5th April 1874
The holy days that we have just lived are in themselves a silent proclamation of ... everything that recalls for us the sorrowful circumstances that marked the end of Our Lord’s life. The joy which fills the whole Church today also has its lesson . This joy is that of the resurrection and it is true joy because it is eternal. There are two kinds of joys in the life of Our Lord and of the Blessed Virgin: one which you have known, the other which awaits you.
The first is the joy of the Infancy of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He makes the soul that He is drawing to Himself taste this first of all. These are the first fervors, the first attractions, the first consolations through which He makes his secret visit to the soul known, through which He makes it understand and love His beauty. Through these joys, He seems to carry us in His arms, as a mother does her child. …as His holy Mother, when she carried Him in her arms and found in Him all the sweetness and the joy of her existence.
At the other end of Our Lord's life is found the joy of the Resurrection but we must, and this is what the Church teaches us by these mysteries, imitate the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ in its entirety, if we want to arrive with Him to the joys of the resurrection. ... Between these two joys, there is the time of trial, of sacrifice, of suffering, of patience, when we must seek Our Lord with great generosity and follow him so that He may become the only light of our lives. And we must be convinced that we have to work to arrive at this stage which comes from faith. He must be the strong and ardent love of our heart, so that we seek Him in all things; and because of Him we love all people, even if we find sacrifices when we come in contact with them. It is, finally, the time during which Jesus Christ must become, as it were, the form of our life, so that, following Him in the Way of patience, we will arrive at the eternal joy that his sufferings have merited for us and which is promised to us in the Paschal Feast.
So for us Holy Week is the road which we must walk. The joys, the consolations of the infancy are behind us. It is by them that God drew us to Himself; ... that He has manifested His love for us. Only one thing remains for us now from this sweetness, these consolations, this tenderness, the spirit of littleness that is the basis of Christian childhood and which must always accompany us on the way of the Cross.
That must never pass away, whether you are forty, fifty or sixty years old. This basis of childhood must always remain in the soul; for this docility, this humility, this obedience this loving denial of self, this unaffectedness, this uprightness, this simplicity are the characteristics proper to a child and must guide the Christian on the Way of the Cross. But the joys that were there at the beginning are behind, as they were for the Blessed Virgin during the public life of Our Lord and at the hour of the Passion. Now is the hour of giving, of practicing the Gospel, … following Him in this life in these times of trials, placing our affections in Him alone.
You know that the Church recognizes that the virtue of faith corresponds to the mystery of the Resurrection, and St. Paul does not hesitate to say: "If Christ has not risen, then our preaching is is in vain "[1]. Therefore, today's mystery is a great mystery of faith. It makes us wait for the world to come for all the joys that we would like to find here below. It makes us pass through the trials of life and pass through death never finding anything that is not little compared to the weight of eternal glory that is reserved for us. "The temporary, light burden of our hardships is earning for us forever an utterly incomparable, eternal weight of glory."[2] Yes, the trials of this life are short, they are light; the sadness of this time will pass and soon it will be followed by an unadulterated and endless joy.
So this is what must be our resurrection in union with the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ; but we will only be associated in His glory if we accept to walk with Him in this way of trials which He has been the first to undergo.
Often, without realizing it we act a bit like the Jews. They did not recognize Our Lord because they were waiting for a Messiah who would triumph over their enemies, a king who would establish His empire over all peoples of the earth. We would equally like to see Our Lord as the unrivaled victor in this world, desire to see His reign, His empire in the universe established. But He is not like this: the Church, in many parts of the earth does not have liberty of action as it should.
Let us carry that thought in our life; nothing is just as we would like it to be. It may be something that does not go well in our work, in our schedule, in our number; everything is not organized according to our desires. And why is that? Because it is by means of trials and contradictions and a certain persecution that He makes us walk. For the Church, suffers persecution from her enemies. For us, I don't say that we must suffer persecution but it is in enduring persecutions that we will arrive at eternal peace. We must undoubtedly ask that Our Lord reign here below over hearts, but we cannot expect His reign to be perfect and absolute in this world. This is a thing reserved for eternity. There are things to suffer in this world before we can enter eternity.
The joy of the soul lies above these contradictions, above these trials above these little matters which cause us to criticize and complain; the joy of the soul lies in hope that accompanies and guides love. It is found in this peace of heart where one begins to enjoy the Risen Jesus Christ of the eternal kingdom where we will see Him glorious one day. Such is the end that we wait for which we must not be impatient because if we remain longer on earth we will be able to have a more beautiful resurrection and be able to lead more people to enjoy this resurrection with us after they have learned to carry the Cross in this world.
You have without doubt noticed the word of St. Augustine that we had these past days in the Office: "may it please God," he says, "that many souls undergo the same hardships as we do to be saved with us” And he adds, God left the bad ones on earth either so that they may correct themselves or so that through them the just may be tried. Let us strive to fulfil the task confided us. Let us gain many souls for Jesus Christ so that with us they can eternally enjoy Jesus Christ risen and triumphant, who already in this world has given us the proof of a resurrected and glorious flesh, which nourishes us and it is like the germ of the future resurrection, deposited in us by Holy Communion.
[1] 1Cor 15:14
[2] 2Cor 4:17
The holy days that we have just lived are in themselves a silent proclamation of ... everything that recalls for us the sorrowful circumstances that marked the end of Our Lord’s life. The joy which fills the whole Church today also has its lesson . This joy is that of the resurrection and it is true joy because it is eternal. There are two kinds of joys in the life of Our Lord and of the Blessed Virgin: one which you have known, the other which awaits you.
The first is the joy of the Infancy of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He makes the soul that He is drawing to Himself taste this first of all. These are the first fervors, the first attractions, the first consolations through which He makes his secret visit to the soul known, through which He makes it understand and love His beauty. Through these joys, He seems to carry us in His arms, as a mother does her child. …as His holy Mother, when she carried Him in her arms and found in Him all the sweetness and the joy of her existence.
At the other end of Our Lord's life is found the joy of the Resurrection but we must, and this is what the Church teaches us by these mysteries, imitate the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ in its entirety, if we want to arrive with Him to the joys of the resurrection. ... Between these two joys, there is the time of trial, of sacrifice, of suffering, of patience, when we must seek Our Lord with great generosity and follow him so that He may become the only light of our lives. And we must be convinced that we have to work to arrive at this stage which comes from faith. He must be the strong and ardent love of our heart, so that we seek Him in all things; and because of Him we love all people, even if we find sacrifices when we come in contact with them. It is, finally, the time during which Jesus Christ must become, as it were, the form of our life, so that, following Him in the Way of patience, we will arrive at the eternal joy that his sufferings have merited for us and which is promised to us in the Paschal Feast.
So for us Holy Week is the road which we must walk. The joys, the consolations of the infancy are behind us. It is by them that God drew us to Himself; ... that He has manifested His love for us. Only one thing remains for us now from this sweetness, these consolations, this tenderness, the spirit of littleness that is the basis of Christian childhood and which must always accompany us on the way of the Cross.
That must never pass away, whether you are forty, fifty or sixty years old. This basis of childhood must always remain in the soul; for this docility, this humility, this obedience this loving denial of self, this unaffectedness, this uprightness, this simplicity are the characteristics proper to a child and must guide the Christian on the Way of the Cross. But the joys that were there at the beginning are behind, as they were for the Blessed Virgin during the public life of Our Lord and at the hour of the Passion. Now is the hour of giving, of practicing the Gospel, … following Him in this life in these times of trials, placing our affections in Him alone.
You know that the Church recognizes that the virtue of faith corresponds to the mystery of the Resurrection, and St. Paul does not hesitate to say: "If Christ has not risen, then our preaching is is in vain "[1]. Therefore, today's mystery is a great mystery of faith. It makes us wait for the world to come for all the joys that we would like to find here below. It makes us pass through the trials of life and pass through death never finding anything that is not little compared to the weight of eternal glory that is reserved for us. "The temporary, light burden of our hardships is earning for us forever an utterly incomparable, eternal weight of glory."[2] Yes, the trials of this life are short, they are light; the sadness of this time will pass and soon it will be followed by an unadulterated and endless joy.
So this is what must be our resurrection in union with the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ; but we will only be associated in His glory if we accept to walk with Him in this way of trials which He has been the first to undergo.
Often, without realizing it we act a bit like the Jews. They did not recognize Our Lord because they were waiting for a Messiah who would triumph over their enemies, a king who would establish His empire over all peoples of the earth. We would equally like to see Our Lord as the unrivaled victor in this world, desire to see His reign, His empire in the universe established. But He is not like this: the Church, in many parts of the earth does not have liberty of action as it should.
Let us carry that thought in our life; nothing is just as we would like it to be. It may be something that does not go well in our work, in our schedule, in our number; everything is not organized according to our desires. And why is that? Because it is by means of trials and contradictions and a certain persecution that He makes us walk. For the Church, suffers persecution from her enemies. For us, I don't say that we must suffer persecution but it is in enduring persecutions that we will arrive at eternal peace. We must undoubtedly ask that Our Lord reign here below over hearts, but we cannot expect His reign to be perfect and absolute in this world. This is a thing reserved for eternity. There are things to suffer in this world before we can enter eternity.
The joy of the soul lies above these contradictions, above these trials above these little matters which cause us to criticize and complain; the joy of the soul lies in hope that accompanies and guides love. It is found in this peace of heart where one begins to enjoy the Risen Jesus Christ of the eternal kingdom where we will see Him glorious one day. Such is the end that we wait for which we must not be impatient because if we remain longer on earth we will be able to have a more beautiful resurrection and be able to lead more people to enjoy this resurrection with us after they have learned to carry the Cross in this world.
You have without doubt noticed the word of St. Augustine that we had these past days in the Office: "may it please God," he says, "that many souls undergo the same hardships as we do to be saved with us” And he adds, God left the bad ones on earth either so that they may correct themselves or so that through them the just may be tried. Let us strive to fulfil the task confided us. Let us gain many souls for Jesus Christ so that with us they can eternally enjoy Jesus Christ risen and triumphant, who already in this world has given us the proof of a resurrected and glorious flesh, which nourishes us and it is like the germ of the future resurrection, deposited in us by Holy Communion.
[1] 1Cor 15:14
[2] 2Cor 4:17