The heart’s wound
The soldiers not only pierced and penetrated through Jesus’s hands but also through his feet; the lance of their fury even pierced his side and, right to its depth, the sacred Heart already pierced by the lance of love.
“You have wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse; you have wounded my heart!” he said (Sg 4:9). O most loving Jesus, your bride, your sister, your friend having wounded your heart, was it really necessary that your enemies should also wound it in their turn? And you enemies of his, what do you think you are doing? If the heart of that most gentle Jesus is already wounded or, rather, since it is already wounded, why inflict another wound on it? Do you not know that at the first wound the heart became lifeless and, as it were, insensible?
The heart of my most sweet Lord Jesus has died because it has been wounded; a wound of love has overwhelmed the heart of Jesus our Spouse, a death of love has overcome it, so how can a second death enter in? Yet “Love is strong as death” (Sg 8:6), even more, it is truly stronger than death itself.
It is impossible to drive out the first death, that is to say the love of so many dead souls, from the heart it inhabits since its sovereign wound has conquered it. Out of two equally strong enemies, one inside the house and the other outside, who will doubt that the one within carries off the victory? See, then, how strong is love, which inhabits the heart and slays it with a wound of love, and this is true not only of the Lord Jesus but of his disciples too.
This is how the heart of the Lord Jesus was first wounded and died: “For you we are slain all the day long, considered only as sheep to be slaughtered” (Ps 23[44]:23). Nevertheless, bodily death takes place and triumphs for a season but only in order to be overcome for eternity.
St. Paul of the Cross