Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

Easter Sunday (March 31, 2002)

Salesian Perspective

"The death and passion of our Lord is the sweetest and the most compelling motive that can animate our hearts in this mortal life...The children of the cross glory in this, their wondrous paradox which many do not understand: out of death, which devours all things, has come the food of our consolation. Out of death, strong above all things, has issued the all-sweet honey of our love." (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 12, Chapter 13)

This, indeed, is the central mystery of our faith. Jesus, allowing himself to be consumed with passion for righteousness and swallowed by death has, in turn, conquered death once and for all with the power that is the promise of eternal life.

Christ's pathway of passion, death and resurrection was personal: it was unique. It had been fashioned by the Father from all eternity. Jesus was faithful to God's vision for him; Jesus embraced his vocation as the humble, gentle Messiah; Jesus suffered the pain of death; Jesus experienced the power of rising again.

God has fashioned a personal path for each of us from all eternity. Each of us have a unique role to play in the Father's never-ending revelation of divine life, divine love, divine justice, divine peace and divine reconciliation. Still, the way to resurrection is the way of the cross - the way of giving up, the way of letting go, the way of surrendering any and all things, thought, attitudes and actions that prevent us from embodying the passion of Christ: the passion for all that is righteous and true.

Francis de Sales offers this image in Book 9 of his Treatise on the Love of God: "God commanded the prophet Isaias to strip himself completely naked. This the prophet did, and went about and preached in this way for three whole days (or, as some say, for three whole years). Then, when the time set for him by God had passed he put his clothes back on again. So, too, we must strip ourselves of all affections, little and great, and make a frequent examination of our heart to see if it is truly ready to divest itself of all its garments, as Isaias did. Then, at the proper time we must take up again the affections suitable to the service of charity, so that we may die naked on the cross with our divine Savior and afterwards rise again with him as new people."

Be certain of one thing: the daily dying to self that is part of living a passionate life is not about dying, stripping and letting go for its own sake. No, it is that all of who we are may be purified to more faithfully and effectively life lives of divine passion and compassion. God does not desire that we die to self out of self-deprecation, but: that we die to self in order that, paradoxically, we may actually be more of who God calls us to be.

"Love is as strong as death to enable us to forsake all things," wrote St. Francis de Sales. "It is as magnificent as the resurrection to adorn us with glory and honor."

This glory and honor is not just reserved for heaven. To the extent that we die a little each day and experience the fidelity of God's love in the midst of all adversity, trials, struggles and "letting go", we can experience something of the resurrection every day.

Rev. Michael S. Murray, OSFS,
is Executive Director of the De Sales Spirituality Center