Crosses Exalt to Matchless Glory
Excerpt from the book The Holy Ways of the Cross
St. John Chrysostom eloquently conveys that the glory of the Cross surpasses all worldly honors and celestial joys, emphasizing that suffering in a Christian spirit is a far greater honor than earthly or even heavenly titles. He argues that enduring suffering for Christ's sake is more honorable than being an apostle or evangelist, suggesting that he would choose suffering over heavenly bliss because it aligns one more closely with Christ's own experience. Chrysostom illustrates this by preferring St. Paul's imprisonment to his heavenly visions and asserting that even the miracles of Jesus pale in comparison to His glorification through crucifixion. This teaching challenges the reader to reevaluate their perception of suffering, urging them to see their trials as a form of divine honor, leading to an ultimate exaltation in glory, as exemplified by Christ's own path to exaltation through humility and suffering.
Yours in Jesus and Mary.
From the book The Holy Ways of the Cross by Henri-Marie Boudon (Burns, Oates, and Co., 1875, pages 47-50).
Crosses Exalt to Matchless Glory
Oh, why do not the ambitious men of this world understand this truth! What a change would come over their spirit and dispositions; and how they would trample under foot all earthly splendor, to aspire henceforth only after the glory of the Cross! Yes, we maintain, with the most enlightened of the Saints, that there is no glory which can compare with it. This truth is set forth in a manner truly admirable by the golden mouth of the eloquent St. John Chrysostom. You would say that Heaven had poured into the mind of this great prelate of Constantinople all the richest illuminations of the Cross, because it destined him to the most afflicting sufferings.
All the most hidden mysteries of the Cross are manifested to him. It is given to him to penetrate into the very depths of its divinest secrets, because he is himself to pass along its most rugged ways, and to serve as a finished model of patience to all posterity.
The following are the sentiments of this saintly man on the incomparable glory of sufferings.
In the first place, if among the most exalted honors of the world there is nothing more resplendent than the diadems of monarchs, he declares that suffering is something grander than the empire of the universe, and that all who suffer in a Christian spirit are great kings.
Secondly, if the titles of Apostle and Evangelist rank highest among the dignities of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, he protests that the glory of the Apostle and of the sacred writer must yield to that of sufferings; that it is more honorable to be loaded with chains for the sake of Jesus Christ, than to bear the title of Evangelist or that of Teacher of the World.
In the third place, he declares that he would willingly leave Heaven itself, if the choice were given him, in order to suffer for the God of Heaven; that he would prefer a dungeon to the loftiest thrones in the empyrean; that the very glory of the Seraphim would be less an object of desire to him than that of the most painful crosses. Hence he accounts St. Paul more happy in having been thrown into prison than in having been rapt even to the third heaven; (2 Corinthians 12:2) and he prefers the ignominy of the Prince of the Apostles, bound with chains, to the happiness of the blessed spirit who comes to set him free. (Acts 12:6-7)
In the fourth place, he goes further, and does not hesitate to say that he prefers being hardly treated by Jesus Christ, by being made a sharer in His Cross, to being honored by that King of Heaven and Earth.
In the fifth place, observing that the gift of miracles attracts the veneration of all peoples, he affirms that to command demons, to give impulse and motion to the elements, to stay the sun in its course, are all things inferior to the honor of sufferings. And, in truth, the great St. Augustine justly estimates what the Gospel says (John 7:39) of the Holy Spirit not yet being given because Jesus was not glorified, and this, too, at the time that He was performing the most admirable miracles.
“Wonderful!” exclaims this Father: “Jesus was not glorified while He was manifesting His power over death by the resurrection of many whom He raised again to life; He is glorified when death is given power over Him and deprives Him of His life.”
Is it not because of the ignominies and humiliations of that bitter death of our Divine Master that His Father hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a Name which is above all names, so that at the Name of Jesus all creatures in heaven, on earth, and under the earth should bow the knee! (Philippians 2:9-10) Is it not on this account that He calls (John 12:23) the hour of His death the hour of His glory?
This being so, let us no longer be surprised if Saints make the highest honor of this present life to consist in the lowest abasements. St. Paul takes (Ephesians 3:1) for one of his most honorable titles that of “Paul the prisoner,” or captive; and he places (Galatians 6:14) his greatest glory in the infamy of the Cross endured for his Master’s sake.
I ask you, then, you who read these truths, what are you doing? You have seen what the King of Saints and His greatest saints have done; but what do you see in yourselves? Examine for a while, in the presence of God, what your sentiments are in respect to these crosses. Do you regard yourself, when bearing them, as a great king; as one whose sufferings are reckoned of more account by Apostles and Evangelists than their own titles, which give them the highest rank in the Church?
Do you look upon yourself as one whose state might inspire Seraphim with envy, if they were capable of it, and renders you more glorious than if you raised the dead? If this be so, why are you sad? Why are you impatient when you suffer? Are you disposed to murmur at having a scepter put into your hand and a crown upon your head; and having honors paid to you which even monarchs cannot claim?
O poor, afflicted, rejected, forsaken creature, who art treated as the refuse of the earth, take comfort and rejoice. Rejoice, thou poor man, who hast not a morsel of bread: yet a little, only a little more patience, and before the eyes of all mankind, yea, and of thine own, which in this world are so often closed to these divine lights, thou shall see thyself exalted to an incomparable glory. “Of what, then, art thou afraid,” says St. Ambrose; “they who are afraid of being tried and afflicted are afraid of being crowned.”