The Mystery of the Redemption
The Mystery of the Cross
God decided that the Word would become incarnate, and we could have imagined Him coming on the clouds of Heaven as our Lord will come in glory at the end of time, or perhaps as He was on Mount Tabor, radiant with glory. Those seem like ways our Lord should have come into this world. He should have come without even passing through the womb of a woman, without having an earthly mother, descending from the bosom of the Trinity surrounded by magnificence and the glorious hosts of Heaven, with displays of His power over stars, over the sun, and He would have given glory to God that way. For us, that’s a little bit how we might have imagined it. The Son of God, the Creator, He who holds the universe in His hands, should have come like the King of the world, like the Prince of the world, with a whole outward spectacle to manifest His glory.
Not at all. God chose something truly mysterious. Instead of that absolutely magnificent spectacle in which our Lord could have come, His spectacle was the cross. Does that make any sense at all? This mystery of which St. Paul speaks, the mysterium crucis (1 Cor. 1:23; 2:7), the mysterium Christi (Col. 4:3), is truly a deep, deep, deep mystery. The manner of the Incarnation is already a mystery, certainly, by the fact that our Lord chose the womb of a simple woman to come here below. He wished to be born humbly in Bethlehem, of Mary. And after the Incarnation there had to be the Redemption in order for our Lord to take the cross as His throne of glory. A tremendous thing, obviously, which is beyond our comprehension; which is a true mystery!1
We can’t help being struck by how often our Lord returns to this idea of His “hour,” over the course of His whole life on earth. Desiderio desideravi, said our Lord: “I have desired with a great desire this hour of My immolation” (cf. Lk. 22:15). Jesus yearned for His cross. The mysterium Christi is above all the mysterium crucis. That is why, in the designs of the infinite wisdom of God for the accomplishment of the Redemption, of the re-creation, of the renovation of humanity, the cross of Jesus is the perfect solution, the total, definitive, eternal solution, by which all things would be resolved.2
The Sufferings of Jesus
The Passion of our Lord is a great mystery. After the Last Supper, Jesus goes to the Garden of Olives. And there His incredible, extraordinary Passion begins: God suffering, God who seems crushed by the sorrow, by the sacrifice! His blood already flows at the mere thought of His sacrifice, and at the thought that many people, unfortunately, would never even understand His sacrifice.3
As St. Thomas says, no one suffered as much as our Lord.4 No martyr suffered as much as He because we must not consider only the physical sufferings, we have to see the moral sufferings as well. When we think about the fact that our Lord had a perfect nature and therefore one that was extremely sensitive, a heart that could not be more loving and so which could not be more attached to those whom He loved, we understand that there could be no creature which suffered more than He. For in the Garden of Olives He had before His eyes all the sins of men, He was carrying all their sins.5 Imagine, in all the history of humanity, how many sins there could be, and so how many rejections of God, oppositions to the charity which God placed in men. Our Lord saw all of the greatest, most beautiful things which God gave to men—not only existence, but also participation in His nature—trampled underfoot, disdained by so many souls. St. Catherine of Siena had a vision of the soul of a prelate who was in sin and she suffered acutely at the sight. If she suffered so acutely simply at seeing the soul of one prelate in sin, imagine what our Lord must have suffered, He who saw during His agony all the sins of men of the entire world, in their least detail. It is something that made Him suffer horribly, even more than the physical sufferings.6
This sight which passed before the mind of our Lord during His agony, of all personal sins spread over all of history and throughout the world, was the consequence of the sin of the angels, because it truly is on account of their sin that Adam and Eve sinned as well. And this sight was also the consequence of the sin of our first parents. This vision caused our Lord a sweat of blood and made drops of blood trickle down His face. We should have that image before our eyes and beg God not to allow us, too, to be part of that sin and increase the horror of that terrible vision.7
There is also the mystery of the humiliations: Jesus Christ humiliated by the chief priests, humiliated by the betrayal of Judas, humiliated by the ill treatments, the shameful treatments which He suffered from His brothers and from the Romans. And then the way of the cross, the arrival at Calvary, the crucifixion.
What sorrows, what sufferings, what humiliations! Let us participate fully in this mystery.8
How do we see our Lord on the cross? We find Him bloody, torn by the blows of the lashes received during the flagellation, crowned with thorns, His heart pierced by the lance, His hands pierced by the nails, His feet as well, His knees certainly bloodied by the three times He fell carrying the cross. Our Lord is therefore in a state of victim, in a state of indescribable pain.9
However, beyond that pain, we should perceive also the immense joy of our Lord Jesus Christ at the thought that He is reestablishing the honor and the glory of His Father. Henceforth humanity in His person reestablishes the bridge, the link with God, with the Holy Trinity. Perfect glory, total, complete glory, is rendered to God by our Lord Jesus Christ.
Could anyone in a human soul and body render greater glory to God, so entirely that, even if all men had fallen into hell, the rights of God would still have been reestablished?
Our Lord, behind His sufferings, behind the blood that flows, still has the beatific vision and so gives glory to God. It is another great mystery.10
The Moral Virtues and the Cross of Jesus
In considering Jesus in His Passion, what strikes us first is His sufferings. But it is good to consider also the virtues practiced by Him in the midst of the most painful torments. On the cross, Jesus exercises the virtues of prudence, of justice, of fortitude, and of temperance.
The cross of Jesus displays the wisdom of God, gives glory to the Father and reveals the love of Jesus for His neighbor. His death on the cross is therefore the act of prudence par excellence.
The cross of Jesus is also an act of justice, since it renders to God what is due to Him, namely, perfect, total love. No one has performed a greater act of love for His neighbor than did our Lord.11
Was there ever a greater act of fortitude than that of our Lord on the cross? Martyrdom is the greatest act of fortitude there is, and our Lord suffered the most sublime martyrdom. He is the King of Martyrs. He showed His perseverance even unto death in His love for God and for neighbor, whereas the world is weak, it flies from sorrow and will deny God rather than suffer. And so our Lord conquered our weakness by the cross.
Our Lord, who is the rich man par excellence, rich by nature, since He has all heaven and earth at His disposal, defeated our concupiscence by His poverty. He was poor in every manner possible, even to His death. Could He have died in more poverty than on the cross? He died in poverty, poor in the affection of His Apostles who abandoned Him. He died poor in His goods. They took even His clothing, they cast lots for His tunic. In that way He also carried off the victory over the spirit of selfishness, of desire for the riches of this world. And so by the cross, our Lord conquered that spirit of the world which makes us forget the goods of Heaven by attaching us too much to the goods of the earth.
Finally, has there ever been a greater act of humility than that of our Lord on the cross? Dying on a cross at that time was the most ignominious and the most shameful death. The cross was considered a spectacle of infamy. What is more, our Lord was crucified between two thieves. That is a profound humiliation. And so He was victorious over the pride of the world; our pride was conquered by His cross.
As for us, we ought to have that desire to imitate our Lord, that desire to be victims on the cross like Him. We have to ask our Lord and the Blessed Virgin for that grace of detachment.12
Endnotes
1 Spiritual conference, Ecône, November 4, 1980.
2 Itinéraire Spirituel, p. 59; cf. Spiritual Journey, p. 44.
3 Sermon, Ecône, April 16, 1987.
4 Summa Theologica, IIIa, q. 46, a. 6.
5 Summa Theologica, IIIa, q. 46, a. 6, ad 4.
6 Retreat for seminarians, Ecône, September 20, 1978, 7th conference.
7 Priests’ retreat, Ecône, September 3, 1985, 4th conference.
8 Sermon, Ecône, April 16, 1987.
9 Retreat for the Sisters of the Society, Albano, September 24, 1976, 3rd conference.
10 Summa Theologica, IIIa, q. 46, a. 8. Sermon, Ecône, April 16, 1987.
11 Retreat for the Sisters of the Society, Saint-Michel-en-Brenne, Quasimodo 1978, 4th conference.
12 Ibid.