But those who love Jesus for Jesus' own sake, and not for any consolation of their own, bless and love Him in tribulation and in anguish of heart as in the highest consolation. And even if He were never willing to give them consolation, they would still praise Him and always wish to give thanks. O how powerful is the pure love of Jesus, mingled with no self-interest or self-love! Are not all to be called hirelings who always seek consolations? Are not those proved to be lovers of themselves rather than of Jesus, who are always pondering their own profit or gain? Where is found such a one as would serve God for nothing? Rarely is found anyone so spiritual as to be stripped of all things.
For who shall find a man truly poor in spirit and stripped of every creature? His worth is far and from the uttermost coasts. If a man should give all his substance, it is still nothing. And if he should do great penance, it is still little. And if he should grasp all knowledge, he is still far off. And if he should have great virtue and most ardent devotion, much is still lacking to him—namely one thing, which is supremely necessary for him. What is that? That, leaving all things, he leave himself, and go wholly out of himself, retaining nothing of private love. And when he has done all that he knows ought to be done, let him feel that he has done nothing. Let him not weigh as great that which might be esteemed great, but in truth pronounce himself an unprofitable servant.
As the Truth says: When you have done all the things that are commanded you, still say, We are unprofitable servants. Then indeed he will be able to be poor and naked in spirit, and to say with the Prophet: For I am alone and poor. No one is richer than he, no one freer, no one more powerful, than he who knows how to leave himself and all things, and to set himself in the lowest place. Chapter 12. On the royal way of the holy cross. This saying seems hard to many: Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus. But it will be much harder to hear that final word: Depart from me, all you cursed, into eternal fire. For those who now gladly hear the word of the cross, and follow it, will then not fear the hearing of eternal damnation.
This sign of the cross shall be in heaven, when the Lord comes to judge. Then all the servants of the cross, who in their life conformed themselves to the Crucified, shall draw near to Christ the Judge with great confidence. Why then do you fear to take up the cross, by which one goes to the Kingdom? In the cross is salvation; in the cross is life; in the cross is protection from enemies; in the cross is strength of mind; in the cross is joy of spirit; in the cross is the height of virtue; in the cross is the perfection of holiness. There is no salvation of soul, nor hope of eternal life, save in the cross. Take up therefore your cross and follow Jesus, and you shall go into eternal life. He went before, bearing His cross, and died for you upon the cross, that you also might bear the cross, and desire to die upon the cross.
For if you have died together with Him on the cross, you shall also live together with Him; and if you have been His companion in suffering, you shall be His companion also in glory. Behold, in the cross all consists, and there is no other way to life and to true inward peace, save the way of the holy cross and of daily mortification. Walk where you will, seek whatever you wish, and you shall not find a higher way above, nor a safer one below, than the way of the holy cross. Dispose and order all things according to your will and your view, and you shall find nothing but that you must always suffer something, either willingly or unwillingly, and so you shall always find the cross. For either you shall feel pain in the body, or you shall endure tribulation of spirit in the soul.
Sometimes you shall be forsaken by God, sometimes you shall be tried by your neighbor, and—what is more—often you shall be a burden to your very self. Nor yet shall you be able to be freed or relieved by any remedy or solace, but until God wills, you must endure. For God wills that you learn to bear tribulation without consolation, and wholly subject yourself to Him, and become more humble through tribulation. No one so cordially feels the passion of Christ as he to whom it has befallen to suffer the like. The cross, therefore, is always ready, and everywhere awaits you. You cannot escape it wherever you run, for wherever you come, you carry yourself with you, and always you will find yourself.
Turn yourself upward, turn yourself downward, turn yourself outward and inward, and in all these you shall find the cross; and everywhere it is necessary for you to keep patience, if you wish to have inward peace and to merit the everlasting crown. If you willingly bear the cross, it will bear you, and lead you to the desired end, where there shall be an end of suffering. If you bear it unwillingly, you make a burden for yourself, and burden yourself the more, and yet you must endure it. If you cast away one cross, you will doubtless find another, and perhaps a heavier one. Do you think to escape what no mortal could ever pass by? Which of the saints in the world was without the cross and tribulation? For not even our Lord Jesus Christ was for one hour without the pain of His passion, so long as He lived.
For it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead, and so to enter into His glory. And how do you seek another way for the cross than this royal one, which is the way of the holy cross? The whole life of Christ was a cross and a martyrdom, and do you seek rest and joy for yourself? You err, you err if you seek anything other than to suffer tribulations; for this whole mortal life is full of miseries, and marked round about with crosses. And the higher one advances in spirit, the heavier crosses he will often find, because the pain of his exile grows the more from love. Yet this man, though thus manifoldly afflicted, is not without the washing of consolation, for he feels great fruit growing for him out of the bearing of his cross.
Even before he yet willingly submits himself to it, the whole burden of tribulation is turned into confidence of divine consolation. And the more the flesh is worn down by tribulation, the more the spirit is strengthened by inward consolation. And sometimes he is so comforted by the affection of tribulation and adversity, for love of conformity to the cross of Christ, that he would not wish to be without pain and tribulation, since he makes himself the more acceptable to God the more and heavier things he can bear for Him. This is not the virtue of man, but the grace of Christ, which can do and effect so much in frail flesh, that what nature always abhors and flees, this it embraces and loves with fervor of spirit.
It is not according to man's nature to bear the cross, to love the cross, to chastise the body and bring it into subjection, to flee honors, to bear insults willingly, to despise oneself and wish to be despised, to endure all adversities with losses, and to desire no prosperity in this world. If you look to yourself, you can do nothing of this kind from yourself. But if you trust in the Lord, strength shall be given you from heaven, and the world and the flesh shall be subjected to your dominion; nor shall you fear even the enemy, the devil, if you are armed with faith and signed with the cross of Jesus. Set yourself therefore, as a faithful and good servant of Christ, to bear manfully the cross of your Lord for love of the Crucified, who was crucified for you.
Prepare yourself to bear many adversities and various inconveniences in this wretched life, for so it will be with you wherever you are, and so in truth you will find it wherever you hide. It must be so with you, and there is no remedy of escaping from the tribulation of evils and from pain, save that you endure it. Drink lovingly the cup of the Lord, if you desire to be His friend and to have part with Him. Commit consolations to God; let Him do with such as it shall best please Him. But set yourself to endure tribulations, and account them the greatest consolations; for the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed in us—not even if you alone could endure them all.
When you have come to this, that tribulation is sweet to you and tastes good for Christ's sake, then count it well with you, for you have found paradise on earth. As long as suffering is grievous to you, and you seek to flee it, so long will it be ill with you, and tribulations will follow you everywhere. If you set yourself to that which you ought to be—namely, to suffering and to dying—it will quickly go better with you, and you will find peace. Even if you were rapt with Paul into the third heaven, you are not on that account secure from enduring no evil. I, says Jesus, will show him how great things he must suffer for My name. To suffer, therefore, remains to you, if it pleases you to love God and to serve Him perpetually.
Would that you were worthy to suffer something for the name of Jesus! How great glory would remain for you, how great exultation to all the saints of God, how great edification to your neighbor! For all commend patience, though few are willing to suffer. With good reason you ought to suffer a little for Christ, since many suffer heavier things for the world. Know for certain that you must lead a dying life. And the more each one dies to himself, the more he begins to live to God. No one is fit to comprehend heavenly things, unless he submit himself to bear adversities for Christ. Nothing is more acceptable to God, nothing more wholesome for you in this world, than to suffer willingly for Christ.
And if it were yours to choose, you ought rather to desire to suffer adversities for Christ than to be refreshed with many consolations, because thereby you would be more like Christ and more conformed to all the saints. For our merit and the progress of our state consists not in many delights and consolations, but rather in bearing great heaviness and tribulations. For indeed, if anything better and more useful for the salvation of men than suffering had existed, Christ would surely have shown it by word and example. For He plainly exhorts both the disciples who follow Him and all who desire to follow Him to bear the cross, and says: If anyone will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
When therefore all things have been read through and searched out, let this be the final conclusion: that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. Amen.