The Excellence of the Union of the Friends of the Cross

1. Since the divine Cross hides me away and forbids me to speak, it is not possible for me, nor do I even desire, to address you in words, to open to you the sentiments of my heart concerning the excellence and the divine practices of your union in the adorable Cross of Jesus Christ. Yet today, the last day of my retreat, I come forth, so to speak, from the attraction of my interior, in order to trace upon this paper a few faint strokes of the Cross, that they may pierce your good hearts. Would to God that to sharpen them I needed only the blood of my veins, instead of the ink of my pen! But alas! even were it necessary, my blood is too sinful. May the Spirit of the living God, then, be the life, the strength, and the substance of this letter; may his anointing serve as the ink of my writing-desk; may the divine Cross be my pen, and your heart my paper!

2. You are united together, Friends of the Cross, like so many crucified soldiers, to fight the world — not by fleeing like monks and nuns, for fear of being conquered, but like valiant and brave warriors on the field of battle, without giving ground or turning your back. Courage! Fight valiantly! Bind yourselves tightly in the union of minds and hearts, infinitely stronger and more terrible to the world and to hell than the outward forces of a well-united kingdom are to the enemies of the State. Demons unite to destroy you — unite to overthrow them. The greedy unite to traffic and gain gold and silver — unite to win the treasures of eternity, locked within the Cross. The dissolute unite to make merry — unite to suffer.

A. Greatness of the Name "Friend of the Cross"

3. You call yourselves "Friends of the Cross." How great that name is! I confess that I am captivated and dazzled by it. It is more brilliant than the sun, higher than the heavens, more glorious and magnificent than the grandest titles of kings and emperors. It is the great name of Jesus Christ, true God and true Man together: it is the unequivocal name of a Christian.

4. But if I am enraptured by its splendor, I am no less overwhelmed by its weight. What indispensable and difficult obligations are contained in that name and expressed in these words of the Holy Spirit: "Genus electum, regale sacerdotium, gens sancta, populus adquisitionis." A Friend of the Cross is a man chosen by God from among ten thousand who live according to the senses and reason alone, to be a wholly divine man, raised above reason, and entirely opposed to the senses, by a life and a light of pure faith and an ardent love for the Cross. A Friend of the Cross is an all-powerful king, a triumphant hero over the devil, the world, and the flesh in their three concupiscences. By love of humiliations, he overthrows the pride of Satan; by love of poverty, he triumphs over the greed of the world; by love of suffering, he quenches the sensuality of the flesh. A Friend of the Cross is a man holy and set apart from all that is visible, whose heart is raised above all that is passing and perishable, whose conversation is in heaven, who passes through the earth as a stranger and a pilgrim, and who, without giving it his heart, looks upon it with indifference and tramples it underfoot with contempt. A Friend of the Cross is a glorious conquest of Jesus Christ crucified on Calvary, in union with his holy Mother; he is a Benoni or Benjamin, a son of sorrow and of the right hand, born in Christ's sorrowful Heart, brought into the world through his pierced right side, and all empurpled with his Blood. Sprung from this bloody origin, he breathes nothing but the Cross, blood, and death to the world, to the flesh, and to sin, that he may be wholly hidden here below with Jesus Christ in God.

In short, a perfect Friend of the Cross is a true Christ-bearer, or rather another Jesus Christ, so that he can say with truth: "Vivo, jam non ego, vivit vero in me Christus" — I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.

5. Are you by your actions, my dear Friends of the Cross, what your great name signifies? Or at least, do you have a true desire and a genuine will to become so, with the grace of God, in the shadow of the Cross of Calvary and of Our Lady of Sorrows? Are you taking the means necessary for this? Have you entered the true way of life, which is the narrow and thorny way of Calvary? Or are you, without realizing it, on the broad way of the world, which is the way of perdition? Do you know that there is a way that seems right and safe to a man, yet leads to death?

6. Do you clearly distinguish the voice of God and of his grace from that of the world and of nature? Do you hear the voice of God our good Father who, after giving his triple curse to all who follow the concupiscences of the world — "Vae, vae, vae habitantibus in terra" — lovingly cries out to you, stretching forth his arms: "Separamini, popule meus" — Separate yourselves, my chosen people, dear Friends of my Son's Cross; separate yourselves from the worldly, who are cursed by my Majesty, excommunicated by my Son, and condemned by my Holy Spirit. Take care not to sit in their pestilent chair; do not enter into their counsels; do not stop even along their path. Flee from the midst of the great and infamous Babylon; listen only to the voice and follow only the footsteps of my beloved Son, whom I have given you to be your way, your truth, your life, and your model: "Ipsum audite." Do you listen to this loving Jesus, who cries out to you, laden with his Cross: "Venite post me" — Come after me; he who follows me does not walk in darkness; "Confidite, ego vici mundum" — Take courage, I have conquered the world?

B. The Two Camps

7. There you have it, my dear Brothers: two camps that present themselves every day — the camp of Jesus Christ and the camp of the world. That of our loving Savior is on the right, going upward along a path narrow and made narrower still by the corruption of the world. This good Master goes at its head, walking barefoot, his head crowned with thorns, his body all bloodied, carrying a heavy Cross. Only a handful of people, but the most valiant, follow him, because his voice, so gentle, cannot be heard amid the tumult of the world; or because people lack the courage to follow him in his poverty, his sufferings, his humiliations, and the other crosses that must necessarily be carried in his service every day of life.

8. On the left is the camp of the world, or of the devil, which is the most numerous, the most magnificent, and the most brilliant — at least in appearance. All the fashionable world rushes to it; people crowd in, though the roads are broad and made broader still by the multitude that passes through like torrents; they are strewn with flowers, lined with pleasures and games, covered with gold and silver.

9. On the right, the little flock that follows Jesus Christ speaks only of tears, penances, prayers, and contempt for the world; one continually hears these words broken by sobs: "Let us suffer, let us weep, let us fast, let us pray, let us hide, let us humble ourselves, let us impoverish ourselves, let us mortify ourselves; for he who does not have the spirit of Jesus Christ, which is a spirit of the Cross, does not belong to him; those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified their flesh with its concupiscences; we must be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ or be damned. Courage!" they cry. "Courage! If God is for us, in us, and before us, who shall be against us? He who is in us is stronger than he who is in the world. The servant is not greater than the master. A moment of light tribulation produces an eternal weight of glory. There are fewer elect than we think. Only the courageous and the violent seize heaven by force; no one will be crowned who has not fought lawfully, according to the Gospel and not according to fashion. Let us therefore fight with all our strength, let us run well so that we may reach the goal and win the crown!" These are some of the divine words with which the Friends of the Cross encourage one another.

10. The worldly, on the contrary, to encourage one another to persevere in their wickedness without scruple, cry out every day: "Life, life! Peace, peace! Joy, joy! Let us eat, drink, sing, dance, and play! God is good; God did not make us to damn us; God does not forbid us to enjoy ourselves; we will not be damned for that; no scruples! Non moriemini," and so forth.

11. Remember, my dear Brothers, that our good Jesus is looking at you now, and says to each of you in particular: "See how nearly all the world abandons me on the royal road of the Cross. The blind idolaters mock my Cross as folly; the obstinate Jews are scandalized by it as an object of horror; the heretics break it down and cast it aside as something worthy of contempt. But what I cannot say without tears in my eyes and my heart pierced with sorrow is this: my children, whom I raised in my bosom and whom I instructed in my school — my members, whom I animated with my spirit — have abandoned and despised me, becoming enemies of my Cross! Numquid et vos vultis abire? — Do you also wish to abandon me by fleeing my Cross, as the worldly do, who are in this so many antichrists: antichristi multi? Do you wish, in order to conform yourselves to this present age, to despise the poverty of my Cross in order to chase after riches; to avoid the pain of my Cross in order to seek pleasures; to hate the humiliations of my Cross in order to pursue honors? I have many friends in appearance, who protest that they love me, but who in reality hate me because they do not love my Cross; many friends of my table, and very few of my Cross."

12. At this loving appeal of Jesus, let us rise above ourselves; let us not allow ourselves to be seduced by our senses, as Eve was; let us look only to the author and the finisher of our faith, Jesus crucified; let us flee the corruption of the concupiscence of this corrupt world; let us love Jesus Christ in the right way — that is, through all manner of crosses. Let us meditate well on these admirable words of our loving Master, which contain the whole perfection of the Christian life: "Si quis vult venire post me, abneget semetipsum, et tollat crucem suam, et sequatur me!"