XXV — THE WAY OF THE CROSS

Presence of God. — O Holy Spirit, instruct me on the value of suffering; teach me to esteem and love it as a means of sanctification.

Meditation

1 — We must be deeply convinced that if the Holy Spirit works in our souls to assimilate us to Christ, He can do so only by opening for us the way of the cross. Jesus is Crucified Jesus: therefore there can be no conformity with Him except through the cross; and one will never enter the depths of spiritual life without entering the mystery of the cross. St. Teresa of Jesus teaches that even the highest contemplative graces are given to souls precisely to make them more capable of bearing the cross. “Since God,” says the Saint, “can do us no greater favor than to grant us a life conformed to that of his most beloved Son, I hold as certain that the purpose of these graces is to strengthen our weakness so that we may know how to imitate Him in much suffering” (Interior Castle VII, 4, 4). Yes, more than all mystical graces, conformity to Crucified Jesus is of value and importance! The whole spiritual life is ruled by the cross; and as the cross stands at the center of the history of the world, so it stands at the center of the history of every soul. The cross gave us life, and the cross will imprint in us the features of the most perfect likeness to Jesus: the more we share in his cross, the more we shall be like Him and cooperate in the work of Redemption.

The necessity of the cross for reaching holiness is evident: one cannot embrace God’s will always and in every circumstance without denying one’s own will; one cannot conform in everything to Jesus, “who in this life had and sought no other satisfaction than to fulfill the Father’s will” (St. John of the Cross, Ascent I, 13, 3), without renouncing one’s selfish satisfactions. And all this means detachment, cross, sacrifice, self-denial. It means setting oneself on the way indicated by Jesus Himself: “If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mt. 16:24). And it is precisely along this way that the Holy Spirit impels and invites us. When we catch ourselves seeking easier, more comfortable, more honorable things; when we notice ourselves granting satisfactions to self-love, to vainglory, or we see ourselves attached to our own will, let us tell ourselves frankly that all this is far from being inspired by the Holy Spirit and, on the contrary, hinders his action in us.

2 — By courageously practicing renunciation, we place ourselves on the way of conformity to Crucified Jesus; but even here our initiatives are unequal to the goal to be reached: the renunciations and mortifications we undertake are insufficient to strip us fully of the old man so as to clothe us with Christ, and with Christ Crucified. That is why the Holy Spirit, after impelling us on the way of the cross with inspirations tending to make us embrace for love of God things harsh and painful to nature, takes it upon Himself to complete our purification. And He does so by subjecting us to exterior and interior trials. He, says St. John of the Cross, with his “loving divine flame... wounds the soul, destroying and consuming the imperfections of bad habits: by this operation the Holy Spirit disposes it for due union and transformation of love in God” (Living Flame 1, 19). We cannot therefore think that the Holy Spirit’s action in us is always consoling - far from it! Moreover, suffering is necessary not only for our purification but also for associating us with Jesus’ redemptive work: the further we advance on the way of the cross, the more we shall sanctify ourselves and be able to exercise a fruitful apostolate in the Church. It is therefore evident: to sanctify us, the Holy Spirit cannot lead us by any way other than that of the cross. And we must follow his guidance by seeking above all to embrace wholeheartedly whatever bitter and painful things we encounter in our daily life. Often one neglects the cross of daily difficulties to love a distant one that perhaps will never come; we must not go seeking our cross in extraordinary sufferings that very rarely - perhaps never - we shall meet, but in duty, in life, in the difficulties, in the sacrifices of each day, of each moment; here we have inexhaustible riches - it is enough to know how to discover them with the light of faith. The Holy Spirit helps us recognize and urges us to embrace this daily cross: to embrace it, and not merely endure it, which means actively accepting and offering it, saying with all our heart: “Yes, I want it, even if I feel crushed by it!”

Colloquy

“O Spirit of truth, make me know your Word; teach me to remember all He has said; enlighten me, guide me, make me conformed to Jesus, an alter Christus, by communicating to me his virtues, above all his patience, his humility, his obedience; make me share in his redemptive work by making me understand and love the cross.

“O Holy Spirit, I place myself before You like a little unripe fruit that must ripen in the sun, like a straw that must be burned by fire, like a drop of dew that must be absorbed by the sun, like an ignorant child that must be taught. O Holy Spirit, who pour yourself into the little, poor, humble soul, I want to present myself to You in this attitude, and with these dispositions I invoke You: Veni, Spiritus Sancte, sanctifica me. I have so great a desire for holiness! Sanctify me Yourself; make me a great saint, swiftly a saint, without my knowing it, in the hiddenness of my daily life.

“I want to cast myself into You, O Holy Spirit, divine Fire, so that You may complete my purification, destroy my wretched self, and transform me wholly into love. Therefore I beg You to come upon me and direct me according to your good pleasure: Dirige actus nostros in beneplacito tuo.

“O consuming Fire, divine Love in person, inflame me, burn me, consume me, destroy my self, transform me wholly into love, bring me to nothingness for the All, bring me to the summit of the ‘Mount’ where only the glory of God dwells, where all is peace and joy of the Holy Spirit! May I attain here on earth - through suffering and loving contemplation - the most intimate union with the Most Holy Trinity, while awaiting to come to contemplate It unveiled above in heaven, in the peace, joy, and security of the eternal banquet” (cf. Sr. Carmela of the Holy Spirit, c.s.).