Sweet Cross of Jesus
<http://tfp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1158>http://tfp.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1158
Written by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
Wednesday, February 25 2009
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The Gospels show us with great clarity how much
our Divine Savior in His mercy pities our pains
of body and soul. We need only to recall the
awesome miracles He performed in His omnipotence
in order to mitigate these pains. But let us
never make the mistake of imagining that this
combat against pain and sorrow was the greatest gift He dispensed to mankind.
For he who closes his eyes to the central fact of
Our Lord's life that He is our Redeemer and
desired to endure the cruelest sufferings in
order to redeem us would have misunderstood His mission.
Even at the very apex of His Passion, Our Lord
could have put an end to all those pains
instantly by a mere act of His Divine will. From
the very first mo¬ment of His Passion to the very
last, He could have ordered His wounds to heal,
His precious blood to stop pouring forth, and the
effects of the blows on His Di¬vine body to
disappear without a scar. Finally, He could have
given Himself a brilliant and jubilant victory,
abruptly halting the persecution that was dragging Him to death.
But He willed none of this. On the contrary, He
willed to allow Himself to be led up the Via
Dolorosa to the height of Golgotha: He willed to
see His most holy Mother engulfed in the depths
of sorrow. And, finally, He willed to cry out
those piercing words "My God, My God, why hast
Thou forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46), which will
echo down through the ages until the consummation of the world.
In considering these realities, we come to
understand a profound truth. By granting each of
us the grace to be called to suffer a portion of
His Passion with Him, He made clear the unequaled
role of the Cross in the lives of men, in the
his¬tory of the world, and in His glorification.
Let us not think that by inviting us to suffer
the pains and sorrows of the present life, He
thereby wished to dispense each of us from
pronouncing our own "consummatum est" ("it is
completed") at the time of our death.
If we do not understand the role of the Cross, if
we do not love the Cross, if we do not live our
own via crucis, we will not fulfill Providence's
design for us. And when dying, we will not be
able to make ours the sublime exclamation of
Saint Paul: "I have fought the good fight, I have
finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Henceforth there is laid up to me the crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, will award to me on that Day." (2 Timothy 4:7-8).
Any quality, however exalted, will avail nothing
unless it is founded on love of the Cross of Our
Lord Jesus Christ. With this love we can obtain
all, even if we find heavy the holy burden of
purity and other virtues, the unceasing attacks
and mockeries of the enemies of the Faith, and the betrayals of false friends.
The great foundation, indeed the greatest
foundation, of Christian civilization is that
each and every person cultivates a generous love
for the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ. May Mary
help us to do this. Then we shall have
reconquered for her Divine Son the reign of God
that today flickers so faintly in the hearts of men.
Last Updated ( Thursday, February 26 2009 )
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