Of the royal way of the Holy Cross
1. That seems a hard saying to many, "If any man will come after
Me, let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow Me." But it will be much harder to hear that last sentence, "Depart
from me, you wicked, into eternal fire." For they who now
willingly hear the word of the Cross and follow it, shall not
then fear the hearing of eternal damnation. This sign of the
Cross shall be in heaven when the Lord comes to Judgment. Then
all servants of the Cross, who in life have conformed themselves
to the Crucified, shall draw nigh unto Christ the Judge with
great boldness.
2. Why fear you then to take up the cross which leads to a
kingdom? In the Cross is health, in the Cross is life, in the
Cross is protection from enemies, in the Cross is heavenly
sweetness, in the Cross strength of mind, in the Cross joy of
the spirit, in the Cross the height of virtue, in the Cross
perfection of holiness. There is no health of the soul, no hope
of eternal life, save in the Cross. Take up therefore, your cross
and follow Jesus and you shall go into eternal life. He went
before you bearing His Cross and died for you upon the Cross,
that you also may bear your cross and may love to be
crucified upon it. For if you be dead with Him, you shall also
live with Him, and if you be a partaker of His sufferings you shall be also of His glory.
3. Behold everything depends upon the Cross, and everything
lies in dying; and there is no other way unto life and to true
inward peace, except the way of the Holy Cross and of daily
mortification. Go where you will, seek whatsoever you will,
and you shall find no higher way above nor safer way below, than
the way of the Holy Cross. Dispose and order all things
according to your own will and judgment, and you shall ever
find something to suffer either willingly or unwillingly, and
thus you shall ever find your cross. For you shall either feel
pain of body, or tribulation of spirit within your soul.
4. Sometimes you will be forsaken of God, sometimes you will be
tried by your neighbor, and which is more, you will often be
wearisome to yourself. And still you cannot be delivered nor
eased by any remedy or consolation, but must bear so long as God
wills. For God will have you learn to suffer tribulation without
consolation, and to submit yourself fully to it, and by
tribulation be made more humble. No man understands the
Passion of Christ in his heart so well as he who has had
somewhat of the like suffering himself. The Cross therefore is
always ready, and everywhere waits for you. You cannot
flee from it wheresoever you hurry, for wheresoever you
come, you bear yourself with you, and shall ever find yourself. Turn above, turn below, turn without,
turn within, and in them all you shall find the Cross; and
needful is it that you everywhere possess patience if you will
have internal peace and gain the everlasting crown.
5. If you willingly bear the Cross, it will bear you, and will
bring you to the end that you seek, even where there shall
be the end of suffering; though it shall not be here. If you
bear it unwillingly, you make a burden for yourself and greatly
increase your load, and yet you must bear it. If you cast
away one cross, without doubt you shall find another and
perchance a heavier.
6. Think you to escape what no mortal has been able to
avoid? Which of the saints in the world has been without the
cross and tribulation? For not even Jesus Christ our Lord was
one hour without the anguish of His Passion, so long as He lived.
It behooved, He said, Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead,
and so enter into his glory. And how do you seek another
way than this royal way, which is the way of the Holy Cross?
7. The whole life of Christ was a cross and martyrdom, and do you seek for yourself rest and joy? You are wrong, you are
wrong, if you seek anything but to suffer tribulations, for this
whole mortal life is full of miseries, and set round with
crosses. And the higher a man has advanced in the spirit, the
heavier crosses he will often find, because the sorrow of his
banishment increases with the strength of his love.
8. But yet the man who is thus in so many ways afflicted, is not
without refreshment of consolation, because he feels abundant
fruit to be growing within him out of the bearing of his cross.
For while he willingly submits himself to it, every burden of
tribulation is turned into an assurance of divine comfort, and
the more the flesh is wasted by affliction, the more is the
spirit strengthened mightily by inward grace. And oftentimes so
greatly is he comforted by the desire for tribulation and
adversity, through love of conformity to the Cross of Christ,
that he would not be without sorrow and tribulation; for he
believes that he shall be the more acceptable to God, the more
and the heavier burdens he is able to bear for His sake. This is
not the virtue of man, but the grace of Christ that has such
power and energy in the weak flesh, that what it naturally hated
and fled from, this it draws to and loves through fervor of
spirit.
9. It is not in the nature of man to bear the cross, to love the
cross, to keep under the body and to bring it into subjection, to
fly from honors, to bear reproaches meekly, to despise self and
desire to be despised, to bear all adversities and losses, and to
desire no prosperity in this world. If you look to yourself, you will of yourself be able to do none of this; but if you
trust in the Lord, endurance shall be given you from heaven,
and the world and the flesh shall be made subject to your command.
Yea, you shall not even fear your adversary the devil, if you are armed with faith and signed with the Cross of Christ.
10. Set yourself, therefore, like a good and faithful servant of
Christ, to the manful bearing of the Cross of your Lord, who out
of love was crucified for you. Prepare yourself for bearing
many adversities and manifold troubles in this wretched life;
because so it shall be with you wheresoever you are, and so in
every deed you shall find it, wherever you hide yourself. This
it must be; and there is no means of escaping from tribulation
and sorrow, except to bear them patiently. Drink lovingly from your Lord's cup if you desire to be His friend and to have your
lot with Him. Leave consolations to God, let Him do as seems
best to Him concerning them. But set yourself to endure
tribulations, and reckon them the best consolations; for the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory that shall be revealed in us, nor would they
be even if you were to endure them all.
11. When you have come to this, that tribulation is sweet and
pleasant to you for Christ's sake, then reckon that it is well
with you, because you have found paradise on earth. So long as
it is hard for you to suffer and you desire to escape, so long
it will not be well with you, and tribulations will follow you
everywhere.
12. If you set yourself to what you ought, namely, to
suffer and to die, it shall soon go better with you, and you shall find peace. Though you should be caught up with Paul
unto the third heaven, you are not on that account secure
from suffering evil. I will show him, said Jesus, what great
things he must suffer for My Name's sake. It remains,
therefore, to you to suffer, if you will love Jesus and serve
Him continually.
13. Oh that you were worthy to suffer something for the name of
Jesus, how great glory should await you, what rejoicing among
all the saints of God, what bright example also to your neighbor!
For all men commend patience, although few are willing to practice
it. You ought surely to suffer a little for Christ when many
suffer heavier things for the world.
14. Know you of a surety that you ought to lead the life of
a dying man. And the more a man dies to himself, the more he
begins to live towards God. None is fit for the understanding
of heavenly things, unless he has submitted himself to bearing
adversities for Christ. Nothing is more acceptable to God, nothing
more healthful for yourself in this world, than to suffer
willingly for Christ. And if it were yours to choose, you
ought rather to wish to suffer adversities for Christ, than to
be refreshed with manifold consolations, for you would be
more like Christ and more conformed to all saints. For our
worthiness and growth in grace lies not in many delights and
consolations, but rather in bearing many troubles and
adversities.
15. If indeed there had been anything better and more profitable
to the health of men than to suffer, Christ would surely have
shown it by word and example. For both the disciples who
followed Him, and all who desire to follow Him, He plainly
exhorts to bear their cross, and says, "If any man will come
after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow
Me." So now that we have thoroughly read and studied all
things, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. We must
through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
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