If all the acts of Christ's life are redemptive, the salvation of the human race culminates on the Cross, toward which Christ directs his entire life on earth: "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!"[1], he would say to his disciples on the way to Jerusalem. He reveals to them his irrepressible longing to give his life for us, and he gives us an example of his love for the Father's Will by dying on the Cross. And it is on the Cross that the soul reaches the fullness of identification with Christ. That is the deepest meaning of acts of mortification and penance.
To be a disciple of the Lord, one must follow his counsel: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me"[2]. It is not possible to follow the Lord without the Cross. Jesus' words are valid in all times, as they were addressed to all men, for "he who does not take his cross and follow me"—he tells each one of us—"is not worthy of me"[3]. Taking up the cross—the acceptance of the pain and contradictions that God permits for our purification, the costly fulfillment of one's duties, the Christian mortification voluntarily assumed—is an indispensable condition for following the Master.
"What would a Gospel, a Christianity without a Cross, without pain, without the sacrifice of pain be?" Pope Paul VI asked himself. "It would be a Gospel, a Christianity without Redemption, without Salvation, of which—we must acknowledge here with ruthless sincerity—we have absolute need. The Lord has saved us with the Cross; with his death he has given us back hope, the right to Life..."[4]. It would be a distorted Christianity that would not serve to attain Heaven, for "the world cannot be saved except by the Cross of Christ"[5].
United to the Lord, voluntary mortification and passive mortifications acquire their deepest meaning. They are not something directed primarily toward one's own perfection, or a way to endure with patience the contradictions of this life, but rather a participation in the mystery of the Redemption.
To some, mortification may seem like madness or folly, a remnant of other eras that does not fit well with the advances and the cultural level of our time. It may also be a sign of contradiction or a stumbling block for those who live forgetful of God. But all this should not surprise us: Saint Paul already wrote that the Cross was a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles[6], and to the extent that Christians themselves lose the supernatural sense of their lives, they resist understanding that we can only follow Christ through a life of sacrifice, close to the Cross. "If you are not mortified, you will never be a soul of prayer"[7]. And Saint Teresa points out: "To believe that (the Lord) admits to His friendship people who are pampered and free of toil is nonsense"[8].
The very Apostles who follow Christ when he is acclaimed by multitudes, even though they loved him deeply and were even willing to give their lives for him, do not follow him to Calvary because they were still weak—not having yet received the Holy Spirit. There is a long way to go between following Christ when this pursuit does not demand much, and identifying oneself fully with Him through the tribulations, both small and great, of a mortified life.
The Christian who goes through life systematically avoiding sacrifice, who rebels against pain, also drifts away from holiness and happiness, which are very close to the Cross, very close to Christ the Redeemer.
---
HCD