Montfort’s Spirituality: Call and Response to Happiness: Part VII: Living the Cross
Fr. J. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
Montfort spirituality calls us to return to God by the identical way He has come to us. And there can be no quibbling about it. He comes to us through Mary. It is through her that He accomplishes our redemption through the victorious Cross. Living the Cross is briefly discussed in this installment.
The Importance of the Cross
S aint Louis de Montfort’s spirituality of the Cross appears nonsensical to today’s hedonistic culture.
Yet, his understanding of “carrying the Cross” dovetails with the Gospel message he so appreciates. “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself, take up his cross and follow me”. (FC 13).
Throughout his works, the saint insists on the need for authentic desire to be a follower of the Crucified Lord. ‘There are indeed an infinite number of fools and sluggards moved to be good by countless desires, or rather would-be desires, which, by not bringing them to renounce sin and do violence to themselves, are but spurious and deceitful desires which are fatal and lead to damnation”. (LEW 182). Louis de Montfort is making a distinction between a desire and a wish.
If we truly yearn to be one with Christ, we also yearn to take all the means necessary to arrive at that goal. Therefore, “all those who belong to Christ, Incarnate Wisdom, have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. They always bear about in their bodies the dying of Jesus. These people continually do violence lo themselves, they carry their cross daily. They are dead and indeed buried with Christ”. (LEW 194). Moreover, since God has given us His entire being in gifting us with Jesus, so too our return must be a total, loving surrender. “Wisdom is not satisfied with half-hearted mortification or mortifications of a few days, but requires one that is total, continuous, courageous and prudent .. .” (LEW 196).
The Primary Cross
Yet when Saint Louis Marie speaks of mortifications he is not referring primarily to those freely chosen, but of the Cross which our state of life imposes. Our baptismal immersion into Christ demands that “we detach our hearts from material things,” that “we not follow the showy fashions of the world . . . or follow its false maxims”. (cf. LEW 197-199). Of the Saint’s 14 rules for carrying one’s cross worthily, only the last one deals explicitly with “taking up some [crosses] of your own accord” (FC 61).
“For example, suppose you have a piece of furniture you are fond of, but which is of no use to you. You could give it away to someone who needs it, saying to yourself. ‘Why should I have things I don’t need when Jesus is so poor’?”. Or if you have a distaste for a certain kind of food, an aversion for the practice of some particular virtue, or a dislike for some offensive odor, you could take the food, practice the virtue, accept the odor and thus conquer yourself”. (FC 61).
Possess Wisdom
The purpose of voluntary mortifications is made clear. “If you want to make yourself worthy of the best kind of crosses, that is, those which come to you without your choosing, then under the guidance of a prudent director, take up some of your own accord”. (FC 61). The same thought is present in LEW. “If we would possess Wisdom, we must mortify the body, not only by enduring patiently our bodily ailments, the inconveniences of the weather and the difficulties arising from other people’s actions, but also by deliberately undertaking some penances and mortifications, such as fasts, vigils and other austerities practiced by holy penitents”. (LEW 201).
Our Primary Cross is Fidelity to One’s State of Life
The primary cross is, then, fidelity to one’s state of life, gratitude for whatever cross the Lord chooses for us. So that we may strengthen ourselves in bearing the Crosses given to us by Divine Providence, the saint recommends other mortifications approved by a prudent spiritual director. The Wisdom Cross of Poitiers lists some of the crosses which a group of disabled, poor people had to carry in virtue of their state of life. It is up to each one to accept the special crosses which one’s vocation demands. These are the best mortifications, the ideal way of taking up one’s cross and following the Lord to Calvary.
The Virgin [and Child] With Angels (cropped) : Painter: William-Adolphe Bouguereau: 1900
This oil on canvas painting now resides in Petit Palais, Paris. For those that have visited The Shrine of Our Lady, a print of the full painting resides in the third building.
The primary cross is, then, fidelity to one’s state of life, gratitude for whatever cross the Lord chooses for us.
. . . It is up to each one to accept the special crosses which one’s vocation demands. These are the best mortifications, the ideal way of taking up one’s cross and following the Lord to Calvary.
Return to The Queen: Articles
“Make no mistake about it,” writes Saint Louis Marie, “since Incarnate Wisdom had to enter heaven by the Cross, you also must enter by the same way”. (LEW 180). “Since the Cross is precious because it makes us resemble Jesus,” then it is understandable why “St Paul esteemed it a greater glory to wear a prisoner’s chains for his Savior than to be raised up to the third heaven. God bestowed a greater favor on the Apostles and martyrs in giving them his Cross to carry in their humiliations, privations and cruel tortures than in conferring on them the gift of miracles or the grace to convert the world”.
Quoting Saint John Chrysostom, the saint affirms that; “It was a greater happiness for Saint Peter . . . to be imprisoned for Jesus Christ than to be a witness of his glory on Mount Tabor; he was more glorious bound in chains than holding the keys of paradise in his hand”. (LEW 175-176).
Joy of the Cross
This joy which is experienced in being crucified with Jesus on the Cross is not, the saint explains, according “to the will of the flesh”. It is not emotional love. Even if “we may experience a sensible joy in our sufferings, as many of the Saints have done, that joy does not come from the body even though it 1s experienced in the body. It comes from the soul, which is so overwhelmed with the divine joy of the Holy Spirit that it overflows into the body”. (FC 51).
Nor, writes the saint, is a “rational love” necessary in order to suffer joyfully for God’s sake”. (FC 52). Rather, “without any feeling of joy in the senses or pleasure in the mind, we love the cross we are carrying in the light of pure faith, and take delight in it, even though the lower part of our nature may often be in a state of conflict and disturbance, groaning and complaining, weeping and longing for relief . . .” (FC 53).
For Saint Louis de Montfort, the most precious cross of one’s own choosing and the most joyful of all, is voluntary poverty (MLW 1; cf. LCM). Why? It so strongly imitates Jesus, enables us to be free (liberos: children/free), to be breathed by the Spirit wherever the Spirit wills, in the service of the kingdom (cf. H 91).
Voluntary . . .
For the “children of light,” there is an absolute necessity for poverty of spirit (cf. H 108:7); a “detachment from the goods of this world, contempt of riches and a love of poverty”. (MR 8 at third joyful mystery). This poverty of spirit, a total self-emptying, is the goal of the consecration. It also undergirds the saint’s insistence on the virtue of obedience. (cf. H 10).
Haughtiness, self-love, pride, are examples of devilish wealth which impedes obedience, especially to the Holy Father; “Believe Jesus in His Vicar in all that touches on faith. And take what he says as Pope as an oracle and certain law” (H 6:50); “I believe what the Holy Father says despite the shrewd hounds of hell, he is my leader and my light. I see nothing, he sees most clearly (H 6:57). In an age of Gallicanism and Jansenism, these words of the missionary drew down upon him the disdain of many of the clergy.
. . . Poverty
The spirit of poverty also demands personal concern for the poor who are “living images, lieutenants of Jesus Christ . . . or to put it in better terms, they are Jesus Christ Himself’. (H 17:14). Love for the poor, identity with the homeless, characterized Saint Louis de Montfort’s life and is a strong emphasis in his spirituality, flowing from the saint’s love for Wisdom, Jesus Crucified.
Like Ambrose, he boldly declares: “Know that if there is a good which you hold on to even though it is useless for you, it belongs to the poor. They are his goods, as the Gospel tells. You owe them your gilded furniture, these precious pearls, these clothes so beautiful. . . . The poor man has the right to ask for them, for every good which is not necessary . . . the rich cannot keep them, even though they believe to the contrary”. (H 17:18, 19). To console the poor, to bind their wounds, to apply healing to their open sores is not for Montfort social work; for the poor are the “images of Jesus Christ,” “they are Christ Himself’ (H 17:14) and what is done for the outcasts is done to Jesus.
