Power

What could be more humbling than the Son of Man submitting to the Holy Will of God at the hands of sinful men…

Crucifixion of Christ (Douglas Reinhardt)

Saint Vincent de Paul said, “You must ask God to give you power to fight against the sin of pride which is your greatest enemy – the root of all that is evil, and the failure of all that is good. For God resists the proud.”

I have heard elsewhere that there are no proud souls in Heaven and no humble souls in Hell.  And in light of what I have come to understand about the sin of pride, that sort of makes sense.

Proud people rarely seek answers from others.  Generally, they are completely consumed by their own importance and fail to appreciate the significance or merits of the views of another.  And yet, that curiosity in the search for the Truth is what makes a difference in the state of our soul.

Saint Cyril of Alexandria said, “If you wish to explore the Holy Scripture, and you overcome your laziness and apply yourself, thirsting for the knowledge, then every good thing will be yours. You will fill your mind with the divine light. Then, when you apply that light to the doctrines of the Church, you will very easily recognize everything that is true and unadulterated, and lay it up in the hidden treasures of your soul.”

And I have been thinking about that power to resist the sin of pride today.  Saint Cassian of Imola was a fourth century Italian bishop.  He worked as a teacher, teaching children to read and write.  When it was discovered that the Saint was a Christian he was denounced to the government and arrested and ordered to offer sacrifices to pagan gods.  He was striped and tied up for refusing to perform this sacrilege and as a punishment he was handed over to some two hundred pagan students to be tortured to death using their writing styli, which were used to carve out his skin and stab him.  And it was no pride that kept him in place throughout that whole torturous ordeal.  It was the knowledge that God is Truth.  He humbly surrendered even his own life to God’s control.

If God had chosen to save him, he would have been saved.  And yet, he was not saved.

It is easy to think of sacrifice and courage as being associated with magnificent things, but so often a martyrdom is silent.  Often a martyrdom is not dramatic.  Often a martyrdom is not special.

Accepting the Will of God means that we accept a multitude of injustice.  Christ Himself was killed unjustly.  Now we look at His death and see it for the incomparable noble sacrifice that it is.  But at the time – with mortal eyes, it looked like a travesty of injustice.  It looked like the wasteful senseless death of a young man in His prime.  It appeared that weak people were trampled by those in power.  In fact, this was allowed as the Holy Will of God because it served a purpose for my miserable soul.

And I have been thinking about that as I have been thinking about power.  Because it seems to me that the greatest suffering of all time is evidenced by the greatest humility imaginable.  For what could be more humbling than the Son of Man submitting to the Holy Will of God at the hands of sinful men…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.