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The Light of the World
Saturday
“You shall lament and weep, . . . but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (Gospel). That is the
lot of all those on earth who belong to Christ and to the Church. “You shall lament and weep”
on earth; that is, the Christian must expect suffering, for “it behooved Christ to suffer . . . and
so to enter into His glory” (Alleluia verse). But what, after all, are the sufferings of this life
compared to the glory to come?
This is the portion of the members of Christ: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestinated
to be made conformable to the image of His Son” (Rom 8:29). Here on earth man
can have no true good, no real good fortune, no authentic virtue or holiness, apart from a
living union with Christ. “I am the vine, you the branches; he that abideth in Me and I in
him, the same beareth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” ( Jn 15:5). The lot
of Jesus on earth was one of poverty, lowliness, deprivation, misunderstanding, calumny,
persecution, the cross, and death. Can the lot of the disciple of Christ be otherwise? If we
consider our lives in the light of faith, must not such suffering of our present life make us
like Christ, and must we then not look upon them as our highest and most precious possession?
Would the Son of God, eternal Wisdom Himself, have chosen and sought out such
suffering had it not been the highest good? Consider how ardently the saints have longed
for suffering. They have even gone in search of it. “Suffering, not death.” We, too, should
look upon our lives in the same light.
“And if sons [of God], heirs also; heirs indeed of God and joint heirs with Christ; yet so, if
we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him” (Rom 8:17). Let us suffer that we
may be glorified with Him. The two are inseparably connected. “For that which is at present
momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us above measure, exceedingly an eternal
weight of glory” (2 Cor 4:17). “Your sorrow shall be turned into joy” ( Jn 16:20). Yes, it must
ever be so. There is surely no more certain sign of predestination than our similarity to Christ,
our crucified head. In this belief the liturgy celebrates during the Easter cycle the feasts of certain
martyrs, who are the true disciples of the King of martyrs, Christ. By His own suffering and
death Christ exalted the crown of martyrdom, and in the same way He sanctified all suffering.
Through their suffering and death for Christ, the holy martyrs merited eternal life and made
their eternal salvation certain. Fortunate indeed, then, are they who suffer. Suffering corrects all
spiritual blindness and makes us see the specious goods of this life in their true light. It cleanses
the heart from all that is inordinate and worldly, from the love of gold, honor, and human praise,
and from all self-love. Yet we all fear suffering and strive to avoid it. When a small suffering overtakes
us, we cry out and complain. A harsh word, a small slight, a disappointment in something
we sought, and we become dissatisfied, angry, and unhappy. Yet we know it is a disgrace to be
a Christian if we are unwilling to be crucified with Christ.
In the naves of our Churches the cross hangs from an arch of triumph. Here the Christian comes
to pray and seek consolation and strength. But what does he pray for? Very often that he and
his dear ones may be relieved of their crosses. Is this the lesson taught by Him who gazes down
from the cross on him who prays? We have not yet learned the true meaning of the cross. We
see only the cross and not the resurrection that follows; we see only the sorrow, the poverty, the
persecution, but not the glory given as a reward. “Blessed are the poor. . . . Blessed are they that
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