St. Margaret Mary tells us that, at the beginning of her religious life, she paged through the lives of the saints to find as a model a soul who greatly glorified God without having to shoulder suffering. She found none. Not that sacrifice is love, but it requires love and proves love.
Of certain souls God demands a fuller measure.
"Suffering held out its arms to meet me at my entrance into religion," writes St. Therese of the Infant Jesus, in The Story of a Soul, "and I embraced it with love. My reason for coming to Carmel I expressed in the solemn examination preceding my profession: I came to save souls and, above all, to pray for priests. When one wants to attain a goal one must take the means, and Jesus, having made me understand that He would give me souls through the cross, increased my attraction for suffering."
The important thing for me is not necessarily to ambition the measure of sacrifice of St. Therese of the Infant Jesus, but to accept generously the portion of sacrifice determined for me by God.
And then I must let go of the word sacrifice, substituting for it the word love. Do I not seek solid virtue and a fruitful apostolate? Of course. All right, then let me take up my cross and go forward.
"My Jesus crucified, You know how much I dread sacrifice. I should like to love it, to love it not because it is good in itself, but because it is a proof of love. But sacrifice makes me afraid. Have pity on me. Give me courage. St. Margaret Mary teaches me to love the cross through love."_________________
Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
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