Sorrow

“Take up your cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24).

Saint Christina the Astonishing (Prayer Card)

I have been thinking about sacrifice… 

I recently heard a comedian speak about her experience of conversion from atheism to Catholicism.  She laughed that when she first told those people around her that she was converting to the Catholic faith, they told her that she was adopting this faith because she was taking an easy way out – so to speak.  They argued that her willingness to accept God and Religion was a signal that she was weak and unable to rely on herself.  This comedian laughed at this attitude.  She claimed – and rightly so – that there is nothing weak about a religion that calls its adherents to “take up your cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24).

And I have been thinking about the magnitude of our calling as Catholics…

Saint Paul of the Cross says, “The Cross is the way to Paradise, but only when it is borne willingly.”

And there are so many opportunities to bear the Cross willingly!  And they never look like crosses at the time.  They look like frightening things or tragic things or uncomfortable things or unfair things.

Alexander De Rouville wrote in “The Imitation of Mary” at pages 139-140, “What sorrow Mary especially must have felt at losing Jesus (in the Temple)! But, my Savior, Mary had not lost You through her fault. You had left her in order to devote Yourself to Your Father's business. I, on the contrary, have often lost You through my own fault because of my sins. I often forced You to abandon me, and I should have felt great sorrow at this loss and abandonment...Mary had lost only the bodily presence of Jesus; His friendship for her was untouched. But I lost the dearest thing in all the world; the grace and friendship of Jesus.”

And this reflection brings to mind the words of Christ as recorded in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, which say, “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct.” (Matthew 16:26-27).

Saint Christina the Astonishing was a Belgium peasant girl who died in 1224.  When she was twenty-one she experienced a seizure and was pronounced dead and revived from her coma during her funeral.  Upon awakening, Saint Christina explained that while in her comatose state she had experienced Heaven, Hell and Purgatory.  God gave her the option of remaining in Heaven or returning to Earth to suffer penances for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.  She chose the latter and spent her remaining years on earth experiencing terrible suffering – wearing rags, standing in freezing water during winter for hours, sleeping on rocks, hiding in hot ovens (and remaining unharmed despite the pain). 

You see, this Saint CHOSE the suffering.  She chose the greater act of charity – to suffer for love of another and for the salvation of another.  And today, I pray for the Grace to be able to adopt such acts of charity myself…

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