the suffering christ 802 of the whole crowd,” namely, Jesus, who is to be crucified. “The wounds were reopened because of the tunic that adhered to His flesh” (1. Med, Ch. 7).58 This, truly, was permitted by the divine will in order to fulfill the prophecy of the royal psalmist. Yet, it was by no means accomplished by the murderers through any other intention except that they might afflict on Him greater dishonor when they thus exposed Him to be seen by His enemies naked on the Cross. But what the perverse and cruel men did for the sake of shame, this greatest meekness and love transformed into the highest glory for Christ. For Christ consecrated that cursed wood by touching it with His most sacred body. This is so much so, that after the most sacred Eucharistic bread, nothing is held to be holier, nothing is honored more reverently, nothing is acknowledged as more glorious than the Cross. And [this is] not without reason. For the place where God appeared to Moses in the burning bush was so holy to God that it was said [to Moses] as he tried to come near to Him: “Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Ex 3:5). How much holier should be considered that Cross, to which Christ’s human flesh was affixed with the most cruel nails? That Cross designated by the [burning] bush, on which the Incarnate Deity burned with love for us and was not consumed; He burned surrounded with the fire of hatred, blasphemy, envy, the anger of His enemies, and He was not consumed. For this reason, when the form of His own Cross, through which we remember the Passion of our Lord, is venerated on the day of that sacred mystery, the faithful are bidden to offer the duty of veneration only on bent knees and with the shoes taken off. Moreover, it is wrong if we bestow too little adoration upon that most blessed Cross, on which the Lord of life and death most lovingly laid down for us, fastening it to His own body and making it very holy with the sprinkling of His most Precious Blood. 58 Bonaventura, Meditatio Quomodo dominus crucifigitur presente matre, in: Meditationes devotissimae totius vitae domini nostri Iesu Christi [Papiae 1490], f.42r.
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