AN EASY WAY TO BECOME A SAINT

by
Fr. Paul O'Sullivan, O.P. [E.D.M.] With Eccles. Appr., 1949, Portugal
TAN BOOKS AND PUBLISHERS

Chapter 5
THE PASSION

We now come to a subject that even the pen of a Saint cannot sufficiently describe, viz., the sufferings and death of our Sweet Lord. Who could have imagined the possibility of God suffering, despised, crucified?

He could have saved us by one word, as He had created us. Why then did He subject Himself to such awful humiliations, such agonies of pain, to that most ignominious of deaths, meted out to only the greatest malefactors-----crucified between two thieves, mocked and blasphemed by His enemies!

One drop of His Precious Blood would have saved a thousand worlds. Why then did Our Sweet Lord suffer such pain and degradation? Simply to prove the infinite sincerity of His love for us. And we-----careless, insensible, thoughtless, blind-----remain unmoved at the sight of all He did for us. We look on our crucifix and feel no pity for our Crucified Lord. We look on the Stations of the Cross and feel no answering sorrow stir our hearts. He did all that God could do to constrain our love, but our coldness, our incredible blindness nullifies all that His Divine Love did to gain our affection.

Worse still: "By our sins," the Apostle tells us, "we crucify again the Son of God and make a mockery of Him." The Jews had been waiting and praying for the coming of Our Lord for 4,000 years. The Prophets, one after another, foretold the principal facts of His life. He Himself then came and worked astounding miracles to prove that He was God. But at the sight of His sufferings, the Jews were scandalized; they could not believe that God could suffer. The Gentiles, although they saw the wonders He wrought, were no less incredulous. They called it madness to say that God would submit to such outrages.

We know and believe that He is God, that He suffered and died for each one of us, yet we are more guilty than the Jews and the Gentiles, for we remain hard and ungrateful at the sight of all that Jesus has done for us. Why do not our hearts burn with love of Him? Because we do not trouble to think on the Passion; we do not ponder on it; we do not love it.

WHAT MUST WE DO?

Clearly, we must love and honor the Passion. The following are very easy ways of doing so. We honor the Passion:

1. By making the Sign of the Cross. We make the Sign of the Cross very often; let us make it slowly and reverently. Made reverently, it gives great honor to God. Made hastily, it insults God and is a kind of parody of the Passion. Let us remember that each time we make the Sign of the Cross, a) We offer the Passion and death of Jesus Christ to the Eternal Father, b) We thank Our Lord for dying for us on the Cross, c) We offer the infinite merits of the Passion for our own souls and for the salvation of the world. Each time we make the Sign of the Cross this way, we console the Heart of Jesus; we obtain pardon for our sins; we help to save the world from great evils.

2. By repeating often the Holy Name of Jesus. Because St. Paul tells us that Jesus merited His Name by His Passion and death. Therefore, when we say Jesus, we should have the intention of offering the Passion and death of Jesus Christ to the Eternal Father in union with all the Masses being said all over the world.

3. By kissing our crucifix, especially after our morning and evening prayers, and before and after saying the Rosary.

4. By saying the Five Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, asking Our Lady to give us a great love for the Passion. We thus honor the Passion of Our Lord and the Dolors of Our Lady.

5. By making the Way of the Cross. The 14 Stations bring vividly before our minds the sufferings of our Saviour.

6. An excellent and most meritorious way of honoring the Passion is by offering all our sufferings, pains and troubles in union with the sufferings of Our Lord. This gives our sufferings an indescribable value and obtains for us strength and patience to bear them patiently. It is so easy to say: "All for Thee, Dear Jesus, Who hast suffered so much for me."

7. By studying the Passion, that is, by reading some books on the Passion.

8. Hearing and offering Mass is the best of all means of honoring the Passion because the Mass is the Passion. It has the same value and brings us the same graces as the Sacrifice of Calvary did. It is lamentable to see how few Catholics hear Mass with this intention. During Mass many do not even think of the Passion. The Mass is not an imitation of Calvary; it is the same Sacrifice as Calvary, though in an unbloody manner.

These are all very easy ways of honoring the Passion.

WHAT THE SAINTS SAY

a) The Saints say that five minutes' prayer in honor of the Passion is of greater value than many hours spent in other devotions.
b) St. Alphonsus says that all the Saints became Saints by devotion to the Passion and that there was no saint who had not a great love of the Passion.
c) Devotion to the Passion gives intense pleasure to Our Lord. Want of devotion to the Passion wounds His Sacred Heart most deeply.
d) Our Lord said to St. Bernard, "I will remit all the venial sins and I will no more think of the mortal sins of those who honor the grievous wound on My right shoulder, which caused Me unutterable pain when bearing My heavy Cross to Calvary: We honor this wound by saying the Fourth Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary. See also HERE.
e) Our Lord promised St. Gertrude that He would protect, most especially in the Judgment, those who make loving reparation to Him for the insults, outrages and blasphemies heaped on Him in His Passion.
This we can do by offering to Our Lord all the offenses, slights and humiliations we may have to bear.
f) Our Lord said to St. Mechtilde: "Those who thank Me for the awful thirst I endured in My Passion I will reward as if they had assuaged My thirst on the Cross. "And those who thank Me for having been nailed to the Cross for love of them I will reward as if they had taken Me down from the Cross." We can do this by saying the Fifth Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary.

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