Jesus carries His Cross

Mater dolorosa. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Our Lenten meditations continue with posts taken from Considerations on the Passion of Jesus Christ* by Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori.

"You may use this little book* in your prayers when you meditate on the Passion. I am using it myself every day. I desire that you should not allow a day to pass without recalling to your mind, with the aid of this or another book, something of the Passion. The Passion was for the saints a continual subject of meditation." (St Alphonsus, 1773)

This grace I ask of thee to-day: obtain for me a continual remembrance of the passion of Jesus, and of thine also, and a tender devotion to them.

Jesus carries His Cross

[  ] References in the text to numbered footnotes are not hyperlinked but may be found at the end of the relevant paragraph.

Jesus takes up the cross. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

The cross began to torture Jesus Christ before he was nailed upon it; for after he was condemned by Pilate, the cross on which he was to die was given to him to carry to Calvary, and, without refusing, he took it upon his shoulders. [1] Speaking of this, St. Augustine writes: “If we regard the wickedness of his tormentors, the insult was great; if we regard the love of Jesus, the mystery is great;  for in carrying the cross, our Captain then lifted up the standard under which his followers upon this earth must be enrolled and must fight, in order to be made his companions in the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus meets His blessed mother. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

St. Basil, speaking of the passage in Isaias, A child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon His shoulder, [2] says “that earthly tyrants load their subjects with unjust burdens, in order to increase their own power; but Jesus Christ chose to take upon himself the burden of the cross, and to carry it, in order to leave life to us therein, that he might obtain salvation for us.”

He further remarks that the kings of the earth found their sovereignties in the force of arms and in the heaping-up of riches;but Jesus Christ founded his sovereignty in the insults of the cross,—that is, in humbling himself and in suffering,—and on this account he willingly accepted it, and carried it on that painful journey, in order, by his example, to give us courage to embrace with resignation every cross, and thus to follow him.

[1] [17] And bearing his own cross, he went forth to that place which is called Calvary, but in Hebrew Golgotha.
Et bajulans sibi crucem exivit in eum, qui dicitur Calvariae locum, hebraice autem Golgotha : [John 19]
[2] [6] For a CHILD IS BORN to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace.
Parvulus enim natus est nobis, et filius datus est nobis, et factus est principatus super humerum ejus : et vocabitur nomen ejus, Admirabilis, Consiliarius, Deus, Fortis, Pater futuri saeculi, Princeps pacis. [Isa 9]

Wherefore, also, he said to his disciples, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. [3] It is useful here to note the beautiful expressions applied to the cross by St. John Chrysostom; He calls it:

• The hope of the despairing : spes Christianorum, desperatorum via; for what hope of salvation would sinners have were it not for the cross on which Jesus Christ died to save them? 
• The guide of the voyager : Navigantium Gubernator; for the humiliation of the cross (that is, of tribulation) is the cause which, in this life that is like a sea of dangers, gives us grace to keep the divine law, and to amend ourselves after our trangressions; as the prophet says, It is good for me that Thou hast humbled me, that I might learn Thy justifications. [4] 
• The counsellor of the just : Justorum Consiliaris; because in adversities the just learn wisdom, and gain motives for uniting themselves more closely to God. 
• The rest of the troubled : Tribulatorum Requies; for where can the troubled find relief but in beholding that cross on which their Redeemer and God died of pain for love of them? 
• The glorying of the martyrs : Martyrum Gloriatio; because in this consists the glory of the holy martyrs, that they were able to unite their deaths to the pains and death which Jesus Christ suffered on the cross; as St. Paul says, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.[5] 
• The physician of the sick : Aegrotantium Medicus; and great indeed is the remedy of the cross to those who are sick in spirit; tribulations make them repent, and detach them from the world. 
• The fount for the thirsty : Sitientium Fons; the cross, that is, suffering for Jesus Christ, being the desire of the saints, as St. Teresa was wont to say, “Oh that I might suffer! oh that I might die!” and as St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi said, “May I suffer, and not die;” meaning that she would refuse to die and to go to rejoice in heaven, in order that she might continue to suffer upon this earth.

[3] [24] Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Tunc Jesus dixit discipulis suis : Si quis vult post me venire, abneget semetipsum, et tollat crucem suam, et sequatur me. [Matt 16]
[4] [71] It is good for me that thou hast humbled me, that I may learn thy justifications.
Bonum mihi quia humiliasti me : ut discam justificationes tuas. [Ps 118]
[5] [14] But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.
Mihi autem absit gloriari, nisi in cruce Domini nostri Jesu Christi : per quem mihi mundus crucifixus est, et ego mundo. [Gal 6]

Finally, to speak of all alike, both the just and sinners, every one has his own cross.The just, though they enjoy peace of conscience, yet all have their vicissitudes; at one time they are comforted by visits of divine mercy, at another they are afflicted by bodily vexations and infirmities, and especially by desolation of spirit, by darkness and weariness, by scruples and temptations, and by fears for their own salvation.

Helping Jesus with the cross. JJ Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

Much heavier are the crosses of sinners, through remorse of conscience, through the terrors of eternal punishment, which from time to time affright them, and through the pains they suffer when things go wrong with them.

The saints, when adversities befall them, unite themselves with the divine will, and suffer them with patience; but how can the sinner calm himself by recollecting the divine will, when he is living at enmity with God?

The pains of the enemies of God are unmixed pains, pains without relief. Wherefore St. Teresa was wont to say “that he who loves God embraces the cross, and thus does not feel it; while he who does not love him drags the cross along by force and thus cannot but feel it.”

Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt. 

Tecum tutus semper sum.
Ad Jesum per Mariam.