THE AGONY TO COME
“Nunc anima
mea turbata est.
Et quid dicam?
Pater, salvifica me ex hora hac?
Sed propterea veni in horam hanc.
Pater, glorifica tuum nomen!
“Now my soul is troubled.
And what shall I say?
Father, save me from this hour?
No, for this purpose I have come to this hour.
Father, glorify thy name!”
(Jn 12:27-28)
THE GUARANTEE OF OUR HOPE
“The hope of every human being comes from the Cross,
sign of the victory
of
love over hate,
of
forgiveness over revenge,
of
truth over falsehood,
of
solidarity over egoism.”
(John Paul II, Synod of Bishops for Bishops, 30 Sept 2001)
FIVE REASONS FOR THE CROSS
We are sinners—we need to be purified.
We are spiritual athletes—we need to train.
We are debtors—we feel the need to pay back.
We are followers—we have to walk the road he walked.
We are apostles—we need to the power of the cross
to
prepare and carry out our apostolate.
(Cf St Josemaría)
NEED FOR CLEANSING AND PRUNING
“I am the true vine,
and my Father is the vine-dresser.
Every branch in me that bears no fruit he will take away,
and every branch that bears fruit he will
cleanse [prune],
that it may bear more fruit.”
(Jn 15:1-2)
NEED FOR TRAINING AND TESTING
“And the Lord said,
‘Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has claimed power over you all,
so that he can sift you like wheat:
but I have prayed for thee,
that
thy faith may not fail.” (Lk 22:31-32)
“For you, O God, have tested us,
you have tried us as silver is tried: …
we went through fire and through water
but then you brought us relief.” (Ps 66:10,12)
“Blessed is the man who endures trial,
for when he has stood the test
he
will receive the crown of life
which
God has promised to those who love him.” (Jas 1:13)
“In this you rejoice,
though now for a little while
you
may have to suffer various trials,
so that the genuineness of your faith,
more
precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire,
may redound to praise and glory and honor
at the
revelation of Jesus Christ.”
(I Pt:6-7)
“It may surprise you to learn that
in his
efforts to get permanent possession of a soul,
he relies on the troughs even more than on
the peaks;
some of his special favorites
have
gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else.
Our cause is never more in danger than when a human,
no
longer desiring, but still intending,
to
do our Enemy’s will,
looks round upon a universe from which every
trace of him
seems
to have vanished,
and
asks why he has been forsaken,
and still obeys.”
(CS Lewis, Screwtape Letters, VIII)
“God has tried them,
and found them worthy of himself.”
(Wis 3:5)
“[O]f all the apostles, Christ in the end asked least of him
who
had given most.”
(L Trese, A Man Approved, 122)
NEED BY FOLLOWERS
“The ‘Life of Christ’ has been many years in writing.
But the deeper understanding of the unity of Christ and his Cross came
when
Christ kept the author very close to his cross
in
dark and painful hours.”
(F Sheen on his book Life of Christ)
“[T]hose who are oppressed by apparently senseless moral suffering
find in Jesus’ moral suffering the meaning of
their own trials.”
(John Paul II, Go in Peace, 172)
NEEDED BY APOSTLES
“Every soul has a price tag.”
(F Sheen)
When suffering is seen from God’s perspective,
it makes us capable of consoling others and
helping them,
it even gives us the strength to help others
with their cross;
it makes us aware of other people’s own pain,
which
may be far greater than our own.
“Jesus was troubled in spirit.
Little children …
Do not let your hearts be troubled. …
I will not leave you orphaned. …
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you …
do not let your hearts be troubled.”
(Jn 13:21,33;
14:1,8,27)
John Paul II, to one of his aides who lost a sister at the same time as
an earlier illness of the Pope:
“The Church needed your pain and suffering.”
(Zenit interview with L Touze,
Pope Reads His Life with the Eyes of a Contemplative, 14 March 2005)
BREAD THAT IS BROKEN TO BE GIVEN
“The moment has come to talk about our brokenness.
You are a broken man.
I am a broken man,
and all the people we know or know about are
broken.
Our brokenness is so visible and tangible, so concrete and specific,
that it is often difficult to believe that
there is much
to think, speak or write about other than our
brokenness.
“Our brokenness is always lived and experienced
as
highly personal, intimate and unique.
I am deeply convinced
that
each human being suffers in a way no other human being suffers.
No doubt,
we can
make comparisons;
we can
talk about more or less suffering,
but, in the final analysis,
your
pain and my pain are so deeply personal
that
comparing them can bring scarcely any consolation or comfort.
Our brokenness is as unique as our chosenness
and our blessedness.
“We human beings can suffer immense deprivations with great
steadfastness,
but when we sense
that
we no longer have anything to offer to anyone,
we quickly lose our grip on life.
Instinctively we know
that
the joy of life comes from the ways in which we live together
and that the pain of life comes from the many
ways we fail to do that well.
“How can we respond to this brokenness?
I'd like to suggest two ways:
first,
befriending it and,
second,
putting it under the blessing.
Our first, most spontaneous response to pain and suffering is
to
avoid it,
to
keep it at arm's length;
to
ignore, circumvent or deny it.
Suffering—be it physical, mental or emotional—
is
almost always experienced as an unwelcome intrusion into our lives,
something
that should not be there.
“My own pain in life has taught me
that
the first step to healing is not a step away from the pain,
but a
step toward it.
Yes, we have to find the courage
to
embrace our own brokenness,
to
make our most feared enemy into a friend and
to
claim it as an intimate companion.
I am convinced that healing is often so difficult
because
we don’t want to know the pain.
Although this is true of all pain,
it is
especially true of the pain that comes from a broken heart.
Attempting to avoid, repress or escape the pain
is
like cutting off a limb that could be healed with proper attention.
“The deep truth is that our human suffering need not be an obstacle
to the
joy and peace we so desire,
but
can become, instead, the means to it.
The great spiritual call of the Beloved Children of God
is to
pull their brokenness away from the shadow of the curse
and
put it under the light of the blessing.
This is not as easy as it sounds.
However, great and heavy burdens become light and easy
when
they are lived in the light of the blessing.
What seemed intolerable becomes a challenge.
What seemed a reason for depression becomes a source of purification. What
seemed punishment becomes a gentle pruning.
What seemed rejection becomes a way to a deeper communion.
“This explains why true joy can be experienced
in the
midst of great suffering.
It is the joy of being disciplined, purified and pruned.
Just as athletes who experience great pain as they run the race can,
at the
same time,
taste
the joy of knowing that they are coming closer to their goal.
Here joy and sorrow are no longer each other's opposites,
but
have become the two sides of the same desire
to
grow to the fullness of the Beloved”
(H Nouwen, Life of the Beloved)
FROM ALL SIDES
“Foris pugnae, intus timores.”
“All was conflict without, all was anxiety within.
[Fighting without and fear within.]
But there is one who never fails to comfort those who are brought low.”
(II Cor 7:6)
“For me, a day without the cross is a day without God.”
(St
Josemaría, in El Hombre de Villa Tevere, 105)
“A unos les sobran cruces….
y me faltan Cristos.”
(St
Josemaría)
FOR EVERY BEARER A CROSS MADE TO FIT
“The everlasting God has in his wisdom
foreseen
from eternity the cross that he now presents to you
as a
gift from his inmost heart.
This cross he now sends you
he has
considered with his all-knowing eyes,
understood
with his divine mind,
tested
with his wise justice,
warmed
with loving arms
and
weighed with his own hands
to see that it be not one inch too large
and not one ounce too heavy for you.
He has blessed it with his holy name,
anointed
it with his consolation,
taken
one last glance at you and your courage,
and
then sent it to you from heaven,
a
special greeting from God to you,
an
alms of the all-merciful love of God.”
(St Francis de Sales)
IN LAETITA, NULLA DIES SINE
CRUCE
“Beloved do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal
which
comes upon you to prove you,
as
though something strange were happening to you.
But rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings,
that
you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.”
(I Pt 4:12-13)
“You will be sorrowful,
but your sorrow will turn to joy….
and no one will take your joy from you.”
(Jn 16:21)
“O my God … I thank you and I praise you
for
accomplishing your holy and all-lovable will
without
any regard for mine.
With my whole heart,
in spite of my heart,
do I
receive this cross I feared so much!
It is the cross of your choice,
the cross of your love.
I venerate it;
nor for anything in the world would I wish
that it had not come,
since you willed it.
I keep it with gratitude and with joy,
as I do everything that comes from your hand;
and I shall strive to carry it
without
letting it drag,
with
all the respect and all the affection which your works deserve.
Amen.”
(St Francis de Sales)
Mary, my Mother,
make me generous
in the little offering that God asks of me
everyday;
remind me each time
that to grow and bear fruit,
I must give up my life.
C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents\jmom RETREAT\crt_19Passion&Death.rtf
Revised 26 March 2005