the suffering christ 762 4. The repentant King (David) aspired toward this bath in spirit, when he sang with sighs: “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Ps 51:7). Among the Jews, spring water, sprinkled with the ashes of heifers and the blood of bulls, was used for purifying oneself in the place of the cleansing water. David esteemed less this kind of purification, and was mindful of the more efficacious one, which for us is in the sweat of Christ, prepared for us in the bloody bath of the Garden of Olives. Certainly, the King of Jerusalem in great wisdom sighs with longing for this. Paul, the heavenly orator, says, “For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies for the purification of the flesh, how much more the blood of Christ” (Heb 9:13-14). 5. The doctors advised Constantine the Great, the emperor of the world, to make use of the repulsive bath of the blood of infants in order to heal his leprosy with which he was infected. The clement and gentle Ruler spurned this medicine. How many of us are leprous Constantines now! How many sinners are we! “Leprosy spreads through man’s whole body” (the purple-clad Hugo asserts). “Similarly, sin [also] grows in the whole man after the manner of cancer.”7 For removing [this] leprosy, the most advantageous [way] is a bath: the bloody sweat of the innocent Christ (and even Constantine benefited from it). This sweat was salvific not only during the time [in which] it was poured out, but even more so now (if only we want and beg for it most eagerly): Up to now it is offered for us by the most merciful Son to the eternal Father. Regarding the matter [just] related, St. Paul states most appropriately: “But God shows [H]is love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Since, therefore we are now justified by 7 Cf. Hugo, In Evangelium secundum Matthaeum, VIII, 3: Ugonis de S. Charo S. Romanae Ecclesiae tit. S. Sabinae Cardinalis Primi Ord. Praedicatorum, t. VI: In Evangelia, Coloniae Agrippinae 1621, f.31r (ad verba: et ecce leprosus veniens).
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