St. Robert Bellarmine: The Seven Words on the Cross

[Stone]

CHAPTER VI: The fifth fruit to be drawn from the consideration of the fourth Word spoken by Christ upon the Cross.

In the three first words Christ our Master has recommended to us three great virtues–charity towards our enemies, kindness to those in distress, and affection for our parents. In the four last words He recommends to us four virtues, not indeed more excellent, but still not less necessary for us, humility, patience, perseverance, and obedience. Of humility, indeed, which may be called the characteristic virtue of Christ, since no mention of it has been made in the writings of the wise men of this world, He gave us examples by His actions through the whole course of His life and in chosen words showed Himself to be a Master of the virtue when He said– “Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of Heart.”[1] But at no time did He more clearly encourage us to the practice of this virtue, and along with it of patience, which cannot be separated from humility, than when He exclaimed–“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” For Christ shows us in these words that by the permission of God, as the darkness testified, all His glory and excellence had been obscured, and our Lord could not have borne this, had He not possessed the virtue of humility in the most heroic degree.

The glory of Christ, of which St. John writes in the beginning of his Gospel–“We saw His glory, the glory as it were of the Only-Begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth,”[2] consisted in His Power, His Wisdom, His Uprightness, His royal Majesty, the happiness of His Soul, and His Divine dignity which He enjoyed as the true and real Son of God. The words, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me,” show that His Passion threw a veil over all these gifts. His Passion threw a veil over His power, because when fastened to the Cross He appeared so powerless, that the Chief Priests, the soldiers and the thief mocked His weakness by saying–“If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the Cross; He saved others, Himself He cannot save.”[3] What patience, what humility was necessary for Him Who was Almighty, to answer never a word to such taunts! His Passion threw a veil over His Wisdom, because before the High Priest, before Herod, before Pilate, He stood as one devoid of understanding and answered their questions by silence, so that “Herod with his army set Him at naught, and mocked Him, putting on Him a white garment.”[4] What patience, what humility, was necessary for Him Who was not only wiser than Solomon, but was the very Wisdom of God Himself, to tolerate such outrages! His Passion threw a veil over the uprightness of His life, since He was nailed to a Cross between two thieves, as a seducer of the people, and a usurper of another’s kingdom. And Christ confessed that the being abandoned by His Father seemed to cast a greater gloom over the glory of His innocent live. “Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” For God is not wont to abandon upright, but wicked men. Every proud man indeed takes particular care to avoid saying anything which could lead his hearers to infer that he had been slighted. But humble and patient men, of whom Christ is the King, eagerly seize every occasion of practising their humility and patience, provided that in so doing there is no violation of truth. What patience, what humility was it necessary to possess, in order to endure such insults, especially for Him of Whom St. Paul says–“It was fitting that we should have such a High Priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.”[5] His Passion cast such a veil over His regal Majesty that He had a crown of thorns for a diadem, a reed for a sceptre, a gibbet for an audience chamber, two thieves for His royal attendants. What patience then, what humility was necessary for Him Who was the true King of kings, Lord of lords, and Prince of the kings of this world. What shall I say about the happiness of soul which Christ enjoyed from the very moment of His conception, and of which, had He wished, He could have made His Body partaker? What a veil did His Passion throw over the glory of this happiness, since it made Him as Isaias says–“Despised, and the most abject of men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity,”[6] so that in the greatness of His suffering He cried out, “My God, My God, Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” In fine, His Passion so obscured the mighty dignity of His Divine Person, that He Who is seated not only above all men, but above the -very Angels, could say–“But I am a Worm and no man, the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people.”[7]

Christ in His Passion, then, descended to the very abyss of humility, but this humility had its reward and its glory. What our Lord had so often promised that “he that shall humble himself shall be exalted,” the Apostle tells us was exemplified in His own Person. ” He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the Cross. For which cause also God hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a Name which is above all names; that in the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.”[8] So He Who appeared to be the least of men is declared to be the first, and a short and as it were momentary humiliation has been followed by a glory which shall be eternal. Thus has it been with the Apostles and all the Saints. St. Paul says of the Apostles–“We are made as the refuse of this world, the offscouring of all even until now;”[9] that is, he compares them to the vilest things that are trodden under foot. Such was their humility. What is their glory? St. John Chrysostom tells us that the Apostles now in heaven, are seated close to the very throne of God, where the Cherubim praise Him and the Seraphim obey Him. They are associated with the greatest princes of the celestial court. They shall be there for ever. If men would consider how glorious a thing it is to imitate in this life the humility of the Son of God, and would picture to themselves to what a height of glory this humility would lead them, we should find very few proud men. But since the majority of men measure everything by their senses and by human considerations, we must not be astonished if the number of the humble is small, and the number of the proud infinite.


ENDNOTES

1. St. Matt. xi. 29.
2. John i. 14.
3. St. Mark xxvii. 40-42.
4. St. Luke xxiii.
5. Heb. vii. 26.
7. Psalm xxi. 7.
8. Philip. ii. 8-10.