Perfection Series II yet again and again
Angela of Foligno writes that the worst poverty, abject
poverty, is knowing one’s sins are the cause of the suffering of Christ. Such
poverty is that which should be sought by all Catholics.
Why?
Unless one is emptied of self, one cannot love God as He
desires to be loved.
Unless one allows purgation, one cannot come to know the
Bridegroom.
Angela notes: “ …in order to raise man up again from out of
this adverse poverty, the most high God, Christ Jesus, the most rich in all
thing, did make Himself poor for our sake; how He, the most beatific and most
joyful, did make Himself most wretched in order that through His infinite
suffering He might redeem man and save him from everlasting and unspeakable
pain.”
The more we meditate on the Crucifixion, the more we see and
understand this great sacrifice of God Himself.
Angela explain, “ For the more clearly the soul doth know God and His
exaltedness, His mercy and infinite goodness and worthiness…and the more
clearly it beholdeth the wretchedness of man, his faults, is unworthiness, his
ingratitude, infirmities, and vileness, the more deeply is it moved towards the
love of Christ and the grief of His Passion, and is transformed into the
likeness thereof, wherein consisteth all the perfection of man”
One cannot, absolutely cannot, become perfect without being
transformed into Christ Himself, the Christ Who is on the Cross.
May I add that this meditation of Christ on the Cross is not
merely a devotion, but a lifestyle. What I mean by this is that the
contemplation of God as the Suffering Servant cannot be merely something which
happens now and then, but daily, in order to conform one’s self to Christ.
The problem is that people honestly do not believe in the
Suffering Christ.
To be continued….
