803 discourse vi: the glorious cross 3. Certain masters of sacred contemplation recount that the blood poured forth most abundantly from the wounds of Christ stretched out on the Cross. There are some who assert that the Cross, when it was raised the first time, slipped and fell upon the ground together with Christ. When it was erected the second time, then immediately from [His] four wounds, pierced with the tips of the nails, poured forth in the most plentiful currents, the four streams of the most Precious Blood, sprinkling that sacred beam most bountifully. Certainly, it seems to be credible what St. Peter Alcantara, commended by many but most exceptionally by the testimony of the St. Teresa [of Avila] to be a most trusted friend of Christ, affirmed of His Passion in [his] most devoted little book: “The murderers and torturers of Christ were roused to such a frenzy of malice that they lifted the Cross on high with mighty racket and noise. They allowed the Cross to fall into the ditch, and the body of Christ our Lord, which was hanging firmly by the nails, shook in the most horrible manner. His wounds, which were already insufferable because of the torture, were enlarged even more.”59 Thereupon, you would have seen “rivers of blood running from His hands and feet.” And so, who would doubt that the Cross was any less drenched (in His Blood) than the pillar at which He was flogged by the most monstrous scourges? Our Catholic Church perceives this, when she sings, lifting up the Cross of the Lord: “Which the holy blood shed from the body of the Lamb thoroughly anointed.” Away with the ancient impiety — rather than a devotion — that dedicates a rose to Venus since it was stained with her blood! To me, the holiest is that wood (of the Cross), “which the holy blood shed from the body of the Lamb thoroughly anointed.” Indeed, God Himself appears to esteem the salvific wood (of the Cross) so much that He Himself venerates it. 59 Petrus de Alcantara, De Meditatione et Oratione, c. IV: De septem Meditationibus aliis Dominicae Passionis…, in: Petri Alcantarae Hispani Viri Iluminatissimi, Ordinis Discalceatorum S. Patris Francisci, De Meditatione et Oratione libellus aureus, Coloniae Agrippinae 1624, p. 108.
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