The Greatest Grace
Directory of Spirituality, 37
“If we look seriously at the time we live in now, we have to admit that the situation for us Christians in Germany is far more comfortless and confused than it was for the early Christians under the bloodiest persecutions. Many people would perhaps think, ‘Why did God have to let us live in a time like this?’ We can’t blame God for this, nor perhaps put the blame at other people’s door […] Of course, one should not regard the suffering of this world as the worst thing possible: even the great Saints often had to suffer terrible things, until God took them up into His heavenly mansions; the Lord, too, did not spare his Apostles great suffering, and most of them died as martyrs, but did so much work for Christ despite all. And maybe, for our sinful life, we’d like to have a life free from pain and struggle and a peaceful death, and to enjoy eternal bliss into the bargain. Christ himself, the Most Blameless, suffered more terribly than all other men, and bought us Heaven by His suffering and His death, and are we not willing to suffer for Him?”[1]
These words we have just quoted were written by the Blessed martyr Franz Jägerstätter – layman, husband and father – who at the age of 36 firmly and valiantly persevered in his decision not to fight for the Nazi German army. After suffering imprisonment and great mistreatment, endless humiliations and cruel persecutions for his convictions of faith, he died by decapitation and his body was incinerated.
Before being arrested for not consenting to take the oath of loyalty to Hitler, which was obligatory for all those recruited, many of his friends and family tried to persuade him to submit, urging him to consider his family, to which he responded time and again: “Now I will write down a few words here, just as they come from my heart. Even though I’m writing them with bound hands – but that’s still better than if my will was bound. Sometimes God openly shows His power which He can give to man, to those who love Him and don’t put earthly above eternal things. Neither prison, nor bonds, nor even death are able to divide a person from the love of God, to rob him of his faith and free will. God’s power is invincible … Again and again, people try to burden one’s conscience concerning wife and children. Is the deed you commit maybe supposed to be better, just because you’re married and have children? … Didn’t Christ himself say ‘He that loves wife, mother and children more than me is not worthy of me’?”[2]
“Everyone tells me, of course, that I shouldn’t be doing what I am because of the danger of death. I think it is better to sacrifice your life immediately than to put it in greater danger by committing sin and then dying.” [3]
He wrote to his wife, Franziska Schwanniger, from prison: “Don’t be sad because of my current situation…So long as you can have a clear conscience that you’re not a vicious criminal, you can live peacefully even in prison.”[4]
On the night of August 8,1943 they opened Franz’s cell and, handing him a piece of paper, said, “write your last letter.” He addressed it to his wife and daughters: “Early today, at about half past five, they said ‘Get dressed immediately, the car’s already waiting’, and I was then driven here to Brandenburg with several other condemned men…we didn’t know what was going to happen to us. It wasn’t till midday that I was told that the sentence was confirmed on the 14th [of July] and will be carried out today at four in the afternoon… Dearest wife and mother, I sincerely thank you again for everything you have done for me in my life, for all the love and sacrifice you have given for my sake, and ask you again to forgive me for everything, whenever I may have offended and hurt you, just as I forgive you everything. …May God accept my life as a sacrifice of atonement, not just for my sins, but also for those of others. It wasn’t possible for me to spare you the pain that you’re all having to suffer now because of me. How hard it must have been for our beloved Savior, that he had to cause his dear Mother so much pain through his suffering and death, and they suffered all this out of love for us sinners.
[…] I thank our dear Jesus that I am privileged to suffer and even die for Him. I trust that, in God’s unending mercy, God has forgiven me everything and will not abandon me in the last hour… Keep the Commandments and, with the grace of God, we will see each other again soon in heaven. The heart of Jesus, the heart of Mary and my heart are one, united for time and eternity.”[5]
If the witness of this father of a family is without a doubt a challenge to every Christian, it should be even more so for us, the members of this Institute who say we want “to be victims with the Victim”[6] and “we ask to be taken by His Passion and cross to the Glory of the resurrection.”[7]
Nevertheless, it could still happen that when the cross of persecution is raised on our way we are shaken by confusion. We may become discouraged and instead of swiftly rejecting anything that supposes not only outright infidelity but even ambiguity in matters of faith or a tepidity in love, we flee like the Apostles on that first Good Friday.
For this reason, it is good to reflect on the fact that we consider “the greatest grace that God can grant our young Religious Family is persecution, especially that persecution that leads to martyrdom,”[8] so that we will not be reproved by God “for not having wanted to carry the cross of Christ in patience.”[9]
1. The Grace of Persecution
“‘Blessed are you when all men speak highly of you, when you are popular and the center of attention’; that is the beatitude according to the world,”[10] affirms Venerable Fulton Sheen.
Yet, the Incarnate Word taught something very different: Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.[11]
This Beatitude is truly the beatitude of the grace of being persecuted, or the felicity of suffering for Christ even unto martyrdom.
When Our Lord spoke of the world, he was not referring to the physical world, but rather to the worldly spirit that strongly opposed Him and his followers; a world that would someday kill His servants and think that it was offering service to God, a world composed of men, organizations, systems, etc. that under the influence of “the prince of this world”[12] are arrayed against the Divinity.
For this reason, it is interesting to note that our proper law asks for the great grace of persecution immediately after saying that our dominion over the world is lived in two ways: one, by collaborating with the world of creation through work and the world of Redemption through the apostolate; but in the second place, and we must emphasize this, “rejecting the world – either out of fidelity to the world itself which must be used as a means and not an end, or out of fidelity to God, resisting the concupiscence, temptations and sins of the world; by being independent of the maxims, jeers and persecutions of the world, depending only on our good conscience illumined by faith; disposed, out of fidelity to God, for martyrdom, which constitutes the complete and total rejection of the evil world.”[13]
“The spirit of the world,” Fulton Sheen affirmed, “is opposed to testing […] God, on the contrary, is all for testing. Even at the beginning, Adam and Eve were not to be confirmed in their gifts until they had passed the test of whether they preferred a fruit to a garden. The angels before them were tested. […] The forty years in the desert is called in Scripture a testing. Our Lord began His Public Life by a test with Satan himself. In our times, the Church in Germany was tested by Nazism; the Church in Russia was tested by communism and the Church elsewhere by worldliness. What makes it so hard is that we are bidden to go into the secular without becoming secular and to be more concerned with all the problems of the world, whether they are ecclesial or not, and yet not become ,worldly. In days of [explicit and violent] persecution the sides were morn clearly drawn. The Church is “here”; the persecutors were “there.” But to hew to that fine line, to be in the Church as “the sign and salvation of the world” and yet not give up the Church is a real test.”[14]
“If the Church” or a clerical Institute like ours, “is not a disturbing element, a ferment to the world, a storm center to sin, a fire ball to its common- comforts, it is no longer the Body of Christ. The truer the Church is to the Victimhood of Christ, the more hostility her priests and people provoke from the world, and the greater will be her tribulation.”[15]
This is why Fulton Sheen says in one of his books that “being tolerated [or accepted] is, at times, a sign of weakness; being persecuted is flattery. Only the mediocre survive. The persecuted person demonstrates that his beliefs are taken seriously and the cause that he defends must be eliminated if evil wants to conquer. It is true that bad men are persecuted, but these do not enter into this Beatitude, because as Saint Paul said: If I hand my body over to the flames, but I do not have love for God and for my neighbor in my heart, it does me no good. A martyr should die for the faith, not for his goods, not for his good name, not for the good of any political party. Those who make themselves out to be martyrs are numerous, but they don’t have a place in that line reserved for those to whom the Kingdom of Heaven is promised for having carried the cross of Christ on their shoulders.”[16]
We, religious of the Incarnate Word, have been called to be “in the world[17], ‘but not of the world’[18]. We must go into the world in order to convert it and not to imitate it.”[19]
The world and the prince of this world will always fight against those who fervently seek to adhere to Christ. Thus we shouldn’t be amazed at persecution, rather we ought to accept it as part of the program. Christ did not deceive us! Did he not warn us in the Gospel? They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name…You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name.[20] Because No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master…If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of his household![21] And then many will be led into sin; they will betray and hate one another.[22]
But the very Christ who, with paternal concern, warned us about tribulations also encouraged us with the same love to be valiant in the fight, saying: Do not be afraid.[23] Because not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.[24] Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.[25] But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.[26]
Thus, we should realize that persecution itself, when it is unjust or untruthful, in a certain sense means that we are doing well: “They will be pushed around, laughed at and regarded as awkward, slow and even mentally weak. […] [Yet,] no worldly wisdom will ever be able to deceive them. … When the world says to us, “Look at the fools! They are stoned, and they kiss the hands of those who stone them. They are laughed at and made fun of, and they laugh like senseless children. They are beaten, persecuted and martyred, but they give thanks to God who found them worthy. When the world says all of this, it is a sign that we are doing well.”[27] In this regard we could say that the greater our configuration with Christ, the more the world will be ‘uncomfortable’ with us, and so there will be more contradictions and attacks. This is simply because no disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master.[28]
This is why persecution is the greatest of graces, especially if it means martyrdom, because it allows us to more perfectly imitate Christ calumniated, suffering, despised and condemned to death. It is a grace because we are convinced that after this momentary and light affliction, an incalculable weight of glory awaits us,[29] and because it provides us with the occasion to complete in our flesh what is lacking in the passion of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the Church. [30]
The blessed martyr whom we quoted above testifies to the wisdom of the cross, and we could cite the examples of so many others who left everything, even their own lives, so as to prefer nothing whatsoever to Christ.[31] This is what we are dealing with. Does the Kingdom of God have such little value that it doesn’t merit some sacrifice? Do we prefer every trifle of this world to the eternal treasures? Know that our battle is for the eternal kingdom.
“If I did not have faith in God’s mercy, that God would forgive me all my sins, I could scarcely have endured life in a lonely prison with such calm. Moreover, though people charge me with a crime and have condemned me to death as a criminal, I take comfort in the knowledge that not everything which this world considers a crime is a crime in the eyes of God. I have hope that I need not fear the eternal Judge… If a person were to possess all the wisdom in the world and call half the earth their own, they still could not and would not be as happy as one of those who can still call virtually nothing in this world their own except their faith. I would not exchange my lonely cell for the most magnificent royal palace. No matter how great and how beautiful it might be, it will pass away, but God remains for eternity…”, wrote Blessed Franz Jägerstätter.[32]
Definitively, the grace of persecution and especially martyrdom is the greatest grace that God could grant us, because it allows us to love God purely and freely without self-interests, like He loves us. As the Mystical Doctor of Fontiveros teaches, “he who loves cannot be satisfied if he does not feel that he loves as much as he is loved”[33] and “the soul is not satisfied until it reaches this point, neither would it be satisfied even in heaven, unless it felt… that it loved God as much as it is loved by Him”[34] since, “it is love alone that unites and joins the soul with God.”[35] Perfection consists in this: “perfect love of God and contempt for self.”[36] And what is said here individually of a soul can also be applied to the Institute as a single body.
This is why it is convenient to educate our candidates so that they “clearly understand that it is not intended for them to dominate people or to receive honors [greatly esteemed by this world] but to give themselves over totally to the service of God and to pastoral ministry. With particular concern they should be so formed in priestly obedience, in a simple way of life and in the spirit of self-denial, that they are accustomed to promptly renounce even those things which are licit but are not expedient, and to conform themselves to Christ crucified.”[37] That is, religious and priests with the spirit of a prince,[38] are those who “know at every instant what one must die for,”[39] and walk in the footsteps of the Good Shepherd who gives his life for the sheep.[40] Today more than ever we need religious, priests, and contemplatives of the Incarnate Word with the disposition of martyrs.
Nothing less is expected of us: “we must be ready for martyrdom if necessary, knowing how to maintain an unbreakable steadfastness in being faithful to God.”[41] And we must permanently live out this attitude, without diminutions or retractions, without reserves or conditions, without subterfuges or delays, without retreating or hesitation.[42]
2. Advice for Times of Persecution
Nevertheless, it is a reality of our fallen nature that when facing persecution or even martyrdom, one loses heart and seeks a less uncomfortable option, or negotiates for something easier or less painful, or simply flees entirely. That is why it is useful to prepare ourselves.
And although perhaps individually speaking the impressive title of ‘persecution’ seems overstated, we mustn’t think that it is something distant or foreign, because it could be that God gives us the grace of martyrdom one day. Why? Because God does what he wills. God is the one who chooses, and he chooses and destines great graces for those whom he wills, where he wills, when he wills and how he wills, because he is God. Despite and because of original and actual sin, by the mercy of the heavenly Father who handed over his Son for us and made us his children, we can become heirs of his glory and his kingdom through martyrdom.
Now then, without exception, the martyrs of all times have not become martyrs overnight, but rather martyrdom (besides certainly being a grace of God) was like the natural consequence of the spirit of renunciation in which they lived and the crowning of that immense love that they fostered for Christ throughout their whole lives. In regards to persecution, although it is true that in some cases it was bloody, in the vast majority of honest Christians– many of whom are now members of the triumphant Church of Christ – persecution was part of daily life and the way of sanctification, since they suffered defamations, infamous trials, unjust condemnations, lacerating abandonment, slander… and the list goes on.
To cite just a few examples:[43]
In the third century: Saint Athanasius was accused of being a sorcerer.
In the fourth century: Saint Basil was falsely accused of heresy by Pope Saint Damasus. Saint
John Chrysostom was calumniously accused of dishonesty.
In the fifth century: Saint Cyril of Alexandria was condemned for heresy by a council of forty bishops and at the same time deprived of his bishopric.
In the tenth century: Saint Romuald, who was over 100 years old at the time, was accused of an enormous crime for which some said he deserved to be burned alive, even though he was completely innocent.
In the sixteenth century: Saint John of Avila suffered persecution. He preached with great zeal and much fruit for souls, but some of the fanatic and impenitent sick accused their good doctor before the tribunal of the Inquisition in Seville. Likewise, Saint John of the Cross, among many other false accusations and persecutions that he suffered in his life, suffered also from those who said he had kissed a nun,[44] which was absolutely false.
In the seventeenth century they raised calumnies against Saint Francis de Sales, accusing him of having illicit relations with a woman.
All this to say that the cross of persecution makes no distinction among bishops, religious, founders, monks, missionaries or simple Christians. It is very interesting, consoling and fruitful also to notice how in many cases the difficulties arose from those whom one would least expect, for example the religious and ecclesiastical authorities of various times. Such was the case in the times of Our Lord and throughout all times (even Blessed Jägerstätter suffered from the incomprehension of the prelates), and it is also so in our days; this is the mystery of “persecution from the good” that merits a deep consideration.
Thus, analogously to how an athlete exercises and submits himself to the direction of a trainer to improve his performance and win his race, we ought to be conscious of this grace and know how to prepare ourselves, exercise, “set our minds” and, in short, fight the good fight[45] until we finish the race so that we can say with Saint Paul: I have kept the faith.[46]
Everyone must understand that if we do not fight this battle, we have already lost. Blessed Franz insisted, “Therefore, just as the man who thinks only of this world does everything possible to make life here easier and better, so must we, too, who believe in the eternal Kingdom, risk everything in order to receive a great reward there.”[47] Blessed is that servant whom his master on his arrival finds doing so![48]
And so, just as the first Christians who were preparing for martyrdom encouraged one another with all their might before the moment of death or when facing grand tribunals, it seems to us that it would be very profitable for the members of our Institute who are called to “be willing to give up [their] life, if necessary, for the good of the Institute in the service of Jesus Christ,”[49] to mention here some sound advice, maxims, and ‘recipes’ of the saints. Those who with heroic faith bore with unscathed patience all kinds of vexations even unto death for love of the Incarnate Word.
Wanting this Christ to cost us something
We ought to put first things first, which is why Saint John of the Cross recommended to the Carmelites: “make a wholly new beginning of the way of perfection; walking therein in all humility and entire detachment from all things, both within and without, no longer at a child’s pace, but with a strong will conformed to their vocation of mortification and penance. Let them see that Christ costs them something, and let them not be like those who are ever seeking their own ease, and looking for consolation either in God or out of Him. But let them seek to suffer either in Him or out of Him, by means of silence, hope, and loving memory.”[50]And “When you are offered something insipid and distasteful, remember Christ Crucified and keep quiet.”[51]
In his works, the Mystical Doctor also uses Job as an example as the best figurative type of passive purification and of the dramatic experience which the soul undergoes in the dark night. Job experiences this cathartic activity in his whole being: from physical testing—nakedness, desertion of friends, loss of goods—to the heartbreaking cry of the afflicted and humiliated soul “roaring and groaning”[52] like a soul afflicted by persecutions. In this way, the Saint explains that to reach full communion with God one must go through a complete purgation. Persecution—whatever it may be and come what may—is, without a doubt, one of the occasions that God presents to us to immerse ourselves in this work of purification.
How should we behave faced with a trial like this? “Above all, unconditional acceptance of the divine test that purifies ‘knowledge of oneself and of one’s misery,’[53] in order to ‘commune with God with more respect and more courtesy.’ [54] God did not reveal his greatness to Job in a ‘time of prosperity’ nor in the ‘delights and glories that he himself relates,’[55] but rather when he was tested, ‘in leaving him naked upon a dunghill, abandoned and even persecuted by his friends, filled with anguish and bitterness, and the earth covered with worms.’ And then Saint John of the Cross assures us that the Lord ‘was pleased to come down and speak with him there face to face.’[56] Job’s disposition of acceptance was like that of Abraham, Moses, David and other figures of the Old Testament. It is testimony of an unbreakable faith, not fatalistic chance.”[57]
“Conscious of the divine trial and condescending to its purifying action, Job experiences this purification in all its crudeness and radicality. He is conscious that the ways of God are mysterious: painful paths and dark clouds lead to goodness and blessing. This, according to John of the Cross, is what the ‘prophet’[58] recognizes. Facing Job’s submission and valiant disposition, God begins the test with exquisite refinement.”[59]
Finally, we must have engrained in our mind that the moments of trial are preludes to great joy. Because many times, in the purifying night—whether it be persecution, or any other aggravation that God allows our soul to undergo—one reaches the limits of hope, as happened to Job and many Saints. “The great uncertainty which [the soul] has concerning the remedy for it,” makes it believes that “it’s evil will never end.”[60] “The soul here endures is afflictions and suffering without the consolation of a certain hope of any light and spiritual good.”[61] The temptation to discouragement is very common. But as the Master of the faith rightly points out, God “favored [Job] by sending those great trials so that subsequently he could extol him much more,”[62] and later to walk “in festivity, inwardly and outwardly”[63] with “great jubilation in God.”[64]
Some recipes against the fear of persecution and tribulation
Saint Manuel González, in his small book Nuestro Barro*, mentions what he calls “recipes against the fear of persecution and tribulation.” And in a tone that is always humorous but at the same time very accurate, he gives us ten priceless recipes. It would be too long to transcribe here all that the Saint develops on each of these points, so we will just present a brief summary that we trust will be useful in encouraging many to banish this all too human fear of the scourge of persecution.
1st Recipe: Three points of meditation: 1.) Saint Augustine said fifteen centuries ago: “if we were all real Christians there would never be heresies.” 2.) The same Saint Augustine also said: “God does not endure the wicked in the world for nothing: He lets them live, either so that they become good or to test the good (in patience, faith, charity).” 3.) Christians are frightened and discouraged by the evils that result from persecution by the wicked either because they have forgotten that they belong to the Church militant or because they believe that they have already reached the Church triumphant… we are brothers in the Church militant with a Captain who, having risen from the dead, dies no more!
2nd Recipe: Jesus is Jesus. On Rogation days*, we say: ‘Rise up, O Lord, and help us, and deliver us for your name’s sake!’ and I say to myself: this, more than asking God, is commanding God. More than inviting Him, it is pushing Him…, and this imperative command and push is without reason or motive on our part…; we do not say: ‘for the sake of our merits, by what we have worked for, by what we have suffered or earned…,’ but ‘for the sake of your Name! This is the one and only reason that we have! For your Name’s sake!’ that is to say, because of Your Power, your Goodness, above all, through Your Mercy, the most merciful of mercies that man receives… Oh, how the souls of all the afflicted expand through this cry of faith and trust that the Church places on their lips, so sinful and unworthy as they are! Rise up, O Lord, and help us, and deliver us because you are Jesus! Our Jesus!
3rd Recipe: Exercises of indifference out of respect for the ‘holy now.’ The ‘holy now’ is the right now of the will of God in this present moment; meaning, what God wants of you in this instant. The exercises of indifference? Very simple. Persuade yourself of this great truth: What God is not asking of you right now, what is it to you? So, decide to say to every fear of the past or the future, every dream and every anxiety, and everything that you do not have to do, desire, or think of right now: what does it matter? Or for short, so what? I assure you that in the proportion that the devotees to the exercise of the ‘holy now’ increase, there will be a decrease in those suffering neurotic anxiety and those obstinately trying to get ahead in everything.
4th Recipe: Other practices to facilitate the exercise of indifference in the ‘holy now.’ Listen frequently to the words of Jesus from the Tabernacle: You do your things now and I will do mine. Be sure that, if we seriously dedicate ourselves to doing good, as far as our weakness allows, in peace and without haste, doing what corresponds to us in each moment, that is, what Jesus is asking of us through our duties, and let Him take care of the before and the after, and of His glory and ours, we will soon become holy and happily carefree…this is what I wish for everyone, including myself.
5th Recipe: The domain of the King of infinite mercy. A soul came to tell me: ‘[…] is it not on the miserable that mercy is exercised, and is not the mercy of our crucified and sacramental King, Jesus, infinite? For my consolation is not vain nor unfounded when I exclaim, from this ocean of mud and mire in which my miseries submerse me: King of infinite Mercy, come to reign in my infinite misery!’ I convey here this cry of hope and consolation so that it may find an echo and repetition in many souls that live under the weight of mistrust and under the persecution of fear because of their many miseries! Go, take your miseries to the tabernacle and present them as the proper domain of the King of infinite mercy who awaits for you there.
6th Recipe: Who is the one asleep? Some days ago, a good friend of was wondering whether Jesus seems to be sleeping even more deeply in the present storm that the bark of the Church is undergoing than on that night on the lake of Gennesaret. […] On that occasion the one who was sleeping was Jesus and those who were awake and shouting for help were the others, those who were drowning, and now, now…, when in the middle of such a horrible storm… one would like to think that it is not Jesus this time who is sleeping, but the others, and since they are asleep, they do not realize that their souls, their children, their interests, and all that is theirs is drowning… Why should Jesus be asleep? If it is precisely He who has permitted the storms of hell to be unleashed, let us see if those who have gone with Him in the boat, the Church, are emerging from their sleep of tepidity and others from the death in which they have long been submerged…! Thus, instead of ‘save us, we are perishing!’ we must say: ‘wake up, or else you will perish!’
7th Recipe: He who does not abandon the abandoned. A poor soul was passing through this world, alone, sick and deprived of his hearing, wrote me a great lesson for those who suffer alone: ‘I have received your little book which is very suited to the needs and trials that my soul is going through. I suffer so much when I believe that I am abandoned by God and think that everything that happens to me is the effect of His wrath provoked by my infidelities!… We have such a great need to know that God loves those of us that no one else on earth loves…!’ Heart of Jesus, the Heart of the Tabernacle, the most abandoned and lonely of all hearts, may all those who are abandoned discover that you love them…!’
8th Recipe: Two commands of Jesus for times of persecution. I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more.[65] The first command is not to be afraid of your persecutors. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven.[66] The second command is: Rejoice and leap for joy in the face of persecution. And when Jesus gives these commands, it is because He is ready to give us the grace to accomplish them: He does not command the impossible! What more than one terrified and fearful child of God needs to do is to make persistent acts of living faith and trust in the Beatitudes! Are they not just as much part of our faith as the creed…?
9th Recipe. Three forgotten truths. 1.) It is certain that my Heavenly Father does not give me a cross without softening it to make it less painful for me to carry. 2.) That for every cross that my Heavenly Father gives me and for each hour that I must carry it, He gives me sufficient and actual grace to carry it with peace and merit; and 3.) That my Heavenly Father will not send me nor demand today the cross and burdens of tomorrow. Why, then, do I worry today over my cross of tomorrow, the cross, with all the work implied, that perhaps will never be mine? I cannot count on the strength and grace of my Father for any of these crosses or hours of work because He has not given them to me yet, nor are they even mine.
10th Recipe: A great recipe against the fear of persecution: the courage to make amends. My mother, the Church, suffers harsh persecutions… it is my duty as a Catholic to atone for this. How?
– With my firmer and more concrete adhesion to the Pope, to my prelate […] and committing to believe Her creed with an ever more living faith, fulfilling all Her commands without human respect, praying with more filial confidence and united to the Heart of Jesus and Mary Immaculate, […] and to see that those who depend on me receive Her Holy Sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, which cures all the weaknesses of the soul and infuses heroic strength when received daily or frequently.
– With my enthusiastic protest by licit means, against the despoilment to which my mother, the Church, is being subjected, not only by depriving her of her material goods and her most beloved institutions, such as religious orders, but also by driving her out of official and public life, by the atheism of the State; out of families, by civil marriage and divorce; out of schools, by officializing secularism; out of the tombs of Christians by the secularization of cemeteries; out of the ideas and sentiments of people and social relations, through the bombardment of oral and written propaganda against religion, morality, private property and even against the lives of citizens.
– With my love to the point of sacrifice. Do we not love our natural mothers like this? And is our supernatural mother not the Church? […] during this time of our mother’s despoilment and pain, is it not the duty of the son to sacrifice in order to alleviate her? […] I want to sacrifice for my mother, to the end, with courage, manfully standing up for Christ and His doctrine, for His priests, His temples, and His institutions, fighting the press that attacks the Church by taking away subscribers, readers, advertisers and all types of support… A faithful and fervent Catholic gives more glory to God and more consolation to the Church than a hundred who are lukewarm.
Maxims to patiently suffer slander
During the year 1864, Saint Anthony Mary Claret suffered great calumnies and persecutions to the point that he wrote to another priest: “You can have no idea, how hard hell is working against me. The most atrocious slanders, words, works and even death-threats have been set in play to discredit and terrify me. But with God’s help I pay no heed to them.”[67] It was in the that same year that he wrote the booklet “Solace of the Slandered Soul” which includes eight maxims that he himself says are “to encourage me to suffer in silence, with patience and resignation, the persecutions and slander.”[68]
Depending on the affront, each one was like the ‘driving force’ that helped him to ‘set his mind’ and will to suffer in a Christian way. We have already mentioned many ideas that are stated in these maxims, but we think it would be convenient to refer to the Saint’s 6th maxim. Even though every year we meditate on the Principle and Foundation asking for holy indifference so as not to desire “honor more than dishonor,”[69] we are supposing that many religious still dread a cross, slanderous, defamatory, insulting or unfounded word should be raised against them. This maxim says: “Speaking one day of a certain religious who was considered a saint, St. Bernard said: He may be a saint, but he lacks the best thing, which is for others to consider him evil.”
Two pieces of advice for the struggle from the Master of Avila
This section is a few counsels that Saint John of Avila has in his letter number 58. “Some specialists affirm with certainty that this letter was written by the Holy Master from the prison of Triana, in Seville, when he was being investigated by the Inquisition in the year 1532 and was addressed to his disciples who were afflicted by the situation of their Master. Therefore, it is a letter that seeks to console, while at the same time giving reasons for this consolation.”[70]
1st Have confidence in the power of Christ: … Do not be upset or surprised by persecutions or hints of them which have come our way as if it is uncommon or strange for the servants of God. For this has been but a test or examination on the lesson we had five or six years ago saying: ‘Suffer! Suffer for love of Christ!’ You see it here at your door; do not be grieved, like children who do not want to teach the lesson that they have been studying; instead, find your strength in the Lord and in his mighty power (Eph 6:10), who loves you and wants to defend you; and although He is one, yet He is more capable than anyone, since He is omnipotent: fear not because you do not know, since there is nothing that He does not know; see if it there is reason for anyone who is bound to God with these three knots to be moved. Neither be frightened by the threats of those who persecute you, for I tell you that I could not care less what they threaten me, since I am the hands of no one except Christ.
2nd Stand firm, and do not shrink back from a trial: … And be on your guard, so that you do not turn back even a step from the good that you have begun, because this would be very bad. Instead, establish in your heart that He who you have followed is the Lord of heaven and earth and of death and of life and that, in the end (even if the whole world was against Him) His truth which you labor to follow shall prevail. So that in following it, you may not only have no fear of men, but neither of devils, nor even angels, if they were to be against us. Employ silence often when speaking to men and speak much with God through prayer in your heart, for all good things will come to us from Him.
*****
Ultimately, it all comes down to resisting with all our strength the temptation to “be tributaries” but instead to live the fullness of Christian and priestly kingship and dominion, without compromising the truth even in the smallest things, without retreating at all on the path we have undertaken, without worldly negotiations to seek comfort and consolation, without shrinking in the face of affronts, persecutions, and calumnies. At the same time, we must do the most and the best that we can for the cause of Christ, with a heart full of gratitude for the fight, until we are able to say, “I thank our dear Jesus that I am privileged to suffer and even die for Him.”[71]
For this reason, the words of our Lord that are spoken through our proper law resound today with greater strength, words directed to us and the generations that will come after us:
“I am your Father because I am God, I am your firstborn brother because I am man. I am your payment and ransom. Why do you fear debts, if you with penance and confession beg to be absolved of them? I am your reconciliation. Why do you fear wrath? I am the bond of friendship. Why fear the anger of God? I am your defender. Why fear adversaries? I am your friend. Why are you afraid of lacking what I have, if you do not separate from me? My Body and my Blood are yours. Why do you fear hunger? My heart is yours. Why do you fear forgetfulness? My divinity is yours. Why do you fear miseries? And for further assistance, my angels are yours to defend you; my saints are yours to pray for you; my blessed Mother is yours to be your attentive and pious Mother; the earth is yours for you to serve Me on it, the heavens are yours because you will come to them; the devils and hell are yours, because you will humiliate them as slaves in prison; life is yours because with it, you win what lasts forever; good pleasures are yours because you offer them to Me; hardships are yours because for My love and your [own] profit, you suffer them; temptations are yours because they are the merits and cause of your eternal crown; death is yours because it will be your nearest transition to life. And all this you possess in Me and for Me, because I have gained this not for Me alone, neither do I want to enjoy this alone; because when I entered into fellowship with you in the flesh, I assumed it to make you partakers in what I would work on, fast, eat, sweat and weep, [participants] in My pains and in My deaths, if it was not given to you to do. You who have so much wealth are not poor, if you who lead a bad life, do not want to lose it knowingly.”[72]
“Rise, let us be on our way!”[73] Let us go forward confidently “amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God,”[74] proclaiming the cross of our Lord until he comes.[75] Meanwhile, exercise the “virtues of patience and mortification, endeavoring to become likened in some measure, through suffering, to our great God, who was humbled and crucified for us, because our life here is good for no other end but to imitate Him.”[76]
Today and always, let our battle cry be: “Never the Cross without Jesus, nor Jesus without the Cross!”[77]
May the maternal presence of the Virgin Mary encourage and comfort us to carry our crosses today and always with fortitude and keep us always united to her Son, our Lord. Amen.
[1] Franz Jägerstätter, Gefängnisbriefe und Aufzeichnungen (Letters from Prison and Writings), pgs. 127ff.
[2] Prison note written by Franz Jägerstätter, loose sheet (88), July/August 1943. Qtd. in Erna Putz, Franz Jägerstätter Martyr A Shining Example in Dark Times. Pg. 115.
[3] Letter of Franz to his friend Father Josef Karobath, dated 23rd February 1943. Qtd. in Erna Putz, Franz Jägerstätter Martyr A Shining Example in Dark Times.
[4] Letter of Franz to Franziska, dated 12th March 1943. Qtd. in Erna Putz, Franz Jägerstätter Martyr A Shining Example in Dark Times.
[5] Franz to Franziska, dated 9th August 1943. Qtd. in Erna Putz, Franz Jägerstätter Martyr A Shining Example in Dark Times.
[6] Directory of Spirituality, 168.
[7] Constitutions, 141.
[8] Cf. Directorio de Espiritualidad, 37.
[9] Saint John of the Cross, Counsels to a Religious, 4.
[10] Ven. Fulton Sheen, The Power of Love, chap. 42.
[11] Matthew 5:11-12.
[12] John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11. Cf Ephesians 2:2; 2 Corinthians 4:4.
[13] Directory of Spirituality, 36.
[14] Ven. Fulton Sheen, Those Mysterious Priests, chap. 10, pg. 138-139.
[15] Ibidem.
[16] Ven. Fulton Sheen, The Power of Love, chap. 42.
[17] Cf. Jn 17:11.
[18] Cf. Jn 17:14-16.
[19] Directory of Spirituality, 46.
[20] Luke 21:12,16-17.
[21] Matthew 10:24-25.
[22] Matthew 24:10.
[23] Matthew 10:24.
[24] Luke 21:18-19.
[25] John 16:20.
[26] Matthew 24:13.
[27] Directory of Spirituality, 181.
[28] Matthew 10:24.
[29] Cf. 2 Corinthians 4:17.
[30] Colossians 1:24.
[31] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 8; Saint Cyprian, On the Lord’s Prayer, Chap. XIII-15, CSEL 3, 275-278.
[32] Letter from Franz to Franziska, dated 9th August 1943.
[33] Saint John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle B, can. 38.
[34] Cf. Ibidem.
[35] Saint John of the Cross, Dark Night, bk. 2, chap. 18, 5.
[36] Ibidem, 4.
[37] Constitutions, 207.
[38] Directory of Spirituality, 41.
[39] Ibidem.
[40] John 10:11.
[41] Directory of Vocations, 91.
[42] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 73.
[43] We will cite freely from the examples mentioned in Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Spiritual Writings, “Solace for the Slandered Soul,” pp. 214-215.
[44] The story is unbelievable. While Catalina de Jesús was in Granada, she had a wound under her ear. While the rest of the community was present, through the grill the Saint asked her how her wound was. She, in the hearing of all, said it was still bad. Saying this, she removed the bandage from the wound and said “Look, Reverend.” Friar John, bringing his finger to the wound, said that it still bled a lot. This gesture of the saint was twisted by the inspector Diego Evangelista, saying, that according to what they had told him, “he had kissed her,” and this was an immense barbarity for the inquisitor. (Cited by José Vicente Rodríguez in San Juan de la Cruz – La biografía, cap. 39, p. 833). [Translated from Spanish]
[45] 2 Timothy 4:7.
[46] Ibidem.
[47] Blessed Franz Jägerstätter, cited by “The Staff of the Catholic Peace Fellowship” in In Light of Eternity: Franz Jägerstätter: Martry, 2003.
[48] Matthew 24:46.
[49] Constitutions, 113.
[50] Saint John of the Cross, Letters, Letter 16, to M. Mary of Jesus, OCD, Prioress of Cordoba, 18 July 1589.
[51] Saint John of the Cross, Epistolario, Letter 20, To a scrupulous Discalced Carmelite, Pentecost 1590.
[52] Saint John of the Cross, Dark Night, book 2, chapter 9, 7.
[53] Saint John of the Cross, Dark Night, bk. 1, chap. 12, 2.
[54] Ibidem, 3.
[55] Job 1, 1-8.
[56] Saint John of the Cross, Dark Night, bk. 1, chap. 12, 3.
[57] Eulogio Pacho, Estudios Sanjuanistas, chap. 14. [Translated from Spanish]
[58] Saint John of the Cross calls Job a ‘prophet’ in reference more to a charismatic grace, a profound spiritual experience that transmits intimate communication with God. Cf. Eulogio Pacho, Estudios Sanjuanistas, chap. 14. [Translated from Spanish]
[59] Eulogio Pacho, Estudios Sanjuanistas, chap. 14. [Translated from Spanish]
[60] Saint John of the Cross, Dark Night, book 2, chapter 7,3.
[61] Saint John of the Cross, Dark Night, book 2, chapter 11, 6.
[62] Saint John of the Cross, Living Flame of Love, Song 2, 28.
[63] Saint John of the Cross, Living Flame of Love, Song 2, 36.
[64] Ibidem.
* The English translation would be Our Clay, although the work is only available in Spanish.
* Liturgical days of prayer and fasting, traditionally the three days before the Solemnity of the Ascension.
[65] Luke 12:4.
[66] Luke 6:22-23.
[67] Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Spiritual Writings, Solace for a Slandered Soul, p. 203.
[68] Ibidem, p. 218. [Translated from Spanish]
[69] Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Book of the Spiritual Exercises, 23.
[70] Carlos Jesús Gallardo Panadero, Comentario a la Carta 58 de San Juan de Ávila (Commentary on Letter 58).
[71] Franz to Franziska, dated 9th August 1943. Cited in Erna Putz, Franz Jägerstätter Martyr A Shining Example in Dark Times.
[72] Constitutions, 214. Citing Saint John of Avila, Letter 20.
[73] John 14:31.
[74] Cf. Saint Augustine, De civitate Dei, XCIII, 52, 2: PL 41, 614.
[75] Cf. 1 Corinthians 11:26.
[76] Saint John of the Cross, Letter 25, To Mother Ana of Jesus, 6 July 1591.
[77] Directory of Spirituality, 144. Cf. Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, The Love of Eternal Wisdom, 14, 1.
