[24] Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. [25] For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it. (Matt. 16:24)
The great St. Paul returned from the third
heaven, where he learned mysteries hidden even from the angels, and he
proclaimed that he did not know, nor did he want to know anything but Christ
crucified. Rejoice, then, you ordinary Christian, man or woman, without any
schooling or intellectual abilities, for if you know how to suffer cheerfully,
you know more than a doctor of Sorbonne University who does not know how to
suffer as you do.
27. You are the members of Christ, a wonderful
honour indeed, but one which entails suffering. If the Head is crowned with
thorns, can the members expect to be crowned with roses? If the Head is jeered
at and covered with dust on the road to Calvary, can the members expect to be
sprinkled with perfumes on a throne? If the Head has no pillow on which to
rest, can the members expect to recline on feathers and down? That would be
unthinkable!
No, no, my dear Companions of the Cross, do not
deceive yourselves. Those Christians you see everywhere, fashionably dressed,
fastidious in manner, full of importance and dignity, are not real disciples,
real members of Christ crucified. To think they are would be an insult to our
thorn-crowned Head and to the truth of the Gospel. How many so- called
Christians imagine they are members of our Saviour when in reality they are his
treacherous persecutors, for while they make the sign of the cross with their
hand, in their hearts they are its enemies! ~ St. Louis de Montfort, Letter to the Friends of the Cross
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