The instrument of our martyrdom
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“Just as a city is not built in a day, do not think that you can achieve, in a day, this peace, this interior calm, because it is within you that a home must be built for God, while you yourself become his temple. And it is the Lord himself who must handle the construction. Without him your work would not exist. Remind yourself, moreover, that this edifice has humility for its foundation.” (Fr. Jacques Philippe)
When I was young, a family friend was an avid rock climber. He was the real thing; back then no one would have imagined people would pay to use a rock climbing wall in a gym. Over the years his fingers had grown so strong that anywhere he could fit his fingertips, he could pull himself up. I remember standing outside a movie theatre on a hot summer night waiting in line, and he scaled the brick wall of the building—no safety gear of course! Bored teenagers can be quite a spectacle.
This memory caused me to think about how much our soul is like the cliff face (or brick wall). Our wounds are the crevices that give the fingertip space to the enemy to hold onto us. And that’s all he needs. Sometimes the smaller crevices run the deepest too.
That is why the answer to any distress or conflict, whether spiritual or non-spiritual, is always our relationship with God. No matter how big or small the problem, whether tempting people to cuss when they stub their toe or causing ISIS terrorism, the enemy’s sole purpose is to break our relationship with God. Our relationship is our greatest strength.
That relationship only develops in silent prayer with Him. At some point, we have to stop talking and just listen. Too often when suffering is long term, we become comfortable with the distress and lamenting. Meanwhile, God is waiting for us to dig a little deeper. He has commanded us to love others as He loves us, which means unconditionally. A component of most situations is that we need to ask Him for the love to give others, even those who have hurt us deeply. It is through that process of asking for and receiving His love, then sharing it either directly or in prayer for others, that we are healed and become a conduit of healing all at the same time. Only God can accomplish that.
“I myself think it was because there is another martyrdom: the martyrdom of love. Here God keeps his servants and handmaids in this present life so that they may labor for him and he makes them martyrs and confessors at the same time.”
(St. Jane de Chantal)
Yet the soul must let go of the pain and that can in itself be painful. We don’t want to step outside of our comfort zone. When we do, the soul can feel like a compass that can’t find north: it spins and spins. Msgr. Abruzzese teaches the wisdom of St. Francis de Sales and his protégé St. Jane de Chantal. St. Jane explained “What happens is that love seeks out the most intimate and secret place of your soul, as with a sharp sword, and cuts you off even from your own self. I know of a soul whom love cut off from all that was dearest to her as if a tyrant‘s sword severed spirit from body.” Ouch! Yet the pain of love far surpasses the pain we cling to in our hearts. This letting go is how we become “the instrument of our martyrdom”. Quoting St. Francis de Sales “it may well be that a very small virtue has greater value in a soul where sacred love reigns with fervor than [physical] martyrdom itself in a soul where love is languid, feeble and full.” Carrying on the teachings of St. Ignatius whose exercises set his soul on fire, St. Francis implores upon us to make the smallest sufferings into moments of glorifying God.
With this in mind, we must continue our intercession on behalf of the worldwide Church, particularly Pope Francis, our clergy and religious who are bringing us to God in this very moment.
We have been praying for you unceasingly that you may be filled with that closer knowledge of God’s will which brings all wisdom and all spiritual insight with it. May you live as befits his servants, waiting continually on his pleasure; may the closer knowledge of God bring you fruitfulness and growth in all good. May you be inspired, as his glorious power can inspire you, with full strength to be patient and to endure; to endure joyfully, thanking God our Father for making us fit to share the light which saints inherit, for rescuing us from the power of darkness, and transferring us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. (COL 1:9-13)
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam 😊