March 5
Love is strong as death
asten this sign
of the Crucified upon your breast and your heart, fasten it upon your arm,
so that in all your actions you may be dead to sin. Do not be dismayed
by the hardness of the nails; it is no more than the severity of love.
Do not complain of their unbreakable firmness; love also is strong as death.
It is love that puts to death all our sins and failings, love that deals
their death blow. In a word, by loving the Lord's commandments we die to
sin and to deeds of shame. God is love; his word is love, that word which
is all-powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, penetrating to the point
where soul is divided from spirit or joints from marrow. Our soul and our
flesh must be transfixed by the nails of love, and then we ourselves can
say: I am wounded by love. Love has its own nail and its own sword
with which to pierce the human soul; happy are they who are wounded by
them.
Let us willingly expose ourselves to these wounds; if we succumb to
them, we shall not taste everlasting death. Let us take up our Lord's cross,
the cross on which our unregenerate selves must be crucified and sin destroyed.
From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from
Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
HTML text prepared by David P. Steelman
