The Wisdom Cross: Part II

The Wisdom Cross

 

It is the symbol of the Sacred Heart of Jesus which divides the two sections of Saint Louis’ preaching. The first words of the second part are then, Divine Love. It is this unmerited and unconditional love of the Heart of Christ which prompts us and strengthens us to carry our crosses. It is Divine Love which calls forth from us the following four qualities of sharing in the victorious sufferings of Christ: Humility, submission, patience, and obedience.

Why these particular four characteristics of bearing the cross? They typify the manner by which Jesus himself carried his cross to Calvary. They must, therefore, characterize every disciple on the way of the cross.

Humility

The first quality needed to carry our cross is humility. In his canticle on humility (Hymn 8), Saint Louis de Montfort sings of the necessity of recognizing who we truly are in order to be totally open to God’s saving power. And the missionary speaks in strong terms of our sinfulness, of our nothingness of ourselves. It is pride which would have us think that we are “too good” to be asked to carry a cross. It is pride which cries out: “Why me, Lord! I don’t deserve this suffering”.

However, the most serious effect of pride is that it blinds us to the privilege of taking up our cross daily and following Jesus. It is only humility, and her eldest sister, meekness (Hymn 9), which enables us to be open to the Holy Spirit’s teaching on the cross. Humility permits us to understand that “if you suffer much persecution for justice’s sake, if you are treated as the refuse of the world, be comforted, rejoice, be glad, and dance for joy because the cross you carry is a gift so precious as to arouse the envy of the saints in heaven, were they capable of envy”. (Love of the Eternal Wisdom, #179).

Humility is a chief characteristic of Jesus crucified. As Paul proclaims: “He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death even death upon a cross”. (Phil 2:8). Jesus, meek and humble of heart, is our model. With humility and meekness, we accept God’s mysterious plans for us.

Submission

For Saint Louis de Montfort, submission is an expression of true humility. Jesus submits to the Father’s will, from the first moment of his conception in the womb of Mary (cf Letter to the Hebrews 10:5-9; True Devotion, #248). As the personification of true humility, Jesus says: “I can do nothing on my own authority I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me”.  (Jn 5:30).

He willingly is “subject” to Joseph and Mary, he lives for thirty years in submission to Our Lady, because this is God the Father’s plan for him. The cross is the supreme example of his loving acceptance of the Father’s will. Submission is not for this saint something negative. Rather, it is the active and loving emptying of oneself into the Other in order to become one’s true self. It is to be in total harmony with the ground of all being, the source of all love, the goal of all creation: God Alone.

Submission is the opposite of revolt. We do not carry the cross complainingly (cf Love of the Eternal Wisdom, #178), we do not rebel against God’s evident will. Rather we pour ourselves into the mysterious will of God and become one with his plans for us, no matter how they may differ from ours. The true follower of Jesus is characterized by this loving oneness with Jesus, and in and through Jesus, a loving oneness with the Father. The submission of Jesus when called upon to carry his cross, “not my will but thine be done,” must qualify the manner with which all Christians bear the cross.

Patience

“Patience in bearing our cross” is the plea of Saint Louis de Montfort when praying the fourth sorrowful mystery of the rosary. His hymn on patience is completely centered on bearing the cross as Jesus did (Hymn 11). The saint’s understanding of patience is then intimately entwined with the cross. It has as its primary meaning, the strength “to laugh in the midst of torments, to turn trials into charming pleasures without any bitterness and without sadness . . . invincible patience, the lesson of the dying Jesus” (Hymn 11:1).

“The patient man,” sings the missionary, “glorifies the good Jesus with his cross, since he thus imitates his life, since he submits to his laws, since he fills by his suffering what is lacking in his passion” (Hymn 11:4). In words which would bring ridicule from the worldly, Montfort teaches: “Receive from the hands of God himself, your trials as great gifts, as marks that God loves you as one of his dearest children”. (Hymn 11:18). For Saint Louis, all this is the mark of true patience.

Just as Jesus did not complain, just as Jesus did not turn back on the way of the cross, so too the follower of Crucified Wisdom. The victorious cross is then to be carried with joy. Carried even in the midst of our tears (cf Hymn 11:32); the meaning Saint Louis de Montfort gives to the expression, “patience in bearing our crosses.”

Obedience

As the culmination and summary of the preceding three virtues, Montfort’s Wisdom Cross devotes several lines to the necessity of the virtue of obedience in order to bear our crosses like faithful disciples.

Obedience is of the highest value in Montfortian Spirituality. Saint Louis de Montfort insists upon it strongly in his rules for his congregations, the Company of Mary (Montfort Missionaries) and the Daughters of Wisdom. It is a primary characteristic of the “apostles of the latter times” as described especially in the Prayer for Missionaries. Loving obedience characterizes those who have made the perfect consecration to Jesus through Mary. So strongly does the saint stress obedience that he sings: “To make the vow of poverty, and even of chastity, to practice austerities with an extreme rigor, to suffer furious torments and even martyrdom: to obey is worth far more, it is what God desires”.  (Hymn 10:3).

Jesus Himself Is The Model Of Obedience

Again, this virtue holds such a prominent place in Montfort’s Spiritualty of the cross, because Jesus himself is the model of obedience in his suffering and death;  “He becomes an infant in the womb of his mother in order to obey . . . he obeys right up to his death . . if he dies on the cross it is by the strength of his obedience”.  (Hymn 10:6-7). The missionary echoes the thoughts of Paul’s great hymn in his letter to the Philippians, 1:6-11.

The result of the obedience of Jesus is our salvation itself: “We have been rejected by the disobedience [of Adam and Eve]; but Jesus has saved us all by his obedience” (Hymn 10:5). It is, then, by obedience that we share in the victory of the cross (Hymn 10:1, 16, 17).

In a summary statement, Saint Louis de Montfort declares that obedience is “to obey the Lord, both in what we believe and in what we do; to submit both spirit and heart [to the Lord] in order all the better to chant victory”. (Hymn 10:1). His inscription on the Wisdom Cross details five qualities of obedience: complete, prompt, joyful, blind, persevering.

Complete Obedience

Complete, total obedience typifies the disciple who daily carries the cross after Jesus. Montfort’s insistence on total obedience surprises no one who is the least acquainted with his life and writings. He cannot tolerate halfway discipleship. Tepidity comes under his strong condemnation. If God has given himself so completely to us, must we not give ourselves totally to God? This is especially true in bearing our crosses. Our union with the mysterious love of Christ must know no limits. As the Lord reveals his will for us in the unfolding of each moment, our response – even when the moment is one of anguish – is marked by total obedience, a complete, loving surrender to Love Itself.

Prompt Obedience

Obedience is to be prompt. In his Hymn on obedience, where Saint Louis goes into more detail on its qualities, he enumerates as the third quality; “Obey very promptly, without requesting that one wait; then you will be doubly obeying the one who commands”.  (Hymn 10:29). In his Prayer for Missionaries, Montfort begs God to send recruits to his Company of Mary who are always ready to obey promptly wheresoever the Spirit of the Lord calls them (#10). We do not put off a response to God’s call to unite ourselves to his cross. We do not delay in lovingly joining our heart to the pierced heart of Christ. Wheresoever, whatsoever – our answer is the reply of Samuel: “I am ready”!

Joyful Obedience

Immediately after listing “prompt” as a quality of obedience, Saint Louis de Montfort adds—in his Hymn on obedience, in his Rule of the Missionary Priests of the Company of Mary and on the Wisdom Cross – “joyful“.  The saint is not talking about “goosebumps joy”.  Joyful obedience is the deep peace which no one, nothing can take away from us because we live in such union with Christ crucified. It is this peaceful joy which radiates from the Christian who is so completely one with the Lord especially when experiencing incredible crosses.

It was, so his biographers unanimously tell us, a characteristic of Montfort himself. In his bitterest moments, in his loss of everything he held dear, in the midst of his tears there beamed a mysterious peace. He knew and shared with friends that he was at times treated unjustly; at times he sought a change of heart in those in authority who treated him so. Yet he obeyed and obeyed joyfully. For such was his Master’s attitude in bearing the cross.

Blind Obedience

The most difficult quality of obedience for contemporary society is blind obedience. It is thought by some that the term means passivity, non-involvement. Not so, especially for Saint Louis de Montfort. In his Rule of the Missionary Priests of the Company of Mary, after detailing the importance of obedience, he concludes: “[The members of the Company of Mary] are permitted to state openly and straightforwardly the reasons they may have for omitting or for not undertaking what is commanded”.

Montfort implies that in this dialogue the reasons given by the member of the community may convince the superior to retract what had been decided. However, “if their reasons have not prevailed, (they) must obey blindly and promptly” (#27; cf Hymn 10:32). Blindly means to obey even if we cannot agree with the decision (#19; cf Hymn 10:31); provided, of course, that what is ordered is not contrary to the Gospel and does not “run counter to their most important rules and vows”. (#22). The decision of the community, reached through prayer and openness to each other, is to be accepted as the will of God.

Blind Obedience Therefore Is A Total Trust In Providence of God

Rarely can we figure out “why” God has shared a particular cross with us. No amount of reasoning can enable us to reach a satis9ing answer. Blind means, therefore, a total trust in the loving providence of God. We are encouraged to pour out our heart to the Lord. We are encouraged to beg him to let the chalice pass from us. But we must always unite ourselves with his will even when it appears that he 1s not listening. Unite when we are convinced that he is not even concerned. It is especially when drinking the bitter chalice that our trust must be total, our obedience, blind.

Keeping our eyes on the central symbol of the Sacred Heart, the Wisdom Cross is calling us to be blinded by the blazing light of God’s infinite love. We may not be able to understand but our trust in God is no less secure. Blind means, therefore, to live in the unassailable conviction that we are loved and most especially loved when carrying a heavy cross.

Persevering Obedience

The final characteristic of obedience engraved on the Wisdom Cross is persevering. In his True Devotion, the saint described “inconstant” devotees as “those whose devotion . . . is practiced in fits and starts. Sometimes they are fervent and sometimes they are lukewarm. Sometimes they appear ready to do anything to please Our Lady, and then shortly afterwards they have completely changed” (#101). Such persons are described as “fickle,” “changeable as the moon”.  On the other hand, the “constant” or “persevering” person is one who is “not changeable, fretful, scrupulous or timid”. (#109).

Our obedience to Christ, Wisdom Crucified, must be persevering. We do not turn back if “Jesus is not answering prayer the way I want”; or when “the cross I have to bear is impossible”. Fidelity is intrinsic to love. Our active and loving acceptance of the cross God’s providence sends us is far stronger than discouragement, fatigue, anger. God’s infinite, unconditional love for us is never ceasing; our loving obedience to his will is, then, persevering, faithful to the end.

It must not be thought that the living of the Wisdom Cross happens automatically! It is the goal toward which we constantly strive, never discouraged by our weaknesses and failings (cf True Devotion, #109). The more intensely we live the consecration taught by Saint Louis de Montfort, the more the Wisdom Cross becomes a vital reality in our lives. Taking Father de Montfort’s entire doctrine into account, it can be said that the Wisdom Cross – radical Gospel teaching – challenges us to renew and deepen our baptismal commitment to Christ our victorious crucified savior so that with Mary and under her maternal influence we may live joyfully for God Alone.

 

(End of Series)