September 19

Devotion To The Crucifix

Preparation. - St. Francis of Assisi, as we have seen, deserved, through his devotion to Jesus crucified, most signal graces. That we may participate therein, we shall consider the sentiments, first, of repentance, and secondly, of confidence, with which the crucifix should inspire us. And then we shall propose often to look at the crucifix, whilst making acts of contrition for our sins, of hope of forgiveness at the thought of the infinite love that prompted our Saviour to die for each one of us. “He love me, and delivered Himself for me” (Gal. 2. 20).

I. The Crucifix Inspires Us With Contrition

O my God, supreme Majesty, who will enable us to understand the greatness and the extent of the disasters sin brought over all creation? It ruined millions of angels, turning them into demons, and precipitating them from heaven into the dungeons of hell, from glory into disgrace, from eternal joys into endless torments. And to what has it reduced man? Expelled from paradise after his disobedience, Adam was condemned with all his posterity to undergo every kind of evil, including death; and this frightful, but just sentence, has been put into execution for six thousand years.

But there is another far more terrible sentence which ought to make us shudder at the thought of our iniquities; it is the sentence pronounced by Pilate, or rather by divine justice, against the King of glory. When I consider it, it grieves me more than the fall of the immense multitude of angels; I am more frightened by it than by seeing the human race condemned to every kind of scourges. For there is nothing so great, so perfect, so excellent as God, and it is the thrice holy God who is hanging on a gibbet of infamy on account of our sins! O inconceivable sight, which should ever penetrate us with horror at our revolts against the divine Majesty.

The impious dare to question the justice of punishing a momentary crime with endless punishments; and the crucifix replies: “If the mere shadow of sin satiated with sufferings the uncreated Goodness incarnate among us, what does not our nothingness deserve for having dared to trample under foot the infinite greatness of God? Must not our just punishment, necessarily limited as to its intensity, be boundless in its duration?” O, sin, incomprehensible evil, how evident thy malice becomes by the light of a crucified God!

O Jesus, my Saviour, should I not, at the remembrance of my misdeeds, have my heart pierced with a thousand swords, especially on beholding thee hanging on the cross as the worst of criminals? If the sight of the princes of the angelic host falling from heaven for a single sin of thought, makes me shudder; if all the scourges that have afflicted mankind during sixty centuries for a single act of disobedience, horrify me, what impression should not be produced on me by the aspect of the Creator dying instead of His guilty creatures! Grant me, then, O Jesus, a sincere contrition, an intense repentance for having offended Thee, the infinite Goodness, and for having so cruelly contributed to Thy sufferings and ignominies on the cross. Give me the courage to repair the past, by preferring death to the misfortune of displeasing Thee, and by daily striving to increase in Thy friendship, which constitutes my soul’s nobility, beauty, wealth and salvation.

II. The Crucifix Awakens Our Confidence

The Crucifix recalls to us the charitable Shepherd, who, having one hundred sheep, the angels and men, suddenly beheld our poor human nature going astray and losing itself in the way of sin. Wherefore, leaving His heavenly sheep, He came down upon earth, to seek us, going over mountains and valleys, that is, becoming a mortal man, leaving delights for sufferings, glory for shame; and after finding us, placing us upon His divine shoulders, and even sheltering us in His Heart until after triumphing on Calvary over the infernal powers, He opened to us the gates of the eternal fold.

Who is not moved by such devotedness? He who seeks and saves us is not an angel, a cherub or a seraph, but God, our Creator, the Almighty, He whom we have offended, and who, to forgive us, underwent Himself the punishments due to us. O incomprehensible goodness, O ever unspeakable mercy, how can we ever despair of Thee? If a monarch, to prove to a rebellious subject that he has forgotten his crime, wished to undergo capital punishment in his stead, who would ever doubt the sincerity of such a forgiveness? And how then, when beholding the crucifix, can we suspect Jesus of any resentment or bitterness against us?

If we repent, we are sure to recover His friendship, for He never despises a contrite and humble heart. But perhaps we fear relapsing into our previous faults. Where shall we find victory in our combats, except in Jesus crucified? By Him the virgins and martyrs have triumphed over their foes. Why, then, are we so timid and pusillanimous? But we do not know whether we shall be saved. And how can we doubt it when we look at the Crucifix? Is it not the most complete expression and assurance of God’s mercy towards us? How can He allow us to perish, who died on Calvary and still daily dies mystically on thousands of altars, to preserve us from hell and open heaven to us?

O Jesus crucified, I will not be disturbed or discouraged by my wretchedness, but henceforth I will place my trust in Thy infallible promises, in Thy riches, or infinite merits, in the charity that invincibly, as it were, induces Thee to receive us graciously, when we return to Thee, to forgive us when we repent, to lavish favors upon us when we implore Thy infinite goodness. Wherefore I firmly expect from Thee the pardon of my sins, victory over temptations, final perseverance, the grace of a good death and the eternal bliss of the elect.