Chapter 6. The second fruit to be drawn Srom the consideration of the second word spoken by Christ upon the Cross

A knowledge of the power of divine grace, and of the weakness of the human will, is the second fruit to be gathered from the consideration of the second word, and this knowledge is equivalent to saying that our best policy is to place all our confidence in the grace of GOD, and distrust entirely our own strength. If any man wishes to know the power of the grace of GOD, let him cast his eyes on the good thief. He was a notorious sinner, who had persevered in his wicked course of life to the moment when he was fastened to the cross—that is, to almost the last.

moment of his life; and at this critical period, when his eternal salvation was at stake, there was no one present to counsel or assist him. For although he was in close proximity to his Saviour, nevertheless he only heard the chief priests and the Pharisees declaring that he was a seducer, and an ambitious man who was aiming at sovereign power. He likewise heard his companion in wickedness taunting him in similar terms. . There was no one to say one good word for Christ, and even Christ Himself did not rebut these blasphemies and maledictions. Nevertheless, by the assistance of GoD’S grace, when the gates of heaven seemed shut against him, the jaws of hell open to receive, and the sinner himself as far removed as possible from life eternal, he was suddenly illuminated from on high, his thoughts were directed into the proper channel, -and he confessed Christ to be innocent and the King of the world to come, and, like a minister of GOD, rebuked his fellow-thief, persuaded him to repent, and commended himself humbly and devoutly to Christ. In a word, his dispositions were so perfect as to make the pains of his crucifixion compensate for what sufferings were in store for him in Purgatory, so that immediately after death he entered into the joy of his Lord. From which circumstance it is evident that no one should despair of salvation, since the thief who entered the Lord’s vineyard almost at the twelfth hour received his reward with those who had come at the first hour. On the other hand, in order to let us see the extent of human weakness, the bad thief is not converted either by the immense charity of Christ, Who so lovingly prayed for His executioners, or by the force of his own sufferings, or by the admonition and example of his companion, or by the unusual darkness, the splitting of rocks, or the conduct of those who, after the death of Christ, returned to the city striking their breasts. And all these things took place after the conversion of the good D

34 On the First Three Words thief, to show us that whilst one could be converted without these adjuncts, the other, with all these helps, — could not, or rather would not be converted.

But you may ask, why has GoD given the grace of conversion to the one and denied it to the other? I answer that both had sufficient grace given them for their conversion, and if one perished, he perished through his own fault, and if the other was converted, he was converted by the grace of GOD, though not without the cooperation of his own free will. Still it may be urged, why did not GOD give to both of them that efficacious grace which would overcome the hardest heart. The reason why He has not done so is one of those secrets which we ought to admire but not pry into, since we ought to rest satisfied with the thought that there cannot be injustice with GOD, as the Apostle says,* or, as St. Augustine - expresses 16 the judgments of GOD may be secret, but cannot be unjust. To learn from this example not to postpone our conversion to the approach of death, is a lesson that more nearly concerns us. For if one thief cooperated with the grace of Gop in that last moment, the other rejected it, and met his final doom. And every reader of history, or observer of what takes place around him, cannot but know that the rule is for men to end a wicked life by a miserable death, whilst it is the exception for the sinner to die happily ; and, on the other hand, it seldom happens that those who live well and holily come to a sad and miserable end, but many good and pious people enter, after their death, into the possession of eternal joys. Those persons are too presumptuous and fool-hardy who, in a matter of such import .as eternal felicity or eternal torment, dare to remain in the state of mortal sin even for a day, seeing that they may be surprised by death at any moment, and after death there is no place for repentance, and out of hell there is no redemption.

Chapter 7. The third fruit to be drawn from the consideration of the second word spoken by Christ upon the Cross

A third fruit can be drawn from the second word of our Lord by adverting to the fact that there were three persons crucified at the same place and at the same time, one of whom, namely, Christ, was innocent; another, namely, the good thief, was a penitent; and the third, namely, the bad thief, remained obstinate in his sin: or to express the same idea in different words, of the three who were crucified at the same time, Christ was always and transcendently holy, one of the thieves was always and notably wicked, and the other thief was formerly a sinner but now a saint. From which circumstance we are to infer that every man in this world has his cross and that those who seek to live without having a cross | to carry,‘aim at something which is impossible, whilst we should hold those persons to be wise who receive their cross from the hand of the Lord, and bear it even to death, not only patiently but cheerfully. And that each pious soul has a cross to carry can be deduced from these words of our Lord: “Jf any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me:”™* and again, “ Whosoever doth not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple,’ which is precisely the doctrine of ‘the Apostle: “AW that will live godly,” he says, “i Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution’; The Greek and Latin Fathers give their entire adhesion to this teaching, and that I may not be prolix I will give but two quotations. St. Augustine in his commentary on the Psalms writes: “This short life is a tribulation: if it is not a tribulation it is not a journey: but if it is a journey you

36 On the First Three Words either do not love the country towards which you are journeying, or without doubt you would be in tribulation.” And in eaorier place: “If you say you have not yet suffered pny Unnes then you have not begun to be a Christian.” St. John Chrysostom, in one of his homilies. to the people of Antioch, says, “Tribulation is a chain which cannot be unlinked from the life of a Christian.” And again: “You cannot say that that man is holy who has not made trial of tribulation.” Indeed this doctrine can be demonstrated by reason. Things of a contrary nature cannot be brought into each other’s presence without a mutual opposition; thus fire and water, as long as they are kept apart, will remain quiet; but bring them together, and the water will begin to hiss, to form itself into globules, and pass off into steam until either the water is consumed, or the fire is extinguished. “ Good zs set against evil,’ says Ecclesiasticus, “and life against death: so also is the sinner against a just man.” Just men are compared to fire. Their light is shining, their zeal is burning, they are ever ascending from virtue to virtue, ever working, and whatever they undertake they efficaciously accomplish. On the other hand sinners are compared to water. They are cold, ever moving on the earth, and forming mire on all sides. Is it therefore strange that wicked men should persecute just souls? But because, even to the end of the world, wheat and cockle will grow in the same field, chaff and corn be collected in the same barn, good and bad fish found in the same net, that is, upright and wicked men in the same world, and even in the same Church; it therefore necessarily follows that the good and the holy shall be persecuted by the bad and the impious.

The wicked also have there crosses in this world. For although they are not persecuted by the good, nevertheless. they will be tormented by other sinners, by their own

vices, and by their evil consciences. The most wise Solomon, who certainly would have been happy in this world, had happiness been possible here, acknowledged that he had a cross to carry when he said: “/ saw zz all things vanity and vexation of mind, and therefore I was weary of my life, when I saw that all things under the sun ave evil, and all vanity and vexation of spirit.”* And the writer of the Book of Ecclesiasticus, who was likewise a most prudent man, pronounces this general sentence: “Great labour ts created for all men, and a heavy yoke 1s upon the children of Adam.+ St. Augustine in his commentary on the Psalms says, that “the greatest of all tribulations is a guilty conscience.” St. John Chrysostom in his homily on Lazarus shows at length how the wicked must have their crosses. If they are poor, their poverty is their cross ; if they are not poor, cupidity is their cross, which is a heavier one than poverty ; if they are stretched on a bed of sickness, the bed is their cross; if they are not sick, they are inflamed with anger, and anger is their cross. St. Cyprian tells us that every man from the moment of his nativity is destined to carry across and suffer tribulation, which is foreshadowed by the tears shed by every infant. “Each one of us,” he writes, “at his birth, and at his very entrance into the world, sheds tears. And although we are then unconscious and ignorant of everything, we nevertheless know, even at our nativity, what it isto cry: by a natural foresight we lament the anxieties and labours of the life we are commencing, and the untutored soul by its moaning and weeping proclaims the bustling commotions of the world which it is entering.” Since such is the case there can be no doubt but that a cross is in store for the good as well as for the wicked, and it only remains for me to prove that the cross of a saint lasts for a short time, is light and fruitful, whilst that of

38 On the First T. hree Words a sinner is eternal, heavy, and sterile. In the first place there can be no question as to the fact that a saint suffers. for a brief period only, since he can endure nothing when this life has passed. “ Prom henceforth now, said the Spirit,” to the departing just souls, “chat they may rest from ther labours ;”* “ And God shall wipe away all tears from their cyes.’+ The sacred Scriptures say most positively, that our present life is short, although to us it may appear long. “The days of man are short and “Man born of a woman, living for a short time,’§ and “ What 1s your life? It is a vapour which appeareth for a little while, and afterwards shall vanish away.’|| The Apostle, however, who carried a most heavy cross from his youth even to his old age, writes in these terms in his Epistle: to the Corinthians, “For that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory;”% in which passage he speaks of his sufferings as of no account, and compares them to an indivisible moment, although they had extended over a period of more than thirty years. And his sufferings consisted in being hungry, thirsty, naked, struck, in being thrice beaten with rods by the Romans, five times scourged by the Jews, once stoned, and thrice shipwrecked; in undergoing many journeys, in being often imprisoned, in receiving stripes beyond measure, in being frequently reduced to the last extremity.** What tribulations then would he call heavy if he considers these light, as they really are. And what will you, kind reader, say, if I insist that the cross of the just is not only light, but even sweet and agreeable on. account of the superabundant consolations of the Holy Spirit? Christ says of His yoke, which may be called

a cross: “My yoke is sweet and My burden light:”* and elsewhere He says, “ You shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejowce, and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into goy.’+ And the Apostle writes: “J am filled with comfort; I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation.’ In a word, we cannot deny but that the cross of the just is not only light and temporary, but fruitful, useful, and the bearer of every good gift, when we hear our Lord saying: “ Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake, for theirs ts the kingdom of heaven.’§ St. Paul, exclaiming that, “ The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us,|| and St. Peter exhorting us to rejoice if “we partake of the suffering of Christ, that when His glory shall be revealed we may also be glad with exceeding joy.’

On the other hand there is no need of a demonstration to show that the cross of the wicked is eternal in its duration, most heavy and unmeritorious. Of a surety the death of the wicked thief was not a descent from the cross, as the death of the good thief was, for even now that wretched man is dwelling in hell, and will dwell there for ever, since “the worm,’ of the wicked, “shall not die, and the fire of hell shall not be quenched.’** And the cross of the rich glutton, that is, the cross of those who store up riches, which are most aptly compared by our Lord to thorns that cannot be handled or kept with impunity, does not cease with this life as the cross of poor Lazarus did, but it accompanies him to hell where it unceasingly burns and torments him, and forces him to cry out for a drop of water to cool his burning tongue “for I am tormented in this flame.’+} Therefore the

40 On the First Three Words cross of the wicked is eternal in its duration, and the lamentations of those of whom we read in the book of Wisdom, testify that itis heavy and rough. “ We wearied ourselves in the way of iniquity and destruction, and have walked through hard ways.’* What! are not ambition, avarice, luxury, difficult paths to tread? Are not the accompaniments of these vices, anger, quarrelling, envy, difficult paths to tread? Are not the sins which springs — from these accompaniments, treachery, brawls, affronts, wounds and murder, difficult paths to tread? They are certainly such, and not unfrequently force men to commit suicide in despair, and thereby seeking to avoid one cross, prepare for themselves a much heavier one.

And what advantage or fruit do the wicked derive from their cross? It can no more bring them an advantage than thorns can produce grapes, or thistles figs. The yoke of our Lord brings peace, according to His own words: “ Zake up My yoke upon you, and you shall find rest to your souls.’+ Can the yoke of the devil, which is diametrically opposed to that of Christ, bring anything but care and anxiety? And this is of still greater importance, that whereas the Cross of Christ is the step to eternal felicity, “for zt behoveth Christ to suffer and so to enter into fis glory,’; the cross of the devil is the step to eternal torments, according to the sentence pronounced on the wicked: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.” If there be any wise men who are crucified in Christ, they will not seek to come down from the cross, as the impenitent thief foolishly sought, but will rather remain close to His side with the good thief, and will ask pardon of Gop and not a deliverance from the cross, and thus suffering alone with Him they will likewise

reign with Him, according to the words of the Apostle: “Vet so if we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him.’* If, however, there be any wise amongst those who are weighed down by the devil’s cross, they will take care to shake it off at once, and if they have any sense will exchange the five yoke of oxen for the single yoke of Christ. By the five yoke of oxen are meant the labours and uneasiness of sinners who are the slaves of their five senses; and when a man labours in doing penance instead of sinning, he barters the five yoke of oxen for the single yoke of Christ. Happy is the soul which knows how to crucify the flesh with its vices and concupiscences, and distributes the alms which might be spent in gratifying its passions, and spends in prayer and spiritual reading, in soliciting the grace of GoD and the patronage of the Heavenly Court the hours which might be lost in banqueting and in satisfying the restless ambition of becoming the friends of the powerful. In this manner the cross of the bad thief, which is heavy and barren, may be profitably exchanged for the Cross of Christ, which is light and fruitful.

We read in St. Austin how a distinguished soldier argued with one of his comrades about taking up the Cross. “Tell me, I pray, to what goal will all the labours we undertake bring us? What object do we present to ourselves? For whose sake do we serve as soldiers? Our greatest ambition is to become the friends of the Emperor; and is not the road that leads us to his honour full of dangers, and when we have gained our point, are we not then placed in the most perilous position of all. And through how many years shall we have to labour to secure this honour. But if I desire to become the friend of GOD, I can become His friend at this moment.” Thus he argued, that since to secure the friendship of the Emperor

A2 On the First Three Words he must undertake many long and fruitless toils, he would be acting more wisely if he undertook fewer and lighter and more useful labours to secure the friendship of GoD. Both soldiers made their resolve on the spot, both left the army in order to serve their Creator in earnest, and what increased their joy on taking this step was the fact that the two ladies whom they were on the point of marrying spontaneously offered their virginity to GOD.