102. Fifth Thursday of Lent

Meditations no. 148 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Jesus Christ’s example moves us to desire to give up our life through constant mortification.

Vexilla Regis prodeunt: fulget crucis mysterium, qua vita mortem pertulit, et morte vitam protulit: The standards of the King advance: the mystery of the Cross shines forth, on which Life suffered death, and by his death gave us life.

The time of our Lord’s Passion draws near. Very soon, the Redemption which Christ came to accomplish will be achieved. The Jews have seen the impact and fame of the Lord grow from day to day, especially after his latest miracles. You see that you can do nothing, they remark; look, the world has gone after him! All their schemes have failed. Their ill-intentioned, seemingly unanswerable questions have always been answered fully by our Lord. Their slanderous campaigns have found no echo among the ordinary people, who have been ever more awed at Christ’s life and example. Thus, the moment predicted by the prophet has arrived. Come - they said - let us make plots against Jeremiah … Let us destroy him by his own tongue; let us carefully note his every word. His accusers become both his judges and his executioners, and he has no one to defend his cause. They pronounce sentence against the Saviour, a sentence that admits no appeal.

Yet their machinations are not hidden from God’s eyes; he reads the hearts of men. That is why, when Andrew and Philip, delighting in the glory that their Teacher has acquired, go to tell him that even the Gentiles wish to see him, Jesus Christ immediately corrects their purely human optimism. He exclaims: The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified, when he will establish his kingdom on earth. However, it will not be as they imagine. For, as St Augustine says, Christ was not the King of Israel in order to levy taxes, or to raise armies and fight visibly against his enemies. He was King of Israel to govern souls, to give advice concerning eternal life, and to lead those who were full of faith and hope and love towards the Kingdom of Heaven.

Therefore, although the Lord could have used many other means, he chose to die on the Cross. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. And our Father asks each of us: Don’t you want to be a grain of wheat, to die through mortification, and to yield a rich harvest?

We need the Cross for our dedication to grow and bear fruits of holiness and apostolate.

By God’s explicit design, the Cross was the instrument of our Redemption. Christ came into the world for this. Now my soul is troubled, he exclaimed. And what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour?” No, for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. And how are we, his disciples, to react to something that demands sacrifice, except by realizing that we have been called to follow in Christ’s footsteps? If anyone serves me, he tells us, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also. “Follow me” is a direct command, and it means being nailed to the Cross with Christ, because a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.

We are truly dedicated and honest disciples of Christ when the Cross puts a divine meaning into our lives. The Cross is the sign of Christ the Redeemer. It has ceased being a symbol of evil and has become a sign of victory. That victory will consist mainly of letting Jesus Christ live in us. We need the Cross in order to overcome the obstacles to our dedication. We need it in order to prepare the way for Jesus in our lives. The Cross is our glory, the source of all our good, our hope, our prize.

We need the Cross in order to grow and bear fruit like wheat sown in the ground. At its root lies death, the seed that has perished, but from it will spring the rich ear of wheat. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. That life will be abundant, richer and more fruitful.

Reflect on the example that Christ gave us, from the crib in Bethlehem to his throne on Calvary. Think of his self-denial and of all he went through: hunger, thirst, weariness, heat, tiredness, ill-treatment, misunderstandings, tears… But at the same time think of his joy in being able to save the whole of mankind. And now I would like you to engrave deeply in your mind and upon your heart - so that you can meditate on it often and draw your own practical conclusions -the summary St Paul made to the Ephesians when he invited them to follow resolutely in our Lord’s footsteps: Be imitators of God, as very dear children, and walk in love, as Christ has loved us and delivered himself up for us, a sacrifice breathing out fragrance as he offered it to God.

Being nailed to the Cross means giving ourselves completely.

Jesus gave himself up for us in a holocaust of love. What about you, who are a disciple of Christ? You, a favoured son of God, who have been ransomed at the price of the Cross; you too should be ready to deny yourself So, no matter what situation we may find ourselves in, neither you nor I can ever allow ourselves to behave in a way that is selfish, materialistic, comfort-loving, dissipated or - forgive me if I speak too candidly -just plain stupid!

Christ is not merely asking us to renounce things which may or may not be important. He is asking for something of greater value. He wants us to renounce our own selves and to practise a spirit of self-denial and sacrifice every single day. That is the condition he sets for everyone who wishes to follow him, and especially for those whom he wants to be close to him and totally centred on him.

A day without mortification is a day lost, our Father has written, because if we have not denied ourselves, we have not lived the holocaust. If we are faithful, we can say with St Paul: I have been crucified with Christ. We must be nailed to the Cross and surrender our own selves. We must put everything around us at Jesus’ feet and not keep anything back. We must say “Yes” to Jesus about anything he asks from us. We must correct those aspects of our temperament which oppose our self-giving, the personal inclinations which impede our responding fully to all that God asks of us, and the things which make our apostolate less effective.

St Paul writes: Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. And our Father comments: All you have to do is look around you. See how many sacrifices men and women make, willingly or less willingly, to take care of their bodies, to protect their health, or to gain the respect of others… Are we unable to stir ourselves at the thought of the immensity of God’s love, so poorly requited by men, and mortify what needs to be mortified so that our hearts and minds may be more attentive to our Lord?

If anyone wishes to come after me… If the grain of wheat does not die… These are clear warnings, urgent invitations from Jesus Christ for us to value the role of the holy Cross in our lives. We are the seed of God, and we cannot go through this world without dying, without being nailed to the Lord’s Cross so as to obtain the fruits of his sacrifice. Now, facing the tabernacle in the intimacy of our prayer, we can ask ourselves: What am I doing in order to die to myself each day? Do I carry my cross resolutely from morning till night?

Let us ask our Lord to increase our faith. Let us appeal to our Mother Mary to teach us to love the Cross, so that we can learn from her how to follow Jesus Christ right up to Calvary.