The School of Love, March 22

TROUBLE

[continued from yesterday]

...Let us take first the troubles of Our Lord.

There is the trouble that came on Him as He stood over the tomb of Lazarus. "Jesus therefore," says St. John, the Evangelist, par excellence, of the troubles of Our Lord, "when he saw her (Mary) weeping, and the Jews that were come with her weeping, groaned in the spirit, and troubled himself" (John xi. 33). He is troubled at the trouble of those around Him; His sympathy for them makes Him "groan in the spirit." He is troubled at the loss of a friend, even though He knows that He is going to bring him back to life.

Even so, in a memorable sermon, do we see the sweet soul of St. Bernard break down and sob at the loss of a friend; and when again he finds his words, he is unable to continue his discourse, but must needs proclaim the praises of the friend he has lost.

Next He is troubled in the midst of the pro­cession on Palm Sunday. "And when he drew near," says St. Luke, "seeing the city, he wept over it" (Luke xix. 41); and the reason im­mediately follows.

He is troubled because He has been rejected; not on His own account­ - He is not indignant, He is not offended. He says nothing of insult or honour - but because of the woes that He sees will come to those who will receive Him not.

So is a priest or a teacher often troubled when he sees a soul deliberately walking to its doom. So are a father and a mother sometimes troubled be­cause a wayward son or daughter will have his or her way, and will pay no heed to those who know better.

Such trouble, such heart­eating trouble, is consistent with the highest sanctity....
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From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918