Lest You Remain

Fr. Founder’s Selected Thoughts on the Religious Life 107 So take up the burden of Christ, take up the cross. Although it appears heavy to you, the Lord will make it lighter by giving you His comfort, and will reward you with the eternal sight of Himself. He calls you today to His table, not for any other reason, but only to make His burden light for you, and to give you new strength to take up other burdens, if He were to place any on you. ( Inspectio Cordis ) 3 Cross—voluntary torment of the body; cross—ceaseless serious penance; cross –defamation, contempt, harm and any distress; cross—sickness, indigence, sorrow, damage to material possessions, loss of estate; cross—lack of necessities, restriction of luxuries, loss of fortune, the approach of adversities and all that causes spiritual or physical distress. He Himself calls us with His words and His example, to carry such a cross with a willing and joyful heart, out of love for Christ, especially a very painful carrying of the tree of salvation, so that we, following our Predecessor on the way of the cross, could reach with Him the legacy of everlasting joy and glory. ( Christus Patiens ) 4 “He said to him, ‘Follow me’” (Mt 9:9). Consider that a sign of true conversion is to truly follow Christ. Judas was not converted because, although he followed Jesus, his following was a treacherous one, since he was full of hypocrisy, and he thought only about his moneybag. As you can expect, the behavior of St. Matthew was different. He was a true follower of Christ, because he got up and followed Him. What did he get up from? From sin. Where did he follow Christ? To practicing virtues. Here is a good rule for you to become like Christ: get up and follow Him. If you don’t get up, you will not manage to follow Him, even though it may appear to you, that you follow in His footsteps. If, in the nooks and crannies of your will, you still hide the bags of self-love and other similar things, you are not following Christ; you are not truly imitating Christ, although you wear a cassock, although you took vows of obedience, chastity and poverty, which you are so proud of. Get up and fol- low Him, because if you do not get up, you will never go in His steps. ( Inspectio Cordis )