A Little Book of Eternal Wisdom [33]
Eternal Wisdom.--It was by Me from all eternity ordained, that when My
hour was come, I alone should drink the cup of My bitter Passion for all
mankind. But thou, and all those who desire to imitate Me, deny yourselves,
and take up, each of you, your own cross, and follow Me. For this dying to
yourselves is as agreeable to Me as though you had actually gone with Me to
bitter death itself.
The Servant.--Gentle Lord, teach me then, how I should die with Thee,
and what my own cross is. For, truly, Lord, since Thou hast died for me, I
ought not to live any more for myself.
Eternal Wisdom.--When thou dost strive to do thy best as well as thou
dost understand it, and for so doing, dost earn scornful words and
contemptuous gestures from thy fellow men, and they so utterly despise thee
in their hearts that they regard thee as unable, nay, as afraid, to revenge
thyself, and still thou continuest not only firm and unshaken in thy
conduct, but dost lovingly pray for thy revilers to thy heavenly Father, and
dost sincerely excuse them before Him; lo! as often as thou diest thus to
thyself for love of Me, so often is My own death freshly renewed and made to
bloom again in thee. When thou dost keep thyself pure and innocent and still
thy good works are so misrepresented, that with the joyful consent of thy
own heart thou art reckoned as one of the wicked, and that from the bottom
of thy heart thou art as ready to forgive all the injury thou hast received
as though it never had happened, and, moreover, to be useful to and assist
thy persecutors by word and deed, in imitation of My forgiveness of My
crucifiers, then truly art thou crucified with thy Beloved. When thou dost
renounce the love of all mankind, and all comfort and advantage, so far as
thy absolute necessities will allow, the forsaken state in which thou dost
then stand, forsaken by all earthly love, fills up the place of all those
who forsook Me when My hour was come. When thou dost stand, for My sake, so
disengaged from all thy friends in those things by means of which they are
an impediment between Me and thee, even as though thy friends did not belong
to thee, then art thou to Me a dear disciple and brother, standing at the
foot of My cross, and helping Me to support My sufferings. The voluntary
detachment of thy heart from temporal things, and its devotion to Me, clothe
and adorn My nakedness. When, in every adversity which may befall thee from
thy neighbour, thou art oppressed for the love of Me, and dost endure the
furious wrath of all men from whichever side its blast come, how fiercely
soever it come, and whether thou be right or wrong, as meekly as a silent
lamb, so that, in virtue o' thy meek heart, and sweet words, and gentle
looks, thou disarmest the malice of the hearts of thy enemies; behold even
this is the true image of My death accomplished in thee. Yes, wherever I
find this likeness, what delight and satisfaction have I not then, and My
heavenly Father also, in man. Oh, carry but My bitter death in the bottom of
thy heart, and in thy prayers, and in the manifestation of thy works, and
then wilt thou fulfill the sufferings and fidelity of My immaculate Mother
and My beloved disciple.
The Servant.--Ah, loving Lord, my soul implores Thee to accomplish the
perfect imaging of Thy miserable Passion on my body and in my soul, be it
for my pleasure or my pain, to Thy highest praise and according to Thy
blessed will. I desire, also, in particular, that Thou wouldst describe
something more of the great sorrow of Thy sorrowing Mother, and wouldst
relate to me how she bore herself in the hour that she stood under the
cross.
CHAPTER XVI. On The Worthy Praise of The Pure Queen of Heaven
The Servant.--Oh, the great riches of the Divine knowledge and wisdom!
how very inscrutable are Thy judgments, and how unknown Thy ways. How many a
strange way hast thou of bringing poor souls back to Thee! What were Thy
thoughts, or how glad at heart must Thou not have been in Thy eternal
immutability,