St. Francis of Assisi: "Always keep before your eyes, my beloved brothers, the humble and poor way of the holy cross"
Source: Google Books
St. Francis of Assisi:
Always keep before your eyes, my beloved brothers, the humble and poor way of the holy cross, along which Jesus Christ our Savior has led us. Consider that if His divine Majesty had to suffer and thus enter into His glory, then we, who are enormous sinners, must all the more certainly walk by the way of the cross and of the Passion.
If every Christian is obliged to carry his cross, we who profess to follow the banner of the cross are most assuredly bound to it. The Lord wills not only to see us carry it, but to see us, by our example and our teaching, encourage others to carry it as well—to see us draw them after us, and to follow with them Jesus Christ, our leader. We must do this above all because the good will and desire to imitate the Passion of our Savior is a special gift that the Holy Spirit grants and places in a soul inflamed with true love of God.
Indeed, the soul that clings only to its own affections and seeks only itself does not love—or rather, abhors—this doctrine of the Holy Spirit. It does not consider participation in the Passion of Jesus Christ as necessary for perfection. Rather, it imagines that it will advance further by walking along other paths which, in truth, are not paths but hidden precipices. And by avoiding the bitterness of tribulation through various human thoughts of its own choosing, it follows its own sentiments with a heart obstinate and blind, all the while pretending that it can serve God better with such freedom of conduct. It remains indifferent to the countless delights enjoyed inwardly by the soul wholly absorbed in contemplation and compassion for its Lord; for one cannot perfectly taste these delights without suffering some tribulation for Jesus Christ.
But the soul purified and stripped of its own affections allows itself humbly to be guided by the Holy Spirit. It acts according to His good pleasure; it follows Him as the master most suited to teach this unique doctrine written by the Lord in the books of His humility, His patience, and His Passion—books that mark the sure paths to Christian perfection.
Such a soul, I say, which has obtained from God the grace to be purified, ardently desires to be transformed in His sufferings. All other paths and consolations appear to it as deadly food destined to perish; this path alone is for it a saving remedy, whose taste is bitter but whose effect is delightful—for what is bitter to the mouth is often full of sweetness in its effects.
Preferring health to its own taste, the soul experiences how admirable is the sweetness of a courageous life that scorns momentary and mortal consolations. It feels, without any doubt, that its love can find nowhere a more perfect rest than in a tender compassion for Jesus Christ. It understands that the more it is transformed into the crucified Jesus, the more it is transformed at the same time into its God—supreme and glorious. For the humanity is not separated from the divinity, and Christ Himself prayed to His Father, saying: “I will that where I am, there also be those who are mine*. (John 17)
Thus the soul contemplates both states of its Lord, in such a way as never to be separated from Him. For if it flees from Him in His Passion, it cannot be united to Him in His glory, according to the word of the Apostle Saint Paul: “If we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified with Him.” (Romans 8)
It contemplates Christ both mortal and immortal; and of these two states, one belongs to those who are still running their course, the other to those who have received their reward. Just as the mantle of honor is given only to those who have run, so heaven is given only to those who carry the cross; for the servant is not above his Lord, nor the disciple above the master. Thus we see God communicate His grace to those who follow Him in this way, and withdraw it from those presumptuous ones who pretend to unite themselves to Him by empty fantasies—yet never leave themselves—and who in the end go miserably into the abyss.”