363. Twenty-second Wednesday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 329 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The work of the Redemption was fulfilled by Christ’s sacrifice.

Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. And demons also came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them, and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.

And when it was day he departed and went into a lonely place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them; but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.” And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

Our Lord’s complete dedication to the service of souls allowed him no time for rest. By his life of renunciation and sacrifice, he carried out his redeeming work: not only on the Cross, the culmination of his divine self-giving, but throughout his earthly life, in perfect identification with his Father’s will, with an ardent desire to save all souls.

Christ’s whole life, from his birth in Bethlehem, was filled with a burning desire to carry out the saving decree of God the Father. Throughout the three years his disciples lived with him, they constantly heard him say that his food was to do the will of him who sent him. And so it was, right up to the afternoon of the first Good Friday when his sacrifice was completed. Bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. That is how St John the Apostle describes Christ’s death. Jesus dies on the Cross beneath the weight of all the faults of men, crushed by the sheer force and wickedness of our sins.

Christ’s work of redemption is superabundantly sufficient. But he wants us to help continue his mission; he sends us to preach good news to the poor … to proclaim release to the captives. And he counts on our sacrifice. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, St Paul says, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church.

Pope John Paul the Second wrote that in the Body of Christ, which is ceaselessly born of the Cross of the Redeemer, it is precisely suffering permeated by the spirit of Christ’s sacrifice that is the irreplaceable mediator and author of the good things which are indispensable for the world’s salvation. It is suffering, more than anything else, which clears the way for the grace which transforms human souls. Suffering, more than anything else, makes present in the history of humanity the powers of the Redemption.

Unless we are united to Christ’s Cross, we cannot be apostolically effective. Our words would fail to move hearts, since every grace of salvation stems from our Lord’s Cross. On the other hand, any act of self-denial, in union with Christ’s sufferings, is in itself apostolic, co-redeeming. As our Father wrote: If there is sacrifice when you sow love, you will also reap Love.

Mortification, a pre-requisite for apostolate.

The Apostles continued Christ’s mission by sacrifice. They learned his lesson well: Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Following in his footsteps, they laid down their lives for souls, and God blessed their apostolate abundantly. They gave of themselves, day after day: I endure everything, St Paul wrote, for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain salvation in Christ Jesus.

Christ is urging us to proclaim the universal call to holiness from one end of the earth to the other. But he told us: If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. The meaning of this exhortation, St Jerome comments, is this: to confess faith in God is not something comfortable or easy-going. The person who believes in me has to give his blood … Knowing this, then, let us deny ourselves, not only in time of tribulation or martyrdom, but in all our behaviour. In every thought, word and deed, let us deny what we once were, and behave as newly-born in Christ. Our Lord was crucified so that we, who believe in Him and have died to sin, might also be crucified with Him, and say with St Paul: “I have been crucified with Christ”.

Love for God invites us to take up the Cross and feel on our own shoulders the weight of humanity. It leads us to fulfil the clear and loving plans of the Father’s will in all the circumstances of our work and life.

By mortification, we empty ourselves and begin to live for souls. By mortification, we are purified and made ready to draw close to God, to be docile to grace, to serve souls. By mortification, we can make atonement for the sins of others and, to a certain extent, win for them the grace of faith, conversion or dedication. In the words of an ecclesiastical writer, mortification commends our petitions, strengthens our pleas, opens the ears of Christ our God, and draws down his mercy.

Apostolate needs constant acts of self-conquest, which help to form the habit of mortification.

Let us not forget that in all human activities there must be men and women who, in their lives and work, raise Christ’s Cross aloft for all to see, as an act of reparation. It is a symbol of peace and of joy, a symbol of the Redemption and of the unity of the human race. It is a symbol of the love that the Most Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit had, and continues to have, for mankind.

Mortification, our Father commented, is the necessary preparation for all apostolate, and ensures the accomplishment of every apostolic undertaking. Mortification is needed not only as a general disposition on our part, but also because any work with souls, if it is done as God wants, requires continual self-sacrifice. We need to overcome human respect and our character defects, our timidity and rashness, which are all so detrimental to a deep apostolate. We have to rise above our own preferences and interests, following St Paul’s example: I have become all things to all men, that I might save all. We also need to be very constant, which entails renunciation and sacrifice; and to set a good example, to be willing to do without any comfort that is not in keeping with a life entirely dedicated to God’s service. Above all, we need to work a great deal, with order and intensity. As our Father says, if we fulfil our duty joyfully, even when it is hard; if we overcome ourselves, with a smile that is sometimes a mortification; then you and I will win God’s grace abundantly for souls.

Are you trying to make sincere resolutions? Ask our Lord to help you to take a tough line with yourself, for love of him; to help you apply, with all naturalness, the purifying touch of mortification to everything you do. Ask him to help you to spend yourself in his service, silently and unnoticed, like the flickering lamp that burns beside the tabernacle.

Since mortification is contrary to our natural tendency, we go to our Mother’s intercession. We ask Mary to help us follow Christ, right up to the Cross, in the realization that the greater our self-denial, the more abundant will be the fruit and joy that we reap. That way we won’t deny Jesus anything, out of love for the souls he has entrusted to us.