Today is the feast of St. Paul of the Cross. Not knowing much about him, I went to my faithful Google search bar to read up on our saint of the day. [1] The summary version is that he was incredibly devoted to the Blessed Sacrament and the Cross of Christ, and he founded the Passionists.
Ok. So how can St. Paul help us today? What wisdom can he offer to help us get through this week? Naturally, I assumed that from his title, St. Paul had a devotion to Christ crucified, but I did not realize how immense this devotion was, nor how Eucharistic. From the little reading I did, it seems St. Paul couldn’t say enough about the Eucharist! But I’m getting ahead of myself. How is St. Paul relevant to us and our lives?
We are living in an age where Christ crucified is becoming ever more visible. There is so much suffering in the world; the sufferings of the poor, the sick, the homeless, the persecuted, the lonely, the dying … the list goes on. Add to that list our own personal struggles and life can just seem downright depressing at times. And yet, as Christians, we believe there is beauty to be found. The beauty in all of this suffering is precisely that it can lead us to the Cross. If we ask for the grace to see it, the anguish of humanity and our own personal brokenness shows us, in a very concrete way, our crucified Lord.
Let me explain. We all remember the passage where Jesus tells us, “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.[2] Usually we associate this with works of mercy. If we reexamine why this verse spurs us to show mercy, we discover how suffering brings us to the foot of the Cross. Jesus continues, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”[3] In this context, then, we are merciful to others because we want to console Jesus, and their suffering is not only a direct reflection of Him, but also a share in His suffering; in other words, all who suffer are on the Cross.
This is heartrendingly beautiful, and so, so relevant to our daily walk towards holiness! Because no matter how we try to avoid “the problem of pain,” or to take joy in our present moment, we all at times struggle with suffering and cannot escape it — and we shouldn’t want to. Let’s quickly take a look at these profound words from Mother Teresa to find out why:
Suffering has to come because if you look at the cross, he has got his head bending down — he wants to kiss you — and he has both hands open wide — he wants to embrace you. He has his heart opened wide to receive you. Then when you feel miserable inside, look at the cross and you will know what is happening. Suffering pain, sorrow, humiliation, feelings of loneliness, are nothing but the kiss of Jesus, a sign that you have come so close that he can kiss you. …I once told this to a lady who was suffering very much. She answered, “Tell Jesus not to kiss me — to stop kissing me.” That suffering has to come that came in the life of Our Lady, that came in the life of Jesus — it has to come in our life also. Only never put on a long face. Suffering is a gift from God. It is between you and Jesus alone inside.[4]
This seems crazy! At first glance it is almost consoling, but trying to keep this perspective when in the midst of suffering is incredibly difficult. I think most of us probably have the same reaction as the woman in the story and we say, “Please, Jesus, stop kissing me!” It’s so tempting to play the victim when things go wrong, to throw a pity party for ourselves, and become so wrapped up in our own pain — no matter how legitimate it is —that we can no longer see Jesus. I know a beautiful lady who, while dealing with her own struggles, came to a bittersweet realization that has stayed with me: “I’ve been living in my own wounds, not His.” If only we could remember this!
All suffering, including our personal hardships, is a share in Christ’s suffering; a share in the Cross. Recalling that our sorrows are part of His can be a consolation in and of itself! And the more we suffer, the more we resemble Him. This brings us back to our saint of the day. St. Paul challenges us even more than Mother Teresa. Here are a few gems I found:
“Sufferings are the richest presents that the
Divine Majesty bestows on you.”
“What an honor God confers on us, when He calls us to travel
the same road as His divine Son!”
“I wish that all men could understand the great favor that God grants them when, in His goodness, He sends them suffering, and especially suffering devoid of all consolation; for then the soul, like gold which
is purified in the crucible, is cleansed, made beautiful, detached
from earthly things, and united to the Sovereign Good,
without even being conscious of it.”
And my personal favorite:
“Love has a unitive quality, and makes the sufferings of the beloved its own. If you feel yourself penetrated interiorly and exteriorly with the sufferings of your divine Spouse, rejoice; but I may say that this joy is experienced only in the furnace of divine love, for the fire which burns into the marrow of the bones transforms the loving soul into the object of her love.”[5]
Wow… we could spend years contemplating just one of those quotes and still have a hard time putting it into practice in daily life! Here’s what I took from all of this. If we are all truly striving for sanctity and full union with God, we must joyfully embrace the Cross, and travel the road to Calvary; there is no other option. But this is so hard — even Jesus Himself, in His humanity, did not want to take that path. So how can we even begin to attempt it? The answer lies in our encounter with Christ in the Sacraments.
All the graces we receive from the Sacraments come directly from the Cross. (My father, Vinny Flynn, explains this fully in his book, 7 Secrets of Confession.[6]) Specifically, every time we receive the Eucharist or go to Confession, we have the opportunity to run to to the Cross, beg the mercy of God, and encounter Him in a real, personal way. The subsequent graces received help us to more fully unite ourselves to Him, and this is the most important thing.
And so the purpose of our suffering is to lead us to the Cross, to meet our crucified Lord daily, likening our hearts to His, and allowing ourselves to be kissed and embraced by this God who suffered more for us than we could ever suffer for Him.
St. Paul of the Cross says that meditating on Christ crucified is like a precious balm to sweeten all pains. So this week, maybe try to pray the Stations of the Cross, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, or simply take a moment at 3:00, the Hour of Mercy, to recall the Passion. Let us attempt, moment by moment, to enter with joy into our sufferings, big or small, drawing our strength from meeting Jesus on the Cross in the Sacraments, and asking our Lady to walk with us on our daily journey to sanctity.
One day the Lord caused me to hear these words at the foot of the tabernacle:
“My son, he who embraces me embraces thorns.”
Oh, what a grace! Oh, what a gift!St. Paul of the Cross
[1] If you would like some basic background on St. Paul of the Cross, check out this site:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11590a.htm
[2] Matthew 25: 35-36
[3] Matthew 25: 40
[4] A Life for God: Mother Teresa Treasury, p. 139
[5] Flowers of the Passion: Thoughts of St. Paul of the Cross http://books.google.com/books?id=Dq0VAAAAYAAJ&dq=Flowers%20of%20the%20Passion%20St%20Paul%20of%20the%20Cross&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false
[6] To view Vinny Flynn’s book, 7 Secrets of Confession, visit our website here: http://mercysong.com/shop
Thank you for this musing this morning, its what I needed to read as I reflected on the first birthday that my Dad isn’t here with us. Especially since his suicide is the reason I awoke not only missing him, but also thinking of the pain he was in and my own pain lingering from the choice he made. Today, I will meditate on the cross and His suffering and be thankful for the opportunity to be at His feet.