VERBUM SERAPHICUM
PAX ET BONUM FEBRUARY -- 2003 A. D. AVE MARIA
"If thou wilt be perfect, go,
sell what thou hast, and give to the poor,
. . . and come follow Me." Matthew 19:21
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O Mary, Mediatrix of every Grace, pray for us! The Sacred Power of the Cross The Mystery of Christianity to be Sought out Since the Mystery of the Cross has been hidden from this world by God's design, it can only be accessed through a living faith and by means of a gift of enlightenment, which must be sought out. St. Paul laments this, saying, "If only you had known the Mystery, you would never have crucified the Lord of Glory!". St. Paul said this to the Jewish leaders of his day; but he could just as well say it to each and every christian, who by his sins merited the death of the Messiah. St. Thomas Aquinas says that it is impossible to sin, unless one turns from God toward creatures. Furthermore, St. Thomas says that all sin begins with error in the mind. Hence, no sin is possible if the will adverts to the Mystery of the Cross, for in it the seeming contradiction of the world, the flesh, and the devil's suggestions, is clarified by the humiliation of Christ Crucified, who forsook all, and being made obedient to the Father, by voluntary mortification and self-sacrifice, redeemed this world by the Holocaust of Himself upon the wood of the most Holy Cross. And so, we must seek out the Sacred Power of the Cross by means, first of all, of prayer; begging humbly to be introduced to an appreciation of so great a wonder, by means of an enlightenment of our faith, a recognition of the enormity of our sins, and the imminent necessity of taking action to conform ourself to Christ Crucified. It is first necessary that we beg in prayer for the grace of an enlightened faith, without which it is impossible for our souls beclouded in mind |
by error, in will by inordinate self-love, and in sense by attatchement to the experiences, to comprehend it. This is the fundamental explanation why there is such a widespread distain for generosity, austerity, penance, and mortification; why a disciplined life, the traditional observances of the Rule, are scorned and rejected a priori. But the Lord will give this grace, if one but askes humbly in His Holy Name and through the intercession of His Immacualte Mother; and does so perseveringly, until the Lord deigns to grant his request. Second, we must seek to comprehend the enormity of our own personal sins. And the chief obstacle to this grace is the pride we take in our own good behavior, saying ever so secretly in the depths of our conscience: "I am not like other men: I pray and fast and give alms!". No, in truth we are, each one of us, far more rotten, more corrupt, more wicked, more vicious, more deceitful, more evil, than we have ever begun to realize. In the life of St. Teresa of Avila, she was once give an opportunity to experience the place she had merited in Hell by a tepid religious life. It was dark and dank, and foul smelling, and filled with putrid, like a clogged sewer, and she had to stand motionless in a nitch on the side of this narrow, and most foul passageway, pressed on all sides by the other damned and most cruel demons. When she was brought back to her senses, she thanked the Lord for having seen Hell and promised never to commit even a deliberate venial sin again. At which, Our Lord Jesus Christ rebuked her severely, saying, "That was only a vision! You have no idea what Hell is really like!" And mind you, by her own confession, she had never even committed a mortal sin as a religious: what she saw was just for tepidity! St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle! |
VERBUM SERAPHICUM
PAX ET BONUM FEBRUARY -- 2003 A. D. AVE MARIA
"If thou wilt be perfect, go,
sell what thou hast, and give to the poor,
. . . and come follow Me." Matthew 19:21
|
St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us! Since none of us is at all anyway like unto St. Teresa in holiness, what must be the place we have alrady merited! Third, we must beg for the grace to realize the most imminent necessity of embracing a life of penance and mortification. Our Lord urged us to this, when He said in reference to those who had died by being crushed by a falling tower, and those who died when they were slain by Pilate and their blood mixed with pagan sacrifices, "Unless you all do penance, you will likewise perish!" Note Our Lord said, "All". There is a terrible and most sudden death that is merited by a tepid Chrisitan life, especially by a tepid or sinful religious. Consider the horrible, and untimely, death of a benedictine, who lived in abominable sins right upto the last hour of his life: he was electrocuted in the bathroom, without time for remorse or repentance, and his soul ripped from his body and taken straight to Hell!. There is also a most imminent necessity of embracing a life of penance and mortification on account of the enormity of the disorder in our soul and body on account of the fomes of original sin, which still lurks there, and through which Satan and his crew, will certainly obtain dominion over us, forever, if we do not today, by every possible measure, break this tinderbox of sin. Indeed, the reality is that having so carelessly lived a Christian life upto this very hour, you are already very much confirmed in those bad habits by which you will lose your immortal soul. |
This is so, because you have never really done penance or mortified yourself to the extent that is necessary to break this diabolic hold over your body and spirit. Consider those Saints who did not live such a strict religious life as St. Francis did, and see how much penance they did to liberate themselves from a carnal, worldly life. There is that great saint, St. Ignatius of Loyola, who ate nearly nothing, and wore the scantiest of clothes, and slept on hard and sharp rocks, in a very cold, damp, dank cave, at Manresa, for what was it, six weeks? Then there is that other Jesuit Saint, St. Francis Borgia, who ate nothing for a week when he converted. And then there are those religious, whose vows oblige them to a much stricter life, and they don't even stop eating for Good Friday, or if they ever did, it was many years ago! The mystery of the spiritual life for all Christians, for all religious, is the Mystery of the Cross, and the power behind this mystery, which can transform the lives of us all, even the most sinful of religious, is the Sacred Power of the Cross. But since this Mystery is hidden by God's design, it must be sought out by humility, understood through prayer, embraced through penance and held fast by mortification. This is why St. Francis lived such a self-sacrificial life. It was such that made him worthy of the Stigmata, for he has already embraced the Crucified in little, everday mortifications, austerities, and penances. Let us follow in the footsteps of so great a Saint! Published by The Franciscan Archive |