffering...