A Treatise on the Ineffable Mystery of our Redemption

Extract

I said that the reason why the Saviour redeemed us with such intense suffering was that inestimable and priceless fruit that would result to us from this special remedy. I will speak of this later on. At present let us dwell upon three of the chief ones. To understand the first it should be understood, as Saint Maximus says, that the Christian life, if led conformably with the laws of the Gospel, is a perpetual cross. Our Saviour himself declared this, as Saint Mark tells us: “If any man will follow me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”. (St. Mark VIII, 34).

The Saviour here specifies three things, each of them difficult enough. For what is more difficult than to deny ourselves, to oppose all our disordered desires and self-will, and take up our cross; to be ready for anything, to prepare for the trials of a,good life, and follow Christ, who in this earthly life walked on no easy road of comfort, but on a hard, a humble, and laborious one? This being so, the Christian life may rightly be called the way of the Cross.

This is so because the Christian life is virtuous and virtue is surrounded by difficulties and trials. For as it is natural to fire to hold heat, so virtue is annexed to difficulty and labour, and without this we do not practice virtue. Therefore I think, though the comparison may be commonplace, that virtue is like the chestnuts on the tree, which are full of prickles like a hedgehog and must be removed before eating the fruit.