Letter, Sala Balust no. 88. To console a lady grieving for the absence of her son

Madam, I think that you must be feeling grief : much, however, as I desire your happiness, your spiritual progress is more to me, so that I would rather see you bearing trials with patience than enjoying peace and devotion. God is better pleased with submission in suffering than with gratitude in prosperity. Remember our Lady’s sorrows: during the Passion alone, at the heart-rending sight of her Son being led to execution as a malefactor, bearing a heavy cross on His shoulders, and so altered that she scarcely recognised Him, she suffered more than has been borne by all the mothers in the world at being parted from their children. Think what must have been her woe, as she saw Him she loved more dearly than herself, pass thus from life! What must she have felt, as she held Him, Who was both the Son of God and her own child, dead in her arms, when all His cruel torments were ended! And then again, after Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, when she was separated Vol. i. • $ 2 , Blessed. John, of- Avila long years from Him, she felt His absence more keenly than other mothers feel separation from their sons, for her affection was greater than any they can have.

If we glory in being our Lady’s servants, should we not share in her dolours? As we gaze on her standing at the foot of our Lord’s cross, let us contemplate her with a soul filled as hers was with sorrow, for mourners cannot talk with the light-hearted. So let those who wish for union with the Blessed Virgin and her Son, desire some share in their sufferings. When in this world were afflictions ever wanting to this Mother and Son ? Was not sorrow always mirigledj with any joy that they had? Their life was but a painful exile and a heavy cross; until they lefjt this world they experienced only trouble. At last they are at peace, but even now they do not wish their followers to think of that, but of the trials they bore while living here below.

Our repose is being kept for the future and it will indeed be sweet. Here let us work manfully. Our Lord has many ready to share . His table but few to partake of His sorrows, and it is for us to be among those, few, if we would be in the number of His friends. Let us help Him to drink His choice, for that will show that we love Him sincerely. It is no easy matter to be the friend of Jesus Christ. Suffering borne for Him is the only sure way to test which is the true and which the false friend. Although the draught may be bitter, yet drink it — think for Whom you take it; 1 how soon its taste will pass away; what a reward it will bring you, and it will taste so sweet that you will complain that there is so little given you. Learn to love God as He loves you, and know that a true love will make you give yourself wholly to Him, and keep back nothing for yourself. Do not fear to place yourself in God’s hands, abandoning yourself entirely to Him, for all He holds is safe, and all else will certainly be lost. Our Saviour has said : “ He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth' his life shall keep it.” (St. John XII. 25.) Do not care for the present, as many have done, only to find themselves deceived at last; but lift your eyes to Heaven, for which you were created, and pray that you may get there, be the cost what it may. None of those who are already there have passed through the world without greater afflictions than you have; if some of them had less to bear, their tortures were incomparably more severe in Purgatory, for our Lord has ordained that none shad take part in His joys but they who have shared His pains. He has kept this rule with all souls beloved by Him, therefore let us not complain of it nor feel aggrieved, even if we had the option of passing through life without sharing in the pains He and His Mother bore. This is the road to heaven, let us walk in it; it is the purgatory of our sins, do not let us think it too hard. This is what God’s friends must pass through; let who will spend their time in pleasure. Our Lord told us, knowing well what was to come: “Amen, Amen, I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice: and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labour, hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but when she hath brought forth the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. So also you now indeed have sorrow, but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice. ” (St. John XVI. 20-23). These are our Lord’s words, and for the sake of the joys to come, forget your present pains, and wait patiendy until you see our Lord, Who will come sooner than you expect Him.

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