The Greatest Secret: Our Imitation of Christ

As members of the Catholic City, how often do we consider the great privileges granted us by Christ our King? At the very moment we became citizens of His Kingdom by baptism, we also became His adopted children. As His children, we received the right and the duty to enter the Christian school of perfection, in which we learn how to pray, study, and act. If we are loving children, we become willing students who learn how to “school our own character to a consistent and persevering practice” [1] after that of our King’s, who gave Himself to be our Divine Teacher and Model. Our imitation of Christ in His Life, Passion, Death and Resurrection is the greatest secret of the Catholic City.

The Saints and Their Love of Christ Crucified

“Look at the life of any Saint you like, and you will find an extraordinary devotion to the Passion. It was the distinguishing mark of the Saints; they would not have been Saints without it.” [2] This statement is affirmed by the saints themselves, from whom the following quotes offer only a small collection of their testimony:

•St. Alphonsus di Liguori noted that all the Saints cherished a tender devotion towards Jesus Christ in His Passion, emphasizing that it was the only means by which they sanctified themselves. [3]

• St. Augustine proclaimed, “There is nothing more advantageous, nothing better adapted to ensure our eternal salvation, than daily to contemplate the sufferings which Jesus Christ bore for our sake.” [4]

• St. Paul wrote, “I judged not myself to know anything among you but Jesus Christ and Him crucified” [5] meaning he meditated on “the love that Our Lord has shown us on the Cross.” [6]

• “He who desires to advance from virtue to virtue, from grace to grace, should meditate continually on the Passion of Jesus,” said St. Bonaventure. [7]

• At another time, St. Bonaventure showed the Angelic Doctor an image of the Crucified Lord, explaining, “This is my book, whence I receive everything I write, and it has taught me whatever little I know.” [8]

• “I found more wisdom in prayer at the feet of the Crucified than in all the books I ever read,” wrote St. Thomas as he penned his famous meditation, “The Crucifix: The Book of Life.” [9]

• St. Francis of Assisi simply stated, “My book is Jesus Crucified,” and often encouraged his brethren to think of the Passion of Jesus.[10]

• St. Terese of Avila said that souls in every state of prayer should think of the Passion. “Life is long and full of crosses and we have need to look on Christ, our pattern, to see how He bore His trials, and even to take example by His Apostles and saints if we would bear our own trials perfectly. Our good Jesus and His most Blessed Mother are too good company to be left [alone]...”[11]

Why the Passion of Christ?

Why did Our Lord choose to suffer so intensely in soul and body? After all, God was under no obligation to assume our nature and to save us. For three principle reasons, the Son of God became Man of His own free will: 1) to make full reparation to the love and justice of His Father, so deeply offended by mankind’s sinfulness and ingratitude; 2) to redeem us from all iniquity, and 3) to show mankind the terrible consequences of sin. It is for these three reasons that the earthly life of Christ, from its humble beginnings to its cruel closing, presented Him with a continual martyrdom. His Divine Heart was ever “mourning within Him, its sorrow above all human sorrow.”[12]

The saints explain that suffering gives a certain intensity to acts of the will, which nothing else can give. An act of the will or of the heart may be strong - but how much stronger it must be in the face of suffering. Human nature shrinks from suffering and dreads it, but not one of the sons of men was ever so sensitive as Our Lord, Jesus Christ, or endured sufferings in any way comparable to His. Our Lord chose the greatest intensity of suffering to prove the reality and depth of His love for us – a love of which we are capable of returning as we learn to subdue Self.

All of us experience moments of spiritual solace, in which we feel the sweetness and joy of belonging to Him. Without realizing it, these consolations become “the only delight we crave.”[13] God then begins to wean us from them, for we must learn to love the God of consolations rather than the consolations of God.

“We would like to serve the Lord, but in our own way, and not as He desires,” [14] St. Alphonsus notes. To overcome the inclinations of Self, we must pray, study and act on the Passion of Christ. As God weans us with great or small trials, to whatever degree, we soon discover that Self is still strong, with all its subtlety, self-centeredness and weakness – “Self, which stands importunate beside us, protesting, crying, wailing, resisting.” [15]

Then one of two things happens: either we give into that hurt and smarting Self, which complains, grows bitter, and resists fidelity to God or we turn to God in our interior and exterior sufferings. Should we succumb to Self, we deeply hurt Jesus, for as St. Therese the Little Flower said, “What offends Jesus, what wounds Him to the Heart, is want of confidence.” [16]

When we take the right course by choosing to turn to God, we “seize the pain or trouble or bitterness, and offer it, turning it into fuel to feed the flame of our hearts – and so we intensify the act of our union and love…”[17] It is when we are suffering that Christ is very near to us. “We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials,” avowed St. Teresa of Avila.

With our free will, we make the choice whether or not we shall follow in Christ’s footsteps with His grace or with our own grumbling bitterness. Whether we like it or not, carry the Cross we must. Like the two thieves crucified with Christ, what makes the difference in our salvation is our disposition and inclination to accept grace.

The contrast between the two thieves explains why St. Ignatius advises us, when we even glance at a Crucifix, to ask for a true compassion of the will. This true compassion is not only of heart, eyes, feelings or tears, which can mislead us – but consists of a higher, effective compassion in which the will is determinedly resigned to whatever God wills or allows. Such a resolve was St. Paul’s intention when he wrote, “I…fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for His body, which is the Church.”[18] As the Douay-Rheims footnote explains: “There is no want in the sufferings of Christ in Himself as Head: but many sufferings are still wanting, or are still to come, in His Body the Church, and his members the faithful.”

“The perfection of religion is to imitate whom you adore.”[19] That is why, in bearing the pain of our own crosses, our wills can turn to Jesus Crucified and offer Him all that we are enduring. St. Alphonsus wrote, “The best prayer you can say is to resign yourself to the will of God in the midst of your sufferings, uniting your pains to the pains of Jesus Christ and offering them as a sacrifice to God.” [20] If we can make that offering, which is truly an act of the will and not of “feelings,” in the face of all kinds of suffering - grief, abandonment, humiliation, mockery, unjust treatment, illness or infirmity - then never is our love for God so true and meritorious.

Charity: The Height of Virtue, the Perfection of Sanctity

In faithfully making the Morning Offering, we also make our first meditation on the Passion because we first offer to God, in union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. To this offering, we then unite our every thought, word, and action of the day.

No matter our state in life, meditation on the Passion of Our Lord is good for all persons. The Passion has power to rouse sorrow and penance in sinners, just as “it gives strength and a most powerful example of virtue to those who are making progress, and it is the most forcible incentive to love for the perfect.” [21]

In the school of Christian perfection, the Passion of Our Lord contains all that is highest and most complete in perfection. All of His virtues, all His instructions, all His doctrine, and all His counsels are preached in His Passion. “All the depth of suffering that anyone can undergo, all the extremities of misery to which anyone may be brought – all are in the Passion: all deliverance from illusion and all learning of the truth are in the Passion; all knowledge, understanding, and heavenly wisdom are to be found in the Passion…” [22]

“O my adorable Master,” says The Soul of the Apostolate, “there are three sentiments which hold sway in Your Sacred Heart: complete dependence upon Your Father, and therefore perfect humility; then secondly, a burning and universal love for men, and finally, the spirit of sacrifice.” [23]

“All that I can do I will do for them” was Christ’s motto through life. When the hour had come, He did not what benefited Him but what would help us most. Like us in all things except sin, He would meet suffering and death. To be like us in all things, this was His rule from first to last: that having shown Himself like us, He might win us to be like Him, ready to say in the hour of trial, “Father, if thou wilt, remove this chalice from Me; but yet not My will, but Thine be done.” [24]

“My soul is sorrowful unto death,” [25] Our Lord so piteously mourned. And what was the relief? It was prayer, just as He had admonished the Apostles: “Watch ye, and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh weak.”[26]

The secret of Our Lord’s desire to suffer was His Love, but it was not the suffering itself for which Christ longed. No, it was the result of that suffering - for that joy that was set before Him – for which He willingly endured the Cross.

Like Him, when we suffer, we suffer for a reason but, unlike Him, we may not know why. Still, like the Angel who comforted Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, He comforts us: “So also you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you..” [27]

The Holiest of Schools

“It is an excellent and holy practice to call to mind and meditate on our Lord's Passion, since it is by this path that we shall arrive at union with God. In this, the holiest of all schools, true wisdom is learned, for it was there that all the saints became wise,” said St. Paul of the Cross. [28]

How strongly and eloquently the Passion defines charity in all its branches: “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Abide in my love…You are My friends, if you do the things that I command you.” [29]

Our Lord Himself said, “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down is life for his friends.” [30] True Christians have no excuse in forgetting this magnificent lesson of charity, since the loving Jesus set the path before us. The Passion of Christ is the culmination of sanctity, the highest exercise of virtue, and the greatest cause of merit. It is in His Sacred Passion that He specially desires to be remembered by us.[31]

“He that loveth not,” says St. John, “knoweth not God, for God is charity. By this hath the charity of God appeared towards us, because God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we may live by him. In this is charity: not as though we had loved God, but because he hath first loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins.” [32]

God loved us first. Charity, the highest of all virtues by which we love God and then our neighbors for love of God, is what moved Jesus Christ to be “conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary” and became Man. It is because of Christ’s charity that we can truly say: “I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself for me.” [33]

I Love You More…

“The charity of Christ presses us” meaning Jesus’ sacrificial love naturally inspires reciprocation, not to mention gratitude. It is not enough to say we love God because love is proven by deeds and, even further, by a pure intention.

“Forget not the kindness of thy Surety, for He hath given His life for thee,” [34] teaches the Holy Ghost. St. Alphonsus posed this same truth in the form of a question, one we should ask ourselves, especially when we think of the Passion of Christ: “And you, Christian soul, what have you done for your Divine Redeemer? What proof of your love have you given Him?” [35]

Perhaps the best answer to these two questions was given by St. Robert Southwell: “God gave Himself to you; now give yourself to God.” By cooperating with grace, by thinking upon the Passion of Jesus, by striving against our natural inclinations, in subduing Self and in returning Christ’s love, we say to Jesus, “I love You more…” - more than this consolation, more than my self-interest, more than my anxiety, more than my grief, or more than this moment of gratification. To pray, to study and to act upon the Passion of Christ means to cultivate charity within our souls.

In our day and age, we often forget the true meaning of charity - that divinely infused virtue by which we prefer God as the sovereign good before all else. It is with charity alone that we can do God's Will and with charity alone that we are united to Him. Charity is called the “queen of virtues,” because it will rule forever in Heaven - but before we can hope to attain that Heaven, Charity must first become queen of our hearts.

“Love God, serve God: everything is in that.” (St. Clare of Assisi)

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Secrets of the Catholic City is the name of Mrs. Bartold's new column, published by Catholic Family News (CFN). The original article was published under the title "Within the School of Christian Perfection: Our Imitation of Christ" in CFN's March 2009 issue. All Rights Reserved World-wide by the author.

Marianna Bartold, founder of Keeping It Catholic, is the author of “The Age of Mary” Study Guides, a series of “digitally delivered” Catholic unit studies for homeschooled teens - as well as adults or anyone who wishes to grow closer “to Jesus through Mary.” Her other works include the upcoming digital Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings) Catholic Study Guide. She is the author of the Keeping It Catholic Home Education Guide books (Volumes I and II). Mrs. Bartold was the original homeschool editor of Sursum Corda and the founding publisher of The Catholic Family Magnificat! Magazine.

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Endnotes
1. Rev. R. Walsh, O.P., Meditation on the Passion [Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1963]: p. 3.

2. Ibid., p. 6.

3. Ibid., p. 1.

4. Ibid., p. v, Introduction.

5. 1 Cor 2:2

6. Rev. R. Walsh, op. cit., p. 5.

7. Ibid., p. 4.

8. Ibid, p. 5.

9. Ibid, p.6.

10. St. Alphonsus Liguori, The 12 Steps to Holiness and Salvation. Subtitled From the Works of St. Alphonsus Liguori. [Adapted from the German of Rev. Paul Leick by Rev. Cornelius J. Warren, C.SS.R. Boston, MA: Mission Church Press under the title The School of Christian Perfection. Retypeset and published under new title in Rockford, IL: TAN Books and Publishers, 1986]: p. 58.

11. St. Terese of Avila, The Interior Castle

[http://www.sacredtexts.com/chr/tic/tic24.htm]: p. 226

12. Jer. 8:18

13. Rev. R. Walsh, O.P., op. cit., p. 1.

14. St. Alphonsus Liguori, op. cit., p. 193.

15. Loc cit., p. 2.

16. Thoughts of Saint Therese: The Little Flower of Jesus, Carmelite of the Monastery of Lisieux. [New York: P.J. Kennedy and Sons, 1915. Retypeset in Rockford, IL: TAN Books and Publishers]: p. 82

17. Ibid.

18. Col 1: 24

19. Pope Pius XII, Mediator Dei (November 20, 1946]: para. 146

20. St. Alphonsus Liguori, op. cit., p. 193.

21. Rev. R. Walsh, O.P., op. cit., p. 2

22. Ibid., p. 3

23. Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard, O.C.S.O, The Soul of the Apostolate [Garden City, NY: Image Books Edition 1961]: p. 228, emphasis in the original.

24. Lk 22: 42

25. Matt 26: 38

26. Matt 26:41

27. Jn 16: 22

28. “Paul of the Cross.” (January 3, 1694 - October 18, 1775) Taken from a letter written by St. Paul of the Cross. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Paul_of_the_Cross#An_excerpt_from_a_letter_from_Saint_Paul_of_the_Cross] 29. Jn 15:12,14

30. Jn 15:1

31. Rev. R. Walsh, O.P., op. cit., p. v, Introduction.

32. 1 Jn 4: 8-10

33. Gal 2: 20

34. Eccl 29:19

35. St. Alphonsus Liguori, op. cit., p. 54.