THE CROSS AND HUMAN SUFFERING

A friend of mine once observed that there is much poetry in Catholicism. He was referring to the wealth of imagery in the Catholic Faith. This could be said also of Judaism and other Christian groups, but perhaps it is more pronounced in the Roman Catholic Church. The observation comes to mind because yesterday, September 14, was the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, logically followed today, September 15, by the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows: “standing by the cross of Jesus, his mother” (Jn 19:25). The cross is probably the most utilized image in catholic liturgy.

Even before the Crucifixion of our Lord, the cross must have already been a metaphor for suffering, at least within the Roman Empire, where crucifixion was precisely the gravest penalty for crime. From the time of our Lord, however, to us, Christians, the cross has meant not just suffering, but “redemptive suffering”.

Suffering is integral to human nature, not only to our “wounded” human nature but also to our plain human nature, not least because man is spiritual soul and material body. The human body, like all matter, is destined to disintegration; hence the inexorable march towards the wrenching agony of the separation of body and soul which is death.

While Adam and Eve enjoyed freedom from suffering before the original sin, it was by way of a “preternatural gift”, i.e., a good beyond the nature of the human creature, although not beyond the nature of the totality of creation (in the same way that “immortality” is beyond human nature but “natural” to purely spiritual creatures like the angels). When they turned away from God, Adam and Eve lost all their “gifts” and could only transmit to us, their descendants, what was their “nature”, a damaged or wounded human nature at that.

The Redemption accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ brings humanity into “intimacy with God”, actualized individually by grace with the free cooperation of man. But while we now enjoy this “supernatural gift” (beyond the nature of all creatures), its definitive fulfillment for each of us, including liberation from suffering and death, would take place in eternity.

Our Lord Jesus Christ did not remove suffering from the life of man on earth. Rather, He made it the very means of salvation, of our sanctification. We must learn to unite our own sufferings with that of our Lord.

It is of course good, nay, laudable, to alleviate or remove suffering, our own and others’, in so far as suffering consists in the absence or privation of a good, as long as our action does not constitute a turning away from our ultimate good. But it is best, for the sake of that highest good, to embrace suffering. Thus, we can face with Christian cheerfulness the unavoidable setbacks and difficulties of each day. We can also actively seek opportunities for self-denial, for love of God and neighbor, in many little things that do not really harm ourselves nor inconvenience others, and which could pass unnoticed.

Suffering is an indispensable condition for our entrance into eternal happiness. “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Lk 9:23ff; cf. Mt 16:24; Lk 14:27) Thus, the Church teaches: “The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle.” (CCC, No. 2015)

True, our Lord raised several persons from the dead, healed many sick and fed the hungry multitudes; but these must be seen as manifestations of His mercy and proofs of His Divinity, not as the inauguration of a world liberated from suffering. In fact, after feeding the five thousand men, “when Jesus perceived that they would come to take him by force and make him king, he fled again to the mountain” (Jn 6:15). Our Lord did not come to bring political or economic liberation on earth. The “messianic declaration”—“to bring good news to the poor he has sent me” (Lk 4:18) — “is to be understood mainly in a spiritual, transcendental sense” (The Navarre Bible, Note at passage). It was precisely the Jews’ materialistic and earthbound reading of this quote from the prophet Isaiah (61:1ff) which blinded them from recognizing Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. Let us not be misled by parties or movements that promise to eliminate poverty, injustice, suffering, from the life of man in the world.

St. Josemaria writes: “The happiness of us poor men, even when it has supernatural motives, always leaves a bitter aftertaste. What did you expect? Here on earth, suffering is the salt of our life.” (The Way, No. 203) On the other hand, “Is it not true that, as soon as you cease to be afraid of the Cross, of what people call the cross, when you set your will to accept the Will of God, then you find happiness, and all your worries, all your sufferings, physical or moral, pass away? Truly, the Cross of Jesus is gentle and lovable. There, sorrows cease to count; there is only the joy of knowing that we are co-redeemers with Him.” (The Way of the Cross, Second Station)

DEO OMNIS GLORIA

DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Today, September 8, is the memorial of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is a good time to consider why we need to show devotion to her. Within the context of the general motive of pleasing God, I can think of several specific reasons.

First, we honor the Blessed Virgin Mary to give due adoration to the Blessed Trinity. We venerate (dulla) the saints to honor God, their Creator; more so in the case of our veneration (hyperdulla) of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is the most perfect of God’s creatures because she is God’s mother.

Jesus Christ, as “perfect God and perfect Man” (Athanasian Creed), derives His Sacred Humanity from the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Blessed Virgin Mary is very much a part of His unique identity as Person, the Word of God made flesh, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity Become Man. The Jesus we worship is the “Son of God and Son of Mary”, and not any other Jesus.

Second, we honor the Blessed Virgin Mary to comply with the fourth commandment of the Decalogue: “Honor your father and mother.” She is our mother because she is the Mother of Christ and, as baptized Christians, we are members of Christ—other Christs, Christ Himself, alter Christus, ipse Christus. If we are Christ Himself, Mary is surely our mother.

From the Cross, our Lord also commanded: “Behold your mother” (Jn 19:27). To behold Mary is to behold her perfections: She is “full of grace” (Lk 1:28), therefore, sinless and “conceived without original sin”, perpetual virgin, assumed into heaven in body and soul. Beholding her perfections, we cannot help but marvel.

St. Josemaria writes: “Almighty God, Omnipotent and Infinitely Wise, had to choose his Mother. What would you have done, if you had had to choose yours? I think that you and I would have chosen the mother we have, filling her with all graces. That is what God did: and that is why, after the Blessed Trinity, comes Mary. Theologians have given a rational explanation for her fullness of grace and why she cannot be subject to the devil: it was fitting that it should be so, God could do it, therefore he did it. That is the great proof: the clearest proof that God endowed his Mother with every privilege, from the very first moment.” (The Forge, No. 482)

At the Annunciation of the Birth of our Savior, the angel Gabriel saluted our Lady, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with thee.” (Lk 1:26-28). St. Thomas Aquinas observes that it was the angel, a creature superior to men, who deferred to Mary, not the other way around, which indicates Mary’s special blessedness. Thus, Mary herself also prophesied, “all generations shall call me blessed, because He who is mighty has done great things for me” (Lk 1:49). This is the greeting of Elizabeth to Mary at the Visitation, which we make our own in the “Hail Mary”: “Blessed art thou among women” (Lk 1:28).

Third, we invoke the Blessed Virgin Mary to benefit more from her intercession. She is the Mediatrix of All Graces, our most powerful intercessor with our Lord. The miracle at the marriage feast at Cana (Jn 2:1-12) happened even if Jesus’ “hour has not yet come”. And though her intercession does not require our asking (as in the wedding at Cana), all the more should her mediation be beneficial, more timely, more insistent, etc., for us by our asking.

God wants us to ask Him for good things, even if He wants even more to give them to us, because we are free. Our prayer of petition is a way of our freely uniting our will with God’s, thereby loving God; and to ask Him for, to want, the good of our fellowmen, is an excellent way of living fraternal charity.

Intercession is an integral part of the “communion of saints”. Hence, the “us” in the Our Father, and the numerous miracles performed upon the intercession of others in the Gospel: the raising of Jairus’ daughter (Mt 9:18-26; Mk 5:22-43; Lk 8:41-56), and of the centurion’s servant (Mt 8:5-13; Lk 7:1-10), the healing of a paralytic (Mk 2:1-12; Lk 5:17-26); and of the Canaanite woman’s daughter (Mt 15:21-28; Mk 7:24-30), etc.

We need to have devotion to our Lady, non multa sed multum, “not many but done well.” The most recommended, especially by saints and Popes, is praying the Holy Rosary daily with the family, and wearing the Brown Scapular of our Lady of Mount Carmel. St. Josemaria also recommends frequent, loving glances at pictures or images of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as well as aspirations addressed to her many times during the day (e.g., “Holy Mary, our Hope, Seat of Wisdom, pray for us!”). In the end, as St. Josemaria puts it, “Love of our Lady is proof of a good spirit, in works and in individuals. Don’t trust the undertaking that lacks this characteristic.” (The Way, No. 505)

Maligayang kaarawan, Mama Mary!

DEO OMNIS GLORIA

HUMAN FREEDOM AND PURPOSE

Today, August 28, is the feastday of St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church. It is a good time to call to mind what is perhaps the most famous line he wrote: “(Lord,) You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” (Confessions, 1, 1) It is a very beautiful way of expressing the meaning, the final cause, of human existence.

The ultimate purpose of human existence is, indeed, union with God—holiness, sanctity, wherein lies our perfection and happiness. We know this, even with the natural reason, because of the principal faculties of the human spirit: the intelligence and free will. The intelligence is ordained to understand the truth; the will is ordained to choose (to love) the good. Because of these powers, we know that: 1) man is spiritual soul (as well as material body), because the intellect and will are capable of “transcending” or “going beyond” material reality; 2) that man has an eternal destiny because only the material dimension of man can be destroyed; the spiritual soul, being non-matter (i.e., not composed of parts), is not covered by the law of entropy (all matter tends towards decay or disintegration); and 3) that, therefore, the ordination to, or hunger for, truth and goodness, which will subsist in eternity, can only be satisfied by the fullness of Truth and Goodness, God.

It can also be said, in connection with the above, that God created man in order to have at least one species in the material universe capable of knowing Him intelligently and of loving Him freely. Thus, another way of expressing the human vocation is: To know God with the intelligence enlightened by faith, to love God with our human freedom aided by grace, and to serve God with all our being, with all our strength, our passions, our possessions, with all our loves… To grow in the knowledge and love and service of God.

Sacred Scripture also reveals this human vocation to holiness. From our Lord’s lips: “You must therefore be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). From St. Paul: “This is the will of God, your sanctification.” (1 Thes 4:3). It is also the teaching of the Church (Lumen Gentium, Nos. 39-42; CCC, No. 2013)

This call to holiness may also be understood as a demand to fulfill the New Law of Charity: Love of God above all things for His own sake, and love of others as oneself for the love of God (cf. Mt 22:37-40).

As the Decalogue of the Old Testament was written on two tablets of stone, so does the new law of charity have two dimensions: love of God, on one hand, and love of neighbor, on the other. These two dimensions of Christian charity are said to be personified by Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, of Bethany. Mary represents love of God—our life of prayer, of contemplation, of grace, our personal relationship with God, our interior life—Martha, love of others for God—our life of work, of action, of service, of building up the kingdom of God, of apostolate.

When our Lord came to their home, Mary seated herself at his feet and listened, while Martha was busy serving. At Martha’s complaint, Jesus said, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious about many things; yet only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Lk 10:38-42)

Charity—sanctity—is the “one thing necessary,” but it has two dimensions, love of God above all and love of others for God. Our own “unity of life” as Christians demands that we live both. Thus, the vocation to sanctity is also a vocation to serve others; indeed, to apostolate, because, love of others means concern, above all, for their eternal happiness. Thus, in the words of St. Josemaria Escriva, “Charity with everyone means, therefore, apostolate with everyone (Friends of God, 230).” Mary “has chosen the better part” because, as St. Josemaria Escriva also puts it, “Your apostolate must be the overflow of your life ‘within’.” (The Way, 961).

Precisely because we are free creatures, God will not “force” holiness on us. We have to want it “freely”. This means we have to orient our intelligence and will towards God, our ultimate end, as against our disordered tendencies caused by original sin to choose what is not compatible with union with God. We need to make conscious effort not to exchange the greater for the lesser good in every choice we make. We need to grow in the supernatural virtues of faith, hope and charity which, although received unmeritedly through grace, require our cooperation for their increase. We have to struggle towards holiness, which is the only worthwhile use of our freedom.

Human freedom is not absolute. It is limited by the need to bow to “objective” reality (outside of us); and to the natural consequences of our choices, because the exercise of freedom actually “binds” us. Freedom is meaningless until exercised in choice; hence, human freedom is inseparable from “commitment” and because of this, “responsibility”: we could be the cause of whatever happiness or misery resulting from our choices.

Authentic human freedom is the capacity of man “to direct himself towards his ultimate end”. True “liberation” (the increase or restoration of freedom) happens only when we freely commit, bind, ourselves to pursuing holiness. May we seek to live “in the freedom of the glory of children of God,” in libertatem gloriae filiorum Dei (Rom 8:21) by in all things making our own Mary’s Fiat, “Let it be done!” to the will of God.

DEO OMNIS GLORIA

DIVINE FILIATION

St. Josemaria Escriva would insist that the foundation of our spirituality, indeed, the foundation of our sanctity, is our divine filiation, the fact that we are children of God.

“For whoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Now you have not received a spirit of bondage so as to be again in fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons, by virtue of which we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’ The Spirit himself gives testimony to our spirit that we are sons of God. But if we are sons, we are heirs also: heirs indeed of God and joint heirs with Christ, provided, however, we suffer with him that we may also be glorified with him.” (Rom 8:14-17)

Before Adam and Eve sinned, they were friends of God. After the Fall, they became “enemies” of God and slaves to sin—the “wounded” human nature inherited by all their descendants. With the redemption accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary 2000+ years ago, mankind, “in Christ”, became “children of God”. So now we are no longer slaves to sin, nor even just friends of God, but sons, entitled to call God “Abba, Father!” and to inherit the kingdom. That is why the Liturgy of the Easter Vigil (Exsultet) contains a line in which we exclaim, “O, happy fault,” Felix culpa!, in reference to the sin of Adam and Eve as the “cause” of the Incarnation, Redemption and our adoption as children of God. Indeed, this provides a partial explanation for the mystery of why God allows evil (He is never the author of evil but allows it): because He can make even greater good come out of it.

While the redemption has been accomplished in history by our Lord Jesus Christ, the application of its benefits is a continuing work: people continue to be born (and will continue until the end of time) who will receive its benefits individually. We receive the benefits of redemption by our “incorporation” into Christ, by becoming part of Him, members of His (mystical) Body (the Church), which is accomplished through “sanctifying grace” first received in the Sacrament of Baptism. Thus, we can say with St. Paul, “I live, now, not I, but Christ lives in me,” Vivo autem iam non ego sed Christus vivit in me vero (Gal 2:20). We are sons of God because God the Father sees in us His only-begotten Son. We venerate the saints because they are people like us who have permanently achieved this state: they are eternally in God the Son, united with God the Father in the love Who is God the Holy Spirit.


While we live on earth, we are in a position to freely increase (or diminish even to the point of disappearance) this life of God in us. The grace of being Christ-like given us at Baptism should grow as we grow humanly, in which we also need God’s grace but must also freely cooperate. God created us free to direct ourselves freely to our end; hence, as St. Augustine puts it, “God created us without us but will not save us without us.” We have to want to become saints.

The work of our own sanctification may be expressed as growing more and more like Christ, who is also the model for our behavior. Indeed, the task of spiritual directors, among others, is to help us “chisel-away” the “rough spots” (to use a metaphor of St. Josemaria), to become, eventually, alter Christus, ipse Christus, “another Christ, Christ Himself”. We should say of our lives, and mean it, like St. John the Baptist: “He must increase, I must decrease,” Illum oportet crescere, me autem minui (Jn 3:29). Thus, the struggle for sanctification may also be expressed as the “imitation of Christ”.

We become like Christ through sanctifying grace and grow in it by our efforts (also aided by grace) to model our interior dispositions and behavior on our Lord Jesus Christ, which presupposes an intimate personal relationship with Him (knowing and loving Him). But we become most Christlike in this life on earth in Holy Communion received worthily and with the proper dispositions: then (and for as long as the appearances of bread and wine remain in us), we are also physically, truly Him (we become His Body that we eat).

God initially created and called man to be His co-operator (co-worker) in the work of creation (of bringing the material universe to greater and greater perfection): “The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it” (Gen 2:15). After the Fall of Adam and Eve, the main thrust of God’s work has been to prepare mankind for the redemption accomplished by our Lord Jesus Christ. But this work of redemption is a continuing work. We are also called to be Christ’s co-operators in this work of redemption (God’s new creation, the heavenly city of Jerusalem). Thus, the vocation to sanctity is also a vocation to apostolate.

If sanctity means imitating our Lord in His Sacred Humanity, then closeness to the Blessed Virgin Mary is indispensable: she “formed” Him physically in her womb and spiritually as well in His infancy and childhood. If we are to become Christ Himself, we must also be sons of Mary.

DEO OMNIS GLORIA