Friday, 12 April 2019

SEVENTH STATION: JESUS FALLS THE SECOND TIME


Poor human nature. We shall fall more than once. But guess what? It is through these falls, these miseries, and the recognition of our feebleness, by which his heart is attracted. He raises great edifice on mere nothingness and utter insufficiency.

If our falling and failing brings about a recognition of our weakness, and we cultivate confidence in His mercy, everything becomes gain for us. Falling by the gravity of self, Satan and sin increases our merits when we are little, and when we keep up the struggle.

Our freedom entails us digging more into our failings and hustling more to be the best version of ourselves. How can we keep aloof from sacramental confession for so long? How can we say we have got nothing to confess? Steve Jobs once counselled folly and hunger as a prerequisite to success.

Let us recognise truth (Jn 8: 32). Let us be poor in Spirit (Lk 6: 20). Humility is truth and it consists in the recognition of our nothingness, with an absolute dependence on His righteousness. His heart is the throne of mercy and the most wretched are the most welcome.

Our progress lies not in the satisfaction of our virtue, but in the recognition of our vice. He loves our littleness, not our goodness; our absolute nothingness, not our utmost righteousness.

His Sacred Heart is the abode of little ones from where the science of glorying in their infirmities  is mastered. Let us enter into this abode where we can discover the meaning of mercy and confidently repose in it.

Sanctity, according to St. Therese, does not consist in this or that practices, but in a disposition of the heart which makes one humble and little in God’s arms, conscious of one’s weakness, and confident even to audacity in the goodness of the Father.

Although we recognise the pain of our humanity, let us – like Maya Angelou - leave behind nights of terror and fear, and repose confidently in a daybreak that’s wondrously clear. Let us bring the graces our faith bestows and be the dream and hope of our world. Let us rise!







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