INTERLUDE

«Having the Cross means being identified with Christ»

The fatherhood of God, understood from our divine filiation, is an authentic Mediterranean that opens before us an immense panorama and places us in God and before God in a way that shapes our entire existence. Hence it can be said that “divine filiation is not a particular virtue, having its own acts, but the permanent condition of the subject of virtues. That is why we do not act as children of God with certain actions: all our activity, the exercise of our virtues, can and should be an exercise of divine filiation.”1 We can therefore live every moment of our life with “the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Rom 8:21).

However, the awareness of our divine filiation is related in a particular way to an aspect of our life: suffering, pain and, ultimately, participation in the Cross of Jesus. It is striking that, in St Mark's Gospel, the Gentiles recognize in Jesus the Son of God precisely at the sight of his death (cf. Mk 15:39). St. John also understands that the Cross is the place where the glory of God shines (cf. Jn 12:23-24). And St. Paul had to learn that the way of glory required identification with Christ crucified, “a stumbling block to the Jews, foolishness to the Gentiles” (1 Cor 1:23).

Similarly, in the life of St Josemaría, the awareness of his divine filiation was awakened by the experience of the Cross. It was in the early thirties. According to his biographers, the young priest suffered when he saw the pain of his mother and his siblings, who were having a hard time for lack of financial means; he suffered because he was still in Madrid in a precarious situation; and he also suffered because of the difficult situation that the Church was going through in Spain. In those circumstances, he wrote:

“When God dealt me those blows around 1931, I could not understand it. And then suddenly, in the midst of all that immense bitterness, came those words: You are my son (Ps 2:7), you are Christ. And all I could answer was, Abba, Pater! Abba, Pater! Abba! Abba! Abba! ... You, Lord, have helped me understand that having the Cross means finding happiness and joy. And the reason, which I now see more clearly than ever, is this: that having the Cross means being identified with Christ, means being Christ, and so being a child of God.”2

This experience left a profound mark on the soul of St. Josemaría. It was not only a matter of discovering his condition as a son, but also of his intimate union with the sacrifice of Jesus. It is paradoxical: that our condition as children of God – of small children, even – goes hand in hand with the Cross. That paradox found its expression many years later in the Way of the Cross, where he wrote: “Just as a feeble child throws itself contritely into the strong arms of its father, you and I will hold tightly to the yoke of Jesus.”3 If we know ourselves children of God, the Cross will be the sure sign of our filiation, and therefore the greatest assurance that he is at our side.

Although at first glance it may seem crazy, the Cross – pain, suffering, setbacks – is, for those who follow Christ, a sign of their filiation, and the safe place where they take refuge. That is why we Christians kiss the Cross, the Holy Cross, and we always have a crucifix at hand, while we try to discover every day the hidden joy of the one who carries the holy wood with the help of Jesus.

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1 F Ocariz, I Celaya, Vivir como hijos de Dios, Eunsa, Pamplona 1993, 54.

2 St Josemaría Escrivá, notes taken from a meditation, 28 April 1963. Quoted in E Burkhart and J Lopez, Ordinary Life and Holiness in the Teaching of St Josemaría Escrivá, Vol 2.

3 St Josemaría Escrivá, Way of the Cross, 7^th Station