Chap. LVI That We Ought to Deny Ourselves, and to Imitate Christ by the Cross
1. Son, as much as thou canst go out of thyself, so much wilt thou be able to enter into me.
As the desiring of nothing abroad brings peace at home, so the relinquishing ourselves interiorly joins us to God.
I will have thee learn the perfect renouncing of thyself in my will, without contradiction or complaint.
Follow me, I am the way, the truth and the life. John xiv. Without the way there is no going; without the truth there is no knowing; without the life there is no living.
I am the way which thou must follow; the truth, which thou must believe; the life, which thou must hope for.
I am the way inviolable, the truth infallible, and the life that has no end.
I am the straitest way, the sovereign truth, the true life, a blessed life, an uncreated life.
If thou abide in my way, thou shalt know the truth, and the truth shall deliver thee, and thou shalt attain to life everlasting.
2. If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. Luke ix.
[USCCB: Matthew xix. 17. “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”]
If thou wilt know the truth, believe me: If thou wilt be perfect, sell all:
It thou wilt be my disciple, deny thyself:
If thou wilt possess a blessed life, despise this present life:
If thou wilt be exalted in heaven, humble thyself in this world:
If thou wilt reign with me, bear the cross with me:
For none but the servants of the cross find the way of bliss and of true light.
3. Lord Jesus, forasmuch as thy way is narrow, and despised by the world; grant that I may follow thee, and be despised by the world:
For the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither is the disciple above his master. Matthew vi.
[USCCB: Matthew x. 24. “No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master.” ]
Let thy servant meditate on thy life, for there is my salvation and true holiness:
Whatever I read, or hear besides, does not recreate nor fully delight me.
4. Son, thou knowest these things, and hast read them all, happy shalt thou be if thou fulfil them.
He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and I will love him, and I will manifest myself unto him, (John xiv.); and I will make him to sit with me in the kingdom of my Father. Apoc. iii.
5. Lord Jesus, as thou hast said and hast promised, so may it be indeed; and may it be my lot to merit it:
I have received the cross, I have received it from thy hand; and I will bear it, and bear it till death, as thou hast laid it upon me. Indeed the life of a good religious man is a cross, but it is a cross that conducts him to Paradise:
We have now begun, it is not lawful to go back, nor may we leave off.
6. Take courage, my brethren, let us go forward together, Jesus will be with us:
For Jesus’s sake we took up this cross; for Jesus’s sake let us persevere in it.
He will be our helper, who is our captain and our leader.
Behold our king marches before us, who will fight for us.
Let us follow him like men of courage; let no one shrink through fear; let us be ready valiantly to die in battle, and not to suffer our glory to be blemished by flying from the standard of the cross.