The Reason for Joy in Carrying Crosses, by Most Rev. Donald J. Sanborn

all right we will finish our uh section on the crosses we talked about the cross and then we start talking about crosses that your individual crosses so we'll go back to that and finish it if not today then tomorrow so we were going over the reason for joy in carrying crosses and there are seven reasons and we're on number five and number five is we should rejoice in the cross for if you uh lighten them you diminish the merit of them or even lose the merit so if you avoid the cross you diminish or even lose the merit but to accept them with joy and resignation makes them lighter and gives you merit the way you go to heaven is by carrying crosses it's as simple as that so in that sense they should be seen as uh a joyful thing they're not joyful in themselves there's no kind of pain could ever be a joyful thing in itself but for a higher and ultimate reason it can be joyful the sixth reason when we rejoice in the cross it gives an increase in our virtues which find an occasion to develop and grow so the carrying of crosses exercises the virtues and just like in every habit exercise makes perfect and the cross makes easy the most difficult virtues so you're you know part of your spiritual life that is directed by the holy ghost is are crosses that are difficult to bear but which increase your virtue that's the whole purpose of life you have to always remember that the cross is necessary because of sin that we are a fallen race and that the in order to correct the fall the cross of christ was necessary and our bearing of our crosses is necessary that is the principle behind all of this if we were not a fallen race the cross would not have been necessary nor would our bearing of crosses be necessary for salvation but the the entire course of salvation we might say started with the sacrifice of abraham or isaac because that is the beginning of the old testament in that sense the covenant was the sacrifice of isaac as a prefiguration of the sacrifice of the cross because we are a fallen race and conversely the the novus ordo and modernism in general is dedicated to making the play the earth a better place to live in so you see bergoglio talking about making a type of terrestrial paradise out of this earth through world socialism essentially and that's why you see the in in many in most cases the cross disappear from even physically from many catholic institutions because it's negative theology etc there's the the emphasis is entirely on this world and uh uh and that was part of modernism is that that uh that next worldism is something that is repugnant and that's why they went through as father cicada pointed out in his book went through and took out every kind of reference in the in the orations that would uh talk about uh despising this world uh anything at all that had to do with uh carrying crosses and uh mortifications etc it's all in that book and he proves it and it's so typical of heretics is to go through the liturgy and remove what is not pleasing to them all the heretics did that also the seventh reason is that crosses elevate us and they make us rise above the things of earth so they make us have contempt for the things of earth in the sense that they are not important for us after we have endured the trials the cross places in heaven our affections and our hopes so it detaches us from the things of this world when people are lying sick in bed they don't really care about the pleasures or riches of this world they just want to get better when when pain and suffering come into into you uh it makes you think about other things than the the paradise of earth as well the generous souls which love our lord tenderly find nothing more agreeable more desirable or sweeter than to suffer for him see that's where you get into a a perfection in the spiritual life and that is to uh by a friendship with christ this willingness to suffer with him just as our lady did so and in doing this they are similar to our lord jesus christ they they want to mount the cross with our blessed lord they are not reluctant at all and christ rewards them with consolations in bearing their crosses this is expressed in psalm 93 verse 19. it says according to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart thy comforts have given joy to my soul and saint paul said in second corinthians chapter 1 verse 5 as the sufferings of christ abound in us so also by christ doth our comfort abound and in second corinthians chapter 7 verse 4 i am filled with comfort i exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation because he's suffering for christ dignity and glory are also found in the cross so not only joy but dignity and glory saint peter said in first peter chapter 4 verse 14 if you be reproached for the name of christ you shall be blessed for that which is of the honor glory and power of god and that which is his spirit resteth upon you so to be reproached for the name of christ brings down all of those blessings the honor the glory and power of god and that which is his spirit resteth upon you therefore in those who suffer for jesus christ rest the following things first the honor of god second the glory of god third his strength and power and for the holy ghost now these are the reasons why those who who have borne crosses for jesus christ become the principal agent excuse me why the cross is born for jesus christ become the principal agent of great dignity and of great glory so why do these crosses that we bear for christ become the principle of dignity and glory first is that to bear them is a heroic act of christian patience strength and charity second these crosses are a royal garment our lord is is attached to the cross intimately and is in a way his garment and it is by that that he won his royalty by title of redemption of the human race it's in pius x encyclical three christ has made these crosses sublime he has glorified them and demonized them by dying on the cross we would have those crosses in any case we are a fallen race we have miseries because of our sins most of the miseries of the human race come from your own sins or from the sins of others most or they come from the fact that we have the death sentence upon us the sentence of old age and death that's another source that's all from sin but our lord by dying on the cross elevated all of the crosses that we have to bear in the same way that he deified human nature by uniting it to god referring to the incarnation not human nature in general that's modernist but he deified his own human nature by uniting it to the second person of the blessed trinity in as much as he made god a man and this man is in fact god in the proper sense of the word so as we say in truth that god became flesh that god became man we can say with the same truth that god suffered god was crucified and god died we call this the communication of the idioms that doesn't mean that god died according to his human nature it means that christ who is god died on the cross that's known as the communication of idioms in theology what you can say as a result of the incarnation you do that in de verbo incarnato saint thomas has a whole question about the communication of idioms jesus christ has therefore consecrated in himself and in his humanity the crosses the afflictions the trials the sufferings the patience the poverty the humility the obedience and the contempt of his of himself and of the world so he has elevated all of that to having a value toward eternal salvation he has divinized it given it a supernatural value the fourth reason which proves that it is a great dignity and a great glory to suffer for jesus christ is that jesus christ the holy ghost and the entire trinity are honored in an excellent manner not by the immolation of animals as in the old testament but by the sacrifices of those who suffer so we become the victims of sacrifice these sacrifices are the work of a rational being they are done in imitation of the sacrifice of our lord on the cross and form in a certain way with him a single and same sacrifice of infinite value that is key to understanding the mass is that the the as i said before the mystical body must also be crucified as the physical body of christ is and through the mass the action of calvary is is extended through time and our true participation in the mass is the offering of our sacrifices and crosses that we bear every day in union with the sacrifice of the cross of christ that interior act is the essential participation in the mass you don't have to be yelling out responses and also with you and and thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory that was all done i remember so that the people could participate the people now have no idea what is going on in the mass the the true participation is that interior union with the act of the priest which is the act of christ at the altar in extending through time the crucifixion so you come with this sense of sacrifice and the priest is offering your sacrifice and with that all of the the the crosses that you bear and those are meritorious through the merit of the sacrifice of calvary and the mass they're the same so that that's that's key to understanding the the mass it is a sacrifice primarily and that's why the they made much in the early church of uh bringing up uh things for the priests uh all sorts of gifts for their their sustenance and all during that time as a symbol of their sacrifices that's why the offertory verses there that used to be very long as the people would process the everybody would process with various things that they would leave for the priests uh somewhere in the church and that's the offertory verse was very long well they did that uh and uh and then from that they would take the uh bread and wine for the mass now later on it changed in other words they didn't do that anymore but that was a very um significant part of the mass that idea of of symbolic sacrifice now they take up a a a collection but that is not merely to pay the bills that is also part of that idea of sacrificing uh the uh and and if you were a public sinner uh or a catechumen but you know as if you were not either a catholic or a catholic in good standing you could not participate in that that procession while they were singing of of those of those uh gifts to the to the clergy you were excluded you had to be a catholic in good standing so if you were because they're very conscious of public sin at the time so you had to do public penance and all so you were out as a matter of fact they told you to get out of the church the deacon would tell you get out they noticed that they didn't revive that from the early church where they told the heretics and the jews and everybody else to get out now because just leave that was part of the before the mass of the faithful that's what they did that's why there's there was the mass of the catechumens and then the mass of the faithful the catechumens had to go they didn't call it that anymore it was the liturgy of the word and and uh something i've written about the liturgy of the meal or whatever it is uh so the um uh so that that's key to understanding the sacrifice of the mass is all of that and that's the essential participation is that interior act so you wouldn't have to say a single response in order to do that also that that business of making responses is ridiculous because the low mass was a creation of the monasteries and was never meant to be the mass on sunday where it and and so it was just a private mass thing and then it became because of the multiplication of masses and that what had to be done in parishes the the the the public mass but it was never meant to have interaction people yelling out responses and the prayers of the foot of the altar there's no tradition for that whatsoever because the prayers of the foot of the altar were originally in the sacristy pius v moved them into the sanctuary so there's no you know any of that interaction with the priest and talking to the people and all of that stuff during that time has no tradition whatsoever none zero the only mention of something that even comes close because i i did a little research on this that comes close is that if a priest is saying a private mass and there are a few people around and there are no servers somebody could make the responses that's all it says but there's no organized responses so that's why we reject the dialogue mass it's just the preparation for all of the chaos and so but as i said they they never hear what i just said about participation in the mass they think they're participating by saying those responses so we're going and we're going through the reasons why dignity and glory are found in the cross and we've gone we've done four reasons the fifth reason is that god promises to those who bear their crosses an infinite joy and brilliant crown in heaven so it is the occasion of our hope which always gives joy and it's very founded hope based on faith and so there is a looking forward to the the merit and reward for bearing the cross and in certain cases he prepares the laurels of martyrdom for some as you read in the martyrology a lot of people died for the faith but also a long patience in bearing afflictions has the same merit as martyrdom because martyrdom is to say that the adherence to the truth of the faith is more important than our natural lives so the bearing of afflictions is to say it patiently and long for a long time is to say that the uh the cross is the path of salvation which is a testimony to the faith so it is a in that sense a type of martyrdom also you know just uh uh putting up with the types of persecution which are not necessarily bloody for example the english people that had to put up with over two centuries of um repression by protestants and and others see so that it has the same kind of merit as martyrdom those who have suffered patiently become similar to our lord jesus christ glorified as they were similar to him crucified so that is really the formula of salvation that in order to achieve similarity to our lord glorified you must achieve first similarity to christ crucified it's it's absolutely basic to the to catholic spirituality the sixth reason is that the cross sanctified by contact with the body of christ is worthy of honor so the the wooden cross was sanctified not only by his blood but also that he chose that to be the instrument of salvation that particular thing that's why it is so highly venerated in the catholic church the relic of the true cross see because it is so closely associated with christ that is the sole purpose of his coming was to mount that cross and die on it saint louis de montfort said whenever we think about christ we should always think about him crucified that it is impossible for him it's impossible to think about christ without being crucified and if you see the sacred heart i mean that's his passion and death the blessed sacrament of the altar is associated with his passion everything really points to that passion all of the the the humiliations of bethlehem and circumcision and all of these other things that the the presentation in the temple and other humiliation all of those things were sacrifices the whole life was a sacrifice until finally he arrived at the ultimate sacrifice so the the sacrifice of the cross embodies all of the the sacrifices that that he performed up to that time just by humiliation so in the same way all those who through their crosses have contact with the suffering christ so they are honored by the fact that they are suffering with christ just as the cross was honored by the fact that it suffered in a way with christ and finally number seven crosses and tribulations marvelously adorn the church they naturally attract crosses well-born and tribulations well-born naturally attract those who are of the truth or lord said have you know that those who are of the truth hear my voice they naturally attract because they see the value that you place upon the bearing of crosses for your eternal salvation so there is a statement of faith there there is a statement of hope and there is a statement of charity so for example a a spouse who's uh you know who's estranged through no fault of his or her own and has to from from his or her spouse and leads a life of loneliness uh for the rest of his or her life that is a martyrdom in a way uh and uh it speaks the truth of the indissolubility of marriage and and draws people to a recognition of of the truth of catholicism by that very fact because it's very hard why are you doing this why don't you go and get married why don't you take another spouse because it's against the law of god and i promise that the altar until death do we part do us part that so it's a fidelity to the law of god and also a a belief in his promises that by bearing crosses faithfully that you will be rewarded in the end that is attractive to people who love the truth because they know that the truth implicitly is the highest perfection of the highest faculty of man which is his intellect and supernatural truth is the highest of all of those truths so summing up you have saint teresa of avila who said either suffer or die see after all of we have said about as you understand why she said that if you didn't contemplate the the nature of the cross and the crosses that we bear that would be hard to understand but in other words uh pati velmori either suffer or die saint john of the cross said to live always in order to suffer always basically to live is to suffer with christ and for christ that's why he was called saint john of the cross and saint francis xavier used to say lord do not deliver me from this cross unless you send me more of them yet heavier so this life is a a choice of a fork in the road of either abandonment to pleasures and with no forward look to the particular judgment heaven hell and purgatory or it is the path of the cross there is no path down the middle and you know where the first path goes all right and that's a paved freeway you know with many lanes and it goes downhill right and saint john of the cross talks about in his uh the the path upward is thorny and rocks and narrow that's the ascent of mount carmel it's it's uh it's not a paved freeway uh saint ignatius loyola said when when he was asked which was the shortest path the surest path and the most profitable in order to become perfect responded this path consists in enduring and bearing great and numerous trials for the love of jesus christ and he added ask for this grace from god because he to whom he grants it receives much in a in this single gift are found included numerous and great benefits and saint paul said for i reckon that the suffering of this time sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us and that is the end of our spiritual conference you

Channel: Roman Catholic Media

Views: 1,690

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Catholic, Roman Catholic, Bishop Sanborn, Most Holy Trinity Seminary, Roman Catholic Institute

Id: Kq5IbeN20Wc

Length: 33min 27sec (2007 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 20 2021