August 19
The Crucifix, A Faithful Mirror
Preparations. - Let us not content ourselves with imitating St. Helena’s devotion to the Saviour’s Cross, but let us also meditate on the Crucifix, as a faithful mirror, first, of the hideousness of our sins, and secondly, of the beauty of the virtues. Let us propose often to contemplate Jesus on the cross as a safeguard against the passions He reprobates, and as an incentive to practice the opposite virtues, of which He gave us the example until His death. “He gave Himself, that He might redeem us, and cleanse to Himself a people acceptable, a pursuer of good works” (Tit. 2. 14).
I. The Crucifix Shows The Hideousness Of Vice
Jesus crucified, being the spotless mirror of the Deity, manifests to us the deformity of our evil habits by more clearly setting forth the beauty of the divine attributes, that is, of the Goodness that consents to the death of the Incarnate Innocence, in order to save the guilty; of the Justice and Holiness which so terribly punish and require a boundless reparation. What a contrast between our defects and such sublime perfections!
Moreover, nothing is more odious than ingratitude, especially that of a creature that has received every thing, towards the boundless charity of the Creator, from whom all benefits proceed. But our ingratitude towards God has never appeared blacker and more monstrous than on Calvary, where God Himself returned to us good for evil, so far as to sacrifice Himself and shed every drop of His infinitely precious blood for our sake. Oh, how the sight of the crucifix, of Jesus on the cross, ought to confound us, and inspire us with horror for ourselves at the thought of our sins!
And what are our sins, when considered in the infinite Innocence, so fearfully punished for their mere appearance in Him? If our misdeeds excite so much horror in God, that He cannot even bear their shadow in His own Son, how does He look at their reality in us, wretched sinners! Who can tell us how deformed and hideous our faults render us in the sight of the Lord? It is the crucifix that discloses this mystery to us!
O my adorable Redeemer, on Calvary at the foot of Thy cross, I contemplate, as in a mirror, the deformity and malice of my sins. I behold in Thy humble face how monstrous my pride is, which inflicts on Thee so many insults, so much confusion, on Thee who art the only-begotten Son of the Most High. I discover in Thy bleeding body the deformity of my sensual inclinations, which are the sources of so many sins, which I have committed against the God who loved me so much. Deign to cause a fountain of tears to flow in my heart, which, mingled with Thy blood, may wash away the stains of my sins and restore to my soul its former beauty, received in the sacrament of baptism. May the sight or thought of Thy shame and sufferings humble my vain and pretentious mind, and inspire me with the resolution of mortifying myself and doing penance, Detach me from every thing created, and enable me to gain the victory over the three concupiscences, which are the sources of all my vices, and over which Thou hast triumphed by Thy cross.
II. The Crucifix Shows Us The Beauty Of The Virtues
St. Clara of Assisi said one day to her nuns: “The crucifix is the spotless mirror, into which you should continually look, so as to adorn yourselves interiorly and exteriorly with the most varied flowers of all the virtues, and put on the ornaments befitting the daughters and spouses of the supreme King.” This saint was wont daily to draw from Jesus crucified an insatiable love of poverty, contempt, suffering and penance.
In fact, do we not find in the mirror of the crucifix both doctrine and example? Doctrine, inasmuch as it reproduces or recalls to our mind, by the sight of the Saviour’s torments, the austere teaching of the Gospel on self-denial, patience, forgiveness of injuries, the narrow way of mortification of the senses and of all the passions. The example of the Saviour’s virtues, practiced in suffering, shows us still more clearly the splendors of real holiness. Is not humility, in fact, most charming, when we consider it personified in a God of love, who drinks to the very dregs the cup of opprobrium? And what great attractions are there not in obedience, when we see it practiced by Him who, though commanding the whole universe, does not hesitate to submit to His very executioners? His meekness amid ill-treatment, His invincible constancy in the cruel torments of the cross, His constant prayer in the anguish of so painful a death, all that we see in Him, should impel us to walk in His steps.
Ye angels of heaven, come and admire with us the spotless Mirror of the God of majesty, in which the divine perfections are so clearly reflected. In creation they are veiled; but in the dying Creator, they dazzle our sight. The sight of His sovereign majesty debased, of His greatness disgraced, of His power, as it were, annihilated, of His innocence unjustly oppressed, of His wisdom turned into derision, and of His boundless charity ignored, all this most conspicuously shows forth the virtues of Jesus manifested under such circumstances. If the sight of a just man dying a victim of calumny appeared in the eyes of pagan antiquity the paragon of the morally beautiful, what shall we say of the infinitely Just One dying in fearful pains from the blows of His ungrateful creatures?
O Jesus, Jesus on the cross, I wish often to consider Thee, or in the touching image of the crucifix the incomparable beauty of evangelical perfection, where, as in a mirror, I will contemplate the charms of Thy humility so generous and so profound, the powerful attractions of Thy meekness ever calm and resigned, the noble disinterestedness of Thy boundless charity, devoting itself to our salvation. Deign, through the intercession of Thy loving Mother, the compassionate witness of Thy last anguish, to teach me to meditate on the beautiful examples of Thy virtues, which have enlightened and sanctified so many souls in all the ages of Christianity.
