409 part ii: meditations for more solemn feasts and very steadfast Martyr, suffering great torments inside and outside,194 blush with shame that you slacken in smaller ones. After Holy Communion 1. “If any man serves [M]e, let him follow [M]e” (Jn 12:26). Consider that the Lord wants all the religious who have devoted themselves truly to the service of God to follow Him in their actions and also in their suffering. As to the first, they should keep the rules precisely, which are guidelines defined by God for their actions; just as David desired not to deviate from the norm of life prescribed to him even in a small matter, and therefore he prayed to God: “Make me understand the way of [Y]our precepts: and [f.131r] I will meditate on [Y]our wondrous deeds” (Ps 119:27). As to the second, God wants the religious, who serve Him, to follow Him in suffering: carrying the cross, whichever would be imposed upon them, not only bravely, but also cheerfully. He requires it, when He says: “If any man will come after [M]e, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow [M]e” (Mt 16:24). And not without reason: for the trait of a servant who is faithful and endowed with admirable virtue is that he adheres to the Lord with the same spirit, both in joyful and in painful circumstances, both in success and in adversities. But indeed, deserving of a shameful mark of dishonor is the one who follows the Lord going to the feast, but flees from Him when He is falling under the weight of the Cross. 2. “Let him follow [M]e” (Jn 12:26). Consider what a great desire to suffer for Christ was burning in Laurence, the very faithful servant of God. When he saw his Bishop [Pope] Sixtus led to the place of martyrdom, he shouted with grief and pain: “Where are you going, a father without his son? Where are you hastening, a priest without his deacon?” He 194 RM, p. 168 (August 10 — St. Laurence): “fulfilled martyrdom… after many torments — imprisonment, various stripes, scorpions, rods and scourges and burning torches — being last of all roasted on a gridiron.”
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