Untitled - Saints' Books

"
"
"
"
"
INSTR. viii.]
Mortification in General. 339
sacred Spouse has said: I have gathered my myrrh with my
aromatical spices.
All our sanctity and salvation consist in following the
examples of Jesus Christ: For whom He foreknew, He also
predestinated to be made conformable to the image of His Son?
But we shall not be able to imitate Jesus Christ unless
we deny ourselves, and embrace by mortification the
cross that he gives us to carry: If any man will come after
Me, let him deny Jiimself and take up his cross and follow Me?
The life of our Redeemer was all full of sufferings, of sor
rows, and ignominies. Hence Isaias said of him, that he
was despised and the most abject of men: a man of sorrows.*
As a mother takes nauseous medicine in order to cure
the infant to which she gives suck, so our Redeemer,
says St. Catharine of Sienna, wished to assume so many
pains in order to heal the infirmities of us poor sinners.
But since Jesus Christ has endured so much for the love
of us, it is but just that we suffer for his sake. We must,
f
then, endeavor to follow the advice of St. Paul: Always
bearing about in your body the mortification of Jesus, that the
life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies? This
we shall do," says St. Anselm in his comment on the
preceding text, when, "in imitation of him, we assidu
ously practise mortification. To this we priests, who
celebrate the mysteries of the Passion of our Lord, are
bound in a special manner. Because," says Hugh of
St. Victor, "while celebrating the divine mysteries we
2
"
Messui myrrham meam cum aromatibus meis." Cant. v. i.
Quos praescivit, et prsedestinavit conformes fieri imaginis Filii
sui." Rom. viii. 29.
3 Si "
quis vult post me venire, abneget semetipsum, et tollat crucem
suam, et sequatur me." Matt. xvi. 24.
Despectum et novissimum virorum, virum dolorum." Isa. liii. 3.
5
"Semper mortificationem Jesu in corpore nostro circumferentes,
ut et vita Jesu manifestetur in corporibus
nostris." 2 Cor. iv. 10.
6
Ad " ejus imitationem, assidue carnem mortificemus."