Woman of Faith: The Carrying of The Cross
Fr. J. Patrick Gaffney, SMM
The fourth sorrowful mystery, The Carrying of The Cross, is understandably a favorite meditation for those privileged to claim Saint Louis de Montfort as their spiritual guide.
Woman of Faith
Essential to the spirituality of Saint Louis de Montfort is the mystery of The Cross.
Like a golden thread it is woven throughout his life, his preaching and his writings. Any attempt to detach it results in the unraveling of the tapestry itself of Montfortian spirituality. Eleven hymns – numerous stanzas of others – devoted to The Cross; one of the saint’s most powerful works is his contemplative yet so practical Letter to the Friends of The Cross, a meditation on the remarkable words of our Savior; “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself, and take up his cross and follow me”. (Mt 16:24; Lk 9:23).
Moreover, it should never be forgotten that Montfort’s foundational composition, The Love of Eternal Wisdom, contains a central section on The Triumph and Eternal Wisdom in and by the Cross. The conclusion of #180 of The Love of the Eternal Wisdom summarizes Montfort’s mystical insight into the mystery of the Cross; “Eternal Wisdom (Jesus Christ) has fixed his abode in the Cross so firmly that you will not find him anywhere in this world except in the Cross. He has so truly incorporated and united himself with the Cross that in all truth we can say; Wisdom is the Cross, and the Cross is Wisdom.”
Wisdom is the Cross, and . . .
The fourth sorrowful mystery, The Carrying of The Cross, is understandably a favorite meditation for those privileged to claim Saint Louis de Montfort as their spiritual guide.
For the Roman overlords, the cross was the most horrendous instrument of execution that could be devised. Only criminals who could make no claim to Roman citizenship would undergo such torture; for it was synonymous with total degradation, failure, disgrace, incredible suffering, ignominious death. Cicero, in fact, tells us that the terms Cross, Crucifixion, are never to be spoken in polite society, so disgusting are they. The Old Testament itself proclaims; “Cursed be everyone who hangs upon a tree” (Gal 3:13; cf Dt 21:23); so horrible is the tree of the cross that anyone who hangs upon it must, so the Jews believed, be damned by God. The Cross is, therefore, as Paul declares, a “stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God”. (1 Cor 1:23 25).
The Cross becomes also the symbol of the folly, the sinfulness of the human race. Its weight is not measured by the timber but by the incalculable guilt of every sin of each member of the human family”. He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Is 53:4).
. . . the Cross is Wisdom
When Pilate ‘handed Jesus over to them to be crucified” (Jn. 19:16), an event of cosmic proportion begins to unfold. Infinite Incarnate Holiness embraces the horrifying cross and takes on the damnation of us all. Not reluctantly but with infinite love.
Madonna and Child: painter Elisabetta Sirani: 1663
Elisabetta took over the studio of her father Giovanni Sirani in 1654-1655. This painting resides in the National Museum of Woman Arts in Washington, DC.
And it is the soundest proof that we love God. The Cross was the proof God gave of his love for us and it is also the proof which God requires to show our love for him”
This is the tenth in a series of articles on the Mysteries of the Rosary.
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The Cross now becomes the instrument of the death of the Savior and thereby the means of victorious redemption for us.
Eternal Wisdom takes on the folly of the Cross so that our sinful folly may be transformed into Wisdom.
The Means of Victorious Redemption
Jesus, beaten, crowned with thorns, falling under the weight of the cross of our rebellion, stumbles along the via dolorosa. Afraid that Jesus may die before reaching Golgotha, Romans force a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, to assist Jesus. (cf Mk 15:21). Little does he understand that the Cross he carries is the salvation of the world!
Luke also tells us of some faithful women wailing and consoling the blood-stained Jesus as he staggers, half-dead, on the narrow path to Calvary. Tradition identifies two of these women; Veronica, who offers a clean cloth to Jesus upon which his tortured portrait becomes indelibly imprinted, and Mary, his mother. The consolation the mother’s bravery gives to the Son is great indeed; greater still, the suffering overwhelming her at the horrendous sight of the Child she bore. The sword of dying with Christ pierces, as Simeon prophesied, ever more deeply into her heart.
We cannot meditate on this fourth sorrowful mystery without concluding with Saint Louis de Montfort, ‘Never the Cross without Jesus, or Jesus without the Cross”. The identification of Divine Wisdom and the Cross means that the Cross is essential to Christianity. Does not Jesus teach this to us repeatedly? “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me … whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple”. (Lk 9:23; 15:21). The cross – our daily dyings with Christ – if borne with Jesus, implements the victory won by the triumphant Cross of the Savior.
The Proof Which God Requires to Show Our Love for Him
Saint Louis de Montfort’s writings abound with references to the necessity of sharing Christ’s Cross. “The Cross is precious,” writes Montfort; “because when it is well carried it is the source, the food and the proof of love. The Cross enkindles the fire of divine love in the heart by detaching it from creatures. It keeps this love alive and intensifies it; as wood is the food of flames, so the Cross is the food of love. And it is the soundest proof that we love God. The Cross was the proof God gave of his love for us and it is also the proof which God requires to show our love for him” (Love of the Eternal Wisdom, #176).
Montfort’s life demonstrates this truth so powerfully.
Expelled from one diocese after another because of his fidelity to the Holy Father and his unconditional living of the Gospel; he saw these “defeats” as privileged Crosses bringing him to the conquest of souls for Christ. Although he suffered unjustly – as he himself declares – he united these crosses with the Cross of the Savior and turned them into victories. What a cross to be without a cross, became his often-repeated remark.
Father de Montfort was paraphrasing the inspired words of Scripture; “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God … far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”. (1 Cor 1:18, Gal 6:14).
With Saint Louis de Montfort we pray; “May the grace of the mystery of The Carrying of the Cross come down into our hearts.”
