SERMON XIII

On the Feast of St Paul the Apostle

Of an absolute dying unto self and to all things. Of the use of suffering; of the Love, the Suffering and the Blood of Christ.

Vivo autem, jam non ego, vivit vero in me Christus.

“And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me.”

St Paul had so completely died unto himself and to all things, and was so transformed into true love for God and for all men, that he would willingly have died a thousand deaths for the salvation of men; and had even so forgotten self, that he knew nothing save Christ crucified; and desired nothing, but to win all men to Christ, as though he had begotten all men, and were their earthly father. There are four things besides other virtues which will be especially useful to us, if we desire to imitate this exalted Apostle in true love and resignation, and to please God. First, we must absolutely banish and separate ourselves from all created things outside God. Secondly, we must forget and ignore all creatures. Thirdly, we must be constantly looking back to our origin, which means that, in God, we must long after and desire God with strong crying. Fourthly, we must labour that we may be more deeply impressed with, and fashioned in the Likeness of Christ.

Absolute poverty is thine when thou canst not remember whether anybody has ever owed thee or been indebted to thee for anything; just as all things will be forgotten by thee in the last journey of death. If thou desirest in time to live above time, and to be separated from all creatures, thou must learn to forget thy own powers, and all that nature can accomplish. A constant return to thy origin means, that the presence of all things, in which thou canst not find God, will seem like a wound to thee. The labour, by which Christ is more deeply imprinted and formed in thee, takes place within, where Christ ever receives the Person, Nature and Being of His Father. The more Christ sees man thus choosing Him, the more clearly will Christ be found in him. All, who are like unto Christ in pain, bitterness and patience, will also be elected and chosen to be with Him, where He at all times partakes of the Being and Nature of His Heavenly Father. He who can kill and destroy his infirmities will also receive new strength from God; therefore in him, who devotes all the powers of his human nature unto Christ, Christ will pour the power of His Divine Nature. The loving Heart of God will be satisfied if thou diest to thy very self.

A holy soul, which has become barren and empty of all created things, and which cannot form nor mould in itself anything that is of the creature, moves God to draw it to Himself, to the very centre of His Divine Being. The exit of all created things out of thy heart, brings about the entering in, and pouring in of all the riches of His Almighty Power. No one can enjoy the Presence of God, and His Likeness, like the man who is dead to all things, and who is as dead in heart and will as a thing that never possessed any being.

The next way is to die to all things and to live to God alone. He who always dies to self, is always beginning to live unto God, and that without ceasing. In the truest death of all created things, the sweetest and most natural life lies hidden. There is no more natural or more real way of procuring Eternal Life, than by killing and dying in heart to all created things, and by the subjection, the submission and destruction of self, as beneath all creatures.

A man once thought that God drew some men even by pleasant paths, while others were drawn by the path of pain. Our Lord answered him thus: “What think ye can be pleasanter or nobler than to be made most like unto Me? that is by suffering. Mark, to whom was ever offered such a painful and troubled life as to Me? And in whom can I better work, in accordance with My true nobility, than in those who are most like Me? They are the men who suffer. No man ever suffered so bitterly as I; and yet no man was ever so pure as I. When was I more mocked than when I was most glorifying My Heavenly Father? Learn that My Divine Nature never worked so nobly in human nature as by suffering; and because suffering is so efficacious it is sent out of great love. I understand the weakness of human nature at all times, and, out of love and righteousness, I lay no heavier burden on man than he can bear. The crown must be firmly pressed down that is to bud and blossom in the Eternal Presence of My Heavenly Father. He who desires to be wholly immersed in the fathomless sea of My Godhead, must also be deeply immersed in the deep sea of bitter sorrow. I am exalted far above all things, and work supernatural and wonderful works in Myself; the deeper and the more supernaturally a man crushes himself beneath all things, the more supernaturally will he be drawn far above all things.

A man desired to know when man’s nature became absolutely dead. Our Lord replied: “When all sins are as impossible and as hateful to thee, as they are to the high estate of My Divine Nature.” Then the man said: “Ah! dear Lord, but what can cause this death?” Answer: “The presence of My death and of My Dying Life, during which I was always working out the salvation of the human race. My Death was always present to Me, and a consuming thirst that I might suffer for the sake of man the very bitterest sufferings that had been ordained for Me. It was not sufficient for Me to be rejected by all men; those, also, who acknowledged and confessed Me, must be hated and tormented as well. The burning thirst I felt for all men, caused the welling up of My precious streaming Blood; for it would have been far more bitter to Me than the death I suffered, had one drop of blood or water remained in my Heart, that I should not have poured forth for the salvation of man. As the seal impresses its form on the wax, so the love, with which I have loved man, has power to impress his form on My Hands, My Feet and My Divine Heart, so that I can never forget him. Even so My wounds were pierced with the sharp nails and pointed spear, so have I filled them up again with the sweet balsam of My Divine Nature, so that it may always freely flow forth into the weakness of human nature. My Blood is always a bath, boiling over in the flame of My Divine Nature, in which man may wash away his sins.

“What can be sweeter and more satisfying than to work the like in him for whom I have suffered, and to bring forth fruit and increase in My dear members? Nothing is more pleasing to Me than that it should be made manifest how supernaturally in the power of My Love, I have worked and suffered for man.”

A holy man once bethought himself how painful it must have been to God to have been seen by his enemies when he was taken prisoner. Our Lord answered him: “My enemies appeared unto Me in my presence as friends, who wished to help me in carrying out the sweetest and most desirable work that I ever worked in my life.” God appeared most miserable unto man, when, exhausted and overwhelmed, He was taken away from the column or pillar, and said: “Behold, how love for man has exhausted Me, ought it not to be sweet to Me to drink at his hand the recompense of My Martyrdom? See how many precious signs man may see in Me, if he looks upon the numberless wounds of love in Me and meditates upon my Sacred Passion.”

The soul is so nobly united to God, and, at first, in such a supernatural way, that man might justly shun, like death, every thought that could interfere with this union. The thought, which is to receive God into itself, can endure nothing strange. Therefore desire only invisible and inexpressible things. All will be forgotten by thee that can be spoken in words. “Keep silence on all that I work in thee; for I am precious to all creatures, because I am absolutely hidden from all creatures. It is natural to Me to dwell in the Heart of my Father; so also is it natural and dear to Me to dwell in the soul, in which I find rest and the likeness of my bleeding Wounds, and which I have won by the eternal tokens of my Fatherly Heart; and these Wounds shall flourish eternally in that soul before my Divine Eyes. For him for whom I have ordained a painful life in this world, I have also ordained the enjoyment in eternity of the sweetest honey of My Divine Nature. I cannot really enter into a man’s soul until he resigns himself, and yields himself up in all humility, and until the old man be driven out.” May God grant that we may follow St Paul perfectly in this, and in all other good exercises. Amen.