{"id":192,"date":"2019-09-01T19:49:53","date_gmt":"2019-09-01T18:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourcharism.org\/?p=192"},"modified":"2021-05-29T21:27:52","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T20:27:52","slug":"love-born-from-the-cross-of-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourcharism.org\/index.php\/2019\/09\/01\/love-born-from-the-cross-of-christ\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Born from the Cross of Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

San Jos\u00e9, USA, September 1st<\/sup>, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLove that is not born from the cross of Christ is weak\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Directory of Spirituality<\/em>, 137<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Fathers, Brothers, Seminarians, and Novices, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mystery that identifies us, that of the Incarnation of the Word, is directly related to the mystery of the Cross that we will celebrate in a few days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today as in the past, the Cross continues to be a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, <\/em>[\u2026] Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, the confession of Crist Crucified usually \u2013 and I would almost say that this is a norm of Christian life \u2013 brings the cross with it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe thing about the Church that scandalizes,\u201d said the Holy Father, \u201cis the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word\u2026 This is the reason for persecution [\u2026 when we assert that] the Son of God came and was made flesh, when we preach the scandal of the cross, then persecutions will come, then the cross will come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And nevertheless, the Church\u2019s fundamental task in all ages \u2013 and I would say, especially in our times \u2013 is always to lead souls to meet Christ Crucified, through the cross and the death that leads to resurrection. Because it is precisely on the cross that the soul is united with God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, we were created for this union with God, and this union is achieved through the Cross and is consummated and sanctified on the Cross. It is a union that is sealed for all eternity with the Cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this reason, not only all our efforts of evangelization should begin in and lead to the mystery of the Cross \u2013 to Jesus Christ crucified \u2013 but we ourselves must also penetrate the unfathomable mystery of the cross in our lives, if we are truly to be \u201ca living memory of the way that Jesus, the Word made flesh<\/em>, lived and behaved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But furthermore, as an Institute, we must be ready to embrace the cross in order to \u201crelive and testify to the one mystery of Christ, above all in the aspects of His self-abasement and of His transfiguration,\u201d as our proper law states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what we want to do and what all our missionaries do in fact do, testifying that \u201cJesus is loved and served on the Cross and crucified with Him, and not in any other way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The Cross in our lives<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cModel your life on the mystery of the Lord\u2019s cross,\u201d says the Rite of Ordination, and all of us who have been ordained remember that these words were once pointedly addressed to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, in accordance with the invitation that Christ once made to us, whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me<\/em>, our vocation is none other than to die each day \u201cin order to nail in our hearts the One who was nailed to the cross for us.\u201d This implies \u201cresolutely submitting<\/strong> to the carrying of the cross, if they decidedly want to find<\/strong> and endure trial<\/strong> in all things for God [\u2026] because they will be traveling the road denuded of all and with no desire for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this reason, we were advised already in the novitiate \u201cto live profoundly united to Christ in His passion, in order to return love for love, paying with deeds.\u201d And then, in the seminary, we were taught even more the \u201cmeaning of the cross\u201d and to put into practice \u201cthe radical self-giving proper to the priest\u201d so that, \u201cmysteriously participating in the cross of Christ, we collaborate in the building up of His body.\u201d You will all remember the lasting fruit produced by the beautiful custom taught to us in the Seminary of making what we call \u201cThe Book of the Passion\u201d: it is a concrete way to learn the \u201cscience of the cross.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saint John of the Cross, in one of the most sublime pages of Christian literature, explains, \u201cOh, that one could show us how to understand, practice, and experience what this counsel is which our Savior here gives us concerning self-denial, so that spiritual persons might see in how different a way they should conduct themselves upon this road from that which many of them think proper! For they believe that any kind of retirement and reformation of life suffices; and others are content with practicing the virtues and continuing in prayer and pursuing mortification; but they attain not to detachment and poverty or selflessness or spiritual purity (which are all one), which the Lord here commends to us; for they prefer feeding and clothing their natural selves with spiritual feelings and consolations, to stripping themselves of all things and denying themselves all things, for God\u2019s sake. For they think that it suffices to deny themselves worldly things without annihilating and purifying themselves of spiritual attachment. Wherefore it comes to pass that, when there presents itself to them any of this solid and perfect spirituality, consisting in the annihilation of all sweetness in God, in aridity, distaste and trial, which is the true spiritual cross, and the detachment of the spiritual poverty of Christ, they flee from it as from death, and seek only sweetness and delectable communion with God. This is not self-denial<\/em> and detachment of spirit, but spiritual gluttony. Herein, spiritually, they become enemies of the Cross of Christ; for true spirituality seeks for God\u2019s sake that which is distasteful rather than that which is delectable; and inclines itself rather to suffering than to consolation; and desires to go without all blessings for God\u2019s sake rather than to possess them; and to endure aridities and afflictions rather than to enjoy sweet communications, knowing that this is to follow Christ and to deny oneself, and that the other is perchance to seek oneself in God, which is clean contrary to love. For to seek oneself in God is to seek the favors and refreshments of God; but to seek God in oneself is not only to desire to be without both of these for God\u2019s sake, but to be disposed to choose, for Christ\u2019s sake, all that is most distasteful, whether in relation to God or to the world; and this is love of God<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God has created our souls for Himself. And He desires to unite them to Himself and to give them the immeasurable fullness and incomprehensible bliss of His own divine life, already in this life. This is the goal we are aiming at, and we should be persuaded that \u201cthe cross\u2026 is the staff wherewith one may reach one\u2019s goal.\u201d But the fact is that many souls stop on the way or, terrified, flee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This should not happen with the members of the Institute, because the Cross is an essential part of the Christian life and \u201cbelongs in a particular way to the essence of the vocation linked to the profession of the evangelical counsels.\u201d We should clearly realize that ours is a call to crucify the old man, not a call to have a good time. And so, it is very advisable \u201cto be willing to die,\u201d to go through the second and third conversion, and to apply the will to \u201cloving the living cross of toils, humiliations, insults, tortures, pains, persecutions, misunderstandings, annoyances, disgraces, scorn, shame, slanders, death…;\u201d and all this, \u201cnot with a childish spirit, but with a robust will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And indeed, that our lives be marked by the cross \u201cis the greatest gift God can bestow upon His chosen ones on earth.\u201d Because this is the way that \u201cthe progressive collapse of nature gives more and more room to the supernatural light and to divine life\u201d and how we become \u201canother Incarnation of the Word,\u201d \u201cother Christs.\u201d Know also that, in general, God purges with greater intensity and more quickly those who have the disposition and greater strength to suffer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, one should not retreat before the cross, or be afraid, or avoid it, but rather, ours is to advance with a valiant soul, without complaints, without stinginess, and without seeking consolations or rewards. And the more willingly we stretch ourselves on the Cross and let ourselves be nailed to it, the more profoundly we will experience the reality of being united to the Crucified One. \u201cTo take the cross God sends us,\u201d says the Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen, \u201cas He took the one given to Him, even though we do not deserve it, is the shortest way to identification with God\u2019s will which is the beginning of Power and Peace: Power because we are one with Him who can do all things; Peace because we are tranquil in the love of Him who is just.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To Do\u00f1a Juana de Pedraza, a lady directed by Saint John of the Cross and who was perhaps tempted not to advance by the narrow way of the cross, the Mystical Doctor wrote: \u201cYou were never better off than now because you were never so humble or so submissive, or considered yourself and all worldly things to be so small; [\u2026] nor did you serve God so purely and disinterestedly as now, nor did you follow after the imperfections of your own will and interests as perhaps you were accustomed to do. What is it you desire? What kind of life or method of procedure do you paint for yourself in this life? What do you think serving God involves other than avoiding evil, keeping His commandments, and being occupied with the things of God as best we can? When this is had, what need is there of other apprehensions or other lights and satisfactions from this source or that? In this there is hardly ever a lack of stumbling blocks and dangers for the soul [\u2026]. What need is there in order to be right other than to walk along the level road of the law of God and of the Church, and live only in dark and true faith and certain hope and complete charity, expecting all our blessings in heaven, living here below like pilgrims, the poor, the exiled, orphans, the thirsty, without a road and without anything, hoping for everything in heaven? Rejoice and trust in God [\u2026]. Desire no other path than this and adjust your soul to it (for it is a good one).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our proper law points out that if \u201caccording to the plan of the most Holy Trinity, it was necessary for Jesus Christ to suffer in order to save all men, [that is to say, that] if in the actual salvific economy Christ\u2019s Passion was necessary, then it will also be necessary for us to suffer. If there were another way to Heaven, Jesus Christ would have followed it, and moreover, He would have taught it. However, He did not. Christ went by means of the royal road of the Holy Cross, and He taught us to go by it as well.\u201d Therefore, the Cross is nothing less than the way to heaven and, what is more, \u201cit is the shortest and surest way.\u201d And so, \u201cMake no mistake: since it was necessary for Eternal Wisdom to enter heaven by the way of the Cross, it is necessary to enter after Him by the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are asked to \u201cbe experts in the wisdom of the cross, in the love of the cross, and in the joy of the cross\u201d and even to \u201chave an intense desire for the cross\u201d and to \u201cpray for this grace\u2026 to suffer for His sake<\/em>.\u201d Now, \u201ca science of the cross can be gained only when one comes to feel the Cross radically.\u201d Does this cross not materialize in the suffering, fatigue, and hardships of each day, as well as in the humiliation of failure, the alienations and difficulties of daily life? Then why do we complain? There are even some who think that the \u201cworld stops\u201d to attend to their needs, forgetting that \u201cthey are all comparable to knocks and rappings at the door of your soul so that it might love more\u201d and that \u201che who seeks not the cross of Christ seeks not the glory of Christ.\u201d Therefore, we have to make the most of them and persevere, firm in the vocation we received from the hands of the One who said to us through the apostle: may grace and peace be yours in abundance<\/em>, and carry on \u201cto supreme hope in the incomprehensible God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what should be our attitude towards the cross? We have already said something about this: it should be courageous, gallant, because this is the priestly attitude that is proper to the \u201cthird class of men\u201d that we meditate on each year in the Spiritual Exercises. This calls for \u201can integral act of faith and total surrender [to Christ], with an explicit decision<\/strong> not to make a pact with, compromise with, capitulate with, negotiate with, surrender to or give in to the spirit of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we should also realize that in the most interior trials \u2013 in passive purifications \u2013 what Saint Peter Julian Eymard said sometimes happens: \u201cThe good God is pleased to multiply difficulties. He brings to a halt, He nails down in impotence. Souls wish to act, but they cannot.\u201d So, there is nothing more to do than what the Mystical Doctor of Fontiveros advised: <\/p>\n\n\n\n