…The Royal Road to God…

(from a March 8, 1987 conference)

When I was young there were some non-Catholic Christians I mixed with who were very devout, although they lacked knowledge of some extremely important truths about the Kingdom of God and how its members are fed on earth.  At their religious meetings on Sundays, apart from standing up and affirming that we were saved, and giving testimonies about Jesus, we also used to sing a number of short verses, which we called “choruses.”  One of these that I remember, and have also heard other people sing, went like this:  “Count your blessings, count them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”  Some of the young people present would give testimony to these blessings that they counted one by one, and they included their home, their health, their job, their comforts, their friends, their possessions, and things like that. . .

I have never heard anyone sing:  “Count your crosses, count them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.” . . . But if we see things as they really are, crosses are far greater blessings than any other.  The Beatitudes give us Our Lord’s teaching about blessings, and they involve poverty, meekness, purity, persecution, desire for holiness, and so on, all connected in this life with crosses and discomforts.  Of course crosses are not blessings unless we accept them.  When Our Lord was teaching us the only way to be with Him, the only way to follow Him on earth, He said that we must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him.  To walk with Him we do not need any special temporal blessings, any particular possessions, health, strength of mind and character, education, friends, or things like that.  If we take up our cross, even though we did not seek it, and follow Jesus, He may give us many temporal blessings, or He may not, but to be close to Him and feel His friendship and the security of His care is a blessing that far outweighs any temporal ones we may like. . .

What are the things that we have certainly not considered as blessings up to now?  Perhaps we are getting old or in poor health.  Perhaps we have difficulties of one kind or another with our companions or acquaintances or conditions of work.  Perhaps we get lonely or bored.  Perhaps we feel we are failures.  Count your crosses, count them one by one, and provided they cannot reasonably be got rid of, thank God for each one by taking it up for God, and so find His hand in yours, and His Heart comforting you with His friendship.  “If anyone wants to be My disciple, let him take up his cross and follow me.  My yoke is easy and My burden light.”  Jesus does not give us a heavier share in the Cross than we can bear. . .

The spirit of penance and of welcoming the cross God gives us in His Providence is a wonderful thing, and our Catholic Faith enables us to make full use of this Royal Road to God, without taking away our healthy acceptance of the good things in life within reason also.  In fact we can live a thoroughly good and balanced life that is in harmony with the state of things on earth until the second coming of Our Lord. . .

Let us join St. Paul and try to say and mean, “We ought to glory in the Cross of Christ, in which we find health and life and resurrection.”  And our entrance to that glorying is by means of our own small crosses, the little splinters from the Cross of Christ.  They give us special entry to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.


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