by Denis Mooney, O.F.M. A GRAIL PUBLICATION 1 and the fffnain aj < UJheai by Denis Mooney, O.F.M. Price twenty-five cents A GRAIL PUBLICATION St. Meinrad Indiana IMPRIMATUR VIII Idus Aug. A.D. 1945 i^jAloysius, Patriarcha Nihil Obstat Fr. Albertus Gort Custos T. S. July 31, 1945 Nihil Obstat IMPRIMATUR John M. Fearns, S.T.D. tgi Francis Cardinal Spellman Censor Librorum Archbishop, New York New York, March 19, 1946 Copyright 1955 by St. Meinrad Archabbey, Inc. Grail Publications INTRODUCTION St. Augustine reminds us that what we do every day easily becomes commonplace — " quotidiana vilescunt.” The recitation of the Rosary is the daily, or at least fre- quent, practice of good Catholics and therefore, in order to preserve its vitality from the paralysis of routine one needs to acquire a lively appreciation of the divine significance of its Mysteries and draw nourishment from this excellent devotion through the personal application of its lessons. It is characteristic of divine things to convey much by means of little. Thus the simple titles of the Mysteries of the Rosa- ry confront each soul with the tremendous message of its Redemption; they offer to the mind the whole plan of salvation in fullness of outline and depth of meaning. When our Lord spoke of this same di- vine plan He likewise conveyed the whole 3 idea of Redemption in a very simple and familiar example. He likened Himself, and anyone who would follow Him, to a grain of wheat planted in the ground: "Unless,” He said, "the grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it remains alone. But if it die, it brings forth much fruit” (John 12, 24-25). Since both the devotion of the Rosary and the parable of the grain of wheat rep- resent the same idea—a summary of the life, death and resurrection of the Re- deemer—there should be an evident par- allel between the development of the fif- teen mysteries and the natural transforma- tion of the grain of wheat. A clear pic- ture of this relationship may prove very helpful in the appreciation and practical application of the Rosary. There are three phases to the process by which the seed grain is brought to fruition. First, it is planted or sown in the soil; then it dies through the action of the elements of the earth, and finally, it flourishes into the new life of the har- vest. The sowing, the death and the har- 4 vest are, therefore, the three steps in the process of sanctification illustrated so ac- curately and concretely by the Divine Teacher and these three phases, as we shall see, clearly correspond to the three stages in the life of the Redeemer repre- sented by the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glo- rious Mysteries of the Rosary. 5 Jfeyjul QHysiefries For the grain of wheat to be sown, it must be sacrificed. This is done in the joyous time of spring with the cheerful generosity of the confident sower. The time when the farmer is engaged in sacri- fice, that is, when he is casting away good grain into the soil, finds him joyful and light of heart because of his faith in the harvest to come. Unspiritual Christians readily persuade themselves that sacrifice in the form of self-denial or mortification is a very gloomy and unattractive exercise of re- ligion and, therefore, something to be shunned as much as possible. In principle they do not deny the Divine command to do penance, but in practice, because it seems unpleasant, they explain it away, to their own satisfaction, by insisting that one needs only to avoid mortal sin in or- 7 der to be saved. That, of course, is true, but to remain in the state of grace for any considerable length of time is normal- ly possible to fallen human nature only when that nature cooperates with grace and directs the will to God by the disci- pline of self-denial. Therefore, it would be more to the point for such Christians to ask themselves if they are avoiding sin, and if not then they need to apply the remedy and attack the cause of sin, which is the natural tendency to self-indulgence. The will of worldly souls goes out to creatures more than to God and, therefore, they are reluctant to give up any more of what they love than is absolutely neces- sary. So they reduce penance or voluntary sacrifice to the vanishing point and pam- per fallen nature with pleasure. Earnest Christians, on the other hand, while making use of the creatures they need in living for God, see in them the means of proving their love for God. They use the world of creatures as a treasury from which to draw generous gifts of love in the form of sacrifice and 8 thereby to show their preference for God, just as the farmer shows his desire for the harvest by his eagerness to sacrifice the grain in the spring. "He who sows bountifully,” says St. Paul, "will also reap bountifully” (II Cor. 9, 6). And what have we to sow, but the needless pleasures of the world ? Sacrifice undoubtedly is irk- some to nature, but faith and love can make it a joy. It would be strange, indeed, if penance should be regarded as gloomy and un- necessary by those who give unhesitating and warm approval to the devotion of the holy Rosary, for the Mysteries which we call Joyful are completely taken up with the sacrifice of love and they are intended to teach us the same spirit. The redemptive plan revealed to us by Jesus is not something merely to be be- lieved in and admired from afar; it is "the Way, the Truth and the Life” for every redeemed soul. Therefore, each of us must strive to re-live the Christ-life of the Rosary; we must desire to become as grains of wheat; otherwise we shall fail 9 to spend our lives in the way outlined for us by our Lord, and instead of destroying by sacrifice, we shall foster by pleasure those natural inclinations which lead us away from Christ and dispose us to sin. 1 . THE ANNUNCIATION The first Joyful Mystery of the Annun- ciation recalls the first event in the plan of Redemption. The Archangel Gabriel was sent by God to ask of Mary the total offering of herself to the divine purposes. On being advised of God’s plan, Mary unhesitatingly and joyfully planted herself in the holy Will of God with the memo- rable words: "Be it done unto me accord- ing to Thy word.” That was the Blessed Virgin’s act of complete surrender and self-offering. Through her knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures she undoubtedly had a general, though obscure, idea of the suffering involved in the Messianic ma- 10 ternity, yet she made no reservation or re- striction of her self-donation to God. This was the starting point of the work of the Holy Ghost in forming Jesus in the Blessed Virgin. As soon as she gave her- self wholeheartedly to God by the un- reserved act of her free will, then God came to her in the Incarnate Word Whom she conceived in the womb. Mary, being our- mother'—the mother of all the redeemed—also planted us, her children, potentially in the will of God by her fiat. Now it rests with us to make this sowing of ourselves an actuality by a per- sonal act of our free will, by offering our- selves, likewise without reservation, to God. The mystery of the Annunciation has to be reenacted in every Christian life by the unqualified acceptance of the Great Commandment to love God with the whole heart. The universal obligation of perfec- tion requires every Christian to plant him- self in the holy will of God by an act of self-surrender. This is the starting point of the activity of the Holy Spirit in de- ll veloping the soul in the likeness of Christ. The recitation of the first Mystery of the Rosary, therefore, should inspire in us a renewal of determination to strive earnest- ly towards personal perfection. It should be a reminder that the effort merely to avoid what is sinful is negative, loveless and impractical. It was not Mary’s way and, therefore, is not the Christian way. If the devotion of the holy Rosary were followed with more supernatural under- standing and personal application, there would be less occasion for the lament of the saints, of the Popes and spiritual writers, that so few Christians realize their positive duty of aiming consistently at the spiritual objective of perfection. 2. THE VISITATION The evangelist relates that immediately after the Annunciation "Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country” in 12 order to visit her cousin Elizabeth. The Archangel Gabriel had told her that Eliza- beth was soon to have a child and Mary, no doubt, was eager to be of assistance to the household. An infallible sign of a wholehearted love for God is the yearn- ing to bring God to others, the desire to sow or sacrifice oneself in the interests of one’s neighbor through the spiritual and corporal works of mery. Christians who realize the meaning of the commandment to love God with the whole heart and who dispose themselves to the action of the indwelling Holy Spir- it, soon begin to lose interest in the per- sonal and worldly concerns that formerly seemed so important and necessary. There comes an ardent desire to occupy them- selves in works of charity—to visit the sick and needy; to instruct the ignorant; to pray for the living and the dead. Their joy is no longer in the pleasures that crea- tures may afford, but in sowing themselves in the field of God’s poor and sick and needy. They find, of course, that this field is reached only through the "hill 13 country” of obstacles, of disappointment and opposition, but like Mary, they make haste with joy. Conversely, those Christians whose love for God is only on their lips and not in their hearts; those who spend their lives trying to please themselves while vaguely hoping not to displease God and incur His punishments, pay little or no heed to the works of mercy, except perhaps to give an occasional and paltry alms. Yet the personal works of charity are necessary to the Christian life. In the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew, our Lord tells us that the judgment of souls will be made according to the service of Christ in the poor, the hungry, the sick and the im- prisoned. Personal works of charity are the medi- um of the Christian apostolate by which the love of Christ is enkindled in souls, and so the evangelist goes on to tell us, "when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe in her womb leaped. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” Such is the marvellous sanctifying effect 14 that God produces through human instru- ments. John the Baptist is purified in his mother’s womb by the presence of Christ in Mary. The last prophet of the Old Law is sanctified by the first Priest of the New Law and Mary becomes our model as the Queen of Apostles. God still seeks to accomplish His apos- tolate through every Christian. By our very presence among them, pagans should experience Christ in and through us by our works of charity, by seeing our virtue, our other-worldliness and our love for one another: "So let your light shine before men,” said our Lord, "that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in Heaven” (Matt. 5, 16). The Mystery of the Visitation is to be re-lived in our own lives so that we bring Christ to others. To do so, however, we need the mentality of Mary. For her there was only one purpose in life, one motive for conduct. It was "God alone”; "All for Jesus,” and, therefore, sacrifice was merely the joyful language of her love. We must learn from Mary the necessity 15 of forming a supernatural mentality in order to consider all things from the view- point of pleasing God and of expressing this disposition in the practical form of zeal for the spiritual and temporal wel- fare of our neighbor. We must plant our- selves with Mary in the fertile soil of Christian charity. 3. THE NATIVITY The third Joyful Mystery introduces our divine Saviour into the world in the very atmosphere of sacrifice. He sows the glo- ry of His divinity, as it were, in the total obscurity of His humanity. Or as St. Paul expresses it, "He emptied Himself, taking the nature of a slave and being made like unto men” (Phil. 2, 7). This is He Who is to preach the joyful and blessed Gospel summarized in the Sermon on the Mount, and so for our example He first lives the doctrine He is going to preach, as St. 16 Luke records of Him: "Jesus began to do and to teach” (Acts 1, l). By the environment which our Lord chose for His rebirth, He expressed con- cretely the mode of life He was later to teach, and, therefore, meditation on the Nativity puts before the mind a living tableau of the Beatitudes. The essential message of the Beatitudes is joy in the sacrifice of love. They call for poverty of spirit, for meekness, for hunger after God and for patient suffering; yet, each appeal for self-sacrifice is prefixed with the joyous word of blessedness. When the angels discovered their Lord in the poverty and suffering of the manger, they burst into song from sheer delight. This obviously was not the joy of the world, for there was nothing there for the enjoyment of the senses. It was a supernatural experience known only to what is spiritual. So we can understand, love and delight in the ways of God; we can find peace in the teaching and ex- ample of Christ only if we live by the spirit of God and not by principles that 17 are worldly and sensual. "The sensual man,” says St. Paul, "does not perceive the things that are of the spirit of God, for it is foolishness to him and he cannot understand, because it is examined spirit- ally” (I Cor. 2, 14). If we who recite the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary would share in true joy, we shall find it only by translating into personal practice the Gospel of our Lord —the Sermon on the Mount. The angels will sing for us, that is, we shall experi- ence true happiness, the spiritual joy of the interior life, when they can look into our hearts and discover Jesus in the same en- vironment in which they found Him at Bethlehem. Where there has been an "An- nunciation” of true love for God and a "Visitation” of practical love of neighbor; where there is a "Bethlehem” of poverty of spirit, of meekness, of a yearning for the things of God and a cheerful endur- ance of suffering, there Jesus will make His abode and there the angels of spiritual peace will sing. The worldly soul, with a natural and 18 sensual mind, knows nothing of such spir- itual joy and shuns all voluntary sacrifice. It keeps itself occupied with the interests and passing fancies of the day and be- comes absorbed to a greater or lesser de- gree by attachments to creature-pleasures (with the excuse, of course, that they are not forbidden) and thus keeps the door of the affections closed to Jesus just like the door of the inn in the town of Beth- lehem. It was business and pleasure, not just sin, that occupied the people of the inn and these same worldly preocupations still blind the souls of many Christians to keep them from recognizing Christ and inviting Him into their hearts with the welcome of prayer and sacrifice. Reflection on the Mystery of the Birth of our Saviour should urge us to form our lives according to the divine program of the Sermon on the Mount and find our joy where Jesus found it, and not seek it in any vanities or pomps of the world which we solemnly renounced at Baptism. 19 4. THE PRESENTATION By the Mystery of the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple the truth of joy in sacrifice is again impressed on the mind. It is called a joyful mystery and yet it meant for Mary the sacrifice or sowing of her divine Treasure in the will of God. The Holy Child was everything to her and yet she generously and unreservedly of- fered Him back to God just as a farmer gives back to the soil the best of the grain he has received from it. What Mary knew of her coming cross, of the price she would pay in the Redemp- tion, we do not know, but undoubtedly she was aware of her call to a life of great human sorrow, as Simeon told her with the words, "Thy own soul a sword shall pierce” (Luke 2, 35). She was called to offer her only Son in a complete sacri- fice to God. Yet—we call it a Joyful Mys- tery. 20 The Presentation in the Temple was the first liturgical offering of the New Law — a prelude to the sacrifice of the Cross. Simeon was there, as the priest; Jesus was the Victim; the arms of Mary wrere the altar of sacrifice, and the congregation was represented in Anna. For every Christian the Mystery of the Presentation should become a personal reality in the Offertory of the Mass, for it is there that the priest offers us to God through Mary in union with her Son. In meditating on this Mystery we must cherish the conviction that self-sacrifice is the real proof of Christian love and the key to the understanding of our part in the sacrifice of the Mass. Any prejudice that penance or self-abnegation is nega- tive, unnecessary and cheerless will strip the Joyful Mysteries of their meaning and discourage all personal application. Our love for God is tested by our deeds, not our words, and, therefore, any prayer of self-oblation that we may make in our Presentation at the Offertory of the Mass must be transposed into the action of daily 21 life. When reciting the fourth Joyful Mystery we might well ask ourselves what we have to offer; what practical evidence can we give of our co-victimhood with Christ; what have we given to Mary to be presented with her Son. The spiritual presentation of ourselves takes its value and its joy not from the prayers on our lips, but from the love in our hearts—a love which is alert to the will of the Beloved and grows in the recognition that life’s daily circumstances afford innumerable opportunities for of- fering gifts of love; gifts of the crosses accepted by the patient endurance of an- noyance, of misunderstandings, of unkind- ness and of pain; gifts of pleasures re- nounced or used only for God’s glory. Notwithstanding our pious words, we can- not present to God the crosses which our rebellious self-love has thrown away, nor the pleasures which our self-indulgence has consumed needlessly for the mere sake of pleasure. If we say in prayer every morning that we offer to God all our actions of the day, 22 then we oblige ourselves to make a serious effort to live that offering, to make it into practice by correcting our natural selfish tendencies, by striving to withdraw our affections from worldly things and to form the habit of pleasing God. One act of the will does not change a habit of the mind and actions which are naturally permeated with self-interest, with spiritual idleness and love for creatures are not made ac- ceptable to God merely by a word. The Presentation should convince us of the necessity of living the offering we make in prayer. 5. THE FINDING OF JESUS IN THE TEMPLE We may readily appreciate why the recovery of the Divine Child after being lost for three days is called a Joyful Mys- tery, yet here again it is a joy only at the price of sacrifice. 23 Mary and Joseph were returning to Nazareth from Jerusalem in the company of their friends and relatives, enjoying the security, companionship and comparative conveniences of such a caravan. Then they discovered that the Holy Child was not among their kinsfolk, as they had sup- posed. To return to Jerusalem to find Him meant the sacrifice of all the con- veniences of their party and the retracing of a day’s journey on foot. Although it was not a pleasant prospect, there was no hesitation. Their love for Jesus was a love of preference—a love which impelled them to sacrifice all else for Him. Our Lord, on His part, by remaining behind gave His parents the opportunity to express in reality the spirit of detach- ment which He had come to teach: "Who- ever does not renounce all that he pos- sesses cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14, 33). The intense sorrow of Mary and Joseph on losing Jesus, their anxiety in searching for Him and their great joy in finding Him were proportioned to their love for Him. 24 Their love in turn was as measureless as their complete self-sacrifice. Consideration of this Mystery should be a constant reminder and inspiration for us to value and protect the gift of sanctify- ing grace, which is the presence of Jesus in us, and to seek eagerly for opportuni- ties to increase our spiritual possession of Christ. Should it happen that, through human frailty or momentary weakness, we should suffer the misfortune of losing the life of grace by serious sin, we should realize from this Mystery that our sorrow, our search and joy of recovery through Con- fession will be proportioned to the love we have for Jesus; the subjective and abid- ing disposition of love—a love that is valued by what we have sacrificed for our Lord. A worldly soul gives little or nothing for Jesus, and without cost there is no value and without value there is no sense of loss; thus, true contrition is difficult for the pleasure-lover and Confes- sion for such a soul becomes superficial and routine. 25 Some Christians have put so little value on the presence of Christ that they leave their soul in sin without God for weeks or months, satisfied perhaps to confess only at Eastertime. How can such Chris- tians be said to love God? Suppose the Blessed Virgin had said to St. Joseph: "To return to Jerusalem now is rather inconvenient. Let us go on with the cara- van. We can look for our Son next Eas- ter when we return to Jerusalem to cele- brate the Pasch.” Such an attitude is in- conceivable, yet many Christians act in that manner while protesting that they love God. Only those who have paid for the pos- session of Jesus in the coin of self-sacrifice will guard and cherish the state of grace, and if, as is then unlikely, it should be lost through momentary weakness, their love will search Him out with sorrow; re- joicing only when He is found again in the Sacrament of Penance. It is important to dwell on the fact that Jesus was found in the Temple, for we must not expect to find Him in places 26 of worldly amusement. We shall experi- ence the joy of His company in the temple of prayer and sacrifice. 27 The divine illustration of the grain of wheat provides us with a clear answer to the vexing question: "Why must we suf- fer?” It is the law of all things in the natural and the spiritual order that for something to be taken up to a higher state of exist- ence it must suffer the process of change. For the minerals of the soil to be raised to the life of vegetation they must sur- render their own form; be crushed by the root and utilized by the life of the plant. The plant in turn can be elevated to the plane of animal life only by the same painful process of assimilation. In a simi- lar way man gathers up all the lower forms of creation and brings them up to the human level by the pain of trans- formation and assimilation. This proces- 28 sion back to God up the steps of His creation does not end with man. He is destined for union with God and there- fore he, too, must surrender his own natural mode of existence in order to be assimilated by grace and to be conformed to the divine manner of life. Nature must give in to grace; self-love must give way to love for God, but in the process nature suffers because it resents the discomfort of being changed. God does not want us to suffer, but because He loves us He does want us to be transformed and to become "like unto Him.” The pain is simply the price of the change— a price ^//-imposed on nature by original sin. Sacred Scripture tells us repeatedly that we must die to ourselves if we are to live for God, but to a mind that judges things merely by darkened human reason and not by faith, the idea of "dying to the nat- ural,” as the spiritual writers express it, is sheer folly. Such a mind argues that God has given us our nature with all our physical and mental powers, and the intro- duction of sanctifying grace in Baptism 29 elevates these faculties to the supernatural order and makes our actions pleasing to God. That is only a half truth, for while spiritualizing our faculties grace does not automactically direct the free will to God, nor destroy the inherent self-love which can infect the best of our actions. We must turn our affections to God; we must consent to die to the merely natural mode of life, so that grace may assume control and jurisdiction of our activity. The pain of "dying” repels the natural mind because it lacks the faith and spir- itual vision to trust in the joy of the new life. All suffering, says St. Paul, "seems for the present to be a matter not for joy but for grief; but afterwards it yields the most peaceful fruit of justice” (Heb. 12, 11). In another place St. Paul evi- dently has in mind the same illustration of the grain of seed to explain the pur- pose of suffering when he says: "Even though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day” (II Cor. 4, 16). Darkened and unaided reason is not 30 willing to subscribe to the divine principle that the new life in Christ can flourish only on the death of the old life of self, and, therefore, the Apostle warns us that God’s ways are folly to the worldly mind: "The sensual man,” he says, "does not per- ceive the things that are of the spirit of God, for it is foolishness to him and he cannot understand (I Cor. 2, 14). We need a well-developed spirit of faith to accept our Lord’s doctrine of the Folly of the Cross outlined in the Sorrow- ful Mysteries and clearly illustrated in the parable of the grain of wheat. 1. THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN When the grain of seed is dropped into the soil, it is soon surrounded by the ele- ments of the earth which press in upon it to aid in its transformation. If the seed were without the germ of new life, the elements would break it down layer by 31 layer and convert it into the likeness of the soil. But because of the germ within the seed, the soil is made to play a very different role—to cooperate in the natural process of the destruction, assimilation and transmutation of the old nature of the grain into the new nature of the plant. While the outer form is decaying, the germ of new life is stirring to intense activity and sends out tiny roots into the surrounding elements to draw from them the very ingredients of its new growth into the harvest. This is the divine, and therefore perfect, illustration of our Lord’s Agony in the Garden, for it was of His sufferings that He said: "Unless the grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it remains alone, but if it die it brings forth much fruit” (John 12, 24-25). He was "dropped” by the Father, so to speak, into the elements of this world. He did not belong to it, as He said of Himself: "I am not of this world” (John 17, 16). The world op- posed Him because He was different; be- cause He was poor in spirit, humble and 32 selfless. His manner of life was a re- proach to those who loved the world, and, therefore, the world would seek to crush Him into its own likeness. The pressure of man’s unholiness came with such over- whelming force that it drove the blood through the pores of His sacred Body. Meanwhile, the germ of the new life of Redemption was at work. In the painful circumstances of His Passion, in the soil of His sufferings, He recognized the will of His loving Father and He sent forth the "roots” of love to draw out the grace of new life for us all. The very manner of accomplishing His death was, at the same time, in the plan of Divine Provi- dence, the occasion to tap the resources of nourishment for life and love. Every Christian soul has received the germ of divine life in Baptism, but the old form of self-love, like the grain of seed, is not thereby destroyed. If the inner life is to grow into the harvest of sanctifica- tion, the outer "self” must consent to die. In so doing, the very action which ac- complishes its annihilation is enlisted to 33 cooperate in the assimilation of the old spirit by the new. As soon as a Christian begins to ex- press the divine, to show the signs of the inner Christ-life by striving to live the Gospel of meekness and other-worldliness, of detachment from creatures, he puts himself unwittingly in contrast to the spirit of the world. He is in the world, but not wishing to be of it, he does not subscribe to its vanities, its cravings for transitory pleasures and luxuries and, therefore, his mode of life and his ideas became a reproach to lovers of comfort. Speaking to His disciples and to us, Jesus declared: "If you were of the world, the world would love what is its own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, there- fore the world hates you" (John 15, 19). The spiritual destiny of every Christian is to be worked out in his own "Garden of Gethsemane” where the outer man of self decays and the inner man of grace is renewed unto fullness of life; in the garden of his daily sacrifices where created 34 pleasures persecute the mortified senses by their very attractiveness; in the olive- grove of daily sufferings where the lov- ing Hand of Divine Providence directs all things, even the wicked forces of the world, to purify His elect. Meditation on the Mystery of our Lord’s Agony in the Garden should teach us to discover in the soil of our circumstances the will of God and the material of our glory. If we accept God’s will by patient, meek, and cheerful endurance our inner life will be nourished by the grace that is concealed in our trials. "Where there is no love,” says St. John of the Cross, "let us put love and we shall draw out love.” 2. THE SCOURGING AT THE PILLAR In the process of its conversion into a seedling, the grain of wheat is broken down layer by layer until its store of ener- 35 gy is entirely absorbed and put to new pur- pose by the life principle of the plant. So with our Lord, the Divine "Grain of Wheat,” all the faculties of His human nature, His corporal senses, His judgment, His will and finally His very existence are assailed successively by His enemies in the course of His passion. The process begins with the attack on His external senses in the Scourging at the Pillar. By submitting to the frightful pain of the lashes Jesus consents to die to the sense of touch. He Who had taught His followers not to be solicitous about the things of this life: He Who professed such disregard for the pleasure of crea- tures as to declare: "The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Luke 9, 58), now manifests in the drastic lesson of the Scourging His complete detachment from the comforts of this life. The natural joy of the sense of sight is surrendered too. His eyes were made for heaven and they were not to be captivated by the attractive sights of earth and so He permits His human sight to be morti- 36 fied in the extreme. He can see about Him only enemies, blood and ugliness. His hear- ing, attuned to the adoration of angels and the harmonies of the universe, is filled now with the curses and blaphemies of the brutal soldiers. His faculty of smell, so delicately sensitive to the spiritual odor of holiness, is now assailed by the carnal stench of the Roman ruffians. He consents to die to the natural use of speech, for He utters no word of reproach or resentment as He fulfills the words of the Prophet: "He shall be led as a sheep to the slaugh- ter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before His shearer, and He shall not open His mouth” (Is. 53, 7). This is the astonishing lesson that the Master gives His followers on the neces- sity of dying to the external senses. The corporal faculties are the avenues by which the spirit of the world can gain entrance to the soul, fostering the life of the senses and stifling the life of the spirit. To safe- guard the interior life of grace from the paralyzing effect of the spirit of the world and to allow the energies of divine love to 37 exert their influence in the soul, the doors to the world must be closed by a spirit of detachment from creatures, that is, the affections must not be allowed to spend themselves on the objects of the senses merely for the satisfaction which creatures can give. Otherwise, nature is being trans- formed by the "soil” of creatures into the likeness of the creatures instead of "dy- ing” to them and being assimilated by grace. "It must be known,” says St. John of the Cross, "that the attachment that the soul has for creatures renders the soul like to these creatures. . . . Love not only makes the lover equal to the object of his love, but even subjects him to it” (Ascent I, 4 )- A strong attachment to a needless crea- ture-pleasure (such an attachment is not infrequently revealed by the expression: "I am dying for this or that”) means that nature is trying to live for certain pleas- ures instead of dying to them. For our senses to die to the world and to serve the interests of grace, we must acquire a spirit of holy indifference to the 38 pleasure of using creatures, in order to use them as God intends, not for our glory, but as a means of knowing, loving and serving Him. To share in the sufferings of Christ at the Pillar it is not sufficient merely to resolve to accept the scourge of suffering in the future. We must prepare before- hand by self-imposed discipline and re- straint, just as an athlete must train in ad- vance if he is to endure the strain of the contest, as St. Paul says: "Everyone in a contest abstains from all things” (I Cor. 9, 25). Our Lord also made it clear that anyone who would come after Him must deny himself first if he would be ready to take up the daily cross. Neglect of the practice of detachment from material things explains why there is so much com- plaining, even among otherwise good Christians, about any trifling circumstance that is disagreeable to the senses. Being pampered with needless comforts and ma- terial gratifications, they are not disci- plined and are far from "dead” to crea- tures, and, therefore, they rebel at any 39 suffering and show little resemblance to the mortified senses of Jesus at the Pillar. In reflecting on this Sorrowful Mystery it is of no practical help to be mere wit- nesses to the brutality of the Scourging. We are to be co-sufferers, associating our- selves with Jesus, learning to die to our corporal senses by practicing at least such penance as is necessary to restrain our de- sires from attaching themselves to any creature merely for the gratification it affords. 3. THE CROWNING WITH THORNS Having destroyed the outer shell of the seed, the soil continues its work of break- ing down the inner structure of the grain to aid in its transformation by the germ of new life. So the spirit of the world, after having assailed the exterior faculties of our Lord’s 40 human nature, brings its action to bear on the first inner faculty of His natural life — His human judgment. Our Lord is ridi- culed and crowned with thorns in mock- ery. The natural use of the intellect or, as it is called, "common sense,” is very pre- cious to the human personality. Independ- ently of grace, it is the guide for the nat- ural life. But folly and unfairness are abominations to this human judgment, and therefore, to accept them without bit- terness and resentment the intellect must be "dead” to mere human standards of judgment. To teach us the necessity of using our intelligence divinely, of judging all things in the light of the divine wisdom of faith and not by the standards of mere human reason, which is the wisdom of this world, our Lord permitted His human judgment to be mortified by the unreasonableness, mockery and injustice to which His divine Majesty was subjected. The Crowning of our Blessed Lord with thorns should serve as a constant reminder 41 to us that if we are to follow Him Who suffered for our example, if we are to "walk by faith and not by sight,” as St. Paul says, we must expect to have our "common sense” crossed and contradicted by the seeming stupidity and injustice that often assails us in daily life. God per- mits, and often ordains, that these things happen to us, as they happened to His Divine Son, in order to break down our pagan mind and strengthen our faith. St. Peter calls it our "Christian voca- tion” to suffer unjustly. "What is the glory,” he says, "if when you sin and are buffeted, you endure it ? But if, when you do right and suffer, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. Unto this, indeed, you have been called” (I Peter 2 , 20 ). We shall not be prepared to fulfill our "vocation” unless we change our natural mentality and bring our intellectual power under the direction of faith. Unless we are dead to our selfish way of seeing things we shall not remain silent as our Lord did; we shall react with resentment, 42 criticism and complaint whenever the ideas or actions of other people are op- posed to our own. How often we say about the conduct of others towards us "there is no sense in it,” or "it is unfair and unreasonable and, therefore, intoler- able.” There was "no sense” in the mocking conduct of the soldiers and the rabble in crowning Jesus with thorns, but He did not deserve such treatment in return, but He said nothing. Had He been guided by our poor human judgment or "common sense” He would have protested vehe- mently against such injustice. But He was directed by a divine light, a light that is given to us by faith, and which discovered for Him the divine wisdom of His Fa- ther’s will concealed behind the screen of human folly. Meditation on the Sorrowful Mystery of the Crowning with Thorns should teach us how necessary it is to acquire a spirit of faith, to "put on the mind of Christ,” in order to recognize spontaneously and to accept graciously the divine wisdom of 43 our personal sanctification in the seeming unreasonableness, the peculiarities or the folly of people and events around us. 4. THE CARRYING OF THE CROSS Just as the surrounding elements of the soil continue to break down the grain of seed and penetrate soon to its very heart, so the enemies of our Lord continue their assault upon Him, and now lay siege to the inner citadel of His human nature. They call for the surrender of His hu- man will through obedience. A cross is placed upon the shoulders of Jesus—the symbol of total subjection. Jesus accepts it meekly, signifying that He is dead to His own will and that He submits en- tirely to His Father’s good pleasure. It is quite contrary to human nature to submit with docility to authorities who exercise power in an arbitrary and unjust fashion. Yet our Lord was obedient to 44 the jealous highpriest, to the lustful Herod, to the scheming Pilate and to the brutal soldiers, because He recognized that they were merely instruments used by the Father to test His love and submission and to win the grace of Redemption. The Father did not cause, nor did He want, the hateful sin of these men; they were free agents. God simply placed His Son in the path of their free actions. Our Lord respected the power of these supe- riors because, as He said, "it came from above,” and He obeyed without regard to the character of the visible instruments used by the Invisible Authority. He had foreseen that all things would be arranged by His Father, for He had said: "Shall I not drink the cup that my Father has given me?” (John 18, 11). The cross of obedience is placed by Di- vine Providence on the shoulder of every Christian. It comes as the medium of spir- itual purification to destroy the natural tendency to self-will. Whenever there is legitimate authority, there is the will of God. The person who 45 exercises the power is simply the "out- ward sign” concealing the "inward grace” of the Divine Will. Just as we need a doctrinal faith to pierce the veil of bread and to adore Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, so also we need a practical faith, a Chris- tian mentality, to penetrate the human qualities of our superiors and adore the will of God manifested through them. As we bow profoundly before Jesus, whether in the large Host at the Conse- cration or in the small Host at the Com- munion of the Mass, so we must honor the divine Will expressed in authority wtihout regard to whether the visible per- son is kind or unkind, just or unjust, wise or foolish. It is not for us to judge God’s instruments, nor to choose the manner of our "dying,” but to submit in all things to the holy Will of God. "Be subject to your masters in all fear, not only to the good and moderate, but also to the se- vere” are the words of the Holy Spirit through St. Peter (I Peter 2, 18). Meditation on the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery should convince us of the need of 46 adjusting our mind to the way of God so as to recognize always in the superiors and laws directing us an expression of God’s adorable will. Then we shall seize every opportunity to die to our own will through perfect obedience—that is blind to the human qualities of visible author- ity and alert to the sanctifying will of the Invisible God. 5. THE CRUCIFIXION The grain of wheat, having perished layer by layer to its very core, now enters the last phase of destruction—the surren- der of its life as a seed. So our Lord, hav- ing died to the natural desires of His senses, of His judgment and His will, now upon the Cross, yields up His human life in the culminating act of His passion. The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery presents the crucified figure of our Lord as the Redeemer and reveals the Cross to fallen 47 humanity as the key to eternal life and the remedy for the world’s catastrophe of selfishness and sin. The Cross proclaims to all Christians that, having received the germ of divine life in Baptism, they must be "crucified to the world” if there is to be a growth in grace. The Crucifixion points the way to the true form of Christian living. Christianity is not, as many seem to suppose, merely an assent to revealed doctrines joined with a vague hope of avoiding sin, and certain- ly it does not consist in attendance at cer- tain religious functions. It is a complete way of life; a supernatural manner of living that can flourish only on the death of the natural mode of life. If we realize this we shall also become aware that the greatest menace to Christianity and to our personal spiritual life is not necessarily an open attack on some particular doctrine or practice; the menace, too, is more likely to be a way of life, a mentality, a spirit. It is, in fact, the subtle spirit of the world which is able to stifle the life of grace and dispose the soul to sin; it is the nat- 48 ural, selfish, pagan mentality that express- es itself in a craze for pleasure and a shrinking from pain; a love of comfort and a disregard of penance; a worship of creatures and consequent forgetfulness of God. By Baptism Christians are sealed with the Sign of the Cross; "They that are Christ’s have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires,” (Gal. 5, 24) but the popular craving for pleasure and the vanities of life marks many so-called Christians with the countersign of the world. The remedy for the spirit of the world is the mentality of Christ Crucified, hence the Apostle says: "But we, for our part, preach a crucified Christ” (I Cor. 1, 23). The Cross is shunned because its pain seems to usurp the place of pleasure; pain is wasted because it is seen only in it- self and not for what it earns. The soil of suffering is regarded as merely de- structive of nature, whereas, in truth, it purifies and prepares nature for the trans- forming power of the inner life of grace. 49 St. Paul impresses on us time and again the purpose and value of suffering and he rejoices in his own tribulations. St. James even begins his Epistle with the remark- able words: "Esteem it all joy, my breth- ren, when you fall into various trials.” God is not responsible for our pain; it is man’s own contribution to this world. Our Lord did not bring suffering into the world; He found it here as the soil into which He was "planted” and in which He took root, was nourished and grew out of death into the life of Redemption. Meditation on the Crucifixion should teach us how to use suffering for our sanctification; how to be at peace in spite of pain and even because of it, as were all the Saints. Suffering accepted out of love for God is pain only for the mo- ment; the sign of the new life and new joy that rises from the death of self. "Our present light affliction, which is for the moment,” says St. Paul, "prepares for us an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all measure” (II Cor. 4, 17). 50