The practice of the love of Jesus Christ - 086

" Charity beareth all things."

HE THAT LOVES JESUS CHRIST BEARS ALL THINGS FOR HIM, AND ESPECIALLY ILLNESS, POVERTY AND CONTEMPT.

I. In the third place, we must practise patience, and show our love of God by tranquilly submitting to contempt. As soon as a soul delivers herself up to God, He sends her from Himself, or through others, insults and persecution. One day an Angel appeared to the Blessed Henry Suso, and said to him: "Henry, thou hast hitherto mortified thyself in thy own way; henceforth thou shalt be mortified after the pleasure of others." On the day following, as he was looking from a window on the street he saw a dog shaking and tearing a rag which it held in its mouth; at the same moment a voice said to him: "So hast thou to be torn in the mouths of men." Forthwith the Blessed Henry Suso descended into the street and secured the rag, putting it by to encourage him in his coming trials.

I love Thee with my whole heart, O my dear Redeemer! I love Thee, my Sovereign Good! I love Thee, my own Love, worthy of infinite love! I am grieved at any displeasure I have ever caused Thee, more than for any evil whatever. I promise Thee to receive with patience all the trials Thou mayest send me; but I look to Thee for help to be faithful to my promise, and especially to be enabled to bear in peace the sorrows of my last agony and death.

O Mary, my Queen, vouchsafe to obtain for me a true resignation in all the anguish and trials that await me during life and at death.

II. Affronts and injuries were the delicacies the Saints earnestly desired and sought for. St. Philip Neri, during the space of thirty years had to put up with much ill-treatment in the house of St. Jerome at Rome; but on this very account he refused to leave it, and resisted all the invitations of his sons to come and live with them in the new Oratory, founded by himself, till he received an express command from the Pope to do so. St. John of the Cross was prescribed change of air for an illness which eventually carried him to the grave. Now, he could have selected a more commodious convent, the prior of which was particularly attached to him; but he chose instead a poor convent, whose superior was unfriendly, and who, in fact, for a long time, and almost up to his dying day, spoke ill of him, and abused him in many ways, and even prohibited the others from visiting him. Here we see how the Saints even sought to be despised. St. Teresa wrote this admirable maxim: "Whoever aspires to perfection must beware of ever saying: They had no reason to treat me so. If you will not bear any cross but one which is founded on reason, then perfection is not for you." Whilst St. Peter Martyr was complaining in prison of being confined unjustly he received that celebrated answer from the Crucifix; our Lord said to him: "And what evil have I done that I suffer and die on this Cross for men?" Oh, what consolation do the Saints derive in all their tribulations from the ignominies Jesus endured! St. Bleazar, on being asked by his wife how he contrived to bear with so much patience the many injuries he had to sustain, and that even from his own servants, replied: "I turn my eyes on the outraged Jesus, and I discover immediately that my affronts are a mere nothing in comparison with what He suffered for my sake; and thus God gives me strength to support all patiently." In fine, affronts, poverty, torments, and tribulations serve only to estrange further from God the soul that does not love Him; whereas, when they befall a soul in love with God they become an instrument of closer union and more ardent affection: Many waters cannot quench charity (Cant. viii. 7). However great and grievous troubles may be, so far from extinguishing the flames of charity, they only serve to enkindle them the more in a soul that loves nothing else but God.